More and more shoppers are turning to social media sources before they make their holiday purchases in 2009. This step seems like a logical progression with the ever expanding online marketplace using Twitter and Facebook to communicate with their customer base, but the changes from last year to this year are more leaps and bounds [...]

According to an article recently published by Forrester Research, 68% of the top 50 Internet retailers now use video content on their sites, compared with just 18% in 2008. The same article goes on to say that while only 16% of online buyers watch product videos on retailer Web sites, 64% of those consumers who [...]

WebLinc partner Bazaarvoice recently wrote on their blog about Free People’s strategy of highlighting the site’s top reviewers. By rewarding this group of dedicated customers, Free People gives other reviewers a spotlight to aspire to, and helps shoppers find reviewers whose fashion profile most closely matches their own, creating a new source for trusted upsells.
Says [...]

I know we haven’t been posting much lately but, busy bees that we are, we just sort of fell off the boat when it comes to regular postings. Apologies.
Anyway, I just wanted to post a quick aside about the 3 Wolf Tee meme that has made it off the internet and into the mainstream media [...]

In a recent post on Useit.com, Jakob Nielsen disparages social media outlet Digg as nothing more than an inflation of your bounce rate as its users show up and disappear without delving any deeper into your site. Stan Schroeder of Mashable, social-media’s stalwart defender, quickly rebutted Nielsen’s argument rightly saying that sites like Digg, StumbleUpon [...]

Measuring Landing Page Effectiveness via Google Analytics

The importance of landing pages and their roles in SEO & conversion rates is well documented. It is now common practice to design landing pages based on the source & medium of the referral. Clearly then, it is equally important to find a way to measure the [...]

Google’s Free Ad Server, Ad Manager, accepting applications for beta.
Google has rolled out a new Ad Manager service targeted at the small to mid sized publisher sites.
Google Ad Manager offers a wide array of inventory management, trafficking, targeting and reporting tools normally found in premium ad serving software or services for free.
Currently the [...]

Google Analytics Offers Free Benchmarking Service
Google has recently announced the addition of analytic benchmarks to their Google Analytics service. This free service will require Google Analytics customers to opt in to “share the account data in an anonymous, aggregated format”.
Reporting will be limited in the beta version of this service. Benchmark metrics include: [...]

Landing Page Load Times Effect Google AdWords Quality Score
News from Google that web page load times of landing pages will now be a component of your AdWords Quality Score. This information can be found be viewing your Quality Score on an Ad Group or individual keyword level.
Landing page: Your landing page is the [...]

E-commerce Photography: 5 Simple Tips for Better Product Shots
1. Soft/Even lighting – Photographers use contrast and shadows to create atmosphere, but for product shots, ditch the art for clarity. Dark shadows and bright highlights can influence the appearance of a product which can prove to be deceptive to a customer. To avoid this kind of [...]