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Building, Expanding, Teaching, & Succeeding with Yahoo Stores For 10 Years | ||||
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Welcome to the 1 Choice
Yahoo Store Blog.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Don't like RSS? That's Ok! Subscribe to our Blog and get email updates. You can also sign up for our monthly newsletter or get to know Shawna by following me on Twitter. Thanks for coming by and please come back again soon!! Monday, February 08, 2010  Then I went to a conference and they were talking about bounce rates. What the heck is a bounce rate? This wonderful man came on stage and said, "A bounce rate means I came, I puked, I left." WOW! I understood what they were talking about finally. I bought his book and learned analytics. He made it easy for me. His name? Avinash Kaushik. If you have not heard of this man, let me tell you... he is in one word... AMAZING. Avinash WILL help you to understand analytics and he will be on Ecom Experts TODAY!! Instead of me asking him my questions... I thought he needs to be answering YOUR questions. So today is your day to ask this brilliant man anything you want about analytics. Post your question here in the comments section, email them to us, or twitter them to me. Either way, tell me your analytics question so we can help you learn and increase sales today!! Then join me and Avinash at 6:00 PM ET on Webmaster Radio. You can listen live, chat, and have fun!! Just go to: http://www2.webmasterradio.fm/chat/ See you there!!! by: Shawna Fennell Twitter With Shawna | Share on Facebook | Subscribe to our Blog | Subscribe To Our Radio Show  0 Comments  We also asked that you give us a week to think about where to go from here. I already knew what the answer would be but, still wanted a week to verify everything. We are officially moving over to WordPress but, I am not happy about the move. If we wanted to be on WordPress, we would have started our blogs there from the start. So why WordPress now and why not from the beginning? Many people swear by WordPress. They think it is the best software for blogging. In some ways, I agree. **Disclaimer** I am about to go on a tangent - However, we are creating blogs for ecommerce owners with Yahoo Stores. We are creating an extension of your store that will help you gain traffic, search engine optimization, and connect with your customers. However, your first priority is and will always be your ecommerce website. Your first priority is making sure that your customers are taken care, your products are up to date, your conversions are high, and your ecommerce site kicks butt! The blog is a tool that you use to help you in that process. Since the blog is secondary, the blog should be:
Now, take a look at all the different releases from WordPress. YOWSER! I have been with Blogger for YEARS! Know how many times I updated the software? ZERO They did it for me so I could concentrate on growing my business. That is what a blog should do for you!! Guess what else Blogger did for me that WordPress never did? Put my posts in Google in 3 minutes. Don't believe me? Here are pictures I took just 10 days ago that took 4 minutes.  What about all them gadgets that WordPress has? Gadgets are really great. Heck, gadgets can be fun too! Gadgets can also kill your SEO if you're not careful. So when we were building blogs it was all about what was easy, what would get you the best rankings, and what would help you the most! So it is with great sadness that I say yes, we are moving to WordPress. Am I happy? No. Can you tell? Yes. Hopefully beginning next week we will be assisting you in moving your blog from Blogger to WordPress. We will have 3 different packages available for you depending on how many extras you would like. Yep, WordPress comes with lots of extras. We are going to make sure your blog is VERY search engine friendly. We will be able to move your entire blog over to WordPress so that you do not lose a thing. There are many blog converters available to assist with the process. We still have plenty of time for this move. The FTP shutdown does not happen until March 26th and we are not going to do anything rushed in a panic. That is how mistakes happen. I guarantee we will have your blog ready to keep on publishing by the deadline. I will be back with more information soon and hope to have some video tutorials for those do-it-yourselfers as well! by: Shawna Fennell Twitter With Shawna | Share on Facebook | Subscribe to our Blog | Subscribe To Our Radio Show 0 Comments Tuesday, February 02, 2010  If 1 Choice 4 Your Store has built your blog or you are using Blogger.com, there is important information that you need to read. If you do not have a blog or you are not using Blogger, then ignore this post :) Today many Blogger customers received a very frustrating email, Blogger will no longer support FTP publishing after March 26, 2010. This is very sad indeed as Blogger has given us years of great service, great search engine optimization, and quality blog service. However, by removing the FTP publishing... they have removed many of the features that we love best. By publishing our blog through FTP to our Yahoo Store URL:
Here is what you need to know: What do you need to do today? Nothing. We have about 7 weeks until this change takes place. Will I lose all the work I have done for years and years when this change happens? No. That is why we like hosting your blog on your OWN domain. Things like this happen all the time. If you decide to do nothing about this change, you will not lose any of your hard work. You just won't be able to add anymore blog postings after March 26, 2010. What type of blog service should I use instead and will 1 Choice help me move? This question is the first thing that everyone wants to know and my answer this minute (3 hours after the announcement from Blogger), I don't know yet which blog service yet but, I do know 1 Choice will be there to help you. Now, why am I saying I don't know yet? Before I tell you, "We are switching to _____." I want to do my research. I want to make sure that we provide you with the best possible solution that provides you the best possible results. 3 hours is not enough time to make that decision. After a few days of heavy research and testing, I will have more information to provide you. I will make sure once we have made a decision, we will provide you with the do-it-yourself education, as well as have us help you pricing. by: Shawna Fennell Twitter With Shawna | Share on Facebook | Subscribe to our Blog | Subscribe To Our Radio Show 0 Comments Monday, February 01, 2010  If you had a retail store... you could talk to the customer, answer questions, and let them know how friendly you are. You use that communication to encourage them to come back to your store and purchase something. So how do you do that with your online store? Easy - Mailing Lists! Email marketing is a simple and easy way to communicate with your customers... including the ones that haven't purchased from you yet. But how do you get them to sign up? Ron Pereira from Top Right will be teaching us that little trick today on our radio show Ecom Experts at 6:00 PM ET. Ron and I will be discussing: 1. Abandonment rates 2. Techniques to convert shoppers 3. What I think is the most under-utilized conversion tactic out there? Email! 4. Why email is an important weapon in the conversion process? 5. Is it more important for some stores than others? 6. What are “the basics” of getting someone to sign up to your list? 7. Where does the email go after the shopper hits the “submit” button? 8. Where do you put the sign up form? 9. What do you say on the sign up form to get them to give you the email address? 10. What information do you gather? 11. What do you do once you get the email address? Lots of great information! So make sure to join Ron and I on Ecom Experts. You can listen, chat, ask questions, and best of all... LEARN! Just go to http://www2.webmasterradio.fm/chat/ at 6:00 PM ET. I look forward to seeing you there. by: Shawna Fennell Twitter With Shawna | Share on Facebook | Subscribe to our Blog | Subscribe To Our Radio Show 0 Comments Friday, January 29, 2010  This week on Ecom Experts, we decided to try out something a little different. Instead of having a guest, we asked you questions. How can we help your online store? What questions do you have about SEO, conversions, and more? The outcome - Lots of questions on getting more traffic and sales to your online stores. If you didn't get to listen to our show, check out our end of the month newsletter. We give you some great tips for writing unique content to help you get more traffic AND more sales. Plus we discuss:
Make sure to read this edition today! by: Shawna Fennell Twitter With Shawna | Share on Facebook | Subscribe to our Blog | Subscribe To Our Radio Show 0 Comments Monday, January 25, 2010  Today on our radio show Ecom Experts we are going to try something a little different. If it works, we will do this every month! I know that you have questions like:
Some of you have even more specific questions and that is great! We want to answer them on our show and not only help you but, other store owners as well. If you have a question you want to get answered then here is what I want you to do. Go to the following page and fill out this simple form: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ Basically I need to know:
Your privacy means a lot to me. So make sure to let me know if it is ok to share your URL or not. I will not share this information on the show unless you give me the go ahead :) Join me today at 6:00 PM ET to hear all the fantastic questions and our fun live chat room by going to: http://www2.webmasterradio.fm/ See you there!! Sincerely, Shawna Fennell 1 Choice 4 Your Store by: Shawna Fennell Twitter With Shawna | Share on Facebook | Subscribe to our Blog | Subscribe To Our Radio Show 2 Comments Sunday, January 24, 2010  What an excellent marketing plan this was! Game day and everyone's watching the AFC Championship. The game is over so what do you do? After three hours of watching the game, you get online and check your email. And what pops up? An email from an ecommerce store announcing the winner and where to get your team gear. Was this a last minute email? Did someone say last night - "Hey this would be a good email?" Did they wait until the winner was announced to write the email? No - this was marketing campaign a season in the making. They knew there would be a game on this Sunday and they knew the fans of the winning team would want team gear. They knew after sitting there for three hours, you were going to go check your email. So they wrote two emails and someone behind the curtain said go with Colts email. Planning and preparation just like the execution of any game. So what are you doing today to market your store for Valentine's Day? What about Mother's Day, Father's Day, and the Holiday Season 2010. Get a calendar out tonight and start a marketing plan for 2010. Get ahead of your competition. by: Shawna Fennell Twitter With Shawna | Share on Facebook | Subscribe to our Blog | Subscribe To Our Radio Show 0 Comments Friday, January 22, 2010  If you haven't heard by now, the New Life Event is back! 30 Webinars in ONE weekend - All Free. But momma and I had a disagreement about one tiny little thing... Pre-Event Giveaways You see, I wanted to give out a Netbook like mine. I have an awesome little Toshiba Netbook that I travel to conferences with. It has 9 hours of battery life!! I thought this was the perfect contest prize. Mom thought it would be better to break up the prizes into smaller amounts so that more people could win. So how do we solve this dilemma? We tested it. We sent out a survey. We are still taking your feedback but, so far... I was wrong by 2-1. You guys wanted more prizes instead of one bigger prize. But there is a MUCH bigger picture to learn here: Whenever we think we know what is best for our visitors, we are usually wrong. That is why we should always test test test. Don't assume that you know what is best for your customers. Don't assume that the red add to cart button will get you more sales then the orange. TEST that theory. One small change in the color of your add to cart button can increase your conversions by 35%. Maybe your customers want blue, my customers want red, and their customers want orange. You never know unless you test. If you would like to take our survey, please visit: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TDRJWQS If you would like to register for the New Life Event go to: http://www.newlifeevent.com/ If you would like 200 add to cart buttons FREE go to: http://www.1choice4yourstore.com/free-add-to-cart-buttons.html by: Shawna Fennell Twitter With Shawna | Share on Facebook | Subscribe to our Blog | Subscribe To Our Radio Show 1 Comments Thursday, January 21, 2010  According to the latest press release from ComScore,retail sites continued to climb in December as Americans scoured the Web for deals this holiday season. Among the top-gaining Retail sub-categories were Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories, Sports/Outdoor, and Flowers/Gifts/Greetings sites, each growing more than 20 percent versus November. Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories sites attracted nearly 23 million visitors during the month, representing a 30-percent increase from November. eBags, Inc. led the category with 2.9 million visitors (up 28 percent), followed by Coach.com with 2.2 million visitors (up 26 percent), Zale Corporation with 2.1 million (up 48 percent) and Kay Jewelers with 1.7 million (up 69 percent). Sports/Outdoor sites grew to nearly 39 million visitors during the month, a 25-percent increase versus November, led by eBay Sports U.S. with 5.1 million visitors (up 21 percent), which was closely followed by Cabelas, Inc. with 5.0 million visitors (up 26 percent). DicksSportingGoods.com grabbed the #3 position with 4.6 million visitors (up 39 percent), followed by SportsAuthority.com with 2.9 million visitors (up 29 percent). Flowers/Gifts/Greetings sites saw a 23-percent gain, reaching nearly 39.8 million unique visitors in December. AmericanGreetings Property led the category with 13.6 million visitors (up 18 percent), followed by Gifts.com with 6.8 million (up 49 percent), Hallmark with 5.6 million (up 46 percent) and 1-800-Flowers.com, Inc. with 2.9 million (up 48 percent). Check out the full press releaseby: Shawna Fennell Twitter With Shawna | Share on Facebook | Subscribe to our Blog | Subscribe To Our Radio Show 0 Comments Monday, January 18, 2010  Yahoo Shopping has merged with PriceGrabber. In order for your products to be found on both shopping search engines, you need to make sure to sign up for a PriceGrabber account, and upload your data feed. This is a very simple process and we explain each step with this video tutorial. Transcript: Signing Up For PriceGrabber / Yahoo Shopping for Yahoo Store Owners We are on the PriceGrabber sign-up page for Yahoo Stores and we are given two different options. Do we want to join the Yahoo Shopping network only or Yahoo Shopping and PriceGrabber? For the purposes of this tutorial, we will sign up for both. The first thing that we are asked is to give our merchant member name and this is the name that shows up next to our products. You want to make sure to put in the name of your company. We also need to put in our website URL. One of the things I like to do when I'm putting in my website URL is to actually go to our website, copy the URL, and paste it into the URL field. This is something that you don't want to mess up and I like to get it exactly as it should be. We are going to go ahead and fill out the rest of this information for account and billing and skip this part for you guys. We will come back when we are all done. Now that we have finished putting in all the information for account and billing information, we get into payment options. You can choose to be charged the initial deposit one time or enroll in the auto pay plan. The difference - With the first option, whenever your account balance gets low they’re going to e-mail you and let you know. Then you can choose to add more funds. The auto pay plan will automatically charge your card whenever your balance is low. The choice is yours. Then you have to agree to the referral marketing agreement and decide if you want to add a logo next to your listings. If you want to add a logo, you will be charged $.10 per click. Understand that it will cost you $.10 per click to have your logo next to your listing. Should you do that? Is it going to increase your conversion rates? The only answer to give you is test test test. But once you decide either way go ahead and click on the continue button. For step two we do quick e-mail verification and click continue. Now we're going to be asked about our feed format. Do you have a product data feed? Yes. Is the feed visible? Yes. You see the Yahoo Store sets up this feed for you. What we want to do is go into the back end of our Yahoo Store and go to the bottom left-hand side underneath promote. Click on search engines. What I want you to do is look under Enable and Submit Your Product Catalog and Shopping Search Engines. Make sure those are enabled then go to the catalog.XML. Copy that URL and go ahead and paste that URL into the feed URL. Click on save and finish later. This is going to log you out completely. That's okay because the next step is logging into your account and verifying that the URL for your feed works. So how do you know if that feed URL works? You click on analyze feed and if it doesn't work you'll get this big red box that says please correct the errors marked in red. Now if you get this error, don't worry. Go back into the store and grab the objinfo.XML link info instead. Paste the URL and click analyze feed. Everything should be complete. No red box everything looks good we can go ahead and click on the continue button. We are given a little warning here that says our feed doesn't contain any shipping costs. Now that's not a problem because we can actually go in and enter our shipping information right here. The formula we use is a flat fee and we're just going to put in zero as our shipping cost because we have free shipping. For our taxing rates the shipping is not taxed because we have free shipping. We are going to go ahead and click on our state which is Michigan. Put in the tax rate of let's say 6% and once you're done with that go ahead and click continue button. Everything is done. Your registration is completed. Within 1 to 2 business days you should see your products in PriceGrabber. If you don't see your products after five business days, go ahead and give their customer service a call. We hope you enjoyed this tutorial on setting up PriceGrabber and Yahoo Shopping. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. Make sure to visit www.1choice4yourstore.com for more Yahoo Store tutorials. by: Shawna Fennell Twitter With Shawna | Share on Facebook | Subscribe to our Blog | Subscribe To Our Radio Show 0 Comments |
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