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Tuesday, May 31, 2005 Question Received: Hi, I really love the new blog! I have a question that might be of interest to the readers. As I was adding content to my "My Yahoo" page, I came across a RSS feed of picnic accessories. The feed is of specials coming from another Yahoo store. By adding this module to my "My Yahoo" page, I am able to see updates to that store's page immediately. I was wondering how this is done, and if it is worth while to imitate in my own store? Warm regards, Kristina Fun Things for Wine, your online source for fun wine accessories and ideas. Sign-up for our free newsletter at http://www.funthingsforwine.com First, thanks Kristina for the great question!! ABSOLUTELY!!!! This can be a wonderful selling tool for your Yahoo Store! This can be used to let customers know about specials, coupons, new products, information, and much more. Most people know how to get a customer to their store, but they do not know how to keep the customer coming back. This could be an extremely useful tool! We wanted to find out how this was done and what you needed to do and came across some great information. First off the information from yahoo regarding the RSS Feeds and My Yahoo is located at http://my.yahoo.com/s/publishers.html Then we went to http://www.blogger.com which is where we have our blog and searched for answers on how to get our RSS Feed going. We were redirected to http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/home They had a super easy set-up for syndication of our blog. If you look down the left hand side of our blog, you will see that we have links set up for RSS Feed, add to My Yahoo, and even My MSN. From what we read, you want to add your Feed to your My Yahoo Page as soon as possible. This way Yahoo will pick it up and put it in their directory. Thanks again for the great question! by: 1 Choice 4 Your Store Monday, May 30, 2005 Earlier today we posted that many sites had lost their Page Rank completely including Google. Our advice was to sit back and relax and wait things out. Page rank is back! It seems that the rankings are still a bit fuzzy out there but again, relax and wait is all we can say while Google gets their act together and figures this all out. In the meantime, continue to add more content! by: 1 Choice 4 Your Store Have you completely lost your pagerank? Have your rankings completely dropped? This is all part of Googles update called the "Bourbon Update" Right now everyone is still speculating. Nothing is definate. You can read countless threads from people who think they know what is happening but nobody knows for sure except for Google and they aren't talking. If your site has dropped in PR....Don't worry. Everyone has 0 pagerank right now including Google. Is page rank a think of the past? We do not know. If your site has lost major rankings...Do not panic. Do not start making major changes to your site. I know this is difficult but you must sit back, ride the wave, and see what happens. In my own opinion, it seems that sites that have used techniques to get their site to the top quickly are the ones losing. Keyword stuffers, link monsters, and so forth. Sites that are using good, honest, and clean SEO techniques have had their rankings stay the same and/or have better results. We have checked our rankings and 90% have stayed the same or are better. 10% is typically what we see go down and change around. That just means those pages need a little more work. Remember these few things: Do not spam for the search engines. This will only get you in trouble. It's cheating. Add new content constantly. Keep your site fresh and clean and up to date. and the most important..... Keep calm and be patient. Good things come to those who wait. by: 1 Choice 4 Your Store If you are using the standard Yahoo Store then you will want to go to each page that you want to change your title, click edit, then click Override Variable, Choose Title, then click update. Now you will see a new box for your title and fill out this information. Remember, you want to be as focused as possible!! Do not go overboard here using every keyword that you can think of. Write a clean, easy to read title, and include one major keyword/keyword phrase. Make notes of everything that you do so you can make changes if need be.If you are using custom RTML templates in your Yahoo Store, then you need to determine how the titles are being picked up. In most cases, the above trick will work. Is there an easier way to do this? ABSOLUTELY!! We can convert your RTML tags to automatically use the name (or headline) field as your keyword/keyword phrase. We can also program your RTML to include a meta tag description for each and every page of your store. We can also change your Title Tags to pick up the name of your item plus the section name from above (this works really great for SEO)This service is normally 149.00 but mention that you read about this on the blog, and we will give you $49.00 off!!! That's a savings of 33%!!This special will not last long so inquire today by calling 888-312-7839 by: 1 Choice 4 Your Store Tuesday, May 24, 2005 If you are using the standard Yahoo Store then you will want to go to each page that you want to change your keywords, click edit, then click Override Variable, Choose Keywords, then click update. Now you will see a new box for keywords and fill out this information. Remember, you want to be as focused as possible!! Use at most 5 keyword/keyword phrases. Never use the same word more then 3 times. Make notes of everything that you do so you can make changes if need be.
If you are using custom RTML templates in your Yahoo Store, then you need to determine how the keywords are being picked up. In most cases, the above trick will work. Is there an easier way to do this? ABSOLUTELY!! We can convert your RTML tags to automatically use the name (or headline) field as your keyword/keyword phrase. We can also program your RTML to include a meta tag description for each and every page of your store. We can also change your Title Tags to pick up the name of your item plus the section name from above (this works really great for SEO) This service is normally 149.00 but mention that you read about this on the blog, and we will give you $49.00 off!!! That's a savings of 33%!! This special will not last long so inquire today by calling 888-312-7839 by: 1 Choice 4 Your Store Saturday, May 21, 2005 Most people do not think of SEO as a game. Let me take 5 minutes of your time and explain how SEO is simply a game of Chess. I remember as a teenager learning how to play Chess for the first time. Man it was complicated. Each piece moved different ways. You couldn't take shortcuts and get the game over with. You had to really think about your moves and watch your opponents moves as well. With each move they made, you had to analyze your next move and even the best plans of attack had to be readjusted constantly. The game was always changing depending on who you played against. But once you understood the game, once you understood all the components of the game, you were hooked. The same goes for SEO. The First Step to playing the SEO Game is understanding the game. Google Rules and Guidelines can be found at Setting Up Your Chessboard (or website) Set up your website correctly from the start. Make sure all the pieces of your website are were they belong. For instance, place your Title tags and Meta tags into your headtags. Create clean style web pages from the start. Move your javascripting and css off the page and into their own file so that the search engines can get to what is important right away. Playing The Game In Chess, the rook and the bishop do not move the same way on your chessboard. Understand how each piece of the game moves and works and use them to help you win the game. The same is true for your SEO. For example, many people do not use their head tags correctly. They try to stuff as many keywords as they can think of into the Meta Keywords tag. This will not get you far in the game. Try to be focused in your keywords. Use 3-5 keyword/keyword phrases at most and never use the same word more then 3 times. Make sure you are using all the pieces of the game. Title tags, Meta Tags, H1 Tags, Content, Links, Relevancy, etc. Some people think when playing chess that the pawns are really of no use. You can lose them, you can keep them, no big deal. The same can be said about Meta Tags. However when playing against Yahoo or MSN, they will take advantage of your pawns. More Know who you are playing against. The more information your have about your opponent and how they play can greatly increase your chance of beating them. The same can be said about search engines. Understand how they work and how they find sites. Knowing your opponent can help you to win. But also keep in mind that as time moves on, your opponent is getting stronger. They are constantly changing their game to keep up with the new breed of chess players. You may be able to beat them today, but in 6 months, they may have a new strategy. Keep a close eye on them and change your game to Keep in mind that your opponent will never tell you how they are going to play the game. There are secret strategies that only they know. Many will guess as to what those are, but nobody will ever know their strategy 100%. Do Not Take Shortcuts Just To Get The Game Over With The same can be said about using spam techniques to get your site listed quickly and to the top. Spam techniques may work for a short time but once you get caught, you are banned from playing the game. Google states this about spam, "Trying to deceive (spam) our web crawler by means of hidden text, deceptive cloaking or doorway pages compromises the quality of our results and degrades the search experience for everyone. We think that's a bad thing." Basically spamming is a way of cheating the game to win faster. Remember chess is not a quick game. It takes time and patience. No one wants to play with a cheater....NO ONE. Capturing the King - CHECKMATE Content is King. Content is the way to win the game. Without capturing the content, you will lose the game. Each of the search engines look for relevancy within your page. If you state that your page is about red dogs with hats, and you have a page written about blue cats with shoes, it does not work. Keep your pages focused. If you are writing about red dogs with hats, write about those red dogs with hats only. If you also have red dogs with boots, then give them their own page and write about them boots separately. Keep the pages focused and on track. The title tag would be about the red dogs with hats. The meta tag keyword would be about the red dogs with hats. The meta tag description is a nice 250 character description about the red dogs with hats. Use a H1 tag high on the page that has red dogs with hats. You can use css tags to make the h1 tag match your site. Then write clear, focused, original content about the red dogs with hats. Start out with 3 paragraphs and mention the red dog with hats once in each Keep adding fresh and unique content to your site. Do not let your site go into stalemate. Once you look at SEO as simply a game, it makes it that much more exciting to play. And it's even more fun TO WIN! by: 1 Choice 4 Your Store Thursday, May 19, 2005 You have heard the phrase LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION. But wait, this is online! You don't have to worry about location...or do you??!! Location is everything! Let's take a moment to really think about this. You need to find something. What do you do? Most people will go to their favorite search engine and input what they are searching for. They will type in a few words that describe what they are looking for. The Search Engines come back with the most relevant websites for your search. However, your search for a keyword can result in thousands of links (if not millions). So now you begin the task of clicking one by one on these links to find the information or service you need. You may go through page one to find what you are searching for, you may go through all of page two, but did you get to the website on page 10? If you are shaking your head No (who has that kind of time?) then you have realized how important LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION is to your website. We need to get your site located on the first page. The quick and easy answer to this problem is of course PPC (Pay Per Click Advertising such as Google Adwords or Overture). But this is not the smartest way to solve your problem. Now we see why SEO is so important Yahoo Store. If you can keep your cost down and profits high....then you have overcome the hardest part of being a store owner. Everyone wants to be listed in the number 1 spot. But most companies do not get listed under any of their keywords because they do not know how to implement search engine optimization (SEO). We have found that most store owners state their largest expense is advertising. Imagine if you could cut your advertising in half! Imaging if you could eliminate your advertising cost all together and still achieve the same sales (if not more)! This is our goal for you over the next few posts. To really discuss how to make the necessary changes to your store to achieve the dream of number ONE! by: 1 Choice 4 Your Store Wednesday, May 18, 2005 We have partnered with www.emerchantdiscount.com to provide our customers the absolute best pricing available when it comes to your credit card fees. Yahoo has partnered with Payment Tech for Processing Credit Cards however, I recommend that you look over the following information and see which Let's look at an example of 2 stores. Payment Tech Fees - 2.69% and 2.58% for debit cards plus 0.20 per transaction 22.95 per month plus you must wait 5-7 business days to receive your money. In this example we are assuming that your average sale is $30.00 $5,000 a month in sales. 166 transactions per month. Payment Tech - 22.95 + 134.50 (Percentage Fees) + 33.20 (Per Transaction Fee) = 190.65 1 Choice Price 9.50 + 111.00 + 19.92 = 140.42 You Save $50.23 A Month or $602.76 A Year $20,000 a month in sales. 667 transactions per month Payment Tech - 22.95 + 538.00 + 133.40 = 694.35 1 Choice Price 9.50 + 438.00 + 80.84 = 527.54 You save 166.81 a Month 2001.72 a Year Deposits are typically made within 24-48 hours. Give them a call and provide them your current statement. 99.9% of the time, they can save you money. Emerchant Discount Tell them 1 Choice sent you to qualify for our rates. by: 1 Choice 4 Your Store Monday, May 16, 2005 We have signed up with Bloglet so that our faithful newsletter subscribers can now receive daily updates, tips, and information via email about their Yahoo Store. What type of information will you receive? Depends on the day! We belong to tons of different newsletters so you do not have to. Only the best articles and weed out the ones that have been seen time and time again. A thought or a tip on how to increase your SEO. A thought or a tip on how to increase your conversion rates. A thought or a tip on how to do something really neat with RTML. A new tool that is so amazing, you have to have it RIGHT NOW. A silly but meaningful joke that only true business owners could ever understand. You name it, we will have it! Subscribe today! by: 1 Choice 4 Your Store Welcome to 1 Choice 4 YStore's New Blog! We hope to provide Yahoo Store Owners tips, tricks, and advice on running their online stores. We have had a HUGE response to our online newsletter that is published each month and have received many requests to publish a newsletter more often. We really spend quite a bit of time putting together our newsletters and thought a blog would be easier to keep up with and provide daily updates to. We hope you enjoy the new blog and you can always visit http://store.1choice4ystore.com/newsletter.html for the latest newsletter. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you have about your Yahoo Store. Answers will be posted here on the blog within a reasonable amount of time. by: 1 Choice 4 Your Store |
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