After several years of being an avid eBay shopper, I have had my first bad experience with the online auction mall. Don’t get me wrong, I am still a very big fan of eBay, but I have learned a few lessons that I figured I would share with this online audience. (Before venting I’d like to go on record and say that eBay/Paypal/Terrible Seller were efficient at settling the disputed charges, so I will continue to shop on eBay)

Andy’s eBay Shopping Tips…

1) If it looks to good to be true, it always is. If Best Buy is selling a product for $100, and you find it on eBay for $40 bucks… something just isn’t right. That product is either going to be a counterfeit, grey market (item that ends up in non-authorized distribution networks), or broken. You are much better off forking up the extra money if you are unsure what you may be receiving.

2) If the seller is from outside the US, pay attention. Not that I’m saying all products being shipped from China are counterfeit, but many of them are. eBay tries to shut down counterfeit products, but it is impossible to rid their auctions of them all. I also want to make clear that I firmly believe some counterfeit products are fantastic. In fact I bought a counterfeit Baltimore Ravens jersey over a year ago for $30 that could pass for the $100 variety at NFL.com. The counterfeit products I recommend steering clear of are the consumer electronics. These have a high tendency to break, not be compatible with other products you might have, or will not fit the description of the product you expected to receive.

3) If a Seller goes un-registered after you buy the product, dispute charges asap. This is what has recently happened to me after I purchased a product online. I waited several weeks hoping the product would show up in my mailbox with no luck. I even emailed the seller many times to see what the deal was. After 3 weeks of no response and no package, I disputed the charges. I now know to cancel an order right away, and I suggest you do the same if this happens to you.

4) A sellers feedback is Crucial. If a seller does not have near perfect feedback, I suggest you stay away. If a seller has sold hundreds of products and only had one or two bad comments then you should be ok. If you notice negative trends in their feedback such as a misleading product or very slow shipping then be weary of the seller. You may even want to google the Sellers ID name to see if anybody has written negative comments on them in the past. This tip has steered me clear of a few shady sellers in the past.

I know as a buyer I am very lenient with my feedback. It would take a VERY negative experience to convince me to leave a negative comment. For every negative mark against a seller there is a VERY unhappy buyer somewhere that would recommend you buy from somebody else.

5) Buy from sellers that have an established track record. This generally means over 100 sales if they are an online store. Less is ok, but you should not feel as confident in the pit of your stomach if they only have a few sales on their record.

Follow these very basic tips and you will become a much smarter online shopper.

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Split testing should be an ultimate focus in your marketing strategy. It will help you become more successful, and may even generate more money in as soon as a day. In my years of marketing experience, it has always amazed me how many people are not aware of this very simple concept. If you don’t know what split testing is, let me explain.

Split testing, aka Multivariate testing, is a marketing process by which more than one component is run against each other in a real life environment. What this means is that you take two pages, two advertisement, or two ad descriptions and you run them against each other head to head to see which ones preforms better.  Multivariate testing usually has a defined period of time, that is long enough to defy any sort of coincidental results . After this period of time is complete, you will analyze the results of your test to see which one fared better in the real marketplace.

The key ingredient to being a successful split tester is a reliable reporting method. Without reliable reporting, you will cannot be confident that your statistics represent the overall market. Many marketing avenues such as Google’s Adwords have spilt testing features built into it them. You can split test landing pages, you can also split test ad copy. If you are not doing either of these, you should not feel confident that you have an optimized campaign.

The key theory behind split testing is that you are never happy with the successes that you are currently having. If you can run two similar ads against each other at the same time, you may be able to find that the ad you are running is only second best to the one you just created. If you have a large enough, and equal (demographics, gender, race, etc.), sample size you will be able to compare statistics like the ones below.

Ad Copy A - Clicks 18 Impressions 498 Conversions 11

Ad Copy B- Clicks 6 Impressions 502 Conversions 3

Using these sample statistics it should be obvious that Ad copy A preformed much better than Ad Copy B. If I were running this campaign, I would toss out Ad Copy B and start again. My new goal is to come up with an ad copy that can outpreform Ad Copy A.

I become very competitive with my split testing. I am always trying to outdo myself, almost to the point of obsession. That is what separates a good marketer from a great marketer. Try this in your campaigns, you will realize that split testing has become a critical component to your web marketing strategy.

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Hey…it’s tax time again! For the millions who will get a refund, have you decided what you will be doing with that refund yet? It’s also exciting because the Economic Stimulus Plan might also put a little extra cash into most people pockets. So, how will you spend your tax refund or refunds?

If you are a small business owner and have been wanting to get online with your business, then this could be the perfect opportunity for you. Why not use this tax refund money to invest into your business. Do you know the importance of being online? It’s essential to your business survival. You don’t have to spend a million dollars to get up and running online. Your tax refund could give you enough to get a nice website up and running and some web marketing to go along to attract website visitors.

Most people waste their refunds on random things like clothing or electronics. Save that for next year. If you’ve been putting off getting your business on the web, this is the perfect time to do so. If you wait another year, you are going to be that much more behind your competition and it going to cost you that much more to leap ahead.

For around $1-2K, you can get a nice website up and running with some web marketing. So, be smart with your tax refund and invest in the livelihood of your business and get on the web now!

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So, you are doing all of the right things…you created a great website, you have wonderful search engine optimization, unique content and you have website traffic. You think….”Great! I made it!”

Don’t get me wrong, this is definitely a great start and most people don’t usually make it this far. So, congratulations on your milestones. But, now it’s time to look deeper and figure out what you can do to take your website or business to the next level.

One thing you can do that can be very easily implemented is to submit all of your articles and content to Digg. Digg is a content network where website owners, copyrighters, authors, webmasters and everyone alike can submit their content to add to the Digg content network.

Submitting all of your content to Digg can do a few things….all of great importance to the success of your website:

1.) You will get direct website traffic from the Digg network. By submitting your content, it gets laid in front of millions of potential viewers. The more unique the content, the more people will see it and the higher it will get placed on the Digg website. If someone likes something you wrote, they are able to “Digg” it which popularizes your content. If you get enough “Diggs” your content is placed in a prominent category such as “Popular” category, getting viewed by millions. Can you imagine what this would/could do for your website? The potential for traffic is outrageous.

2.) You will get an inbound link from Digg. We all know by now from reading this previous search engine optimization article that links from other websites are HUGE when it comes to SEO. This is an inbound link or link leading to your website from Digg. You can get some very easy links by just submitting your content to Digg. This should be a no brainer. It takes about 1 minute to submit an article. My question is, “Why aren’t you doing it?”

3.) Digg gets indexed QUICKLY by Google. What does this mean for you? It means that if you submit your content to Digg, the chances of it getting indexed very quickly is pretty common. Often, your Digg article will appear on page 1 of Google for various keywords and keyphrases as soon as an hour after you post your article. How is that for quick exposure? For example, we posted an article: Starbucks Sells $1.00: What Will You Do? and within an hour of posting this to Digg, we were coming up in searches on Page 1 in Google for $1.00 coffee and Starbucks $1.00 coffee. Now, is this a case where we are driving targeted traffic? Maybe…..maybe not. Potentially anyone is targeted traffic for us since we deal with website marketing and design and this is very common for many people and businesses. The point is, it brought website traffic almost instantly after posting.

It’s simple to get set up on Digg. Just go sign up and start posting. It literally takes 1 minute to post an article and the benefits you can receive WAY outweigh that minute of time you lost.

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Everyone dreads the term “contract” but in reality a contract can be your best friend.  When business relationships are created there are always expectations from each side of the relationship.  For example, if a web design firm is developing a website for a car dealership, the car dealership expects to get a good website and in return the web design firm expects to receive payment for the web design services rendered.  It sounds simple enough but it can often get messy when no contract is involved.

Contracts outline the relationship and show what both parties receive for the agreement.  Contracts can be as simple as creating a one page word document with bullet points outlining everything and a signature from each party to a complex business agreement between both parties with numberous amendments and clauses.  It’s totally up to you to determine the complexity of the contract and most likely every project contract will need to be customized to meet the expectations of each project and each party involved.

Contracts are a benefit for both parties as it shows exactly what each party will receive with no confusion.  Without the contract, one party might “think” that they should be getting more that what was agreed upon initially. If the contract is in place, this party knows exactly what they are getting.

People by nature always try to cross the line and get a bit more than what was expected.  Without a contract, this is much easier.  When a contract lists what services will be provided…..and when a person asks, “can you also help me with….”, you can say…”sure I can help…but this will cost you X amount as it is not in the contract agreement.”

There is no confusion and if this person wants extra services thrown in, then they will be obligated to pay for the extra services.  Often, friends will work with each other on projects and many neglect using a contract because they are “friends” and in return a friendship can be ruined due to the disagreements throughout the project lifecycle and what was expected.  If you value a friendship, then a contract is needed to keep it.

It only takes one project to realize that you need a contract to survive and keep everything in line.  If you don’t believe me, do a test with your next two projects.  For one of them, don’t do a contract and for the other, create a contract that both parties agree upon.  See which project makes you happier!

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