Ask any successful company's manager or owner what's the driving force behind their success, and he or she will tell you: "our customers". If you're not letting your customers, as well as potential customers, play a key role in content generation, you're missing out on sales. While asking customers what they want is a great way to open the stream of communication, there is … [Read more...]
It’s Not Too Late to Rekindle a Relationship with Email Subscribers
Recently I worked on an email campaign with an opt-in list that hadn't seen any contact for nearly a year. It was for a small company that gave up on email marketing because it wasn't seeing any real results. I expected to see a lot of bounces, several spam reports, and a low open rate. I was surprised at the final report: The core report shows us the campaign was sent to … [Read more...]
Searching from the Address Bar: Unexpected Results
Like many writers, I often use online dictionaries to confirm not only the spelling of a word, but also to ensure the definition in my mind is accurate. As a short cut, I'll enter words into the browser's address bar, which eliminates the step of going directly to a website. The address bar is configured to run a Google search. What happens, though, when the results weren't as … [Read more...]
My New Book is Here!
A welcome interruption to my afternoon yesterday was the delivery of my latest book: Miva Merchant 5.5: The Official Guide – Second Edition (PR7 & PR8). The forecast said rain, so I used Twitter to pray to Mother Nature... Fortunately, the guys rolled in the driveway with my copies just in time. This marks my seventh official guide for the Miva Merchant shopping cart … [Read more...]
Miva Merchant Contracts to Offer My Book Free to All Users
It's been a busy week, but I'm happy to announce that all licensed users of Miva Merchant 5.5 will now be able to download the electronic version of my new, official guide for free. Miva Merchant President and COO Rick Wilson and I have spent the last week working out the details to make the manual available to the entire community. The price of the print edition - which … [Read more...]
Plugging Away at the New Book
It's been a while since I've written thousands of words per day, but my latest Official Guide to Miva Merchant is keeping my fingers very busy. This marks my seventh official guide for the ecommerce software, so it's not like I haven't been here before. Lots of new features coming 'round in Production Release 8. I'm antsy, actually, because I can't wait for everyone to see all … [Read more...]