First of all understand that Zen Cart is FREE GPL licensed software. This means in a nutshell that Zen Cart owes you nothing. Lucky for you the development team at Zen Cart takes the development, support and ability of their software very seriously. However, before you get started you need to know that even with all of this support YOU will ultimately be responsible for staying up to date with version, patch, security and other Zen Cart software developments. You do that by subscribing to the Zen Cart release announcements thread. Do this right now.... even if your store is already built.

Modules for Zen Cart are predominantly free and available here. The trick with modules is knowing, researching or seeking advice (from more than one company, person or source) is an absolute MUST DO. While these modules add flexibility and functionality to your store... They have a dark side. The simple installation is generally not very simple for your average shop owner, the installation (even if properly written in overrides) will cause extra costs in future upgrades and believe it or not... Some don't even work. So the simple rules of thumb for Zen Cart modules is don't install it unless you really need it, seek out the support thread for advice and keep track of all the modules you have installed... Preferably keep a folder of the module installation zip.

Think security. Even a small business like yours is susceptible to hacks and business ending fines. You can be penalized by a search engine, hacked and receive a fine from the credit card companies, have your customers orders emailed to hackers, get screwed by developers/programmers/designers and simply suffer the lemon disease where you just continually throw money at your site without any return on your investment. My aim here is to teach you some of the security and business security traits and behaviors you need to have to avoid these dangers. So I have a short list... as I realize we all have short time and attention spans.

• Ask around about your hosting company. Ask about PCI/DSS compliance, security, support and backups.
• Use strong alpha numeric passwords and change them frequently.
• Give others access to your hosting and cart in their own user account so you can easily remove it when their need is done.
• Investigate the modules and addons you need to use, and I don't mean just one resource.
• Checkout any company you intend to do business with. Does their site look professional? Do they have a portfolio and testimonials? Can they provide references? Google a Google search for things like company name +complaints, reviews or check the Better Business Bureau for complaints filed against them.
• Plan your Zen Cart project, keep notes, names, modules installed and anything else you have or are provided during this endeavor. This is not just for prosperity, but rather makes your future development, problem solving and help seeking easier, more effective and fruitful.
• If they say they "Guarantee" to put you on page 1 of the organic results... They are lying. If they claim to be affiliated with Google for example, they are lying.
• If someone tells you they know Zen Cart, invite them to prove it.
• Do not buy or reciprocate (trade) links.
• Do not hide keywords in your code.
• Do not cloak pages for users vs. what Google's crawler sees.
• Make sure you have sought out a legal professional to help you craft your privacy, conditions and shipping & returns policies.
• Read your merchant agreement, and any other for that matter in full. If you don't understand ask.
• Unlimited bandwidth or web space is NOT unlimited. (Read the TOS)
• PCI/DSS compliance is required if you accept credit cards on your site or in your place of business. This is for everyone, and their are no exclusions.
• Email is not secure. Do not send sensitive information in an email.
• If it seems to good to be true it is!
• Take good care of your customers and their issues... One bad bark on the web regarding your company can ruin you.
• Do not let a developer or designer register a domain for you. It's really not that tough and you may be sorry later when you lose the domain.
• Do not rely on just one resource for your website... People come and go at an alarming rate in this business and you need to be able to continue your business.
• Keep a full account backup of your website weekly on your own hard drive. If the hosting company does not have this ability find one that does!
• This is hard work and you will not be rich in a month, but if you work hard and learn the ropes you can make a living.

I may add to this list, but the most important point is that this is YOUR business and YOUR responsibility. Don't blame or rely on others to "own" the responsibility, it will most certainly come back and bite you in the tail.

Merchant Processing Survival Tips 2010

If you haven't read about the new "Brand Damaging" issues and you accept credit cards on your website... You need to. The potential impact on your business is too large to ignore.

Now that you have hopefully informed yourself, let's concentrate on keeping you out of trouble and getting canceled.

The new rules may seem a bit daunting, but they are really pretty simple.... If it's trickery, you cannot do it anymore. You may be sitting there thinking, "I have been running this "Free Money" website for 10 years.... This doesn't apply to me. You are most certainly wrong. These are new rules, new implementations and new punishments for violations.

The cost for violating one of these rules and getting caught (and you will) is at it's best cancellation of your merchant account or gateway account.... At it's worst, very large fines and cancellation. Heed this warning, even if you haven't received any communication from your Merchant services providers.

Merchant Processing Survival Tips 2010

Online marketing campaigns that employ any “Free-Trial”, “Deferred Billing” and/or “Shipping Only” are considered trial offers and are subject to the new rules. Consumers must receive a tangible good or contracted service in exchange for the credit card charge(s). Incentive type discount offers are acceptable ONLY when the cardholder is receiving goods or services in exchange for payment. Having said this, note for example that e-Online will no longer support

accounts engaging in hidden or delayed charges and ‘free’ offers that are not truly free.

1. Avoid using  "free" or "risk free" language on your website and in marketing campaigns (including PPC) .. Unless it is 100% really free.
2. If you use the "Pay Shipping & Handling Only" technique, then these charges must be fair, reasonable and fully disclosed. So if you have been slipping by on the $5 shipping and $20 handling fee, you must stop. Also note that inflating your actual shipping has additional implications as well... Did you know that most states expect you to pay sales tax on overcharged shipping fees?
3. Trial offers need to be no less than 10 days and the trial period should not begin until product is shipped to the consumer or the service has begun. You are not permitted to offer trails with exemptions, filtering or special rules for age, weight, height, geographic location, race etc.
4. Avoid creating a false sense of urgency because if the matter is not genuinely urgent you are in violation. For example if you have the "10 day only" message running on your website for 3 years now... You are in violation. These periods of offers must be genuine and accurate. e-Online has strictly forbid the use of  applications such as countdown clocks, tickers, or language such as “Offer Expires Today!”, for example already.
5. By mandate of the FTC, product claims, promises, guarantees and research claims MUST be accurate and proper. This is pretty unlimited and includes testimonials, endorsements and even product reviews. Don't think for one second that user supplied product reviews are exempt... It is your website right? Not only do you risk loss of merchant services with these issues, but the FTC can fine 11K on top of whatever the credit card companies may choose to fine you for your "Brand Damaging" behavior.
6. How about the FTC's new rules for pricing? Prices must be within reasonable “fair market value”. Any negative options must be clearly disclosed, and you cannot bill for any product or service that the shopper/consumer did not knowingly purchase... Including things like upgrades and software updates, for example.
7. If you have a special offer which includes some shady marketing like exclusions or negative options you are required to have that customer agree to the terms twice before charging them.

The first validation can take place with the initial offer presentation prior to submission of credit card information, and the second during the checkout process. The confirmation order page must also require consumers to acknowledge that they agree to the Terms & Conditions and authorize the merchant to charge the credit card for the disclosed dollar amount. Terms must be displayed adjacent to the “submit”, “confirm” or any other “call to action” button confirming the order. The price must be within 100 pixels of the “submit”, “confirm” or any other “call to action” button.

• Shipping and Handling should not be billed separate from charges for the product or service.
• Terms must be in a minimum 12-point “easy to read” font.
• Avoid visually distracting graphics from the display of terms.
• Pre-checked boxes must never be used.
• Consumers should be required to actively and individually select each offer or bonus during the checkout process when there are multiple offers or up sells presented. No offers or up sells should be pre–selected or pre-checked.
• Consumers should not be able to move forward in the offer or checkout until the box acknowledging the terms is checked.
• Verbiage must clearly disclose the enrollment into an ongoing membership with no distraction. An example of an acceptable disclosure is: “By clicking “Submit” you acknowledge that you understand you are being enrolled in a 10 day trial for $4.95, and after expiration of the 10 day trial period you will be charged $59 per month until you cancel your service”
• All products or services purchased when the call-to-action button is clicked should be billed as a single charge unless the order is fulfilled at different times requiring multiple charges.

REFUND POLICIES

Merchants must not make it difficult for consumers to exercise the disclosed cancellation procedures and all cancellation requests must be honored in accordance with the stated terms of the transaction.

1. Refund policies must be disclosed prior to the sale completion. Establish a clear, concise statement of your refund and credit policy. Your policy should be consistent with the objectives of your business and the products or services sold.
2. Merchants must not require return of any trial offer product samples in order for the consumer to receive a refund, or cancel their ongoing subscription.
3. “Full Money Back” or “Full Satisfaction” guarantees are considered false and prohibited unless the offer provides a full refund on all products, including but not limited to Shipping & Handling charges.
4. Refunds should be for the full amount charged including shipping and handling
5. All future billing to a customer should be canceled when a refund is issued.

All future billing to a customer should be canceled when a chargeback is received.

RESOURCES:

The FTC has published the regulations along with many resources online for businesses and consumers like yourself to learn and understand the new regulations.  A few helpful links provided by e-online are included below:

Commercial Practices Part 425, Use of Prenotification Negative Option Plans

Prenotification Negative Option Plans

Advertising and Marketing on the Internet

Dot Com Disclosures

Direct Response industry publications have provided articles with some clarification regarding these guidelines:

http://www.responsemagazine.com/resources/legal-resources/legal-review-getting-strict-with-negative-option-marketing-1351

http://www.dmnews.com/get-comfortable-with-new-ftc-regs/article/136023/

So, are you scared?

If you have been utilizing these techniques, then you probably should be. Realize that the allowable fines and penalties for violations of these rules can mean the death of many if not most small businesses. On the lighter side, even receiving the cancellation email from a merchant provider, allowing you a very short 2 weeks to make other arrangements for processing or gateway services is enough to put you in the poor house.

Take heed, learn and understand these practices, and when in doubt contact your merchant providers... speak with someone in underwriting and have them look at your website and marketing materials and provide you the correct way to market your products.... Before the axe falls.

Brand Damaging

First let's attempt to define what "brand damaging" actually means. It's really a rather ambiguous, mostly legal term referring to statements, actions, images, content, theft and other actions causing damage or harm to one's brand. Be that brand an authors name, a business or a service.

Many times this type of issue involves another nasty term, "identity theft". The connection comes from associating a known brand, such as the case with Jeremy Schoemaker in 2008. This matter was one of the first notable cases I have seen reported. In this case,  the Hydra Network or one of its affiliates made unauthorized use of a picture of ShoeMoney holding a check and the accompanying ad claiming he had made the money using a scam called "Google Money Tree".

How does this affect shop owners?

Many of you will have already received a letter of intent, or decided changes from your merchant bank if you process credit cards. The changes or proposed changes are quite frankly in answer to Visa Mastercard's intent to take action in response to increases in consumer disputes related to card not present and direct response products and services.

It's not really Greek, in a nutshell, if you, your practices, your security or your products and services are a bad risk, Visa Mastercard feels that this damages their brand.

These forthcoming and anticipated payment brand mandates and requirements will change a great many things for some merchants. For example e-online has already adapted the following policy changes:

e-onlinedata cannot accept merchant applications for products and/or services employing “Negative Option” enrollment, in addition to the following practices:

• Marketing models that employ “Free-Trial”, “Deferred Billing” and/or “Shipping Only”. Customers must be receiving a tangible good or contracted service in exchange for charging of payment cards. Incentivized discount offers are acceptable when the cardholder is receiving something in exchange for payment, however we will be unable to support accounts engaging in hidden or delayed charges and ‘free’ offers that are not truly free.
• “Cross-Selling” and “Up-selling” business practices. All sales should be directly between the business entities (merchant) processing the transaction and the cardholder, with cardholder authorization for all purchases.
• Per Payment Brand guidelines, the use of multiple merchant accounts, billing descriptors and merchant processors may be viewed as an attempt to avoid chargeback monitoring programs and is prohibited. Perceived non-compliance has led to termination of processing relationships. e-onlinedata will review the business consideration for opening multiple merchant accounts to ensure compliance with Payment Brand guidelines.
• Transactions generated from internet traffic and all other lead sources must be managed and monitored for potential fraud using an approved system. Third Party service engagement may be a requirement for account approval.

Of these, the most likely ecommerce merchant concern is the last. The last statement refers to properly managing, monitoring and PCI compliance of your shopping cart, hosting and merchant gateway. These are not recommendations, but rather already required for merchants. When you signed your merchant agreement, you also agreed to maintain the proper PCI/DSS standards and mandates.

Originally, PCI was Greek, however, merchants are learning and much support is available to meet the needs of small businesses whose budget for these matters can be quite small. Your merchant provider, merchant gateway provider or PCI approved scanner can help you to understand and manage the protocols necessary to keep not only yourself, but your shoppers safe. I have a post here to get you started on the road to PCI compliance.

It is clearly worth noting that the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has already moved on the "Negative Option" marketing technique. Additionally, the FTC recently made changes to the requirements for paid testimonials, blog posts and endorsements. These are also clearly targeted at the web, and I think we can expect to see more of the same with big fines from the FTC in the future.

Not only are these things right and proper in my opinion, but changes to protect consumers on the web are long overdue. I think if you run and honest business in good faith you will not have any issues, frankly, those sapped by the movement to protect Internet consumers are in general those who would strive to deceive and take advantage of consumers.... Giving us all a bad name and damaging our brand as well!

Ecommerce Marketing

Internet use is still growing year after year, and as more and more people have Internet access, more and more small businesses are recognizing the importance of integrating some form of ecommerce / online catalog as part of their business marketing portfolio. The Internet never goes offline, and websites are accessible every hour of the day - there are no opening and closing times on the Internet serving a worldwide market.

For the average person, the ability to be able to shop from the comfort home is a very welcome idea, and is becoming a very popular method of purchasing goods... Even for mobile users! Those customers who still prefer the tangibility of a brick and mortar store, the Internet still provides a way of researching the products they are interested in, to compare different prices, gain product knowledge and prepare to make an educated decisions without salesman pressure.

Another advantage of the Internet is its worldwide reach. Small business retailers no longer have to have brick & mortar stores in many different geographical locations to become a national brand - by selling on the web, they can get their product seen by a much larger audience.

However, it is not as simple as setting up online and customers automatically come flocking to your shop; a lot of hard work needs to go into developing, promoting and securing your online store, thus tackling many of the same related start up and maintenance issues with a brick and mortar store. The biggest difference is cost, while you may end up paying a couple of thousand dollars to properly develop your shopping cart... you will still be saving on start up fees, rent and other traditional business overhead costs These savings can then be passed on to the shoppers, making your business more competitive in its niche.

Undoubtedly then, a small business with a Internet promotable product would be foolish to overlook the power of the ecommerce. Businesses should plan and look to incorporate some form of ecommerce into their current business marketing portfolio. Be aware, however, as major differences exist between selling online and selling in real life, and you will need to build up a high level of trust with Internet customers... In perhaps ways you are not yet accustomed to.

Ugh!

I guess one of the most disappointing things we deal with in our business is the "ugly" or "darkside" of how others deliver web services. There is not a single day that goes by where some website owner doesn't contact us with issues related to the development, design or even ownership of their site. Everything from broken promises and deceit to outright performance issues send these customers hunting for a "new webmaster".

We have dealt with some very disheartening issues for our clients. They call and need to move their site to proper hosting and can't because they don't have access, they find they do not own their domain registration, they have been locked out of and charged for GPL/free built in software functionality or their webmaster flew the coop.

While these issues do pain me, I have decided that all we can do is provide quality, honesty and transparency in our own business. So to that end, I am providing prospective new website owners the following list of tips and precautions before choosing a designer/developer and beginning a website project.

1. NEVER, EVER let a designer register your domain in his/her name. If this is how they insist on doing business, then find a professional.
2. Make sure you have full access to your hosting services, including support. If they want to host you in their account, then insist that you obtain your own hosting. If they refuse to play ball... find another.
3. Know what you want and need. Develop a list of the functions, look and services you need. Provide this list to several prospective developers and make them explain how these options are best accomplished. Those that cannot .... get dumped.
4. Know your software. If you choose a software driven site, such as Zen Cart, read and learn about the software. Buy a manual and really know what you are getting, then find a developer with a great deal of experience with your chosen software. This really matters, you see a general web designer cannot handle developing a Zen Cart project for example. They will only hack, crack and break the software functionality with their inexperience.... Costing you upgrade, development and repair money in the future.
5. Be ready to work.... This is your website right? There really isn't any money for nothing going on here... That is a bullshit lie propagated by people who would seek to take advantage of you long term. If it sounds to good to be true, it is.
6. Do not rely on a sole person or company for the maintenance of your website.... People go missing all the time. Make sure you have a backup person and you are able to provide them the needed access (hosting logins, FTP and admin information) to help you in a pinch.
7. Remember when you hire a professional, they are the professional. If this person tells you something is a really bad idea, you should likely listen.... are you a web developer?
8. Insist on a development time frame and frequent updates. Development schedules get busted up all the time, but you need a plan and to be kept abreast of the setbacks and new expected schedule forecasts.
9. Check your developer out. Contact owners of some of the websites in their portfolio... Better yet, send links to each of the prospective developers of each others sites and ask for their opinion =-). Google the developer or company name looking for the good, bad and ugly comments you may find. Really check them out, this is alot of money to simply throw away.
10. Ask alot of questions! Every single thing you want, need to know, or do not understand needs to be asked.... This is your website and you need to know.

It's also a good thing to user a designer/webmaster that has more than email access for support and questions, what if you are not at your computer and your site is down?

Being successful on the web takes a great deal of dedication and learning, all you do is in a constant state of change in this business. You never stop learning, adding new content and building links.... This is the cost of Internet success, make sure you are ready to pay it up.

So to that end I would like to share with you the top 10 posts that users have found the most helpful to them. May you find them helpful and continue to prosper in 2010!

1. Free Shopping Feed Marketing for Online Stores - This post is about marketing your products using shopping feeds and contains a frequently updated list of portals and venues which are free to submit your feed to.
2. Color Psychology for Ecommerce Design - Here is one of my favorite marketing subjects! The use and psychology behind web design. What emotions and actions do colors invoke and how can we use this to our advantage.
3. Zen Cart SEO – 12 Steps to Success - This post was written specifically with all of the Zen Cart forum posts I answer in mind. It is rather a discipline than a tutorial, a list of the things you need to do to successfully run your online store.
4. Ecommerce Checkout Suicide - This page contains both secure and nonsecure items. Do you want to display the nonsecure items? How to identify and fix the most common and dreadful cause of checkout abandonment!
5. 5 Easy Things to Make Zen Cart Cook - 5 easy modifications that will make your Zen Cart faster and perform better!
6. Yahoo Search Supports Google Base Formatting - How to use your Google Shopping/Base feed to submit your products to Yahoo Search Monkey enhanced shopping results... for free!
7. Beating Your Links Down? - Working hard on link building? Here is a comprehensive tutorial detailing the counter productive things you should avoid to make your links count the best!
8. In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries - How to identify, repair and prevent duplication content in your shop. There are in fact many different ways to end up with duplicate content… Here are some common ones we see in ecommerce.
9. Where is My Site? Google Sandbox Filter - The phenomenon that people have claimed to observe is that Google temporarily reduces the page rank of new domains, placing them into what is referred to as its “sandbox”, in an effort to counter the ways that search engine optimizers attempt to manipulate Google’s page ranking to bring sites to the top, by creating lots of inbound links to a new web site from other web sites that they own before creating that web site.
10. Shared Hosting & Bad Neighbors - Hosting is a very challenging subject for most shop owners. Sadly many attain less that acceptable hosting to run their businesses. This post covers the notable pitfalls of shared hosting from less than professional web hosts and the implications for your business.

There is one more post, this one actually finished 11th, but is a VERY common question and great information as well.

• Keywords in your URLs? Matt Says Yes - SEO urls, which is a misnomer for spam now is a pretty complicated subject that many shop owners do not understand and can be taken advantage of with. I also suggest you read this post, on our marketing blog regarding the weight given to keywords in different parts of your urls. Also, this post reveals what you may be missing by rewriting your urls =-(

For those that are interested here are some stats for PRO-Webs in 2009:

• 36 New Zen Cart stores were built
• 89 Zen Cart site reports were completed
• 37 SEO My Zen Cart packages completed
• 106 Zen Carts hosted
• 154,319 unique visits including 18,598 to this blog
• I have answered 1,802 posts on the Zen Cart forum and averaging 2.3 per day!

We enjoy what we do for shop owners and look forward to serving you in 2010!

Here's wishing all of you a successful and prosperous new year!

Ecommerce Security

Maintaining the security of your shopping cart is an ongoing issue, it was before, it is now and will remain so. If you’re a small business with a website trying to break into this fresh, but competitive market, shopping cart software integrated to your website would certainly be a great investment. However, several issues will need to be addressed in your planning and maintenance budget. The more significant will be the issue of maintaining your shopping cart security. This help to protect the privacy and financial information of you and that of your shopper's.

Shopping Cart Security

Let’s begin with the basic concept of online shopping carts. Shopping carts are online software applications which facilitate visitors to make purchases by shopping on the Internet, which are generally paid electronically by some means. If you already have, or plan to have an online store, you will need a reliable and secure web host to host your shopping cart application. You also need shopping cart software that is easy enough to use and functional to your current and near future needs. Additionally, unless you house PHP programmers and web designers in house, you will need a company who develops shopping carts. Note that a developer is neither a programmer, nor a designer, but rather the person responsible for the project completion... Like a contractor, some things they will do and other things like custom programming and design they will have contracted parties complete for you.

A shopping cart at its most basic description is the added website functionality of a check out, which generates the total purchase, computes for the shipping costs, records the needed personal information and processes the payment to the chosen Gateway or online collection service you choose. The most commonly recognized security aspect of the shopping cart lies on the Secured Socket Layer certificate or SSL which encrypts the transmission of the personal information entered by customers up until the time the information reaches the payment gateway. The SSL is the responsible for making the pages address prefixed with “https”.  Meanwhile, the payment gateway or credit cart gateway is receives the information, validates and charges the purchase on the credit card with their own software. Upon validation, you cart is notified and the transaction is complete.

It is important that you let your customers know that you have done your part to make the website secure and hack free. Never underestimate your shoppers. If they feel that something is not right with a your shopping cart, they will most likely leave without purchasing.

To most effectively do business online, you will not only let your shoppers know that you are secure, but practice what you preach as well. Keep your shopping cart, server software and other applications like email up to date ... always. Have your shop scanned quarterly for PCI/DSS compliance... If you accept credit cards, PCI compliance is not negotiable, but rather required.

Be clear and accurate about your shopping cart policies and guidelines. I know it might be tempting to use various legal and marketing tricks, but, you need to remember that your store's visitors are not experts and presenting them with a policy or guideline that is high complicated and overly difficult to understand will reflect on your business’ reputation.... Many will leave for an easier purchase at the next click.

We can only stress the importance of security in these kinds of ecommerce applications. I have heard, same as anyone else, stories of identity thefts before and so have your customers. Most consumers will be looking for shopping carts that can protect them from possible theft of credit card and personal information.

One of the most crucial pieces of a secure network is to use the services of well respected and secure service providers and web hosts. That being said, you may choose wrong early on, be ready to move your website if you need to. While many web hosting companies will make moving your shopping cart seem daunting and impossible... Its not and you have to do what is right for your business.  Spend  some time checking on theses service providers and get to know them.

The bottom line is, you must maintain a secure shopping cart for your customers. You have tons of valid and robust options at  your disposal in the current market, so having an insecure or out of date  network or cart is totally inexcusable.

Ecommerce Product Life

Many will have  never heard of the term planned obsolescence.  The term stems from the period prior to 1920, when retail products were made with the purposeful intent to stand the test of time. These high quality products were sturdy; often hand machined piecework, and ultimately provided and excellent long term investment for the consumer.

Business owners, however experienced and unforeseen problem in the lack of of return customers and residual income. You see, you can have all the satisfied customers in the world, but if you can not convert them in to repeat customers, then the longevity of your business is doomed.

In the 1920’s and 1930’s businesses began adopting the process of planned obsolescence to tackle this business killing issue. Ultimately this meant that the products consumers bought would not last as long because product parts were intentionally designed to wear out near or at the end of their planned lifespan. In other words if a company planned for a vehicle to last ten years then parts would begin to wear out after 10 years or the total number of miles driven for a statistically generated 10 year average.

Essentially a company would use their sales trend and loyalty statistics to determine how long they wanted to wait for a repeat sale and then advertise the life of the product (EX: a blender for fifteen years). Then the company would produce parts or acquire parts as cheaply as possible to only reach or slightly exceed the life expectancy of the product... Thus creating return customers.

By reducing the once very long time between purchases of replacement products the companies actually began to see an increase in long term repeat sales. This in itself breeds additional sales opportunities. For example, you may be looking for a new washer and I can then tell you about the 3 washers I have had from X Company which have lasted long and been trouble free... Boom word of mouth marketing. Note that also, since purchases happened more often, the consumers had the details and information about these products more present in their mind, which only increased the word of mouth marketing as well. America has become accustomed to the need for replacement products. In fact, this technique, carried to its modern extreme we would almost be disappointed if we didn't need to replace common items occasionally.

In the brave new world of ecommerce the functionality of planned obsolescence is a very important component in determining what type of products you will carry in your online store. For example if you develop your business around a popular product which has an extended life expectancy you would need many more customers over a longer period of time than if had chosen a product that is popular still, but is often replaced by a smaller customer base. This long term planning of "meat and potato" sales can be the difference between selling a quality furnace one time and furnace filters thousands of times..... Or both!

Electronic devices differ greatly as they may have the ability to last longer than they are typically used, but most consumers will replace them regularly when the next newest gadget is released. In this case planned obsolesce is made possible simply due to consumer demand for increased functionality and America's love of gadgets.

An online store developed around candles is an example of the need for a higher volume of customers. Your average consumer does not light a candle each night, so the need for additional candles is somewhat diminished no matter how beautiful or well scented the candles you sell might be. In this case a clear marketing emphasis on giving candles as gifts may allow existing customers to more easily convert in to repeat customers.

This post is not really designed to encourage you to pursue one type of product over another, but to draw your attention to the dynamics hiding just below the surface related to consumer purchasing patterns of certain items. This post is however designed to get you thinking about the life expectancy of the item’s usefulness and how you should ultimately market the product for the best reach and return overall.

Volume 1?

The world of ecommerce is filled with fascinating technology and endless possibility. The move from a brick and mortar store to online sales may feel like being exported to another planet.... But in all honestly, the business traits and policies you already have in place, simply need to be translated in to Internet.

You may not yet understand every issue involved in developing a successful online , but you CAN adapt. While the very core of our human nature sends us fleeing from change, the end result may be a sustainable long-term income stream derived from a seemingly bottomless, worldwide customer base.

Shop owners, present and future, there are a few mistakes that are easy to make, yet easy to avoid:

While the list of possible mistakes is rather lengthy we will look at three of the most important.

1. Contact Us

Because of the instantaneous nature of the Internet it is important to place relevant contact information either on each individual page or have one easy link from each page to your contact information.

It may be important to utilize a call service and invest in a toll-free number for your customers. Many ecommerce sites believe that simply providing an email address is sufficient, but it may do little to instill a level of trust in your potential customer if they have to wait hours for a reply. Many potential clients may even leave your website if they don’t feel there is an easy means of contacting you.

In lieu of a call center you may invest in an instant messaging system where you or a representative can connect with your client during regular business hours.

The failure of many websites may be tied to their inability to connect with their visitors. The ability to instantly connect with a real person is the human composite to web interfacing.

2. So Many Plans

Where are you taking your website? Do you know? Have you planned?

There is a story told of an individual wanting to provide for his family. He learned that the city in which he lived provided free space in the local harbor for local residents. That enterprising man built a significant houseboat from mostly recycled materials and his family lived in the hodge podge houseboat rent-free.

The moral of this little story is, a cobbled together website may work for you, but will hold little interest for your online visitors. Make the planning and development of your site a top priority – not something cobbled together as an afterthought.

3. Check the Expiration Date

Just like you would clean out a refrigerator from time to time removing aging material that is no longer useful to the nourishment of your family, so too should be the removal and updating of dated information on your website.

If you have information about an event or sale listed as “upcoming” and the date specified is several months old – you might have an expired page.

If you list a product that is ‘new’ and it stopped being used in the Clinton presidency – you might have an expired page.

If you supply links to managing the electronics for example, – you might just have an expired page or 10.

Check for material that is outdated on a regular basis and either remove it or replace it.

These tips on the basics of ecommerce website design, practices and function can either increase your credibility in the eyes of your customer or cause them to wonder if you’re even still in business.... Make these items a religious part of your schedule, every week and you can increase your sales and rank.

Pick a Winner

I cannot even begin to count how many times we are asked this very question. Savvy entrepreneurs know that there is more to this than something you think is cool. While there is no "secret sauce" for this... There are some basic metrics that are far more likely to lead to a website's success. So today I am going to tell you how to plan and pick the "Right Domain Name" for your business.

Keyword(s) in Your Domain Name

There is little argument that having a keyword, possibly 2, in your domain name is a top notch ranking factor. Problem is, that it's not that simple! There are many other factors (below) that can influence this metric and even upon occasion, negate it all together.

Domain Extension

Sure, everyone knows that .com is most popular... But what about protecting your brand? Best rule of thumb here is to get the domain extension most effective for your region. Domain extensions such as .com, .co.ok, .co.au for example, are going to be your best bet. For the US, it's .com all the way.

If you find that "perfect domain name" and only the .net or [dot]whateveris available... skip it, your customers will be hitting whomever has that .com with the fruits of all your hard work. If you get the .com, then adding those others, such as .net, .me etc,  to your portfolio is just great business sense and brand protection.

What was that Domain Name Again?

This may very well have been at the very top of this list.... But I got your attention early on with the big cheese. There is NO VALUE whatsoever in a domain name that no one can remember. This is really a KISS situation.

Avoid dashes (they really aren't necessary). Stay away from easily misspelled words. Keep it short, sweet and catchy. Don't replace numbers "4" for words unless you register both and redirect one to the other. Avoid using a plural word, because someone already has the singular version.... Might just call that company on the phone instead and offer to promote their website for free =-)

Last, and certainly not least, avoid adding stupid words to get what you want.... Words added to domains like, mydomain.com or "the" suggested by domain searching tools are just dumb and unnecessary in "most" cases... Besides, your visitors will likely forget it and visit domain.com anyhow.

Market Research

Pick a domain name that fits your marketplace. This is actually trickier than you may think. We can all (I hope) determine what a term(s) related to our niche is.... BUT, have you considered how the search engines stem words?

Search engines do their best to understand related terms, so when you search for "toy" or "toys" they get it. However, this same excellent service can also bite you too. Some words are spelled the same, but have different meanings... and others still have closely related search terms that have NO relationship with your website's content.

A perfect example is the word "screen". If you have the word screen in your domain name/content... Then you will have some pretty unrelated searches coming in like.... PC monitor, window screen, silk screen, full screen, silver screen....etc. So ideally, if you have a word like this, which is so heavily stemmed, you would use another "qualifying keyword" to substantiate it's theme and relevance.... "ScreenActors.com" for example... The additional keyword "actors" provides relevance to the heavily stemmed "screen".

Domain Name FAQ

Domain names over 26 characters are supported in most modern browsers, but many email programs and form fields will not be able to handle them. None the less, in most domain extensions you can register up to 63 characters long. Domain names cannot begin or end with a hyphen. Domain names can only ever include English letters, numbers and hyphens.. That's all. For most extensions the domain name must be 3 letters or longer.... 3 Letter domain names are even restricted in most cases as well.

Summary

There are really a host of important things to consider while making your domain name selection, some you can control and some you really cannot. For example, availability is one that is pretty much out of your control. If the name you “have to have” is already registered, you might attempt to purchase it or back order it. BUT, I strongly suggest you have a qualified web professional check it out first for issues, penalty or poor historical performance.

Ecommerce is not eBay

When the phone rings here at PRO-Webs, many times there is an eBay seller on the other end. Ebay's restrictions, fees and other changes have forced many a eBay Power seller to move in to the ecommerce arena. These mostly successful eBay merchants have recognized the need to move, at least part of their eggs to a new, safer basket.

The biggest issues with an eBay merchant starting up an online store is that they really have the wrong mentality for "normal" shoppers. You see, your average or normal shoppers, shop in online stores because they seek service, professionalism and ease of use.... Very unlike the eBay experience.

Fact is, if these online shoppers wanted to be shopping on eBay... they would not be in our online stores. Not every battle in your merchant career is about price. Quite frequently, having the lowest price will give the shopper the impression that your service is equally low. Perception is everything.

Common eBay Merchant Ecommerce Mistakes

1. Linking out to your eBay store or listings... "Visit our eBay Store". This shows a complete lack of professionalism and once again, if they wanted to be shopping on eBay they would not be at your shop.
2. Advertising your eBay success... "Successful Power seller for 5 years". This just screams to the shopper that you will gouge them on shipping and that this is an unreliable home based business.
3. eBay styled product descriptions... "All new, hottest thing lowest price". People shopping in your online store are not looking to be bothered by reading through half a page of hard selling language, they are looking for the product description! Shop owners will find that a much softer selling approach is most effect in your online stores.
4. Unprofessional looking stores... Yep, you have seen these too, like a squeeze page with add to cart buttons everywhere. Online shoppers are looking for a "real" and professional online business to shop from.
5. Categorization & navigation... eBayers seem to lack the proper and logical navigation in their online stores. This likely stems from their eBay experience and the whole auction mentality, however, this is not the same arena and ecommerce shoppers want to find the products in a logical and intuitive navigation.
6. Trust factors... Many eBay merchants lack the trust metrics in their online stores. Not only the ones mentioned above, but things like advertising their GMAIL or Yahoo email address, no visible means of calling the business, no physical address listed and the biggest of all a PayPal only checkout with a GMAIL or other free address and a personal name instead of a company name. Shoppers need these and many other trust building metrics to feel like they "know" this company and can trust us.

My best advice to eBay merchants looking to move some of their business to the more stable ecommerce platform is to completely "unthink" the eBay and get some help. Find a professional ecommerce developer and listen to everything they tell you.... Even if it goes against your eBay grain. You really need a very professional presence to be a successful online shop owner.

Words of Wisdom

Answering the phone around here can really be a very disheartening task most times. Shop owners call in with the saddest stories, or worse they think they have a small problem and we discover a major issue. Don't get me wrong, that's what we're here for.... But, it can be very disappointing and even tug away at my heart strings to hear these problems from store owners whose "small" investment will not be returned in even a year.

My goal when I started PRO-Webs, is still our primary directive. We want business owners to be educated and in full control of their business. Seems simple enough... But you would be quite surprised at the sad stories you would hear manning our help desk here for a day. Anyhow, I have some solid words of advice for ecommerce site owners to help you remain in control of your business and avoid common mistakes.

Ecommerce Words of Wisdom

1. NEVER let a company manage your domain in their name.... Just don't do it. You need full access to your online store's administration section, hosting and FTP. We frequently get calls from shop owners whose "webmaster" is nowhere to be found and they haven't even the ability to provide us access to help them.
2. Use your head, common sense can help you avoid the worst of bad decisions. If it looks like a bad link... It is. If it looks like crap... It is. If they have promised you page 1 search rank in a month... Its a lie. When you have an SEO company or "webmaster" working on your site... This does NOT relieve you of your own responsibility. Ask questions, look at the work, ask more questions. Don't let them talk circles around you or dodge questions... Ask for examples and reasoning.... Like grandma says "If they tell you to jump off a bridge, are you going to?"
3. NEVER BUY OR SELL LINKS. This is no gray area, this is just one of the most dangerous things you can do or allow to hurt your site the worst. Google has very clear and specific rules about this.... and these rules apply to all links, whether you buy it or not. ANY LINK WHICH IS FOR ADVERTISING MUST BE PREVENTED FROM PASSING PAGERANK TO THE RESULTING PAGE. So have a look at your backlinks to see what your SEO company is building for you.... It's really very important and requires your attention and dedication.
4. Never put PPC Ads on your online store.... Again with the common sense thing, you can have a shot at a sale... Or send them elsewhere for a nickel. Pretty straight forward.
5. Have a look at this handy guide to PCI and DSS compliance... You are not exempt in any way if you process credit cards and its great advise, even if you don't. This one should perhaps be number 1, because most small online businesses could not absorb the penalties and fees for a breach... This one single thing can mean the end of your business and have deep reaching personal financial implications for small business owners.
6. You absolutely need proper analytical data to have a successful online store. Google Analytics is free and very well suited for ecommerce... But getting it going isn't the issue..... YOU MUST USE IT AND PLAN TIME TO STUDY IT. There are some excellent tutorials and articles to help you understand the data.... But you will learn the most by setting aside 15 minutes everyday to poke around in your stats. How else can you measure your SEO companies or your own results?
7. Write great content, which is easy to follow and useful to your shoppers..... Not the search engines! If you are writing content for the search engines, concentrating on pumping pages full of keywords or adding spammy link lists to your site... You got it all wrong. You see, targeting content for specific keywords when you write creates more problems. You are finished writing and your targeted keyword is too dense, its spammy, its poorly written and worst of all you have inevitably screwed yourself out of a ton of long tail keyword phrases that generally perform better and will support the future rank of the related bigger box phrase as well.
8. UNIQUE! Wrap your head around this word for every single metric of your site. Unique titles, unique content, unique pictures.... If you haven't the time to write great unique information for your store, you are in the wrong business.
9. Monitor vendors, their work and access to your site and hosting. Delete old FTP and admin accounts for vendors after they are finished. Would a department store owner give the furnace repair guy a key to fix something and never retrieve it?
10. Last and most common.... THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH! If you got in to this business because you think you will make wild cash for no work... You are sadly mistaken. You must publish new content regularly and often. You must monitor your stats and make improvements. You must update your software and install patches and bug fixes when necessary. Fact is many will find that what they need to do to have a successful online store is substantially more work than their old 9-5 job.

I am a retired restaurant manager. The restaurant business is tough, long hours, tough budgets and hard work to be successful. Many managers I have trained will leave their training and immediately head to "the dark side"... Call it lazy I guess. Fact is, if you really look at the things you have to do... Doing them right will take the same amount of time or less than the time spent cheating. Not to mention, when you take the easy way out it generally has longer term issues to create more work as well. So if you really want to be successful, roll your sleeves up and get to work... Decide and make a commitment to do things the right way. Work on your site often and with sustained regularity.

Or you can just copy the manufacturers descriptions, build spammy links and ignore your store... Then retire in a year as a failure. Really your choice.

PCI Compliance for Ecommerce

The Payment Card Industry (PCI), formed in 2006,  is a joint industry organization set up by a small group of the major credit card companies. This group is not a policing organization, and does not enforce the PCI DSS, nor set penalties for violations of the PCI DSS vulnerabilities. Enforcement of the PCI mandated requirements is left to each specific credit card company. PCI DSS does not replace the individual credit card company's compliance programs, but rather fortifies them.

It is actually the individual credit card companies, such as Visa or Mastercard, who enforce the compliance rules. While currently there is no Federal Law to force merchants to comply, many states and localities do in fact have such mandates or policies already.

PCI DSS compliance policy includes all merchants and service providers who accept, capture, store, transmit or process any credit and debit card data in any way. A compliance related incident will result in steep fines, suspension and even revocation of your card processing privileges. That's right... This IS a big deal, even for you.

Major PCI Merchant Requirements

Build and Maintain a Secure Network

• Install and maintain a proper firewall to protect cardholder data.
• Do not use vendor supplied default passwords for anything

Protect Cardholder Data

• Do NOT store cardholder data
• Encrypt all transmission of cardholder data across open, public networks

Maintain a Vulnerability Management Program

• Use and regularly update anti-virus software on all computers processing or transmitting cardholder data. This also includes your server or hosting account, office PC with processing ability and even POS systems.
• Develop and maintain secure systems and applications

Implement Strong Access Control Measures

• Restrict cardholder data to a full NEED TO KNOW level.
• Each employee, vendor or other person(s) with access MUST have a unique ID which can be logged.
• Restrict physical access to Cardholder data. This is best accomplished by again NEVER storing cardholder data.

Regularly Monitor and Test Networks

• Track and monitor access to your network resources and Cardholder data.
• Regularly test your security systems and specific processes

Maintain an information security policy

• You must maintain a company policy that addresses your information security processes, level and protocols.

Below are some very simplified, yet common mistakes we have seen companies make in in regard to their security. While, doing these things will certainly bring you closer to compliance, you will need to hire an approved scanning vendor who will scan your websites and be able to make very specific reports and lend your company compliance support more specific to your individual requirements.

1. Do not use simple usernames such as "admin" when setting up access to any software including your hosting. Never use the usernames or access information which is supplied by the software.
2. Every single vendor, employee or other personnel with access must use strong alpha numeric passwords, which also contain a symbol whenever you can. Change these every 30 days for everyone with access.
3. You must have the ability to properly log access for any user who has access to or uses your software or hosting account. This means, your hosting must have proper logging ability and your should additionally be logging access with your ecommerce software as well. These are additionally, not going to help you unless you are looking at them.
4. Each IP with access accepting or handling cardholder data must be scanned. This includes office PCs and other inventory/invoicing PCs (manned or not). DO NOT EVER use a wireless connection to access your website, hosting and certainly not to process, collect or transmit cardholder data.... It's just too vulnerable.
5. Follow the security recommendation and updates for your ecommerce software... If your software has none or lacks the ability for you to be updated either from your software or email regarding security patches and updates... Then you need new software.
6. Keep ALL of your software up to date with the most recent stable version and patches. This includes the software associated with your hosting account such as PHP and even your accounting software if integration exists or cardholder data is stored.
7. NEVER, EVER STORE CARDHOLDER DATA on your site or unencrypted hosting environment.
8. Restrict access to your software and hosting to trusted employees and vendors. Frequently review your access accounts for vendors who no longer need access and employees who are no longer with the department or your company.
9. Protect all of your site's forms properly to prevent SQL injection by submitting additional data.
10. Limit the number of shipping addresses and failed credit card transactions that customers can make on your site. Additionally, make use of velocity and IP based filters to tag and restrict suspicious transactions.
11. Perform regular vulnerability scans for all of your systems and sites.
12. You will need to create a company policy for your security procedures such as password changing, scanning and access maintenance. This needs to actually be a documented policy that can be referred to and utilized by you and your staff.
13. You are required to properly, shred and dye, or pulp ANY document containing cardholder data... This includes scratchpads for taking orders.
14. Use your hosting and PC virus scanners regularly and keep them up to date.

Remember, these are just the basics, and whatever your PCI compliance level you are likely going to need assistance to properly tackle and execute a program to bring yourself in to compliance. If you already have a network tech for your office, make sure that tech is skilled and educated for this purpose.

These regulations and related costs in time and money are part of doing business, they are not some veritable insurance policy.... Tell you what, if you cannot afford scanning and compliance you certainly cannot afford a fine for loss of electronic data from your company.

Closing Note:

I want you to clearly understand 3 very important points... So you page scanners will at least leave this site understanding these core points.

1. If you process credit cards you have already agreed to maintain PCI compliance as part of your merchant and gateway agreements.
2. This is a cost of doing business if you process credit cards and must be included in all budgeting and financial planning for your site... It's not optional.
3. If you have a PCI compliant hosting you must still maintain all of the PCI requirements for your own website, including scanning. YOU ARE NOT COVERED UNDER SOME PCI COMPLIANT HOSTING UMBRELLA.

SEO 101

Are profitable, top SERPs possible without the help of an experienced search engine optimization company?

Can a software package or online miracle tool or program touting testimonials and grandeur guarantees of success elevate your online presence enough to really increase sales?

Unfortunately, unless the software or miracle SEO tool were able to research your product market, find hidden niches within it, write intriguing, creative, relevant and keyword laden content, house it in a framework that meshes precisely with that content, research and analyze your ranking competition and apply that statistical data within the afore mentioned tasks, you'll definitely be using that money back guarantee.

The same goes of number one ranking promises for a keyword for $49. Now I'm not suggesting a claim like that is bogus or false advertising by any means. But, ask if that keyword or phrase has actually had more than one search somewhere in the world in the past month. Or to shake them, insist your keyword phrase they must bring to the number one spot is a large search phrase like "SEO" for example. Many time the phrases they are offering will rather be something like "SEO in East Mogadore Ohio 44260"... and you know my kid could hit that one.

IS THERE INEXPENSIVE SEO HELP THAT WORKS?

Is there a working alternative for smaller businesses and startups that can't budget professional SEO right now? There are techniques that will give your online store a chance of rising higher in the ranks. You'll find countless articles, posts and instructions online and in bookstores about general things you can do to your shop to improve its online presence and organic rank.

While helpful and usually fairly accurate, blindly applying every technique you read to your site without some further knowledge of your own site, your competition, your  market and some good old fashioned research will hinder your efforts.

With some real hands on, current analysis of YOUR individual situation at your disposal, you can greatly improve your efforts with even the smallest textual copy, title or content adjustment. However, it is going to require some work on your part, no matter what DIY tactics you employ. There is no something for nothing or any free rides on for online businesses... No matter what you though or were told when you started.

There are however, tools and analysis reports available to you for free that can give you a a plain and relative advantage. Some plain English comparisons of your page vs. the top 10 ranking pages in a particular search engine for a particular keyword phrase will define dozens of parameters to begin your DIY optimization.

How many links do you need? Are there better keywords you should choose? What do you do with all this information once you have it? Comparisons and analysis of your store and your competitor's stores are usually presented in an easy to understand graphical format that will reveal patterns and collected intelligence that can help you re-write and revise your own content,  page layout and begin your SEO efforts... Without spending a dime.

SET REALISTIC GOALS

You must remember, legitimate, professional search engine optimizers are completely engaged in their specific field and are educated generally with experience. The time, knowledge, talent and effort that you get with a professional SEO is worth every penny.  Face it can your simply read about SEO for 15 hours a week? This is the kind of commitment good SEOs have taken for their own personal and professional growth.

A professional SEO's approach will involve research of your product or niche market, competition and most times a significant renovation of your existing site from code to content. The in-depth attention to detail and deep analysis, content development, link and page structure requires a significant amount of time, experience and a lot of hand work... Then you add the things the SEO sees as obvious that most would never even consider, and the benefits become even more clear.

In other words, if you want to feel better and improve your self image and confidence, you don't have to pay a doctor to tell you that eating healthy, taking a vitamin and regular exercise will make a marked improvement in your well being... Do you?

If you want the large scale, lasting and radical change a facelift can give you, you must pay a plastic surgeon for his education, experience and talent... This is not going to be a butterknife job!

Don't forget to use some common sense when looking at your market and your SEO. If you think you're going to rank for a highly competitive keyword that has several well known authorative websites at the top without the aid of a professional, you'll probably end up disheartened. Your website is your business, or maybe you would just like it to be... Would you trust a part time fast food worker to install a safe in your brick and moratr business to protect your assets?

Achieving first page SERPs for competitive keywords in a saturated market is really a insurmontable task for very new stores. This type of goal setting is great, but short term goals will keep you afloat and support the longer term goals like this along the way. At the very least you would require a full time effort by an experienced firm with expansive resources to take on such a challenge... and the budget to pay them as well. Don't be discouraged; with some brainstorming and common sense you can think of some related, less competitive longtail keywords and niche markets to target which will sustain your business and lend to the strong foundation for the bigger box phrases and necessary authority to acheive them later on.

A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE CAN GO A LONG WAY

Some very simple copy (text) adjustments in the right places in your store can go a long way on less competitive sites. Let's look at a few easy changes any shop owner can make.

Page Titles

The page title, the words that display in the top of your browser window, is one of the most crucial elements on the entire page as far as the search engines go. When you search for something you sell what do you type in the search field? Unless it's a company's specific name, you type in a keyword or key phrase like "men’s cross training air sneakers".

A very common mistake is to put your company name in the page title. Sometimes it's appropriate and necessary, but for ranking purposes, use a concise and descriptive title for your page with a prime keyword from that specific page.

Uniqueness and relevancy count big here..... Short, sweet and potent!

Content Quality

You'll surely find as many contrasting opinions about content as there are about politics. Take away the extremes and you'll find the core principals are the same. To increase your organic rank, you have to have search able content, and it must be high quality. What is quality? More importantly, what do the search engines think is quality compared to your shoppers?

The answers depend on your store and position on the Internet. However, all quality content shares some common characteristics.

It's very plainly unique, engaging, descriptive and useful information about your products or services. Don't throw random free, generic, carbon copied stuff stolen from the web onto your store. Use some thought and creativity. Build great copy around different aspects of your target.

LOOK FROM A NEW PERSPECTIVE

If you have a site about restoring classic cars, write a page about the evolution of headlights over the last few decades. Add another page about how and where to find hard to find classic car parts. This is genuine useful information for searchers.. which is relative to your main target content/theme.

Content should be:

Easy to follow and well written for a 10th grade human reader, not a search engine.

Unique write it yourself or hire a quality writer.... This is not a keyword stuffing fest!

Varied content ranks! Don't fill your pages with the same keywords repeatedly or you risk being considered spam. Examine the keyword density of your keyword AFTER you write as a self check. While there is no magic number, exceeding 5 % is highly not recommended.

Take a few more evenings or weekends and improve your SERPs by doing some research and data digging, then apply that invaluable knowledge strategically in your store. Make few changes at a time and use your analytics to measure your results.... If you make 40 changes and have great success, how wil you know what worked??

KINDS OF SEO RESEARCH

There are SEO companies and tool online who offer various reports that can save you a lot of the legwork. Even the simplest of tasks can be too time consuming when you need to focus on editing your store's pages. For example, finding your current rank, if any, in all of the major engines for all of the keywords you want to rank could take a day on your own.

Some other types of reports available are:

Keyword Research

A list of keywords you or I might make sitting down with a pencil and paper is a good start, but barely the tip of the iceberg. The important word here is "start". That list is dozens of revisions and hours of solid research away from completion. It will expand and contract many times as further information is gathered and implemented.

Are your words focused and targeted enough so you'll attract qualified sales leads? Are there related words and phrases that you haven't thought of? What words does your competition have throughout their pages? And most importantly, are the words you've chosen are actually being typed into search engines to find your products?

You can find many different levels of keyword services from simple analysis of your existing pages to research and development of an entire list ready for use in your pages or PPC campaigns.

Competition Research

Who is ranking now? Who is in the top positions where you want to be? Examine your competition's pages with a microscope. Gaining a deep understanding of those you want to outrank gives you a working outline to revise your own. (Do NOT copy their content or ideas.... It won't work.) Focus on the search trends, keywords, densities, titles nd other on page elements… their page structure and their backlinks (including anchor text).

On Page Optimization

An page or site report like this analyzes the words in the elements on your page like titles and boldface or headings as well as your body copy, and link text. It also tells you information about keyword density. Earlier I mentioned that using a keyword too many times on a page could be considered spam. An analysis like this will show how many times each word, word pairs and groups of words were used on a page and what percentage of density all the words they are.

A report on a high ranking competitor's site will give you some relative insight into a page that is successfully ranking for keywords you want.

Off Page or Link Reports

As soon as you start learning about search engine optimization, you'll understand what a key role good quality inbound links play in determining rank. These types of analysis will show who is linking to you, or even better, who is linking to a ranking competitor. You can get some ideas of websites to list with and an approximate number of links of a particular quality that you'll need to rank as well or better.

TAKE SOME ACTION

If ranking and online presence are crucial, then find a respected, recommended and experienced search engine optimization professional to at least help you along. The same common sense logic that tells you to go to the doctor when aspirin doesn't do the job also applies to this situation.

If budget is constricting, your keywords have little competition, or you'd like to improve your presence to the best it can be without employing a professional then you'd be surprised what a little detication, new knowledge and time can do for your ranking. Applying the same techniques every few weeks and keeping your store's content fresh will put you a level even higher above the rest.

Remember, many variables and factors are considered and given varying weights by different engines to determine where your shop ranks. A brand new store, no matter how well optimized it is usually doesn't show any palatable rank in Google until it miraculously appears about a year later. Older sites of more than a few years often take the top ranks for competitive words due to their trusted content and authority... But the right things now, will make your store trusted and authoratative when it's your turn.

Don't let yourself get discouraged. The simple SEO methods you read about online or in other publications can give your site a stronger presence, but will achieve far better results for you if you employ some smaller, budget based intelligence and research to the plan.

Zen Cart Survival

I am quite sure I have mentioned each of these Zen Cart tips many times before -- Just not in this consolidated form. We receive many calls and emails from frightened and surely scammed ecommerce site owners. These calls range from outrageous to just plain poor planning. To help you get started or make your current ecommerce business more manageable we will share these crucial tips all in one place today. Stop back as I may add to this list, as we hear new nightmares frequently.

1. Your Zen Cart is not a free meal ticket. It's not easy, nor work free. Very likely you will find it to be a great deal of time and effort. Make the commitment early on -- and stick to it.
2. NEVER, EVER, EVER allow a webmaster or Zen Cart designer/developer to register YOUR domain in his/her name. If you have to ask why, you have not done enough research to get started in this business.
3. Demand that your designer/developer maintain a fully transparent line of communication regarding your Zen Cart project -- Start to finish.
4. Get it in writing! If your Zen Cart developer cannot give you a maximum quote (at least), then he/she is not experienced enough to give your project the quality it deserves.
5. Sometimes, you get what you pay for. Certainly our Zen Cart store packages are more expensive than some... But many times shop owners call us with a great looking, terribly coded and broken Zen Cart (which was quite expensive in many cases). There is so much more to a website than its design. I cannot even count how many Zen Cart owners have contacted us after a year with little or no sales and a really spiffy looking, broken cart!
6. Demand full access control including user names and password for your hosting account and Zen Cart admin. You don't want to be calling us because your webmaster skipped and you can't access your cart -- or worse you don't even know where you are hosted!
7. Question everything! If your designer/developer cannot at least try to explain everything they are doing.... You likely chose a lemon.
8. Do not let the designer/developer tell you what your cart is going to look like and how it will function. They should be giving you the opportunity to describe your envisioned dream site and then guiding you and helping you avoid problems and future issues.
9. Ask around. While you site is in development, there is no reason you cannot seek the opinions of other web professionals, friends and family.
10. Plan to spend a great deal of time working with your designer/developer on your site. To do this right, requires great and descriptive communication... Plan for this in an ongoing capacity and do not wait until he/she is done to ask for changes.
11. Get an SSL... Even if you use PayPal, trust me you need it and it will increase your ability to convert sales.
12. During and after development plan to learn to use your Zen Cart. While this is no easy task... it is a crucial piece. NEVER depend solely on someone else to manage YOUR business.
13. Make use of the wealth of knowledge and excellent community support in the Zen Cart Forum.
14. Don't be afraid to ask your designer the what, why, how and other questions regarding the layout, design and functionality of your Zen Cart.
15. Make sure you have installed Google Analytics --- You will be a while learning how to extract the data you need to succeed, but in time you will learn and Viola! the data will be there for you.

Remember, this is your business... Would you have a brick and mortar business you don't even have the door keys for??

Ecommerce Confessions

Confessions of a shop owner:

Yes I can admit when I am wrong and make stupid mistakes and I have made plenty of them. I am writing this as a reference for anyone else that is considering diving into the wonderful world of eCommerce, feel free to learn from my mistakes and succeed.

Not Testing the REAL Market

Well I did, but how I went about it was all wrong. I simply took surveys on price and interest in each individual product. I received nothing but excellent feedback, yet only to sold two products in the first 4 months. Alaskan Salmon sounds good in theory but gaining the shoppers trust is a completely different step. If I were to start all over I would probably just put my products on eBay just to gauge the response to the product, this would allow me to plan for any unforeseen market issues and adjust my services accordingly.

Extremely High Overhead

And the sad thing is I started this business with nice, manageable low overhead in mind. There are many shopping cart systems (Like Zen Cart) out there that will do all of the dirty work for you. For some dumb reason I felt my site needed a custom system from scratch which ended up costing me around $12,000. Now I am implementing a more functional and user friendly system that is FREE! Yes open source and FREE! My cost has only been $800 to implement the open source cart and the additional of this blog on my site is a part of that as well. Needless to say I feel like a big, BIG idiot.

Check References!

Another mistake I really overlooked, I found my first two web designers on car forums that I frequent. That would be the equivalent of looking for a home builder at a car dealership. Between these two snakes alone I lost $5,750 and ended up with nothing. A portfolio does not tell the full story, talk to the people that have hired the design company you are considering, and ask tons of questions.

Offline Marketing for an Online Business

There is a local publication here in Douglas County Georgia, where I live,  that caters to the community. I read that offline marketing generally does not convert to online sales but I am the type that has to touch the iron several times to know its really hot. (I actually did that as a youngster) The publication hits 30,000 homes in the area and I just knew at least 10% of those would visit my site. I ended up with 10 visitors and no sales, just another one of those hard and expensive lessons.

Content is King!

For an eCommerce site content and page real estate is tough, other than product descriptions and store policies there is not a great deal to say. This is why a new business blog is so valuable, search engines love the rich, unique content and what better way to present it? It also allows better communication between the business and shopper. I finally understand this and that is why I have added this blog to my site.

Patience

I still struggle a bit with this one but I have learned that while we would like to have an easy, overnight success it does not usually happen that way.  Some online stores take off immediately, others it may take years but I have learned that you work just as hard today as you did yesterday.

Discounting the Importance of Search Engine Optimization

I really thought this whole SEO thing was spammy BS. However, once I had failed miserably and was forced to really work hard and learn... My opinion have completely changed. I now realize that SEO, is really as much, if not more about the user as search engines. I also realize that SEO has nothing to do with spam or cheating... That is another kind of practice (black hat and positioning). So now I know that Google and my shoppers really want and need the same things. I spend 30 minutes 5 days a week surfing my site and trying to determine what is best for my shoppers... This keeps Google very happy! Viola!

1 Extra Tip

Be flexible and open for change, and I'm sure this holds true with any business out there. You can plan every aspect of your online business, but over time things will change and you really have to embrace that. I had no intentions on carrying Cheesecakes or Gift Baskets but saw an opportunity to give my customers better options have not regretted that decision since then. The Internet is really a changing tide, everyday.. every dollar... every shopper and of course every product. Since this is the nature of your profit stream... You MUST be willing to change and grow along side of the web to succeed.

Have YOU got what it takes?

What every single ecommerce business wants most is for online users to type in their credit card number and make a purchase of their products.... Nice and easy, right?

You can have the best developed shopping cart of its kind, but if no one is buying, then you simply have a really nice website.... Which isn't making any money.

When it comes to ecommerce and online sales, how do you encourage site visitors to move from passive window shopping interest to a paying customer?

The short answer is easy enough... Prove yourself trustworthy and professional so the customer has the necessary confidence to make a purchase.

That, of course, is easier said than done.

This is the hardest concept in ecommerce to implement, but if you want more shoppers and less visitors, you will have to work hard and learn a great deal.

First and foremost, you and your store MUST make the shoppers your number one priority. Having said this, realize the treachery involved in that statement.... Yes, I mean 100% customer service from your and your site.... Even when you are sleeping.

You will have to do whatever ways you can to find a way to prove to your potential customer that you are looking out for their interests and are genuinely interested in passing along helpful information to them.

There are far too many sites that exist that ooze with insincerity and even more with a complete lack of professionalism. It is a very tough sell to believe that these site owners care about anything beyond their wallets. Certainly, you can’t fault them for having an interest in their financial future, but online users want need you to prove to them you can be trusted and that you are worthy of their business.... This is especially true in these uncertain economic times.

I haven’t done exhaustive scientific research on the following statement, but I have performed enough research and management that the guess is very well educated...

The online businesses that will be most successful in the next decade will be ones who are honestly interested in the needs of the customers.

For those of you who are fixated on the bottom line you really need to know that customer satisfaction is tethered to your bottom line. Consider it the cost of doing business, something you pay forward for the ability to live with yourself and sleep at night.

Most of my teen and adult life I spent in restaurant/food management... I can tell you in no uncertain terms, you MUST earn your customers trust, approval and patronage. There is just no other way. So maybe you got in to ecommerce thinking it was a great deal... Easy money? Sorry to disappoint you, but when a customer entered one of my restaurants I have the GENUINE opportunity to look them in the eye and demonstrate my concern for them and their experience in my restaurant. Your online store DOES NOT give you that ability... You have to must work even harder than any brick and mortar small business. This I promise you.

The quickest way to grow your sales is to earn them with trust and professionalism..... and if you watch your bottom line too closely with regard to your customer's satisfaction.... It will move for your, indeed as it falls through the floor. The mix is quite unique, but you must find this balance in your business.

"People often say that motivation doesn’t last, Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily."
– Zig Ziglar

Humanity is impatient and desires acknowledgment, we’re not used to delayed gratification. We want what we want – and we want it right now... Yesterday even!

There is an unfair proposition in online marketing and commerce as a whole. This inequality can be found in list building, blogging, search engine marketing and virtually every other area of establishing a web presence.

Delayed Gratification

For the website owner there is no such thing as instant gratification. You are not likely receive the feedback you’re hoping for initially and it can seem as if you are improving your website for only one person and quite frankly you’re getting tired of impressing yourself.

Many times it can seem like establishing your ecommerce store is a bit like being asked to fill the Grand Canyon with a teaspoon. You persevere, but it’s hard to see the results.

The silver lining is while you keep working to establish your web store and its position you are finding better ways to describe your products, better content/copy to present, and all of the rough edges are slowly getting smoothed out. Still you have great difficulty measuring your progress.

Ecommerce is really a thankless job that is best suited for individuals that understand the true virtue of patience and are willing to work grievously hard to envision a future when the present doesn’t look so great.

"The ability to discipline yourself to delay gratification in the short term in order to enjoy greater rewards in the long term is the indispensable pre-requisite for success"
– Brian Tracy

We live in a modern time when immediacy is so important to so many people, that a significant number of businesses come and go simply because the owner failed to understand that delayed gratification is the payoff for perseverance, hard work and patience.

In 2006 there were 671,800 new businesses created and 544,800 businesses closed according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

We know that many of these small businesses did not have a clear understanding of the long term trench warfare that comes along with the territory of a new business start up.

This post is actually plotted to encourage you to think long term. Your ability, as a small business owner, to look further ahead than the next sale is crucial if you want to succeed.

Ecommerce can certainly provide a substantially improved market for your products, but you still must do the hard work, and put your best face forward even when your website statistics may seem as if your playing in an empty concert hall.

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts."
– Winston Churchill

Its very easy to become discouraged when times are tough and sales aren't where we want them to be. Many shop owners will reach out for additional paid advertising, get rich quick schemes and other means of promoting their stores. While I have no desire to judge anyone.... Are you using your time, energy and marketing dollars wisely?

How Does FREE Sound?

Yes, I said that magic "F" word. Lets just relax a minute and go over some free marketing and optimization techniques and venues for shop owners.

Sure, free sounds good... But is it really free? My dad said never to answer a question with a question... But here I go. What have YOU done for your store lately? This sounds so simple to most, but all to often I deal with shop owners who have not even taken the time to EVER even open their hosting control panel. So in addition to some free marketing ideas, today I am going to help you make your Internet store.... Better.

Managing your shopping cart software, products and marketing in house (this means you!) will not only save money, but expand your skill set to save you long term money. Sound good?

No matter what you know how to do, there is ALWAYS more to learn. So whether you take this time to add great content to your pages, attend Google's Conversion University, learn some SEO or just learn to code a hyperlink and make CSS changes... You will be advancing your skill set and saving money!

The first step in any good idea is a plan of implementation. Decide what you need to do for your store... Sounds easy enough, let me give you some ideas.

• Learn to optimize your pages content, coded elements and page titles. On page optimization will freshen stale content and has a great return for the time invested. Small SEO Touches with BIG Results.
• Got Link Bait? Do you know what link bait is? Well, you should as great link bait can easily make you a success.
• Do a usability study.... Use real people to shop your store and REALLY LISTEN to what they have to say. So often we are so familiar with our own sites... we lose sight with what the rest of the world sees. Grab 5 or 10 friends, kids and co-workers and enlist them to find and buy something on your site. I promise you will find some pretty amazing things you have been to "involved" to see. I had a customer point one out to me today!
• Get really in to Analytics.... It is a endless goldmine of information to make your store successful. Where is your traffic from, what sells best, who spends more time on site.... Which visitors are converting better than others. Are shoppers bailing on your checkout?
• Read, read, read and then read some more. Read about your niche, about SEO, about marketing and most of all read to learn and expand your own ability and increase your own positive impact on your business. Don't know where to start? Google for blogs and other niche related forums and groups. I also highly recommend you checkout the Google Webmasters Blog.
• Do you have duplicate content, which is suppressing your ability to rank and be successful? Find duplicate content and fix it. Let's face it, if Google was your business, would you deliver your shoppers to a page with 10 duplicate items? Hell no... Get your head around the user's experience, roll your sleeves up and create great unique content.
• Link building... Do you do this? Well, link building, like most SEO... NEVER ends. Very simply, to sum this up, Google and other search engines follow links around the web to find and understand pages. Link building is really a pretty complicated issue... But I will give your some pointers. Don't buy links (Google does not allow this), link out from your website with great link text and to related sites, forget about PageRank (it won't pay the bills)... Instead solicit links from other quality websites that you would be glad to be associated with. So whether you are writing articles, participating in a community forum, blogging or just doing manual link building... Think about it like taking this person to meet your mom, are you going to be embarrassed? If so find a link you are proud to have.
• Learn about and use social media religiously... Start here with Tim Nash. Tim can bring you fully up to speed and get you started. Social media, when used correctly can provide links and qualified traffic... Best of all, its FREE.
• Pick a page a week and learn to fix the errors and check for misspellings and such. Valid pages are happy pages.
• Sometimes even just a nice fresh, fast and updated redesign of your store can breathe new life in to it and YOU.
• Checkout free shopping feeds and comparison shopping sites that will list your products for increased exposure.

I guess my point here is that you are your own most valuable asset.... If you're not learning you're dying.

If your answers here today are all about what you don't know... Then you have arrived here my mistake and should likely leave.

A great example is a site we have which serves up free content in exchange for clicks on our Adsense Ads. This being its only source of income, you can certainly imagine a great deal of thought went into add placement and landing page optimization. After a few weeks of putting our heads together we came up with a layout for the ads on every landing page. These ads all perform well, but the most effective one is the one we stuck in to simply fill a void! This ad was bringing in an excellent amount of click, so I set out to find out why. I tracked analytics, click thrus, times of day and location only to find that indeed the ad performed well simply because it was rather close to a VERY popular link. So you never really know when the next great thing or hidden success you will find in your website.

My personal opinion is that, if you own an online store and you are not spending 20 minutes a day per site in Analytics, doing frequent usability click thrus (including checkout) have used the heat maps to optimize your site's flow... Then you will likely suffer from failure to thrive in your web business. Fact is, it's hard work.... Sure some have made fortunes overnight, and you might hit the lottery too! Nope, really it's hard work and the same level or more of dedication and work ethic is needed to run an online business as a brick & mortar business.

So after you've started your business and your website is built.... Then what?

Then you must decide to be successful. Make a daily schedule of things to DO to build your business and succeed. Things like link building and adding fresh content are like the electricity bill for your website. Very likely starting out there will be many things you aren't skilled enough YET to complete. Don't let that be a crutch.... In time you can learn all of these things. So let's make a new shop owner maintenance plan for success.

Things to do to make your web store successful

1. Get in to your site's stats and analytical information. Really study your traffic, flow conversion opportunities and keywords to start. Just a note that the really valuable keywords are at the bottom of your list... Look in to longtails.
2. Study... This is your business. Learn how to promote your store, how to make small edits and how to convert visitors to start.
3. Shop at your website. Seriously.... Do this alot and have your friends do it to! You will NEVER get every single bug worked out... But finding them brings you one bug, mistake or misspelling closer!
4. Keep control of your own business. Make sure you have full access and control of  your website, your hosting, your domain and any accounts related to your business at all times.
5. Deliver customer service and build trust. Believe it or not, word of mouth on the Internet is even bigger on the web than in our daily lives. Our fingers now have hundreds of ways to share thoughts and links worldwide, don't miss this.
6. Build links every week, optimize a page every week, build a new page every week and update your products everyday.
7. Look and explore marketing opportunities within your budget. Pay per Click or Pay per Lead are usually very good to get started with ... I prefer the latter for shopping carts as the shopper has already seen, read about and knows the price of the product before you pay for the click.

Most importantly, plan to wok hard and build your business... No free bus rides on the net either.