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Marketing & Advertising

The marketing of an ecommerce business is paramount to its success. Our coverage includes insights on email marketing, content marketing, pay-per-click advertising, social media marketing — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest — affiliate marketing, video advertising, and much more.

Content Marketing | Email Marketing | Google Ads | Influencers & Affiliates | Social Media
  • Marketing & Advertising

    SEO Report Card: SolsticeSupply.com

    January 5, 2009 •

    This month’s report card is SolsticeSupply.com, an ecommerce site dedicated to closeout winter goods ranging from skis and snowboards to winter apparel. The site is very pleasant to the eye with large, expansive photos of wintry scenes and skiing action. But how does it do in terms of S...

  • Marketing & Advertising

    Voice Recognition Software: Just "Talk It Out"

    December 29, 2008 •

    Having good content on a website is always important because it is that content upon which both search engines and customers make decisions about your website. The better it is – with regards to focused keywords, information, and style – the more likely a website is to draw search users...

  • Google Ads

    My Favorite Pay-per-click Blogs

    December 18, 2008 •

    It seems as though there are a million blogs. In fact, last time I checked, Technorati was reporting that over 120,000 new blogs are created every single day. That's about 1.4 new blogs every second. With so many blogs out there, which pay-per-click blogs are the most helpful? To help...

  • Marketing & Advertising

    SEO Report Card: Pkging.com

    December 5, 2008 •

    Packaging becomes particularly important at this time of year when many of us are shipping gifts for the holidays. I’ve lived in several parts of the country and I don’t much do cards. I’m the type to either ship a gift package or send an email greeting. With that in mind, the website f...

  • Google Ads

    Advertising in Recession Leads to Competitive Advantage

    December 3, 2008 •

    Economic anxiety and a lack of insight have prompted some online retailers to slash their advertising budgets. However, when fewer of your competitors are investing in advertising, you can step up and command a market, improving sales now and in the long term. In a notable study that i...

  • Marketing & Advertising

    SEO Report Card: Socialcouture.com Stresses Social Media

    November 13, 2008 •

    I like parties, and Social Couture is a high-end party supply website. On its corresponding MySpace site (always a good thing to have, but especially important if your gig is party supplies) Social Couture says, “whether your style is traditional or modern or whether your guests are you...

  • Google Ads

    Interview: Pay-per-click Expert On 2nd Tier Ad Sites

    October 8, 2008 •

    Recently I sat down with Jeremy Mayes, the author of PPCDiscussions.com. In addition to writing the PPCDiscussions.com blog, Mayes has used paid search to sell millions of dollars of products and has generated millions of leads for various industries. I asked him about 2nd tier pay-per-...

  • Marketing & Advertising

    SEO Report Card: Icewraps.net

    September 29, 2008 •

    I went on a hike this weekend and it was a lot of fun—until the next day when I began to feel as if I had participated in something more like a death march. My leg muscles were so sore, it was tough to trek through the grocery store in search of ibuprofen. In honor of my pain (it’...

  • Google Ads

    Seven Tactics to Boost Online Banner-ad Response Rates

    September 26, 2008 •

    Ecommerce has been the great equalizer for retailers—a small book store in Iowa can oftentimes compete with Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Amazon for customers in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago or the world, but equality isn't always good. There are times when it's good to have a comp...

  • Marketing & Advertising

    Coordinate Pay-per-click Advertising With SEO Efforts

    September 19, 2008 •

    The goal of a pay-per-click advertising campaign is to attract qualified traffic to a website in an effort to have searchers convert on a desired action. That action could be a sale, filling out a lead form, requesting information and so forth. The goal of search engine optimization i...

  • Social Media

    Social Media Marketing

    September 9, 2008 •

    Something my employer at Bizzuka said recently sparked my thinking. "What you're doing (in terms of marketing) will not just help us create greater awareness among prospects, but among those considering coming to work for us," he said. It caused me to realize that marketing, especial...

  • Marketing & Advertising

    SEO Report Card: Starwest-botanicals.com

    September 8, 2008 •

    Starwest Botanicals’ home page begins with this statement: “Starwest Botanicals is your on-line supply source for bulk herbs and natural products. Bulk organic herbs, organic spices, loose leaf organic teas, organic essential oils and aromatherapy supplies are part of the almost 3000 na...

  • Marketing & Advertising

    Cleverbridge VP On Selling Digital Products

    September 5, 2008 •

    Craig Vodnik is vice president, North America, for Cleverbridge, an ecommerce platform that helps online merchants sell software, music and other digital products. Vodnik joins Practical eCommerce’s Kerry Murdock,

  • Marketing & Advertising

    SEO Report Card: Littlepixiegifts.com.au

    August 5, 2008 •

    I don’t spend a lot of time shopping on baby-oriented gift sites, but I get a lot of requests for report card reviews from them. This will not only be the first time I’ve reviewed a baby site, but an Australian site as well. I was taken with the pleasant design, especially the cute baby...

  • Google Knol: An SEO Perspective Marketing & Advertising

    Google Knol: An SEO Perspective

    August 4, 2008 •

    I first wrote about Google Knol here at Practical Ecommerce in January 2008, before it was open to the general public. Now that it is live, the Knol project is worth revisiting because of its potential search engine optimization ramifications. As has been well documented, Knol is a n...

  • Email Marketing

    Growing Your Email Subscriber List With Contests

    July 28, 2008 •

    Cultivating a solid, permission-based email list can take a lot of time. So some businesses understandably get impatient waiting around for their lists to grow. For these businesses, online contests may be an attractive quick fix. As an example, let’s say a newly launched shoe e-retail...

  • Social Media

    Ratings And Reviews Engage Your Visitors

    July 24, 2008 •

    Trust in word-of-mouth recommendations is at an all-time high. Public relations firm Edleman says in its 2008 Trust Barometer study that “a person like me” is still the most trusted source for information about a company and its services or products. While the most influential form of ...

  • Google Ads

    Pay-per-click Advertising: The Top 100 Keyword Phrases

    July 22, 2008 •

    Last time I checked, Spyfu.com is reporting that someone is bidding $51.66 per click for phrase “conference calling companies.” Are you bidding on words like this, which is one of the most expensive keyword phrases? Let’s take a look at the most expensive pay-per-click keywords and wha...

  • Social Media

    Social Media Wheels Keep On Turning‚ And Fast!

    July 16, 2008 •

    My social media journey started with blogs, then LinkedIn, MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, a few other social networks, social sharing and bookmarking sites thrown in, then Twitter and now, Plurk. Sound familiar? How the wheels of social media evolution do turn. It's hard to keep up. Aft...

  • Social Media

    Never Edit Your Own Stuff

    July 15, 2008 •

    How many times has this happened? You compose a blog post, usually in a hurry, then hit the submit button, only to read it later and wonder how in the heck you missed what is a glaring error. I am the world’s worst. Years ago, a veteran magazine editor gave me this advice, “Never edit y...

  • Marketing & Advertising

    SEO Report Card: Music123.com

    June 17, 2008 •

    I’m a musical gear-aholic. My apartment is littered with instruments leaning against walls, stashed in corners, and propped up in closets. I’ve never met a guitar or keyboard I didn’t like. Having said that, while I frequent online music malls, I’ve never shopped at Music123.com. That s...

  • Google Ads

    Paid Search With Online Yellow Pages

    June 17, 2008 •

    You are probably familiar with Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and MSN AdCenter, the three largest paid search advertising opportunities. However, have you considered running a paid search campaign using the online yellow pages? Even if you’re an online retailer that does not h...

  • Marketing & Advertising

    Yahoo! Glue and You: How Blended Search Affects eCommerce

    June 4, 2008 •

    More than likely, you’ve heard the terms “blended search,” “federated search,” or “universal search” (Google’s name for it). They refer to a new form of search engine results that especially affect anyone concerned with search marketing. The term blended search has become the most neutr...

  • Social Media

    Blogs and Email: A One-Two Marketing Punch

    May 21, 2008 •

    I have long been an advocate of using blogs and email as complementary online marketing strategies. Blogs serve a customer acquisition function, while email serves a customer retention role. That belief was recently reinforced when I attended a webinar jointly sponsored by a new company...

  • Google Ads

    Pay-Per-Click Tools Improve Productivity

    May 19, 2008 •

    Daily pay-per-click management routine is not a lot of fun. Thankfully, there are a few tools out there that make the work much more efficient and allow search engine marketing professionals to look at the big picture. Below is a list of software tools that every pay-per-click account o...

  • Marketing & Advertising

    SEO Report Card: Pawleyfarm.com

    May 12, 2008 •

    This month's report card website is Pawleyfarm.com, a small site that sells personalized country photographs and note cards. The home page says, "Just as a home-cooked meal nourishes body and soul, our custom matted and framed artwork carries along a bit of peace and contentment." The d...

  • Social Media

    A Social Media Symphony

    April 28, 2008 •

    How often do you find a classical musician who is not only a virtuoso on his or her appointed instrument, but who demonstrates Internet marketing virtuosity as well? Allow me to introduce you to classical pianist Grace Nikae and her website, Gracenikae.com. From looking at her website, ...

  • Social Media

    Online Reputation Management

    April 17, 2008 •

    Like it or not, people are talking about you online. They're talking about your brand, your products, industry and competition. Do you know what they are saying? If not, why not? Can you afford not to listen? There is a relatively new industry burgeoning on the Internet. It's called ...

  • Email Marketing

    Email Marketing: Avoid This "Deadly" Mistake

    April 14, 2008 •

    Over the years, I've seen many ecommerce store owners make one simple but deadly mistake when they get started with email marketing: They send emails to old, obsolete email addresses. Does this sound like you? You started your ecommerce store a few years ago. Even back then, you had t...

  • Google Ads

    Alternative Pay-per-click Advertising

    April 9, 2008 •

    When should you consider advertising your products on sites other than on Google, Yahoo! and MSN? By properly identifying and evaluating various second-tier PPC advertising options, you may uncover a diamond in the rough. Investigate options Investigating your options is not as hard a...

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