EBizInsider

Archive for June, 2008

Tech Corner: Plan B: Backup your Data!

If you’ve ever had a computer crash, you know it can be a devastating experience, both for you personally and for your business. Keeping your data backed up is vital. This month we’ll examine a few of the most popular methods of data backup.

Tape Backup

Since the early days of computing, magnetic tape has been used as a medium for data storage. Tape drives have come a long way since the early days when cassettes were used in a tape recorder. Entry-level tape backup drives cost around $1,000 and are often installed as internal devices.

The Good? Tape backups can hold 60 to 600 to 1,600 Gb depending on the drive and the media used. You should use a tape backup if you plan on running large-scale backups (servers or multiple computers) on a regular basis. Purchase several sets of data storage and store a copy off-site, too.

The Bad? Tape backups aren’t the latest greatest technology, and require you to set aside a specific time each day/week to maintain them. There’s also the cost of additional tapes (which need to be replaced on a regular basis).

Online Backups

Most online backup services require you to install a tiny application on your computer that works in the background, looking for new and changed files. When a file is found, it is backed up on a remote server. These services are becoming more and more popular. Mozy.com and Carbonite.com are both popular online backup services. Mozy charges a monthly access fee plus a per-gigabyte surcharge. Carbonite charges an unlimited annual fee.

The Good? The benefit to these services is that data is stored online, therefore eliminating the need for additional equipment on your end. Mostly, these services run in the background and are activated and do their thing on a schedule, so you just need to make sure your computer is on with an Internet connection and your backup will run.

The Bad? If you have massive amounts of data that need backing up, you’re going to spend bandwidth and time uploading. Also, if something does happen and your computer crashes, online backups aren’t as convenient to restore as tape backups, simply because you’ll need to re-download and sync your data from the Internet…which can take hours.

Backup Software

Backup software such as Novosoft’s Handy Backup (handybackup.com) is a software application that runs on your PC to backup specific files and directories to a variety of sources, including network storage, external hard drives, tape backups, CDs/DVDs, and remote FTP servers.

The Good? This is especially helpful if you have only a handful of documents and files to backup. You can use this software in conjunction with a tape or online backup. For example, if you have three computers and a server, use backup software to make sure your individual PCs are backed up to the server, then use the tape or online backup to archive the server.

The Bad? I’ve often found this type of software to be bad when it comes to scheduled backups and any sort of FTP/offsite backups. Because it’s a full, bulky software application and not directly integrated into your operating system, it isn’t as reliable.

Summing up

When choosing a backup service, ensure the provider has a good reputation. You don’t want to back up your data with a provider who isn’t around tomorrow. Think long-term. How frequently do you need a backup? Is the backup a total system backup or just what’s changed since the last one (incremental)?

The bottom line is that if you’re a one-person shop with one computer, online backup is often the way to go. On the other hand, if you’ve got multiple computers, you’re looking at some combination of the above three methods.

Wrapping your head around the data backup process is truly an annoyance, but not nearly as annoying or as devastating as losing all your work and having to try and rebuild.

What Can You Do Better? – The Basics Behind the Solid Cactus Site Review…

What happens when you spend every waking moment tweaking your site, adding content, categorizing products, etc? You become intimately connected to your site but you can simultaneously lose sight of how first time shoppers are experiencing it. This perspective is vital to creating a shopping experience that leads customers from the home page through the checkout page.

Use the Customers’ Eyes

How do you obtain the beginners mind necessary to view your site from a fresh perspective? Follow the guidelines below to evaluate your site as a brand new customer might.

What Causes Customers to leave your site?

The first step to evaluating your site from a customer perspective begins with understanding the disease of Site Abandonment. As with any disease, there are usually multiple factors at work. MarketingExperiments.com has found that most visitors jump ship for the following 3 reasons:

1. Lack of Relevance

2. Points of Friction

3. Creation of Anxiety

Lack of Relevance:

If a customer comes to your site from the keyword “green cleaning products” and they land on a page for “Comet” you can be sure that they will leave without buying a thing. It is your job to provide a logical connection between the keywords used to navigate to your site and the landing page you are presenting to visitors. If the keyword “scent” does not follow through from the advertisement (or search result) to the landing page on the site and then onto the product page, you will lose that valuable customer to a competitor.

Points of Friction:

In addition, if a customer is unable to navigate your site to find the product they are looking for, they will leave. This friction caused by poor navigation is the number one reason why shoppers leave a site without buying. A prime example of friction is if a customer searches for the product they came to buy and irrelevant search results come up. This disparity is enough of a roadblock to send the visitor packing. Your goal as the experience creator is to remove all roadblocks between the landing page where a visitor arrives and the checkout page.

Creation of Anxiety

The final trigger for increased bounce rates are the elements of your site that cause anxiety in the mind of the visitor. When a customer comes to the shopping cart and is presented paragraphs of warnings about shipping, he or she will abandon the cart. The reason is that there are twenty other competitors who probably offer the same product and who don’t scare customers while they are in the checkout process. Avoid creating points of anxiety at all costs. However, if you do have to explain a negative element of your site, do so in a positive way. Utilize fonts that are positive and write in a tone that is friendly and explanatory. The last thing that you want to do is have a paragraph of bold red text listing all the places where you don’t ship.

Summing Up

Take a step back, examine your site and ask yourself these questions: Is my site relevant to my target market? Are their any roadblocks preventing my visitors from finding the products they desire? Are there any warnings, broken links, or confusing policies that will cause anxiety in the visitors minds? If you are able to find any issues with your site, take the time and effort necessary to fix each one.

In today’s e-commerce world there are too many competitors waiting just a click away. Once you have a customer on your site, try to do everything possible to keep them. This doesn’t mean trapping them in Kafkaesque navigation scheme, it means providing a simple, intuitive, positive shopping experience that will convert a majority of fist time visitors into sales.

Take the time now to examine the issues customers are facing on your site. It may be hard, it may create more work for you in the present, but in the long term it will lead to a successful, profitable e-commerce website.

By Jeff Petrosillo
jeffp@ebizinsider.com

It’s so easy for Vacuums24X7.com

I’m no computer expert.
Solid Cactus made it easy for me to manage my pages,
change numbers, add prices, you name it. It’s so easy I’ve added two more websites.

—TR Mutlu, Vacuums24X7.com

Vacuums24X7.com grew from some
brick-and-mortar stores in the northern Virginia area. TR Mutlu opened his first store in 1990, then he came online in 2003 selling vacuum parts only. His company has 4 employees and sells more than 3,000 different parts for many different vacuum cleaners.

“We started with a Yahoo! Store,” TR recalls. “We started out simply, but after awhile it was clear we needed a better online store. We needed something that looked professional and was easy to use. I did the research and we decided on Solid Cactus. Right from that first redesign we looked like a big-time business and not something someone operated from a garage. It was perfect.”

Sadly, times change in e-business and so do the demands on the operators. “We were going to get out of the Yahoo! Platform entirely,” TR says. “It wasn’t Solid Cactus, but we had issues with the Yahoo! Platform itself. Google Checkout doesn’t integrate and the order processing was from the Stone Age.” Be careful what you wish for, as the saying goes. Vacuums24X7.com did indeed switch to a new company who promised they would take care of everything. It didn’t happen. “Suddenly we had a very bare-bones website again,” says TR. “Our orders started falling until they were only a fraction of what they had been. Everything took months to fix and they cost us much more than Solid Cactus. We were happy to come back and especially happy when our orders picked back up to normal.”

Vacuums24X7.com did more than come back to the Yahoo! Platform fold, they’ve taken their partnership with Solid Cactus to a new level by adding two entirely new websites. TR calls them clones of the first store. “We have opened Vacuumpartsstore.com and Kirbypartsstore.com,” says TR. “We’ve been able to reach out to other markets and work everything through our staff working the online side of our business.”

Since then, Vacuums24X7.com has decided on yet another redesign. “There are many new features that make it easier for our customers and easier for us,” says TR. “We want a new faceSelift. I told the Solid Cactus design team I had three stores in mind and we wanted to look better than they did. The three are Walmart.com, Sears.com and Target.com. The first mock-up the design team did for us looks better than those sites look now. Solid Cactus really uses color and visuals better than anyone else in the business. By the time they’re done with us we’ll look much better than those big name sites.”

Vacuums24X7.com also wanted new functionality. They’ve decided to add Snap Shop and they’ll be putting the Shopping Cart on the item page. Naturally, as the internet has become more focused on search engines, TR wanted the latest in search engine optimization. “That’ll be emphasized throughout the redesign,” he says. “It’s strange, because back a couple of years ago we weren’t thinking much about SEO. There are so many more stores out there and so much more competition, you can be sure we’re thinking about SEO now!”

Vacuums24X7.com will have a brand new look and new functionality in a few weeks. “We expect the same results as the last time we went through this process,” says TR Mutlu. “When Solid Cactus did our last redesign not only were there no missing parts, we got more than we counted on. We already know we’ll get great tech support; we always have. You know, when they say ‘Solid Cactus is your partner in e-commerce success,’ it’s more than just a slogan. It’s the truth.”

Going Green: How Your Business can make Earth Day, Everyday

Green is a popular color these days. “Going green” is a hot marketing gimmick. Individuals and businesses have made some strides to stop contributing to the environmental mess (that we have all helped to create.) Even though global warming and pollution are worldwide problems, the solution starts with each of us – at home and in the office.

Being an environmentally friendly business is
cost effective. Businesses can cut waste and
costs simultaneously.

Saving money and the Earth:

• Go paperless. Trade paper documents for digital documents. Stop paying for paper, toner and printer servicing. Trading paper mailings for e-mail reduces postage costs. Consider replacing paper catalogs with PDF files. If you send catalogs or print mailings, providing an easy way to opt-out will prevent unwanted waste for your customers and unnecessary costs for you.

• Turn off the power at the end of the work day. Have employees turn off monitors and computers when they leave.

• Strive for a smaller carbon footprint for travel to and from work. Encouraging employees to carpool or ride bikes into work can blunt rising gas prices.

• Reduce breakroom/kitchen waste. Remove disposable products and ask employees to bring their own coffee mugs to work.

• Buy bulk supplies to reduce numbers of individually wrapped products.

The Earth loves efficiency:

• Switching to Energy Star certified appliances allow you to use less energy; additional settings may also help draw minimal power during off hours.

• Motion and/or time sensitive lighting and temperature controls can cut energy use during off hours. Sadly, buying advanced fixtures costs more than having employees simply flip some switches when they leave, but it reduces human error.

• Tankless water heaters reduce the energy required to keep water hot.

• Radiant floor heating reduces extra energy used to heat outside air which may leak into ducts. Water and electric cables are also able to hold more heat than air, making them more efficient heat producers.

• Recycling wasted heat from data centers, waste water, etc., can save real money. Data centers often require energy to cool, while offices in cooler climates (or winter months) are expensive to heat. Filtering cold outside air to cool the data center can reduce your total energy use. Displacing and circulating wasted heat (energy) given off by servers can offset energy use. Routing waste water pipes to preheat water before it reaches the water heater offers additional savings.

Switching to sustainable sources:

• Find a renewable energy supplier that can directly feed your organization or purchase renewable energy certificates (RECs) to reduce your carbon footprint. To find renewable energy sources and RECs see http://www.green-e.org/base/re_products?cust=b

• Buying recycled office supplies means less total landfill waste. Although biodegradable hardware (computer parts, phones, printers, etc) are not really available at this point, you can at least use a buying preference that tends toward companies that use less toxic chemicals in the production of their equipment.

• Check options for supplying your own solar/wind/geothermal energy on-site. For many organizations, on-site power options are not realistic. You’ll save money and external energy consumption and you may even be able to sell excess energy back to the grid.

Running a web-based company obviously requires electricity, not to mention any waste or CO2 produced during packaging and shipping. Here are ways to help offset usage:

• Reuse. Print on both sides of office paper, write on both sides of scratch paper, use refillable pens and pencils.

• RECYCLE. If you are not producing much waste, you may reduce costs by taking bags to your local recycling center. If you are lucky (or convincing), you may even be able to negotiate for cheaper residential pick-up.

• Buy carbon offsets. Carbon offsets exchange your inability to solve the problem locally with a global solution. One versatile non-profit offset provider is http://www.carbonfund.org. I found a comparison of several providers here: http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/carbon_offset_wind_credits_carbon_reduction.htm

Every positive change helps. Please remember this when you stock your supply shelves, pay your energy bill, remodel a building or finish a bottle of water. Remember each time you leave a room, flipping that switch helps us all.

By Jacob Swartwood
jacobs@ebizinsider.com

Tales from the Trenches: A Boot Camp Recap

A few dozen recruits. A daily schedule. Hot meals. Yep. All the makings of a
Boot Camp. But this was not a traditional “Give me 50! Now!” style boot camp. Instead, it was a three-day long E-commerce extravaganza.

A few times each year, Solid Cactus
hosts its E-commerce Boot Camp, an event that displays the company’s vested interest in continuing to educate and inform its clients on the latest and greatest in e-commerce.

The Spring E-commerce Boot Camp drew a varied troop of e-commerce folks. Some were total e-commerce newbies, who were looking to launch their first online store. Others were veterans who have had online stores for a decade or more. Still others own brick-and-mortar stores, too. The clients came from across the US and Canada and the industries were also varied– food, vitamins, health and beauty products, clothing, candy, custom gifts, pet supplies, awards and more.

Despite our different locales and perspectives, everyone was at Boot Camp to learn. The clients learn from the Solid Cactus staff. Clients learn from each other. Solid Cactus learns from its clients. Every day is a school day in e-commerce, and Boot Camp is an extension of that.

The Latest and
Greatest in E-commerce

Between 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday to 4:00 p.m. on Friday, there were 17 sessions, from e-commerce basics to what’s hot and new in the industry.

The sessions included:

• Trust-commerce/Creative Value

• Advanced Features that Make the Sale

• Social Media & Viral Marketing

• Personalizing the Web Experience

• How to Plan for a Redesign

• Alternative Marketing Methods to Help You Grow Online

• New Features for Your Store from Solid Cactus

• Strategic Marketing

• Protecting Your Website
• Is it E-mail Marketing or is
it SPAM?

• Blogging for Business

• SEO vs. PPC.

Additionally, there were sessions that unveiled the newest Solid Cactus offering, Cactus on Demand and the ever-popular site deconstruction session.

“This year’s Boot Camp was ideal for both experienced e-commerce store owners, as well as new up and comers,” said Michael Jozaitis, Search Engine Marketing Manager at Solid Cactus. “The mix of sessions ranged from deep focused analytical and technical sessions to introductory and educational ones.”

“It was exciting to talk about social media with everyone there,” said Jean Lloyd, also a SEM manager. “They didn’t have a good hold on why it was important or even how they could leverage Facebook or Twitter for their business. Maybe some of them were still skeptical when we were done, but I could tell they were more receptive and had a clearer idea of how businesses are using these tools effectively. If even one participant gets the courage to sign up for Twitter and start promoting their business, then I’ll feel good.”

Joan Marchand of MMWIEmbroidery.com said she wished she had attended an event like this before she started her e-commerce site. “(Boot Camp) was very informative,” said Joan. “I think if I came to Boot Camp first, I would have learned from square one, what the best things are to have on my website, what makes people buy from my website.”

Andrew DiMino of CarbSmart.com and a Solid Cactus customer since 2003, is currently getting ready to publish his fifth site, BabyontheBrain.com. His four other sites focus on food products for those on lo-carb, sugar-free or gluten-free diets. His new site is completely different. “This is my first non-food venture, so I am looking forward to taking advantage of all these new features that I didn’t use before,” he said.

DiMino paid particular attention to the sessions focusing on new features and redesigns. It took three planes and three layovers to get from Reno to Wilkes-Barre, but he says it was worth it. “First, you get the chance to meet the staff in person and actually sit down and point to the screen. As a planning exercise, it’s fantastic. Second, I get to see what is new and coming up. Third, I get to suggest new ideas. Fourth, I get to learn best practices from other businesses,” he said.

Clarice “Corky” Fairchild from HorseandWildlifeGifts.com/All Things Equine is currently under redesign with Solid Cactus. She is not new to retail, but is somewhat new to e-commerce. “At first I thought coming would be way over my head, but felt if I was able to pick up a few things, it’d be worth it,” she said. “(Boot Camp) helped me understand the back side of things. My head has grown by leaps and bounds.”

Sharon Robson came along with her brother Fred Robson, of Woodstock Enterprises. Sharon is considering following her brother into e-commerce. “It was amazing,” she reported.
“I didn’t know anything coming into this. I’ve come a long way since Wednesday. Learning the difference between SEO and PPC was very interesting to me. It would have taken me months on my own to learn what I learned in three days.”

Face Time with
Your E-commerce Team

“It’s always good meeting people you work with,” said Fred Robson of his main reason for attending his third Solid Cactus Boot Camp. Robson utilizes several Solid Cactus services and met one-on-one with his account manager, his solutions advisor, marketing team, call center rep and the designers and the programmers working on his site.

“The individual attention you get when sitting face to face is great,” said Joan Marchand. “Solutions Advisor Justin Verry could go over things with me while I was right there. He gave me a good idea on where to channel my money, where to focus my efforts.”

While Boot Camp was in session, the magic was still happening at Solid Cactus world headquarters, where attendees were treated to a tour of the new Solid Cactus Technology Center in Shavertown, as well as Solid Cactus Call Center Services, Inc., located in downtown Wilkes-Barre.

E-commerce Camaraderie

Perhaps one of the best aspects of Solid Cactus Boot Camp is meeting other people in e-commerce- where else can you get one-on-one access to some of the most brilliant e-commerce experts in the country? While the daily sessions are an excellent learning experience, the learning continues after the sessions end and the evening activities begin.

Solid Cactus Boot Camp features activities each evening—from Italian dinner and karaoke to a night at the local casino and then a finale dinner where attendees are “graduated” from Boot Camp. During these events, clients and staff can interact over homemade Italian cooking and other catered affairs, sharing war stories, tactics and tales from the trenches.

Fred Robson likes the fact that he can meet other e-commerce business owners who have similar features on their site so they can compare notes. “It is always good to share ideas and make contacts,” he said, explaining that if he knows another Solid Cactus client has a certain feature, he can contact them to see how it is working. “Boot Camp is great to increase your contact network. It’s joining fun with the learning.”

Fairchild agrees with Robson about discussing current e-commerce issues with others.

“I think being able to network with other business owners is great. I can say, ‘I had that issue and this is what I did.’ You can discuss the issues,” she said, using how she asked Solid Cactus Boot Camp three-timer, Pam Marchola from BlairCandy.com about her Live Chat feature as an example.

The Solid Cactus staff also loves meeting clients in person. Lloyd enjoyed talking about SEM with clients over lunch and dinner. What she learned from Boot Camp attendees will help her with her day-to-day duties as an SEM account manager.

“It was awesome to interact directly with clients. I got a better feel for everyone’s level of knowledge on PPC & Internet Marketing in general. It’s going to help me when I send info out to my own clients,” she said.

Vice President of Sales Lou Pagnotti adds that clients learn from each other at Solid Cactus Boot Camps. “It’s more about learning how to maximize your business through interacting with other store owners and learning best practices and seeing innovative solutions from Solid Cactus,” he said.

Ron Miller attended Boot Camp to learn about e-commerce. He’s looking to take his beauty supply business online. “It was great to see people being so passionate about their websites. I am definitely glad I came,” he said.

Miller, who is new to e-commerce, talked quite a bit to DiMino, an e-commerce veteran of sorts. Folks like DiMino certainly can be looked upon as mentors for those new to e-commerce.

“The beauty of (Boot Camp) is that everybody talks to each other and shares best practices. That’s beautiful,” said DiMino of sharing the knowledge with each other.

Marchand says she had a wonderful time at Boot Camp interacting with her peers.

“We did a lot of laughing,” she said. “It was just interesting to talk with other website owners. It was a great experience. The food was great. The entertainment was great. The people were great. Everything was great!”

Solid Cactus Boot Camp is a must-attend event. As Marchand said, she wished there was an event like this before she got her e-commerce feet wet. DiMino has been
in e-commerce nine years, but says he is still learning each day.

Besides, where else can you sing a duet with your programmer?