Re: Off-Topic: Online stores

["Chris Travers" <..hidden..>]

On 3/6/07, Matt Jackson <..hidden..> wrote:
> Since I assume at least a few of you are online business owners, I am
> curious to know what your "solutions" have been for the following:
>
> - Search engine optimization

I generally find that if you focus on building a community of users,
affiliates, etc. that your search engine ranking will slowly increase.
Google, for example, does penalize new sites operating for less than
a year.  Failing that, you may want to consider text ads on search
engines.

> - Marketing help

Most of the marketing work has to be done by the business owner.  This
means defining target markets, understanding customer needs, etc.  My
business among others can help with an outreach plan, but you really
want your own pieces to be in place first.

> - Knowing at what point in the process of a sale you are losing customers
> - Site hosting and building (are you doing DIY and open source, or
> using a hosted, optimized, pro service, etc.?)

I am DIY plus open source.  BTW, I built a shopping cart integrating
with SQL-Ledger about 2 years ago.  I am waiting to redesign that code
until after we release 1.4.  The nice thing is that there isn't a lot
of code I had to write.  So one can add features like tracking as much
as you want without too much hassle.  Again, that is probably a ways
out, and I am not entirely sure there is a lot of value to be had in
accellerating it because so many of the interfaces will be different
at that point.

Best Wishes,
Chris Travers

> I ask because I am currently using Joomla! with a VirtueMart shopping
> cart for my store, but I am considering switching to the (expensive)
> Fortune3 platform, just on the fact that I have seen direct evidence
> that they are what they say they are, the real deal.
>
> Any experience for me?
>
> Best,
> Matt J.
>
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