Now e-Bay, one of the world’s most popular e-commerce websites have come out and announced profits of $725m (£453m). Revenue saw an increase of 29% on 12 months ago and these results are being largely attributed to a strong performance from PayPal.

Figures like these and the profits announced by Google are clear indicators of the influence that technology is having on the economy, with more and more people clearly turning towards the web to make their purchases.

The announcement also shows the importance of investing in a good e-commerce system. People are clearly starting to trust the internet more as we move into the modern technological era so if your business offers products for sale, investing in a good e-commerce system is definitely the way forward for you.

Indeed we mentioned PayPal who EBay use as their online payment system, well it was responsible for 40% of revenues from the site, so clearly it is good as place to start as any.

The chief executive of EBay, John Donahoe believes that retail in the current climate is technology driven and that is why his company are moving further and further towards providing the best environment for people to take advantage of e-commerce.

Indeed EBay are not the only ones reaping the profits of e-commerce. Many companies including M&S, Google, and even Yahoo, which is considered to be a diminishing brand have all announced profits in the first quarter.

So if you still haven’t set up your e-commerce system then don’t waste any more time and get doing it.

Check out our previous article on how to build the perfect e-commerce system or contact us today for more information

1. Building Your Website

The very first step when it comes to implementing your online presence is actually building your website itself. Being careful when you choose who to let design your site is important. Remember it is the impression so you want it to be a good one. That being said check out our guide in finding the best web developer to design your website.

2. PPC

PPC is a great online marketing product for a whole host of reasons and it’s one you should consider early on. There’s great debate on what people value more PPC or SEO but in truth you should value them both equally and use them to together. With PPC not only can you get top quality lead generation through targeted key phrases but it also gives you the opportunity to do important key phrase research for your SEO campaign. There is no better indicator of what people are looking for than live search. To get started take a look at out useful PPC tips.

3. SEO

SEO is a major component of any online marketing campaign. Google is the most used website in the world, so having the ability to appear in the organic search results for the key phrases and topics that are specific for you is important. In all honesty before you build your website you should already have thought through your SEO strategy. Web design has a big part to play on whether a website will appear well in search results or not and when it comes to the content of the website you should be writing your copy to suit what people are going to be looking for from your site. To learn more  read our helpful guide to SEO.

4. Social Media

The world has been taken over by Social Media websites such as Facebook and Twitter so it is wise take advantage of them. In more recent times these social networking sites have realised the commercial opportunities that they have. The ability to target people on specifics that they have entered themselves has put these sites in good stead when it comes to selling products or brands. Read our guides to Facebook and Twitter and how to set up your accounts.

5. Blogging

Blogging can actually be a big part of your online marketing process. One of the most difficult things to do with a website sometimes is keep the content updated and fresh. It’s very easy to set up a website and not change or alter the content. What having a blog linked to your site does is allow you to consistently apply new, fresh content which the search engines love, without disrupting the layout of your site.

6. Article Submissions & Bookmarking

If you can produce content then I am sure you want to share it with as many people and bring in related interest from them. Article submission and bookmarking is the way to do this. There are hundreds of free article & bookmarking websites out there which allow you to submit your content with a signature link back to your website. So if you produce great quality chances are you will produce quality clicks through to your website.

7. Word of Mouth

It sounds obvious but you will be surprised how many people who set up a website for their business forget to tell anyone about it. At the end of the day you see plenty of people face to face, whether it is out and about or in work circles so it is important to make sure that you are leaving an impression with the right people. Put your web address on your business cards, as well as links to your Facebook Pages and Twitter, leave the address on your email signature and don’t be afraid to tell people about your website.

8. Video Marketing

In more recent times Video sites such as YouTube have become far more popular for advertising a business and indeed if it is appropriate then using video content on your website can in fact enhance your websites performance in the search engines. It is definitely a progressing online advertising trend.

9. Mobile Web

Don’t just create a website; make sure you build a mobile web alternative of the site as well. With more and more people investing in web capable smart phones, the amount of people buying online through their mobile handset has skyrocketed. So it is vitally important to invest in this and invest now. For more information read out previous article on the mobile web revolution.

10. Ecommerce Systems

This last point is really aimed for those who are selling products online. Invest in a good e-commerce system. More and more people are switching on to buying things online so if you get this right your website could bring in a fantastic return on investment on all of the 9 previous things we have recommended. Read more about E-commerce systems and how to build them.

For further assistance with any of these marketing methods feel free to contact us

Step 1. Setting up your account – First things first you need to create your account. You can do this by visiting Twitter. Simply fill in the section title New to Twitter? Sign Up. It will ask you for your full name, email and password. When you have filled in these fields click on Sign up for Twitter and you will be directed to this screen.

Step 2. Activate Your Account – Okay so the next thing to do after you have set up you account is get the account fully activated by following this process.

a) Click the next button to start this process. Here it will ask you to pick 5 people to follow. If you have clients that you know are on Twitter then my suggestion is to pick them. If not you can perform a search that is relevant.

b) You will then be asked to select your topics of interest. You can either choose 5 more of these or you can skip this step.

c) The next screen offers you the chance to link to your contacts from other mediums. You can select your email contacts, Facebook, Gmail or yahoo and Hotmail. If you do not wish to then simply click skip step again.

d) You are now greeted by this screen and you are almost ready to start tweeting. The yellow box at the top of the page asks you to go to your registered email account and confirm your account. Once you have done this your account will be completely activated.

Check your email for confirmation link

Step 3 – Build your account

Now your account is activated it is important that you build your account so that you display the information that you want your potential followers to see. To do this you need to:

a) Click on the this tab and choose Settings.

b) You will then see a screen where you can choose to update things such as password, profile, design of your page etc There is also the option to set up mobile which will be covered in the next step. You can edit any of these by clicking on the relevant tab.

Step 4 – Setting up your Twitter account for mobile use

As mentioned in the previous step from the settings page you can set up your mobile use option. Simply:

a) Click on the Mobile tab under the Account heading
b) Choose your country location and enter your mobile number
c) Click “activate your phone”.

After following these instructions you will receive a text to confirm that this is your twitter account. Simply follow the instructions in the text and your phone account will be active.

Step 5 – Learn the basic Twitter commands

When using twitter there are some basic commands that you will need to know.

a) To address someone who you follow or follows you in a post you need to write their twitter name preceded by the ‘@’ signal
e.g look at the @barsbank website at www.barsbank.com

b) If someone includes you in a comment you can reply by just hitting the ‘reply’ button that appears underneath the post

c) Send a direct message. You can only do this to people who are following you. Simply click on the button next to the person you want to message’s name and select “send a direct message”.

d) Finally there is #hashtags. What hash tags do on twitter is mark keywords or phrases on twitter. When you click on a hash tagged phrase in a tweet you can then see all other tweets that include this hash tag. If one of these hash tagged keywords/phrases becomes increasingly popular and used by multiple twitter users this is what is known as ‘trending’. This is a really useful tool to research and find out what people are talking about in real time and can in some cases give you ideas for keywords to use in other advertising methods such as PPC and SEO.

Step 6 – Start Tweeting

You now know all you need to about setting up and activating your twitter account so you are ready to start using. Twitter is a brilliant way to interact with your clients and to drive new traffic to your website. Post links to blogs or any news area of your site and you will soon see the difference it will make to your website.

This increase is heavily supported by quarterly revenue increases of $10.65bn (£6.6bn) which displays a 24% increase on last year’s first quarter figures.

What all this means is that as an online company, Google continue to lead the way and produce large profits year upon year and there are certainly no signs of global recession in the Google head office.

So what has aided Google’s more than profitable first quarter. Well chief executive of Google, Larry Page, says a lot of it has to do with the emergence of the ever powerful android market as well as the growth in product such as Chrome and YouTube.

There was also good news for the online marketer as the figures showed that the price people are paying for cost per click marketing has dropped for the third successive time. This offers a far better return on investment for users of Google products such as Adwords.

Yes I know what you are thinking, Google doesn’t give things like this away and they have more than made up for it thanks to the 39% year on year increase in the number of paid clicks across the Google sites and through their partners, so everyone is a winner.

The UK has seen significant increases itself through the success of Google’s first quarter, which has seen revenues in the UK surpass the £6.27m mark for the third time. The UK alone is responsible for 11% of all Google’s revenues in the first quarter of 2012, suggesting that in the online marketing and specifically the Google industry, the UK are leading the way.

So what does the next year hold for Google and more importantly its users. Well in terms of Social Media , Google Plus continues to grow in popularity and the developers of the site have recently redesigned the layout and format in order for it to expand and step up its challenge to the superiority that Facebook currently commands in that field. It has also recently begun to screen its first television adverts to further promote the site, hoping to reel in even more users.

Google Plus is seen in the eyes of Larry Page as the future hub to all of Google’s services and over the past year the growth in people signing up to use the site has been massive and notably greater than Facebook’s growth in their own first year.

In terms of Google Search there is the much anticipated Google Semantic Search, which will change the way people search and find results on the web. Instead of simply searching for your term, the enhanced search engine will not only offer the usual results but be able to recognise the meaning behind the search term you provide. For the user this will provide a smoother and easier finding process, as there will be less irrelevant results returned, revolutionising how Google works.

In terms of the Android market well Google has big plans to keep pushing that forward, with the aim to overthrow Apple’s stronghold on the market, so you can expect more Android apps to be released over the coming year.  Google Chief Executive Page believes there will be success for Android in the future but it will be at the lower cost end, due to the competition it faces.

Finally with the news that Cost per Click prices are continuing to fall, some may see this as a negative. But as Page states, it will provide better return on investment for users and this fact alone will surely see more people turn to packages like AdWords in the future, due to the drop in costs.

All in all Google certainly faces a bright 2012 if they continue producing figures like they have done in the first quarter and as always it remains the most powerful online company, so if you are not using Google’s online marketing tools already, it would certainly be advisable to start.

For more information on how to use Google Products such as AdWords feel free to contact us today.

For more information on or to start your online marketing journey why not contact us now for a free consultation.

Cover Photo

With the old Facebook page layout you only got the one, relatively small profile picture that in honesty didn’t do a lot to make the page stand out. This is about to change. Now, as well as maintaining the original profile picture, each brand will be required to have a large cover photo. As a layout feature this is fantastic as when you are marketing a service or product, the first thing that will often gain the potential customers or subscribers attention is the imagery. The new cover image really does give your Facebook brand page that glossy, magazine article, feel that makes you want to read and discover more about what the page has to offer.

Milestones

A really good feature of the timeline is the ability to track and display your company’s progress and history. You are effectively telling the story on how your company went from being founded to what it is today, including any personal milestones the company has reached, for example 1000^th customer, which is great for people who maybe considering using your service as this sort of thing can provide reassurance in the quality of your service and begin to build a trusting bond with the potential customer or client..

Pinning and Highlighting Important Content

Marketing rules state that if you are running a social media site for your company or a review site that you are not allowed to delete any of the comments or reviews that appear on that page, which if you get a bad review, can prove costly. Now, although Facebook can’t break these rules they can and have produced away to counteract it a littler bit with its new pinning and highlighting capabilities. You can now choose what content or posts feature prominently on your Facebook page, so if there is that bad review weighing your display page down, you can simply pin or highlight the positive ones or any of your own content to appear above it on your page. So the review will still be there but far less visible to visitors to you Facebook brand page.

Messaging

One of the most frustrating things about the Facebook brand pages of old was that if you had disgruntled followers or customers or even ones who had queries, you could only converse with them publicly on the wall under the company name or by private message under your own personal Facebook identity. Obviously this creates 2 issues. One if the client is unhappy with something and you continue to discuss it on the page publicly, everyone else could see it but if you were private messaging it takes away your own personal privacy. Well the new Facebook brand page has remedied this problem by now letting you have private conversations with your posters via messaging under the company name. Meaning no more dirty laundry aired and your personal privacy is protected.

So these are some of the key features of the new Facebook Brand Timeline pages but what does it mean in general for brands looking to advertise through the social network.

Well for one it actually helps to give your company brand recognition. The ability to choose a large image that is going to catch the eye is a huge positive, as well as the fact you can now communicate privately with followers of your brand page under than name of the brand, rather than your own personal identity.

So you have the ability to build company recognition and with that there is ability to build and maintain a positive reputation. By allowing you to keep peoples posts towards the bottom of your page and to pin or highlight preferred content to the top, it means in many senses that Facebook is allowing you to control what your followers see when they click on your brand page.

At first these changes will be scary for most companies but with social media becoming more and more influential in marketing and advertising, Facebook have moved with the times to give you, the company a better chance to represent yourself to the consumers and has given the consumers a far more attractive and simple platform with better interaction with the brand they are interested in.

So how do you opt in to this? Simply by logging into your Facebook brand page and follow the simple guide that is in place. For more information on Facebook marketing opportunities and how they can enhance your business contact us now.

IMRG (Interactive Media and Retail Group) recently posted figures that show that last month e-commerce in the UK increased by 10% and that online shoppers spent a staggering £5.4billion on online purchases. These figures actually represent the slowest growth for e-commerce since 2010 but nonetheless still show that on the whole online marketing and business is still thriving.

On top of these figures, e-commerce is also leading the way in terms of creating jobs and opportunities for people, with over 1.5 million jobs being created in the UK.

These are just a few of the reasons that so many business are now making that all important step and developing their web profile.  With 40% of consumers now buying goods online at least once a week, you would be really foolish not to.

So what steps should you take to make your e-commerce website a successful one?

1. Make it Easy to Navigate

You have to remember that when someone has entered the e-commerce area of your website they have now made the decision to buy. So there is nothing worse than poor navigability when it comes to completing the sale. For example if you had found an item in a shop and were ready to buy it, you would pick it up and head towards the till. But if there is a massive queue and not many till workers on, then you might get the temptation to put the item down and look in another shop. It is the same with online buying. Consumers want a quick and simple process so they can get on with their day.

2. Make Prices Clearly Visible

People like to see what they are paying so keep all costing visible. What has been a problem for potential online consumers in the past is trust, so if you want people to buy from your website comfortably, make sure you build that trust by displaying prices clearly.

3. Good Calls to Action

Don’t just simply have buttons leading to your sale. Create good, noticeable and exciting calls to action that are really going to grab the potential consumer’s attention and get them to buy into your product.

4. Advertising

First of all, you should always have a good advertising plan in place, to bring potential customers to your website but also don’t be afraid to advertise other products on the page for the item your consumer is purchasing. It is usually best to advertise something similar or connected to the product that the consumer is buying, as it is relevant and more likely to grab their attention. This is effectively how you can turn one sale in to two. But make sure it is not too prominent or not displayed in an irritating form like a pop up.

5. Test, Test and Test

It is one thing to design your e-commerce system and get it ready to be launched but it is vital that you test your forms and the signing up or buying process. The way you test forms like this is with the soul intention of breaking the form or finding errors. Get other people that you know or work with, that haven’t seen the designing process to test it as well. Only set your e-commerce system live when it is no longer breakable and error free.

6. Make Payment Processing Easy

This is a big one as I have already mentioned the trust issue for online consumers. The easier the payment process is for the consumer, the more likely the sale.

7. Build a Mobile Version of the Website

As much as e-commerce is flourishing in the 21^st Century, so is M-commerce. In 2011 there was a 157% increase in people using M-commerce, reaching a high of £203.5million, so you should definitely invest the time to build a compatible mobile site to accompany your online one.

Hopefully by following these tips you can design and build the perfect e-commerce system. If you want any further assistance or help with ecommerce systems then contact us now.

1. Easily Affordable

Cloud computing is so easy to afford that it has levelled the playing feels for many small businesses who were struggling to compete with the bigger ones in their field.

2. Reduced Costs

Not only does it not cost much too actually set up and implement cloud computing but when actually using it the costs of running your business will drop significantly. For instance there is less paperwork, your transactions costs will drop and with cloud computing you no longer need to make heavy investments in expensive things such as computer hardware and specialist IT staff.

3. Scalable

The best way to describe this is like a gas or electric metre. Basically when using cloud computing you an effectively pay for what you use, making budgeting for such costs cheaper, as already mentioned and easier to manage.

4. Simple to Use

Cloud computing is so easy to use. This is brilliant for small businesses and entrepreneurs in particular as it can actually help to reduce work loads by doing certain tasks for you, such as billing customers directly.

5. Quick & Easy to Implement

You can set up cloud computing to begin running almost immediately as there is no need to sort out things such as extra hardware or software licenses.

6. Reliable Flexibility

We have all been there, when we have been working on something in the office and don’t quite have enough time to finish it or are forced to leave the office early and then when we have get our laptops out at home, we remembered that we cannot access the work we want to do because it is on the works computer system. Well with cloud computing this problem is nullified. You can access your files at anytime from wherever you are.

7. Supports All Platforms

One of the issues you tend to come across when buying software or applications for your computer is whether or not it will have a version to match your platform or operating system (OS). With cloud computing this no longer needs to be a concern as all systems and platforms are supported so there are no more worries about compatibility.

8. Unlimited Storage Space

There is no longer any need for storage concerns as with Cloud computing you more or less get unlimited storage space. Its flexibility allows the space for storage to expand as and when you need it. It can also reduce the amount of storage space if you require less for resources.

9. Environmentally Friendly

Due to cloud computing being 100% web based there is a lot less paper work involved for a start not to mention reductions in the amount of electricity used due to the reductions in computer stations needed to run the network.

10. Security

If you use cloud computing properly and know what you are doing then cloud computing is far more secure than your everyday business management methods. With things such as real time back up you don’t have to worry about losing work or vital files. Also back up servers can be used on the cloud network should there be an outage at any point which reduced disruption and cloud computing networks are far less prone to hackers due to the nature of the data storage.

Obviously with everything there are negatives as well such as less need for IT staff. But cloud computing has gone a long way towards levelling the playing field for smaller businesses that need to take advantage of the online marketing and presence. Whereas before affordability was a huge problem, cloud computing has given them a cheap and cost effective foot in the door and at such a time where recession and financial hardship is wrecking having for even the biggest of companies in the UK, this has been a breath of fresh air.

To learn more about cloud computing feel free to contact us.

Benefits

1. Cheap if Not Free to Run

This point is the main reason for the site’s popularity. You can set up a blog page or web page for free at basic level and a lot of the features that will help you turn that page into an online success are free as well. This is great for smaller businesses or the self employed web entrepreneur as it gets rid of worries on starter costs.

2. Simple to Use

WordPress allows you to blog and enter content without having to know code. Basically you don’t necessarily have to be tech savvy to use this package. This is another great benefit to businesses that are looking to employ someone to manage their online content.

3. SEO

WordPress is pretty much built ready-to-go when it comes to SEO. Things such as important Meta tags and deep anchor links are included from the start, cutting out a lot of manual code work. So as long as you bring the quality, WordPress will help to bring the quantity in terms of SEO traffic

4. Themes

This is an excellent feature for web developers, as it will save time and money on building a template for your website. WordPress offers a great mix of ready made themes, both free and paid for, that you can use to design your site with. So instead of taking weeks to build a website, you can now have one effectively built in a matter of hours.

5. Permalinks

With WordPress you can opt into permalinks which automatically displays the URL tag as the title of your blog. So it is clear what the blog is about and improves SEO potential as it will more than likely be a relevant title with a keyword in it.

WordPress Tips

So they were some of the benefits of using WordPress but how can you get the best out of your blog or website content on WordPress?

1. Keywords

Like any type of web content it is important to include the best and most relevant keyword. My tip for you would be to download a plug in like InboundWriter which actually helps to suggest keywords for you and tells you how good for SEO, in terms of keywords, your content is.

2. Connect Socially

Make sure you connect through your social media. It is so important for online companies to become switched on to the likes of Facebook and Twitter and the influence they are having on web activity. For blogging we personally find Twitter to be effective. The more social activity you can generate the better it is for your sites SEO and page rank.

3. Download a Good Spam Blocker

The one negative and it is only a minor one, we found with WordPress when we first started using it is the amount of spam commenting we were receiving. That being said WordPress offer some brilliant plug-ins that we can say, from experience, almost completely eradicate that problem. The one we would recommend is one called Spam Free WordPress.

4. Blog Regularly

The great thing about using WordPress as a blogging tool, in conjunction with our website is that it gives us an opportunity to produce regularly updated, fresh content to our site. Search Engines love this as it keeps the website relevant. Since we have started blogging through WordPress we have seen our page rank for several key phrases we target including “mobile web marketing” to name an example, improve massively. So keep on blogging.

5. Link Your Posts

As well as linking to Twitter and Facebook, it is also advisable to link your posts within your WordPress portal together. So if you mention a subject within one blog that links to the subject of another, link to it. If you use a term that might need elaborating on, instead of wasting valuable word count explaining it, send your reader to the relevant blog which will help them get a better understanding. Remember Search Engines love great navigability.

1. Do Your Own Quality Research

Never simply read what is written on a company’s website or take their word for it. Web presence can be an extremely rewarding thing in terms of return on investment (ROI) but equally, if it is not done right, it can also be extremely costly.
Speak to other local businesses and review people’s websites to find what you want.

2. Choose Someone Experienced

It is always advisable to pick an experienced company or person to manage the development of your site. They will have a far greater knowledge of what is required to launch a successful web presence, as well as the tools. Have a list of questions that will test their knowledge so you can be sure their experience is valid.

3. Look for a Web Development Company that offers Web Marketing Services

There is not a lot of point in building a website and having an online presence if it is not successfully marketed. As stated before web presence can be great for ROI if done properly, so go for a company that understands and offers web marketing services such SEO, PPC, HTML email and Social Media Marketing.

4. Build a Partnership from the Start

Look to build trust with the Developers, even before you have made your decision on which you are going to give the work to. Ask them how they usually interact with their clients and monitor how they discuss the more technical aspects. Note that you want someone who will talk to you in your language and not technological jargon.

5. Interview Several Companies

Don’t just dive straight in with the first company you see. This should be treated like a job interview. Always interview at least three companies in order to get a wider scope of what is available to you.

6. Ask For Portfolios and Proposals.

It is always advisable to ask the companies that you interview to provide proposals to describe what they can do for you. Get them to show off to see how serious and committed they are about your online product.

7. Look at and Inquire About the Company’s Own Web Presence

It is not much use hiring a company to manage your online presence if their own one is not up to date and working how it should be. Ask the company what their specialities are and then research how they have implemented them on their own website.

8. Look for Qualifications

Qualifications are not always essential but it is always a bonus if the company has recognition for doing their jobs to a high standard. When you find out what qualifications they hold, always do your own research on what is needed to achieve these, as they maybe bogus.

9. Quote on Price

Sounds silly but always ask how much the company charge for each of its services and budget carefully. Be sensible with your decision. If one is ridiculously cheap, then it is likely they are that cheap for a reason. Also with the marketing side it is always advisable to look for a company who have a results based payment system.

10. Trust Your Gut Feeling

At the end of the day, as previously mentioned, this is a partnership more than an employment so your gut feeling does count for something. If you feel comfortable with a company, who are offering all of the services you require and have a good reputation then go for them. Equally if a company ticks all the boxes but you don’t feel comfortable then take time in making your decision.

For more information on Web Development Services contact us now