Ecommerce Dictionary: 20 Words to Know

http://www.ecommerce-guide.com//article.php/3884326

By Vangie Beal
May 26, 2010

From launching an e-commerce website to understanding industry regulations, this Ecommerce Dictionary -- with 20 definitions and links to helpful tips and how-to articles on Ecommerce-Guide.com -- will make your transition from retailer to e-tailer easier a much easier task to understand.

Ecommerce Hosting Lingo

Before you can open up shop online, you first have to find a place to host thewebsite. This Ecommerce Dictionary explains some of the more common types of ecommerce site hosting phrases you are sure to encounter when setting up your online business.

Dedicated hosting: Sometimes referred to as a dedicated server, it means your website is the only one on hosted on the server. With a dedicated server, security is often tighter; however you will largely be responsible for the server management -- not just the website.

Shared hosting: Sometimes called virtual hosting, or referred to as a shared server, it basically means your website will share resources with other websites as multiple sites are running (hosted) on the same physical server.

Virtual host: A provider of Web services that includes Web server functions and Internet connection services. A virtual host is often used by companies or individuals that do not want to purchase and maintain their own Web servers and Internet connections.

Web host: The company, or service provider, that provides server space, Web services and file maintenance for Web sites controlled by individuals or companies that do not have their own Web servers.

Web server: A computer that delivers Web pages. Every Web server has an IP address and possibly a domain name. When a user types your domain name into a Web browser, it sends a request to the server to fetch the page.

• Related Ecommerce-Guide Articles: Buyers' Guide: How to Find a Web Hosting Provider, Hosting Plan Primer

Common Ecommerce Website Processes

The following ecommerce phrases are ones you will encounter when designing, hosting and launching your own ecommerce website. There are a number of ecommerce standards and financial accounts you will need to be familiar with before you can accept online payments.

Credit Card Interchange: The phrase used to describe the process involved in completing a credit card transaction. The "Interchange" refers to all organizations involved in the transaction, including processors, acquirers and issuers.

Merchant Account: The type of account a business obtains from their banking institution that allows you to accept credit card payments. Merchant accounts are usually required for a retailer or e-tailer to accept customer credit cards and electronic payments

Payment Gateway: A service provided by a third-party organization, that automates a payment transaction between the shopper and merchant. A payment gateway is actually a system of computer processes that process, verify, and accept or decline credit card transactions on behalf of the merchant through secure Internet connections.

Shopping Cart: Ecommerce software that acts as an online store's catalog and ordering process. A shopping cart is the interface between a company's Web site and its deeper infrastructure, allowing consumers to select merchandise; review what they have selected; make necessary modifications or additions; and purchase the merchandise.

Commerce Server: Web software that runs some of the main functions of an online storefront such as product display, online ordering and inventory management. This type of software is also called storefront software.

• Related Ecommerce-Guide Articles: Choosing a Payment Gateway Provider

Ecommerce Marketing: Email Marketing Lingo

Learning email marketing lingo is important to help you understand what features and options you will have for tracking your email marketing campaigns. To get you started, here are ten email marketing terms you should know before starting a subscriber list for your ecommerce business.

A/B split: A type of marketing test where an email subscriber list is split into two groups; every other name in the list is sent one email message and vice versa to see which marketing message has the most successful response.

Conversion rate: In online marketing, this phrase refers to the percentage of visitors who take a desired action. For example the percentage of people who click a hyperlink in your message and make a purchase from your Web store.

Direct digital marketing: An online marketing method that is addressable -- meaning you can identify the recipient of the email message you're distributing. Addressability comes in a variety of digital forms including an email address, a Web browser cookie or a mobile phone number.

Event triggered e-mail: A message sent to list subscribers based on an event. For example, a special message or discount coupon delivered to subscribers on their birthday or anniversary dates. The events are determined based on the information the subscribers provided when joining the list.

Open rate: This is a common email marketing phrase that basically means the number of list subscribers who opened the email message you sent. Open rates are used to track how successful your email marketing campaign is.

• Related Ecommerce-Guide Articles: How to Find an E-Mail Marketing Service Provider, Small Business Marketing Guide

Ecommerce Laws, Standards and Protocols

CAN-SPAM: The CAN-SPAM Act applies to almost all businesses in the U.S. that use email, and provides recipients of spam with the right to opt-out of these spam messages, and have their opt-out (or unsubscribe) request acted upon. Under the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, permission of the email recipient is not required prior to sending out the emails, however if a recipient wants to unsubscribe or opt-out of the mailings then the business must stop sending the emails as per the opt-out request or face severe penalties.

Certification authority: An organization or company that issues digital certificates used to create digital signatures. The role of the certification authority (CA) is to guarantee that the individual or business that has been granted the unique certificate is, in fact, who they claim to be. CAs are a critical component in electronic commerce because they guarantee that the two parties exchanging information are actually who they claim.

Electronic Data Interchange: The Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a standard for the transfer of data between different companies using computer networks. EDI is becoming increasingly important as an easy mechanism for companies to buy, sell and trade information.

PCI-DSS: Short for Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS), it is a standard that all organizations, including online retailers, must follow when storing, processing and transmitting their customer's credit card data. To be PCI complaint companies must use a number of security features, such as a firewall between a wireless network and their cardholder data environment, and also use the latest security and authentication. The PCI DSS standard specifies 12 requirements for best security practices

SSL: Short for Secure Sockets Layer, SSL is a protocol for transmitting private documents via the Internet. SSL uses a cryptographic system with two keys to encrypt data -- a public key known to everyone and a private or secret key known only to the recipient of the message. Many websites use the protocol to obtain confidential user information, such as credit card numbers.

Definitions to hundreds of electronic commerce and email and online marketing terms can be found on Webopedia.com.

Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG

开源团购源程序

http://www.williamlong.info/blog/archives/443.html

最近流行团购，美国的Groupon团购网站盈利之后就有不少模仿这家网站的团购网站，我也研究了一些团购网站，看了一下代码，发现有两个网站提供开源的团购源程序下载。记录了一下。
程序都是基于PHP+MySQL的。

　　1、久动团购程序 http://www.jiuder.net

　　2、最土团购程序 http://www.zuitu.com

基于社会化网络的B2C电子商务模式

http://www.williamlong.info/archives/2192.html

　　社会化网络营销和电子商务的结合是近年来新型Web 2.0电子商务网站的发展趋势，这种新型的电子商务模式和传统的B2C网站有很大不同，有很多独特的模式，下面我就以Groupon网站为例分析一下基于社会化网络的B2C电子商务的商业模式。

　　Groupon并不是一个纯粹的电子商务网站，它是电子商务、web2.0、互联网广告以及线下模式的结合体。目前的表现形式是团购，收入模式是依靠收取提成等，据《纽约时报》报道，美国团购网站Groupon恐怕已经成为史上最疯狂的互联网公司。Twitter达到10亿美元估值用了3年时间，Facebook达到10亿美元估值用了2年时间，而Groupon只用了一年半。

　　Groupon的商业模式特点：

　　1、电子商务的社会化营销：微博、SNS、电子邮件等社会化网络营销。

　　2、极低价格的产品：大多是非实物产品，因为实物产品很难有低折扣，一些团购网初期有可能自己贴钱营销。

　　3、用户习惯培养：每天一次服务，和博客的每天更新非常像，用来提高用户黏度。

　　4、界面简单：简单就是美，大为简化购物流程，减少用户的购物时间，提高消费者的购买效率。

　　5、稀缺营销：每天只卖一个产品，购买时间倒计时，购物人数有底线。

　　5、线上服务：替代街头发小广告的服务

　　6、用户群体精准：习惯于使用网络购买方式和容易被折扣所吸引的年轻人……

　　7、吸纳优质商户：通过商务独特的商品或服务吸引用户。

　　Groupon网站的SWOT分析：

　　优势：

　　1、成本低廉：有较为低廉的团购程序可购买，网站简单，易维护，运营成本低。

　　2、盈利快：做为电子商务网站，从一开始就能实现盈利，以保证网站的长期持续发展。

　　3、政策扶持：某些地方政府，例如深圳，对于互联网电子商务表现出扶持的态度，大多数政府部门也不会有意阻碍电子商务网站的发展。

　　劣势：

　　1、竞争激烈：已经存在大量竞争对手，较为知名的如美团网等。

　　2、运营困难：运营网站对消费类商家可能不熟悉，联系商家确认产品有难度，通常网站可能缺少社会化媒体推荐经验，也缺少个人用户销售经验。

　　机遇：

　　1、市场潜力：一些核心一线城市还缺少足够服务，市场潜力大，目前还没有类似社会化电子商务产品的垄断产品存在。

　　2、风险投资：运营此类业务的网站有获得风险投资的先例。

　　威胁：

　　1、发展前景：新型的电子商务模式，前景不明朗，有可能会失败；目前在国内还没有成功案例，未来具有很大的不确定性。

　　2、运营风险：运营模式可能会带来人力资源成本，线下销售团队规模远超线上团队。

　　总结：

　　上面说了这么多，用一张图片来总结更清晰一些，上图是我做的一个关于电子商务网站业务分析的图片，不仅仅包括Groupon，还包括Blippy、Alibaba、Intuit等网站，限于篇幅就不再多说。

Google offers Web designers hosted, open-source Web fonts

http://googlecode.blogspot.com/2010/05/introducing-google-font-api-google-font.html

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Today we are excited to announce a collection of high quality open source web fonts in the Google Font Directory, and the Google Font API to make them available to everybody on the web. For a long time, the web has lagged print and even other electronic media in typographic sophistication. To enjoy the visual richness of diverse fonts, webmasters have resorted to workarounds such as baking text into images. Thanks to browser support for web fonts, this is rapidly changing. Web fonts, enabled by the CSS3 @font-face standard, are hosted in the cloud and sent to browsers as needed.

Google has been working with a number of talented font designers to produce a varied collection of high quality open source fonts for the Google Font Directory. With the Google Font API, using these fonts on your web page is almost as easy as using the standard set of so-called "web-safe" fonts that come installed on most computers.

The Google Font API provides a simple, cross-browser method for using any font in the Google Font Directory on your web page. The fonts have all the advantages of normal text: in addition to being richer visually, text styled in web fonts is still searchable, scales crisply when zoomed, and is accessible to users using screen readers.

Getting started using the Google Font API is easy. Just add a couple lines of HTML:

<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Tangerine' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>

body { font-family: 'Tangerine', serif; }

The Google Font API hides a lot of complexity behind the scenes. Google's serving infrastructure takes care of converting the font into a format compatible with any modern browser (including Internet Explorer 6 and up), sends just the styles and weights you select, and the font files and CSS are tuned and optimized for web serving. For example, cache headers are set to maximize the likelihood that the fonts will be served from the browser's cache with no need for a network roundtrip, even when the same font is linked from different websites.

These fonts also work well with CSS3 and HTML5 styling, including drop shadows, rotation, etc. In addition, selecting these fonts in your CSS works just the same as for locally installed fonts, facilitating clean separation of content and presentation.

The fonts in the Google Font Directory come from a diverse array of designers, including open source developers and highly regarded type designers, and also include the highly acclaimed Droid Sans and Droid Serif fonts, designed by Ascender Corporation as a custom font for Android. We invite you to browse through the directory and get to know the fonts and designers better. Since all the fonts are open source, you can use them any way you like. We also have a separate project hosted on Google Code for downloading the original font files. Since they're open source, they can be used for just about any purpose, including for print.

We're hoping designers will contribute many more fonts in coming months to the Google Font Directory. If you're a designer and are interested in contributing your font, get in touch with us by completing this form.

To showcase the Google Font API, Smashing Magazine has relaunched their site using the open source Droid font hosted by Google. We're excited about the potential for integrating the Google Font API into many types of publications and web applications. For example, the new themes for Google Spreadsheet forms are a great example of a rich visual experience using web fonts.

This is just the beginning for web fonts. Today, we're only supporting Western European languages (Latin-1), and we expect to support a number of diverse languages shortly.

By Raph Levien & David Kuettel, Google Font API team

How to Choose a Good Web Host Provider

http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/features/article.php/52721_3882486_1/SMB-Guide-How-to-Choose-a-Good-Web-Host-Provider.htm

Shared vs. Virtual Private Server vs. Dedicated Web Hosting

Most Web hosting providers that cater to small businesses provide shared Web hosting, where many Web sites are housed on the same server. The advantage of shared Web hosting is that it's typically inexpensive (less than $10/month), because the provider can spread out the cost of maintaining the server among many customers. While websites are kept separate, there can, however, be problems with availability/uptime with this option.

For small businesses with relatively light traffic and/or sales (i.e., not an ecommerce business), shared Web hosting is fine. However, if you run an ecommerce business, you may want to consider using a provider that offers a VPS (Virtual Private Server, also referred to as a Virtual Dedicated Server) solution, where your site sits on its own virtual server and will not be affected by other customers.

Another option is dedicated Web hosting, where you lease a whole server for your website(s). While this option is more expensive than shared and VPS Web hosting, if you have a high-traffic small business ecommerce site that is doing thousands of dollars of business each month, and need fast, ecommerce Web hosting, this may be your best bet.

50 Open Source Tools To Replace Popular Security Software

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/12068_3882711_1/50-Open-Source-Tools-To-Replace-Popular-Security-Software.htm

While it's pretty painless to convert from commercial office software to an open source version, if you'd like to replace commercial security products with open source counterparts, you'll likely have to do some work.

You may need to combine several open source tools to get the functionality you get from a single commercial product. Or you may need to educate yourself about underlying technology before you find the open source applications usable.

However, open source security tools do offer a great deal of flexibility – not to mention cost advantages. If you want complete control over the way your network functions, having access to the source code gives you that ability.

For this list, we've compiled a set of open source security tools and their commercial counterparts. We're not suggesting that the open source apps have all the same features and use the same methods as the commercial products they can replace.

Instead, we're saying that they provide end users with some of the same benefits and deserve consideration, particularly as businesses small and large look for ways to stretch their budgets.

Open Source Tools: Anti-Spam, Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware, Anti-Spyware, Application Firewall, Backup, Browser Add-Ons. PAGE ONE.

Open Source Tools: Data Removal, Encryption. PAGE TWO.

Open Source Tools: File Transfer, Forensics, Gateway/Unified Threat Management Appliances, Intrusion Detection, Network Firewalls. PAGE THREE.

Open Source Tools: Network Monitoring, Password Crackers, Password Management, User Authentication, Web Filtering. PAGE FOUR.

《沸腾十五年》- 中国互联网大佬们创业发家的历史

http://www.williamlong.info/blog/archives/438.html

　　这些天看了本书《沸腾十五年》，这是我看到的第一本关于互联网的八卦书，原来以为只有娱乐圈才有，这本书详细的讲了目前叱咤风云的互联网大佬们当年创业发家的历史，看了令人热血沸腾，会产生一种马上就进行互联网创业的冲动。

　　过去的成败已经是过眼烟云，以下是我摘录的此书中一些很有趣的细节描述：

　　1995年，丁磊，大学毕业后两年从电信局辞职去广州，之后两年创办网易，八年后成为中国首富。

　　1995年，张朝阳，张朝阳以麻省理工学院亚太地区中国联络负责人的身份出国后第二次回到中国，他发现一个在中国生活的人是多么幸福。他们生活在自己的文化里，非常充实。而在美国的华人则是不在主流文化圈子里的一群人，跟社会几乎没有太多关系，只是麻木地生活在另一种意义上的世外桃源里。

　　1995年，王志东，在这次会谈中，王志东开始朦朦胧胧地接受四通利方不是一家中国软件公司，而是一家全球软件公司，只是其总部设立在中国而已的概念，这让王志东从一个完全意义上的本土创业者开始逐步蜕变成具有海外视野的本土创业者。

　　1998年11月11日，马化腾、张志东、曾李青、许晨晔、陈一丹5人联合创办一家叫腾讯的公司，其最初所在地是深圳华强北商业圈后一栋名为华强北创业园的小楼里。几乎在马化腾创业的同时，这一年的10月，自称是方正最好的高级程序员的周鸿祎从新疆方正回到阔别10个月的北京，他也决定自己创业。他决定做一个中文网址的小东西，为了好推广这个小玩意儿，他给这个小玩意儿起了一个名字"3721"。

　　1999年4月，陈一舟从美国回来找雷军，和雷军聊了一阵互联网之后，陈一舟告诉雷军，他要办个网站超过网易。和丁磊很熟的雷军觉得他在胡说。让雷军没想到的是，6个月后，陈一舟将网站建了起来，用12个月烧1000万美元的速度将ChinaRen做得人气挺高。1999年年底，雷军问陈一舟："ChinaRen人气的确做得不错，但你靠什么赚钱呢？"陈一舟回答："来我这里的都是年轻人，有很强的消费能力。他们在我这里聊天、做个人主页，高兴得一塌糊涂，然后，我就可以向这些人卖手机呀……"雷军立即告诉陈一舟这种想法没戏。

　　2001年9月20日，Baidu.com开始竞价排名业务。第一天的竞价排名收入仅仅是1.9元，第二天也仅3元多，但第三天超过了10元，第五天超过了200元。李彦宏的冒险获得了成功。不过，百度由于过分依赖竞价排名这一多少有些投机取巧的商业模式，这在若干年后的2008年年底让百度处于众矢之的的尴尬位置。

　　2001年9月28日，《热血传奇》开始公测，两个月后正式收费。盛大的陈天桥充分利用他的人脉资源和他的商业智慧，创造了一个空手套白狼的运营模式：他首先拿着与韩国方面签订的合约，找到浪潮、戴尔，告诉他们他要运作韩国人的游戏，申请试用机器两个月。对方一看是国际正规合同，于是就同意了。然后陈天桥再拿着服务器的合约，以同样的方式找到中国电信谈。中国电信最终给了盛大两个月测试期免费的带宽试用。有了韩方的合同，再加上服务器厂家和中国电信的支持，陈天桥又取得了当时国内首屈一指的单机游戏分销商上海育碧的信任，代销盛大游戏点卡，分成33％。陈天桥由此完成了中国互联网历史乃至中国商业历史上最经典的无中生有的商业游戏。

　　2002年后，中国本土的网民浏览中文版的Google时就开始出现断网现象；同一时期，被称为"中国Google"的百度推出独立搜索引擎，逐渐发力，后来居上。这最终促使Google总部在中文版推出5年后，决定实质性地进入中国市场。可惜，进入中国之后，Google神话没有继续。

　　2005年11月24日、28日和29日，盛大先后宣布三款主打游戏《梦幻国度》、《热血传奇》和《传奇世界》实行"永久免费"，抛弃原有的计时收费的商业模式。也就是说，盛大将不再根据玩家的上线时间来收费，而是靠销售各种虚拟"道具"与提供增值服务来获得收入。对于这个有些匪夷所思的免费，业界一片哗然，"陈天桥疯了"成为最直接的解释。

　　2006年的中文互联网世界，开始有了些许的江湖味道，开始割据，开始形成自己的势力范围，开始有派系，开始有大哥，开始面对面，开始真刀真枪地对着干，开始抢地盘划地界，甚至有下三烂的招数和不为人道的伎俩，可能你不喜欢，但这却是事实。

　　关于互联网和改革开放的关系，笔者喜欢提及的一个说法是，互联网是中国改革的下半场。这不仅是因为中国互联网所走过的15年的岁月正好与改革开放30年的后15年历史进程完全重合，更重要的是，与中国的其他行业相比，互联网行业更开放，更透明，更崇尚创业文化，更鼓励大胆创新，有更多的财富倍增的对接手段，也产生过足够多的阳光富豪和社会偶像。这不就是我们努力推动我们这个国家变迁、努力改变我们自我命运所希望的吗？

Importing Goods into Canada with eBay

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sellerguide/shipping/importing.html

Shipments to Canada: As a Canadian buying from a US or international seller (the "exporter"), you are the "importer" of goods. Goods entering Canada will be inspected by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and assessed for applicable Customs duties, taxes and charges. It is the importer's responsibility to account for any duties and/or taxes, while ensuring compliance with Customs regulations in Canada. • Duties and Taxes Payment • Duty and/or Tax Free Items • Customs Brokers

What does the US or International Seller have to do?

Attach a Customs Declaration Form. The exporter must complete and attach a standard Customs declaration to all items they ship by mail to Canada, accurately describing the goods, stating their origin, and reporting their value. A false or incomplete declaration could result in unnecessary delays in processing your shipment. A Canada Customs Invoice or Commercial Invoice is the most common form used.

What does the Canadian Buyer have to do?

Pay Applicable Customs Duties and Taxes. You must pay for applicable duties and/or taxes before the goods can be released to you

• You pay duties based on the value of the goods in Canadian funds (duty rates vary according to the type of goods you are importing and the country they came from or were made in);

• You pay Goods and Services Tax (GST) on most goods you import into Canada. GST is 5%, calculated on the item's total value (in C$) plus any duties that apply;

• You pay Provincial Sales Tax (PST) on all goods that are taxable under the province's tax base if you live in BC, Ontario, Manitoba, PEI, Saskatchewan or Quebec. PST is charged according to the provincial tax rate that applies.

• You pay Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) instead of GST if you live in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland or Labrador. HST is 14%, calculated on the item's total value (in C$) plus any duties that apply.

Here is an example of an invoice indicating a value of US$100:

US$100 x 1.16 = C$116 (Value for Duty)

C$116 (Value for Duty) x 4% (Rate of duty)= C$4.64 (Customs Duties)

C$116 (Value for Duty) + C$4.64 (Customs Duties) = C$120.64 (Value for Tax)

C$120.64 x 5% GST = C$6.03 (Amount of GST)

Total Taxes and Duty to pay: C$4.64 + C$6.03 = C$10.67

Pay a Canada Post C$5 Handling Fee. You pay a $5 handling fee to cover Canada Post's cost for performing Customs services on your behalf. If your mail item is duty- and/or tax-free, you do not have to pay the fee.

Ensure Canada Customs Compliance. Make sure your US or international seller provides accurate and compliant documentation with the shipment. You will enjoy faster release times and avoid unnecessary import penalties.

Understand NAFTA Duty-Free Rates. You are ultimately responsible for having a fully completed and valid NAFTA certificate on file for any goods claiming the duty free rate of duty under NAFTA. To learn how to complete an accurate and valid NAFTA certificate, click here.

What Items are Duty and/or Tax-Free?

Gifts Worth $60 or Less. A gift valued at C$60 or less is exempt from duties and taxes, as long as the gift is worth C$60 or less. For gifts worth more than C$60, you have to pay duties and taxes on the amount over the C$60 exemption.

• The Customs declaration form should clearly identify the good as a gift and should include a gift card to avoid any misunderstanding

Items Worth $20 or Less. Any good valued at C$20 or less is exempt from duties and taxes. For goods worth more than C$20, you have to pay duties and taxes on the entire value.

NAFTA-eligible Goods. Qualifying goods with a valid NAFTA Certificate of Origin will enter Canada duty free.

Can I Determine in Advance What Duties and Taxes I will have to pay?

Calculate Duties and Taxes Before Buying. You can determine the duties and/or taxes you will have to pay on the goods before buying or bidding by using the My BorderPro Landed Cost Calculator. It is important that you have a thorough description of the goods and know the value and country of origin.

Customs Brokers

As an importer, you can opt to hire a professional Customs broker, like A and A Contract Customs Brokers, licensed to carry out customs-related responsibilities on your behalf. This ensures the compliance and quick release of your product through Canadian Customs.

For more information on importing into Canada, please visit the CBSA's Step-by-Step Guide to Importing.

eCommerce: Getting Started with SEO

http://blog.dropshipaccess.com/bid/32825/eCommerce-Getting-Started-with-SEO

Posted by Amanda Brooke on Tue, May 11, 2010 @ 09:46 AM

If you are a new ecommerce entrepreneur, you are probably already aware of the importance of SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, to help drive traffic to your website, although sometimes it can all seem a little intimidating when you are just getting started.

Great SEO will work wonders for your new online business!

Once you gain a good understanding of what constitutes best SEO practices, and a grasp of how to use them for your business, you will have taken a giant step toward success!

Here are some top tips for how to use SEO effectively:

• Think like a customer. First of all, in determining which keywords or keyword phrases are best for your business, ask yourself what keywords you would use if you were an online shopper searching for the products you are selling.
  

• When using SEO for your ecommerce website, the two most critical spots to use your prime keywords are in the page header and the title tag. You will want to use SEO other places, of course, but always be sure that you apply SEO to those two important areas.
  

• Don't "stuff" your content with keywords. The search engines take a very dim view of websites that have an overabundance of keywords, and you could actually find yourself blacklisted by the search engines, which would be a complete disaster for your business.
  

• Make sure to provide the search engine crawlers with plenty of fresh content. You can do this across multiple platforms---your business blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and of course your website.
  

• When you add fresh content, always link back to your archived content. Search engines like these internal links. When you do this, make sure your anchor text contains relevant keywords so that when someone does a search, your page will appear in search results.
  

• Your URLs should be search engine friendly, which means that you should use words that plainly describe the page content. For example, instead of using your category code for a web page: www.flowerpots.org/223388/s309.htm.; use this one: www.flowerpots.org/copper/planters.

• Your images should all have an ALT tag so that the search engines can pick them up, and be keyword rich, as well as descriptive.
  

These are just a few tips for good SEO, there are a lot more! Here is a great video from YouTube that will be helpful to someone getting started in SEO:

<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/H8v3UnMDC5M&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/H8v3UnMDC5M&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

These tips can help you make a success of your home dropship business or other ecommerce enterprise! If you enjoyed this article, you may like this one: 10-Tips-For-Building-An-eCommerce-Drop-Ship-Website

Google and the SBA Offer Help for Small Business

http://www.ecommerce-guide.com//article.php/3880596

By Kenneth Corbin
May 6, 2010

In an effort to bring brick-and-mortar firms into the digital age, the Small Business Administration is partnering with Google to offer a roadmap navigating the array of free and low-cost Web tools that can boost a business's online presence.

The partnership builds on the SBA's ongoing broadband initiative, through which the agency is encouraging the companies it assists to embrace the Internet as a marketing and commerce channel.

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and the SBA have developed an online resource page offering a tutorial on many aspects of online marketing that would seem intuitive to large firms or Internet-oriented businesses, such as

stacking a Web site with search-friendly keywords.

But to the proprietors of the local bakery or dry cleaner, the Internet can still seem a foreign place.

"We want to make sure that every small business has a chance and gets all the help that they need," SBA Administrator Karen Mills said Wednesday morning at an event discussing the partnership with Google.

Mills estimated that around 90 percent of businesses have taken the first step of setting up a website, but that only about a quarter are equipped to handle any form of e-commerce.

For the SBA, promoting e-commerce serves the larger administration goal of boosting exports to chip away at the trade deficit. For Google, a company whose business and policy agendas carry the overarching goal of expanding Internet access and usage, the partnership with the SBA offers obvious benefits. More Web-savvy business owners, after all, would inevitably result in increased spending on promotional tools like search advertising.

John Hanke, Google's vice president of product management, counseled small businesses to fine-tune their information onGoogle Places, the company's commercial listing service that appends information like an address and links to reviews to a business' profile on a search results page.

"It's just like a business card or a sign or a storefront -- people are going to form an opinion about you online," Hanke said at this morning's event.

And it's not just Google. Hanke advised small businesses to enhance their profile on numerous other sites offering similar opportunities, such as Yelp, Citysearch and social sites like Facebook.

For businesses of all sizes, the social Web continues to pose a challenge. Should readers be permitted to leave comments on official blogs? What should a corporate Facebook profile look like? How should a marketing team approach a communication platform like Twitter?

Questions such as these have given rise to the class of professionals known as social media consultants. Definitive answers remain elusive, and companies continue to experiment, often taking widely varying approaches. But for any business, Google and the SBA are urging entrepreneurs not to ignore the discussion.

"There's this whole dialogue happening by your customers about you," Hanke said. "If you're not paying attention, you're not hearing what people are saying about you when you're not around."

At least one small-business owner agreed.

"Sometimes it's painful," said Susan Holt, co-owner of a D.C. cooking school called CulinAerie, who was on hand this morning to offer a testimonial about the power of the Web for small businesses. "But it's important to know, because otherwise you find yourself living in a bubble."

Kenneth Corbin is an associate editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.

Jackbeat lets you experiment with creating music for free

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/05/07/jackbeat-free-audio-music-sequencer-multitrack/

by Erez Zukerman (RSS feed) May 7th 2010 at 11:00AM

I always like to think that one day, I might make some music. Hey, a guy can dream. If that day ever comes, I might try to start with free software such as Jackbeat. Jackbeat is, in the words of its creator, "a free multi-platform audio sequencer for musicians and sound artists."

So, you basically get a timeline and a bunch of tracks -- you put a sample on each track, and then throw that sample on the timeline wherever you see fit to make your composition.

The concept itself is nothing new, and that's a good thing for Jackbeat. The program uses a familiar interface so that the learning curve can be reduced for many people already familiar with similar apps. It also means that Jackbeat can be used as a stepping stone onto more advanced solutions that cost money.

The interface seems rather simple. I know that it does far less than REAPER, for example, but at least it looks like something I would be able to approach. Just looking at REAPER's interface makes me feel like I could never make it work correctly.

There are some music samples provided which show off what Jackbeat can do. I listened to a couple and was really not blown away. It's basic stuff, but I guess sometimes "basic stuff" is exactly what you need to get your feet wet without drowning in complexity.

Google Goggles now translates text using your phone's camera

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/05/07/google-goggles-now-translates-text-using-your-phones-camera/

by Jay Hathaway (RSS feed) May 7th 2010 at 9:00AM

When we reported back in February that Google Goggles -- Google's augmented reality app for Android -- would be able to translate text on the fly using your phone's camera, we didn't know it was going to be available so soon! Our friend (and former DLS editor) Brad Linder has posted a video of the new translation feature in action over at mobiputing. Brad explains that once you've snapped a pic of whatever you're trying to translate, you can swipe the screen to select the specific text to target. Apparently, it sometimes takes a few tries to get Google Goggles to recognize your photo as text, but once it does, it works about as well as you'd expect Google Translate to work. For a glimpse at Google Goggles in action, check out the video after the jump.

Free digital textbooks approved by California

http://www.techlearning.com/article/29720

May 6, 2010

Five digital textbooks from CK-12 Foundation have recently met 100% of the California content standards for their respective courses. The foundation provides free, up-to-date, standards-aligned digital textbooks.

The five CK-12 FlexBooks now available for access by California educators athttp://www.clrn.org/FDTI/index.cfm are: CK-12 Probability and Statistics (Basic), CK-12 Probability and Statistics (Advanced), CK-12 Biology I (rev), CK-12 Earth Science (rev), and CK-12 Life Science (rev).

As the Foundation expands the reach of its quality open-source content across the nation, it has been working to align FlexBook content with the standards of many of the 50 states. For more information, visithttp://ck12.org/

电子商务网站用户分析

http://webdataanalysis.net/web-quantitative-analysis/e-commerce-user-analysis/

网站数据分析 » 《电子商务网站用户分析》

　　当用户在电子商务网站上有了购买行为之后，就从潜在客户变成了网站的价值客户。电子商务网站一般都会将用户的交易信息，包括购买时间、购买商品、购买数量、支付金额等信息保存在自己的数据库里面，所以对于这些用户，我们可以基于网站的运营数据对他们的交易行为进行分析，以估计每位用户的价值，及针对每位用户的扩展营销（Lead Generation）的可能性。

评价用户价值的指标

　　对于评价指标的选择这里遵循3个原则：

• 指标可量化：没办法，要做定量分析，这个是最基本的前提；
• 尽可能全面：根据底层数据选择尽可能多的可以获取的指标，这样能够从多角度进行分析和评价；
• 线性独立：即指标间尽量保持不相关。比如如果选择用户的购买次数和总消费额，那么一定是购买次数越多的用户总消费额越高，也就是导致了评价维度上的重合，而选择购买次数和平均每次交易额可以避免这种相关性产生的弊端。

　　根据以上几个原则选取了以下几个指标（同样根据网站的特征选取合适的统计时间段）：

1. 最近购买时间：用户最近一次购买距当前的天数；
2. 购买频率：用户在这段时间内购买的次数；
3. 平均每次交易额：用户在这段时间内的消费总额/购买的次数；
4. 单次最高交易额：用户在这段时间内购买的单词最高支付金额；
5. 购买商品种类：用户在这段时间内购买的商品种类或商品大类。

用户评价模型的展示

　　一样的，也可以用雷达图进行展示，同样也使用离差标准化的方法对每个指标进行消除度量单位的10分制评分。这里具体的方法就不再重复介绍了，请参照——网站用户忠诚度分析这篇文章。下面是一个雷达图的示例：

　　通过这个雷达图，我们可以读到比用户忠诚度更多的信息。图中的上面3个指标——最近购买时间、购买频率和购买商品种类可以用来评价用户的忠诚度，而下面的2个指标——平均每次交易额和单词最高交易额可以用来衡量用户的消费能力。如上图，用户1虽然购买频率和购买的广度不高，但其消费的能力较强，而用户2是频繁购买用户，对网站有一定的忠诚度，但其消费能力一般。所以图形的上半部分面积较大的用户拥有较高的忠诚度，而下半部分面积较大的用户具有更高的消费能力。这两类用户都是网站的有价值客户，但由于其类型的不同，在营销策略上可以分开对待。

用户交易行为分析的意义

• 发现网站的高价值客户（VIP），为客户关系管理（CRM）及保持有价值客户提供支持；
• 发掘网站的可发展用户，对于一些新客户或潜力客户进行针对性营销；
• 及时发现可能流失的客户，及时采取有效措施；
• 根据用户交易行为细分客户群，实施有针对性的营销策略。