Putting a Security Logo in Emails Increases Conversions

A great study from my favorite company - MarketingSherpa.

http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30183

Limited time access so read it now!

MarketingSherpa

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http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30124

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http://www.marketingsherpa.com/newsletters.html

Have you social networked yet?

Social networking. If you have an online presence, and don't know what that phrase means, you need to Google it as soon as possible. I believe there are only two areas of growth right now on the Internet - social networking and mobile marketing.

Social networking is important because it connects people and companies together. By now, you should already have a blog, so your customers can get to know you a little better. And you should be personalizing your site because, almost literally, people buy online from either Amazon, or who they know. Why buy from a small guy if Amazon has it? They're less risky, for sure. So your best weapon today is letting your customers know who you are (that is, unless you're a complete jerk), and building relationships.

Now that you're building relationships, start networking. MySpace, LinkedIn, FaceBook, EventFul, YouTube, etc. allow you to post personal information, and link back and forth with others. Do this with your vendors, your customers, and your friends. Have your employees create accounts and network (yes, even on company time, unless you treat them like crap and fear their negative posts).

Make videos - put them on YouTube. Create events, put them on EventFul. Once you get started, you'll catch the drift, and the wave of results.

MIVA Small Business Acquired

Rick Wilson, who was a member of the original Miva Corporation team, has joined with others to acquire MIVA Small Business. It will be "Miva Merchant" again, and they'll have a new logo, etc. very soon. If you don't know Rick, let me tell you that this is a really good thing. I can't wait to see what happens next.

http://smallbusiness.miva.com/company/press/release.mv?Release_ID=95

Great Product, Ugly Site, Doesn't Matter

Okay, from the moment I saw this in a PCMag.com article, I wanted one. So I clicked on the site link and lo and behold, it's ugly. I mean, really ugly, and not very usable, and the shopping cart is just PayPal. For a $350 to $550 product, what is the deal?

http://www.cruzincooler.com/

Then I realized something. I looked through the site and I wanted the product even more. And then I realized that it didn't matter - as long as the site didn't crash while I was checking out, I'd click through 20 checkout steps to get this thing. So what's all the fuss about "easier checkouts?"

If you have a product or service people want, they will do whatever it takes to check out, and not really even think about the difficulty, unless it's impossible due to a broken site or incorrect instructions. On the other hand, if you have products or services available elsewhere, you need to optimize your site to be the easiest one in the market to order.

So, my conclusion is, what you're selling determines how nice/pretty/usable your site needs to be. It can't hurt to make your site fully usable, but if people want what you have, you can get by with some ugliness.

Security and Your Passwords

I just wanted to make a quick comment about security. When people complete help desk requests with me, they often send me their main admin user name and password. Normally, I recommend creating a new one for me, and for any vendor. But my main observation is many people are still making the old password mistakes. Following is an article about the top 10 passwords people use, and I've seen several of these in what people send me. I also see a lot of "admin, admin" or "bobsmith, bobsmith" or even worse, "domain, domain" where domain is the actual domain name for the site. This just makes it way too easy for intruders to get into your customer's information, and possibly credit card information.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2113976,00.asp

You should come up with different passwords for everything, and make them secure and random. Use this tool if needed: http://www.pctools.com/guides/password/. If you have trouble remembering your passwords (I know we all have tons of them), check out this article that recommends some helpful software:

http://netsecurity.about.com/od/newsandeditorial1/a/storepasswords.htm

Tracking your Visitors with Analytics

Google has been introducing a lot of new services for Webmasters. My favorite is an amazingly powerful, and free, analytics package where you can see conversion statistics, abandonment rates, including which screens people leave the site from. These analytics are almost as powerful as some of the most expensive analytics packages I've ever seen. Recently, a company has figured out how to best integrate Miva Merchant sites with Google Analytics (GA) and is offering a setup service at a great rate. In fact, their rate is so good, it's better than I could do, so I'm referring clients to them directly. A gentleman named Morgan from the company will speak to you by telephone to be sure they understand your desires, and their rate includes a $30 module:

http://www.ecomiq.com/miva-google.php - Tell Morgan I sent you and he'll treat you right!

Miva Merchant questions?

I am compiling Miva Merchant common questions, and will be working on answers via tutorials, code, examples, etc. at www.merchantanswers.com. Anyone who sends me at least one question that I use I will give a free month to (it's subscription based). Just send me any questions to cal@doubleplus.com.

FreeIQ.com soft content site

As YouTube.com explodes, other sites are seeing the value of this kind of viral networking tool. A new site, FreeIQ.com, allows you to charge for your content and earn money for referrals. This is a cool idea. An expert in, say, dog training, could create a video series. The first couple could be free, as a teaser and free sample, and the rest paid. A great way to make money on expertise, while enhancing credibility in the industry.

http://freeiq.com/doubleplusjoin

Check it out. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to make money with this!

In House versus Consultants

For the first time, I am having clients ask me about hiring me full time. I believe that the Web has grown to the point that even smaller businesses are seeing a benefit of having full time Web marketing staff. Is it really better?

Of course, that depends on your business. If you can afford a true professional (not a teenager or hobbyist) that understands your site inside and out, understands Web marketing, and is willing to stay up to date on SEO and PPC, then I would say it's a wise move. There are things that can be done by someone who is at your business every day, truly understands your customers and your business, that a consultant simply can't do. No matter how closely I work with a client, it's still their site and their business, and I'm still working with a dozen other clients at the same time.

The problem is cost. Someone who is worth hiring at all versus a consultant also can work as a consultant and make pretty good money. Can you afford this person, who is bringing in a certain dollar amount per hour from multiple clients? What would this person want for salary? Well, as a consultant, I can tell you that the stability of a salary is a strong motivator, and the tax issues alone, mean it wouldn't take the same income level to attract a new employee.

Most businesses can get by with a consultant, especially if they're willing to do some of the grunge work of creating content for their site. But if you're ready to hire a full timer, be sure to ask your consultant - you never know!

Miva Merchant checkout

The Miva Merchant checkout system is pretty cumbersome, but it's very difficult to think about ways to change it. The Ship To address is required to calculate shipping and sales tax most of the time, the payment method must be selected in order to display the proper payment fields, and the shipping, sales tax and payment information must all be in place before submitting an order. So, the page scheme makes sense.

But then you think, what about Amazon's "one click" checkout? Well, it really isn't one click. First, the person must register for it, which is about the same steps as a Miva checkout. THEN it's one click, although it still needs logging in and confirming the order. If you look at Dell.com, you'll see steps very similar to Miva Merchant's steps. So, you wonder what is important or not.

Now, what we did, though, is put together the best scenario we could within Miva Merchant's needs. We came up with www.pimpmycheckout.com. It's pretty sweet.

Telephone in an online world

I prefer email and instant messaging for communication. It allows time to think, keeps a record of the conversation, and allows a BRB message when you have to use the restroom. On the telephone, everything is in a hurry, and disagreements come up later as to what was said.

Yet, with dozens of clients who have online businesses, many of them want to speak by telephone all the time instead of use online communication methods. I wonder why. I can understand a retail store owner, a telemarketer, etc., but an online business owner you would think would prefer online communication methods.

Anyway, it just confuses me. It's 2007!!

Mobile life

I'm typing this post on my PDA phone. As a new user, I'm beginning to appreciate the new push to create mobile-compatible Web sites. If you have a mobile phone, check out your site. If you don't, go to your nearest Verizon dealership and try one there. It's quite sobering.

Fewer and fewer Miva Merchant consultants

Lately we've been getting new clients who were using other consultants, who either have moved on to other things, or have gotten too busy to take on work and even are telling clients they can't help them anymore. There's a real need for more help in the community.

I started as a user, who steadily answered questions on the user list until I got hired, and slowly went full time. If you're a user and you like working with Miva Merchant (or at least are good at it), consider doing some consulting on the side and maybe going full time eventually. Miva Merchant will be viable for many years to come, and there will be trouble soon if all the consultants leave (except us). If you're interested, contact me at cal@doubleplus.com and maybe we can discuss some subcontracted projects to get you started.

Why would I recruit competitors? Because there's too much work for just my company, and if people can't get help, they'll move to other platforms, and then the whole community suffers!

Going to Hawaii

I am going to Hawaii for a client on-site meeting and staying for three weeks. While there, I am thinking about doing a Miva Merchant User Conference. If you're from the area, or willing to travel, please complete the following survey:

http://FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=11xesmrg53vli34254809

For more info, email me at cal@doubleplus.com

What this blog is about

Over the years, I've gained a large amount of interesting knowledge, mostly about ecommerce. So, I thought I'd start posting stuff here for the benefit of mankind. Or, at least, for the benefit of the seven people who will read this. If you read something you like, post a link at forums or send to friends. Feel free to comment, but insults might be deleted if they're too accurate.