Imagine 2013 - My Foray into the Marketplace
Walking into the Marketplace at the Magento Imagine 2013 Worldwide Conference was like coming down the stairs on Christmas morning as a kid. Everything I could ever possibly want for our cli...
Tips for Online Business Success
As a store owner you ask yourself a multitude of very important questions all the time and most of them deal with increasing sales and growing revenue. When I talk with store owners, I like...
Magento Extension Favorite - Gift Certificates by Unirgy
I find that gift giving seems to get harder and harder each year – or maybe I just have less time to think about, much less go out and purchase, the many presents that I need to. I like to f...
Amazon Buys Goodreads
I am a web aficionado and a serious book reader, and Goodreads is one of my favorite websites to learn about books. The reviews from this site often provide me with the final purchase making...
A Look at the History of Web Design - Part 2: What Color is That?
Designers love color. They are particular about color fidelity. In traditional design mediums, techniques to precisely control color are mature and reliable. Historically, on the web color d...
Marketing is Time, Money and Desire
When talking with retailers they often ask for advice around marketing and developing a marketing plan. However, I find it impossible to give any advice until I listen to the retailers and g...
The Shopaholics Guide to Creating a Shoppable Website
Long before I started helping specialty retail stores bring their business to the web, I was considered a shopaholic by many. With the advent of online shopping, I fear my addiction only gre...
Retailers, Get Employees & Customers to Blog for You!
I talk to a lot of retailers and I find many grind to a complete halt when it comes to their blog. They simply don’t have the time or desire to write their articles. I also find I need to ch...
Communicating With Your Website
If you really think about it, your website is just another form of communication. And for websites, that communication is really an attempt to persuade. It’s pretty simple. You reach out in...
Product Descriptions That Sell
For those of you who are part of the Seineld generation (Jerry, Elaine, George & Kramer), you may remember the famous product descriptions from the J. Peterman catalog like the one above. In...
The Mystery of the Tag: Using Tags Correctly
When I started blogging, someone showed me how to enter my blogs into WordPress. They walked me through how to enter content, pictures, select categories and add tags. With that, I was off a...
Photography Q & A: Shooting Tips
Q. Knowing that I have the Nikon D300 and a 70-300 lens, do I shoot in manual mode? Please tell me where you normally start with the settings for fstop, shutter speed, iso, etc. I just wante...
The Photographic Principal - Rule of Thirds
As a photographer, I’m a follower of the Rule of Thirds principle when shooting images of any kind. This rule absolutely applies to your website - especially if you shoot your own home page...
Are Your Customers Receiving Your Emails? How to Avoid Being Flagged as Spam.
As a retailer, you want to keep in touch with your customers on a regular basis. You take the time to collect their email addresses when they check-out in your store. You give them an option...
Don't Miss Sales Opportunities. Link to Your Website.
Working closely with retailers every day on their e-commerce sites, I am proud to say that most of my clients are using social networking in their regular marketing efforts. They’re posting...
Photography Q & A: Camera and Backdrops
I have the Nikon D300 and a 70-300mm lens or do I need a different lens? Would you buy a paper backdrop or invest in cloth backdrop? We want it to be big enough to cover the floor as w...
Responsive & Elastic Websites: Designing Your Website So It Works Everywhere – Mobile, Tablet and Desktop
On Wednesday, January 16, 2013 I gave the following presentation on Responsive and Elastic Websites to one of our partners and thought I'd share it with you. While I'm sure some of the conte...
Why We Love WordPress
For anyone in the world of blogging or e-commerce, WordPress is a pretty much a household name. What started as a great blogging platform has evolved into a full Content Management System (C...
A Look at the History of Web Design - Setting the Table
Ever since the first web server came online in 1991, clever people have been inventing techniques and software, and pushing limits to make web pages and web sites more useful and engaging. A...
Converting Sales with One Step Checkout
Have you ever waited so long in line at a store that you set your merchandise down and walked out the door? Have you seen a new cashier struggling with a problem with the customer five peopl...