Posts from — August 2010

We are still testing hundreds of clients sites to see what is going on with Twitter. Twitter made a decision to change their login methods for those using WordPress plugins. Therefore, if you are using a plugin to post to twitter, you will need to upgrade it or change it.

We are currently testing and feel confident with Twitter Tools for WordPress, while using the Facebook twitter application and RSS Graffitti. Why so many tools?

1. Twitter Tools posts from our blog to Twitter.

2. RSS Graffitti picks up the blog feed and puts it on Facebook, a little delayed but appears about every 30 minutes. It does not update status with images, so we opt out of the status update.

3. Facebook posts to Twitter, if it is a status update only, therefore the blog post going onto Twitter does not get posted twice.

I know, it’s complicated.

Recently we were informed that Twitter has changed their API connectivity which may cause some blog feeds from WordPress to go haywire. We are working on testing for some of the issues and will post results soon….

One of the most neglected parts of ecommerce is getting the word out. Time and time again new internet retailers just put up a site and then do nothing. These are the few that subscribe to the old adage “Build it and they will come.”

A few months or a year goes by and their next move is to call around and find someone to do SEO work because they have heard that Search Optimization will get them some free clicks and they need business. Those who do search optimization are in a great position, everyone knows that being on top of Google is king, and the money to be made by these professionals has hit the roof. As time ticks by not much happens. Sure you get some keywords to rank, but the majority of your promise is still sitting in your website unnoticed.

This is where the shopping feed comes in. Specifically Google Base which has been rolling along bringing great sales to many a smart retailer for free.

Sellers who don’t utilize a platform that does shopping feeds automatically need to get with it. There are many ecommerce shopping carts that do this, and one of the best to do it automatically is ProStores. Set it up, and wallah! Go! You’ve got business. Neglect it and guess what, you’ll be out there paying some programmer disguised as an SEO expert $2 grand to do not much of nothing that will reflect in internet sales.

Another cart that does this is Channeladvisor and Miva can do it using Template Data Feeds by Emporiumplus.com

Moreover you can subscribe to a number of feed services that will do all the updating for you.

So get with it people! Stop complaining about a lack of sales and increase your money making activities on the internet now…. For FREE!