Everyone knows that when you do a search for anything on the web, you will get thousands or millions of web pages to potentially look at but we all know you won't go past the first couple of pages in the search results. If your business website happens to be in those coveted top spots on the search engines, good for you! That is a feat all by itself as you already know. But could you be offering a better experience for your customers?

With millions of websites selling the same product offerings as you, using the same pictures and sometimes even using the same descriptions, you simply must do something to add to the WOW factor for your visitors. Take advantage of your sites position. You have worked hard to get the traffic and now its time to convert those shoppers into buyers! So try some of these things to make sure your customers not only buy from you but remember you and tell their friends.

1. Free Shipping or Shipping Specials - With the rising costs of fuel and transportation and the outrageous shipping costs, you should go out of your way to help offset those costs with your customers. Offer Free Shipping or Specials from time to time. If you cannot give away shipping, at least don't over charge your customers. Savvy shoppers are not stupid and usually they are shopping online to get a better deal than going somewhere locally. Remember that fact and you will get more sales.

2. Coupons - Your Yahoo Store has a built in coupon feature so use it! Surely you can run specials on products or offer a 10% off weekend. Instant discounts make shoppers act now. Take full advantage of your Yahoo Store by offering coupon codes to your shoppers. Always remember to make it worth while. Giving a 5% off coupon is ok but a 15 or 20% off coupon would get me to buy a lot faster.

3. Guaranteed Low Price - You may not have the lowest prices but you should offer a price match guarantee. Doing this tells your shoppers that you really want their business. So what if they happen to find it somewhere else cheaper. If they are willing to email you to get that same price so they can buy it from you is priceless. That is a loyal customer that will continue to shop from you in the future.

There are other things you can do but this is a good start. Remember, the customer is the hardest thing to get in any business. Don't let them get away once you get them on the hook. Do whatever you have to do to get the business and keep the business. A satisfied shopper will buy from you again and tell 2 friends. An unhappy shopper will never buy from you again and will tell 8 of their friends. Negative press spreads faster than good stuff…its just how it is. If you need Yahoo Store help we offer live video tutorials and if you are looking for a Yahoo Store designer, we can also help.

Starting April 1, 2008, I will be working with an old partner of mine in a joint venture in Search Engine Optimization. This new business will be an SEO company that will provide affordable search placement for all that would like to generate top listings. We all know that running a business is hard enough so its important to hire the right people that understand exactly what needs to be done to achieve natural search engine placement.

If you need to reach me directly, call me at 252 428-0200 ext 239

Hey folks!

Glad you are checking up on me. This may be your lucky day! Why? Well, I have been doing website design and programming for years but since I have started taking on my own projects and ecommerce stores, I have dwindled my clientel drastically. I am only taking on about 10 new clients this year and there are only 5 spots left!

So whats that mean to you? Well, for all you Yahoo Store owners, I am doing webmaster services for only 450.00 per month! Basically, you get 10 hours per month for consultations, design work, SEO fixes or whatever you want done really. There is a 6 month minimum contract but thats it…no catches. Spend the 10 hours however you want. I am here for you.

Better act fast though if you are interested because slots are filling up quickly. As a matter of fact, while writing this post, I just filled another slot. Only 4 more.

Feel free to contact me directly at 252 442-4672 or
email info [at] taylormadenetshops.com

All you Yahoo! store owners, I have some really bad news for you today.  If start searching around for ways to add Google checkout into your Yahoo store, you may run across a site called The SuperManager.  They are in the top spots on Google and even do some pay per click advertising.  Now I don't want this to go the wrong way because they really are some nice guys and I think they came up with a genious way of being able to actually add the Google checkout code to a live Yahoo store.  But, there is a problem… and it's a big problem according to the higher ups at Yahoo.

Now before I get to the point here, let me tell you what happened to me.  I was searching around trying to find a way to add Google checkout to my website, Replica Dungeon and came across the aforementioned folks above.  I was excited to find such a thing and immediately purchased and even paid the extra to have them add it all to my store for me.  One less thing for me to screw up if you know what I mean.  Anyway, the only reason I really wanted to get Google checkout was because I wanted to have my PPC ads show up with the little Google checkout icon and therefore get a little more attention over my competition.  Having Google as another payment option was actually just the icing on the cake.  So anyway, I paid and within 2 days the folks at The SuperManager had me all squared away.  I ran a couple tests to make sure it was indeed working and sure enough, all was well.

If you are a Yahoo store owner like myself, adding Google checkout to your site and having it work seamlessly for your customers is not an easy task.  Basically the customer has to go through the ENTIRE checkout process, choose Google checkout as the payment option instead of Visa or Mastercard, etc and proceed to the confirmation screen.  Basically at this point, the order process is 100% done and then its up to your confirmation page to have the Google checkout button and instructions on what to do next.  Its pretty sad and its definately ONLY a last resort work around.

Now, after I get all my stuff up and running and send back to Google for approval so my PPC ads can get the the little logo under my ads, I get an email back saying "Sorry, your site does not meet the standards, bla bla bla and therefore we cannot allow the Google checkout icon on your ads but thanks for contacting us" .  What a bummer!  This was the whole reason for doing this.  O well, at least I have another payment option, right?  WRONG!

The next day I get a call from a good friend of mine that says "OMG, you are gonna get your Yahoo store banned if you are not careful!"  So after my brief chat, I decided to call Yahoo tech support directly.  I waited for the normal 15 minutes before I get someone on the line and explained what I did and this nice gentleman, the name I forget, tells me that I am ok.  He said that they have seen other Yahoo stores using it so it must be ok.  I thanked him for his time and of course called my friend back so I could go "Nah, nah, na-na nah!".  My friend was still adament that I was in the wrong and said they would make a call to Yahoo buddy that was higher up the food chain than the normal first tier tech support.  I said OK and waited to hear back.

The next day I got the call.  It was my friend and it was bad news.  Apparantely it is huge NO NO to add Google checkout to your Yahoo store and the higher ups were going to immediately get the word down to the first line ASAP.  They had no idea this was going on and the whole "we see other stores doing it so it must be ok" rubbish I got from the tech guy was not the right answer.  So I immediately contact The SuperManager people and they were extremely nice and refunded my money and I removed all the Google checkout stuff from my site.

And that my friends is the real deal with Google checkout.  Maybe one day this will be ok and work better with the Yahoo! Merchant Solutions account but for now, I guess we are stuck with Paypal ;-p

This is about the coolest thing I have seen in a long time.  Replica Dungeon is giving away free swords to anyone that makes a post on their blog about how awesome they are.  They do have an impressive website and some of the best weapons on the net today.  Replica Dungeon offers unique handmade swords, medieval swords and movie prop replicas as well as other fantasy related collectibles.  I have been shopping with them for some time now and they have impecable customer service and their prices just cannot be beat.  Personally I love their movie collectibles and the latest 300 movie swords are just fantastic.  So if you want your very own sword like knights used in medieval times, look no further than Replica Dungeon.  While you are browsing their website, be sure to checkout the medieval swords selection.