Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

Hanging out at SES Chicago last week, I spent some time with Stewart Quealy, VP of content development for SES, who told me that he enjoyed my last column about the power of a great unique value proposition. He suggested that as more new faces begin to adopt conversion rate optimization, some may not be as familiar with the fundamentals as many of us are. And of course, the end of the year is always a good time to talk the fundamentals. This week, I want to discuss another conversion rate optimization basic: the call to action (CTA).

It is greatly ironic that algorithms, the quintessential example of all that is not human, would be so fundamental to social media. Last week I wrote a post about how Google gathers user data. This week I continue by exposing how popular social media websites use algorithms to utilize user data. Although humans power social media, it is algorithms that provide the frameworks that make user input useful. As proven by the countless social sites online, finding the correct mix of participation and rules can be extremely difficult. Below are some of the algorithms that when combined with the right people have proven successful.

Last week, Brendan tackled how to answer the 5 unanswered questions customers face in the shopping cart (other than shipping costs). According to a recent study by PayPal and comScore, 45% of US online shoppers had abandoned shopping carts multiple times in just three weeks.

This is a recap of our webinar Multi-Store Retailing: Perks and Pitfalls with Elastic Path's own VP of Innovation, Jason Billingsley. (The replay should be available by the end of the week.) You can also catch up on all of our audio/visual webinar replays at ElasticPath.com/Events/ and blog summaries here. Though our webinars are not product-specific - we put these out there for all online retailers to access and enjoy whether you use our ecommerce software or not, this topic is near and dear to use as our most recent version of Elastic Path is really honed for multi-store retailing. If you're interested in a product-specific webinar on our product you can view the replay of Technical Introduction to Elastic Path Commerce 6.1. Multi-Store Retailing: Perks and Pitfalls covered: * Why Multi-Store is gaining momentum * Types of stores to consider launching * When to launch additional stores * How to avoid critical mistakes

So, it wasn't exactly Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood ("I've abandoned my CAAARRRRRRT!!!"), but when Jeffrey told me today that he still hadn't bought his nephew the Fisher Price Grow to Pro Basketball hoop after two weeks of putting it off, I assumed he was being dramatic. Jeffrey claimed to be sticker shocked from shipping cost inflation, a common reaction while shopping online. One minute, you think you know the whole price. Then - bam - you proceed to checkout, only to find that the price has shot up as much as 25%. Was Jeff being cheap? Probably. But it's understandable. The truth is that online shopping has spoiled us. When Amazon ships for free - at least it feels that way if you buy into Amazon Prime - and when Zappos wants you to return those shoes (yes, really), anything less feels like a cheap plastic substitute for the real thing. ToysRUs.com does so many things right. The product image views are clear and show multiple angles. The customer reviews are helpful and thoroughly integrated. I could go on, but the important thing - the reason they still haven't sold Jeffrey a Fisher Price Grow to Pro Basketball hoop - is that they set a poor expectation of total cost before checkout.

This widgets allows you to display your website's statistics in your netvibes's page. Available statistics : - visits - pageviews Available period : - Last week - Last Month

This week, the SEOmoz crew and I are heading to Pubcon in Las Vegas for one of the search industry's more advanced conferences. However, before departing, I felt an irresistable urge to do some coverage of a tough competition shaping in the world of search marketing...

Welcome to the weekend Web, where people are spending a bigger slice of time online via wireless devices - and using a different set of sites than during the workweek. "At Google, we see the majority of our desktop traffic [in the US] during weekdays," says Matt Waddell, chief of staff for Google Mobile. "On mobile, the situation is completely reversed." Mobile browsing surged 89% in the past year, with mobile page views increasing by 127%, according to researcher M:Metrics. The increase reflects growing availability of all-you-can eat data plans and increasingly sophisticated handheld devices such as the Apple iPhone.