A great friend to me recommended that I meet some guy named Akin. He said to me, "John you have got to get Akin on your show, the man is a genius when it comes to analytics. So he did the introduction and I set up the phone call. I went to Akin’s site at Multi Channel Marketing Metrics and was blown away by the quality of the content.
Akin is the author of Mutichannel Marketing which is a book aimed at providing the missing keys for your marketing strategies. Akin know his stuff! And he is very passionate about what he is doing. This is a fantastic and informative interview to aid us ecommerce merchants and newbies on what to do to make your SEO, PPC and web pages better. In the interview Akin talks about his Web Analytics Wizards which are a must have tool to aid in troubleshooting your results.
Listen to the Interview NOW! (press play button and be patient, it takes a minute to buffer)
Event Date: Thursday, February 18, 2010 @ 12:00 PM ET / 9:00 AM PT
Join SEM practitioners and Unica specialists in this webcast to keep pace with the unstoppable innovation in search engine marketing and the related analytics.
New capabilities offered by the search engines today have expanded the web of possibilities into mobile, social, and other types of PPC ads.
Web analysts tasked with optimizing their company’s pay-per-click (PPC) vs. natural search have a complex set of questions to weigh. Tune into this webcast for advice from the front-lines on SEM optimization with web and other kinds of analytics tools.
In this webcast you will learn:
Top 5 changes with search marketing in 2010 that you should be aware of
Analytics methods for optimizing new types of search, e.g. the real time web, mobile, etc.
Top DOs and DONTs for helping your colleagues increase returns from PPC
Hey guys, in 2010 the efforts of ColderICE.com really is shifting and expanding. The ability to grasp some of the best minds and education is a constant obsession for me. Over the last year of doing this blog I have had the opportunity to come in contact with some AMAZING people. True thought leaders in disciplines that are critical for our small business success. One of those people is Charles Lumpkin and he has been gracious enough to provide me with some KILLER ecommerce SEO content for you guys.
Charles is an ecommerce SEO expert who deals with online marketing for enterprise and small business application. Charles has run thousands of online marketing campaigns and launched hundreds of web sites. These experiences give him a pretty good feel about which strategies deliver the best results quickly and efficiently.
Lumpkin is a huge believer in testing and market research. he likes to get into the market and understand it’s unique opportunities and weaknesses with as little time, money and effort as possible.
This is the first of several guest posts by Charles Lumpkin of CharlesLumkin.com
Guest post by JB (Jeffery Alexander Brathwaite) of 2 The Next Level
Day 2 of WordCamp Atlanta was filled with highly educational sessions as well as long awaited and exciting announcements. The first of these announcements came from the morning keynote Jane Wells.Jane is the User Experience Lead for Automatic the company that created WordPress.
The Merge
The topic of Jane’s presentation was “WordPress Resolutions: What to Expect in 2010.” Her talk came with a pretty big announcement. WordPress version 3.0 release will finally include the “Merge” of WordPress and WordPress MU. If you are not familiar with the WordPress MU version think about running hundreds of thousands of blogs with a single install of WordPress. WordPress MU, or multi-user can do that. Jane had many other great things to offer in her presentation but to me the “Merge” announcement was worth the price of admission. If you would like to see her full presentation on Slideshare please click here.
Session 1 “Parental Guidance”
I then went to my first session of the day. I wanted to stretch my mind and go to a more advanced session so I chose Ryan Imel’s presentation on “Building WordPress Sites Quickly With Parent/Child Themes”. I have been following Ryan through his blog that has almost nothing to do with WordPress. This kid is super smart when it comes to programming for WordPress so I wanted to finally meet him and hear what he had to say about theme building.
The concept of Parent/Child organization is not new but I was intrigued at it being applied to WordPress themes. Ryan showed a series of examples on how you should build your original theme off a framework of a parent to child. If done this way you can cut down on having to rewrite code over and over again for yet another project. One programmer in the audience mentioned that this way of building themes has cut his coding work literally in half.
Session 2 “Client Conundrums”
My next session was with Tammy Hart of Tammy Hart Designs. Tammy is an amazing site designer. Some of her work is so good it’s hard to believe that it was done with WordPress at its foundation. Tammy’s topic was “WordPress And Working With Clients”. She gave a break down on some of the do’s and don’ts that one should follow in order to keep your client and you on the same page.
Tammy stressed to ask your client plenty of questions. Don’t assume anything in your client relationship and always, always get everything in writing. She also mentioned that she has had to fire an occasional client or two for not following her rules of conduct when it comes to doing business with her. Tammy was gracious enough to share a few resources that we as fellow WordPress attendees should take advantage of to enhance our own business. She suggested using bothJumpchart.com to help with client content creation and the plug-in Suma to assist in bringing paid content to WordPress blogs.
I want to personally thank the WordCamp Atlanta sponsor Mail Chimpfor allowing us to have a wonderful meal for lunch. The line was long but the food was worth it.
Session 3” Readability? That is the Question.”
I continued in the Design Track with session 3 and decided to see the presentation from Mitch Canter. Mitch is currently the “Chief Creative Mercenary” of his own company, studionashvegas. Mitch’s presentation focuses on three things when designing a blog or a website. 1. Readability 2. Usability and 3. Findability. The point that really hit home to me was his first, Readability. Readability asks the question, if someone came to your blog would they take the time to read the content? Do you have more distractions to reading your content in Widgets and Banner ads? Mitch also stressed that if you are a blogger it would be a wise thing to know some basic html code. Not that you are going to become a programmer but that if you had to look at your site’s code you could identify where some of your content is placed on the page. Mitch then shared some great educational sites for both learning more about WordPress code and for getting inspiration for future WordPress designs.
Session 4 “How Stuff Works with WordPress”
The last session I will speak about is one in which I learned more about the founder and creator of the website HowSuffWorks.com than about WordPress. This session was presented by Jason Hoch VP, Product Development for Discovery Communications. Jason talked about how HowStuffWorks.com was started in 1998 by former North Carolina State University professor Marshall Brain started the site as a hobby. That hobby turned into full blown company that was then bought out in March of 2002 by Convex Group.
HowStuffWorks.com attracted at least 58 million visitors annually by 2008. So why would they use WordPress? WordPress allowed them to create a way to have a two way interaction with all the fans of HowStuffWorks.com. It also gives Marshall Brain a way to personally answer questions which he could not do via just the website. WordPress also made it easier to create and display podcast. Jason also mentioned that they were one of the first to introduce the Facebook Connect WordPress plug-in.
Closing remarks & Gary V Giveaways
The evening was wrapped up with a few giveaways that included about 10 signed copies of Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book “Crush It”, ..which I didn’t win..;-( and a Q and A session headed by WordPress lead developer Mark Jaquith.
I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the first WordCamp Atlanta here in my own backyard. The event was such a success they have already announce that WordCamp will be back in Atlanta February 11-12 2011. I was so impressed with all of the knowledge shared and the talented people I met. If given the chance I would definitely look to one day go to one of the WordCamps abroad. I would be more than happy to volunteer to organize the first WordCamp Barbados..;-)Who is with me!!!
All the best and see you next year.
JB
Jeffrey Alexander Brathwaite, aka “JB”
Internet Strategist, Speaker and Trainer 404-287-0848 Office Jeff[at]2thenextlevel[dot]com
Stone Mountain, Georgia was the scene for the new eCommerce Merchants – Atlanta Chapter Meetup (eCommerceMeetup.com). The nation organization of ecommerce merchants and vendors have started to sponsor local chapters in cities like Dallas, Chicago, San Francisco and Atlanta.
I was tapped to organize the Atlanta chapter which gave me an opportunity to get plan it, but it really gave me an opportunity to meet every person that came to the event since I was greeting them personally. The Atlanta area is FULL of talented ecommerce merchants and marketer, and some of the best and brightest came and participated.
Our guest speaker was Charles Lumpkin (www.CharlesLumpkin.com) who really laid out a course for domination using SEO tactics that he have gleaned over the years from working with enterprise level SEO and SMB business consulting. Charles even gave away 2 session of FREE consultation to two luck participants whose name he pulled from the business card fishbowl.
Other lucky members got some cool gifts one won an electronic business card scanner so he can take all the cards of the member he networked with and scan it right to his PC phone book…SWEET!
All in all it was a great time. If you would like to learn more about the Atlanta group go to www.eCommerceMeetup.com and if you would like to sponsor, speak or volunteer do not hesitate to contact us!
Guest post by JB (Jeffery Alexander Brathwaite) of 2 The Next Level
Happy New Year Everyone,
I started out 2010 with something I have been wanting to do for some years now. I attended my first WordCamp. What made this WordCamp so much better is that it was in my own town of Atlanta, GA. I wanted to get there early and get a chance to soak in all that this 1 1/2 day conference had to offer. What made this such a challenge is that on this day our host city was on the verge of a snow storm with temperatures in the 20’s. There was even talk of the event being canceled or at least rescheduled. I took a chance and pressed on anyway and got to my destination without any mishaps. To my enjoyment and surprise there were many Wordpress followers who braved the cold and ice as well.
Day 1
The first Wordcamp Atlanta was held at the Savannah College of Art and Design or SCAD for short. The evening was kicked off with a brief welcome to Atlanta from the two organizers of the event Brandon Sheats and Tessa Horehled. We then broke up into the three session provided for us that evening. I attended a session presented by Amani Channel of Visual Eye Media. Amani talked about “The Secrets of Mobile Vlogging”. You may know Amani by his blog My Urban Report. Amani shared some great stuff on using video for your blog. The one thing I learned was that lighting and sound were just as important as shooting the video. Amani also recommend the Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera over the Flip MinoHD because of its external microphone jack. Take a look at the video and the blog post he did for WordCamp Atlanta.
My next session was with Topher Kohan of CNN.com. Topher’s session was on SEO and Wordpress. Topher really broke down some of the great SEO solutions you can get with Wordpress plugins. I learned how you can optimize your Wordpress template by just simply adding breadcrumbs to boost your search engine love. Topher suggested many Wordpress plugins for SEO but listed All in one SEO pack, WP Super Cache and Breadcrumbs as his top 3. I had already been using the All in one SEO pack but added both WP Super Cache and Breadcrumbs right after his session.
I then ended my evening with Chad Parizman’s session. Chad is currently the Director of Community Management for Scripps Networks’ shelter sites. These sites include my wife’s favorite cable channel HGTV. Chad’s topic was “5 Situations Where WordPres Can Save the Day. He gave some great real life scenarios on how using Wordpress could literally save yourself a whole lot of headache. His best example by far was his “Oh Sh-t Moment, where he told us the story when his team has to construct multiple Wordpress sites in order to be ready for a 12 am deadline where they didn’t know if one of their cable show channels contracts would be renewed. This meant that many of their viewers who were Cablevision customers lost two of their favorite channels, HGTV and Food Network. Wordpress saved the day by allowing them to construct both www.ilovehgtv.com and www.ilovefoodnetwork.com in a matter of hours before both channels went black on their Cablevision provider.
Day 2
Day two was even better so I hope you come back tomorrow to find out how excited I was with the news of Wordpress 3.0 future release for 2010.
Jeffrey Alexander Brathwaite, aka “JB”
Internet Strategist, Speaker and Trainer
404-287-0848 Office
Jeff[at]2thenextlevel[dot]com
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/jbrath
New York (PRESS RELEASE – December 22, 2009) –American Express OPEN, the small business division of American Express, today launched AcceptPay (www.acceptpay.com), an online invoicing and payment solution that can help business owners improve cash flow at a time when customers are taking a longer time to pay.
“AcceptPay further demonstrates our commitment to offering entrepreneurs a full range of products and services that can help them manage through the recession and grow their enterprises.”
AcceptPay is a new online solution that allows business owners to create, send and track invoices – all in one place. Through AcceptPay, customers can pay the invoice through a variety of methods, including major credit and debit cards, eChecks, cash, or checks. Resulting payments are deposited directly into the business owner’s bank account.
“At a time when every dollar counts, business owners need tools and resources to help them better manage their firms’ finances, and that is why we created this innovative payment collection solution that can help them get paid faster,” said Mary Ann Fitzmaurice Reilly, Senior Vice President, American Express OPEN. “AcceptPay further demonstrates our commitment to offering entrepreneurs a full range of products and services that can help them manage through the recession and grow their enterprises.”
According to the American Express OPEN Small Business Monitor, a semi-annual survey of business owners, 60% of small business owners have cash flow concerns, with 20% of business owners reporting that the ability to pay bills on time is the most significant cash flow issue. In addition, 32% of small business owners are most likely to be more aggressive in collecting accounts receivable in order to improve cash flow – the most popular tactic of those offered in the survey.
AcceptPay features and benefits include:
* Faster payments: Customer payments are deposited directly into a linked bank account designated by the AcceptPay user; * Variety of Payment types: Customers can choose multiple online payment options including major credit and debit cards, eChecks, cash or checks; * Improved efficiency: Business owners can create and send invoices, as well as track and organize invoices, payments and outstanding receivables online – through a single web-based portal; * Added financial control: Business owners can track and view invoices and receivables via automated or custom reports. All of these records can be seamlessly integrated into QuickBooks® software. * Ease of use: AcceptPay does not require a software download or customer website.
Every business owner, whether or not they are an American Express OPEN Cardmember, is eligible to apply for AcceptPay from American Express OPEN. There is no set up fee, and the service is priced at $20/month. Any business owner can also register for AcceptPay Lite, which is a free invoicing-only solution that provides the opportunity to test the product.
American Express OPEN partnered with PaySimple, a leading provider of SaaS (Software as a Service) on-demand electronic payment solutions for small businesses, to design AcceptPay. OPEN and PaySimple worked with business owners to create product features and integrated feedback from product test groups.
Small Business Owners Ask “How can I get Paid Faster?” in New TV ad Featuring AcceptPay
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American Express recently launched a television spot featuring real business owners asking each other questions about how to better run their businesses. The national ad underlines the primary thing small business owners want to know – how to get paid faster – and highlights AcceptPay as a solution for business owners looking to turn the page on a challenging 2009. Small business owners are also encouraged to ask their own questions and join the conversation by logging on to OpenForum.com, an online resource and networking site for business owners. The business owners featured in the ad include:
* Ahmed Mady, Paragon Remodeling, Vienna, VA * Candace Nelson, Sprinkles Cupcakes, Beverly Hills, CA * John Lawson, 3rd Power Outlet, Atlanta, GA * David Hughes, Skydive Santa Barbara, Lompoc, CA * Lynn McMahan, Southern Eye Center, Hattiesburg, MS * Jasmine Takeshi, Laughing Lotus Yoga, San Francisco, CA * Rafe Totengco, Rafe New York, New York, NY * Chris McIntyre, Eagle Rider Tours, Los Angeles, CA * Chris Zane, Zane’s Cycles, Branford, CT * Dan Marino, Jackson Hole Buffalo Meat Co, Jackson, WY
About American Express OPEN
American Express OPEN is dedicated exclusively to the success of small business owners and their companies. OPEN supports business owners with exceptional service. With tailored products and services, the team delivers purchasing power, flexibility, control and rewards to help customers run their business. Specifically, business owner customers can leverage an enhanced set of products, tools, services and savings, including charge and credit cards, convenient access to working capital, robust online account management capabilities and savings on business services from an expanded lineup of partners. To obtain more information about OPENSM, visit www.OPEN.com, or call 1-800-NOW-OPEN to apply for a card. Terms and conditions apply.
American Express Company www.americanexpress.com is a leading global payments, network and travel company founded in 1850.
About PaySimple
PaySimple creates platforms that simplify and empower the lives of small business owners. PaySimple provides an on-demand Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that enables small businesses to bill, collect, and manage their customer payments under one user-friendly system. The PaySimple solution includes: recurring billing, email invoicing, ACH direct-debit, credit card processing, echeck processing, online payments, and more. For more information please go to http://www.paysimple.com.
It is with great excitement that we announce our plans to take eCommerce Merchants local to a neighborhood near you in 2010 with the launch of eCommerce Merchants Local Chapters.
With over 5 years of successfully developing the most vibrant community of online merchants sharing best practices and educating "By sellers for sellers" we believe going local will deliver additional value for our members developing a network with other online merchants in your area and discussing the latest strategies.
We are currently seeking members who wish to help us get eCommerce Merchants Local off the ground in their area. If you would like to help coordinate the first meeting in your area, please contact Brandon at Brandon@ecmta.org for more details.
First Local Chapter: Atlanta
Our first local eCommerce Merchants Chapter is in the Atlanta, GA area and our first eCommerce Merchants Local meeting will be held on Tuesday January 12th at 6:30 PM. The topic for this meeting will be Social Marketing as well as a networking meet and greet and dinner. If you are interested in joining us in Atlanta on January 12th, please click here for more details or email Brandon at Brandon@ecmta.org.
Listen to the Interview NOW! (press play button and be patient, it takes a minute to buffer)
Check out some of the recent improvements made to Google Product Search in the last week or so. Google Product Search is now in beta, but it is far and away the best in search right now of all the platforms!
Before I delve into the video which will detail these advancement I want to point out something about the pages. If you first go to Google.com and then hit the Shopping section in the upper right navigation you will see the following logo…
Ok, everybody with me? So we are looking at "Product Search" …. but lets go to the next step and just put something (anything) into the search there and please hit search. Now on the search results page you get this logo…
Now for all of us "tin foil hat Google prophets" (yes, I am talking about you too Scot Wingo) there is an interesting dropping of the word "search" here. So we are actually no longer just "searching for products" NO…we are now on "Google Products"….Who’s products? Google Products! Watch out, the Google train is about the leave the station, eh?
Well, now on to the other parts here in this article. Let’s look at the major innovation that Google is making in their product display. Remembering for us ecommerce merchants what is key is that when Google created search…all the other search engines emulated it. When Google made Ads, all the other ad platforms emulated it. So with this line of thinking, I feel that if Google makes product search, ULTIMATLY all good ecommerce design will begin to emulate it. So I am watching this CLOSELY and so should all of you. If you want to know how the design of future ecommerce shopping will evolve, watch the leader and emulate!
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The new gallery view shows larger, higher-resolution images to help pick the style or model that is right for you. Check out some [digital cameras] or [sweater boots].
Check the Reviews section of product pages before you buy — now including review summaries to help you see what people are saying at a glance.
Integrated video product reviews from YouTube, which appear right on the product pages so you can get an in-depth look at items before you buy.
If you want to see or purchase an item in person, click nearby stores to see a map of nearby store locations for that seller.
Product Search works great on mobile phones, so you can compare prices, read reviews and even find coupons from the Local Business Center while you’re shopping. You can also use the nifty barcode scanner on your phone to compare prices quickly and easily.
I do not actually know how I ended up on this page. I was tooling around with my eBay stuff and put a search term into Google. Out popped a URL that I had never seen before at http://www.AuctionCloud.com so I was like what the hell is that?!?
So I clicked on the link out of curiosity and I was surprised to see this Auction Cloud website. Auction cloud shows popular eBay keywords use by eBay users during search. It then creates a word cloud that is clickable on these keywords. OK, so neat…but why is this worthy of a ColderICE.com post John?
So glad you asked! It looks like this tool was first developed way back in 2003 or so, looking at the page copyright, so this is NOT a new development. But what makes it useful IMHO is the fact that this will take actual search data and truncate it down to frequency by eBay category. So if you want to know what is the most search for things on eBay by a category you can do that with Auction Cloud. Check the video demo out…
According to WOOT! This morning I got the following notification for the launch of the new WOOT deal sight. Deals.Woot is completely community driven and has a "Digg like voting system" to promote the hottest deals on the net, just in time for Christmas.
If you’re familiar with the submission and voting system of social news sites, Deals.Woot will look familiar to you. If you’re part of the deal-discussion communities that have been around since the dawn of the Web, Deals.
Today is the first day of the greatest ecommerce experience of your life. This is the day everything changes forever. For this day is born Deals.Woot. And yea shall the mountains churn and the rivers crumble, and the crunchy shall lie down with the creamy, and-
Oh, wait, we should probably tell you how it works, huh? Deals.Woot is a community-driven vehicle for finding, sharing, discussing, and voting on the best deals anywhere outside of Woot’s e-walls. You read that right. It all happens without Woot selling you a single thing.
This is the mission our community has been training for: subjecting the rest of the Internet to the deal-seeking prowess you guys display so lethally in our forums every day. It’s Woot turned upside-down. Instead of us bringing the great deals to you, Deals.Woot is all about you bringing the deals to us. (And hundreds of thousands of your closest Woot friends.)
A great friend to me recommended that I meet some guy named Akin. He said to me, "John you have got to get Akin on your show, the man is a genius when it comes to analytics. So he did the introduction and I set up the phone call. I went to Akin’s site at Multi Channel Marketing Metrics and was blown away by the quality of the content.
Join SEM practitioners and Unica specialists in this webcast to keep pace with the unstoppable innovation in search engine marketing and the related analytics.
Charles Lumpkin
Session 2 “Client Conundrums”
![2010_vegas_ecmta[1]](http://3rdpoblogs.com/colderice/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/2010-vegas-ecmta1.jpg "2010_vegas_ecmta[1]")
It is with great excitement that we announce our plans to take eCommerce Merchants local to a neighborhood near you in 2010 with the launch of eCommerce Merchants Local Chapters.
Listen to the Interview NOW! 
