This is my journey as an E-commerce Consultant
Posts tagged Web Mastering
Redundancy and Back to online selling basics
1633 days
Redundancy just before Christmas is not pleasant as the job market is not at its best, specially if you have had no warning.
As well as training to be an eBay education specialist I have secured consultancy and web development in the last few weeks of December to take me though to January.
In pure on-line entrepreneurial fashion I have been building up my web business ( practising what I preach) to its highest level yet and it continues to grow. Over the Christmas period I am going to be organising an eBay January Sale. I plan to make £900 with excess materials and stock hoarded over the years!
I shall also spend the time re-designing my ebay shop!
Webcopy – Write in PLAIN English
1653 days
Webcopy carefully crafted in plain English can improve a readers comprehension. You want your customers to understand what you are telling them don’t you?
Here are a few guidelines to plain English:
1. Make the average sentence length 15 to 20 words.
2. Use words your customers are likely to understand. Try not to abbreviate or use extensive jargon.
3. Use only as many words as you need.
4. Prefer the active voice, unless there is a good reason for using the passive.
5. Use the clearest verbs to express your thoughts.
6. Use vertical lists to break up complicated text.
7. Reduce cross-references to the minimum.
8. Avoid sexist usage.
9. Put your points positively when you can.
10. Put accurate punctuation at the heart of your writing.
11. Plan before you write.
12. Organise your content in a way that helps readers to grasp the important information early and to navigate though the document easily.
In the case of terms and conditions, which most on-line sellers draft their own…..
Where there is doubt about the meaning of a term, the interpretation most favourable to the consumer shall prevail.
Essential Reading for Webmasters – Call to Action
1667 days
Call to Action
They also have a blog : Future Now’s Marketing Optimization Blog
If you are tired of text book internet marketing reads, this plays out like a compelling novel. I can’t put it down, suddenly it all makes sense!
Google PageRank – The Webmasters Fetish…
1668 days
That is what it was called last week in my office anyway. Google has made major tweaks to its page rank algorithm. Hairfreax has gone from 3 to 2, mainly because of changing the link structure on the site and killing my banner exchanges. Hey, I put them back this morning! I was expecting a drop as the site has changed so much. Hopefully in the next six months I can get it back to three!
So what effect does page rank have?
One simple one really in my eyes….how high your site is indexed on Google. It has little to do with your keyword optimisation and relies heavily on back links. So if your search engine optimisation sold you on creating a profile of back links then you will have noticed a drop in page rank, and also a drop in position. A lot of websites will also find their traffic diminishes as they are not as far up the search listings.
Do not fear my SEO buddies, optimisation is an ever changing and growing animal and your SEO should not be a static being. Change and adapt when Google ‘Master of the Universe’ changes its ever fickle mind.
Kidsontalks now has a page rank of three, so its not all bad. Technorati says I have 16 back links.
Keep up to date with the latest page rank theories: ‘Digg Favourites Slapped By Google’ its seems this story is more complex than it first seemed. Google said it was penalising paid links ‘selling’ page rank, but the only paid links I use are well Google Adwords for Hairfreax anyway!
Setting up your OWN affiliate programs
1674 days
Thinking of driving traffic and getting into affiliates? Companies such as Tradedoubler can be a little expensive for the smaller business, so I have been investing time in this affiliate management software by JROX
This is a nifty script for you to manage your own affiliate program. I have started ‘Toxic Girl Alternative Affiliates‘ on toxicgirl.co.uk to manage a small affiliate program for my Hairfreax site. With the JROX affiliate management software you can use the software for up to 50 affiliates free but then the cost of the software is $250 or approx £122 at the time of publishing.
I am going to enlist a small set of friends with related websites to test the system and its offerings, but its well worth a look.
Its features include:
Affiliate Management
Commission and sales management
Ability to create various advertising types
Multiple programs
Integration with Cubecart…..which I happen to run!
The full details are here : http://www.jrox.com/affiliate_software/
