eBiz: eCommerce Video Show

It's time again for a Viewer Mail show. Viewer Alex has a question regarding promoting his products using Adwords and Shopping Marketplaces. He is having trouble "getting seen" due to the unique products he imports and sells. We discuss things a merchant can do to "work their niche" rather than be lost in a see of products. Have a look at Alex's stuff: http://www.blue-macaw.com

Basic information on understanding and interpreting your web statistics. Statistics can show you exactly what should be done to improve your site and it's user experience. This is important stuff.

A few tips on getting your store ready for the holiday season - specifically, Sales tax and shipping issues you may experience.

This episode is nothing more than an update to let you all know that we are still here. We thought we would keep you informed of what we have been doing and where are going. We rant a little about video production, finding the time to produce the show you want and some other meaningless drivel. The moral of the story is... more eBiz e-commerce podcast coming soon...

Now that you are running an online store, have you considered using eBay Auctions to get in front of millions of shoppers? We discuss some issues to consider; Ben talks about script.aculo.us JavaScript Libraries; Eric shares a must read article from A List Apart.

In this episode, we discuss email marketing - the how to and why do and should not issues that most online store owners need to know. We also briefly discuss options to email marketing if you would rather take a different route.Ben reviews some applications you can use to conduct an email marketing campaign the right way - phplist and Constant Contact. Eric takes a quick look at the Web Developer Extension that anyone responsible for a web site should use.

Round Table Discussion: Shopping Marketplaces - Why and how to use them. Ben has some very useful site to peruse and use daily for code, reading or just inspiration. Eric takes a look at Lightbox JS v2.0 as a quick easy way to provide multiple image views for products.

In this season 2 opener: Ben and Eric discuss the Top Ten Make or Breaks for your ecommerce store, Ben offers up a simple usability tip and Eric reviews a light shell.

Our holiday special contains tons of great information for the online store manager. We discuss everything from updating design elements to reminding the admin to carefully watch each and every order.Tips on holiday extras like gift shipments, shipping promotions, extend customer service methods and even how to create gift cards or certificates.

For the Season 1 Finale, we discuss ways to increase customer retention by adding extras to your site that pump up the experience factor when someone shops your online store. There are many ways to improve the online shopping experience - a few are writing in a blog, providing a customer review system, creating an Education Section for your store and possibly even operating a forum. We have some tips on what to consider and pitfalls to avoid when you decide to try one of these.

Increase your sales total per order with these simple ideas. Eric and Ben discuss promotion and cross selling techniques to increase store performance. This show will help you add convenience and incentives to your shoppers experience.

So, here's the deal. We really wanted to do a great little show about online subscriptions. Instead, this show contains little else but loopy, whacky behavior void of any actual usable content. You probably shouldn't even download this episode. Consider yourself warned. UPDATE: Still our most useless show ever.

What's happening on your site this second? If you don't know, that should change after you view this show. In this episode, Eric and Ben take you through two application designed stat analysis, and show you how to get the most out of each one. This is a great episode to watch in full screen as we are going through the actual applications in a screen-cast. If you have Google Analytics, StatCounter, or are just interested in analysis, pull up a chair and enjoy.

If you need SEO, this is the only vodcast you will ever need. Well, maybe not, but according to us, this is the most impressive display of SEO knowledge you have ever heard. For static and dynamically built sites, we offer the information you need to build your content the right way. This is quite a bit longer than our other episodes, so we apologize for the bandwidth. Alright, so there you have it... now go ahead and download it for heavens sake.

Alright, so we get down to the nitty gritty on this intro SEO webtacular. This is part 1 of 3 fantastic episodes for the beginner to intermediate level web professional or online store manager. This edition is specifically geared toward the fundamentals of Search Engines, and how your web page interacts with them. We cover the basics necessary to understand in order to go full steam ahead in the next episode on how to optimize your site for Search Engines.

In this weeks episode, we tackle a Texas sized email from a viewer. We discuss design interfaces and control, what dynamic really means, and why frontpage sucks. This show will help define what skills you may or may not need when it comes to building and managing your own online store Many people and or companies assume that a web guru is needed on staff in order to take on the challenge - this is just not true in today's online marketplace. With a hosted e-commerce suite, all the basic needs are met.

We were in San Francisco at vloggercon 2006 last week - needless to say, we could not record a regular show. This five minute beauty shows a little about what goes on at a conference like this. Also, we were lucky enough to meet up with Amber MacArthur and the TORRENT TV crew and land an interview on Episode 10 - find the show on G4TechTV. Next week, a regular show is planned.

In this weeks episode, Eric and Ben talk about your catalog and it's structure. We cover what it is, how to use it, and tips for large and small catalogs. This is a crucial aspect for your store that might not be apparent in the beginning, but careful planning can prevent massive headaches in the future.

Finally, we are finished with our 3 part series from our friend Robert. In this episode, we talk about how to identify which templates need to be customized, and which can be left alone. If you haven't checked out "Which way do I go?", and "Elements of a store", I highly recommend listening to those first.

Template vs. Custom design, which is better for you and your customers? The second in a series of three video podcasts about template vs. custom e-commerce site designs. In this episode, Eric and Ben identify the different elements of a store. Then in episode 006, the guys will conclude this series with ways to customize the store elements.

Most pre-packaged e-commerce software has templates built in - this is a quick easy way to get your store up and running. In this weeks episode, Ben and Eric discuss some of the differences between a custom store design and using a template based store. This will be part one of a three part series.

Many times, e-commerce managers think they can just open an online store and the buyers will come. Sometimes, this is true - most of the time it's not. So, when you do get those shoppers, make sure you have what they want by providing multiple avenues into your product catalog. In this episode, Eric and Ben discuss different ways to provide links into your online catalog and recommend placement of particular elements you should consider.

Many online catalog come with support for PayPal built in, or you can link from a regular website to PayPal pages for you customers to pay you. Considering using your own merchant account to accept credit cards instead? It can certainly present a more professional storefront experience for your online shoppers. In this episode, a viewer email about accepting credit cards drives a "hit the tops" style discussion of the in's and out's of merchant account gateways for online credit card processing.

Deciding what e-commerce software to use for your new online store can be quite intimidating. There are literally hundreds of options out there - so how do you decide? This week, Eric and Ben discuss four major things you should have in any e-commerce software you are considering for your online store. They are working from a list - in a drastic departure from their regular "wing it" style. These four things consist of easy navigation, quality buy pages, clear accurate policies and accessible customer service.

In this pilot episode, Eric and Ben answer a viewer question and discuss three different approaches to starting an ecommerce enabled web site. Shopping Carts, Pre-packaged ecommerce solutions, and custom made ecommerce avenues are briefly compaired.

In this Pre-Pilot episode of eBiz VodCast, Eric and Ben discuss their inspiration and reasons for producing this video podcast about ecommerce enabled web sites. Also, they highlight some of the ebusiness issues that may be discussed in future podcasts.