Tired of reading tons of blogs? Me too. Richard has created an idea called sketchcasting, which lets you use a simple drawing program on your computer to record visual cues while you talk. This is an alternative method of video blogging and it doesn’t require any special equipment. The only drawback is that to sketch cast effectively you will need a writing tablet, which is not something many people have.
See a demo of sketchcasting – it is very simple but surprisingly engaging and easily holds my attention.
The secret is out: having successful e-bay auctions begins with where you end, and the magic hour is eight o’clock.
Buyers often outbid the “Buy it now” price. For popular eBay auctions 45 to 50 percent of buyers exceeded the “buy it now” price, artificially raising the price of these goods.
The percentage of daily bids is highest at 8pm. The percentage of closing auctions is also highest at 8pm. The study states that this may be counterproductive since it creates greater competition for bidders attention at a fixed time. So maximize your bid chances and set your auctions to close at 8 in the evening!
Buyers seem to favor auctions with more bidders. No one wants to feel like they are bidding on unpopular/unwanted merchandise.
comparison of music CD auctions with equal price + shipping costs, revealed that low price, high shipping cost auctions attracted more bids, more bidders, and 25 percent more money. Few people take the time to research how much shipping costs are, and sellers mercilessly use this to their advantage by padding shipping prices.
Secret reserves turn off buyers and drastically lower sales.
eBay attracted almost 60 percent more bidders and 30 percent higher prices than the same items on Yahoo Auctions. This is no surprise – eBay is the Microsoft Windows of auctions.
Researching the psyche of compulsive shoppers gives interesting results. This eBay study is taken from UC Berkeley and also discussed in Tech Crunch.
Looking for an eBay affiliate program? Try AuctionAds to display live eBay auctions on your website.
The same day Randfish posts about social media poisoning the CEO of Whole Foods is outed for panning a competitor. John Mackey posted defamatory comments about his main competitor in the organic foods marketplace.
Company CEO John Mackey posted messages on a Yahoo financial forum under the user name “rahodeb,” according to a court document filed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and postings on Yahoo.
Mackey’s messages painted a bright future for Whole Foods, the largest U.S. natural and organic grocer, and downplayed (insulted and defamed) the threat posed by competitors.
Whole Foods confirmed Mackey had made the “rahodeb” postings between 1999 and 2006. It said references to those comments were among millions of documents the company provided to the FTC as part of the agency’s antitrust lawsuit.
What is truly sad about this story is Whole Foods strives to be a outstanding model of integrity and quality to its customers and the community. This is not a good example of integrity by a CEO.
I am an advocate for quality natural food and wholesome products and had always looked up to Whole Foods as an example of this. I will now limit my shopping at this store.
Creating good landing pages will make your pay per click campaigns profitable. Here are some tips on creating successful landing pages that convert site visitors.
When prospective customers arrive at a website, they come with a specific intention or motivation. They may have come simply to browse or out of curiosity or by mistake. However, many come with the intention of making a purchase. For those prospects, it is the efficacy of the website’s purchase funnel——the pages that make up the buying process——that determine whether the visitor becomes a customer or merely a statistic.
Conversion Equation:
C=4m + 3v + 2(i-f)-2a
Conversion variables:
C = Conversion probability m = motivation of the user v = value proposition clarity i = Incentive to take action f = Friction elements of process a = anxiety
Examining the above equation, motivation stands out as the clear determining factor of a conversion. Motivated browsers are your best customers. You attract motivated browsers by purchasing keywords that are as closely related to your product/service as possible.
Clean Landing Pages
Here are 2 tips for creating landing pages that convert.
Require a minimum of information. Forms that require 10 pieces of data will be ignored. Always ask for the minimum amount of customer data, if possible only an email address. Requiring nothing but an email address can increase conversions 100%.
Only offer 1 choice. Show your price and offer only 1 selection to users. Multiple offers will cause too much friction and require too much thought – thus you will loose sales.
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