Do you run an ecommerce website or have aspirations to do so? Then you absolutely have to read this post! Since I have been in online marketing for 15 years, and have worked with over 100 ecommerce websites, I’m able to put together a fabulous list like this together! If you have any questions, just contact me through this website and you will responded to asap. If you are looking for an effective, affordable online marketing agency, let me know and we can have a call to discuss what we can do for your company! Enjoy the tips and let me know if you have any questions!

1. Organic Search – Don’t forget about Search! It’s still the #1 way customers buy online. Types of original content to be adding to your site would be: articles, blog posts, product descriptions, testimonials, and product reviews. Repurpose positive customer comments as testimonials and add to the site. Competitive research tools help find keywords to target in your content, look in your Google Analytics for real-world search queries. Have a good, monthly SEO strategy to build out your content and get free traffic. Frequent, original posts/pages are always the best strategy to get more free traffic. Daily posting is best for the search engines. Share your content socially to spread it out.

2. Off-site SEO - you can get traffic and rankings from other websites besides your own. Some great ways to do this are: online press releases (using Vocus.com or eReleases.com), guest blog posts, blog reviews, sponsoring blogger’s sweepstakes, Yellowpages.com, eBay classified, Superpages.com, Backpage.com, and getting listed on any well ranking website in your niche with original content and titles. Outsource your writing tasks to maximize writing volume, but make sure the quality is intact. I recommend 1 online press release per week, it builds SEO rankings and saturates the search engines. I have a great contact at Vocus/PrWeb, you can save significantly if you buy their annual packages.

3. Paid Search Strategy - the new enhanced Google Adwords is great, conversion tracking of sales is a must on the keyword level, BingAds has low hanging fruit, site specific content network ads can also work well. BingAds can be 1/10th the cost of Google Adwords. Make sure you are running on all your branded keywords on Google and Bing Ads, the general keywords can be made to convert on BingAds. I would be happy to review your pay per click search campaigns for you or manage them for you.

4. Social Media - You of course need a great social media strategy in place! Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Foursquare are the top social networks. Run frequent sweepstakes and contests to pump up the fans and gather emails of your fans (Woobox.com is a great Facebook app for sweepstakes and contests). Some social media management tips would be: Daily posting to the wall, 24/7 social management responsiveness, anything less is inadequate! Total Facebook website integration is a must, i.e. Sharethis.com, Facebook comment box, Facebook site registration. LinkedIn groups are great for niche/industry community building. LinkedIn is also great for B to B, B to B advertising, and business development. In my opinion, fan advertising is the best expenditure of advertising on Facebook, then running Facebook Offers, Promoted Posts, and Sweepstakes to make it go viral and measure the ROI. Regular, direct to site Facebook advertising now has conversion tracking pixels that can be placed on your site, so that needs to be tested to see if it works for your company or site.

5. Mobile site for eCommerce - If you don’t have a mobile site you are losing customers! Mshopper.com is a good solution to go mobile asap on a rev share. Responsive design is a must for sites that look great across devices. If you don’t have a mobile site you are leaving money on the table and it’s hurting your conversion rate. Dudamobile.com is great for turning any website into a mobile website.

6. Social Referrals - every customer should be referring their friends through Facebook, Twitter, and email to your company or website. Check out CureBit.com, it’s great and inexpensive and effective. I know the owner Allan Grant, you can tell them I sent you.

7. Text messaging - Textmark.com is great for for mobile (SMS/text) marketing to customers that you have gained their mobile number through permission. Seek to acquire their mobile phone numbers in the website check-out and set up a follow-up system for mobile offers to monetize. You can acquire mobile numbers via your Fan Page too by running sweepstakes and asking for it in the entry form.

8. Retargeting Options - Retargeting is the best thing to happen to ecommerce in the last 10 years. EVERY major company is using retargeting to remarket to their website visitors that leave their website without purchasing, on the web and on Facebook. It’s the hottest thing in ecommerce and can also be used by bigger affiliates.

Retargeting Options:
- Google Adwords
- Adroll.com for retargeting on Facebook, works well
- Retargeter.com for eBay searchers retartgeting
- Steelhouse Media – for on-site targeted promotions in real-time.

9. Targeted Display Advertising – Quantcast.com is “intelligent display advertising” based on your website demographics and can work well. Remnant inventory can be good too if you get it targeted and cheaply enough. They place a pixel on your site to gain demographics and then run your banners on their display network. Works well for some advertisers. Whatrunswhere.com tells you where companies are advertising.

10. Partnership Marketing - rev share based – reach out to other companies and offer to reciprocate. Examples: Thank you page placements, newsletters, members area, solo emails, display on site. Partnership marketing is a great way to build customers and traffic, and works even better if you can reciprocate.

11. Personalization - works best for converting traffic and repeat customers. You can personalize and segment targeted offers via: email, on-site, and segmenting. Listrak.com is a great email platform for websites to segment, personalize and measure the revenue. Mybuys.com does on-site personalization and through email.

12. On-site targeting and negotiating – Steelhouse.com does on-site promotions. Netotiate.com does on-site negotiating with visitors and increases sales. NEW!

13. Live Chat - Olark.com or Liveperson are both great for website Livechat – most underused conversion increasing tool in the industry in my opinion. Great for merchants because it’s so cheap and easy to use. Have someone good on it! Proactive live chat allows your customer service and sales people to interact with site visitors and direct them around, offer specials, and answer questions. Increases conversion rates by interacting with more site visitors. Can also be a great loyalty building tool.

14. Sweepstakes and Contests - I recommend monthly contests and sweepstakes to pump up fans, emails, and go viral. Better prizes produce better results, photo contests are great too, Pinterest contests are HOT, but only work well with a lot of customers on Pinterest.

15. Product feeds and organic listings – goDatafeed.com to syndicate it all product shopping engines. Seasonality plays into the conversion rates on the paid shopping engines. Keep it fresh and managed like PPC search campaigns.

16. Inbound Phone Calls - Driving phone calls from the website and ads is a great way to boost sales. Also, effectively upselling is a great way to maximize traffic and increase conversion rate. Have good people selling on the phones or don’t bother.

17. Facebook Advertising - Facebook fan advertising is great and highly recommend even at a minimum budget because the targeting is so good. Look to convert the fans into emails with sweepstakes so they can be remarketed to and increase website conversion rates. Facebook promoted posts work great to get the message out to everyone. Use sweepstakes to create hype and go viral. Use Facebook offers to run special offers to fans that keep reminding them about it.

18. Conversion Rate Optimization Tools – Optimizely.com is #1 conversion A/B tool. Pluralis.com is a crowd sourced conversion contest tool.. very cool new tool. Have a monthly strategy for increasing your click to sale ratio or you are missing the boat. If you aren’t testing your page elements (such as add to cart button, logo, main graphics, bullet points) you are leaving money on the table. “Testing is always better than not testing.”

19. 14 Website Conversion Rate Boosters:
- BuySafe.com – purchase insurance – increases site trust.
- Norton’s trust seal – #1 trusted ecommerce logo. Places in the cart pages and site wide.
- BBB logo – builds trust
- Truste.com – builds trust
- Testimonials – feature them all over – ask for them from customers. Incentive them with gift cards for giving them. Video testimonials are great for Youtube traffic and site.
- Sweepstakes – gains fans and emails of site visitors to follow-up with. Should be run monthly.
- Drip emails that measure revenue – great after email capture with Listrak.com.
- Netotiate.com – real-time on-site price negotiating – NEW!
- Price comparisons on product pages – shows how you are less expensive
- International shipping – increases conversion to int. traffic. There are companies you can partner with to handle this.
- On-site promotions. Free shipping is #1 promotion
- Pop-up email capture – great for drip email campaigns, use Listrak.com capture email and send drip follow-ups
- Shopping Cart abandonment follow-up emails. Great for ecommerce and lead gen
- Customer Reviews – check out PowerReviews.com

20. Marketing Calendar – have one. Keep the marketing message consistent across channels. Plan ahead, leverage seasonality whenever possible.

These are my ecommerce tips, strategies, and amazing companies to work with. I know most of these companies personally and have worked with them. A lot of times if you mention Evan Weber and Experience Advertising, you can get a better deal that everyone else, so make sure to drop my name. Let me know if you have any questions or would like to discuss working with my agency to implement an effective, comprehensive online marketing strategy for your company. Thanks and have a great day!

Spring has sprung and the desire to fit into those new spring fashions and (Gasp!) swimwear is probably on the minds of many of your viewers.

Spring Break has arrived and the 3-way mirror is spilling out a lot of truths about those winter months spent bundled under layers of warm clothing, sipping perhaps, a few too many hot chocolates!

Affiliates, be there to help your viewers after a long and arduous day of shopping for a new spring wardrobe. Winter weight no doubt has caught a few of them off guard, and they are now wondering how to get those extra pounds off . . . and fast!

There is still time to promote the March Coupons on your websites, blogs and social media sites. Get your text and banner ads posted to let your viewers know that they have a few days left to take advantage of 25% OFF Diet Coaching and 10% OFF Entire Order at DukanDiet.com and get meet their diet goals for spring! 

MARCH COUPON SPECIALS :

• March Special – Get 25% OFF on Personal Diet Coaching Program with Coupon Code: C13CJ25. This coupon is valid through March 31st.
• March Special – Get 10% OFF on Entire order (excluding S&H) at ShopDukanDiet.com by using Coupon Code: C13CJ10.
• Eat as much as you like of food and lose weight with Dukan Diet. Learn More click on DukanDiet.com.

Phone.com provides award-winning phone solutions that help businesses stay connected while offering professional and customized commercial and residential phone systems. Phone.com provides the best virtual office solutions, vanity 800 numbers, and group SMS.

Promote the great savings available now at Phone.com like 1st month FREE with Virtual Office and FREE activation fee and 10% OFF for 6 months on a basic monthly plan. Your viewers can also receive a FREE vanity toll free number and 10% OFF on Home Plus service for 6 months.

Grab a few text and banner ads from today’s newsletter or from your CJ account and share them on your blogs, websites and other social media sites to let your viewers know how they can receive state of the art VoIP and cloud based phone service for home or business use.

PROMOTE PHONE.COM 

• Virtual Phone Service: Business Phone Services: Pricing & Plans at Phone.com!
• Get Your First Month FREE when you sign up for Virtual Office / Business Phone Line at Phone.com!
• Get Virtual Office Phone Service! Activation Fee Waived (value of $29.95) any phone adapter or IP Phone! Use Coupon Code: Freeactv
• Save an Extra 10% discount for 6 months on basic monthly plan – Code: Tenoff
• Get Free Vanity Toll Free Number with Phone.com! Use Coupon Code: Freevanity This is one time purchase free waived
• Slash Your Phone Bill! Get 10% Off Home / Residential Phone Service Plus for 6 months with Phone.com – Coupon Code: HPP10

There are more than just flurries in the winter sky these days! There is also a flurry of activity going on at Dealyard.com right now due to the mad rush of shoppers that are visiting our affiliate links looking for last minute Christmas gifts. Christmas is just a week away so get your text ads and banners posted to take advantage of this last minute surge in online shopping. Be sure to promote the December coupons so your viewers can save up to $15 OFF their holiday purchases!

PROMOTE THESE HOLIDAY SEASON HOT PRODUCTS
& DECEMBER COUPONS: 

HOLIDAY SEASON HOT PRODUCTS (VALID: NOW – DECEMBER 31st) 

• Weekly Deal 1 – Duracell LED Red Flashlight and Carabiner Clip with Lithium batteries included for $4.95.
• Weekly Deal 2 – Sunbeam Therapedic Queen Size Heated Electric Warming Mattress Pad, 140-Thread for $99.95.
• Weekly Deal 3 – Sunbeam Microplush Electric Heated Throw Blanket – Assorted Colors / Patterns for $44.95.
• Weekly Deal 4 – Aerobed 7722 Sleepaway Full Size Air Bed Inflatable Mattress w Built In Pump for $84.95.
• Weekly Deal 5 – VillaWare NDVLWFBFS1 Non-Stick Stainless Belgian Flip Waffle Maker for $69.95.

DECEMBER COUPONS (OFFER ENDS: DECEMBER 31st)

• Get 10% OFF Entire Order for at DealYard.com! Use Coupon Code: CJ1210DY. This coupon code is valid through December 31st.
• Get $10 Off for purchase of $150 or more at DealYard.com. Use Coupon Code: CJDY1210. This coupon code is valid through December 31st.
• Get $15 Off for purchase of $200 or more at DealYard.com. Use Coupon Code: CJ1215DY. This coupon code is valid through December 31st.

IN STOCK (EXPIRES: ONGOING)

• DealYard.com added Kavu Handbags for active and fashionable women on the go! The fabrics of Kavu wallet, cross-body bag, backpack and much are are durable and trendy

DEAL OF THE DAY

• Deal of the Day – Always an Amazing Deal at DealYard.com – Valid through December 31, 2012

NEW LANDING PAGE (ONGOING)

• Deal Yard Discounted Specials – Save up to 80% Off on Discounted Items at DealYard.com.

1 Week Left to Win! 
Our exciting Affiliate Contest ends next Tuesday, December 25th. We are tracking our affiliates’ sales and will give away 5 Amazon Kindle Fire HDs! Our first two prizes will be awarded to our TOP TWO DEALYARD PERFORMERS. Our remaining 3 Kindle Fires will go to three affiliates whose names will be drawn randomly from our list of publishers that produced at least one sale during the contest period (Nov 15 – Dec 25). Good Luck!

It’s CYBER MONDAY - the busiest online shopping day of the year! Shopping on Cyber Monday offers your viewers great deals and hassle-free shopping from the comfort of their desk chair! This year, more than ever before, social media will play an important role in how many people shop. With so much access to social sharing, shoppers are able to read reviews and recommendations on their favorite products before they make their purchase decisions. Boost your click through rates by offering your social media followers your own recommendations on your favorite Natural Skin Shop products. Sales on Cyber Monday are expected to hit $1.42 billion so today is a HUGE day for our affiliates seeking to pump up their holiday commissions.

Set your social sites on fire today and get out your promotions for today’s CYBER MONDAY (and Tuesday!) 48-hour Sale at NaturalSkinShop.com. Promote 30% OFF Entire Order – No Code Needed!

CYBER MONDAY AT HANCOCKFABRICS.COM
Happy CYBER MONDAY! Shoppers will be online in full force today looking for great Cyber Monday specials. Cyber Monday is the busiest online shopping day of the year and HancockFabrics.com has some great deals for you to promote today!

Post the text link from your CJ or GAN account to promote today’s CYBER MONDAY SALE and let your viewers know that they can save up to 60% OFF on Glacier Fleece Prints & Solids, No Sew Throw Kits, and much more! You can continue promoting the AFTER THANKSGIVING EVENT which runs through December 5th so blast your viewers and tell them to head on over to HancockFabrics.com this Cyber Monday for some great deals on their favorite sewing and crafting products!

“Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.” ~Erma Bombeck

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! The holiday shopping season has officially begun! Cyber Monday is approaching and sales are expected to increase by 20% over last year’s sales.

Detour some of that cyber traffic toward your websites blogs and other social media sites by blasting your friends, fans and subscribers to let them know that Bestbuyglasses.com has 10% OFF the best gifts for everyone on their holiday gift list.

Post some of today’s text ads and banners or select some others from your CJ account promote Bestbuyeyeglasses.com this holiday season!

I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving! The holiday season has begun and along with it comes lots of online holiday shoppers! More than half of Americans (57%) are expected to shop from the comfort of their home computer and mobile screens this Cyber Monday.

To take advantage of Cyber Monday and the expected boost in sales, refresh your banners and text ads and put your friends, fans and subscribers on blast to let them know that Hooked On Phonics has top rated educational materials to help children master reading and math skills. Hooked On Phonics has developed innovative products and systems that teach children not only to learn but also to love learning. Invite your visitors to try the Hooked on Phonics 30-day risk free trial for just $14.95 + FREE shipping. If they don’t see a grade level boost in their child’s reading in 30 days, they can return the program for a full refund and keep the Reading Fun Pack as their gift. Hooked On Phonics is research-based and developed by leading educators who understand how children learn to read. Each session takes just 20 minutes or less and has helped more than 3 million children improve their grades.

Are you ready CJ Affiliates? Black Friday(Nov 23) and Cyber Monday(Nov 26) are just days away and our iHome affiliates are kicking into gear to make the most of the holiday online shopping frenzy that comes at this time of year. Now, is a great time of year to be an affiliate for iHome Audio! iHomeAudio.com has the best gifts for holiday gift giving and with some concentrated promoting on your part, your potential for generous commission earnings is huge! It’s time to ‘deck the halls of your blogs, websites and Facebook pages with banner ads and text links! More traffic to your sites means more income for you!

NOVEMBER COUPONS (VALID THROUGH DECEMBER 31st)

• November Coupon 1 – iP40B – Get $20 Off on FM Alarm Clock Radio for iPhone or iPod at iHomeAudio.com by using Coupon Code: EWP40.
• November Coupon 2 – iP97 – Get 40% Off on Dual Alarm Clock Radio for your iPhone or iPod in Silver at iHomeAudio.com by using Coupon Code: EWP978.
• November Coupon 3 – iP98 – Get 40% Off on Dual Alarm Clock Radio for your iPhone or iPod in Black at iHomeAudio.com by using Coupon Code: EWP978.
• November Coupon 4 – iA90 – Get 40% Off on App-enhanced Dual Alarm Stereo Clock Radio for your iPhone/iPod® with AM/FM Presets at iHomeAudio.com by using Coupon Code: EWA90.
• November Coupon 5 – iHM9 – Get 35% Off on Portable Speaker System for your iPod/MP3 Player in Pink or Blue at iHomeAudio.com by using Coupon Code: EWHM9.
• November Coupon 6 – iW2 – Get 25% Off on AirPlay speaker system with Wi-Fi and Ethernet at iHomeAudio.com by using Coupon Code: EW2W.
• November Coupon 7 – iC16 – Get 20% Off on Portable Alarm Clock Stereo Speaker with USB Charging Dock for Smartphones at iHomeAudio.com by using Coupon Code: EWC16.
• November Coupon 8 – iDM9 – Get 20% Off on Cupholder Portable Bluetooth Speakerphone at iHomeAudio.com by using Coupon Code: EWDM9.
• November Coupon 9 – iP16 – Get $30 Off on Portable Alarm Clock Stereo Speaker System for iPhone or iPod at iHomeAudio.com by using Coupon Code: EWP16.
• November Coupon 10 – iK50 – Get $20 Off on Space Saver FM Stereo Alarm Clock/Charger for Kindle Fire® at iHomeAudio.com by using Coupon Code: EWK50.
• November Coupon 11 – iP76 – Get 25% Off on LED Color Changing Tower Stereo Speaker System with Bluetooth for iPhone and iPod® at iHomeAudio.com by using Coupon Code: EWP76.
• November Coupon 12 – iP37BB or iP37KG – Get 40% Off on Portable Speaker System for iPhone/iPod at iHomeAudio.com by using Coupon Code: EWP37B.
• November Coupon 13 – iP3 – Get $100 Off on Studio Series Audio System for iPhone/iPod at iHomeAudio.com by using Coupon Code: EWP3
• November Coupon 15 – RT62 – Get 50% Off on Retro-Style Hi-Fi Stereo Headphones in Pink or Blue at iHomeAudio.com by using Coupon Code: EWRT62
• November Coupon 14 – IDM5 – Get 50% Off on Executive Space-Saver Station at iHomeAudio.com by using Coupon Code: EWDM5

Did you know that the cranberry, a fruit native to North America, is served at 94% of Thanksgiving dinners? Have you ever wondered how to determine if your cranberries are ripe? One way, is to throw one at the ground and measure how high it bounces. If your berry bounces higher than four inches, it’s ripe for the picking!

Is all this talk about cranberries getting you in the mood for some holiday crafting? If so, you’ll be happy to know that beginning today, November 15th, Hancock Fabrics is kicking off their Pre-Thanksgiving Sale with savings up to 50% OFF on Fleece Solids, Team Fleece, Broad-Cloth, and Much More! The Pre-Holiday Savings Event is still going on through November 21st with plenty more great ways to save on everything needed for the upcoming holidays! There is so much to promote these days at Hancock Fabrics and with the holidays approaching, you will have lots of opportunity to earn some hearty commissions for yourself. Put your friends, fans and subscribers on blast and let them know about all the great deals they’ll find at HancockFabrics.com.