Ecommerce Blog

Enter the Sunshine.co.uk competition to win an Apple MacBook Air. It’s very easy, just put a link up! Competition ends March 31st.

Save 25% at Best Of The Web using discount code SAVEBIG. See here for more details. Offer ends March 31st.

Then when you’ve done all that upgrade your WordPress site to the latest version, 2.5. I’m using it to write this post and it’s the biggest upgrade in terms of functionality and changes to the interface that I’ve seen in a while. Very good, I like it.

I’d also like to thank everybody who voted in my last poll, taking a guess as to how much my last “white cars” post had cost me in terms of bandwidth. The correct answer was an additional £600 was added onto my monthly bill I’ve now bought a new domain and intend to build a stand alone site dedicated to white cars. Well that’s the intention but so far I haven’t been bothered.

What I’m listening to right now: Ray Lavender Ft T Pain – “Put It Down”

Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

Things to do before the end of March

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Original post by Kieron

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Original post by Robert Scoble

A lot of companies are now offering e-commerce services, which allow you to launch a new store instantly. Such services are available in wide price ranges, but they all work the same for your clients….

Original post by default@goarticles.com (Bill Pratt)

Original post by Daniel Berninger

Despite only being online since May 2006, Alan Townsend and the staff at stuffedanimals.com saw over 1 million visitors flock to www.stuffedanimals.com and their other store, www.puppet.com. Stuffedanimals.com isn’t just an online store–it is an experience.

Alan explains how they took their fun theme throughout both their website and their company culture. “Since we […]

Original post by blogadmin

Despite only being online since May 2006, Alan Townsend and the staff at stuffedanimals.com saw over 1 million visitors flock to www.stuffedanimals.com and their other store, www.puppet.com. Stuffedanimals.com isn’t just an online store–it is an experience.

Alan explains how they took their fun theme throughout both their website and their company culture. “Since we […]

Original post by blogadmin

Dear Get Elastic Readers: We had some issues with Wordpress last weekend that resulted in a number of glitches with the site while the platform upgraded. Among other things, we lost our About Us page. Thanks to all who dropped me a line to point that out, and a new and improved About page is now in action - including links to my and Jason’s social media profiles (StumbleUpon, Twitter, Sphinn and Facebook). Have a fabulous weekend!

• One of the coolest discoveries I made this week was a new ecommerce podcast by SLI Systems. Check out the first two episodes with guests from Nebraska Furniture Mart and Vermont Teddy Bear Company. You can also subscribe through iTunes right now.

• Have you checked out our archive of the Get Elastic Ecommerce Podcast? If you’re a relatively new subscriber, you might wanna kick back with your favorite bevvie and make it a Blockbuster night.

• For you web designers, Alexis Brion examines the look of log-in boxes with 6 examples of good and bad design.

• Love the title of this one: 7 Most Likely Reasons Your Search Traffic Sucks from the SEOmoz blog.

• Rebecca Kelley from SEOmoz sat in on a PPC webinar and has an excellent summary of it. Very interesting points on how to handle Google’s Content Network.

• Bronto Software has teamed up with Return Path for a 3 part series on sender reputation and deliverability. This week’s post on image suppression and how it impacts deliverability is very insightful.

• If you sell through comparison shopping engines, check out Scott Wingo’s piece on managing long tail terms.
  
  

  

  Original post by Linda Bustos

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Original post by Stacey Higginbotham

Want to stay informed on the latest trends in ecommerce marketing? Subscribe to our feed! We post daily on topics of interest to you and hold monthly interactive Webinars with experts in email marketing, web analytics, SEO, landing page optimization and more.

Sign up by email (box at the top right of the page) or RSS.(What is RSS?)

What is Get Elastic?

You may be wondering why we call our blog Get Elastic. Well, the fingers behind this blog represent Elastic Path Software - an ecommerce software vendor. “Elastic” refers to the platform’s flexibility - as your sales grow and ecommerce trends emerge, you won’t outstretch what the EP platform can help your site achieve. Find out more about how Elastic Path Ecommerce Software can help you “Sell More, Work Less.”

We eat, breathe and sleep ecommerce and we’re passionate about innovation. Get Elastic is a way to blend the two and start a conversation with all online retailers and Internet marketing buffs, whether you’re using our platform or not. We want to stretch your ideas on how to sell on the Internet by covering emerging media and technology. We hope you get a bit more elastic every time you visit.

Get Elastic is also recognized by TopRank as a top search marketing blog, and is also an AdAge Power 150 blog.

About the Get Elastic Authors

Jason Billingsley

I am a Co-founder and VP of Innovation at Elastic Path Software. I’m responsible for exploring new ecommerce technologies and methods for online retail. As principal ecommerce analyst, I consult with some of the largest and most successful online retailers in the world – most recently managing online strategy for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games online store.

I have authored industry research such as “The Ecommerce Checkout Report”, host our monthly ecommerce webinar series, and speak regularly at retail industry events such as Shop.org, Online Market World, and eTail. An online marketer for well over a decade, I have been quoted in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, The National Post, Internet Retailer, BtoB Magazine, Apparel magazine, and Multi-Channel Merchant. In 2005, I was a co-recipient of the Canadian Youth Business Foundation’s National Best Business award, and helped land Elastic Path Software on Profit Magazine’s Hot 50. I am also a recipient of the Terry Fox Humanitarian Award and hold a BBA in Entrepreneurial Leadership. I live in Vancouver with my wife Amy.

jason.billingsley@elasticpath.com

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Linda Bustos

As the Emerging Media Analyst at Elastic Path, I keep my eye on what’s happening in the Internet marketing sphere as it relates to ecommerce. I share my discoveries with you here on Get Elastic Monday thru Friday. You’ll also find me speaking on these same subjects at conferences like Shop.org, the Massive Technology Show and Northern Voice. I’ve been quoted in E-Commerce Guide and have contributed to ProBlogger, Search Engine Guide, Site Pro News and Duct Tape Marketing. This year, I was named as one of Vancouver’s Tech Women to Watch in 2008.

Prior to joining the Elastic Path squad I was the Marketing Director for Image X Media, a Drupal web design and development firm where I was involved in usability and SEO planning for business clients and social network startups.

linda.bustos@elasticpath.com

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Original post by Linda Bustos

There are many important things to consider when opening your business up to online purchases. One consideration could be your ability to handle the demands generated by 24-hour access to your produc…

Original post by default@goarticles.com (Jennifer Loganathan)

So last Wednesday the 26th March I spotted a new campaign on Tradedoubler for the Coke Zone. Here’s the blurb:

Coke Zone Campaign

We will be running an exciting short term lead campaign for Coca Cola - beginning in March 2008. Coca-Cola have created a unique microsite entitled: The “CokeZone”.

The CokeZone is a reward site for Coca Cola customers – which enables them to enter the unique codes found on all Coca-Cola products in exchange for, “Passion Points, which can then be redeemed for a variety of consumer goods via the site. The site is organised by the verticals of fashion, entertainment, gaming, music and travel and also has a “Win It!” section where users can enter into sweepstakes and competitions. You will be paid for generating unique registrations to the site, at rate of £0.45 per lead.

OK I thought, not bad, something which I’m sure my UKOffer.com users will find interesting. So I then looked at the terms and conditions, and this stuck out to me:

- No use of brand terms within the advertiser site URL or domain name

Now as my site is a Wordpress site, if I were to create a new entry that mentiones “Coke Zone” in the title of the post then Wordpress automatically puts that into the URL. So I emailed the named contact for the campaign with the following:

Hi Samina,

I would like to run the Coke Zone campaign on my site www.ukoffer.com, however I am confused by the rules.

My site is a Wordpress Blog and if I was to create a post along the lines of “Coke Zone – sign up for great offers” then Wordpress would create a new URL that would read something like www.ukoffer.com/coke-zone-sign-up-for-free-offers

But according to your T’s and C’s this would not be acceptable as it mentions “Coke Zone” in the URL.

So how do I promote Coke Zone in www.ukoffer.com? I would have to do it without somehow mentioning Coke Zone in the title of my blog post, which would seem very pointless.

This was last Wednesday, I then got an email saying I had been accepted to the programme this Wednesday 26th March (7 days later - sigh) as well as another email saying this:

You have been moved to a different segment of Coke Zone Campaign (Push). To find out the terms that apply to that segment, please log in and look under “Your programs”.

These emails allows annoy me, I don’t know why they can’t state in the actual email what the commission change is, rather than making me log into Tradedoubler. But nonetheless I did log in and found that the commission rate for the Coke Zone campaign has been set to…wait for it….0.00p. Woohoo! I can promote Coke Zone for free if I wanted.

So for some reason I have been accepted and the commission rate set to zero. But why? Well I would love to tell you but my 7 emails to the named contact for the Coke Zone over the last 9 days have all gone unanswered. Maybe they are on holiday? But even so you would think they would have a system in place where emails are monitored wouldn’t you?

All in all I’m really disappointed with Tradedoubler. The communication for this programme has in my experience been non existent. I’ve tried to contact them but aren’t getting any replies. The sad thing is that once upon a time I would have 4 or 5 Tradedoubler contacts on my MSN list who I could have just pinged and asked “what’s up with this Coke Zone business then?” Sadly they have all now moved on so I follow protocol and email the named contact and this is what happens. Come on Tradedoubler, you can do so much better than this…can’t you?

What I’m listening to right now: Usher Vs Mary J Blige – “MJB In The Club” (Mashup Mafia Remix)

Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

The Coke Zone campaign on Tradedoubler - what a shambles

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Original post by Kieron

There has been a significant increase in the number of web host companies due to the enormous growth of online shopping services. A hosting company manages web addresses, credit card transactions, mai…

Original post by default@goarticles.com (gregory martini)

Ten years ago it was not possible for several persons to work from home, which has become famous now. Having the capacity to sell things through the electronic media, or sell a product that has to be …

Original post by default@goarticles.com (norman horowitz)

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Original post by Robert Scoble

Have you wanted the photo editing tools of Photoshop but aren’t interested in investing in software you may or may not use? Adobe just launched Photoshop Express in beta. Photoshop Express will allow you to crop, rotate, tweak, and twirl your photos for free. Adobe even gives you 2 gigabytes of hosting […]

Original post by blogadmin