Tuesday, May 29, 2007

I have decided to merge my two SEO Blogs...

I don't have time to have two so, I am going to post some of the entries from there here...then you won't have to go back and forth and I won't either. :-) Sorry for the confusion!

LSI Algorithm

We have moved to SEOAware.com

Monday, May 28, 2007

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Shopping Carts- Designersi.com

I blogged about Prostores.com and at the time I did not realize that they took a chunk of every sale made. If I had known I wouldn't have reviewed them. Sorry about that, my friendly readers.

I would recommend checking out DesignersI.com. There is a 15 day trial that allows you to try our their software and look at their features. I have been using it and enjoying the flexibility. They have two plans if you want to build it yourself and two if you want have it built for you:

Build-It-Yourself

Professional Plan - (Green 1)$39.95/Month$ 30.00 One time account activation fee

  • Build-it-yourself site building tool and email. You can build your 40-page hosted website in no time using the internets most advanced website builder.
  • No contracts
  • Web hosting included
  • 40 Meg Hard Drive Space
  • 80 pages
  • 10 email addresses
  • Webmail
  • eMarketing tools
  • Search engine optimization
  • Site traffic reporting tools

Platinum Plan - (Green 2)$59.95/Month $60.00 One time account activation fee

Build-it-yourself site building tool and email.

  • No contracts
  • Web hosting included
  • 80 Meg Hard Drive Space
  • 15 email addresses
  • 1000 pages
  • Webmail
  • eCommerce package
  • eMarketing tools
  • Search engine optimization
  • Site traffic reporting tools

Build-It-For-Me (Orange Plan)

Professional (orange-1) $499.00 One time set-up/design fee$39.95/Month

  • No contracts
  • Web hosting included
  • 40 Meg Hard Drive Space
  • 80 pages
  • 10 email addresses
  • Webmail
  • eMarketing tools
  • Search engine optimization
  • Site traffic reporting tools
  • 48 hour turnaround
  • Web pros work for you
  • Search engine optimization
  • 5 web pages designed
  • 1 customized header

Platinum Plan - (Orange 2)$749.00 One time set-up/design fee$59.95/

  • No contracts
  • Web hosting included
  • 80 Meg Hard Drive Space
  • 15 email addresses
  • 1000 pages
  • Webmail
  • eCommerce package
  • eMarketing tools
  • Search engine optimization
  • Site traffic reporting tools
  • Initial store set-up—up to 20 products
  • 48 hour turnaround
  • Web pros work for you
  • Search engine optimization
  • 8 web pages designed
  • 3 customized headers

    ___________________________________________________________

All plans have Ebay and PayPal integration. I have to say that creating pages and subpages is extremely easy. I also love the following features

Store Settings: You can activate your Shopping Cart Indicator and choose when and where you display your Privacy and/or Refund Policies, plus prompt an eNewsletter sign-up at check-out.

Shipping & Tax Zones: Determine your delivery options and calculate shipping and tax costs passed on to your customer at the time of order depending on their geographic location.
Sales & Promotions: Manage sale and discount offers and create promotional codes to extend discounts to preferred customers.

PayPal® Payment Settings: Allow your customers to process transactions through the Internet’s most popular E-Commerce Gateway for small business – PayPal®. With over 50 million users worldwide, PayPal® is the recognized standard on the web, ensuring the highest levels of security and reliability.

eBay® Integration: Sell your products on eBay®, The world's most popular and largest Online Marketplace.

Payment Gateway Settings: They offer numerous gateways to handle online transactions.

Visually Appealing Templates: The templates are nice and classy. Some of the nicest templates I have seen yet.

Military Encryption: I don't think I even need to expand on this.

You can also create newsletters, visitor polls, create captions, easily add your custom logo and manage the layout of the page.

The 15 day trial has allowed me to choose a template and create a store that I can look at and decide if I want to invest in it (and I do). In addition, the templates can be modified to become wider. FTP set up is available.

I have spent the last week reading every review on every shopping cart there is. I have asked advice, I have used trial periods and there is nothing I like more than the Designersi shopping cart web builder. I spoke with one of their managers today and he stressed that superior customer service is what sets their company apart from the others. So if you have a question, call them. You will be surprised at how polite and friendly they are.

Friday, May 4, 2007

Win SEO Training from Bruce Clay...Coooooooooooooool!

Bruce Clay is having a contest and you can win passes to the Search Marketing Expo conference in Seattle next Month. They want to reward a reader and that reader gets to choose a non-profit organization to attend. Transportation and lodging is the responsibility of the winner.

For more info check out
Bruce Clay

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

If You Have a Business, YOU NEED a Web Presence


I know that there are a lot of businesses out there doing fine without a web site, but the truth is no matter how well you are doing you need a web presence. There are still some people in the world who are not into using the net; I don't know many, but I know they are out there. You need to be thinking about the millions that are using it.

People are searching the web every second of the day trying to find a business they can trust and/or they are trying to learn about what services they need. They are researching and if you do not have a site people can learn nothing from you or about you.

So, when it comes down to choosing a handy man, who do you think people will trust? A guy in the phone book or a guy on the net with a nice web site, that details his services and experience? I know who I would choose. In today's world you can have every thing you have ever wanted on the net inexpensively. There is no need to spend your child's college fund to develop a web presence. This is not a requirement. I wrote about GoDaddy and the great prices they offer because they allow anyone to acquire an attractive web site, with all the additional features a business could need.

You can easily develop a web presence and not only make more money, but also create a business reputation people can trust. If you do not have a web site there are several ways to attain one affordably. To create an influential web presence you will need an attractive web site, an optimized web site and you will need to market your business & web site.


Below are some places where you can begin creating a web presence affordably. Some are more affordable than others.

Melissa Fach
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Register Domains at GoDaddy.com GoDaddy.com offers:




GoDaddy offers a lot more, but that is a quick rundown.

Network Solutions



  • Do it Yourself Websites- $4.95-12.46 a month.

  • Do it for Me- design fee-$399-1399 plus $49.95

  • E-commerce packages Standard $49 set-up-fee and $49.95 a month- Premium $99 set-up-fee and $99.95 a month

  • Web Hosting $996-29.13 a month

  • Email $1.67 a month per mailbox (500 MB of storage 20 MB of attachments)

  • SSL Certificates start at $89 a year

  • Web Analytics- 3 plans - $12.95 a month, $29.95 a month, 59.95 a year


ProStores 1 Month Free Trial
Pro Stores by Ebay- For those wanting an estore




  • A 30% discount off the ProStores monthly subscription price following the free trial for eBay Stores sellers.

  • A one month free trial for anyone.

  • PayPal is intregrated into the site (this is great- I have some clients that have large businesses that way to pay me via PayPal- nice feature)

  • Web Site Hosting and Set-Up Tools- step-by-step design wizard- no HTML knowledge needed. You can use templates or create your own through Dreamweaver or use their design services.

  • Merchandising and Marketing Tools

  • Payment and Order Management Tools

  • Inventory Management and Reporting

  • Very easy to upload products and create subcategories.

  • Cross Promote & Featured Products

  • Marketing tools submit your listings to Froogle, Yahoo Shopping, Shopping.com, Shopzilla
    Search Engine Optimization Manager- Makes optimizing EASY for you!

  • Ebay Integration

  • Email Marketing

  • Promotions Tools- Free Shipping, Discounts

  • Easy-to-use shopping cart

  • Multiple Payment Options, Payment Gateways and Secure Checkout

  • Real-Time Shipping Service Integration

  • Order manager- pending orders, completed orders, orders shipping, credits, order history etc.

  • Automatically notifies you when you are low on inventory and easy to hide a product when you run out.

  • Real-time reports on sales that are also customizable.
    Performance Analysis

  • 24/7 Support and Interactive Resources.

Free Extensive Web Stats- Google Analytics This link will send you to another blog entry that is very long on Google Analytics.