M-Commerce

From a recent webinar on the mobile web that Network Solutions put on, I received a link to a guide introducing the concept. From there and the downloaded PDF, I found an interesting discovery about my former employer has moved into the MOBILE COMMERCE world. If you have a Network Solutions Ecommerce site you can now enable a cell-phone optimized version of your online store. I'd heard rumors that they were considering this based on some forum posts a few months back, but I'm surprised and delighted that they have gotten it done. See more information on mobile services or sign up for nsCommerceSpace™ today.

My Time At MonsterCommerce

My First Week At MonsterCommerce
Originally uploaded by ArcoJedi

I was looking through old pics and found this picture of me from what I assume to be my first week at what was then called MonsterCommerce. This was likely early in 2003. I've had one other job briefly, but for the past 6 years I'd been sitting at a very similar desk helping e-commerce clients and growing with and nurturing the technical support department.

At the time of this picture, I'm not yet 27-years-old and the company has about 20 employees that on average were younger than me --at least by a small margin. Our department of new technical support reps was a group of 4 or 5 guys in a small set of cubicles in a basement office. We had utilitarian carpeting on the walls and mismatched dividers.

So much has changed since then that I'd need at least ten pages to tell the whole story. This has been the best job I've had so far in my life. In summary, the company was acquired by Network Solutions in 2006 and became the Belleville office for the leading domain registrar. This purchase was a huge boon to everyone involved; NetSol got the e-commerce, web design and marketing teams that they needed, and MC's leadership got an influx of cash, tools and resources to greatly expand what they did so well and to hire tons more people.

As of September of 2009, I am no longer employed with Network Solutions. This is much to my regret considering the knowledge I've gained and the memorable times spent with numerous coworkers and what I hope will be lifelong friends. Though the separation and new personal direction will be to my benefit in the long run, I will miss the team. I could go into more detail about the separation and the reasons for it, but it would be impolite and unnecessary to hash it out here.

The question remains about what to do with this blog. Clearly the trademarked name of MonsterCommerce is owned by Network Solutions so the URL of monstercommerce.blogspot.com might need to be relinquished. But I see no real reason to do so. Regardless, the blog content is for the most part all mine, so perhaps my own "rebrand" is in order. I could reorganize this into my "Web Developer / E-commerce" blog. Or, incomplete as it is, I could just lock and freeze it as a testament and history of my time and leave it alone for all time.

Just in case someone at NetSol sees this and does want the URL, feel free to let me know but keep one thing in mind. According to my stats I've received an average of less than one (1) lonely visitor per day for the better part of the last year. And since none of the links to the NetSol owned pages that you see have been (or will be) modified, it's not like anyone is getting lost or confused. I'd still honestly recommend Network Solutions E-commerce to anyone who asked.

I'll probably write more about this at my personal blog at some point, but I wanted to update this blog page before the year ended. Thanks for visiting and please check back once a new direction (for me and this blog) has been chosen!

Online Marketing services from Network Solutions

This post is part four of four content articles to help you learn how to market your website. Some of the product names and details of the process are now outdated, but the outline should be good enough to give you a good impression.

Let Network Solutions help you drive traffic to your Web Site. Try one of our Online Marketing products today!

Top 10 Search Results (SEO)

Top 10 positioning in search engines is the most effective form of online marketing. Our experts will optimize your Web site and develop keywords based on the number of listings you desire.

Included with all Top 10 Search Result Packages

• Industry/Keyword Research
• Optimization of Targeted Landing Pages
• Coordinate Optimization Strategy
• Link Verification
• Optimized Content Creation
• Cross-links throughout Web Site
• Optimized Navigational Structure
• Homepage Optimization
• Site Submission
• 3 Positioning Reports/Review

Site Optimization Phases

Phase 1: Selection of Services

You are welcome to browse through our site in order to learn more about our services. Our SEO specialists would also be happy to speak with you on the phone regarding an SEO strategy for your site. Once you are ready for optimization to begin on your site, you may choose a service using our online sign-up forms. You may want to include a Link Building Package and/or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) management services when you sign up. An order confirmation email will be sent to you within two business days of your online order. It will include some special search engine friendly techniques that you can work on while the optimization is in production.

Phase 2: Keyword Analysis

We begin with your suggestions and then review your site to compile a list of keywords to begin with. Our SEO developers will then perform keyword research based on traffic and competition. At that point, you may approve, reject or suggest additional keyword research. (We will go up to 3 rounds to allow you to choose the best ones for your business.) Once a final list is approved, it will be provided to you, and the promotion will move on to the next phase.

It should be noted that you are encouraged to perform an intellectual property review or analysis of keyword phrases. MonsterCommerce and Network Solutions will conduct no review of any third party rights to recommended keyword phrases.

Phase 3: Site Analysis

At this phase in the process, your site will be fully analyzed by our SEO developers. An HTML validation will be performed on your site's home page, ensuring that all of the code is in working order for the search engines to be able to easily spider through all of your homepage text. Minor adjustments may be made at this point in order to increase "spiderability."

We will also scan through your site's links to find any broken links or images and check your site's server status for problems or errors that could create problems when the search engine spiders attempt to crawl through your site. Our back end analysis helps to ensure optimal search engine rankings as sites with improper coding and/or server errors can become obstacles to higher rankings.

Phase 4: Text Writing

During this phase, text will be created using your finalized keyword list (from Phase 2). The text will be written by one of our professional writers/editors and uploaded into optimized pages for you.

Phase 5: Submission and Report

Many important things happen during the Submission and Report phase. Your site will be submitted to major search engines and directories. A site map will be created for your site, linking to your newly optimized pages, and we will make changes to your homepage code and text. We will also run an initial ranking report on your site to determine where your site might already be indexed in the major search engines.

Phase 6: Completion

The completion phase lasts some time. Initially, when the changes to your site have been made and the submission and reporting phase is complete, we will send you a completion email that will contain your ranking report and additional tips for keeping your site search engine friendly and optimized. A second ranking report will be provided to you three months from the completion date and again at five months to help you track your site's progress to the tops of the search engines.

Summary:

• We perform keyword research to develop a list of keyword phrases that have a high amount of search traffic but won't be so competitive that your site doesn't have a chance to reach the first page of search results.
• Our research is geared toward finding targeted keyword phrases that people search for when they are ready to buy.
• We optimize your site in order to position your listings on the first page of the search results in the major search engines.
• Top-ten placement is important. This process can be much faster when combined with a link program.
• Many of our clients are currently seeing top ten rankings at just two and half months after the promotion has been complete.
• This is a long-term promotional solution for your site.

Pay Per Click (PPC) - PerformanceClicks™

Pay Per Click is an advertising model in which the advertisers only pay for each click to their Web site. The ads are served on the web, based on a defined set of keywords or themes relating to the advertiser's business.

Network Solutions® delivers the promise of Pay Per Click with PerformanceClicks™ package. Paid search advertising on search engines is a fantastic way to drive visitors to your Web site. Let Network Solutions create and manage your online advertising.

• Clicks to your Web site
• Targeted traffic from the Yahoo!® network
• No hidden costs - you pay a set fee each month
• Expert search analysts to manage and develop your customized keyword campaigns
• Regular reporting to show you the effectiveness of your campaigns
• Upgrades at any time

The setup fee includes the time the PPC Analyst spends with the initial keyword research, ad copywriting, and the actual launching of the campaign through Yahoo!®. Setup fee is billed at the time of purchase with the first month's package fee.

PerformanceClicks™ may benefit your site greatly if you have one of the following types of sites: mortgage broker or company, lawyers and doctors, real estate or rentals business, debt consolidation, business to business or e-commerce site with high-ticket items.

Search Engine Visibility (SEV)

Search engines have become the primary vehicle for finding information on the Internet. So, if you're serious about your business, it's time to get serious about search. Search Engine Visibility automates the search engine submission process, and provides insight into search engine optimization to help you achieve better rankings in the top search engines.

What You Get

In order to be noticed in search engines it's important for you to have tools and services available to assist you in optimizing your Web site. Our services include expert analysis of your site for factors that together increase the chances that your site will be indexed by the search engines. We will provide a 60 minute personalized tutorial recommending search engine optimization techniques that will help you to increase your rankings based on the analysis of your site. The tools available to you for use in optimizing your site will include:

• Link Popularity Tool
• Meta-tag Generator
• Search Results Ranking
• Keyword Suggestion Tool
• HTML Analysis
• Web site Uptime

We will also provide setup and configuration of reports run to analyze the number of visitors to your Web site. The in-depth Web site visitor and traffic analysis includes:

• Page Views
• Unique Visitors
• Referrers
• Visitor Detail
• Search Engine Referrals
• Search Engine Keywords

Lastly, your search engine visibility product will include automatic monthly submissions of your site to national and local search engines and directories.

Benefits

By committing to use the Search Engine Visibility tools and implementing our experts' personalized recommendations you will gain increased exposure online with a very minimal investment. By taking advantage of our services you will also get your most recent Website content indexed by search engines with configurable, automatic monthly re-submissions.

The optimization tools mentioned above will provide many benefits to you moving forward in your Web site optimization. The keyword tool allows you to easily identify the most valuable search terms or phrases appropriate to your site. You will be able to find out how many other sites link to your Web site by using the Link Popularity tool and also find out how your competitors are ranking for similar keywords so that strategies can be developed to improve search engine rankings.

Customized reports are also provided outlining search engine optimization problems as well as Web site statistics. The search engine optimization report will identify any problems in the Web site code or performance and the statistical report can be run to monitor the performance of the site as well as report the number and identity of the visitors that are accessing your site.

Some of the products and services listed in this article have changed slightly since they were initially published. However, if you follow the link provided in the header, an account manager will be able to discuss your options and get you the best possible solution.

Using SEO & PPC Together! Tutorial

This post is part three of four content articles to help you learn how to market your website.

Why does your business need both organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and PayPerClick (PPC)?

You are sacrificing traffic if you aren't targeting customers in both areas:

• 80% of the time searchers go to the organic results first
• 65% of search traffic goes to the top ten search results
• 60% of searchers click on paid ads sometimes while 12% say they click on them always or most of the time.

Use them together for the most effective marketing strategy:

• Organic SEO is a great long term investment which everyone who is serious about their website should invest in, but PPC can start driving traffic right away. Smart customers will use this to their benefit—Begin SEO and PPC at the same time so you are getting traffic to your site right away, while you wait for your organic rankings start to rise. Once you've obtained strong organic rankings, you can reduce your PPC spending, but you shouldn't stop it altogether.

You should never put all your marketing dollars in one basket—it's too risky. A solid marketing plan should minimize risks and maximize impressions:

• If you have high organic rankings but no paid ads, then you are letting your PPC-savvy competitors steal away some traffic from you b/c a large percentage of potential customers will click on paid ads too.
• If your organic rankings suddenly take a dive due to search engine algorithm changes and you don't have a PPC campaign then you are suddenly invisible in the SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages). Granted you can start PPC at any time, but if you aren't familiar with it, it can take some time (even for a professional) to figure out the most-effective PPC strategy for your site.
• If you only focus on paid listings, you are missing out on the 80% of traffic that goes to organic rankings. Also, research indicates that many customers put a higher "trust" level on organic rankings since many customers are aware that those ads are paid for. You may find that your conversion rate for organic rankings is higher than that of your PPC campaign.
• If you only focus on paid listings and suddenly a competitor enters the PPC market with a big budget that you can't compete with, then you are going to lose your placement and now you are looking at 3-5 months before you can counter that with organic rankings.

Budgeting

PPC and SEO can be combined to offer an excellent search marketing campaign. Together they can help to maximize web traffic, capture highly targeted visitors, enhance sales, and generate brand awareness. By budgeting wisely, you will be able to use PPC and SEO to their full advantage.

• For new online storefronts or websites, PPC will drive traffic to your site immediately. Based on your budget, a good strategy will be to start using PPC advertising, invest in SEO as soon as you have the funds to invest in it, and begin to taper off your PPC advertising as your organic listings begin to increase.
• From a recent study at the Penn State School of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), researchers found that on more than 80% of searches, study participants went first to the results identified as "organic." Sponsored links were viewed first less than 10% of the time. A safe bet is to break down your SEO and PPC budget into roughly 70-80% organic SEO and 20-30% PPC. This will help you drive long-term, consistent traffic to your site.
• Set a goal for the amount of traffic you expect to see in a given day. Then, monitor your traffic sources using a quality web analytics program. Turn on conversion tracking code provided by PPC engines like Google and Yahoo!. Information is power. You will begin to see which form of advertising is working best for your industry and your unique situation. When you know where your traffic is coming from and which visitors are converting, you'll be able to make better marketing decisions.
• Diversify your efforts. Remember that the search engine marketing industry is not limited to these two forms of advertising. Additional options such as blogs, press releases and RSS feeds will help you take advantage of the fact that consumers are first visiting search engines when they are looking to make a purchase.

More!

I also wanted to direct your attention to a new tool available at Network Solutions called the Online Marketing Budget Calculator.

What is Pay Per Click? Tutorial

This post is part two of four content articles to help you learn how to market your website.

PPC is the process of advertising your site through the use of pay-per-click advertisements in the search engines. The search engines sell relevant ads to anyone willing to join in a friendly bidding war. By bidding on keywords, advertisers are able to control when their ads are shown. In many cases the sky is the limit on how high the price will go. However, you only pay when the ad is clicked on, making PPC a very budget-friendly advertising option. With each bid, marketers are guaranteed a certain spot on the search engine page. Ads run on a search engine usually consist of a heading, body copy and a display URL. More often then not, the search ad will contain the keyword that was bid on.

Every day more and more people turn to the Internet to find information, products, and services. As a result, businesses and web site owners are always looking for ways to be found in search results and ultimately drive more traffic to their site. Pay per click, or PPC, is a cost effective and immediate way to do just that. With proper management and a clear focus, pay per click services offer some of the most well targeted, far-reaching, and economical advertising on the Internet.

Pay per click advertising is the fastest growing segment of online advertising. According to a Forbes Magazine prediction, companies will spend $8 billion a year on PPC advertising in 2009. While many companies exist in this space, Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture) were the largest network operators as of 2006. MSN has their own PPC services, called MSN adCenter. Customers specify keywords that directly relate to their business and ones they think people will use when initiating an online search. When a user searches for a product, service, or category that matches what the customer has to offer, their ad appears on the results pages. This means they get clicks from people who are ready to buy. Search engines recognize users who are searching for these keywords and display the customer’s ad to them. Advertisers are charged based on the number of times a visitor clicks on that ad or web site; therefore the cost is action-driven. This means advertisers are only charged when a user who is searching for information directly relevant to their business, clicks their ad. This helps drive traffic, target leads, and convert users to customers.

How Pay Per Click Works

Pay per click involves using the right keywords and ad copy to attract visitors to your site.

• Right Keywords
• Attractive Ad Copy
• High Traffic to your Web site
• Good Landing pages
• The conversions you always wanted.

Benefits of Pay Per Click

There are several benefits to using a pay per click advertising program. Some of the benefits include:

• Quick and effective way to promote products and services
• Advertising is highly targeted and results are quantifiable
• Customer only pays when a prospective customer clicks their ad
• Results are immediate and provide instant traffic
• Different keywords, titles and descriptions can be selected for most effective results
• Effectiveness of the campaign can be measured
• Controlled spending by establishing predefined budgets

Network Solutions Rebrand: Before and After

The past couple of weeks have been busy. Among many other things, both planned and unplanned, we had a major update to the storefront.

Before:

After:

Ecommerce Software Release v7.7

Additionally, we also had a software upgrade for all of our ecommerce packages --timed to coincide with the update above. Please see the Ecommerce 7.7 Release Notes on the forums for more details.

Ecommerce Security

There was also an ecommerce security alert released at the end of July that we are notifying all merchants about. Please visit the site for more information.

Final Feature Comparison [.pdf]

We've recently updated a chart for comparing version 4 with version 7. This form was very beneficial for the last migration process in 2008, but almost all of the version 7 features have been brought up to parity with version 4 in time for the software upgrade this year. Be sure to Download the Ecommerce Feature Comparison [pdf] to become more familiar.

You can also go inside a live Version 7 store using username: guest and password: Netsol1. Thanks and have a good weekend!

We Have Specified Your Canonical

There's been a good discussion lately about a potential Canonical Issue on the Network Solutions Forums and I wanted to explain a little bit about it so that everyone is up to speed. Our top notch ecommerce (v7) development team made a minor software change several months ago based on client-submitted feature requests and the recommendations of our industry-leading search engine optimization experts. We added a canonical link tag to each page. It looks something like this:

<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.com/keyword-url.aspx" />

The intent with this dynamic tag is to indicate to the major search engines which choice is the proper URL for the page that loaded. It's possible that for the example above, a search engine may find multiple links to it formatted as...

• http://example.com/keyword-url.aspx
• http://www.example.com/keyword-url.aspx
• https://example.com/keyword-url.aspx
• https://www.example.com/keyword-url.aspx
• http://example.com/keyword-url.aspx?ref=foo
• http://example.com/keyword-url.aspx?start=25
• http://example.com/keyword-url.aspx?next

Even though a user loading the pages above would see the same content, the search bots would treat them as different --unless there is a specified canonical.

Google added support to this format to allow sites with content accessible via multiple URLs to specify a preferred URL to be returned in search results. We added this feature to point them in the right direction. This feature is a valuable improvement to help eliminate duplicate content worries.

Clients may see temporary fluctuations to their SERPs rankings as Google re-indexes their site to take into account the new format support. However, given the variables involved and recent Google update, it would be nearly impossible to determine the exact cause of any changes in their SERPs.

The forum discussion revolves around the fact that the home page is specified with a /index.aspx rather than just a /. It's perceived that home page ranking may have fluctuated due to this change. It's certainly possible, but I'm also aware that Google changes all the time and it may be unrelated. The SERPs are showing the /index.aspx for the home page, but that just might be because they are now displaying the canonical choice in the rankings page and does not indicate anything that would affect a site's actual listings.

If you'd like more information about Google and how they treat canonical, please see official Google blog post as well as Matt Cutts' post. In the future, we may be adding a new feature that will allow our merchants to specify their own home page for this link tag. But even so, normal "don't panic" rules of SEO should apply.

Domain Name Registration Promotion ONLY $9.99

I was just thinking earlier today that I should start a post series on DEALS that can be found on our products and services. Honestly with everything going on and all the bad news you might here about the economy, you have to cut costs. Well, I've got the inside track and I wanted to make sure to pass along anything I might find that is an exceptional deal.

It's not like it's a big secret, but the company I work for does not sell the cheapest domain names on the market. What might get misunderstood along the way is that we have never attempted to do so. It took me a while to understand this distinction, but most other web services business lose money on the domain name transaction in the hope that the client will sign up for hosting and / or e-commerce and other services. Simply put, the cheap registrars commonly lose money on each renewal and registration. Though that saves the client money in the short term, it makes the registrar's business model harder to sustain when they are identified as a registrar only. We are not just a registrar and we are not normally a source for cheap domains. We are a service-based solution for small business owners who like to know they are dealing with someone who knows what they're doing and is going to be around for awhile.

So when a company working in that direction can still offer a semi-secret promotion on domain names for only $9.99, it should cause some heads to turn. Let me say that again a different way.

Register A New Domain Name With Network Solutions for only $9.99!

And that's not at that special price only when bundled with other products and services OR when you mention a special code word OR sign up for our newsletter. We normally give a free domain when you sign up for one year of service, but this goes one step further. It seemed super special to me, especially if you want to take advantage of the new free business profiles included with each domain.

If what you want is cheap, go pay for cheap and settle for cheap. But if you want a premiere provider and to get a discounted price at signup, reconsider Network Solutions. We are not, nor have we ever been out to swindle anyone. Instead we tell you exactly what you get and what you will pay for it. Our prices are usually higher because our services are better. We are striving forward. You will be pleasantly surprised.

Keep in mind that this site is not a company mouthpiece and I am not just passing something along to help us, but I want to help you. I talk to e-commerce merchants every day and I'm concerned about their well being and their bottom lines. Frankly some of them have more bravery and guts than I do. But more than that, I like to write about the internet and specific stuff related to e-commerce, not just my job. Please know that it won't always be about Network Solutions. But when there's a deal like this one, I cannot keep it to myself. The catch? It ends right before midnight on March 19^th, so you better hurry.

Solutions Stars: The Social Opportunity

Network Solutions produced another video to benefit our clients who are mostly small business owners.

Here is the description from the video.

Small businesses have a fantastic opportunity to bypass conventional media and advertising to directly reach their stakeholders. Whether that's through social networks or blogs, entrepreneurs and marketers can engage their conversations in one on one relationships.

Join us on October 29th at 1pm Eastern for this free, live video conference. You'll hear from 34 renowned small business and online marketing experts. Details at www.solutionsstarsvideo.com.

Create a Website - What You Need to Get Online

It can seem difficult to explain to the uninitiated the steps needed to get a website online. It's not actually difficult, but there is a checklist of things that should be followed each time and it can be confusing to navigate. Here is a video that Network Solutions put together that makes it much clearer.

Here's the video description.

Learn how to create a website and improve your web presence. Understand how to get online and how domains, hosting, SSL, online marketing and email work together.

That makes it pretty simple.

LinkTogether.com Launches!

Network Solutions just launched a new Beta community portal that I'm pretty excited about.

Web Developer Community for Designers, Developers, and Coders | LinkTogether

As the title suggests, this site is for web professionals of all varieties.  Unlike MySolutionSpot, which is for business professionals and marketers, and the more general Network Solutions Forums for clients using our hosting or e-commerce products, LinkTogether addresses a specific need and community. 

What I really like about the image featured on the home page is that it shows a bit of the behind-the-scenes process of creating and building LinkTogether prior to it's launch.  You have a conceptual whiteboard with the current features "Today" and the roadmap spelled out in "Next Steps." 

I'm not in a department that deals with the LinkTogether planning and development, but the great thing is that this niche community will grow itself and is already getting some active members. I can't wait to see where this will go.

If this new community sounds familiar, it was originally posted about on Solutions Are Power. Go check it out!

Ten Popular Features of Version Seven

Here's something I put together for a coworker. In no particular order...

• Customizable Keyword URLs - Beneficial for both users and search engines...
• SEO Fields - Meta / title tags independent of product/category names...
• Customizable 301 Redirects - delete / move pages with confidence
• Advanced Reporting - sales, tax, searches - includes Google Analytics Integration
• Design Sandbox - Manage multiple designs that can be managed and previewed
• Integrated Customizable Forms - Feedback / Contact / Reply
• Shareable Shopping Lists
• Included Import / Export Utility
• Quickbooks Integration
• Customizable Shipping - including regional management and real-time integration
• Extensive Personalization and Variation options

Technically this is 11. But just like Spinal Tap, sometimes you have to have that little something extra. Read more details at Network Solutions E-commerce.

Migration Has Begun

The massive work project of migrating E-commerce software version 4.x to version 7.2 has begun in earnest this week. It's going to get crazy busy around here. Although my role is not directly involved in inbound calls or tickets, but monitoring inbound calls and scoring them for quality, I am tasked with helping out as much as I can when necessary.

As I have predicted, the main brunt of the reaction so far mainly deals with the 'newness' factor. The merchants are accustomed to running their business and web site a certain way on a daily basis and the new system is laid out very differently. Certainly, the most glaring issues are features that were in version 4.x, but are not yet in version 7.2. Some of them are coming soon, but some of them will never be implimented. There is a certain moment of "Why'd You Remove That Feature?!" that occurs, but it's not insurmountable.

What surprises me are the slightly nitpick requests for minor changes that from a certain point of view seem really irrelevant. Software improvements that would benefit all clients using version 7.2 --even those clients that have never seen version 4.6-- are very important and going to get put at the top of the list. But examples that are mundane or easily ignored make me scratch my head. For instance, in v4, when a merchant viewed their orders the customer's shipping information was on the right and their billing information was on the left. However, version 7 has this on the opposite side. If you have a whole team of employees and they're used to it on the other side, this might be a feature request that would seem important. But hopefully everyone understands that this is not make or break.

As an analogy, imagine that I'm going to take away your old jalopy of a vehicle and replace it with a fancy hot rod sports car with all the modern features. It's gonna be the most spectacular ride you've ever sat in, let alone driven. However, there's just one problem. It was made in Germany for British customers. The driver's side is on the right side rather than the left. So, would you sheepishly ask me about this feature? Would you request that it be moved back to the other side like you are used to? Heck no! You'd get in that kitten and make it purr. (...did I really just type that? Yuck.)

This new software is that hot rod. It's the hot rod that everyone's been waiting for. The uninitiated would assume that the whole left/right thing wouldn't even warrant a mention among other more important improvements that are already coming soon. The uninitiated would be wrong...

• Billing/shipping Information
• Please Put The Billing And Shipping Address In Standard Position

Don't get me wrong. I'm not judging these requests and I'm not in a position at the company to affect the decisions on what features get implemented and which ones don't. I'm thankful for that too, as it is likely a stressful position. I guess I'd just like to say that version 7 is damn good and I'm ready to evangelize it to anyone who will listen.

My favorite response to the new version? Check this out.

[The old version]... was working, why change? Did anybody ask for this change? Who said, things are running very smooth, lets screw everything up! How do we switch back to the previous version? [more details]

Who asked for change? Well, I'm really trying not be too blunt here, but you did. Yes, you: Mr. or Mrs. John Q. Client. Our clients as a group were asking for large feature changes across the board and our software development team has delivered those:

• Better stability
• Better SEO features
• Better integration with QuickBooks®
• Keyword URLs
• Better WYSIWYG editor
• ...and ridiculous amounts of little usability improvements all over the place!

Certainly there have been some hiccups along the way --as there will be in any major upgrade like this. I don't know how many times I need to repeat this, but the entire e-commerce platform was re-written from the ground up, starting with code line one. Does this mean that certain more obscure features, such as an export tailor-made for Endicia, might not be implemented right away? Yes. Does this mean that these very very intelligent and adaptable merchants and business owners will have to adjust to new ways of working? Yes! Once they get over that hump will they have the best solution that money can buy? Well, you be the judge. I already know my answer.

Technical Support Supervisor

The e-commerce technical support team here in Belleville is awaiting an announcement concerning an opening for a new Technical Support Supervisor. Personally, I've applied for the position and am interested in this new job role. The interviews were completed in the last two weeks so we should hear something this week. I'm not a betting man and I don't have a good view on who might be the best candidate. Humbly enough, it might not be me and I'll have no problems with the decision if I'm not chosen.

A good philosophy is that all job interviews should be approached as a learning experience, as well as practice for the NEXT job interview.

More information will be posted as it becomes available.

Update (2008/03/14): Congratulations to Dave L. who received the promotion from Senior Technical Support Representative to Technical Support Supervisor. I haven't had a chance to post an update about the announcement until tonight, but I wanted to. He's earned it. In addition to Dave, they have also hired one external new hire to fill a third supervisor position. Growth continues.

Webinar: Ecommerce 101: How to Build an Online Store

This was announced recently. It's a webinar, which means it will be available from an internet connection.

Have you always wanted to be your own boss? Learn how to get an online business up and running. Experts at Network Solutions® and QuickBooks® will teach you how to build a successful e-commerce store and manage credit card transactions with QuickBooks® Merchant Services.

Sign up for Ecommerce 101: How to Build an Online Store.

I'm in the Top 11 Posters

An interesting fact I discovered today on our forums is that I am in the top 20 posters. In fact, I'm 11^th in total number of posts. Also interesting is the fact that besides one client, I'm the only member of this top group that has been active in the last month. See the Member List for more details.

E-Commerce Pro v7.0 Press Release

I can deliver a press release on my blog right?

Premier Online Solutions Provider Network Solutions® Releases E-Commerce Pro v7.0 Web Site Creator Package

Network Solutions makes conducting online business easier with the release of its latest E-Commerce Pro Website Creator package. A number of advancements have been integrated into the new version of the award-winning e-commerce solution to simplify the task of maintaining an online store.

(PRWEB) – Nearly 10,000 online stores are already powered by Network Solutions e-commerce products, which helped sell over $650 million in products and services during 2006. In order to help even more small businesses set up and run an online store, Network Solutions has just released a new version of its award-winning E-Commerce Pro Web Site Creator package. The new E-Commerce Pro v7.0 Web Site solution is an easy-to-use, one-stop tool that allows users to construct a customized online store, accept and process orders, drive traffic, and increase sales. New features and benefits in v7.0 give online entrepreneurs the power and flexibility to quickly meet their online business needs in a more straightforward and organized way via powerful yet easy to use tools right at their fingertips.

New features that are incorporated into the new E-Commerce Pro v7.0 product include a new set-up checklist that facilitates the process of a store set-up by guiding the user from start to finish. The redesigned control panel user interface makes everything easier to find and use, with a new look and feel to allow for faster, simplified design and launch time. The new point-and-click Web site design editor is easier and more flexible, incorporating click-and-drag options and potential customization of all pages. The Web site design editor gives users the ability to manage and make changes to the site design at any time. Newly integrated Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools can help the site get higher rankings on the major search engines, thanks to a built-in sitemap and search engine friendly URLs for product and category pages.

The release of the Network Solutions® E-Commerce Pro v7.0 software is designed to help small businesses succeed online, says Jeff Zimmerman, Vice President of Product Management at Network Solutions. New features added to our already award-winning E-Commerce Web Site package make it as easy as possible for our customers to set up their online business and manage it from day one with ease.

This award-winning e-commerce solution is designed for small business owners who want a fully customizable site design, as well as the ability to boost sales with incentives such as promotions, coupons and discounts. Network Solutions new Pro E-Commerce Web Site package is available at $99.95 a month with a $99 one-time set-up fee. To speak to a customer service representative for more information, please call 1-888-252-3266.

About Network Solutions:

Network Solutions® is a leading provider of e-commerce Web site hosting with an all-encompassing suite of products for small businesses, including domain, e-commerce, free hosting, name registration, Web promotion and other Internet solutions and strategies. With 28 years in the Web services industry, Network Solutions is committed to providing businesses simple and cost-effective web-based solutions. For more information on business to consumer and business to business e-commerce solutions, visit NetworkSolutions.com.

Technical Support III: Job Title

I was just informed earlier today that I am the only member of the company that is a Technical Support III. Job titles aren't really all that important to me. In my past years at this company I went through the ranks of technical support at about the same time they were actually adding ranks.

I was pretty sure that I was the only tech support team member at level III that worked here in Belleville. But as it turns out, I'm a bit of an odd ball in that I'm the only level III in all of Network Solutions. That seems a bit weird. The reason that this happens is largely that there is a career path that most follow from Tech Support I to Tech Support II and then from there jump off to either a leadership position or to another department like Design, QA or Development.

Even though I started in this department the very first week there was in-house technical support department formed, I don't feel like I should get any sort of special treatment. And I am certainly very happy doing what I'm doing in my current role. It's just weird.

Job titles are weird. End of story.

Shopping Cart Software by MonsterCommerce - Ecommerce Solutions

Several great things have happened in the last 24 hours or so that I feel like celebrating.

• First, a new version of our pro e-commerce software has been released, sometimes called version 7.0 Pro. As discussed on the forums, current clients on v4.6 will not be updated to the new version until after the holidays and we are sure that we have a stable and fully tested upgrade/migration script.
• Second, a big update of our standard e-commerce software has been applied, bringing this version more in line with our pro version, albeit still with only the standard features. This version was considered v5.0, but the new version will be called v7.0 Standard.
• Thirdly, to keep pace with the new look and feel of these new programs, our home page has been updated graphically and with more information relating to the new software.

Haven't seen our home page in a while? Stop by at MonsterCommerce.com. You can see screen shots as well as a graphical demo.