I moved my ecommerce site over and have been busy trying to figure out how to gain mindshare. Strides are minimal.
I put some stuff up at ebay to see if I can move anything. So far, no bids.
I think I spend too much time on Twitter, because it's easy. Though I have made some good contacts on it, Twitter seems like a 10 minute/day thing. It shouldn't be a lifestyle.
I emailed beauty bloggers about my site and some joined.
Everything is moving so slowly in a world of high speed internet time, it feels like forever.
I'm going to do some real time stuff (gift shows, etc), which I hope will build the e-base. It is not my desire to be selling in real time. But we're heading into Christmas shopping season. I need some Black Friday mojo.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Did you miss me?
I just finished moving everything over from Shopify to 3DCart and my fingers are tired!
I will have a full review coming soon, as well as an affiliate link to 3DCart. I can't wait to share why I made the decision.
I'm also going to write an article on what to look for in an ecommerce platform. In my case, I made a bad mistake by going to Shopify and it was a time consuming lesson, though thankfully not an expensive one.
In other news, I found an excellent article on one-way link building.
And another on using Twitter. I'm not sure about the Twitter one yet. In fact I remain unsure of Twitter.
If you try it, let me know how it works out.
I will have a full review coming soon, as well as an affiliate link to 3DCart. I can't wait to share why I made the decision.
I'm also going to write an article on what to look for in an ecommerce platform. In my case, I made a bad mistake by going to Shopify and it was a time consuming lesson, though thankfully not an expensive one.
In other news, I found an excellent article on one-way link building.
And another on using Twitter. I'm not sure about the Twitter one yet. In fact I remain unsure of Twitter.
If you try it, let me know how it works out.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
3dCart vs BigCommerce
I can't give a full review to either product but am evaluating both of them.
BigCommerce has a user interface that seems to have been designed by a user interface designer. It seems to understand how task analysis works, how most ecommerce people want to enter in their data, and provides streamlined support for accomplishing those tasks.
3DCart is awkward as hell. Things aren't where I expect them to be. The interface doesn't seem to be supporting the task flow that makes sense to me. And too much internals are exposed to me for my taste.
I'm having a hard time accomplishing certain basic tasks because I can't find where to do them and/or the documentation isn't helping.
The #1 problem so far, is, if you don't save your work religiously, and you tab over...poof, your work is gone. This has happened to me over and over and over again. I haven't run into this problem with any other ecommerce package. It's aggravating. Seems every tab over, is opening an http connection, thus your data is lost. It could be engineered to work differently.
BUT....I have the impression that 3D has features that may be unsurpassed in social marketing and easily connects to all kinds of things like shopping feeds, Facebook, etc.
BigCommerce may do all or most of that.
BUT....BigCommerce doesn't have a FaceBook page. 3D does.
The CTO of 3D is on Linkedin and actively participates in Ecommerce groups there.
The CTO of 3D is on Twitter.
In other words, this is a company who is USING social media to network and to gain mindshare.
I assume this means, this is a company who understands my needs and has a better understanding of ecommerce marketing in today's internet.
They are eating the same dog food that I eat. Playing in the same swimming pools I'm playing in.
And they seem to be seriously interested in customer feedback and feature requests. Through various means, they are actively soliciting feedback.
I want to love 3D. If I can just get past what feels like a tougher learning curve....
Maybe I can put in a feature request to streamline the number of clicks you need to do anything on the platform... :-) (or maybe they should hire me for some consulting work. I was a user interface designer for many years.)
p.s. the design of their stores are great!
p.s.s. Now that I see what "real" ecommerce platforms look like, I can't believe I wasted so much time with Shopify. I do love their user interface. But the platform is so broken in so many ways, that anyone who succeeds by using it, has succeeded in spite of the platform. I try to console myself by telling myself at least I figured it out sooner rather than later.
BigCommerce has a user interface that seems to have been designed by a user interface designer. It seems to understand how task analysis works, how most ecommerce people want to enter in their data, and provides streamlined support for accomplishing those tasks.
3DCart is awkward as hell. Things aren't where I expect them to be. The interface doesn't seem to be supporting the task flow that makes sense to me. And too much internals are exposed to me for my taste.
I'm having a hard time accomplishing certain basic tasks because I can't find where to do them and/or the documentation isn't helping.
The #1 problem so far, is, if you don't save your work religiously, and you tab over...poof, your work is gone. This has happened to me over and over and over again. I haven't run into this problem with any other ecommerce package. It's aggravating. Seems every tab over, is opening an http connection, thus your data is lost. It could be engineered to work differently.
BUT....I have the impression that 3D has features that may be unsurpassed in social marketing and easily connects to all kinds of things like shopping feeds, Facebook, etc.
BigCommerce may do all or most of that.
BUT....BigCommerce doesn't have a FaceBook page. 3D does.
The CTO of 3D is on Linkedin and actively participates in Ecommerce groups there.
The CTO of 3D is on Twitter.
In other words, this is a company who is USING social media to network and to gain mindshare.
I assume this means, this is a company who understands my needs and has a better understanding of ecommerce marketing in today's internet.
They are eating the same dog food that I eat. Playing in the same swimming pools I'm playing in.
And they seem to be seriously interested in customer feedback and feature requests. Through various means, they are actively soliciting feedback.
I want to love 3D. If I can just get past what feels like a tougher learning curve....
Maybe I can put in a feature request to streamline the number of clicks you need to do anything on the platform... :-) (or maybe they should hire me for some consulting work. I was a user interface designer for many years.)
p.s. the design of their stores are great!
p.s.s. Now that I see what "real" ecommerce platforms look like, I can't believe I wasted so much time with Shopify. I do love their user interface. But the platform is so broken in so many ways, that anyone who succeeds by using it, has succeeded in spite of the platform. I try to console myself by telling myself at least I figured it out sooner rather than later.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Shopify Review
I think I'm 30 days into working with Shopify. I've gone from clueless about what features I want in an ecommerce solution, to having some definite opinions.
I'm not super happy with Shopify. It lacks some fundamental features and/or has an upcharge for them.
I picked Shopify because it was end-user extensible. Most other hosted solutions are not. I still find that an advantage, but given the fact that I don't want to spend my time coding stuff, it's not necessarily a huge win.
My main gripes are these:
1) You cannot associate a particular image with a particular product variant without some serious hacking. I sell makeup. Color is critical. Yet, I have no way to say, "this image is Plum lipstick, while this image is Coral lipstick of the same manufacturer."
I can upload multiple images, but cannot identify the variant with text.
This is a HUGE downside for my particular products.
2) There is virtually no reporting functions. I can export to Excel but I still have no real reporting.
3) No built-in Quickbooks integration. For $10/mo I can add it. But I haven't been able to get it to work and the support email address that was given was apparently wrong. I've now tracked down the right contact address but haven't heard back.
4) Blogging doesn't allow tags and is so lacking in features that it might as well not exist.
5) You cannot get separate metatags on a per page basis without serious hack and slash.
6) Some companies offer free Verisign (like http://www.shoppingcartsplus.com/host/page/1109.htm which looks like a fantastic deal for $25/mo
7) some of the social networking and marketing that's built in, works really well. The Google feed is great. But the Twitter integration is all wrong (worthless.) The FB integration works great. I believe it's a free 3rd party app though.
8) No tell-a-friend built in and I haven't found a good third party replacement yet.
Overall, I think it's an okay platform. But I wonder what else is out there that would better serve my needs.
I'm not super happy with Shopify. It lacks some fundamental features and/or has an upcharge for them.
I picked Shopify because it was end-user extensible. Most other hosted solutions are not. I still find that an advantage, but given the fact that I don't want to spend my time coding stuff, it's not necessarily a huge win.
My main gripes are these:
1) You cannot associate a particular image with a particular product variant without some serious hacking. I sell makeup. Color is critical. Yet, I have no way to say, "this image is Plum lipstick, while this image is Coral lipstick of the same manufacturer."
I can upload multiple images, but cannot identify the variant with text.
This is a HUGE downside for my particular products.
2) There is virtually no reporting functions. I can export to Excel but I still have no real reporting.
3) No built-in Quickbooks integration. For $10/mo I can add it. But I haven't been able to get it to work and the support email address that was given was apparently wrong. I've now tracked down the right contact address but haven't heard back.
4) Blogging doesn't allow tags and is so lacking in features that it might as well not exist.
5) You cannot get separate metatags on a per page basis without serious hack and slash.
6) Some companies offer free Verisign (like http://www.shoppingcartsplus.com/host/page/1109.htm which looks like a fantastic deal for $25/mo
7) some of the social networking and marketing that's built in, works really well. The Google feed is great. But the Twitter integration is all wrong (worthless.) The FB integration works great. I believe it's a free 3rd party app though.
8) No tell-a-friend built in and I haven't found a good third party replacement yet.
Overall, I think it's an okay platform. But I wonder what else is out there that would better serve my needs.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Micro Polls
I'm thinking about doing a poll of the day.
I love them on cnn. No clue why, but they're fun.
I've been using Poll Daddy, but I think I might prefer Micro Polls because they somehow look more elegant.
Twitter is back to frustrating. I'm trying this formula but many will DM me whatever they're pitching, but don't follow back. "Hi, thanks for the follow. Read my makeup blog."
Uh, how about we share the love??
I'm also wondering what happens if you think you went with the wrong ecommerce platform? I did a lot of research, but seems like Shopify lacks features. It's end user extensible, which is why I picked it. But I'm not very good at extending it. My current gripe is an utter lack of reporting features.
I love them on cnn. No clue why, but they're fun.
I've been using Poll Daddy, but I think I might prefer Micro Polls because they somehow look more elegant.
Twitter is back to frustrating. I'm trying this formula but many will DM me whatever they're pitching, but don't follow back. "Hi, thanks for the follow. Read my makeup blog."
Uh, how about we share the love??
I'm also wondering what happens if you think you went with the wrong ecommerce platform? I did a lot of research, but seems like Shopify lacks features. It's end user extensible, which is why I picked it. But I'm not very good at extending it. My current gripe is an utter lack of reporting features.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
I continue to puzzle over Twitter, trying to learn to Tweet well, and trying to figure out how to harness the power of Twitter.
I found a series of videos on Twitter that are helpful.
They recommend going to:
search.twitter.com and searching on one of your targeted keywords. Follow up to 100 people/day.
If the person doesn't follow you back, use http://dossy.org/twitter/ to find who isn't following you back and unfollow them.
They also mention an app called Tweet Adder that automates the follows and unfollows by rules you can specify.
I found a series of videos on Twitter that are helpful.
They recommend going to:
search.twitter.com and searching on one of your targeted keywords. Follow up to 100 people/day.
If the person doesn't follow you back, use http://dossy.org/twitter/ to find who isn't following you back and unfollow them.
They also mention an app called Tweet Adder that automates the follows and unfollows by rules you can specify.
Get Clicky on it
I'm having a bear of a time with Google Analytics. It's obtuse, complicated, and in fact, the whole Google suite is feeling like drinking lots of bad medicine.
I need the kinds of tools Google is providing, but if I can't figure out what I'm looking at, it does me no real good.
So when I found Clicky for free, I figured it was worth a shot.
Advantages over Google:
1) you don't need a degree in analytics to figure it out
2) you get information in real time and don't have to wait until the next day
3) There is a free mode that is quite featureful if you're only tracking one site without a ton of traffic
4) the net upgrade is only $4.99/mo or $29.99/year. Compared to Google Analytics, it's worth it.
If you're interested in Clicky, please get it from my affiliate link.
I need the kinds of tools Google is providing, but if I can't figure out what I'm looking at, it does me no real good.
So when I found Clicky for free, I figured it was worth a shot.
Advantages over Google:
1) you don't need a degree in analytics to figure it out
2) you get information in real time and don't have to wait until the next day
3) There is a free mode that is quite featureful if you're only tracking one site without a ton of traffic
4) the net upgrade is only $4.99/mo or $29.99/year. Compared to Google Analytics, it's worth it.
If you're interested in Clicky, please get it from my affiliate link.
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