With record Black Friday online sales ($816 Million) and the online biggest shopping day of the year Cyber Monday ($125 Billion in sales) behind us, you might think the best of the holiday selling season is behind us…

But nothing could be further from the truth!

There are still three solid weeks in this holiday prime time season, and there’s still plenty of time to stoke the fires of your online sales!

In fact there are FOUR big “Online Holiday Paydays” in December!

Don’t think that these Holiday Paydays are simply random dates picked by some Madison Avenue marketing execs.

These online paydays reflect historical consumer buying patterns and should be ignored!

In fact, Forrester Research recently reported that online shoppers continue to increase their use of the web for holiday shopping on these key dates.

So when are these Online Holiday Paydays?  Take a look…

Now that you know what dates to drive to, let’s talk about what to do to capitalize on these dates. …Because buyers will be shopping… you want them to shop with you!

Readying Your Store to Cash In on the Top 4 December Online Holiday Paydays

Product Marketing & Visibility. If I could have have one wish for every independent online merchant this holiday season, it would be the gift of product marketing and visibility during the holidays. Nothing is more important than getting out there and promoting your store.

• Emailing your customer list to let them know about up coming promotions
• Using Twitter & Facebook to offer exclusive coupon codes and social media only deals
• Including a coupon for a special discount in every package you sell, to be redeemed on/near one of the Online Holiday Paydays
• Using your blog to promote your holiday products and send traffic directly to your store
• If you sell on eBay, regularly updating your eBay Stores Promotion boxes with new merchandise
• Creating a video review of a few of your top holiday products for posting on YouTube.

Millions of people search YouTube and the web this time of year for gift ideas and product reviews. A good product review video hosted on YouTube can also land a first page ranking on Google for the long tail keywords of the product you are reviewing!

As you can see, there are many different ways you can get the word out about your online store! You don’t have to do them all. Pick one and get started today!

Promotions. Schedule new promotions to start and end on these top online holiday paydays. Shoppers will either land at your store ready to make a decision (in which case a promotion ending on that date can spur them to buy today!) or they are at the start of the buying process, and a brand new promotion will keep your store front and center in their mind.

Price Awareness. Online product prices can be very volatile the last three weeks of the holiday selling season. Make sure that your products are priced and position appropriately to generate sales and maximize profit margins.

Shipping Options. If you’re not offering express shipping options at this point in the game, do so knowing that it will hurt your late in the season holiday sales. The #1 thing buyers want to know once the clock strikes December is that they’ll receive their purchase in time. Especially if it’s a hot item that’s running out of stock in stores. If you’re not offering express shipping options, you’ll likely lose the sale to someone who is.

Provide Real-Time Customer Service. This can be a tough one for solopreneurs who are busy shipping, marketing and more! But providing real-time customer service during the holidays can also make the difference between getting the sale or losing it. Customers who don’t get their product questions answered right away will go in search of a store who will.

As soon as their product ships, notify your customer and provide a tracking number. An added customer benefit is to follow up with an “Your Item Has Been Delivered Email”. With shoppers making multiple purchases online, you want to make sure that they know the item has been delivered to them. Shipping services like FedEx can actually be configured to notify the customer directly via email with shipping notifications, delivery exceptions and confirmed delivery.

Amazon FBA. It’s still not too late to outsource your fulfillment, express shipping and customer service to Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon). Whether your sell on Amazon or use Amazon Multi-Channel fulfillment, outsourcing the time-consuming process of order fulfillment so you can focus on product marketing and visibility is one of the best ways to generate bigger Online Holiday Paydays!

November 26th is Small Business Saturday.

The day when millions of shoppers “Pledge to Shop Small”.

As we cover in the Holiday Selling Guide, this is the day to remind people on Facebook, Twitter and in your email marketing that it’s Small Business Saturday and let them know about YOUR online store and what you are offering for the holidays!

American Express started the Small Business Saturday initiative in 2010.

Already more than 2 million people have Liked the Small Business Saturday Facebook page. Go over there and Like it, share it and reference the promotion in your marketing today!

While Small Business Saturday was originally started for local small businesses, independent online merchants should also leverage consumer awareness of this promotion.

Small Business Saturday received a lot of media attention this year.  MSN.com has featured the Small Business Saturday promotion in the upper right hand corner of their homepage all day today.

Run Your Promotion or Promote a Product

If you have a promotion ready to go for Small Business Saturday, spend today Tweeting it, Facebooking it and also send a special email to your customers.

If you don’t have a promotion ready, pick one of your best or most popular holiday products and showcase it and let people know that you are participating in Small Business Saturday!

You can even get special signage at the Small Business Saturday Facebook page.

And if haven’t planned ahead?

Don’t make it perfect, do it anyway!

If you missed Small Business Saturday this year, be sure and put it on your marketing calendar for 2012.  Small Business Saturday is an annual event and always falls the Saturday after Black Friday!

Solving the Solopreneur Struggle

In the spirit of Small Business Saturday, let’s talk about one of the biggest problems small business owners stuggle with.

Trying to do it all yourself!

Whether it’s…

• Creating a professional online presence with a quality business logo
• Designing seasonal graphics to promote holiday sales
• Setting up your social media presence so that it drives traffic to your store or website
• Writing content for your blog
• Getting quality inbound links to your store
• Editing a product video (which can get you a first page ranking on Google in your niche)

Yet all of these things are part of running successful ecommerce business!

Using traditional methods, getting the list above completed could cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars.

But there is a solution for getting skilled freelancers who live in the U.S., Canada, Europe, etc. to do the work for you on a TASK-BY-TASK basis for $5.

It’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNN Money and NBC News.

I now have clients using it to:

• Create store logos
• Store graphics
• Write ongoing blog posts
• Create product videos… and more

It’s one of the most popular video training series we’ve sold, and in the spirit of Small Business Saturday, you can learn how to get some work off your overfilled plate as quickly as next week!

If you missed this the first time around, here’s your chance to learn how to do this for less than the price of a couple of holiday mochas. (Fewer calories too!)

Get the details here!

… Then Tweet and Facebook your Small Business Saturday promotions!

Yours in online selling success,

- Lisa

Let’s get this week off to a great start!

Today I’m going to share with you how I achieved a PAGE 1 Google ranking over a weekend…

(Actually, it’s TWO “Page 1′s”, but I’ll get to that in a moment.)

Is it really possible to drive targeted traffic to your store or website by creating a simple video that ties into a CURRENT event?

The answer is yes!

I recently posted an article at my blog explaining how to capitalize on increased Earth Day Traffic and use it to drive traffic to eco-friendly products in your store.

Last week I decided to take that exact SAME principle and apply it to another big current event – The Royal Wedding.

Because Kate Middleton’s parents run a successful ecommerce website, I went to their e-tail site and  created a 13 minute educational video critique of their site.

The results from that video have been nothing less than SPECTACULAR.

And I wanted to share them with you… because YOU can apply this same method to your business!

How I Achieved TWO Page 1 Rankings with One Video… (and a whole lot more)!

On Friday morning 4/29/2011 I created an exclusive video titled:

“Kate Middleton Family Business Party Pieces Ecommerce Website Review“

I posted the video on YouTube on Friday afternoon 4/29/2011.

If you haven’t viewed the video yet, you won’t want to miss it!  Watch it here.

By Sunday afternoon 5/1, a mere 48 HOURS later, these are the results I’d achieved from posting ONE video:

1. The video has a PAGE 1 ranking on Google (search terms: middleton family business) in the 8th spot
2. The video has received over 1400 views on my YouTube channel
3. I received a private invitation from YouTube to submit this video to their “Individual Video Partnership” program for ad revenue share
4. Traffic from YouTube to my website was up 236%
5. I’ve added 321 new subscribers to my newsletter (Welcome!)
6. It is the #1 RANKED video on YouTube for the keywords “middleton family business”.

… ABOVE the CNN Money video on the Middleton family business

… ABOVE the Fox News video on their family business

Not bad for 48 hours, eh?

Two Page 1 Rankings for a High-Quality Content Video Tied to a Current Event

According to the YouTube Individual Video Partnership program documentation, it can take up to two weeks for a video to be reviewed and accepted into the program.

So I was very pleased on Monday morning to see that my video had been accepted into the program less than 16 hours later and Google Ads are being displayed on both the Kate Middleton Family Business Video and on my YouTube Channel on the right hand side of the video.

Curious to see the stats on my Adsense account, I found that in just a few hours the Google Adsense ads had received:

• 502 impressions
• Had a .80% click-through rate
• And I’ve made $5.40 in rev share from this video in about 3 hours.

As a side note, I’ve not used Adsense before, so I first needed to get my Adsense account approved.  I applied and was approved on Sunday.

Before I applied for both the YouTube Individual Video Partnership and Adsense, I spent about 2 hours researching the YouTube & Google Help docs as well as the forums to make sure that I knew exactly how to apply to the programs correctly.

I spent time reading through the case studies and questions other people had posted, so that everything was in order when I applied. (Even then, the application and approval process was a bit confusing.)

Putting in the time upfront to do your research and due diligence pays off.

There’s a lot more to share about what my thought process was behind making this video and how you can apply the same approach to your business.

I’m considering doing an upcoming teleseminar on it to share what I did.

But for now, check out the Party Pieces website critique video to see how I put  it together.

And in addition to learning how to market via YouTube, you’ll also learn 18 tips on how to better sell your products online.

It’s  an excellent 13 minute video chock full of tips and insights into what needs to go on a successful ecommerce website (or eBay listing for that matter).
Yours in Success,
Lisa

Lisa Suttora
Marketing. Strategy. Mindset.
Your success is the sum of the actions you take daily.®

You’ve probably heard about that “little” wedding that happened today?

(And yes it’s spawning lots of new product trends.)

What you might NOT know is that Kate Middleton’s mom started a very successful ecommerce business as a stay-at-home mom of 3 little kids!

With a passion, a niche and an idea, she built her tiny business into one of the UK’s leading e-tail sites!

… So while the rest of the world was focusing on the wedding, I went over to the Middleton’s online store and did an EXCLUSIVE website critique video.

I put their website through my 18 point website test!

Did it make the grade?

Click here to watch my exclusive video critique of the Middleton family business website Party Pieces.

Just a few of the things we looked at were:

• Website layout
• Navigation
• Product line
• Social medial interaction
• Product page SEO
• Content marketing
• Search engine rankings
• EmailMarketing
• Marketing strategy
• And more!

There’s a LOT you can take away from this video if you sell products online.

PS: This is a world exclusive video. I’m the first to do a video critique of the Middleton
family online store.

Could be history in the making and YOU saw it here first.

While watching the video, give it a “Like” if you please.

Enjoy, learn and implement!

Yours in Success,
Lisa

Lisa Suttora
Marketing. Strategy. Mindset.
Your success is the sum of the actions you take daily.®

Every Sunday millions of online business owners read their Sunday newspaper, throw it in recycling and don’t think much about it until the next Sunday

Wait! Before you recycle that paper, read on to find 7 ways you can make money in your online business  from that $2.00 investment!

Your Sunday newspaper is what I call an Idea Hotspot™. Idea Hotspots are fertile ground for money making ideas, topics to blog about, products to sell and marketing springboards!

1. Spot the trends! Your Sunday paper is filled with product ads showcasing the latest products, styles, colors and trends! All you need to do is observe! What colors, styles and products are the stores advertising? What is the messaging that you see? If an says “Save 20% on our brand new line of bicycles.” and you sell bicycles, pay attention to what they’re advertising!  What are the features, the benefits, the brands?  What are the new “it” buzzwords.  These are clues that will help you expand what you sell online.

2. Improve your sales copy. One of the hardest things for online sellers can be writing snazzy sales copy for their products. Your Sunday paper is filled with great sales copy! Look for headlines, phrases, clever sound bytes, attention grabbing headlines and jot them down.  Copywriters call this a “swipe file”  – a common practice used by copywriters and advertisers to create a reference of ideas for projects.

Note: This is not about plagiarizing other people’s work!   Swipe files are a great jumping-off point for you to use your own creativity in your copy.

You don’t need to have a degree in marketing to do some great marketing for your own business.  There are marketing ideas all around you – you can learn by observation.

3. Put your finger on the pulse of  timely blog, Facebook, eBook or teleseminar topics. What’s the world talking about? You’ll find it in the Sunday paper! Whether you’re an online retailer, an information marketer, or an author, speaker or consultant, you’ll find pages after pages of timely topics to blog about, use for Facebook marketing, create content for your product pages in your online store.

Take a look at the Lifestyle section of the paper and see what the latest fashion trends or home improvement trends are. Papers are built around these types of articles. Are you an eBay education specialist? Check out the Business sections for articles on the rise in popularity of home based businesses. Want to create and market an eBook on a topic that people are interested in? There was a great article in my local paper recently on the huge popularity of in-city vegtable gardening.

This article could spawn ideas for blog posts, a value-add eBook for your physical product sales, an eBook to sell on Clickbank, a blog post, even a brand new business that you might start as a speaker on the topic of in-city vegetable gardening!

When you look at your Sunday paper as an Idea Hotspot, you’ll be amazed at what you’ll find there!

4. Retail Resale. If you sell products online, you’re always looking for great deals on inventory. Sunday papers are chock full of coupons and limited time deals. By One, Get One Free Offers, door buster specials and clearance sales are all advertised in your Sunday paper. Grab a paper when they come out on Saturday and hit the sourcing trail early Sunday morning for some great inventory at below wholesale prices.

5. Classifieds. While Craigslist has taken a huge chunk of ads that used to be posted in the Classified section of your paper, there are still people who prefer to post a classified newspaper ad over using Craigslists. Yard sales, estate sales and merchandise for sale or for free can all be found listed in the Sunday Classified Ads.

6. Learn about upcoming consumer shows. Do you sell wedding products, home remodeling products, products geared to women, vintage jewelry, boat accessories, motorcycle products, RV accessories, sewing products, craft products? Then there’s likely a consumer products show in your niche coming to your city or a city near you soon.

If so, you’ll see it advertised in the newspaper. Consumer product shows are a great way to scout new merchandise, talk to vendors, even find out about exhibiting your products at next year’s show! Use these shows to get out there and see what’s happening in your niche or potential niche.

7. Find Centers of Influence. Every Sunday paper contains articles about experts or people who are centers of influence in a certain niche. You can learn about people to connect with on Facebook and Twitter. Maybe you’ll see the perfect expert to contact for your next teleseminar. Some of these people may even be appearing at events in your local area! The perfect way to get connected!

As you can see there are many creative ways to use the Sunday paper to make more money in your online business.  Opportunities come to those who learn to see the extraordinary in the ordinary. If you’re reading the paper anyway, why not make the most of it and read for profit!

-Lisa

When most people sit down to create an eBay listing, they think about how to describe their item, how to format the listing, how many pictures to add etc.

But one thing people rarely think about is how to create search engine-friendly listings!

However without proper SEO, your listing description doesn’t have a chance of getting found in Google.

And with millions of people searching in Google for the products you sell, you want to make sure that people to find your eBay listings BOTH on eBay and off!

Fortunately, creating an eBay listing that is also search-engine friendly needn’t be time intensive or require any special HTML coding.

You can do it by simply thinking differently about what you put on your listing description page!

7 Quick Tips for Creating Search-Engine Friendly eBay Listings

Many people don’t realize that an eBay listing description is just a simple HTML web page hosted on eBay.

It’s  no different from any other webpage.  It’s open to the search engines to come and crawl it and index it.

But the search engines will only crawl and index your page if you set it up properly!  All you need to do is follow these 7 quick tips!

First, Think Keywords. (Make this one shift, it will transform the way you do business online!) What are 5 to 7 primary keywords that people might use to search for your item. For example, let’s say you’re selling window planters. Some keywords associated with window planters would be:

• window boxes
• garden windows
• planter boxes
• flower boxes
• terracotta
• wrought iron
• a brand name
• color
• style

Keep in mind that keywords are different from adjectives!  Many eBay sellers use adjectives to describe their products: cute, pretty, fun, etc. in lieu of keywords.

People will search online  for a “wrought iron 24″ window box”.  They won’t search for a “Cute window box!  You’ll love it!”

And while it’s fine to embelish your product descriptions with a few well-placed adjectives, using them in place of keywords will not give you any SEO benefits.

Your Listing Title. Now that you have identified 5-7 keywords, it’s time to use them!  And the first place the search engines crawl when they arrive at your eBay listing page is your listing title.

You have 55 characters in your eBay listing title to jam pack with relevant, searchable keywords.  (Remember, people who search ON eBay will be searching using these keywords too.)

Take your core keywords and create a listing title. Your title does not have to read like the cover of a book.  It should only be a “string” of keywords placed in a sensical order.

For Example:

“NEW Home Beauty Wrought Iron 24″ window box planter”

This title will give both the search engines and eBay’s search engine everything they need for the right buyer to find your item!

Create a 200 Word of Keyword Rich Description. When describing your item, you want to create a description of at least 200 words with keywords used naturally througout the description.  Lead with a sentence that includes your most relevant keywords and continue with a description that surrounds the item with relevant keyword phrases.

For Example:

Product Description:

This brand new Home Beauty wrought iron window box is the perfect planter for spring!

Classic wrought iron window planters in the hot new lattice look style are all the rage for spring this year! An outdoor window box lends style  and pizzazz to any window! Or use as an indoor flower box,  transform a deck, embellish a fence or brighten up a bare wall.

See how I’ve naturally included the keywords “wrought iron, lattice look, window box and planter” in the very first sentence in my description.  This reinforces with Google what this page is all about!

Next follow up with a supporting cast of keywords and color commentary.

A bullet pointed list of features gives Google more keywords to index:

For Example:

Product Features:

• Brand:  Home Beauty Window Box
• Style: Wrought Iron
• Size: 24 inches long x 6 inches wide.
• Capacity:   Fits 4 small to medium plants
• Fasteners: Easy fasten system!

Easy to care for, these sturdy planters are riveted for lasting strength and durability. All seams are hand-soldered and sanded to a smooth finish.

Lacquered top coat protects against the elements.

No assembly required!  Just plant, display and enjoy!

Finally, anchor it with a keyword rich summary sentence.

Just like you learned in school!  Start your listing with an opening statement and close with a summary statement.

For Example:

“This beautiful wrought iron flower box makes the perfect planter box for spring!”

From here you can go on to finish up your listing with your shipping and customer service information.

This keyword rich listing description weighs in at about 149 words. Keep in mind that you don’t have to meet the 200 word description every time.  If you’ve said it all in 149 words.  Stop there. If it takes 300 words to accurately describe your produce, keep going!

It’s the format above that’s the secret to listing description SEO!  And you can use this time and time again in every listing!

Don’t Keyword Spam Your Listings. When Google crawls a listing they are looking for “conversational content”. Naturally flowing content on a subject. (Yes, even for product sales.) What they don’t want is a string of rigid keywords and they definitely don’t want keyword spamming! (nor does eBay.

So don’t just stuff keywords into your listing description page and call it good.  Google will tell you otherwise by not indexing your page.  And eBay will pull your listing.

Make it Visible. The practice of using hidden text to bait the search engines is so 1990′s, you’d think that no one would even do this anymore. But just the other day, I was working with a client whose local SEO company had just put hidden text (text in the same color as their web page background) on their webpage. So just in case you might be considering this outdated tactic… don’t do it! Neither Google nor eBay will go for it!

Bold the Headers. Did you notice in the description above that I bolded the words “Product Description” and “Product Features”. I did this both for aesthetic reasons and SEO purposes.  The search engines pay special attention to words that are bolded. Now this doesn’t mean that you should bold your entire listing description!

But you should bold subject headers in your listing.  Also make those headers one size bigger than your text body font. (But never bigger than a 16 pt font)

Use the Alt Tag Attribute on Your Images. If you host your own eBay photos, you can use the “Alt tag” feature on the photo to add relevant keywords “behind the scenes” of you photo.  Alt tags are visible only to the search engines.  Google will crawl you image looking for alt tags.

For example, if you place pictures of the window box into your listing, use the alt tag attribute on your photo.  You should also name your photo with a relevant keyword.  So instead of naming it wp123.jpg, call it “windowbox.jpg”.  This gives you one more SEO reinforcement on your page.

How to Create an Image Alt Tag Attribute:

<img src=”http://yourdomain.com/windowbox.jpg” alt=”window box”>

Make This Your Standard Format

Once you make the mindset shift to creating SEO optimized eBay listings, you’ll be able to easily use the simple format above for everything you list!   And after creating about 10 listings or so, designing a search engine friendly listing will become second nature.

Most importantly, you’ll be confident that you’re getting the most out of every listing description you create and they’ll be properly positioned for maximum visibility potential in the search engines.

To learn more about listing SEO and find out the other components that go into Creating an eBay Listing That Sells! don’t miss this weekend’s Biz Deal of the Day!

-Lisa Suttora

Growing up I always thought my friend Megan’s family must have a lot of money. It seemed like every time I went over to her house, her dad had a new toy – a big  TV, the latest audio equipment…

Megan’s mom always wore  beautiful leather jackets in colors like dusty pink and butterscotch yellow with fabulous jewelry to match.

And Megan and her family lived in a nice  house adorned with dramatic decor.

But it was the day that her dad brought home the shiny, new red Bayliner speedboat that I was convinced Megan’s dad must be making the big bucks. (I loved that boat, and I’ve wanted one ever since!)

Megan and I only went to school together for a couple years and I never asked what her father did for a living.  It wasn’t until several years later when we ran into each other while she was home from college on a visit, that I found out how her dad made the extra money to get all this stuff.

Turned out Megan’s dad was what I call  a “Deal Scout”. He  loved to find deals on new merchandise and then resell it through the local Classifieds.

For example, one time he  bought out the inventory( for pennies on the dollar)  from a hardware store  that was closing and resold it to another store and made $20 thousand bucks on the deal.

Later on, when the local Classifieds got too expensive and less effective, he turned to Craigslist and eBay to resell in-demand items.

Megan told me her dad had resold almost everything over the years.  From printers to concrete pavers. Jewelry to shoes.  Nothing was off-limits when it came to buying and reselling (unless it was illegal!)

He preferred dealing in new consumer goods, claiming there were “deals to be had everywhere” if you just looked for them.

Well I can tell you from experience, Megan’s dad was right.

He was using a method I call Retail Resale.  Buying new consumer goods in one market for the purpose of reselling them in another. And generating thousands of dollars of extra income a year.

Megan’s dad was my first exposure to someone who made some serious money with Retail Resale, and I didn’t think much more about it until 2002.  When I used this exact method to start my online business.

Making Money with Retail Resale

When I started my online business back in 2002, I used this method to buy high-end leather kids shoes at deeply discounted sale prices and resell them on eBay to a global customer base.

For me it was instant profit. I knew about kids shoes, I knew what brands were hot, and it didn’t take me long to find deals locally and online for these in-demand brands. I soon figured out what I needed to do to minimize my sourcing risk, in the event that I’d chosen items that didn’t sell.  I was off and running!

I used Retail Resale to generate the majority of my income that first year in business, and it continued to represent about 30% of my sales for the next two years.

• Retail Resale works great for start-ups sourcing products on a shoestring budget.
• But it’s also perfect for established businesses who want to create extra income without committing to a new product line.

Retail Resale works for any marketplace from marine electronics to toys. clothes and shoes. It works for car tires and cars. Jewelry and Halloween Costumes. You name it!

If You Know How to Shop, You Can Profit from Retail Resale

The principle behind Retail Resale is simply this, shopping for your customers. You can shop anywhere to get your inventory. Offline, locally, online from websites, from marketplaces like eBay, Amazon or Bonanza.

There are millions of products right now available for sale both online and offline,  that are either under priced, deeply discounted, or in short supply and high demand that are prime candidates for profiting with Retail Resale.

Make Extra Income with Just a Few Hours of Work a Week

For example, the Nerf N-Strike Stampede is already the #1 selling toy on Amazon.  Sales of this hot new toy have already increased in sales 1800% since July. Already sold out at Walmart, you can still find it for $44 + Free Shipping at Toys R Us (or pick one up locally).

It’s currently selling for between $59 – $108 (with a sweet spot of about $75)  on eBay and demand is starting to rise.  This one will be sold out before Christmas and prices will go up to reflect it’s in-demand status.

This is an example of a product that lends itself perfectly to Retail Resale.

Last weekend we were out at the mall, when we came upon a sunglasses shop that had MAUI JIM HOKU sunglasses on close-out for $120.  A quick price check with a cell phone showed they sell on Amazon for about $208.  On eBay you can pick up a new pair for $160. If I’m going to sell these Retail Resale, I’d sell them on Amazon rather than eBay.

There’s a lot of money to be made with Retail Resale and that’s why I recently included a brand new audio on Retail Resale in our 2010 Holiday Selling Guide private site.

If you haven’t joined us yet, now is the time. The holiday selling season is here and the clock is ticking.  You need to know about strategies like Retail Resale in order to help you make more money this year.

If you sell physical products online, now is your time!

Join us this week and and take advantage of our special easy 3 pay plan !

-Lisa

One of the best ways to market a product or service is to build a promotion around a holiday, day of observation or current event!

Promotions tied to an event or holiday generate buzz, provide great search engine content by tapping into existing media articles about the holiday/event and give you the opportunity to get your creative marketing juices flowing!

You might only think that there are a few of the ‘big name’  holidays to tap into – Back-to-School, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day… and that “little” upcoming event on December 25th, Christmas.

But in fact there are hundreds of holidays, events and observations that happen each year that you can build a promotion around – events that you may not know exist (or have never thought of building a promotion around).

Did You Know?

In October 2010, the world was flooded with a plethora of promotions for 10/10/10  (October 10, 2010) – a date that happens once every 100 years.

But in addition to that centennial event, October is the month that boasts such holidays as:

• National Cake Decorating Day
• Universal Music Day
  
• Columbus Day
• Canadian Thanksgiving Day

If you sell cake pans, National Cake Decorating Day is the perfect day to run a promotion.

Sell musical instruments, market and promote your event around Universal Music Day.

No matter what day of the month it is, there’s an event or date to build a promotion around!

How to Creative an Event Based Promotion

The best thing about event based promotions is they give you a LOT of room for creativity.

In fact this is the reason that I love this strategy – it allows you to do something different, unique, creative with your marketing!

But there’s something even more import… your customers love it too.

Event based promotions work!

People love shopping during promotions tied to events. It’s more  fun, people get into it and it’s much more engaging than the humdrum “Save 20% until Thursday” promotion. (yawn)

If you sell baking supplies, cooking products, recipe books, birthday themed products, running a National Cake Decorating Day promotion will generate added excitement for the baking enthusiast who visits your site.

Event based promotions are always a great way to promote your sales in a niche!

In November, National Real Jewelry Month is a perfect way to promote your pre-Christmas jewelry gifts.  Oktoberfest holds tons of fall merchandising possibilities. And “Have a Bad Day” Day – November 19th… well everyone deserves a discount or special promotion on this kind of day.

September is baby safety month and a perfect time to run promotions and events for your baby products. Craft sellers could build some awesome promotions for Sewing Machine Day, June 13th.

Not to mention events like the Academy Awards, the opening of baseball season and more! There are thousands of them to choose from!

Now you may be wondering where to go to find out about all these events/holidays/observations. The folks here at Holiday Insights.have done a great job of putting together a comprehensive list by month. You can also Google the keywords “events celebrations calendar” or “national day” or “observations daily”

Look at the Promotion Possibilities for October!

Take a look at all these events you can promote around in October! (Courtesy of the folks at Holiday Insights)

October Observations by Month:

• Adopt a Shelter Dog Month
• American Pharmacist Month
• Apple Jack Month
• Awareness Month
• Breast Cancer Awareness Month
• Clergy Appreciation Month
• Computer Learning Month
• Cookie Month
• Domestic Violence Awareness Month
• Eat Country Ham Month
• International Drum Month
• Lupus Awareness Month
• National Diabetes Month
• National Pizza Month
• National Vegetarian Month
• National Popcorn Popping Month
• Sarcastic Month
• Seafood Month

October Weekly Celebrations:

• Week 1 Get Organized Week
• Week 1 Customer Service Week
• Week 2 Fire Prevention Week
• Week 2 Pet Peeve Week
• Week 3 Pastoral Care Week

October Observations by Date

1  World Vegetarian Day

2  International Frugal Fun Day – first Saturday of the month

2  National Custodial Worker Day

2   Name Your Car Day

3 Oktoberfest in Germany ends, date varies

3  Techies Day

3  Virus Appreciation Day

4  National Golf Day

4  National Frappe Day

5  Do Something Nice Day

5  World Teacher’s Day

6  Come and Take it Day

6  Mad Hatter Day

6  Physician Assistant Day

7  Bald and Free Day

7  World Smile Day

8  American Touch Tag Day

8  World Egg Day -  second Friday of the month

9  Curious Events Day

9  Fire Prevention Day

9  Leif Erikson Day

9  Moldy Cheese Day

10 National Angel Food Cake Day

11 Columbus Day – second Monday of month

11 It’s My Party Day

11 Take Your Teddy Bear to Work Day

12 Cookbook Launch Day

12 Old Farmer’s Day

12 Moment of Frustration Day

13 Emergency Nurses Day- date varies

13 International Skeptics Day

14 Be Bald and Free Day

14 National Dessert Day – take an extra helping, or two

15 White Cane Safety Day

16 Bosses Day

16 Dictionary Day

16 International Newspaper Carrier Day -date varies each year

16  Sweetest Day Third Saturday of month

17 Wear Something Gaudy Day

18 No Beard Day

19 Evaluate Your Life Day

20 Brandied Fruit Day

21 Babbling Day

21 Count Your Buttons Day

21 National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day find a recipe, too.

22 National Nut Day

23 Make a Difference Day-  fourth Saturday of the month, an opportunity for neighbors to help neighbors.

23 National Mole Day

23 Tv Talk Show Host Day

24  Mother-In-Law Day – fourth Sunday in October

24 National Bologna Day

24 United Nations Day

25 Punk for a Day Day

25 World Pasta Day

26 National Mincemeat Day

27 National Tell a Story Day – in Scotland and the U.K.

27 Navy Day

28 Plush Animal Lover’s Day

29Frankenstein Friday – last Friday in October

29 Hermit Day

29 National Frankenstein Day

30 National Candy Corn Day

30 Mischief Night

31 Carve a Pumpkin Day – no surprise here

31 Halloween

31 Increase Your Psychic Powers Day

And this is just for the month of October!

Now it’s your turn! What event/holiday/observation are you going to build a promotion around this month?  Let me know below…

-Lisa

Top Brands Spending for Google Adwords -June 2010- Source: Ad Age

Ad Age today leaked an internal Google document revealing the biggest AdWords buyers for the month of June 2010. Coming in at #4 & #5 are Amazon and eBay respectively.

According to Ad Age, Amazon spent $5.85  million dollars on Google Adwords in June 2010. eBay’s June 2010 Adwords spend was $4.25 million dollars.

So why should you care about this? If you sell products on either of these marketplaces, the leak of these figures provide major insight into how these companies are driving Google traffic to your marketplace business.

Of special interest is that eBay is ranked #5 in overall Adwords spending (you’ll see why in a minute).

After the big brouhaha between eBay & Google at eBay Live in Boston in 2007 (over eBay’s refusal to make Google Checkout an approved payment method); things have never quite been the same for eBay sellers in terms of listing visibility in Google’s search engine results pages.

Before the fallout, eBay was buying so many keywords that you could enter any keyword into Google search and up would pop an eBay sponsored link taking you directly to an eBay search results page (SERP).

But all that changed after “the fight”.  In June 2007, eBay pulled all their U.S. based ad spending briefly and then slowly started spending again. I don’t know where eBay’s spending ranked in ’07, but today we know that it’s #5 overall.

Which begs the question… how do eBay Sponsored Links fare on page one of the Google search results now?

For the past few years, I’ve seen eBay listing visibility and sponsored link visibility diminish overall in Google. While eBay has never publicly stated or confirmed this; I’ve seen it, my clients have seen it and many other sellers have reported the same thing.

That’s why I was surprised by the data released by Ad Age.You would think that if eBay is the #5 spender on Google Adwords, sponsored links to the marketplace products would be all over the place.

So I decided to do some comparison research on popular product keywords.

I started by looking for “Nike Air Force One” shoes for my son … Google displays Amazon Sponsored Links on page one of the search engine results pages (SERPS)  (along with a bunch of other shoe companies) but … no eBay on the first page! And these are popular shoes – more than 1600 listings for this shoe currently on eBay.

There are 374,941 search results when I search eBay.com for the keywords “apple ipod”. But when I search on Google, there is no eBay sponsored ad for the keywords “apple ipod” on the first page of  Google.  Or the second page.

Looking at other keywords I found similar results. Few eBay sponsored links on the first page of Google for marketplace products.

It makes you wonder…

• Is eBay not buying these keywords for the marketplace?
• Is eBay spending big money with Google but for other purposes?
• Is Google determining whether or not eBay’s sponsored ads show?

I don’t have the answers to these questions, but if you sell on eBay or Amazon this is an important piece of marketing information you need to know about your business!

Do your own search test and find out -  are eBay sponsored links being displayed on page 1 of Google for the products you sell?

If they are, great! You’ll get some extra juice in the SERPS from eBay’s ad spends. If not, then you know that your business is not benefiting right now from eBay’s ad spend with Google. As a business owner, these are the metrics you need to know.

What About Amazon’s Sponsored Ads?

Amazon on the other hand, does appear to have sponsored ads on the first page of the Google SERPS for the many popular product keywords:

Type in the keywords:

1. Books – Amazon is the 1st sponsored link at the top of the page (no eBay presence on page 1)

2. Apple iPod – #2 position on the right sponsored links column (no eBay presence on page 1)

3. Nike Air Force One – #6 position on the right rail (no eBay presence on page 1)

4. Colorful mini fridge – No sponsored links, but they do hold the #1 spot in organic search results (no eBay presence on page 1)

5. Tag heuer watch – #4 sponsored link (no eBay presence on page 1)

6.  Furminator deshedding tool – #1 sponsored link (eBay comes in at a #2 sponsored link)

7. Silly bandz – (a big fad for kids right now) – Amazon #4 sponsored link (eBay beats them with a #2 sponsored link)

This is by no means a scientific study, I’m sharing a sampling of searches I did.  But in looking at random keywords, I found  that overall Amazon products are getting more visibility on page one of the Google SERPS, through both sponsored links and organic search.

If you sell on Amazon, perform the same test I did and find out if Amazon has a page on presence in Google for the products you sell. As an online merchant, this is marketing information you need to know.

Once In the Marketplace, they Have to Find YOU

Even if Amazon and eBay are driving traffic for products through Google into the marketplace, once in the marketplace, the buyer has to find YOU. And while that’s the topic of a different blog post, the important takeaway here is that you know how these marketplaces are positioned in the search engines. Because as a marketplace seller, it stands to reason that you want your platform to be driving as much search engine traffic to your marketplace as possible.

Search Engine Visibility for Your Business

After you determine whether or not you’re benefiting from the sponsored ads that eBay and Amazon are buying for your keywords, it’s time to take a look at your marketing strategy.

This will be the focus of my next several upcoming blog posts.

One of the methods that we’ll look at is Content Marketing. Because one thing we know for sure about Google is that it’s laser focused on providing searchers with a quality search experience. And this means content.

Listen to this video from Jim Lecinski, Managing Director, US Sales, Google when he was asked, “How should marketers be thinking differently about their media decisions for 2010 vs. 2009?”

Quality, as defined by Google equals content.

I’ve recently penned a 2 part series “How to Market Your Ecommerce Site with WordPress Blogs” for leading industry publication AuctionBytes. (Part 2 will be published in an upcoming AuctionBytes issue)

And while the article title is tailored to marketing for ecommerce sellers, anyone who sells online will benefit from the content marketing strategy I’ve laid out in the article.

How about you? What are doing to market your online business? Let me know below…

-Lisa

“Markdown!” “Lowest Prices in Town” “Save 75%” “Rock Bottom Prices!” “We’ll Beat Any Price” “Cheapest Deal in Town”. For the past 18 months, these sales slogans have been screaming at consumers from websites, TV and newspaper ads and more.

$1 dollar bins, something you’d normally find only in the aisles of a dollar store, Wal-Mart or KMart are now a fixture in many stores – the first thing you see when  you walk through the door.

But here’s the problem. Shoppers are tired of the message.

Your customers have “frugal fatigue.”

They’re tired of pinching pennies, “buying down” from the product levels they’d normally buy at, always looking for the cheapest price. They’re tired of compromising on quality and service to save a few bucks. And even if they don’t have a lot of extra money to spend, they don’t want to be constantly reminded of it.

Granted, the rampant excess buying of extravagent luxururies is over.  Back in 2005, one of the trends I talked about when I spoke on stage at eBay Live! on the topic of product sourcing was a trend called “mass lux”.

Luxury for the masses.

At the time, people were spending huge sums of money on disposable products. Parents were buying $900 purses for their teenage daughters. In multiples! Heck women were buying $1500 – $2000 purses for themselves, without batting an eyelash.  And these were not people with 7 figure incomes. These were everyday people, making an average income.  Those days are gone.

A Badge of Honor

When the need for frugality kicked in, most people were actually glad to do it. Like eating a big buffet on Sunday and feeling virtuous about cutting back your food intake on Monday – people realized their spending had gotten out of control.

It even became somewhat of a sport for newbies. Those who had never looked at a price tags with much scrutiny were suddenly clipping coupons and happily telling their friends about the money they’d saved on their latest purchase. Or where to find the cheapest prices on food.

But the 2009 holiday season, it became apparent that people had frugal fatigue. Just like day 10 on a low calorie diet, the celery doesn’t have the same crunch and you’re ready for a cheeseburger!

In fact WordSpy, one of my favorite places to keep up with the latest in words, defines frugal fatigue as :

Mental exhaustion caused by constant frugality during hard economic times.

And yes, your customers have it.  They’re tired of being reminded that they are on a budget. Ready to upgrade their shopping choices.

And as a savvy online seller you want to make sure that you are communicating a Unique Promise of Value (UPV) that doesn’t focus solely on being the lowest price in town. You have to clearly explain the value of what you’re offering.

Reuters ran an interesting article today titled “Retailers Broaden the Meaning of Value” that underlines this point.

Recently the term “great value” has become synonymous with low price.  But value is and always has been about more than just price.

What are the benefits of your product?

What is your Unique Promise of Value?

You can’t compete on price. It’s a downward spiral. Even Wal-Mart changed their message from “Always Low Prices” to “Save Money. Live Better.”

Their new message brings up a much more compelling Unique Promise of Value for people.

If your store sells kitchen accessories – what would your message be?

How about “Cook at Home. Eat Healthier. Save Money.”  As a potential customer, now you’ve got my interest!

But if you were to say “Cheapest prices on cookie sheets.” The first thing I’d think of were those cheap baking sheets that warp, rust and burn my chocolate chip cookies.  As a shopper, I don’t want more junk to throw away in a landfill.

If you want to see a store that’s wildly successful and excels at promoting a Unique Promise of Value, check out Moosejaw.  Yes they run sales. And they have some great deals, but that’s not the message that attracts their customers.

So if you’ve been focusing your message on “Low! Low! LOW!” prices, it’s time to go back to the core of your business and see what else you have to offer your customer.

Whether it’s style, selection, value, service, expertise, humor, whimsy, trendiness, quality, product obsession, a keen eye for what’s hot, the latest and greatest, the tried and true or the plain but useful.You’ve got to have something besides “Great buys all the time.”

How about you?  What’s your Unique Promise of Value? Tell me below.

PS: This doesn’t mean that you can’t/shouldn’t offer your customers sales, discounts and special deals.

But when you do, add some special sauce to it! “Save 20% on our color-popping, sizzling hot summer tank tops!” (As opposed to “Lowest price of the season on all tank tops. Yawn )

It’s time to re-energize your customers and help pull them out of frugal fatigue!

-Lisa