Allen’s E-Commerce Blog

A Word For The Wise - Webmaster Rap

Posted by Kevin under Webmaster Resources

Starting your business with a solid position vs Branding Something Unknown

Posted by Kevin under Branding, Domain Names, Online Marketing

I recently read a extremely important blog post by a person who I have competed aginst for quality domain names, as well as sold domains to in my early days…  But he sums up the online world in a short post he made.   What is the difference between Domainers vs Branding / Marketing Online ventures?   Well his post was quite simple…

Branding vs Branding vs Domainer

Morning Folks!!

What if I told you that this single post can make you a millionaire many times over? Well it will if you read carefully and fully get your head around this simple message. That’s exactly what can happen. I have made a lot of posts in my time, but none are more important than the one you are about to read. So close the door and give me a focused 10 minutes and I think I can share something that will make your journey just a little sweeter and more rewarding. To me it is the difference between a domain being worth $750 and $750,000 or $7.5M. The domain can be the same but the customers needs is different. Tapping into THAT need is the key. So if you focus on selling domains that is exactly what you will do. You will do what everyone else does. Buy for $100 and sell for $200. Sell for $300, Sell for $500. But how do you buy for $100 and sell for $1M?

I heard the following phrase when I was 19 years old and it probably took me about 15 years to finally figure out what the hell it really meant. “When you see John Jones thru John Jones eyes, you will sell John Jones what John Jones buys.” That is the first principle. This is the most important one as well. But this is only an add on to the purpose of this post. Just a bonus to make it more understandable.

So how do you put this in effect? You have to look at an end user thru an end users eyes. At TRAFFIC in late September, Brad Geisen did exactly that. As an end user he shared his John Jones story of obtaining foreclosure.com and Property.com. He originally was the guy on the other side of the email telling folks they were crazy to ask $5000 for something they registered for $7. We all know the type. Well here is how this guy evolved from a mindset like that to paying tens of millions for a domain name.

When you see the end user thru the end users eyes, you will sell the end user the domain he buys. So the story starts. It’s so damn simple! It’s so natural. It’s untapped because until now it was difficult to articulate in a simple form WHY they would want the category killer domain. It took an end user to explain it and that is what he did.

Funny thing…..been into domains very early. Approaching 13 years. It took an end user to simplify what a great domain really means. If you missed TRAFFIC you missed some real words of wisdom from Brad Geisen of Foreclosure.com and the buyer of my Property.com domain name. He told us HIS story from the other side. How it cost him millions to brand a domain name with no end in sight to that branding. Here is his key thought about domains. The 1 over 2 simple theory.

NATURAL BRANDING

or

BUILD and CREATE BRANDING

This alone is worth the price of admission. Brad told us his story of spending millions and millions to advertise and brand with his original 3 word creative domain name. When he switched and used a fraction of those ad dollars to buy a category killer domain name, he transformed his business. The dollars he was using to brand was now freed up to do other acquisitions and grow his business in a more dramatic way. NATURAL BRANDING may be the simplest way to describe what a great domain brings to the table.

So it took an end user to make this old dog figure a way to articulate what a domain name does in a very quick manner and have folks understand. Have END USERS understand.

So a category killer domains gives you instant gravitas. Gives you instant recognition. And gives you something that saves many millions. in “Natural Branding.” The elements and benefits associated with a natural branding domain name overwhelm anything that advertising can do. But it is when you do both that the result is something that can not be obtained with most creative domain names.

I have never sold a stick of candy in my life. I know nothing about the business. What I do know is elbowing my way to the table with Candy.com is going to be easier than with chewonmycandy.net. Advertising Candy.com is easier than the alternative. Match it with good content and you have a winner before you start. How much does it cost that first day for chewonmycandy.net to get his 1500 targeted folks looking for candy? So one way you pay up front for an asset that returns dividends in the form of natural visitors and appreciates in value at the same time. Folks, this is really the ultimate no brainer for business and what it proves is obvious.

My friend Warren Royal knew nothing about bobbleheads, but it seems that it is easier to learn their business owning bobbleheads.com than folks in the bobble head business who don’t understand it and now will pay a penalty for them not getting it with a new competitor to contend with and what could be a giant new competitor. Oh you don’t think so?
Well then take my buddy Jeff Reynolds. A few weeks after 9/11 he bought a domain name, AmericanFlags.com. That was a life changing purchase both for him and everyone else in the flag business. Jeff took the ball and from what I understand, he is the largest or one of the largest flag distributors in the country and beyond. So here is another real world example of an industry not figuring out and a domain investor coming along and being an uninvited player in their industry. Taking market share only because they have THE domain in that category. The invisible cost of not understanding your own business. Your own space as it relates to domain names.

These stories can be repeated all day long. Sahar with FuneralHomes.com. He never intended to be in the funeral business but had an idea and a natural branding domain name and has made his mark.

How many more stories are like that? The most famous one of course is by Barry Diller who bought Hotels.com and forever changed the landscape of that industry.

A great domain name allows you to suck and still stay in business. I equate it to the pizza stand on the boardwalk by the ocean. Each day a new group of people come and each day you serve your crummy pizza. The pizza sucks, but you are always busy. Busy because nobody knows it sucks cuz they are tourists and are not coming back and the only reason they came to you in the first place was that you had LOCATION! Location, location, location. So that sucky pizza guy will always make money because of his location. On the other hand if he had a good product he would not only tap into the tourist, but his pizza place would become a destination and he could grow and expand and open new locations. So while the sucky pizza guy will always make great money, he will never be able to do what the guy with the great pizza does. So when you marry a great domain with a great marketing plan and a great base idea, you have something that will grow and expand and that is what it is all about. Catching that lightening in a bottle. Impossible to do unless you know what to search for and capture.

Brad started with the next phrase. One I myself know well. One I decided in my 20’s I would not have to use in life. He started his speech with the words and I will close my post with them, “If I knew then what I know now?” Then ask some questions. If Marriott or Hyatt or any other hotel chain knew then what they know now would they buy hotels.com? Would they all bid on it? What is the loss or gain that domain represents? There are still more questions than answers, but I hope this claws away at things just a little bit more. Gets us one step closer. Gets one more business to understand what the hell we are talking about and why it matters more to them than it does to us.”

Have a GREAT day!
Rick Schwartz

I can only hope you grasp this logic, I still am baffled why amazon.com did not buy books.com when it was for sale for a couple hundred grand or even 2.5 million….  The amount of money they keep blowing on advertising and branding could have been saved in the earlier years of the business.

A day In The Life Of What Running a Web Hosting Business Is Like

Posted by Kevin under Humor

A day In The Life Of What Running a Web Hosting Business Is Like

Website Marketing List: 59 Things You Should Be Doing But Aren’t

Posted by Kevin under Marketing Resources & Tools

The Internet Marketing List: 59 Things You Should Be Doing But Probably Aren’t

Article By Ian

Internet marketing is about lots of little things, not one big one. This list is half-list, half-procedure. If you go down these items in order it might give you a decent internet marketing plan for the next few months. If you have others, post ’em as comments:

1. If you have a Flash introduction on your web site, delete it. If you don’t agree, try this: Shove your head into a bucket of water. Stay in there, not breathing, for 10 seconds longer than is comfortable. That’s what you’re doing to your customers. Delete it, please.
2. Check the load speed of every page on your site. If any load in more than 10 seconds, fix it (2-6 seconds is far better). If your developer says they can’t, and it’s not your own network causing the problem, fire them. Here’s a good page load tester.
3. Check your site for broken links. You can use a tool like Xenu. Fix those links. Do not pass this step until you’re done. If it takes your developer more than a week to do this step, again with the firing thing.
4. Make sure you have a user-friendly 404 error page, not the generically nasty PAGE NOT FOUND message.
5. Make sure you have a user-friendly 500 error page, too. A 500 error happens when some bit of database code you wrote late at night decides it’s had enough with this world, and takes your web site with it. That usually leads to something terribly informative like “500 Error Connection Timed Out”. Maybe you can do something better?
6. Remove all inline javascript to a separate .js include file. That will speed up page load times and may help you with search rankings, too. Plus it appeals to code geeks like me, and we’re all that matter, right?
7. Set up Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo! Site Explorer and Live.com Webmaster Tools. You’ll see your site from the search engine’s viewpoint, what folks use to find you, and whether there are any problems that might be hurting you in the search engines.
8. Set up an XML sitemap, too. Check out Sitemaps.org for an overview.
9. If you’re running an e-commerce site, hire a really good writer to rewrite all your product descriptions. Those descriptions matter more than you think.
10. Get analytics set up on your site. You can’t do internet marketing without it. Actually, you can, but you’ll suck at it. I recommend Google Analytics. If your developer says they can’t install anything, well, you know…
11. In that analytics tool, make sure you can consistently track conversions: Sales, or leads, or whatever else you want folks to do when they see your site.
12. Get a HackerSafe or ScanAlert logo on your site. While I question their value, the search engines don’t. Nor do customers. That sticker can get you more search engine ‘trustrank’ and improve conversion rates.
13. Put your full address and phone number on each page of your site, for the same reasons.
14. Use Wordtracker, Trellian Keyword Discovery or something similar to find the top keywords that folks use to find your products or services.
15. Now find the top ranking sites for those phrases.
16. Who links to them? Do a “link:” search on Google, or use linkdiagnosis.com or Yahoo! Site Explorer to build a list. Now go out and get those links!
17. If two years ago some SEO hack advised you to put 100 links at the bottom of your home page, delete them. They’re not helping you, and they may be hurting you.
18. If two years ago that same SEO hack advised you to write title tags that read like this - “Wedding stuff and wedding things and weddings stuffs and weddings things with more wedding items and this is your place for weddings” - delete those too and write something that doesn’t sound like Elmer Fudd suffering a mental breakdown.
19. If you have the same keywords in your keywords tag on every page of your site, search your feelings… Do you really think the search engines are that stupid? Change ’em, or delete the tag altogether. The tag doesn’t really help, and duplicating keywords across all pages can flag you as an SEO spammer.
20. Write a high-quality meta description tag for each page of your site. That may not affect ranking but it’ll get more folks to click on your search listing.
21. Make sure your site uses correct semantic markup. Your developer had better understand what that means. Don’t make me come over there…
22. Get your site totally standards compliant according to the W3C code validator.
23. At the same time, make sure your site isn’t hideously ugly.
24. With those two items handled, you can now go to all the major XHTML and CSS site directories out there, which list lots of standards-compliant sites, and submit your own web site. If you get in, you get great links from great sites. Do not submit your site to any CSS or XHTML directories until you see a happy green report on the W3C validator. Doing so wastes your time, and the directory owners’. They’re liable to digitally tar and feather you.
25. Comment on other folks’ blogs. That gets you attention from those bloggers. They may come look at your site, or just drop you a line, or they may do nothing for a while. But you’re building relationships you can use later.
26. Do a press release a month. Chances are something cool happened. Did you hire someone new? Create a new product? Complete a new project? Win a prize? Brag!
27. Get someone who can write to create that press release. Bragging doesn’t help if you sound like an idiot.
28. Learn to use Google Reader. Subscribe to the top internet marketing blogs. Read them a lot. For a hint you can look at the AdAge 150 list.
29. Go to Google blog search. Search for your own brand name. Then subscribe to that search result in Google Reader (you’ll find a little RSS link on the search results page). That gives you a quick look at what folks are saying about your company.
30. Do the same thing for your own name.
31. Then subscribe to who’s linking to you on Technorati, for the same reason.
32. Go to local directories like Yelp! and make sure you’re listed. Hey, it’s a link, right? Plus it’ll give you one more place to manage your reputation.
33. Be sure your company information is up to date in Google, Yahoo! and Live’s local search tools.
34. If you’re a local business, ask your customers to review you on one of the local sites: Either on the search engines or on the other sites. This will boost your ranking in local search results. Beg, plead, bribe. It does require work on their part. And don’t worry if you get a few negative reviews, either.
35. Start working on Yahoo! Answers. This is an opportunity to make yourself an expert, and get some links at the same time. Spend no more than an hour a week. Read Matt McGee’s excellent article on the subject to learn more.
36. Invite people to subscribe to your house e-mail list. If you don’t have one, start one. This continues to be one of the most neglected facets of internet marketing.
37. Make sure there’s an easy way for folks to sign up for that list.
38. Remove any extra fields from your subscription form. All you need is their e-mail address.
39. If you require registration during checkout, get rid of it.
40. If you’re automatically opting folks in to your e-mail list, stop.
41. When you receive customer requests via e-mail, answer them. Fast.
42. Remember that house e-mail list I got you to start building? Starting sending out a quality offer to that list, once a month. See how it works. Keep testing different types of subject lines, creative, offers and such. Always strive to beat your last best performance.
43. Now you’re ready for some real online marketing (yes, all this was a warm up). Create a landing page for the best offer you’ve got. Follow best practices. Read Marketing Sherpa’s Landing Page Handbook for the best information you’ll find.
44. Create 2-3 headlines for that page.
45. Write a few different versions of body text for the landing page.
46. And finally use a couple of different images.
47. Then use a multivariate testing tool like Google Website Optimizer (if the budget’s tight) or Widemile (if you want the best possible result) to test all those headlines, copy versions and images and find the best ‘recipe’.
48. Create 2-3 pay-per-click ads on Google Adwords and/or Yahoo!. Point those ads at the landing page. Be sure to use whatever tagging mechanism your analytics software requires, so you’ll know which ad generates which clicks.
49. Now start that test!
50. Pick the 3 things you learned from that test, and apply them to the rest of your site. Did one call to action work best? Create a button to put everywhere on the site. One type of photography? Use that, too. You get the idea.
51. Did conversion rates go up? Cool! Now make sure you’re earning a good return on those PPC ads. Increase your spend and broaden your campaign, always watching out for ROI.
52. Now you can create landing pages for all those house e-mails you’re sending out. Since you already know which subjects work best, and which kinds of offers, you can start with a good foundation and find the best possible landing page.
53. Borrow your neighbor’s DVCam. Put it on a tripod. Film yourself talking about one of your products, or explaining how to use one of them. Post it on YouTube and then embed it on your site. No, you’re not Scorcese. But it’s more exposure for you, in another venue.
54. Are you still using Yahoo! Answers? I hope so. Don’t make me come over there AGAIN.
55. Create a MySpace page for fans/hobbyists/enthusiasts/students of your product or service. Don’t brand the page that heavily. Focus on the type of product or service. Attract folks who want to know more. Then wow ‘em with your knowledge, and build a circle of friends. Now you can announce offers and such to them, too.
56. Do the same thing on Facebook.
57. Find any industry-specific social networks that are relevant to you. It’s easy: Go to Google and search for “‘your product’ social network”. Bet you find some. If you do, join up.
58. Take all the cool stuff you’ve learned by testing offers, and newsletters, and keywords, and ads, and landing pages, and revamp your site. Then announce your new, improved site to all your customers, and subscribers, and MySpace friends, etc..
59. Whew! You’re done. Congrats! Now, go back to step 1, and repeat the process. Because you’re never ‘done’.

Easy online photo editor PicNik.com

Posted by Kevin under Photo Editing

This service is really neat for beginners and advanced alike to edit photos and enhance their look, feel, intensity and bring out the true colors of the photograph correcting any problems you might have with an image. This service offers various plugins to mozilla, firefox, and I am sure shortly google chrome. Definitely give this tool a thumbs up.