NEW BLOG LOCATION!

I've created a Wordpress blog at my domain, so this blog is not going to be active anymore. If you're subscribed to this blog, please go to the new blog and subscribe on the top right.

http://www.merchanttutorials.com/blog/

Thanks for following!

SEO Tip of the Day

I highly recommend the following subscription - the SEO Tip of the Day from Tampa SEO Training Academy.

http://www.Tampa-SEO.com 

I've been subscribed for a couple of weeks and each day they send a really good tip, especially for merchants.

New Facebook Page

I've created a Facebook fan page for MerchantTutorials.com. If you have a Facebook account, join up!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/MerchantTutorialscom-Miva-Merchant-Help-and-Training/38823439262

Miva Merchant Recommendations Page

I have a Helpful Links page at MerchantTutorials.com, but I thought I'd add one to my personal blog at ChuckLasker.com. I hope it helps.

http://www.chucklasker.com/miva-merchant/

Top 10 Email Marketing Mistakes

I guest wrote a blog article for the DoublePlus blog about Email Marketing:

http://www.doubleplus.com/email-marketing-mistakes.html

Excellent Store Morph Mini Primer

At the Miva Merchant blog they just posted a Store Morph Mini Primer that is an excellent overview of what you can do with Store Morph technology in your templates. If you're not familiar with programming or tokens, it may take reading a few times, but some trial and error and you'll be doing all kinds of things at your site.

http://www.mivamerchant.com/blog/21/miva-merchant-a-store-morph-technology-mini-primer

Post on Miva Merchant's blog about outsourcing

I wrote an article that Miva Merchant liked so they put it on their blog:

http://www.mivamerchant.com/blog/18/outsourcing-hiring-out-to-save-time-and-money/

So you have an online store. This morning, you woke up, checked your email, approved tasks for your vendor partners to perform today, and an hour later you were on the beach, relaxing to the sound of waves crashing, planning the rest of your day in paradise.

That’s not what happened? But isn’t that the dream that got you to build an online business in the first place?

Article at WebsiteMagazine.com

I submitted this story to Website Magazine a few months ago and only now found out it got published on their site. Strangely, I provided a print version and longer site version, and they put the shorter print version on their site... Anyway, it's interesting.

"As an online business owner, I imagine that this morning you woke up, checked your email for about 20 minutes, approved several actions by your vendor partners, then walked out to the beach and sunbathed for the rest of the day. No? But wasn’t that the dream?"

http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2008/08/01/Outsourcing-to-Save-Time-and-Money.aspx

New Name!

I have rebranded MerchantAnswers.com as MerchantTutorials.com. This better describes what the site is about. Look for some new benefits soon, too!

SEO Article - best I've seen

Opinions are everywhere about SEO - and most are based on hot air. So how do you learn what's most important for SEO? How about gathering 37 of the top experts on the subject and have them rate importance?

http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors

Latest Website Magazine being sent

Do you subscribe to Website Magazine? Those who do know how useful the magazine is, with practical information any site owner can use. You'll be happy to know the next issue is being sent out right now. The electronic version is already up!

If you do not have a free subscription, get one here now!

Articles this month include:

Feature Article: Mobile Web - Hope or Hype?
Semantic Web - Understanding Web 3.0 and Preparing Your Business
Anatomy of a Datacenter : Datacenters are truly a modern marvel.
Effective Press Releases and Distribution Channels
Web Design Agreements
Podcasting 101 With Audacity

Click here for your free Website Magazine subscription!

Fear of MM5.5

So Miva Merchant 5.5 is coming out "soon." I'm not sure what "soon" is, but I hope it's not too soon. As a beta tester, I'm not feeling it's ready at all.

The problem is, I haven't been able to test streaming the update into a site with a lot of third party modules. I really want to see that before feeling comfortable with the mass-update that is planned.

My suggestion to MM5 users is, don't update right away. Let other early adopters try it first. You also can ask your host about setting up a development duplicate of your site to try it on and test before doing it live. Your host might charge $30-50 to set it up, but it's well worth it. Then, when you do the update live, be sure to have the host ready to restore from backup (and I mean have your host on hold on the phone or via instant messenger while you do it). You might also want to have a consultant expert nearby to help. It could be the update is 99% effective, but you need a few tweaks that a consultant can find quickly.

In other words, proceed with caution and you'll be fine.

Helpful Links for Miva Merchant Users

Here's a page I created of helpful links for Miva Merchant users:

http://www.merchantanswers.com/helpfullinks.html

If you have any suggestions, please let me know.