Advice My Clients Probably Won't Read » Ecommerce

Who Should Like Your Website Design?

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:48:28 +0000

Short answer: It “ain’t” you, buddy.

Your website’s purpose is not to make you happy. The goal of any commercial website is to get customers. This is one of the hardest things I have to deal with in my business.

Clients have an idea or even a very specific design and color scheme that they want to use and, since the client is always right – supposedly, I’ll try to subtly tell them it might not accomplish what they want, but some people simply don’t pick up on subtle.

One way to see if your website’s design is a help or a hindrance is to see how much time people spend on the first page they enter the site on. This is not always the home page, contrary to what many people think.

If people are spending less than 2 seconds on the entry page and then leaving the site, you should assume that your site design needs some work.

Examples of problems along this line that I’ve encountered (details changed to protect the ignorant):

The client’s favorite color is yellow. Yellow is one of the harder colors to show on the web because monitors are all different. What looks yellow to the client may look gold or orangey to me and beige to someone else. Stick with web-safe colors.
The client likes some other business’s web site. But the other business is in a completely different line of work and their type of layout is great for them, but not appropriate for my client’s business.
The client hates change. Yes, what we know is so much more comfortable than what the unknown – to most people. But consider this: in 1995, almost no one had heard of the Internet or had a pc, much less an iPhone. Times change. Just because your website was ideal in 2006 doesn’t mean it’s ideal now.

If you’re really brave and will not take it personally, ask your webmaster what they really think of your website. I don’t care if the webmaster is me or someone else. If they are at all experienced, they will have a good idea of what your website should look like. Your job is to trust them and quit worrying about whether you like it or not. You should be proud of your web site, but, remember, it’s just a website. It’s not you. Trust your webmaster to create a web site that shows you off to your best advantage -even if you don’t care that much for it.

And, ideally, you and your webmaster can come to an agreement on design. Maybe you don’t love it, but would you rather love your web site or have customers? Your choice.

Online Advertising – How to Measure Success

admin — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:50:34 +0000

According to Doubleclick, the average click-through rate for an online ad campaign is .10% . Yes, that’s one-tenth of one percent.

Wow, I was surprised. I’ve managed campaigns, my own or others, over the years and while .10% may be average, I certainly don’t consider it good – unless that tiny percentage translates to hundreds of visitors.

I expect a campaign to be really worthwhile if it’s getting at least 1.5% click-through and, even then, I’m going to tweak to try to get it higher. I consider it really successful if I can get it to 5% or higher.

Of course, all of this is very dependent on the phrase/keyword/brand being advertised. I’ve always felt it’s better to be a big fish in a little pond and if you read this blog regularly, you know that Yahoo! recently issued a whitepaper that said the same thing.

Be specific with your ad phrases and demographics.

Paid Link Tip – Specificity

admin — Mon, 24 May 2010 14:42:39 +0000

A recent study by Yahoo! confirms what I’ve said for years: it’s better to bid on very specific phrases than generic terms. So if you have an Adwords or Yahoo! advertising program, go for those specific products or services when listing your keywords.

Be a big fish in a little pond! You’ll get caught more often – in a good way.

Scams and Spam

admin — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 15:00:44 +0000

My daughter’s online children’s furniture store received this inquiry. Too ridiculous. I know at least one client who received something similar. If you do, just read, laugh, delete.

Name ricky smith
ZipCode 60008
Email ricky.smith2g0@gmail.com
Phone 8159659632
MailList yes
Comment To the Owner,
My name is Ricky Smith.I am with the Presbyterian Church of God and i will like to order Book Cases .below is the Book Cases i want:

Dimensions :
36″W x 60″H x 16 1/2″D 3 adjustable shelves
37 1/2″W x 48″H x 13 1/4″D 3 adjustable shelves
48″W x 60″H x 16 1/2″D 3 adjustable shelves
60″W x 60″H x 16 1/2″D 3 adjustable shelves
72″W x 60″H x 16 1/2″D 3 adjustable shelves

Finishes : Natural (clear) or Caramel with Glaze or Merlot with Glaze

Traditional Crown Molding or Finished Top with Cove Molding

Wood Species:i want any of them below
Oak or Cherry or Rosewood or Maple or Teak

Kindly email me with a pick up price for each size without shipping.

After i have received the total quote i will send you the contact details of the shipping company i will be using so that you will contact them and get me the shipping charges and i will make the full payment for the Book Cases and shipping to you.i will like to know the price excluding shipping.

WHAT TYPE OF CREDIT CARD DO YOU ACCEPT?
.Kindly respond to me as soon as possible for us to proceed further with the order.

Thank You,
Rev Ricky.

Are You Monetizing Your Site?

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:04:57 +0000

“Monetizing” means, according to the Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, to assign a value to a metal, i.e. we take copper discs and say they’re worth a penny. But in the world of websites, it’s come to mean making money from your website in every way possible. And far be it from me to slow the evolution of the English language, as much as I sometimes hate progress. (Just don’t ask me ever to accept double negatives)

But to the subject at hand – the easiest way to try to make some money from your website is to add sponsored ads to it. Google Adsense comes to mind. It’s easy to set up and, depending on your website, easy to insert.

Here’s how it works. You sign up for it: https://www.google.com/adsense and then fill in the blanks, like the URL of your site, the name of your site, your name, etc. You choose what format of ads you want:

A column of ads (vertical banner)
A row of ads (horizontal banner)
Text links (like 4 or 5 links in an invisible box)
Ads with graphics
Search boxes
various other formats they keep coming up with.

You can choose the color scheme of your ads so they blend with your website. Once you’ve done all that, they present you with some code that you or your webmaster copy and paste in the appropriate place on your website.

And, here’s what’s best: Google will place ads there that are relevant to the content on that page. So, you can put the exact same code snippet on 6 different pages and if those pages focus on different subjects, those ol’ smarties at Google will deliver different ads on each page.

I can hear you thinking – but hey, I don’t want to advertise my competitor’s goods on my website. And you don’t have to. They have a feature called the Competitive Ads Filter where you can specify websites whose ads you don’t wish to show. Cool!

And now I hear you thinking – but I want them to buy my products, not go off looking at someone else products and there’s the rub. If the competition is that steep for your product, such as gift baskets or flowers, I’d suggest you do one of 2 things:

Use the ads only on your thank-you-for-buying(order confirmation) page and your links page, or
Use only the Google search feature.

And the big question is – will I get rich from Adsense or a similar program? If you’re like me, the short answer is no. But will you make a little spending money? Yes. I think the success of your program is entirely dependent on the popularity of your website. If you’re visitors are the kind of folks who spend money and your website gets a lot of hits (think 10’s of thousands per month minimum), then you might make enough in a year to do all your Christmas shopping.

But if your average customer is someone on a budget and you don’t get at least 1000 visitors (not hits, but visitors) each month, I suspect it could be a year before you’d accumulate enough in “click-throughs” to even warrant a check.

Still, I don’t know too many folks who wouldn’t take $25 or $50 or $100/year for a few minutes work.

The other option is affiliate programs. I’ll try to write something this next week about that.

Product Descriptions

admin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:13:34 +0000

If you sell a product, be sure to give a complete description of it on your website.

If it’s necklace, how long is it and what is it made of? Is it silver-plate, sterling silver, rhodium or whatever else necklaces might be made of?

People shop online for a variety of reasons, but a major one is convenience. It is not convenient for me to call a company to get a specification for a product when that spec should have been on the website.

Sometimes we’re just too close to our product to realize that what’s obvious to us isn’t obvious to everyone.

Consider this checklist of possible attributes for a product:

Length
Height
Width
Color choices
Weight
Sizes
Uses (microwave safe? suitable for holding food?)
Care (machine wash and dry? wipe clean with damp cloth?)
Age restrictions if any (not suitable for children under 3?)
Inclusions/Exclusions (mattress not included?)
Warranty
Customer Support

Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. If you can suggest more, I’d love to hear from you so I can make this a fairly comprehensive list.

And, especially regarding size, a picture really is worth a thousand words so whenever possible show your product with something that will give some scale to it. If you’re selling a chest of drawer, show it next to a bed. If you’re selling gemstones, show them next to a dime or a pencil eraser (still on the pencil).

The internet is visual. Catch your customer with stunning and useful photographs, but then have all the information there that they need to make the purchase with confidence!

My Daughter's Art

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:55:43 +0000

Get a Monster t-shirt in any size at Hillary’s Zazzle store

Mugs are available as travel mugs, ceramic mugs and so forth. Very cool!

Him and Me, He and I

admin — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 02:07:26 +0000

I seem to be ranting today, but I swear if I hear another television person or radio person or actor or anyone in the media say “between he and I” or “to she and myself” or otherwise use the subjective pronoun when the objective is called for, I’m going to do something rash.

Would you say “He gave it to I”? No.

So why would you say, “He split it between he and I”?

Would you say “He baked it for she” or “He baked it for he” or “He baked it for I”?

Of course not.

So, just because you’re talking about 2 people why should you talk any differently?

He, she, and I are “subjective pronouns” and are used as the subject of a sentence (that’s the person doing the active part of the sentence, like giving, making, having, etc.).

Him, her and me are “objective pronouns” and are used as the object of a sentence (often as the object of a predicate.) Remember predicates: for, to, in, of, between, among…

Words and usage are important. I’m tired of our extreme political correctness, but I’m even more tired of people trying to sound important by avoiding “him, her and me” when all they’re doing is illustrating their ignorance.

end of rant.

It’s All About You

admin — Sat, 23 May 2009 22:24:38 +0000

Do you have an About Us page?

I won’t buy online from a company, especially a small business, that doesn’t have an informative About Us page, and I consider myself a pretty typical buyer.

I want to know who owns the business and where they’re located – even if they don’t have a physical store. I want a phone number. It’s nice to know how long they’ve been in the business. And while it isn’t necessary, it’s good PR to have a little about their business philosophy and/or anything that gives me a clue about integrity and motivation.

If your About Us page doesn’t do all the above, why not update it to see if sales improve. And, heaven forbid, if you don’t even have an About Us page, get one! Today!

Social Networking

admin — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 03:33:46 +0000

List of social networking websites – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you want to get overwhelmed by the subject, visit Wikipedia’s list above. Yikes!

But suffice it to say, there is, no doubt, a social network for whatever industry you’re in or hobby you have.

Some of you may have heard of include Plaxo, Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn. I’ve joined a couple because clients have asked me to, but I wouldn’t otherwise.
Why?
1. I don’t actively seek work (as a rule),
2. I have all the real friends I need, as opposed to virtual or online friends,
3. I don’t like to share any more personal info than necessary (unless you’re sitting in front of me, in which case, I’ll happily tell you my entire life story, including the 4 elopements and holding JFK’s death certificate.)

However, if you have a business, especially a new one, I suggest LinkedIn and probably Facebook. LinkedIn is for business and is kind of like networking. It’s good for finding resources that your colleagues or friends may have worked with in the past and for getting your business in front of more people. I think it’s more for professionals than retail companies, but that’s just me.

Facebook I’m not as familiar with (even though I have a page there), but I’ve noticed a lot of companies have their own Facebook pages so it’s worth looking into.

Of course, the point of any of these, for my clients at least, would be to have yet another place on the web where people can learn about them/their business/their product. Blogs can serve the same purpose which is a minor reason why I do this one. I do it mostly so I can point clients to a particular article when they ask a question I’ve answered here.

Update: Twitter is also a good thing to do if you have a product line that changes frequently.