Owner: Paul Bradish: Internet Business for the Masses URL:http://www.epursuit.net/blog/ Join Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 07:47:45 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Internet Business blog by experienced internet professional Paul Bradish. This blog holds in depth postings and web experiments from a wide array of topics such as: Internet Business, eCommerce, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, and Technology. Site statistics:Click here
The Future of ePursuit.net 2007-08-13 09:14:41
In the last three months, this blog has grown very quickly so I’ve decided to pull the plug on the news and article portion of ePursuit.net. Originally, the news and article section had been the intent of this website, but then I discovered blogging and my client list grew much quicker than I had anticipated, swallowing up most of my free time. Besides that, there are literally a million websites you can go to find internet related news and articles so why re-invent the wheel when I don’t have to?
For my loyal readers this is not a bad thing. In fact, this is a Great thing. Expect me to focus more of my time on this blog, Paul Bradish: Internet Business for the Masses. Since I will be spending more time here, 3 major things will happen:
Longer, well thought out posts
Gone are the days of quick blurbs about next to nothing. Instead of having to construct a blog entry within 20 minutes, I will now have 2 hours. You may have noticed the quality of my posts having gone up over the pas Read more:Future
Why You MUST Have an 800 Number in Ecommerce 2007-08-07 12:47:07
Consulting with small business owners and new internet ecommerce startups on a daily basis I come across the ‘800 number’ issue all the time. By traditional brick and mortar standards, a toll free 1-800 is not necessary but by Internet Business standards, it is an absolute MUST!
Owning a toll free 800 number will increase conversion rates by as much as 30%*
I’ve found this to ring true (excuse the pun) across all niches, and it makes sense. Not only does an 800 number make your internet business look more professional, it gives the customer piece of mind that you are in fact an established business.
Owning a toll free 800 number will increase productivity.
This point is often overlooked, but simply cannot be denied. Let’s face it, we aren’t perfect. Most people aren’t able to offer customer support throughout the entire business day unless there is specific staff on board for that – in which case you should already have an 800 number. Set up specific blocks of time when Read more:Number
5 Must Have Tips to Writing Perfect Internet Marketing Copy 2007-08-06 20:14:53
It’s been awhile since I have done one of these lists. I actually prefer lists, because a) they are easy to write and b) they are easy to read. Anyhow - without further ado, I present to you the list of 5 ways to write picture perfect marketing copy for internet business:
1. The Inverted Pyramid method works. Use the journalistic method of the inverted pyramid by displaying the most important information at the top of your page. Listen up affiliate marketers because this works extremely well for you. Most readers don’t make it past the paragraph so be sure to get your most important points across as early as possible.
2. Make Use of Strong Headlines. A strong headline will grab readers by the collar, and do wonders for you on social bookmarking sites. In fact, a great headline can make the difference between good copy and mediocre copy. Combine this with catchy sub headlines with different colors and fonts to appeal to your readers and make it easier to read.
3. Write Solid Leads. Read more:Internet
, Internet Marketing
, Marketing
, Perfect
Fake Steve Jobs is Forbes Senior Tech Editor 2007-08-06 12:14:18
Fake Steve
Jobs has finally been outed by a NYT reported as Senior editor at Forbes
, Daniel Lyons. Here is what Daniel had to say on his blog:
Well it had to happen. Honestly I can’t believe it’s taken this long. But as you may have heard, I’ve been busted by a newspaper reporter. My cover has been blown. Guy named Brad Stone, who works for the New York Times. Have you heard of him? Well, tip of the hat to you, Brad Stone. You did the sleuthing. You put the pieces of the puzzle together. You went through my trash, hacked into my computer, and put listening devices in my home. Now you’ve ruined the mystery of Fake Steve, robbing thousands of people around the world of their sense of childlike wonder. Hope you feel good about yourself, you mangina.
Daniel, you’ve won my respect by saying things that really needed to be said about Jobs, when know one else seemingly would. Granted, you hid behind fake alias while doing so ;).
Seriously though, I have a feeli Read more:Editor
Say No To Pagerank, Yes To Life 2007-08-05 14:02:11
I stumbled across the the “Just Say No To Page Rank” by Dean Hunt earlier today and I have to admit that I think this is a great idea for some extra link love on a Sunday afternoon.
“So I am going to start a meme for a list of webmasters who prefer to get on with “real life” instead of dedicating all their spare time to the pagerank update.If you feel the same way, then here is your chance to get hundreds of extra links to your site.”
Visit Dean’s post (linked above) for details on how to join in on the fun.
***SAY NO TO PAGERANK, YES TO LIFE WEBMASTERS LIST***
Buzz Marketing Blog
Young Entrepreneurs Blog
No Nonsense Business Advice
Sell your blog
CS Developer
Aplliance Journal
Madkane Humor Blog
Find New Leads
PHPied
UK SEO Directory
Bikinifigur: Abnehmen ohne Hunger
Bob Meets World
BlueJar Webmasters Guide
All Sux Dot Com
CodingPad
The Next Post
Tech Blog
Reality Wired
Tom Wilson Google Blog
Price Filter
a few loose screws
Clickon Web Design
Woody Maxim
Cr
Club Penguin Sold For Up to $700 Million 2007-08-05 11:36:42
I’ve always heard that Kid’s isn’t necessarily the best niche on the internet but it’s awful hard to argue with Club Penguin
who just cashed in a potential $700 million on their sale to Disney.
From the NYT:
Disney said it would pay $350 million for Club Penguin, a virtual community… More than 700,000 users now pay $5.95 a month to customize penguin characters and then chat and play games with other “penguins.”
“Kids are starting to go to the Internet first, so it is important for us to operate in that space,” Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, said in an interview.
Three parents in Canada are paid $350 Million for the site, plus another $350 Million if they meet performance targets in two years. Not bad for a site created just two years ago. From what I can tell they did not necessarily optimize or promote Club Penguin to its fullest potential, relying on viral and social networking / bookmarking to spread the word. It looks what they did worked, and
Google Phone to Be Supported by Advertisements? 2007-08-04 12:02:59
We’ve all known within the industry that Google
has been working on a phone to compete with the iPhone and others for some time now. In fact, I’ve seen and heard bits and pieces relating to this in the rumor mill for well over a year now. It turns out, that such rumors are true (confirmed by my sources) and Google has apparently been shopping around looking for providers worthy of carrying the coveted Google product.
No one knows the exact specifications of the phone, but I have been hearing that it will waive traditional monthly fees and instead be advertisement supported. What this actually means and how many advertisements we will be subjected to is purely speculation at this point.
If anyone has any other information, please post a comment. Thanks!
Read more:Advertisements
, Google Phone
Google Co-op for Internet Business on ePursuit 2007-08-02 15:58:07
I’ve finally launched the first phase of the ePursuit.net search engine. You can play with it here. This search engine is powered by the Google
Co-op program, and displays results from what I believe to be some of the best InternetBusiness
, Marketing, and Webmaster related websites on the internet today.
Currently, there are 25 websites that search results are pulled from, but I will add new websites to the search engine database as I see fit. You can also sign up to contribute if you like.
My motivation for this project is to simply take the superb search, flexibility, and speed that Google is already known for and weed out the spam and amateurish results by only pulling content data from well known, expert websites in our industry.
Take a closer look. Let me know your thoughts.
When and How to Monetize Your Blog 2007-08-16 13:44:26
These are the million dollar questions of todays blogging community. Our topic for today sparks a lot of interest in our industry whether it be via the forums, post comments, emails, or even at keynote speaker conferences - and we’ve all asked it ourselves at one point in time or another. When is the right time to start monetizing your blog? And if the time is right now, how should you monetize it to reap the highest rewards that the internet has to offer?
When to Monetize
This is something that can be debated over and over, but I truly believe that you can and in most cases should start to monetize your blog or website from the the very beginning. However, you need to be extremely careful about the type of advertisements you display. Different advertisements give off different vibes (some good, some bad) so you need to make sure that the advertisements you’re displaying are both relevant to the visitor and mesh well with your blog design, or you will have very disappointi
How to ABSOLUTELY Increase Customer Service Levels in Ecommerce 2007-08-14 19:38:40 Customer
service can quite literally make or break a business on the internet. If you have an exceptionally high level of customer service, it may be enough to sway potential and repeat customers to purchase from your site instead of a high profile competitor. On the other hand - If you have a hazardously low level of customer service, you may receive unwanted criticism that will follow your business to all depths of the internet, eventually affecting your sales and reputation as a whole.
What are they saying about you?
1. Google your website. You can find out a lot about what others think of your customer service by simply plugging your web site’s name into any major search engine such as Google, Yahoo, or MSN. I often refer to the term as Googling because I am a Google addict, but bear in mind that any search engine will do the trick. Also, be sure to continue after the first page of results. Go five or more pages deep, and click on random pages after that. You never know where a Read more:Customer Service
, Service
Controlling the SERPs With Proper Site Structure 2007-08-20 13:48:30
As an Internet Business or website owner you probably already know all about the importance of being ranked highly in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), and how it can exponentially benefit your website by landing more visitors, subscribers, and sales. What you may not know is how to accomplish such a task - and make no mistake, it can be quite an accomplishment.
Unfortunately, most websites are still being designed to fail. They may look pretty, sleek, or very ‘web 2.0′, but lack the fundamentals of proper site structure. If search engines aren’t crawling or able to index your website properly you will be at a huge disadvantage. Follow the techniques below to make sure that your site is on the path to higher search engine results and proper indexing.
Title Structure
It’s pretty easy to surf the internet and find sites which still concentrate on stuffing their page titles with keywords separated by commas. Granted, they may get away with this if they are Read more:Controlling
, Proper
How to Get YOUR Blog Discovered 2007-08-22 15:05:24
Sara stated that the blogosphere felt rather small, and I quickly agreed. It seems like the more time that I spend within the blogosphere (professionally), the more I notice the same old blogs authored by the same “inner circle” of bloggers. This makes me wonder how many blogs remain undiscovered, and how deep the talent pool really could be if prospective bloggers were lead down the right path.
So Why Haven’t YOU Been Discovered?
There are many potential reasons for this, but none of them are the fault of the blogosphere and the sooner that aspiring bloggers realize this fact, the sooner that they will be able to harness their true potential and will become “discovered” so to speak.
Let’s delve into a couple of key factors that that I consider to be especially important:
Blog Networking
In my opinion, this is the #1 reason that you should own a blog in the first place. Turning a profit will come with time if you are truly dedicated to your craft, but networking with othe
Why Choose Us? 2007-08-27 11:00:14
For an internet business the “about us” page often displays boring mission statements and monotonous company history as if they were written for a paper resume or an investor relations packet. Though this may appear fine from an initial business perspective, internet relations has revolutionized in the past few years and potential customers expect a more personable experience.
Far too often these about us pages are slapped together quickly or overlooked altogether which can ultimately lead to a loss of sales due to the customer’s inability to connect with the brand or business. I’ve written this blog entry as a way to shed some light on a new approach of writing such pages, and sincerely hope that you find this information helpful.
How We Can Help You
Businesses love to talk about themselves. Thus, most business related about us pages tend to focus specifically on the technical business write up. This means that why the consumer (or surfer) should visit, use,
Why Long Tail Title Tags Are SO Important 2007-08-29 11:49:00
Rapid Growth
Whether you know me personally or just casually read my blog, you probably know that I’m always stressing the importance of creating the perfect title tag for every page, and what it can do to help rank you higher in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). What better way to drive this point home than by showing you two good old fashioned screen shots of effective title tags in action.
Before One week ago - Prior to creating the perfect title tag.
Rank: Page #2 in Google, slot #11
…
After Today – Reaping the benefits.
Rank: Page #1 in Google, slot #5
As you can see by the screen shots above, this blog is quickly moving up in the ranks and I haven’t done any further “On-Site SEO” during this time. I have a little bit of “Off-Site SEO” by submitting this blog to a couple of directories but nothing significant enough to accomplish this sort of SERP escalation in such a short amount of time.
How I Did It
I owe my recent SERP success to using long tail Read more:Title
42 Tips to Grow Your Ecommerce Business 2007-09-25 10:03:13
Introduction
Ecommerce can be fun, lucrative, and exciting. Sifting through the the BS however, isn’t. The purpose of this blog entry is to give you 42 general tips that will help you to convert more visitors to customers on any ecommerce website - regardless of industry.
The 42 Tips!
42. Answer customer inquiries within 24 hours, or your customer has probably gone to the competition.
41. Let the customer see any potential shipping charges without registering first! Preferably on the basket or a easy-to-find ’shipping charges’ page. Not only will this help reduce abandonment rates, the customer will appreciate you being up front as well.
40. Don’t just accept payment through PayPal or 2CO. Many people have had bad experiences with these solutions and prefer to use alternative, simpler payment methods A.K.A. a standard merchant account.
39. Make your site incredibly easy to buy from by simplifying the checkout process as much as possible.
38. Take a picture of y Read more:Business
Internet Business Isn’t Easy! 2007-09-19 10:47:34
As an internet entrepreneur, I’m often approached by friends, family, and those I’ve yet to meet with internet business proposals filled with dreams of striking it rich online, putting an end to their 9 to 5 misery. As misguided as many of these dreams appear to be – it’s no wonder why their blind optimism is often met with a certain level of skepticism on my part.
It never ceases to amaze me with how many people think that it’s “easy” to make a living online. As with nearly any career worth having, it is difficult and takes a certain business mentality that I believe most people simply don’t have. Do not let other blogs or websites fool you into thinking that you can be the next man or woman who generates thousands of dollars per day, working from a beach on a remote tropical island twenty five hours per week. Though this is possible, it certainly isn’t likely – and getting there definitely isn’t a cakewalk.
Why So Cynical?
I really don’t mean to come down so Read more:Business
, Internet
, Internet Business
How to Create Killer Product Pages (Using Pictures) 2007-09-14 19:07:13
Part 2 of 3
Selling a physical product (or service) over the internet is not as effortless as one would like to think. You may be exceptional at drawing targeted traffic to you’re online store, but do you know how to capitalize on it and convert the visitor into a sale? Like I mentioned in Part 1 of this series, writing killer page content is absolutely crucial and in all honesty – just as important as having an excellent product or service to sell in the first place.
Today, I’d like to expand that point even further by showing you how the proper use of pictures can *and will* increase online sales.
Due to my experience in the field, I’ve concocted a three part mini-series in creating killer product descriptions. This is part #2 – and I will be covering how to effectively use Pictures
to sell your products.
Use Pictures, and Lots of Them!
I love using pictures to sell products online. They say that a picture is worth a million words, and this phrase couldn’t be any truer Read more:Killer
, Pages
Free Yahoo Search Marketing Voucher Trick 2007-09-10 14:56:54
I’m extremely busy today wrapping up loose ends on a client’s new Pay Per Click campaign, so I figured this would be a great opportunity to share with you a trick that I know to secure an unlimited number of YahooSearchMarketing
(YSM) vouchers for little to no effort on your part.
Keep in mind that this may not work forever, and this particular trick is one that most SEM’s won’t want you to know about.
Yahoo Reps, please don’t hate me :).
Claim Your FREE Voucher
Here are the step by step instructions to claiming a voucher:
1. Click this link.
2. Mix up the last four digits to any numbers that you wish.
3. Eventually you will hit a credit!
I’ve found voucher credits ranging anywhere from $25 to $75 - but haven’t tried them all.
Have fun!
Share This
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, Trick
5 Reasons to Use BidVertiser PPC 2007-09-10 08:01:25
Those who know me know that I am all about the PPC (Pay Per Click). In launching an ecommerce site for a client of mine, I’ve recently stumbled across BidVertiser - and am very happy that I did.
What is BidVertiser?
BidVertiser allows online advertisers to create and place text ads on thousands of relevant websites on a pay per click basis in few easy steps:
Why Use BidVertiser as Your PPC of Choice?
In doing my research I have found them to be a very solid company and PPC (pay per click) program. In the ecommerce industry in particular, I’m always looking for new ways to reach customers and believe that I have found a hidden gem. Here are my top reasons for joining the BidVertiser program:
1. Browse their directory and select the appropriate sites
2. Set geographic targeting
3. Create the text-ad
4. Set budget and capping
5. Let the campaign do its thing!
If you’d like to give them a try (as an advertiser), I highly recommend signing up using this link as it will prov Read more:Reasons
I’ll See You at PubCon Vegas 2007! 2007-09-07 09:21:47
Though the official registration isn’t open for a couple more days, I went ahead and booked our reservation at the Wynn Hotel using the PubCon block code earlier this morning. If you’re coming, and want to stay at the Wynn - call them now as this final block is going to sell out really fast.
Who Should Attend PubCon Vegas
?
If you are involved in the production, marketing, or management of a internet web site - this is a must attend event. I’ve always heard that beyond the SES conference, PubCon is a must, and I’m starting to believe it. The list of speakers for this year is nothing short of amazing!
Topics To Be Addressed and Discussed
PubCon focuses itself around the following areas:
* Search Engine Marketing, Optimization, Advertising, and Usage.
* Website Publishing. Technical grit as well as overall management.
* Website, domain, and Ecommerce site management.
Keynote Speakers
* Craig Newmark (Founder: Craigs List)
* Malcolm Gladwell (Author: Tipping Point)
How to Create Killer Product Pages (Custom Descriptions) 2007-09-04 14:27:14
Part 1 of 3
Selling a physical product over the internet is much more difficult than it is in ‘brick and mortar’ locations because customers are unable touch, hear, smell, or taste the product that they’re browsing. This leaves us with only one sense, and that is sight. Though this is obviously a very powerful sense, consumers tend to use multiple senses when deciding whether or not to make a purchase (whether they know this or not) – and that is a proven fact.
Typically, a traditional retail store such as a Target or Best Buy have a conversion rate as high as 25%, while in ecommerce 3% is considered very good. For this reason alone you can see the importance in writing killer product descriptions if you want to be successful in your online ecommerce venture.
Due to my experience in the field, I’ve concocted a three part mini-series in creating killer product descriptions. This is part #1 – and I will be covering Stock Product Descriptions and why you should never, ever us Read more:Killer
, Pages
Debunking Scan Alert 2007-10-08 15:30:05
Scan Alert
or Spam Alert?
As an active professional in e-commerce the issue of “Hacker Safe” by Scan Alert seems to come up on a weekly basis. In fact, I can’t remember the last time a full week has gone by without my phone or a client’s phone ringing from this company or one of their competitors. Their sales pitch tends to be very aggressive and it isn’t uncommon to hear them make outrageous claims about why you need to use their service. This wouldn’t be so bad if I truly believed in their product, but the fact is that their statistics are very stale and for those of use who don’t have large marketing budgets to work with - the funding could simply be put to better use elsewhere (Link Building, PPC, etc).
On to the reason for this blog entry. Per a customer inquiry, I went to Scan Alert’s website today to grab a new site seal to match his color scheme, and I’d like to quote something that caught my eye right off the front page:
" Read more:Debunking
How To Distribute ECommerce Coupon Codes 2007-10-13 01:58:56
Here’s a small 2AM E-Commerce tip:
If you have a coupon code that you would like to freely distribute on the internet, go ahead and release it to coupon and bargain hunter websites - assuming that you’re prepared to handle the potential order volume.
A little birdy told me that an MMA Clothing and Fight Gear website did such a feat and were met with great results thanks to Retail Me Not.
Some of these coupon sites might pass along a little bit of link juice as well but I haven’t confirmed this. It could very well be that they use the “no follow” tag as that would make a ton of sense for a website with so many outgoing links. Regardless of the link value, this is one of those marketing techniques that only takes a few minutes to implement and can bring in extra sales.
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, Coupon
, Distribute
How to Not Get Screwed in Internet Business 2007-10-18 16:32:14 It seems like everyone that contacts me (generally through referral) has been burned at one point or another by their previous web designer, marketer, or SEO. The situation is always different, but the end result is always the same - and broken promises are all too common.
After months upon months of dealing with this under my new LLC (and 10 years of previous side work), I’ve drawn a couple of conclusions as to why this STILL happens.
How They Do It
The internet is still very much a cowboy industry. In the end, we’re all trying to make a buck at this thing, and there’s very little regulation on how to do so. I honestly feel that often times internet amateurs (I will not refer to them as professionals) will take advantage of their clients so that they can be lazy, yet still manage to pay the bills.
If I’ve managed to catch your attention, you might be wondering how they screw you?
1. Hidden Fees. This is a good one. I’m always amazed at how web guys will Read more:Business
, Internet
, Internet Business
, Screwed
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