iMark Interactive

We all dream of creating a site that everyone enjoys to visit and continue to visit day in and day out.  Every thought is involved in what if the site becomes the next Facebook, or what if I can make tons of money from my site?  Sometimes we get consumed with the what if’s of running a website or online business that we forget to think about the realities of running such websites.  Starting an online business can be a daunting task, but if you take the time to create some realistic goals, you have a better possibility of succeeding.  I am going to go over a few what if’s versus what is for online business and website goals.

What If: What if your website can make you a ton of money, so you can quit your day job and live off the fruits of your hardwork?  Making a lot of money online is a goal of many, but achieved by few.

What Is: What is a realistic goal that you can hit with your website?  The best way to succeed online is to create a goal that you can hit within 6 months, like get your visitors to 500 a day or get 1000 newsletter subscribers.  Most people fail due to them thinking unrealistically and then just quitting.  There are a small amount of people that actually live off the money they make online, and it didn’t happen overnight.

What If: What if my website becomes huge with a lot of traffic?

What Is: What is a traffic goal that you can reach within 6 months.  Building up traffic is an on-going battle that every website owner works on.  Without traffic, your site will never succeed.  It takes about 6 months of constant work to get traffic levels up to a respectable level, but it could take longer.  If you want to keep your dream alive, create monthly traffic goals so you can see some results.  If you have outlandish traffic goals, then you will be more likely to quit as you won’t be able to hit those goals.

What If: What if you can sell ebooks/products on your website to make money?  Ebooks are very popular and sell pretty easy on a lot of websites.

What Is: What is your expertise in the field that you plan on selling ebooks in?  Selling other people’s ebooks doesn’t really bring much money and it doesn’t show that you know much in the industry that you are marketing to.  I have spoken to many that think ebooks are the answer to a lot of money.  The main thing that I tell them is that they have to have expertise in their field before creating an ebook.  You can’t sell an ebook about making money online if you haven’t made money online.  Sell items that you are confident in and that you know, not something that you think will make money.

What If: What if I enter an industry/niche online that is known for making a lot of money?

What Is: What is the reason for entering this industry or niche?  If you main goal to enter this niche is to make money, think twice.  Most of these industries are already pretty jam packed with competition and it will be very hard to succeed within them.  Now you can enter the industry, but specialize in a small segment of that industry.  It would be wise to enter a niche that you are passionate about, not one where you think you can make a lot of money.  Making money takes a lot of time and dedication.  If you are passionate about your craft, then you will continue to enjoy working at your website/business in order to make it the best.  Entering an industry for the sole purpose of making money is the wrong way to start your online venture.

I am not trying to be negative in this post or crush anyone’s dreams.  What I am saying is that if you want to start a website or online business, you need to have goals in place before you get started.  You need to know where you want to go and how you plan on getting there.  If you have goals and milestones, then you have a path to follow and hopefully a vehicle to get there.  Going blind into an online venture will cause you to wander the online realm looking for answers to why you are not succeeding.  The one thing that everyone is going to tell you is to create quantifiable goals that you know you can hit.  Creating a goal and reaching it is very satisfying.  The satisfied you are when running a business or website, the more you want it to succeed.  Keep your dreams alive while understanding realistically what you can achieve.  The main thing I would say is never give up.  You might not succeed at first, but you will learn a lot to help you succeed later on.

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If you are new to ecommerce and want a simple and easy to use shopping cart, then I would suggest osCommerce.  This software is open source which means that anyone can develop additions and plugins for the software along with security fixes.  This allows osCommerce to be one of the most widely distributed shopping cart platforms out there.  The software is free to use, which is great for anyone trying to make their mark in ecommerce.  This lowers your barrier to entry into the already very competitive space of ecommerce.  If you find out that running an online store is not for you, then you have not put too much capital into the shopping cart software like many other companies do.  Your shopping cart software can be one of the most expensive things that you purchase as it is the backbone to your ecommerce store.  Running osCommerce can help lower the initial costs and still provide a pretty good end user experience.

The video below shows you how to install osCommerce to make it simple and easy.  We will follow up this how to with more items on how to customize your osCommerce store.  After you install the software, you may want to think about getting new osCommerce templates to customize your site.  The software is not very appealing straight out of the box, so a good looking template can help.  You should also join the osCommerce forums in order to get tips and tricks for your new online store.

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The way that you manage expectations can have a lasting effect on how productive you are.  Managing expectations does not end internally, but you have to do a good job managing your expectations for outside vendors.  Not every company can handle all of the aspects of running a business in house.  Sometimes you have to venture to outside vendors for help.  A large swing for companies running an online business or even a presence is the use of an interactive marketing agency.

Interactive Marketing Agencies are a little different than what people think they are.  They do not only handle your advertising online, but they also help with tasks such as brand strategies, overall marketing strategies, PPC management, content management, conversion optimization, social media, and pretty much any task that relates to running a successful business online.  Agencies can be a breath of fresh air to an online business, but you have to manage your expectations for the agency.

Agencies of any size and type are not miracle workers.  They can only provide services to companies that have realistic goals.  While they can provide great services to revamp your whole business, you need to know where you want to take your company.  You need to have an established goal and vision for where you want the interactive marketing agency to take you.  If you contact an agency without having these goals in place, then you could be disappointed in what the agency accomplishes.

Agencies are usually really good at communicating what they are doing, so you need to make sure that you are on top of your own goals and milestones.  I would recommend that you have the marketing agency help you create realistic milestones for your specific business and website.  This way everyone will be happy when each mark is met and you are not mad for expecting more.  Remember that managing expectations is an important aspect of running any business, so make sure you do it for your internal resources as well as any external resources.

This is a sponsored post

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I received a question from a reader this week in regards to search engine submission.  The reader asked that if they are starting a new website, would it be worth the money to use a search engine submission service.  While I haven’t heard this question in some time, I figured I would address it for anyone thinking about using such services.

My short answer to this question is no to search engine submission services.  While there is quite a bit of information on the web that would tell you that if you don’t submit your site to search engines, then you will never receive traffic.  These such statements are actually comical and tend to be created by websites that provide search engine submission.  Don’t let these companies trick you into thinking that you need them.  Search engine submission is a very old way of getting search engines to look at your site.  Webmasters do not use these services anymore because they do not work and the large search engines do not really accept submissions anymore.

If you are looking at search engine submission and you think that a service is going to submit your site to over 1,000 engines or more, then you need to leave the site immediately.  While there might be thousands of search engines out there, there are only 3 that you need to worry about.  Google, Yahoo, and Bing are the big three and are the only ones that you need to care about.  I will let you know that Yahoo is now using Bing’s results for their search engine, so you really only need to worry about Google and Bing.  There are many free search engines submission services out there, but don’t even waste your time.

The best way to get your new website into a search engine is to get links pointed to your website.  The best links that you want to get would be on websites that are relevant to your website.  There are many great link building services out there that could help your website receive quality links.  I would recommend that you join a good webmaster forum such as DigitalPoint or V7N for great services and tips for the help on your new website.  DigitalPoint is a great forum that has many different link building services out there that you can get for very little money.

So, if you have a new website that you want to get into Google and Bing, then check out some quality link building services to start the process.  Leave the search engine submission to people that love to waste money and time.  You should also join Google’s Webmaster Central and Bing’s Webmaster Toolbox.  With both of these free services, you can enter your website information, get your website verified, and then submit a sitemap of all your website pages.  This is also a great way to get your website included in the search engine’s index.  If you do not have a sitemap, you can create one for free up to 500 pages with XML Sitemaps.  Good luck to everyone that is just starting a website and congratulations on your new venture.

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Installing an alarm in your home can be a great thing for peace of mind and security, but you need to do your due diligence before you go ahead with a service.  There are many options for alarm monitoring services around the country, some good and some bad.  The service that I am going to review is APX Alarm.

I am reviewing this system with personal knowledge as I am a current APX Alarm customer.  I have had their system and monitoring for about 3 years now and I can honestly say that I would rather leave my front door open than use this service again.  Their company is an absolute nightmare to deal with and they still haven’t figured out what the phrase customer service means.  So, APX Alarm, let me help you out with that….

Customer Service: Noun – assistance and other resources that a company provides to the people who buy or use its products or services

Hopefully this definition will allow your “customer service” reps to actually understand what they are there to do.  If you cannot service the customer, then stop calling it customer service.  Ok, back to the review.

APX alarm hires young people to sell their services door-to-door, usually during the summer time, all over the country.  They setup in a neighborhood and canvas the area to see if they can sell their systems.  They usually go to homes that don’t have an alarm sign, but have neighbors that have alarms.  This enables them to use a simple scare tactic in order to push for the sale.  The real issue that you need to be aware of is that most of the sales reps do not follow the requirements setup by the company.  They are in a cut-throat environment trying to survive, so they resort to lying.

Once the sales reps scare you into a sale, they start the contract signing part of the deal.  The main issue is that they rush you into signing without giving you ample time to read the contract.  They negate to discuss contract cancellation fees or monthly fees.  When asked directly, they tend to tell you that there is no fee for cancellation.  This is a flat out lie as it costs you the rest of the contract to get out.  They also don’t let you know that you have 3 days after the contract is signed to cancel.  This is a law in most states, but without knowing it, people are unable to use it.  It is similar to buyers remorse laws in some states with car dealers.  The sales people at APX Alarm resort to bait and switch in order to get contracts.  This tactic is illegal, but APX has paid states a lot of money in order to change the color of their paper and ink so you are unable to read the writing in most situations.

After you sign the contract, they call their office and they have you verbally agree to the contract.  They usually do not tell you that you have to sign up for auto debit in order to get the deal, but if you push, you can still get the deal while still paying with a check.  I never allow companies to auto debit my account because they often tend to double dip into your account and then call it a software glitch.  After the phone call, they call the installer and in about 2 minutes they come flying up and jumping out of a van to install the system.  It is like a bunch of clowns in a circus car.  They say that it doesn’t take long to install the system, but it will take a couple of hours.  I cannot say that all the technicians are slow, but the ones doing the installs around my area were untrained and unprofessional.  When they pull out the system, make sure you check it out.  I almost laughed when they installed our system because the it was so archaic and bulky.  Below is the wireless system that is installed in most homes, but not all.

If you look at the picture, I decided to put up the same computer that I wrote this post with.  It is my Asus netbook on top.  The alarm system is the exact same size in width, but bigger in depth.  It makes me laugh to think that I have a portable computer that is the same size as my alarm system.  To think about, it makes me a little sad that the alarm system is that big.

This review is to make sure that you do not fall for the scare and push tactics that APX Alarm sales people use.  They have duped many people in different states into outrageous contracts that are so iron-clad that most lawyers don’t even know how to get around them.  I have personal experience with three other large, national alarm monitoring companies and APX Alarm is by far the worst that I have ever encountered.   I have spoken with over 100 other people that have APX alarm and about 3 out of 4 dislike their service or the company itself.  All of them were brought into a contract with the same scare tactics, which is a staggering number.

Stay away from APX Alarm and take your time researching a company that you are interested in. Don’t bother taking your issues to the Better Business Bureau because if you haven’t noticed, they don’t really do anything.  I had a business that was part of the BBB, and they don’t do much if a customer complains.  Remember, the businesses are the ones paying BBB, so why would they want to destroy a companies reputation that pays them money every year.  Take you grievances to the Attorney General in your state.  They have a lot more power to handle devious sales practices.  APX Alarm has told me that they are now installing new systems in homes with touch screens, but their contracts are still as crazy as before.  Another good piece of information is that if you want to cancel your service when your contract is up, you have to make sure that you send them a written cancellation notice with your account number on the form.  This has to be done 30 days before the end of your term.  You actually can send this cancellation notice in at any time so they have it on file.  If you do not send them one, then they will auto-renew your contract for another year.

If you are a current APX alarm customer, let me know what you think of the company and their service.  I want to hear what you have to say.

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If you are currently a merchant that is advertising on Pricegrabber, then you should take advantage of this deal.  Pricegrabber has partnered up with Fedex to provide some substantial discounts for Ground, Express, and International Shipping.  You could receive up to 26% off your shipping rates just for using Pricegrabber and Fedex to ship to your customers.  I received an email from Pricegrabber, but for some reason they thought that is would be a great idea to just use a picture to describe the promotion, instead of text.  In order to receive these discounts, you need to log into your Pricegrabber merchant account and click on the Learn More link under the Fedex logo, which is near the bottom left of the home page.  I do not see an end date on this promotion, so start today and see if you can stretch it into the 4th quarter.  Hopefully this discount will last for a long time, so merchants can bring some more money into their pockets.

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As we stated earlier, Bing Cashback is ending on July 31st, 2010.  It will be replaced by Bing Shopping, which will be just like the cashback program, but without cashback.  It looks like Microsoft will be providing Bing Shopping free to the merchants that want to list on the site.  According to Microsoft, all you have to do to participate is continue to send your feed to Bing.  They will automatically flip the switch on their side to input your products into the new shopping program.  Once piece of advise to anyone that is using Bing Cashback though, if you are not already sending all of your products, you should start doing it on July 31st.  This will be like Google Product Search, so send everything that you do to Google for the maximize opportunity for revenue.  Below are the FAQ’s that are directly from Microsoft’s site.

We are happy to announce a new and currently free Bing Shopping program for our existing Bing cashback advertisers that will begin on July 31, 2010. Now you can drive traffic to your sites for free with Bing Shopping, potentially displaying your online products to over 93.6 million unique searchers who are making decisions on Bing (comScore qSearch June 2010).

Bing Shopping should be an important part of your advertising mix for your back-to-school and holiday advertising efforts since the Bing audience is:

• 31 percent more likely to make online purchases than the average web user
• 11 percent more likely to make online purchases than Google searchers
• 15 percent more likely to make online purchases than Yahoo! searchers (comScore Media Metrix May 2010).

The new Bing Shopping program enables existing cashback advertisers to provide a broad set of products for inclusion in Bing Shopping with little to no extra work required.

How to get started
Shopping on Bing continues to be a key part of our overall search strategy at Microsoft and it should remain an important part of your advertising mix for 2010. With the new Bing Shopping program, you gain traffic to your site for free and it’s easier than ever to participate.

Getting started is easy—all you have to do is to keep sending us your Bing cashback Shopping data feed after July 30, 2010 and it will automatically be added to the new Bing Shopping program for free, subject to the new Bing Shopping program Terms of Use. We recommend you expand your feed to include all your products for broader coverage consistent with the Bing Shopping Terms of Use, which by policy referenced therein may require you to remove some of your products. Contact your Microsoft Advertising representative today to learn more.

What’s next for Bing Shopping?

In addition to current Bing Shopping features like consumer reviews and ratings, and Visual Search, we’re continually improving the Bing Shopping experience to help shoppers discover products and compare offers. Future planned enhancements include a more streamlined Bing Shopping experience, improved shopping scenarios for expanded, targeted reach via social, mobile, and local, and more integration with Bing.com.

Frequently asked questions:

Q. Does the new Bing Shopping program replace the Bing cashback Shopping program?

A. This Bing Shopping program is a new alternative to Bing cashback Shopping. We recommend you display your products on Bing Shopping and also run search ads on Bing.com as an important part of your online mix.

Q. What is the cost to send my product catalog through the Bing Shopping program?
A. At this time we are offering you the opportunity to send your product catalog to Bing Shopping for free. In the future, if we charge for use of the Bing Shopping program or change the requirements to use that are free of charge, we will provide notice pursuant to the Bing Shopping program Terms of Use and you may elect to stop participating in the Bing Shopping program rather than incurring fees.

Q. What should I do to transition my Bing cashback Shopping data feed to this new free Bing Shopping program starting on July 31, 2010?

A. All you need to do is keep sending us your Bing cashback Shopping data feed after July 30, 2010 and it will automatically go into the new Bing Shopping program for free, subject to the new Bing Shopping program Terms of Use. We recommend you expand your feed to include 100 percent of your products for broader coverage consistent with the Bing Shopping Terms of Use, which by policy referenced therein may require you to remove some of your products.

Q. How can I optimize the performance of my existing Bing cashback Shopping data feed with this new program on Bing Shopping?

A.  The Bing Shopping relevance engine takes many factors into account when ranking the shopping results. The general rule of thumb is to send us feeds that are rich. For example, we have recently introduced a free shipping tag feature, because free shipping has proven to be extremely important to your potential customers. If you offer free shipping, make sure that your data feed reflects this information, which will help our ranking algorithm better decide the placement of your ad relative to your competition.

Q. How do I get started?
A. It is easy to onboard your products into the Bing Shopping program. If you are an existing Bing cashback Shopping advertiser, all you need to do is keep sending us your Bing cashback Shopping data feed after July 30, 2010 and it will automatically go into the new Bing Shopping program for free, subject to the new Bing Shopping program Terms of Use. We recommend you expand your feed to include 100 percent of your products for broader coverage consistent with the Bing Shopping Terms of Use, which by policy referenced therein may require you to remove some of your products. If you are currently working with an aggregator who is enabled with the Bing cashback program, you can submit your catalog through them if they choose to participate in the new Bing Shopping program.

Q. Will my existing Bing cashback Shopping data feeds automatically transition to the free Bing Shopping data feed on July 31, 2010?

A. Yes, if you continue to send your data feed to us on July 31, 2010 and thereafter. Bing cashback shopping datafeeds sent to us on July 31, 2010 and thereafter will be governed by the Bing Shopping program terms of use, which will be emailed to you prior to July 31, 2010.

Q. Can I send you my Google product feed for the new Bing Shopping program?

A. No, we are currently supporting only the same Bing cashback Shopping data feed format. Continue to send us your Bing cashback Shopping data feed starting July 31,2010, consistent with the Bing Shopping program Terms of Use, which by policy referenced therein may require you to remove some of your products. If we begin to support any new data feed format in the future, we will let you know.

Q. Do I need to modify my Bing cashback feed to remove any products?

A. No, we will accept your current Bing cashback Shopping data feed format subject to the new Bing Shopping program Terms of Use. We recommend you expand your feed to include 100 percent of your products for broader coverage consistent with the Bing Shopping Terms of Use which by policy referenced therein may require you to remove some of your products.

Q. Where can I go to upload and maintain my product catalog on Bing Shopping?
A. At this time you can send your datafeeds to us for the Bing Shopping program as of July 31, 2010 in the same manner that you sent us your Bing cashback Shopping data feeds. For the future we are developing a portal where you can manage and maintain your product catalog on your own. In the meantime please continue to work with your Microsoft Advertising representative.

Q. Will consumers be able to search for my products by my store’s name? Will my store be listed in a directory?

A.Yes, at this time, we are not taking the store space away. There are planned development efforts to redesign and create a more search-oriented experience.

Q. Where will the Bing Shopping program product catalogs display?

A. The Bing Shopping program product catalogs will display within the Bing Shopping experience similar to how Bing shopping cashback product catalogs displayed. This is where consumers make online purchasing decisions with tools to compare products, opinions, and prices. We also have plans to broaden the display of Bing Shopping program product catalogs within Bing.

Q. Are you going to continue to innovate the Bing Shopping experience for consumers?
A. In addition to current Bing Shopping features like consumer reviews and ratings, and Visual Search, we’re continually improving the Bing Shopping experience to help shoppers discover products and compare offers. These efforts include plans for a more streamlined Bing Shopping experience and better shopping integration with Bing.com.

Q. Do I need to remove the cashback percentage column from my feed?
A.  No, just keep sending us your Bing cashback Shopping data feed format as you do today. We will ignore this column in the free program so you do not need to alter your current cashback feed in any way. We recommend you expand your feed to include 100 percent of your products for broader coverage consistent with the Bing Shopping Terms of Use, which by policy referenced therein may require you to remove some of your products.

Q. Can we have screen shots as to what Bing Shopping will look like after July 30, 2010?
A. Screen shots are not available at this time. The Bing Shopping experience will look similar to how it does today without Bing cashback.

Q. Are we still going to show featured stores on Bing Shopping?
A. Yes, as of July 31, 2010, the name of the Featured cashback Stores section on the Bing Shopping homepage will change to Featured Stores, which will allow users an easy way to navigate to your particular store.

Q. When are we going to have terms of use for the new Bing Shopping program?
A. The terms of use that will govern the new Bing Shopping program will be available and emailed to cashback advertisers prior to July 31,2010.

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