Jan/Feb/March 2007 News

Welcome to our March Newsletter!

What an exciting year 1 Choice is having and it is only March!!! First, we opened up a small local office to be able to provide our customers top level support. We found a gorgeous place that basically costs less then my mini-van each month! So we get to keep costs down and provide support…yes we LOVE it!

So topic of the day….What size should I design my site for? 800x600 or ???

Why did we choose this topic? Well the internet is buzzing with people asking should I or shouldn’t I. We see a lot of advice saying to move up…make the site wider. People are buying larger monitors. Make the sites bigger! We just don't agree and here is why.

Yep…we do have larger monitors…we are also buying really small computers. And I am not sure about your eyes but I can safely say that several of the women in our office have the resolution set at 800x600 because it just makes it easier to read. Doesn't matter that they have a nice large monitor. They still have it set at 800x600 because it is easier for them to read. Well that’s just women right? Well considering women make 80% of the buying decisions….You better make your women (and all the other women) happy. *smiling*  But I also see the same thing when I visit with people at their homes and offices for training...large monitor...large settings. As I am writing this I recall an article I read about Target being sued by the National Federation of the Blind. Pull out my Jan 2007 issue of Internet Retailer, thank my mother for the wonderful memory she gave me, and find the most important part of the article. 25% of all computer users have some form of visual impairment. TWENTY FIVE PERCENT! Plus 57% of all computer users said they were likely to benefit from efforts designed to improve the usability of web sites by people with disabilities.

So then I pull out my recent copy of Internet Retailer and I am looking at a list of the Top 10 retailer name searches in December 2006. To see this list for yourself the url is http://www.internetretailer.com/article.asp?id=21582

Hey Shawna…why should we care what OTHER sites people are searching for if they are not searching for my site. Well…first let’s go over the list.

1. Walmart
2. Target
3. Home Depot
4. Best Buy
5. Amazon
6. Lowes
7. Circuit City
8. Sears
9. Office Depot
10. Costco

I urge you to visit every single site listed. Notice something? Every single site with the exception of Amazon is designed for 800x600 resolution.

Now…Look at that list again. Look at the names on that list. Think of the combined amount of money that these companies spend on figuring out how people buy, why people buy, and how they can get more people to buy buy buy buy!

These are the top sites people are searching for. They don’t have to do any work to get customers. So if these major department stores felt constrained under their current settings…hey do what you want. People are looking for those companies and will buy from you anyway. Yet these companies do not. These companies design their websites for 800x600 resolution.

Now you and I do not have the money that these companies do to spend on marketing studies. But we can learn a lot just by looking at these sites.

Continue to look at other top online retail stores (Macys, JcPenneys, etc) and they are all done in 800x600.

So what should you do with your site? My opinion is to follow the big guys. There is a reason to their madness. Because it works!

The hardest part (I believe) of running a successful online business is conversion rates. When people have to scroll left to right…they leave. If you design your website at 900 pixels wide and their resolution is set to 800x600, they have to scroll left to right to read the information. If you have worked hard on your SEO to get them into your website you do not want them to leave because the site did not fit their monitor. Have you ever heard of someone leaving because the site was designed for 800x600 like all the other big sites? No. Don’t ever give your customers a reason to not buy from you. Ever. Getting the customer to your website took time and/or money. Don’t let them leave your website so easily.

The only reason your customer should leave your website is to check the front door for their package!

So the decision is up to you but we hope that you now have a little more information so that you can make an informed decision.

While I am on the subject of conversion rates. We have recently partnered with Hackersafe and I am very impressed with the testing results that we have seen. We were recently in Florida for a conference and I spoke to several of our customers that also stated that their conversion rates went up quite a bit when they added the logo. The Scan Alert logo works! But don’t take our word for it….get the facts straight from them. Our customers not only get a special rate but also get to put the logo on TWO sites. We know many of our customers have multiple sites so this was great news! So if you want more information call this wonderful lady that we met in Chicago at the Search Engine Conference. Her name is Cresta Pillsbury and she is the Director of Business Development. You can reach her at (877) 302-9965, Ext 1120 or email her cresta.pillsbury@hackersafe.com

Also as our customer you get free services to validate your compliance to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Basically proving that your website is safe. So let them take care of this for you! As our customer, they are doing it for free for you!

If you need more information about the PCI DDS you can visit https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/  But that website confused me so I found another article from Internet Retailer that you can read that will explain a bit about PCI that is much easier to understand http://www.internetretailer.com/article.asp?id=20954

By the way...I love Internet Retailer magazine...If you do not have a subscription...GET ONE! Be prepared, it is expensive. It's...well....It's....FREE! Yeah you heard me right. A great magazine for store owners that is FREE! God I love free and useful. So make sure to get your own subscription here: http://www.internetretailer.com/IR/USA/

Back to Hackersafe....Call Cresta. She is just a wonderful person that you will enjoy talking to plus you can increase conversion rates PLUS validate your compliance for PCI for FREE. You know I love free and I love great people so you can’t go wrong! Again her phone number is (877) 302-9965, Ext 1120.

I think I have rambled on enough now but I will be back next time!

Take care for now,

New Happenings!

Take a look at our Portfolio for our latest clients.   You will see a wide variety of sites for the online consumer.  And as we know based on current statistics, the number of online buyers is growing larger each year.  This past Christmas season online spending increased 26% compared to last season.   And Yahoo! Retail sites continued its #1 ranking with more than 131 million unique visitors according to this great article from comScore.com.  We love Yahoo! Merchant Accounts which is the reason we only build Yahoo! stores.  

In order to provide you with low cost solutions for your Yahoo! store, 1 Choice 4 Your Store has always looked for great partnerships to help you.  Call us for information regarding Yahoo's Sponsored Search advertising  program.  comScore.com has another great article detailing the success Yahoo! has shown for Sponsored Click-Through Rates.  So call today and we can get you started with their new advertising system.

We have also partnered with ScanAlert for their HackerSafe program.  Many of our clients report  a noticeable increase in their conversion rates due to their program.  Check out our blog for more information.

And don't forget eMerchantDiscount for low rates on your merchant credit card processing.   Their new site has great information and can show you how to integrate your QuickBooks with your internet merchant account.

Speaking of new sites, have you taken a look at ours?  We hope you will continue to visit our site for new tips and techniques to increase your Yahoo! online store!

And the tip for the New Year - be sure to change your copyright to 2007!

Our Top Lists For Yahoo Stores!

Dave has a top 10 list and we were jealous. So we made two top ten list and one top FIFTEEN!

Top 10 Cool Yahoo Store Enhancements

Top 10 Yahoo Store SEO Enhancements

and the greatest list of all................

*drum roll please*

Top 15 Enhancements For Conversion Rates

Yahoo! has made creating a Google Sitemap user friendly! We have step by step instructions on getting yours up immediately!

Google Sitemaps is an easy way to tell Google about all the pages on your site, which pages are most important to you, and when those pages change, for a smarter crawl and fresher search results.

Find out how Google sees your site
Google Sitemaps also answers questions you might have about how Google sees your site. For example, you can learn about errors (such as if we're having trouble crawling your pages) and statistics (such as what search queries return your site in the results). Read More

FREE Classes - 1 Choice 4 Class

We have started our online course called Yahoo! Store Editor 101. The main focus of this course is to help you move around within the Yahoo! Store Editor. Subjects covered include adding products, adding sections, and moving things around, etc. The class is short and sweet and we are now offering this course free of charge to our customers. All that we ask is that at the end of your course, provide us with some feedback. Was the course easy or too hard? Did we explain things in ways that made sense or were you lost? Let us know how we did! We are asking you to grade us! Send your comments to support@1c4y.com

What is REALLY exciting is that store owners can use the course for teaching new employees! Instead of spending days trying to teach them how to use the store while also trying to take orders, get out orders, and everything else you have to do....You can give them the URL and have them complete the course by themselves. We hope to save you hours of time it would take to train them.

The class URL is http://www.1choice4ystoreclass.com

Sign Up a new account and them email us for the Activation Key. Please put Activation Key in the subject of your email. We will also be creating a downloadable ebook format as well for this course as well as our other courses.

COMING SOON!!!!

• SEO Class - Our online SEO course is tailored for the Yahoo! Store Owner. Learn what it takes to get top rankings in the search engines.
• HTML Class - Have you always wondered how to make small changes to your font for color or bold? Perhaps you wanted to add a link in your text. This class will not go over every detail of HTML but it is perfect for a store owner that wants to complete simple easy tasks using HTML.

International Yahoo! Stores

Boosting Your Conversion Rates with Certified Site...

New Look And New Packages

Google DOES want UNIQUE Meta Descriptions

Online Shopping - What you need to know

Duplicate Content - Manufacturer Descriptions

Higher Conversion Rates For The Holidays

Your Meta Tags and Code are INCORRECT and this is ...

What Yahoo! Considers Unwanted - Part 3

Yahoo Store Design Wizard Is Here!!

Google: Judge,Jury and Executioner?

Yahoo! Introduces YahooPete As YSM Rep; YahooSarah Now YPN Rep

Google To Show AdWords Advertisers Where Contextual Ads Are Displayed

Advertisers Speak On New AdWords Quality Score Algorithm

IRS May Ask eBay To Snitch On Sellers

Buyers & Information Seekers Search Differently

What's So Different About Being Small?

Small Is Beautiful: New Column From Search Engine Land

The Top 16 SEO Tips From A Yahoo Insider

How Does The Yahoo! Directory Rank Sites?

How Does Google Handle The NoFollow Attribute?

Yahoo's Panama Update Leads to High Ad Click Thru Rates

Microsoft: Google was 'Wake-up call'

E-mail signatures, recipients can suffer from info overload

Confiscated airline carry-on items become big sellers on eBay.

Google takes on Microsoft with online software