From the monthly archives:

May 2008

Small Business Ecommerce Link Digest – May 30, 2008

by Tim on May 30, 2008

It’s been a light week here at thinks. But, never fear, we won’t leave you without a set of great reads to get you through the weekend lull. Without further ado, here’s what’s been happening this week on the InterTubes…

Leading off, Borders Books relaunched its website, taking control of its online presence for the first time in 7 years. Border’s change here highlights one of our favorite topics here on thinks: how to set the right channel strategy for your business. Where Borders previously relied on Amazon to run its ecommerce channel, the company now has a more integrated strategy, leveraging both its online and offline presence to generate sales.
Great. So why do you care about Border’s? Because, as Marketing Diva Toby Bloomberg talks about this week, “…sales generated by small businesses via e-commerce accounts for as much as one-fourth of all consumer e-commerce in the United States, although surveys, including the U.S. Census, tend to greatly underestimate that number.” Those numbers come from Amazon exec Paul Misener. Crazy, huh? The question is, are you doing everything you should to get your fair share?
Need help in getting your fair share? Linda Bustos and the fine folks at Elastic Path have created a new whitepaper, “How to Write an E-commerce Request for Proposal”. Very useful in helping you focus on growing your online – and online-to-offline – business. And since we all like to have a little fun on Fridays, check out Elastic Path’s tips for 404 pages. Useful and entertaining.
Finally, Social Times has an interesting analysis of how to turn social networks into money. As social networks continue to seek revenue opportunities, don’t be surprised if they start looking into your backyard. That’s not a bad thing. And you could turn it to your advantage by focusing on how you’re using these tools, too.

Cheers, everybody. See you next week.

And remember, you can subscribe to this blog to make sure you don’t miss a thing.

Tagged as: linkdigest

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Inspiring read (Book review of the week-ish)

by Tim on May 27, 2008

in Book Reviews

I mentioned Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture last week. You can see the video from his speech here. Well, I finished his book over the weekend. What a powerful read. You owe it to yourself to watch the video, read the book, hug your spouse, your kids, your partner, and do what you want to do. If this book – if this man – doesn’t inspire you to go after your dreams, I’m afraid little I can say will. I plan to buy copies for my whole team. It’s that impactful. Read it. Then live it.

Full disclosure: Any affiliate revenues I earn through sales of this book will go to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Tagged as: randy pausch, the last lecture

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Small Business Ecommerce Link Digest – May 23, 2008

by Tim on May 23, 2008

in E-commerce,Marketing,Search

Obviously, the focus here at thinks is helping you build your business using e-commerce and the internet. But long-time readers may have noticed a not-so-subtle shift lately into talking about search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click advertising (PPC). The reason is, today, these tactics dominate how customers find your business online. Want proof? Read on, dear friend.

Two recent reports – Display Stumbles As Search Remains Strong and The URL Is Dead, Long Live Search – give a great overview of how customer behavior strongly favors search.
So, how do you get more value from your search marketing? Linda Bustos provides an excellent 3-step process for PPC advertising success: PPC Split Testing: Reducing Risk When Testing New Ads Against Control, PPC Advertising: Are You Selling Yourself In Your Ads? and Testing PPC Ad Copy: Strategies for Split Testing.
Successful search marketing techniques like these aren’t just the domain of the big guys. In fact, Jonathan Mendez gives an excellent case study of a big guy getting it way wrong in Macy’s Magical Online Disappearing Act. Maybe they should subscribe to this blog?
Finally, Microsoft is trying to connect searching and shopping behavior. Danny Sullivan explains why they’re not succeeding at it. Better yet, the fine folks at GrokDotCom point out 3 Great (and Quick) Optimization Reads from Omniture that will help you succeed where Microsoft stumbles.

OK, so search is all well and good today. But, what’s next? The most likely outcome – certainly the most widely touted – is the shift to mobile search. I’m bullish on the growth of mobile search. And, apparently, I’m not the only one: the guys at Read/Write Web have a new Report titled The Mobile Web is the New Hangout that talks about where we’re going. And Search Engine Land talks about how NearbyNow plans to make local (product) search widely available.

Well, folks, that ought to be enough to keep you on your toes this long holiday weekend here in the States (and the early part of next week for those outside the US). Have a great weekend. We’ll see you right back here next week.

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