Okay, I haven’t posted in about a week. Followers of my blog know that’s unusual for me. So what the hell have I been doing? Well, I learned a lesson this week, so I figured I would share it with my readers (assuming I have any). Plus, I thought a few of you out there may be able to relate.

I was looking to have a site of mine re-designed. The project required some pretty sophisticated PHP programming. I know PHP, but not enough for a project of this scope. So, I decided to outsource this job. I posted an ad on craigslist.com to solicit bids for the project. Almost immediately I received bids from all over. Most designers wanted about $1,000 for the job, except one. This one person who ran a web design firm in India was willing to do it for $400. It seemed like a great deal to me. They had everything… a professional website, a good profile and portfolio, what else do you need? Oh yeah, testimonials! They didn’t have those.

After a few weeks they completed the project. It looked ok, but technically, it didn’t work very well. I had so many technical issues that this past week I scrapped the site and put up my old one! So, I lost $400 to find out that there is value in using a trusted source. I’ve learned this lesson before, but I guess money was the motivating factor in going against my better judgment.

This lesson can be applied to all aspects of life, but it is especially important in ecommerce. Most small merchants cannot afford to have their site down, or suffer from major technical issues. So I say, if you’re going to do it, do it right. Oh, and make sure the bastards have testimonials or references.

One of the most important components of any effective SEO/SEM campaign is keyword research. It also happens to be one of the more tedious tasks out there. In a future post I am going to show you how to create a nice keyword spreadsheet that will allow you to evaluate and grade your keywords. For now, concentrate on your most important keywords and check out a cool tool at Google. It’s called Google Trends.

This is only ONE tool out there for keyword research. There is also the better known, Overture Keyword tool, and several others. Most of these just give you an idea of traffic for each particular word. What I like about Google Trends is that it breaks it out by geography, which allows you to effective geo-target with your Google Adwords account.

As a marketer I naturally dismiss the concept of something “selling itself”. I have seen ads that claim this car, or this furniture sells itself, which is ironic since I saw that on an advertisement. I personally don’t believe anything sells itself. Even if you sell the best widgets that do amazing things and costs practically nothing, you’re going to have to tell people why they need it. I remind all of my ecommerce clients that NOTHING sells itself.

I remember when I hired a professional designer to re-design my outdoor furniture website. I was so excited because this was the first time that I was the client, and I was getting a professional website! I couldn’t wait to see how the new site performed. I was confident that with a fresh new look and sleek design, I was going to be rich!

Well, needless to say the site did not do as well as expected. I had developed a nice relationship with the designer so I called her about once a week and asked her what she thought I should do. Every week she told me the same darn thing, and it took a while for it to sink in. So, even though I learned this lesson years ago, I thought perhaps a few small merchants out there my benefit from the experience.

So what did she say?

Sell you products! Write in-depth, compelling copy about your products. List features, but more importantly, list benefits. Appeal to your visitor’s emotional need for the product. I had made the false assumption that my products sold themselves because I had a shiny new website with nice pictures.

Remember, nothing sells itself.

One of the most common phrases in the Book of Great Clichés is perhaps, “think outside the box”. Now when I hear someone say that it makes me want to loose it. I am sure all of the great business books of yesteryear promote the phrase like it is the end all and be all of business marketing. However, if you think about it, thinking outside the box leaves something important out. Well, at least when it is applied to marketing.

As a marketer if I am always thinking outside the box, by definition, I am never thinking inside the box, and doing things that are tried and true. How is that a good thing? It’s not, especially for marketers with modest budgets.

What sparked this idea in my head was a client call I had yesterday. We were talking about ways to increase traffic to her website, and as if it were required to say, she uttered those all-to-common words, “let’s think outside the box.” There was silence on the other end because I am sure she expected something purely genius to come out of my mouth, but I had nothing. There are so many sure-fire ways to drive traffic to your website that I don’t want to waste energy or money on out of the box experiments. Bare in mind, I am NOT saying you shouldn’t test different strategies, and get creative. But, I am saying that, if you have a limited budget and need results. This is the boat most small merchants are in.

So, just to back-peddle a bit, I will say I am all for thinking outside the box when it comes to marketing. I love a good creative approach just like the next guy. However, when I am advising someone with a limited budget I will always air on the side of conservatism. When someone only has a few hundred bucks a month to spend driving traffic to their site, I am not going to recommend something new and crazy. A good, well managed PPC campaign is all they need for now. So please, if you are one of those adventurous marketers that are always thinking outside the box, be careful, and remember, the weather is much more predictable here inside the box.

Internal linking is very important to successful search engine optimization. You really have to utilize every opportunity your site offers to use relevant keywords or create a relevant link. Notice I used the word “relevant”! Don’t keyword stuff, and do not create a page full of links.

One place that is often overlooked for good internal linking is the “click here” or “learn more” links. Most sites have them, and they are totally not necessary, and good opportunities to increase the relevance of the page you’re linking to.

For example, let’s say I am linking from my index page on outdoor furniture to a page that talks more about my company. I could do either of these…

Click here to learn more about our company.  OR

Learn more about our outdoor furniture company.

Obviously the second option is going to tell the search engines that crawl the site, the page about us, is about an outdoor furniture company. “Click Here” doesn’t really tell them anything.

Take a look at your pages and see where you can replace some of these plain boring links to something more descriptive and useful.

This character is currently being used by Northcedar.com, an ecommerce site that sells outdoor furniture. In speaking with the owner I got the whole story about how he came to be, and increase business for this small company.

“We were looking to re-brand the site and add some life to it, literally. I contacted a graphic designer from craigslist.com and got a great deal on his services, I think I paid about $120. He drew the character above, and I knew it was the perfect brand image for my prospective customers. I added the character to the header of the website and immediately noticed results! Sales averages seemed to increase on a weekly basis. I really can’t explain why”.

I have spoken to several of my clients about adding some “life” to their ecommerce sites. I can’t guarantee the same results, but I know people tend to respond to characters. You have to admit this guy looks, honest, trustworthy, and like an all-arouind swell dude. Why wouldn’t you buy from him?

I would encourage you to take a look at your website and see if your branding would allow for some “life”. A character just may be what you need.

It seems silly to me to write a post about a section of my website, but what the heck. I wanted to let folks know there is an absolutely no string attached, free website evaluation I am offering. Of course, I offer a paid one as well, but you’ll still get a nice report for free.

So why the heck am I doing this? Part of the reason is to promote this blog. I am trying to bring new readers to the blog every day, and since the blog is pretty young, that isn’t easy to do. Also, I truly love this stuff! I have evaluated sites for prospective clients plenty of times, and to be honest, I enjoy going through a site with white gloves. Trust me, I will find some dust.

You can read more about the Free Site Evaluation, and how to get one. The long and the short of it is, it’s free, there’s NO obligation (gosh that’s such a cliche), and it will hopefully provide some insight as to where you can imporve your business. Just so you know, almost all of my clients are ecommerce merchants, so if you have some other personal site, or blog, I doubt my evaluation will help much.

I was talking to a client today about the amount of copy they have on their website. From an SEO perspective I know more copy is better, but then there is the design aspect. I hate sites with tons of copy. I think it’s overwhelming for the visitor, and can often be a quick turn-off. Or, maybe I am just a doe-doe who likes to look at lots of pretty pictures.

I suggested putting a lot of the copy into neat bullet points. There are several advantages to this approach.

1.    Bullet points are much easier for the eye and brain to absorb
2.    From a design perspective they usually look nice
3.    It allows you to bold keywords or phrases which help with SEO

Overall, the main advantage to using bullet points instead of paragraphs is for the visitor. In general people like reading lists instead of paragraphs. It allows busy folks to get what they need and go. So if your copy is long but important, try creating a few bulleted lists like; a product features list, benefits, point of differences, common concerns… you get the point.

If you have been a regular reader of my blog you know that I don’t really promote any one product or service. I wanted to tell you about this magazine and website because I know these guys well. I wrote a customer service column for them for about a year when they first launched, and they have really grown into a great publication for ecommerce merchants.

Check out their website. They offer all of their content online free, so there is tons of articles and forums to read on a variety of business subjects.

Visit Practical Ecommerce here…

Alright, I’m not really going to present an entire case, but it sounds so darn official. I will say I love using online chat with websites that offer it. Most notably, a couple of years ago eBay added Live Chat to their website in an effort to assist their customers. It makes getting answers to quick questions much easier, and is sure to stop frustrated customers from leaving.

For larger ecommerce sites it can significantly cut down on your call center needs. One customer service agent can handle multiple online chat sessions, however, most humans I know, are limited to one phone conversation at a time.

For the average small merchant Live Chat might not be a feasible option. Since many of us (me included) have regular 9-5 jobs we’re unable to attend to customer service all day. However, if you do have the staff to handle this, it is an economic and powerful feature to add to your site. If you search for Live Chat services you’ll find many that offer easy website integration, and usually a month long free trial. After that the cost is very reasonable. I have seen as low as $9.99 per month. Think of all of the abandoned carts you’ll save!

One neat feature you may not have been aware of is that with most Live Chat services, you can see customer’s (IP address) as they visit your site. You can see what page they’re on, and even initiate a chat conversation. It’s pretty cool to watch live traffic travel through your site.

Let’s face, not everyone likes to pick up the phone and wait for a customer service agent. Why not give them an option?