Collectibles and Toys - Star Wars

In case I didn't mention it, I'm a big Star Wars fan. Today, I got a chance to combine my love of Star Wars with my day-to-day job. A team member in the Signature Support department was trying to help a client that was expanding into a line of Star Wars products in an interesting way. The client is listing products for a supplier of Star Wars merchandise, but is not selling them directly. The intent was for the products to be listed normal in a new category on the site, but each would actually link from the product detail page to the affiliate site.

The result would be products listed in this category and that would load in searches but after viewing the details, the only choice to purchase the product would be to click a link to the other site. The outgoing link would have a referral ID that would be tracked with visitors or orders and our client would get the bonus.

Our software is not exactly set up for this specifically, but we came up with a good workaround by using the Call for Price feature. This allows for the ADD TO CART image to be hidden along with the price and replaced by the message in the product editor. Well, as it turns out this message field is not just a text-input box, but can accept limited HTML. We set up each of the products with Call for Price enabled and the message had an HTML link to the product page at the affiliate site with the proper referral ID. The result was simple and could be accomplished quickly.

To check it out, go to TVLegacy.com - Collectibles and Toys - Star Wars.

Update (2008-05-07): It appears that this client's domain name no longer points at the site. Oh well, that's the way the internet cookie crumbles.

Network Solutions Ownership Change Closes on Schedule

Although it had already "leaked," the news was made officially public today.

Network Solutions Ownership Change Closes on Schedule

Network Solutions, the leading provider of online solutions for small businesses, announced today that General Atlantic, a leading global private equity firm, has completed its transaction to acquire Network Solutions from Najafi Companies (formerly Pivotal Private Equity). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Joining the Network Solutions Board of Directors are General Atlantic Managing Directors Mark Dzialga and Anton Levy. Additional directors will be added to the Board in the coming months. Champ Mitchell, chairman and CEO of Network Solutions, and the current Network Solutions management team will continue to lead the company.

Around the office, this was treated with the same manner as generally interesting but not overly important news. If you read the details a bit, you'll notice that General Atlantic purchased Network Solutions from another company whom I'd only heard of in passing. Both are private equity firms.

But there were several clients that posted publically and reacted as if this were more alarming and life-changing news than the purchase of by Network Solutions. I guess I didn't really understand that reaction, but it's probably a knee-jerk response after the surprise acquisition from over a year ago. Perhaps it's because they were not fully aware (like me) that Network Solutions was already owned by a different company. The attitude internally is that this will cause little noticable change for us, just business as usual.

Read the full press release at Network Solutions Ownership Change Closes on Schedule and read other important news on the Network Solutions Newsroom.

MonsterCommerce | eCartReviews

Here is an independent blog and forum site with reviews and information about e-commerce software like ours. I've linked to the blog category referencing MonsterCommerce | eCartReviews.

RSS Feed Trends » MonsterCommerce

A news blog named RSS Feed Trends has a category of posts about creating RSS feeds for your e-commerce storefront, including .

The idea of the company that has created this blog is for users who can't publish or host an RSS feed on their own e-commerce site, or don't want to publish it manually. You pay them a small monthly fee to host and maintain your feed. You set up a sub-domain to point to their servers which will load your feed. You are in control of what goes into the feed, of course.

I personally think a better (free) option might be FeedBurner. You can create an account and get great statistics and tools related to any and all of the feeds you publish. You can combine feeds from more than one source and it will all be part of your new feed. FeedBurner does not offer sub-domains for free, but they do have a paid service which will allow you the same functionality.

Update: FeedBurner now allows you to use a sub-domain on your feed for free! They were also purchased by Google, so if that's not an endorsement...

How to Attract New Customers With Google AdWords

Here is a very useful article on how to get started with Google Adwords for the first time. An effective web marketing plan will include Pay-Per-Click advertising from the very beginning and Google's system is one of the best to get started with.

Small Biz Resource - How to Attract New Customers With Google AdWords - Small Business Business Analysis

The AdWords program allows you to target your advertising to customers seeking your services by specifying key words with which you'd like to associate your product or service.

The best part is that Google's fee for the service is structured so that you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad -- and you set a cap on how much you're willing to pay. Assuming that your goods and/or services are satisfying to customers and that they will become repeat consumers, the ability to use Google advertising to draw in new customers has tremendous value for small businesses.

The four-page article walks you through all the necessary steps with some well done screen shots to highlight the features and benefits.

More information:

• Budgeting PPC and SEO
• Tips For Enhancing Your PPC Results
• Understanding Click Fraud
• Keyword Density Analyzer
• Keyword Suggestion Tool

Don't have the time to learn PPC advertising yourself? Have Network Solutions Online Marketing take care of it for you.