Archive for August, 2007

A Bit of Fun – The Web 2.0 Silly Words Generator

1724 days
by in Web Mastering

‘Web Two Point Daddy-O’ made me laugh, web 2.0 is all about ‘buzz’ words and ‘rock and roll metrics’. Anything that someone can sell on and make a fortune. The web is now a manic mash up of social sites, feeds and teenagers.

If you want some buzz words to litter your marketing materials with try this site: It’s The Web 2.0 Bull%^&* Generator™

Phrases I aim to work into my day are:

1. Disintermediate user-centred mashups
2. Engage user-contributed web services
3. Remix standards-compliant networking
4. Capture user-contributed feeds
5. Syndicate rss-capable synergies

You can even get a Web 2.0 Logo at http://h-master.net/web2.0/index.php

reflectkidsontalksbeta.png

web 2.0 logo

Web 2.0 was supposed to be all about socialising the web, filling it with user generated content and love. It became all about huge buy-outs very quickly. I wonder what web 3.0 will bring? Even BETTER reflective logos? There is a lot of money and functionality to be had embracing the technologies of web 2.0, as long as you sift through the many portals and trends.

Increase your eBay Velocity by Diversity

1731 days
by in eBay

eBay is a diverse marketplace, and the only way to survive sometimes is to be diverse. Consider eBay a huge jumble sale. If you sell taps and bathroom accessories for example. Don’t corner yourself into this highly competitive category. Do your homework and try out some different home and garden related items such as tools, kitchen accessories and other household items. Think of your retail examples, the large players like B & Q stay at the top of their game by being a complete resource for your home and garden. Be on the constant look out for new suppliers and new trends as the ever shifting eBay marketplace is a fickle monster. Never let your product range stagnate.

In the words of Bruce ‘eBay’ Lee:

Empty your warehouse, be formless, shapeless–like water.
Now you put water into a auction, it becomes the auction,
You put water into a shop listing, it becomes the shop listing,
You put it in a new category, it becomes the category.
Now water can *flow* or it can *crash*!
Be water, my seller.

Climate change does wonders for British E-commerce

1732 days
by in Consultancy

The BBC said in this news article:

Wet weather in July drove online shopping to record levels as consumers surfed the net rather than sloshing down the High Street, a report claims.

and the Guardian says:

Risks of flooding are growing to “unacceptable levels” because of climate change with up to 4 million Britons facing the prospect of their homes being inundated, according to a report to be published today by the government.

The report by the Office of Science and Technology gives the most chilling picture yet of how global warming will affect the lives of millions of Britons over the next half century.

So we might all drown or frazzle due to climate change, but we will be shopping on-line while we do.

Madness.

Shopping Feed Management for the Small Business

1732 days
by in eBay, Google, Shopping Comparison

I had an email from Merchant Advantage and they wanted to put their software on my radar screen as an product feed management platform for the small to medium sized business. There product Channel Management Lite only costs $145 (£73) a month and has no transaction fees and no set up costs. This offering can take the data from any storefront or website and push it to various marketplaces for you including Amazon and various shopping comparison sites such as shopzilla and google base. This is not an eBay listing tool, but it provides analytics so you can track the best and worst selling products.

P.S If you are looking for eBay bulk listing tools or total solutions try:

ChannelAdvisor (great for £25K+ GMS per month businesses)
Marketworks (Small to Medium size Businesses, less monthly fixed fee than channeladvisor but higher transactional fees – they did have reliability issues around a year ago so check on the uptime guarantee)

Those are the only real players in the UK marketplace at the moment for eBay automation. But if anyone wants to email any others for me to look at I’d love to see what they have got!

Sell the sizzle but we’re up the sausage….

1732 days
by in Consultancy, Web Mastering

A email came in today regarding what to do when you have brought an e-commerce platform, sold the earth and delivered a small island. How do you prevent this from happening at the sales stage?

Bad Web Companies are plenty, and it can be hard to sort the wheat from the chaff but there are a few rules I have learned from my customers to stop the micky being taken by any web company – good or bad:

1. Always ask for a live demo of the functionality you require or have been promised.Take the words ‘its currently in development’ as ‘ it might never happen’. If this functionality is essential to the deal. Don’t do it yet.

2. Ask for a trial period, even if its just a few hours to see if the thing crashes every 5 mins or has hideous loading times.

3. Make sure that ANY domain names purchased for you are in your name, and don’t hand over or transfer any of your existing domain names. Control you own emails if you can. Gmail is best as you can get your domain emails too all to one account. Most domain name providers have an email POP3 mailbox service.

4. Make sure you can export all your data for an easy getaway.

5. Make sure the cancellation terms are clear.

6. Make sure you define the roles of you the client and the Webmaster/creator of said website to avoid confusion.

7. Make sure that in case of a web-mergancy or dispute, you can get hold of your Webbie.

8. Make sure you have a copy of your design and graphics, if this has been done for you.

Point one might sound a bit harsh but I have heard it over and over again. Plus development takes time, and if it is something you need don’t let it close the sale for you. The software/website you are buying must have the basic functionality you need (and the twiddley fancy stuff too if it be the edge you need) or you might be stuck a year down the line finding that the deal was not all that and you will have to shell out again.

If you can get an independent opinion on the software/website company that’s even better, and searching blogs is a good way to do that. The time might save you a hideous mistake later, or you might find a gem.

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