For those of you who are not yet familiar with Cuil, it is the latest contender for the Google throne. Cuil is a new search engine developed by a team of ex-Google personnel. Read the rest of this entry »

Validation assures that your HTML or XHTML code is compliant with industry standards. This in turn means that your Web pages should render (display) without errors in a browser. It also helps assure that the code can be easily read by search engine spiders. Sometimes a coding error can make it difficult for spiders to read a web page, and although this is rare, the issue is eliminated through proper validation. Read the rest of this entry »

Browser testing can be an annoyance but is necessary due to inherent incompatibilities between Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) and Mozilla’s FireFox, further incompatibilities between different versions of the same browser (mostly IE issues), as well as numerous bugs that were never fixed in some versions. This situation has always existed and started way back when Netscape and Microsoft jockeyed for the top market share position. Each introduced a number of new features that were not always recognized by the other, and both companies were guilty of frequently ignoring the established W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) standards in favor of their own standard-setting desires. Read the rest of this entry »

Do you want to start up an e-commerce web site? Do you understand what is involved with this type of venture before you get into it? While setting up a successful e-commerce site has never been an easy task, the challenge has grown exponentially over the past few years due to the enormous growth of the web. This post covers many–but not all–issues that you should be aware of before you invest in an e-commerce site. In today’s highly competitive global markets, only the very strong or the most innovative will survive. Read the rest of this entry »

This is the catch-all page for short and sweet Internet marketing questions and answers. If you have an Internet marketing question, just submit it as a comment. If we can answer it, we will post the answer as an additional post or we may just include the answer on this page. There are no stupid questions with Internet marketing. All of us started out asking the same questions that you are wondering about today. Read the rest of this entry »

Google offers a few query commands, also called operators, that can be used to analyze a Web site–and about the competition for your selected keyword phrases. The following is a brief list of the most useful query operators. Just substitute your domain name for "mydomain.com" or your search keywords for "green" and "widgets". Don’t be afraid to try them. They are easy to use. Read the rest of this entry »

If you are looking for additional ways to sell your products outside of your main web site, there are alternative marketing and sales channels to consider. While eBay is currently the 800 pound gorilla in this arena, it is not the only marketing channel available for small web site owners. Check out this list of sites offering both auctions and fixed price alternatives for Internet marketers.
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E-commerce sites walk a fine line with users. If the site is friendly, easy-to-use, attuned to your audience and the products presented properly, the site should convert visitors to users. However, most e-commerce sites do not work convert visitors as well as they should because they are lacking in features that build trust and help convert visitors into customers. Read the rest of this entry »

JavaScript is a very flexible client-side scripting language that adds interactive features to a Web page. A client-side language runs in a user’s browser. Although JavaScript can also be used as a server-side language (runs on a Web server), it’s primary use in Web development is to add interactive features, such as HTML form input validation, image swapping, mouse rollover effects, drop-down navigational menus, moving objects and other interesting effects, to the user experience. Read the rest of this entry »

Shopping carts are an essential part of an e-commerce site. But the way that many shopping carts are designed can be very detrimental to search engine rankings. That’s because expertise with search engines is not one of the skills possessed by many designers and developers. A designer’s job is to create an inviting, user-friendly site. A developer adds the database and interactive capabilities. Working with search engines is a separate art and science. The following are features that are important if you wish to see your product pages have a reasonable chance of ranking well with search engines. Read the rest of this entry »