March 2008 - Posts

• When SEO Isn't Really SEO

  A potential client recently asked a good question. She regularly reads various search-engine-optimization websites, and she was confused as to the current meaning of the term "SEO." What, she wondered, was the difference between SEO and online marketing? Search engine optimization, or SEO, is constantly changing. As the major search engines update their algorithms and redefine how their search results will be determined and displayed, the SEO industry must adjust and redefine to follow those trends. But there is a new trend as well: Search optimizers going well beyond search engine results and into other marketing areas but still calling it SEO. It gets a bit confusing. By definition, SEO refers to the process of optimizing a website with the goal of having major search engines (primarily Google, Yahoo! and MSN Live Search) return pages from that website in highly-ranked search engine results. SEO is almost always employed as a form of marketing, but it is a very specific form... Posted Mar 31 2008, 07:22 PM by Practical Ecommerce Articles

• Field Test: Fraud Prevention, Part 3 of 3

  In Field Test, Practical eCommerce gathered ten seasoned ecommerce merchants and asked each of them the same questions around a given topic. This month’s topic is fraud prevention. The participating ecommerce merchants are: Dave Norris, House of Antique Hardware; Chris Stump, Only Hammocks; Mike Feiman, PoolDawg; Dan Stewart, Xtreme Diesel Performance; Roman Kagan, Appliance Parts Pros; Cindy Barrileaux, Write Your Best; Claudette Cyr, Gear-Source; Mike Butler, Bloom Designs Nursery; Kristen Taylor, Juvie; Jeff Muchnik, RedBox Tools; Kara English, Candles And Such PeC: Has your ecommerce business been the victim of credit card fraud? FIELD TESTER 7: Yes. FIELD TESTER 8: Many people have tried to commit fraud with stolen credit cards, but no customers have been successful. FIELD TESTER 9: No. FIELD TESTER 10: One attempt, but we caught it before the order was processed and before the credit card was charged. PeC: How did the fraud occur? FIELD TESTER 7:... Posted Mar 31 2008, 06:22 PM by Practical Ecommerce Articles

• No Magic Bullets (To Prevent Internet Thieves)

  You know that hidden bomb shtick in the movies? There's a bomb that's going to go off and kill a gazillion people. First, the good guys have to find it. Then they have to figure how to get into to it to disarm it. Then they almost have it disarmed when they discover a booby trap they have to work around. Then they find the two wires - red and blue. The hero has to snip the blue wire but they both look black under the yellow light. Then he gets lucky. He snips the blue wire. When it comes to Internet fraud, however, some of us don't get so lucky According to master-hacker-turned-security-guru Kevin Mitnick, those layers of resistance set up by the mad bomber ought to be the way everyone thinks when they are trying to keep the bad guys out of their computers, networks and databases. Mitnick, who knows about as much as anyone concerning Internet security, says it is not easy keeping the bad guys out. He says there is no magic bullet (or wire snipper). Mitnick: The system... Posted Mar 31 2008, 06:04 PM by Practical Ecommerce Articles

• Interview: Ex-hacker Mitknick On Avoiding Fraudsters

  You know that hidden bomb shtick in the movies? There's a bomb that's going to go off and kill a gazillion people. First, the good guys have to find it. Then they have to figure how to get into to it to disarm it. Then they almost have it disarmed when they discover a booby trap they have to work around. Then they find the two wires - red and blue. The hero has to snip the blue wire but they both look black under the yellow light. Then he gets lucky. He snips the blue wire. When it comes to Internet fraud, however, some of us don't get so lucky According to master-hacker-turned-security-guru Kevin Mitnick, those layers of resistance set up by the mad bomber ought to be the way everyone thinks when they are trying to keep the bad guys out of their computers, networks and databases. Mitnick, who knows about as much as anyone concerning Internet security, says it is not easy keeping the bad guys out. He says there is no magic bullet (or wire snipper). Mitnick: The system... Posted Mar 31 2008, 06:04 PM by Practical Ecommerce Articles

• Interview: Ex-hacker Mitnick On Avoiding Fraudsters

  You know that hidden bomb shtick in the movies? There's a bomb that's going to go off and kill a gazillion people. First, the good guys have to find it. Then they have to figure how to get into to it to disarm it. Then they almost have it disarmed when they discover a booby trap they have to work around. Then they find the two wires - red and blue. The hero has to snip the blue wire but they both look black under the yellow light. Then he gets lucky. He snips the blue wire. When it comes to Internet fraud, however, some of us don't get so lucky According to master-hacker-turned-security-guru Kevin Mitnick, those layers of resistance set up by the mad bomber ought to be the way everyone thinks when they are trying to keep the bad guys out of their computers, networks and databases. Mitnick, who knows about as much as anyone concerning Internet security, says it is not easy keeping the bad guys out. He says there is no magic bullet (or wire snipper). Mitnick: The system... Posted Mar 31 2008, 06:04 PM by Practical Ecommerce Articles

• Interview: ICANN Official On The Domain Name Infrastructure

  The Internet Corporation for Assigned Name and Numbers, or ICANN, coordinates the domain name system globally. ICANN was created in 1998 to perform various Internet administrative tasks previously done by a range of bodies including universities, private companies and the U.S. government. These tasks involve ensuring the domain name system functions properly and that individuals and companies can easily obtain and use domain names for their lawful purposes. We asked Jason Keenan, Media Advisor with ICANN, how it all works. PeC: How is it that someone located in, say, Asia types Practicalecommerce.com in a web browser and our site appears? Keenan: Well, your website resides on a specific computer that is attached to the Internet. That computer is automatically assigned a unique number, called an Internet Protocol or IP address. Someone in Asia, or anywhere else, could type your IP address in the browser and your site would appear. But, the fact is that Practicalecommerce.com is... Posted Mar 26 2008, 09:07 PM by Practical Ecommerce Articles

• Frameworks For Web Designers

  I've written previously about frameworks and how they help developers build web applications. For the most part, my praise of frameworks has been directed at those of us who develop web applications, such as coding up the Ruby, Perl, PHP or .Net scripts that make applications work. However, frameworks can also be used to help teams work together, as in the case of a graphic designer and a web application developer. I can say from experience that it is often difficult to get creative people from different disciplines to work effectively together. Enter the Blueprint CSS framework. Blueprint CSS is a framework for visually styling web pages with Cascading Style Sheets. Rather than writing your own CSS for every website that you work on, Blueprint provides a foundation of CSS styles to work with and build upon. As CSS gets more advanced, and the shortcomings of web design are overcome, a framework like this can prevent problems, as well as give developers the tools to bring the... Posted Mar 26 2008, 07:56 PM by Practical Ecommerce Articles

• PayPal Payflow Gateway Maintenance Notification March 28, 2008

  The Payflow Gateway will undergo scheduled maintenance on Friday March 28, 2008 1:00 AM PDT (March 28, 2008 8:00 AM GMT) to Friday March 28, 2008 6:00 AM PDT (March 28, 2008 1:00 PM GMT). During this time you may experience performance slow downs and... Posted Mar 25 2008, 02:35 PM by Payflow Gateway

• Bloglist: Eric Leuenberger

  Name: Eric Leuenberger, Owner Company: Enhanced Concepts, Inc. In Bloglist, we ask ecommerce professionals to identify their favorite blogs. For this installment, we asked Eric Leuenberger, ecommerce conversion marketing expert and owner of Enhanced Concepts, Inc. Entrepreneurs-journey.com This blog provides some superior information on how to get the most out of monetizing your website. From informative tips on affiliate programs to traffic monetization strategies, this blog has it all. Copyblogger.com Great blog for keeping in tune with copy writing techniques that help you persuade visitors to act. Toprankblog.com This blog provides a range of useful resources that cover various search marketing techniques, including social media marketing, blog marketing and other online public relations ideas. Sethgodin.typepad.com These are some of the most enlightening marketing concepts you'll ever read. Seth Godin always has something to say that makes you step... Posted Mar 24 2008, 05:44 PM by Practical Ecommerce Articles

• Field Test: Fraud Prevention, Part 2 of 3

  In Field Test, Practical eCommerce gathered ten seasoned ecommerce merchants and asked each of them the same questions around a given topic. This month’s topic is fraud prevention. The participating ecommerce merchants are: Dave Norris, House of Antique Hardware; Chris Stump, Only Hammocks; Mike Feiman, PoolDawg; Dan Stewart, Xtreme Diesel Performance; Roman Kagan, Appliance Parts Pros; Cindy Barrileaux, Write Your Best; Claudette Cyr, Gear-Source; Mike Butler, Bloom Designs Nursery; Kristen Taylor, Juvie; Jeff Muchnik, RedBox Tools. The responses for three of the ten merchants follow below. The answers are shown to preserve anonymity. Pec: Has your ecommerce business been the victim of credit card fraud? FIELD TESTER 4: In over eight years in business we haven't had a single case of credit card fraud. While no company can claim to be 100 percent invincible, we try to utilize every option available to prevent fraudulent transactions. FIELD TESTER 5: No. FIELD... Posted Mar 24 2008, 05:22 PM by Practical Ecommerce Articles

• Tech Support: Application Programming Interfaces

  One of the most exciting trends on the Internet today is interconnectedness. Application programming interfaces (APIs) help make this possible. For example, if I have created a blog at WordPress, I can get a free key to use the API at Akismet, a comment-spam-prevention service. Additionally, if I have a Flickr account, I can get another free key to access its API to display my photos from Flickr on my new blog. By interfacing with other websites, in other words, my blog is now more functional than it used to be. So what are APIs, and why should I pay attention to them? The first question is much easier than the second, so let's start with it. When a website such as Flickr offers an API it provides a method for other applications, such as other websites, to access its content. In the same way a person can visit Flickr and be presented with web pages, an API provides a way for computers to visit Flickr and be presented with the requested content. Here's an example. Say a user... Posted Mar 19 2008, 06:37 PM by Practical Ecommerce Articles

• Field Test: Fraud Prevention, Part 1 of 3

  In Field Test, Practical eCommerce gathered ten seasoned ecommerce merchants and asked each of them the same questions around a given topic. This month’s topic is fraud prevention. The participating ecommerce merchants are: Dave Norris, House of Antique Hardware; Justin Hertz, MuttMart; Chris Stump, Only Hammocks; Mike Feiman, PoolDawg; Dan Stewart, Xtreme Diesel Performance; Roman Kagan, Appliance Parts Pros; Cindy Barrileaux, Write Your Best; Claudette Cyr, Gear-Source; Mike Butler, Bloom Designs Nursery; Kristen Taylor, Juvie; Jeff Muchnik, RedBox Tools. The responses for three of the ten merchants follow below. The answers are shown to preserve anonymity. Pec: Has your ecommerce business been the victim of credit card fraud? FIELD TESTER 1: Attempted fraud, but nothing that ever actually went through. FIELD TESTER 2: Hundreds of fraud attempts, but I think we actually only got stung once for a small amount. FIELD TESTER 3: Yes, we typically see a handful of... Posted Mar 19 2008, 05:00 PM by Practical Ecommerce Articles

• Intermittent API 10001 errors, "Click Here to Retry" for Payments Standard - RESOLVED

  ** UPDATE: ISSUE RESOLVED ** These issues have been resolved on March 19th, at 10:30 AM PDT (5:30 PM GMT) **** Original post: Currently API calls are intermittently failing with error 10001. WPS (Website Payments Standard) transactions are failing with... Posted Mar 19 2008, 01:17 PM by Sandbox Status

• Interview: “Ask.com Search Results Are Different”

  Interactive Corp., or IAC, owns many large Internet-based companies. These companies include Lendingtree.com, Realestate.com, Match.com and Ticketmaster.com. IAC also owns Ask.com, the search engine that competes with Google, Yahoo! and MSN. IAC's chairman, Barry Diller, is attempting to sell many "non core" Internet companies and focus largely on Ask.com and other related companies. As such, we asked two Ask.com executives, Jeff Shioya, Regional Vice President IAC Advertising Solutions, and Ryan Massie, Vice President of Product Management, about Ask.com and how it is different than the other search engines. PeC: Most search traffic is at Google. Why should ecommerce companies consider pay-per-click ads at Ask.com? SHIOYA: No advertiser will reach all search users by running a campaign with a single search company. The payoff of any search marketing campaign eventually hits a plateau because there are only so many keywords and price adjustments that can be made. Ask... Posted Mar 17 2008, 04:49 PM by Practical Ecommerce Articles

• Social Networking: Build Your Own Community

  There is not a day that goes by that I don't reflect on how to leverage social media, including social networks, for marketing purposes. I have tried a number of approaches, some of which have been successful and some of which have not. This month, I want to share an idea that I think has genuine potential. I call it "getting a table of your own." A basic rule of thumb in social media marketing is that, in order to gain influence, you must actively participate in the communities of which you are a member. That means commenting on blogs, participating in forums and message boards, joining fan groups at major social networks like MySpace or Facebook, and dialoging via online chat on sites like Twitter. Participation in social shopping sites such as Judy's Book, Kaboodle or ThisNext is a good thing as well, and essential to any effective marketing strategy. However, I liken all of these activities to getting a seat at someone else's table. How much better would it be to get your... Posted Mar 17 2008, 02:30 PM by Practical Ecommerce Articles