This is my journey as an E-commerce Consultant
Archive for September, 2007
Domain names are strictly a human convenience
1704 days
by Liz
in Web Mastering
When choosing a domain host you need to make sure you have advanced DNS control so you can CNAME using a text name and not just an mask to an IP.
Text based domain names are just for us humans to read, your machine reads the IP address which is a set of numbers example 123.456.789.10
Every computer on the Internet has a numeric address called an IP Address, which is used to identify the location of the computer. An example of an IP address is 204.174.223.72. Each domain name replaces this string of numbers with a simple word or expression. Having a domain name means you don’t have to remember a cumbersome numeric address.
- dombay.com/glossary_faq.htm
When ever a company changes servers its IP address will change whereas the text based name will stay the same. Some domain hosts do not the CNAME function, such as FastHosts which can cause problems later down the line. So, just in case make sure you can CNAME with your domain host so you won’t have to switch further down the line.
Free eBay Selling Price Statistics for Buyers and Sellers
A nifty little tool for checking pricing of items on ebay:
Get4It is a free service for researching selling price information including highest, lowest, and common prices. Plus, every search includes price graphs and statistics to let you quickly see exactly what you are looking or.
Its not Terapeak, but it doesn’t cost a subscription fee either. If you are starting out, or maybe considering a new product type you could find out a bit more information on the success rate.
Things to note:
Is the marketplace flooded?
Can you compete with quality and/or price?
Is there enough margin left after sale to cover fees?
What is the sell though rate?
Can you compete on shipping?
Go Cubecart Go – E-commerce Software ROI
1709 days
Well on Tuesday evening I completed my new CubeCart 4 store, and by Thursday evening it had made back its purchase price. I doubt there are many systems that I could say it takes less that three days to see return on investment. This includes the price of the security certificate too.
A small targeted adwords campaign (costing me £3 in clicks) made sure that I drove a bit of traffic to my new URLs ( ALL the site URLs have been changed to text URLs. I am still fearful of this as SEO efforts will be temporarily effected by this change)
Support was lightning fast. Being in customer support for the last 2 years, its nice to remember what it is like to be the other side of the fold.
I also created a new google sitemap pronto and changed all the links to individual products in the blog associated with the site. Its only a hobby site targeted at a niche market, but I feel absolved for investing the money into the site this week.
Generating a Google Sitemap FREE
1710 days
Google site mapping is a free service, and for those who do not like to deal with python script, generating said sitemap should also be free.
If you have a site under 500 links, try: Create your Google Sitemap Online – XML Sitemaps
but if you want more links, try: GSiteCrawler which is an application to download for windows. It is also free (you can kindly donate) and you can also export as a google base file for a product based site.
I have now practised what I preach, and changed the Hairfreax URL’s to text based URL’s and I am now writing individual HTML titles and meta for each category. It has been a long time coming, and will take a long time to do. Translation of the site will also take time!
Wonders will never cease – ChannelAdvisor Aquires Marketworks
1710 days
The two titans in the eBay auction management and e-commerce total solutions world collide:
ChannelAdvisor Acquires Marketworks - Combination cements ChannelAdvisor as top e-commerce channel management solution provider..
The press release says:
Richmond, UK – September 12, 2007 – ChannelAdvisor, the leading provider of e-commerce channel management solutions, announced today it has acquired Marketworks, a leader in marketplace management software and services.
“Acquiring Marketworks solidifies our leadership position and reinforces our commitment to the marketplace segment,” says Scot Wingo, Chief Executive Officer of ChannelAdvisor. “We will continue to evaluate other opportunities in this and other e-commerce channel segments as they arise.”
“Marketworks is excited to join forces with ChannelAdvisor,” says Doug Hadaway, Chief Executive Officer of Marketworks. “This partnership will lead to great things for both company’s customers and partners.”
So as the two giants in the UK have become one they should become an enormous force for eBay traders in the UK. I hope to see a mid range eBay automation solution which sits under ChannelAdvisor Merchant, on a more Marketworks level of pricing with the fantastic functionality and reliability (and simplicity, Marketworks does crazy things to your vision) of ChannelAdvisor.
Stay tuned!
More news here: Channeladvisor buys Marketworks and on AuctionBytes
