[Source: Smallbiztechnology.com]



Knowing who is visiting your web site is key to knowing how to better serve your customers.For example, maybe you are based in Austin and Dallas and over some weeks you see a lot of traffic coming from San Jose, California. Maybe this clues you in to a customer base in a new region of the country.

This is just one of many reasons why it's critical to know the details about traffic to your web site.It's possible now to track a lot more than just how many people are coming to your site. Google has a free web analytics tool which works really well. A new service from Woopra, free and in beta right now, also allows you to track visitors in real time (we recently covered it here).Here's a quick reminder of five reasons to use a web analytics tool to understand your traffic (courtesy of Woopra):

1. You can evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing initiatives.
2. You need to know where your traffic is coming from, how often and why.
3. You need to know what users like/don't like about your Web site and where they are dropping off.
4. You need to know how much time people are spending in your site on average.
5. It's how you'll really get to know your customers.

Laura Leites, Assistant Editor, Smallbiztechnology.com



(click here for original article)

[Source: Smallbiztechnology.com ]

Grant Wickes, VP Marketing of Wasp Barcode Technologies

The debate rages over the Internet’s power to launch new businesses. Is the Long Tail a big opportunity, or a short-lived, false sense of importance?

Technically minded Internet visionaries believe that their products will change the world. Unlike the bricks-and-mortar world, which is slow to change and carries big overhead, the Internet offers high speeds and low costs. This gives entrepreneurs hope. Specialize, they believe, and big-time money will follow.

This view has been buttressed by The Long Tail, a recent tome by Chris Anderson. The book suggests that the Internet provides many opportunities for new companies to find a viable niche in which to play. When brought together, low-demand products can make up significant market share, creating new distribution and sales opportunities via the Internet to the disparate community that wants these items. This theory justifies both the continuing influx of startup cash from venture capitalists seeking big returns and the never-ending enthusiasm of entrepreneurs

(click here for original article)

[Source: Smallbiztechnology.com ] If you have not looked closely at your bill for Internet access - you should. The price you are paying might be way too high. Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner Cable, Comcast and other providers are in a fight for YOUR dollar. They want to sell you basic Internet services, but also bundle telephone, TV (especially for the home) and services such as email hosting, security and backup. For example, AT&T recently announced the availability of the AT&T U-verseSM platform for high-speed Internet access to small businesses in more than 40 U.S. markets. AT&T High Speed Internet U-verse Enabled Business Edition offers download speeds up to 10 Mbps and up to $100 per month. Signing on to AT&T's service also includes access to its national WiFi service, which includes 7,000 Starbucks stores. This price point is pretty competitive. (click here for original article)

[Source: BusinessWeek Online -- Small Business ] How retail stores are scrambling to catch up with shoppers empowered by the Web (click here for original article)

[Source: The Retail Bulletin ] A seven year long research project revealed today by online market researcher eDigitalResearch has shown a steady rise in multi-channel retailers' ability to challenge the dominance of pure play retailers. (click here for original article)

[Source: The Retail Bulletin ] Research from Fasthosts Internet this year revealed that 90 per cent of adults became angry and stressed at a slow or poor response via email from a company's customer service. by Ian Davis (click here for original article)

[Source: BusinessWeek Online -- Small Biz ] To gain an edge over your competitors online, follow these tips to push your business's site to the top of the major search engines' results pages (click here for original article)

[Source: Smallbiztechnology.com ] I was reading with much interest Walt Mossberg's review of the new Yahoo Mail. He likes it better than Gmail and Hotmail. With the nice drag and drop features, tabs and IM integration it's really a high end email tool for advanced communication. I think that the only thing Yahoo needs to do - is enable business domain names with the Yahoo email interface. I've been against small businesses have a "free" email as it looks unprofessional having maryjanecookies@aol.com. However, I think AOL and Yahoo should consider letter people integrate their domains with these email front ends - as Google enables with Google apps and email hosting. (more...)

[Source: BusinessWeek Online -- Technology ] Regardless of how hard IT experts work to intercept the trillions of junk e-mails, the spammers will always win. Pro or con? (click here for original article)

[Source: Wired Top Stories ] The PCs of thrifty shoppers who use a discount service get littered with deceptively named tracking files that most people would be afraid to delete, according to a crusading anti-spyware professor. (click here for original article)

[Source: The Retail Bulletin ] It is no secret that more and more consumers are using the Internet to shop. And by shop we mean the whole buying cycle - people use the web to research, compare prices and make purchases on an unprecedented scale. by Paul Frantz (click here for original article)

[Source: The Retail Bulletin ] A new survey benchmarks the way retailers turn competitors' websites to their advantage by shaping pricing, product and positioning policies and increase profit margins. (click here for original article)

[Source: BusinessWeek Online -- ] To avoid making costly, easily avoidable mistakes, file a DBA, procure a seller's permit, and consider home-business insurance coverage (click here for original article)

[Source: Retailnet.com: Retail Industry News ] A Ukranian man has been identified by authorities as a key suspect in the sale of many credit-card numbers stolen from TJX Cos., according to a Tuesday article in the Boston Globe.The recent arrest of Maksym Yastremskiy is considered by officials to be a breakthrough in the investigation of who (click here for original article)

[Source: BuzzMachine ] In its story about the latest failure of AOL to find a strategy, the Times repeats a bit of big-media conventional wisdom that should be abandoned: that big is where it’s at and portals are a winning strategy. The Times calls the failure of the AOL portal strategy a “quirk” when it should call this a lesson:

The company’s challenges highlight one of the quirks of today’s Internet market. As advertising is moving from offline media to the Internet at a rapid clip, portals, which command some of the biggest audiences online, should be among the top beneficiaries. Instead, the travails of the mass market portals like AOL, as well as Yahoo and Microsoft, indicate a decline in power.

Once and for all: The size of the site doesn’t matter to advertisers. Oh, yes, they still think its matters and for a time that’s still how they buy, by reflex. But get this straight: Just because a site has 100 million users, that doesn’t mean 10o million people see your ad. It’s not TV. Repeat: It’s not TV. The only people who will see your ad are the ones who see the page on which it appears. If you buy 10,000 impressions, aka eyeballs, you can buy them on a big site or a bunch of small sites, it doesn’t matter. Big brings no advantage other than convenience and it also brings some disadvantages like inefficiency and price. This is the essence of the change in the economic model of media. Post that on your wall and stare at it. (click here for original article)

[Source: BusinessWeek Online -- ] Declining usage of advanced services and technologies indicates most mobile phone users yearn for the simple life (click here for original article)

[Source: Computerworld Retail News ] Google developed the Ad Traffic Quality Resource Center to give its advertisers a single place to find Google's information about click fraud. (click here for original article)

[Source: In-Store & Retail Media News] Lots of people have spent an unhealthy amount of time writing about the importance of the retail experience -- the environment, the products, the thrill of the hunt -- whatever it is that turns an average shopping outing into something a bit more unique, personalized and fun. In fact, shopping is increasingly become a pass time for many who will spend hours going from store to store even when they have no plans to purchase anything (so I'm told -- the concept is pretty foreign to me personally). But I was pretty surprised to find that online shoppers are starting to expect the same kind of "shoppers high" on the web as they do in brick-and-mortar stores. And as this article from the Retail Bulletin notes, with fickle shoppers easily able to bounce from one virtual store to the next, that's causing a lot of sleepless nights for the e-commerce gurus working behind the scenes at many of the most famous retail chains:

Customers demand an experience that is functional and easy to use. Tickbox.co.uk recently found that 90 per cent of users would happily switch to a competitor if a site fails to load. However, they also want to feel genuinely welcomed and see strong continuation of the brand they know and love. A visit to your web site should only further encourage the loyalty that your customers feel for you. As such, it should be remembered that online storefronts are now an integral part of the business for any retailer, and need to present themselves as much more than just an online catalogue of products. Every website needs to reflect the same brand values and aesthetics as your other customer touch-points, be it in store, via email or through your call centre.

(more...)

[Source: AllBusiness.com - Just For Small Business ] It's even better than video. Real live people can escort your visitors as they browse your online store. (click here for original article)

[Source: Smallbiztechnology.com ] Selling online is not that complicated. However, depending on what you are selling and your ecommerce venture's legal relationship to any other businesses you have there could be some legal implications to consider. Maybe there's things to consider, that you've never thought of such as: Obtaining And Protecting Domain Names; Posting Third Party Content And Linking; Terms And Conditions; Selling Out Of State And Internationally; Warranties And Online Sales; Legal Structure; Taxes; Payment Processing; Delivery And Fulfillment; Records Retention If you need answers to these and more issues Safeselling.org from the American Bar Association can help. Safeselling.org is not the only place to get online legal help - but Nolo Press has a VERY good site as well. For general business information check out SCORE, Inc.com, Entrepreneur.com and dozens of other great web sites. Of course always consult with a lawyer as well. When selling online, the legal aspects might be the least of your worries, since it's so easy to start selling online. However, don't let your naivety be an excuse. If you do something illegal - "I didn't know" is not an excuse. Maybe you are selling goods from over seas sources - such as China. You need to be up to speed on the legal issues of selling something tainted - for example. This was reported by Computer World (click here for original article)

[Source: The Retail Bulletin ] 80 per cent of home shoppers now browsing catalogues before ordering online. (click here for original article)

[Source: The Retail Bulletin ] 80 per cent of home shoppers now browsing catalogues before ordering online. (click here for original article)

[Source: The Retail Bulletin ] It's easy for retailers to get cynical about Web 2.0; the most over-used buzzword of the moment and one that is ambiguously defined. By Sam Decker (click here for original article)

[Source: BusinessWeek Online -- Small Biz ] Startups scrambling for domain names—the shorter and catchier, the better—find themselves in negotiations with owners of desirable Web addresses (click here for original article)

[Source: Smallbiztechnology.com ]Last week I gave a presentation to about 50 business owners on "Using the Internet (for the clueless) to Grow Your Business". During this presentation I used one slide of 10 tips for building a business class web sites. This slide is originally from a presentation I've been giving for several years on Building Business Class Web Sites. (more...)

[Source: BusinessWeek Online -- Technology ] Hearst's acquisition of startup Kaboodle marks the latest bid to marry the social aspect of shopping to e-commerce (click here for original article)

[Source: Wired Top Stories] Consumers continue to turn away from traditional, advertising-driven media while embracing paid entertainment, such as cable TV and the internet, in greater numbers, a new study finds. (click here for original article)

[Source: All MCM Content ] Washington—Apparel and shoes marketer Zappos.com is renown for its customer service—particularly its free overnight shipping. But Zappos made its fair share of missteps in its eight years of existence. CEO Tony Hsieh detailed the merchant’s top 10 lessons learned in e-commerce during his Aug. 7 session at the eTail conference. (click here for original article)

[Source: In-Store & Retail Media News] Just a few months ago I did a blog on pre-shopping, citing a study that suggested around 2/3 of shoppers do some research online before making a purchase in-store. While 66% is certainly nothing to sniff at, compared to the amazing 89% that this Yahoo! study estimates (brought to my attention by this article at Retail Design Diva), it seems like a drop in the bucket. (more...)

[Source: The Retail Bulletin ] ClickandBuy has launched its web cash service, giving users the ability to physically deposit and spend with cash online, at thousands of top brand websites, like - iTunes, Skype, Disney and BT. (click here for original article)