____________________________________________________

Dear XXXX,

In this economy, good news is hard to come by. Despite this, we’ve seen
positive results with Bing.™ In fact, Bing was the only major search
engine to post growth in internet core searches from June to July.¹ In
addition, Bing Shopping market share has increased 169 percent since
June.²

Many of our search marketing clients, including those using Bing
cashback, are reaping the benefits from these increases:

“Since Hewlett-Packard began using Bing cashback, we have seen an increase in qualified traffic resulting in higher click through rates and over 175% increase in conversion compared to our non-cashback conversion on Live Search.” – Page Hetzel, Interactive Marketing Manager, Hewlett-Packard

We’re working diligently to improve the search experience with new and
innovative features that will help your audience make more informed decisions online. Just over the last several weeks, we’ve added several
new features to help consumers get:

	Easy answers with real-time Twitter results through 1-click access to celebrity, influential, blogger, or top twitterer pages.
	A richer, more organized experience with Visual Search by allowing users to filter search results based on options of interest.

Make sure your adCenter campaigns are taking advantage of the
momentum and performance opportunities that Bing offers. Review your adCenter campaigns today.

Sincerely,
The Microsoft^® Advertising Tea

Getting Started Free Guidebook

One of my favorite emails of any day is from Practical eCommerce.  They have consistently done a great job and staying true to what they do and sharing valuable information with eCommerce business owners.  Today was no exception.  I recommend reading Getting Started in eCommerce, even if you have already started your website because I’m quite confident everyone will learn at least one thing that will save a headache down the road.

20/20 hind sight is something we are all reminded about regularly.  What makes eCommerce fun is the willingness of most business owners to share valuable information so you don’t have to live it to know it.  Little hints and little learnings can save not only money but time, mindshare and most importantly, create a better business.

Jeff Bezos, CEO and Founder of Amazon, also posted a video about why he has long admired Zappos and why he’s so excited they are working together now.  The key points are perfect for any business owner: Obsess about Customers and Think Long Term.  To grow a real business you need customers, and you especially need happy customers if you want to stay in business.  You also need to think long term and if you take on any investment money you need to make sure your investors know what they are getting into and why.

Make sure you have a mission and vision and stick to it….especially if you want to stay in business.

Blogs influence women purchase decisions - Blogher

Over the last few weeks numerous reports of emerged talking about the most influential group of online users, Women.  If you are married or no anyone that’s married then you’ve already witnessed or experienced the influence of women.  The studies I wanted to share prove that online and offline are pretty closely connected and what we see in real life will eventually emerge as true online as well.

SearchEngineWatch.com recently reported that women aged 25-54 with at least one child represent almost 20% of the online population.  In addition to some other statistics,  Jessica Hogue, research director, Nielsen Online. on this study said:

“Mom bloggers review everything from beauty products to cars to inkjets, enabling marketers unparalled reach to their target consumers. In an increasingly connected world, moms seek the wisdom of their online counterparts as trusted advisors”

Just a few days ago, another group finished the 2009 Women in Social Media study in which it was discovered that women trust blogs (other women) and their opinions or reviews of products.  Because they are regarded as trusted sources of information, blogs now wield considerable influence on consumers’ purchasing habits, BlogHer said, noting that 45% of survey respondents decided to purchase an item after reading about it on a blog.

A MarketingVox article from Tuesday is fantastic and laying out the study and the results and really reminding all of us that Pay-per-Click marketing, search engine optimization and a great site may need a little social touch if you really want your product, site and service to take off.

Darth Vader vs. Luke Skywalker

Darth Vader OWNS it!

Here’s the video and I hope you try it:

Insert American Express’ Open Network and their web interviews with Sir Richard Branson.  I’ve watched most of them but a few favorites are his take on the current economy, his perspectives on what it takes to be successful in business and his overall attitude towards success vs. failure.  For the record, I thought a lot of Rebel Billionaire was over the top but anytime American Express wants to share business insights from greats like Richard Branson and others via their website, I’m all for it.

Why share this on a site about Web Marketing Stuff?  Because the same attitude towards success and willingness to face failure in eyes to get there will ultimately help website owner do the little things and spend the extra hours to make their website a better than the competition, more meaningful than the competition, more relevant than the competition and more successful than the competition.  That’s how you become the competition and stop watching the competition.

So why are there still so many sites that don’t accept PayPal? and even more that haven’t set up anything with Google checkout?  Businesses are about ease of use and integrating yet another payment method might not be worth the hassle.  Another possible reason is the current shopping cart isn’t yet able to integrate with Paypal or Google Checkout.  When trying to figure out what payments to accept and when to say no, think about your average customer and your desire for new business.

Paypal is the top choice for ebay buyers and most sellers.  Anyone that does business on ebay will most likely want to use PayPal if it is accepted as a payment method.  The fees are typically within a few percentage points of most merchant accounts and can easily integrate with most shopping carts.  Google Checkout gets you extra exposure on paid search ads by displaying the Google Checkout logo below your ad (there is some work to actually get this set up but it does stand out and anything you can do to stand out makes sense).

My rule of thumb is: “If a customer is willing to pay for a product or service, payment method should never be a barrier”.  If you don’t accept at least a few “alternative” payment methods with your online store consider taking the time to integrate a few more choices and let the customers pay however they want to pay.  During tough economic times, you also benefit from any incentive programs Google Checkout or PayPal use to motivate customers.  Well worth the 5 minutes of integration.

UPDATE:  Great article from How Do Online Marketers Pay? that compliments this thinking nicely.

Google says Altavista is #1.  It’s been a while since I’ve thought about Altavista but if Google says they are the top for search engine then who am I to get in the way?:

Google Search Results for the term "Search Engine"

Yahoo says they are the top search engine but even Yahoo acknowledges Google is right there.  Again, dogpile and Altavista must have something I didn’t know about because the two top search engines (in my humble opinion) have both now pointed me to Altavista for a good search engine.  Another thing I love is the Also Try section….nothing but Google:

Yahoo search results for the term "search engine"

Next let’s look at MSN’s Live.com.  Again, dogpile and Altavista at the top and Live.com doesn’t even crack the top 5.  Even Microsoft acknowledges the fact that others know search better than themselves:

Live's search results for the term search engine

Lastly, Ask.com sure gives themselves a ton of credit for being a search engine but look at number 2 Altavista.:

Ask search results for the term search engine

So the conclusions I’ve drawn from this exercise are simple. #1 -  I don’t give Altavista near enough credit as a search engine and I should change that. #2 – I should never ask a search engine for a search engine or I’ll be led astray.  #3 – Live.com really is bad.

Happy Holidays!

Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think – A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
and
Seth Godin’s Big Red Fez

Both books focus on what customers already know but we as website owners usually forget…Keep It Simple!  There is value in collecting a customers data and having them register an account and sign up for your newsletter but forcing it, especially as a small business owner, is never a good idea.  Customers that have good experiences are always willing to sign up for an account or newsletter.  Forcing only has the potential to drop conversions.

Another great point in both books and along the lines of Keeping It Simple! is the need many new business owners have to load their site with anything and everything.  Just because you can put it on your homepage doesn’t mean you should.  Just because you can add a few steps to your checkout process doesn’t mean you should.  Just because you think it’s cool doesn’t mean it is.  The fact is that simple still works!  Focus on relevance and ask your mom to perform the action you hope every visitor will.  Then take notes and fix it.  Relevance is important for search engines, relevance is important for industry recognition and relevance is important for customers.

The same common sense approach is important for pay-per-click marketing and search engine optimization.  Paying attention to best practices offered by Google Webmaster Central can only help your site rank higher in search engines.  Bidding on keywords that are obviously relevant to your business, product and industry will of course help your quality score.  If I search for “Patio Furniture” and you sell backyard everything please don’t send me to your homepage when I’ve just searched for Patio Furniture.  Send me to your Patio Furniture section.  It’s simple common sense for a sales person to sell me Patio Furniture when I walk into a store and tell him I want Patio Furniture so following the same proven pattern with your web site marketing is a common sense strategy that is sure to help.

If you haven’t read both books, I’d like to take this time to say “Please go read them….both!”