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Vanessa’s Variety for the Week of January 23rd, 2009

Posted on January 23, 2009 by Vanessa

This week’s review of eCommerce and entrepreneurship articles:

  • Brian Eisenberg posted a list of resources that his team views as invaluable to becoming a conversion analyst.  The list isn’t really limited to conversion analysts and encompasses various areas of eCommerce.
  • There are more than one billion internet users worldwide, according to comScore!
  • Ogihara Corp., an auto parts supplier for U.S. carmakers would not have been able to implement a Product Lifecycle Management system, had it not been for Aras Corp. and their open source offering.  As the economy continues to decline other vendors may have to do the same. ..
  • Jeremiah Andrick of Microsoft’s Live Search Blog posted part one of his series “Optimizing your very large site for search – Part 1”.  While I am not sure if Live Search is the best teacher on the subject, his points are worth reviewing.
  • If you haven’t heard of McKay Hatch, it’s likely that you will given the press he has been receiving lately.  Hatch is the founder of the No Cussing Club, a club that he started when he was in 8th grade by handing out fliers that encouraged his peers to use their words for good and recognize how often they were using cuss words in their conversations.  Members, of which there are now more than 30,000 of and span worldwide, make a commitment to the no cussing challenge and try to “Leave people better than they found them”.  While the internet has had a huge impact on the club’s growth and success it has also contributed to a campaign, sparked by those against McKay’s beliefs, to bully McKay into taking the site down.

 

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Vanessa’s Variety for the Week of January 2nd, 2009

Posted on December 31, 2008 by Vanessa

Happy New Year all!  I am out for the rest of the week so the variety is early.  There are some new posts that I wanted to share, but in addition to that let’s take a look at some of our favorite posts, top stories, and some of the biggest developments in the industry from 2008.

  • Google Product Search up 786% in the category of shopping search.
  • The Silicon Alley Insider reports on Digg’s revenue losses and why ad targeting, or the lack there of, could be a major factor in these losses.
  • Have your 2009 wish list ready for Google?  I know Zach does and Matt Cutts’ parents do, but submissions are coming in fast so add yours soon.
  • Jennifer Laycock released her second installment of “Six Lessons from a Wooden Boy”, but I recommend starting from her first post on the subject.
  • A legend about the inventor of chess may provide insight into internet retail growth.

2008 In Review



Internet Retailer released their top 10 stories from 2008, here they are in ascending order:

I know this couldn't possibly be everything, which events in 2008 were most memorable to you?

 

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Vanessa’s Variety for the Week of December 12th, 2008

Posted on December 12, 2008 by Vanessa

If you’re in retail I doubt you’ve had time to catch up on this week’s blog highlights.  I found these particularly interesting this week:

  • Search Engine Marketers, I suggest reading Search Engine Land’s post on 9 Myths of Landing Page Quality Score.
  • It’s the giving season, and bloggers are doing their part.  Brian Smith of Comparison Shopping Engines is growing a mustache to raise money for DonorsChoose, an organization that lets teachers submit projects they need funding for, if you are interested you can go to his giving page at ComparisonEngines.com.  Joe Hall proposes linking to charities to improve their web presence.  Finally, if you Twitter give Squidoo a tweet and they will donate to charity as well.
  • Rand from SEOmoz covers the fundamentals of an SEO campaign in this week’s Whiteboard Friday.
  • As social networking becomes increasingly more popular the need for reputation management grows.  According to the London School of Economics via Denise Shiffman’s Engagement blog “Every 1% reduction in negative word of mouth correlated to .41% growth, while a 1% increase in positive word of mouth correlated to just .14% growth. In other words, reducing negative comments could grow revenue by 300% over increasing positive comments.”
  • Search Engine Guide’s, Stoney deGeyter, takes a look back at what he wanted for Christmas from the search engines in 2002.  To see if he got what he asked for click here.

Bonus Articles

Today is intern Justin's last day, so I asked him to put together his favorite posts from the week as well.  His choices are probably more useful than you may have thought...
  • Everyone working in the marketing department of your company, you may want to read this. The internet has made it much it easier to measure just how valuable you really are...sorry. 
  • Want a job where you work from home making videos about whatever you want while raking in thousands of dollars a month? Well look no further than Youtube. Sounds too good to be true? Well it isn't exactly as easy as it sounds. Building up a fan base on the internet big enough for companies to want to advertise through you will take a while. But here is an article about some of the success stories of Youtube.
  • Do you need to reach more people with your advertising? Well, Google has extended its AdWords products to any mobile device that has HTML browsing, such as the iPhone  or T-Mobile's G1. "This new option will now allow you to display your ads specifically on these devices, create exclusive campaigns for them, and get separate performance reporting."
  • Customer service is a big part of a computer company, and many people will purchase a certain brand over another just because of their customer service. Well, it seems that Dell did not get the memo. Dell is now "charging customers a monthly fee to have access to its United States-based customer service representatives." You can read more about it here.

 

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Google's Search Customization Details, Logged In or Not

Posted on December 4, 2008 by Zach

I keep tabs on many of our organic results rankings for certain keywords and the amount of traffic we receive from organic search. I know that customized results have been coming down the pipe in varying forms for a long time now, but was surprised to see them while logged out of my Google account.  The images below show that a search for "faucets" and then "moen", that a "Customized based on recent search activity. More details" is displayed.

Google then goes on to explain, "When possible, Google will customize your search results based on location and/or recent search activity. Additionally, when you're signed in to your Google Account, you may see even more relevant, useful results based on your web history. The following information was used to improve your search results for faucets: Recent Searches You or someone else recently searched for moen using this browser. Learn more"

Customized Search Result Set for the term Moen
 

I found this to be very interesting and proceeded to perform a variety of searches on varying topics to see what triggered the customization. After performing several searches I was able to duplicate it a few times.  I also figured out that by capitalizing my search terms, while the results sets were very similar, they did not receive the same customization as the searches that I left in a lower case. Needless to say I am extremely interested in how they are changing the result sets and how it will affect our organic ranked terms as well as the traffic we receive from that.  Has anyone else seen any interesting customization results from Google or seen noticeable changes in organic placement and traffic?

Google's Seach Customization Details



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Vanessa’s Variety for the Week of October 17th, 2008

Posted on October 17, 2008 by Vanessa

Today is a sad day, Ryan, our online marketing team leader, blogger, and friend is moving to Northern California to broaden his career in the world of eCommerce.  We are sad to see him go, especially those of us that have worked alongside him for so long, but we are also happy for him and wishing him the best of luck.  I asked him what he was going to miss most about working here at Gordian Project and am happy to report that this was his response “If I had to boil it down to just one thing that I will miss it would be working with my friends. Yes, my friends. It really is hard to leave a place where the people you work with are your friends, not just some geeky, weird folks you work with and share the same cramped 'Nerdery' with but would never ever want to see outside of the office. I have had the privilege of spending time with many of my coworkers in a classroom prior to us all joining PlumberSurplus. Sharing the experience of walking off the graduation stage and into the doors at Gordian Project together was priceless.

I will miss:

  • Watching the company grow and need to find more office space again
  • Seeing new faces come through the door, eager to join the team
  • All the snacks in the kitchen
  • Basketball and BBQ Fridays
  • My kitchen table (enjoy execs!)
  • Going with everyone to get BOGO ham sandwiches on Tuesdays
  • Themed office dress up days and Flying Saucer Pizzas (can you tell I like food?)
  • Nights out for TGIF

Thank you for the support and encouragement as I start a new chapter in life."

I am sure that Ryan will post on this blog in the near future, but for now please wish him well.

The week in eCommerce:

  • You may not be able to get the WebAward Judges to review your website, but you can take the criticisms given the current presidential candidates and see if you are making the same mistakes.  After the review the judges announced that Barack Obama’s website was the better of the two in their opinion.  You can judge for yourself but their commentary is actually interesting.
  • Google AdWords now has the ability to break out search traffic from Google as well as its partners, as opposed to the previous solution which only allowed search engine marketers to separate search from content.
  • Matt Cutts reports on another new feature from Google, and he is surprised it isn’t getting more attention.  I think he is surprised for a few reasons as this tool can assist in creating better 404 pages, and “converts already-existing links to your site into much higher quality links, for free.”  For the Google post on this tool click here
  • YoungEntrepreneur details the results of their Entrepreneur Poll “The Best Way For a Startup To Earn Revenue”.
  • I love it when blogs publish tips and tricks for popular products, and this is no exception, check out “The Ultimate Google Analytics Plugins, Hacks & Tricks Collection”.
  • A lot of blogs reported on Google’s quarter three earnings, but I like the fact that Bruce Clay took the results and analyzed what they could mean for the search industry as a whole.

Ryan and Vanessa as Ryan leaves the Gordian Project
 
 
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Vanessa’s Variety for the Week of October 3rd, 2008

Posted on October 3, 2008 by Vanessa

I can’t believe that the fourth quarter is already here.  This year has gone by so fast that it's hard to believe the amount of history that has been made this year.  Coming off the heels of last night’s Vice Presidential debate I wanted to share this fun tool with you all.  It’s the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator and a few of us around the office had fun finding out what our names would be earlier this week, mine was Spoon Archer Palin.  Ok back to eCommerce…

  • eMarketer reports that web consumers are still making their grievances heard by way of word of mouth, which may contradict initial thoughts about the way web shoppers operate.  With the availability of forums, review sites, blogs, etc. you might think that the majority of complaints was left via the web, when in actuality this study shows that most consumers complain to people they know either on the phone or in person about the poor products or services they have dealt with.
  • There is a new eCommerce self proclaimed “magazine rack” called Alltop for those that don’t care to use RSS feeds.
  • If you are a Google Analytics User I would suggest checking out Google Analytics Power User Tips.
  • Kurt Peters, editor–in-chief of Internet Retailer shared his ideas about the state of online retailing with the e-commerceInsights blog.  I have worked one on one with Kurt on a few occasions and would definitely recommend checking out his thoughts.
  • Still not feeling prepared for the holiday season? eCommerce Times provides tips and strategies to make the most of the kickoff, Cyber Monday. 

Stay tuned next week for Ryan’s Affiliate Watch for the month of September as it would have come out this week had it not been for “Intern Week”.  You don’t want to miss this one since he will be touching on the proper use of landing pages, images, widgets, and making better use of your marketing dollars.

 

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Free vs. Paid vs. Ridiculous Web Services

Posted on September 16, 2008 by Zach

Recently, one of the SEO tools I use to track SERP's (Search Engines Results Pages) placement has raised its pricing to what, I feel, is an outrageous level. It's quite sad, really; I like the product. I got in on its beta when it was free and truly fell in love with its ease of use and convenience.  When the product went from free to a paid service, I anted up and paid the fee to continue my use of the service.  I am a pretty big fan of free web services, but I paid the fee because I felt the price was reasonable and I really liked the product.  Everything seemed like it was going well, the company was automatically charging me the appropriate amount per month, the service worked great and I continued to enjoy its ease of use and convenience.  I say everything “was” going well because a couple of days ago I received an e-mail from the service with "new pricing" in the title and was horrified with what it contained.  Not only would the service be doing away with its current pricing structure but the cheapest level of service would be four times what I had been paying per month (they were nice enough to offer me a 30% discount but still, the ratio between what I am currently paying per month and what I would be paying per month is ridiculous).  I couldn’t help but ask myself, “Are they serious”?  To my dismay, and what I considered to be an additional slap in the face, they mentioned that they would also be offering a "free" account. I was excited, at first.  I then quickly realized that the free service was of no use to me considering how jank and crippled they made it. 

After reading the e-mail, I downloaded all of the data I could from the account and will most likely discontinue its use and search for a new service.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not against people making money, or charging for web services, (even though, as I mentioned, I am a pretty big fan of free web services) but at some point I have to draw the line.  I consider a 400% price increase ridiculous, especially without a 400% increase in the value of the product.  You would think with the enormous success Google has seen with releasing free products, and their ability to capitalize on them, would make other web services take notes and follow in their footsteps.  Can someone throw me (or them) a bone here?

Below, is the better part of the e-mail, I blurred the name because I don't want to bash them too hard but the service seemed to be working fine!

 

Price update from SERP service

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I Stand Corrected: Blogging is More Than Random Thoughts and Voyeurs

Posted on September 11, 2008 by Jeff

Several months ago, we, the staff of Gordian Project, set out to author a blog. Not that all of us immediately found the prospect as inviting as others, but we generally engage a team spirit; thus the eCommerce and Entrepreneurship Blog.

I understood the blog’s driving purpose to be sharing our personal experiences within our given area of discipline as it relates to all things eCommerce. After several months of participation, I thought I would review our blog.

Caveat: I’d never read a blog going into this project, nor had I any desire to. The actual thought of sitting around reading peoples random thoughts makes me feel a bit voyeuristic. After reading Wikipedia’s definition of voyeuristic, it certainly isn’t that. Still, to this day, I’ve had no desire to read blogs other than for the purpose of this review.

I’m not sure it counts as “reading” but the one key area I check out on our blog each month is the Authors section of the home page. The key here is to identify how many posts I have in relation to other staff. I’m not sure what about life turns everything into a competition. This post will launch me forward to eight posts, however, I know I’ve written a couple that haven’t yet made it past the cutting room floor so this number isn’t hard and fast. But going with eight puts me in a respectable position.

Vanessa’s an over achiever at 40, but in all fairness she administrates the blog. I doubt any of her posts have hit the cutting room floor. If light reading and interesting tidbits is your thing, Vanessa’s Variety for the Week delivers. She shares what’s going on around other blog spaces, here at the office, and perhaps her life more than any other contributor.

Matt is our Development Manager. We’re among the elders of the office so I’ve truly appreciated our friendship. I don’t read his posts. I don’t understand what he does beyond the fact that I know he can fix or improve just about any internal process. Any time I walk past his desk he has a monitor filled with gibberish. I simply figure I won’t understand his posts either. Nice picture of his son in his most recent post though.

You might also notice Zach has 11 posts as of today. I’d read his if you only have a few minutes each day. Scanning through his titles, (that counts as reading I don’t care what anyone says) I find his posts most on topic: They include Website Improvements: Test Basic Usability Before Advancing, Google Sitelinks: Capturing My Proverbial Moby Dick, and Google Search Engine Results Pages Illustrated.

As a partner of Gordian Project I have to say bang up job Brian! I particularly enjoyed your Soft Economy Priorities? Time to Paint Your Parking Spaces; that’s leadership.

I’d like to thank Josh for his most recent post, The iPhone 3G Saved My Life. It truly inspired me to write this post. All this time I’d banged my head against the desk trying to come up with another post showcasing the thrilling world of Supply Chain, when all I needed was an iPhone post. Below, the desk I bang my head on as taken with my iPhone.

Jeff's Desk Taken with iPhone

 

Over time, you’ll notice that Elizabeth stopped contributing as often. I have mixed emotions on this one. Elizabeth so desired to be a mother and now she is enjoying that gift with her daughter, Kara, as a stay at home mom. Congratulations Liz! However, Elizabeth also worked in Supply Chain and guess what that means, I’ve had to cover Supply Chain blogging without her. Thanks Liz!

I’ve actually loved reading Ellen’s posts for the first time as I prepared for this post. Ellen has taken the reins of a department that everyone loves to hate, HR. She sifts through all the big issues like food programs and political sensitivity. What a fun department to be in. Blog post ideas just shoot across Ellen’s desk, I’m sure. Ellen also manages Accounts Payable but I’ve yet to see a post with any real hard numbers.

Ryan takes his job seriously. He’s building a career, a future. He’s a smart guy who understands this isn’t just a 9 to 5 but an opportunity for him to build a foundation for his future. He’s always learning and looking for how to add value to the company. His posts are read as a “Where’s Ryan?” I just hope he’s not building his resume based on Ryan’s Randomness for the Week of June 20th, 2008.

Tim, as partner, bang up job! Please don’t break your run on providing an image in every post. No one does it better than you.

Our blog was launched just prior to Simon’s moving on to launch his own business. Nice work getting in a post you can use as a business card
Smile.

Before you jump to any conclusions about why Emily posted her first and, to this day, last post May 19th 2008, I dare you to read it (Dealing with Difficult Customers: Best Practices for Addressing Customer Complaints). She is right now over there fighting the good fight. Without her and her team keeping those customers happy there’s no need for this eCommerce and Entrepreneurship blog.

And finally I’d like to say welcome to Arianna. She brings so much to the table: customer service experience, multilingual, eye for detail and now she’s a vital part of Supply Chain. FYI Arianna…I’m going to need at least one post a month
Smile.

So those are my “collective of experiences, thoughts, processes and updates from people that are not only actively working in ecommerce but are also zealous about the industry.”

 

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Internet Retailing Strategies: Niche Marketing v. Vertical Marketing

Posted on August 14, 2008 by Zach

Recently a fellow coworker sent me a blog about multi channel selling which was basically a "pro niche" piece.

"A highly effective strategy in ecommerce is multiple channel selling. This involves having several niche websites targeting different demographics, displaying specific product ranges. This allows you to create completely focused websites with a high sales conversion rate."

While I understand the niche v. mega site argument (and I also may have my mind set on which I like best both from a customer and retailer perspective) I thought this was an interesting article which highlighted all of the great things about niche websites and none of the bad. I know people say they are great because of the niche SEO value, the ability to really hone in on your marketing campaigns and the ability to focus on a particular product niche. And I agree, those are some great reasons to sell via niche websites. However, I see even more reasons to avoid buying or selling via a niche website. Developing niche SEO campaigns and polishing marketing strategies can be done on a large scale, in a similar fashion to that of niche retailers, by focusing on categories and product types.

I would even go so far as to say that I think that SEO, in particular, can go much further for larger sites.  I say this because a larger site can draw more links, have more authority within an industry and create a community built around an entire market instead of a niche. My next step in the conversation or thought process then usually turns to the ability to cross sell, up sell and convert repeat buyers which is much harder and far less effective on a niche website.  Think about it, how much harder would it be to convince a consumer to buy just one more barstool on a website that only sells barstools, as opposed to a website that sells outdoor furniture who can then up sell on the matching tables, chairs, accessories, and more?

The next thing that goes through my mind, or the next thing I would bring up in a conversation regarding niche v. vertical is operating costs.  Depending on the retailer's level of technological prowess, I also like to bring up the level of overhead with operating several websites v. one. Don't let me convince you, though; several retailers are moving away from niche websites. The Gap recently combined their web properties so that shoppers can simply visit the gap website and shop at all of their stores by means of one shopping cart. There are also several mega sites like, Amazon, QVC, etc. which continue to do well. So, while I lean on the anti-niche selling side of the fence, I believe it can be done in a scalable and profitable fashion. However, both as a buyer and seller, I prefer the larger non-niche sites.

This also brings up a nomenclature issue. I would consider "multi-channel selling" to be either selling through different means (i.e. as a physical store, catalog and online) or through different marketing channels such as shopping engines, marketplaces, and search engine marketing. So the verbiage of the article is also confusing in and of itself. I might consider the means through which products are listed and categorized on a site a "selling channel", but I would probably classify niche websites as a "selling strategy" based upon how the business has decided to sell online.

 

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Blogging Live: Shop.org Merchandising Workshop--Test Your Way to Site Conversion Nirvana

Posted on July 17, 2008 by Vanessa
The presenters for this session were Jay Greenberg, Director of eCommerce, Spencer's
George Michie, Co-Founder and VP Client Services, The Rimm-Kaufman Group
Stephanie Pike, Web Strategy, Circuit City Stores, Inc.
(By the time this session rolled around my battery had died on my laptop so I had to take notes the old fashioned way. Needless to say this is going to be a collaboration of my notes, but a lot of great content was shared by these speakers that I thought was important enough to post anyway.)

The purpose of this session was to teach us about effectively testing on our websites.  The speakers brought their personal experiences to the table and shared their successes as well as their failures.  It is funny because to me it seemed like we could learn a lot more from the failures they shared then the successes.

Some of the areas they would be discussing were:
  • Expectation management
  • What to test
  • How to test
  • What to do after the test is completed

Conversion Nirvana refers to the idea that conversion is a cyclical experience.  The reality is that of MVT tests that are performed many are not going to be conclusive.  A merchandising rule that was shared in addition to Bryan's Golden Rule was to: "List 70%, Offer 100%, and Creative for 10%".  Conversion rates depend on the quality of the traffic that comes to the site.  So how do we work toward "Conversion Nirvana"?

  • Improving conversion rates
  • Targeting segments to take this farther
  • Eliminating massive redesign projects
  • Ending subjective arguments about creative
  • Developing confidence
  • Don't test little things
  • Be patient; expect a lot of 0 results between two versions
  • Testing misses lifetime value issues, null results might be a victory
    • To elaborate on what he explained was lifetime value issues he explained that a customer may have a poor experience but because they were able to make it far enough in to the checkout process they may complete the sale.  Having said that the customer that had the poor experience on your website will probably remember their poor experience and not return to the site again.

How do we decide what to test?
  • Scalability of testing:
  • How important is the campaign?
  • What can I learn and can it be used across other departments or areas?
  • How easy can I get the actionable data?
  • Am I empowered to react on the results of the test, if so do I have the resources to take action?

Some key points to remember:
  • Test against what you can control to get improved conversion rate.
  • Define the business objectives ahead of time.

Where to start:
  • Headlines
  • Images, e.g. People v. Product, Solo v. Lifestyle
  • Copy
  • Copy Length

The items I listed above were the key takeaways that I got from the session.  Some of the things that were interesting to see were the actual tests that Spencer's and Circuit City performed.  Each retailer would show the audience their test and then take a poll to see what we thought the winner would be.  The point they were making was the test doesn't always turn out the way you thought it would, and be careful about what you are testing as there may be noise that clouds the consistency of the test.

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