In October we held a conference specifically aimed at online retailers called “8 Ways to Sell More Stuff” (read a review here). The feedback was very positive and we hope to produce more events in this style in 2011.

In the meantime here is the first of some of the presentations that I recorded on the day. I didn’t manage to record them all (sorry Michael Kane!) and it may be a while before I have an opportunity to tidy the other few up but there should be plenty for you to mull over in this podcast below.

This is Andrew Draper, Co-founder of Manpacks.com sharing his experience of launching not only a new online business in the last year but a business with a unique business model.

The headline sponsor of “8 Ways to Sell More Stuff” was An Post and one way you could sell more stuff is by checking out their new site ILoveShopping.ie.

This is a guest post from Ann Donnelly of O’Mahony Donnelly E-Business Development who are IIA Members based in Clonakilty, Co. Cork

This week there was a big buzz online about an article posted on Tech Crunch “The Time Has Come To Regulate Search Engine Marketing And SEO”. In the opinion of the anonymous guest author: “Due to Google’s dominance — and the fact that it controls such an enormous amount of consumer behavior through paid and organic search listings – the company in essence governs commerce on the web.” This is a topic that has come up time and again over the past few years in webmaster forums and search industry conferences, but in many cases the complaint comes from those that are looking for short cuts to get results through search engines or those that are focusing on one aspect of online marketing success instead of developing a full, well rounded online marketing plan.

A small number of these people are using techniques that some would consider unethical to promote their own websites, or are using these techniques to provide such services to others. Some are using ethical techniques, but using dishonest or hard sell marketing to promote their services. This sort of behaviour happens across all industries (we all trust used car salesmen, right?), but in our industry the consumer is particularly vulnerable, as he often feels he doesn’t have the technical knowledge and doesn’t listen to his own common sense – and there is such an enormous amount of bad advice out there.

It may sound harsh, but those people that have knowingly chosen these methods will probably laugh at what I am saying here and will continue in the same manner, full throttle, and may get very rich from it. On the other hand, I have met a number of people in the industry that honestly feel that these are legitimate methods and don’t see that they are limiting the type of results they will get from their businesses. Why do I care about these people? Their behaviour causes consumers to distrust the industry as a whole. A customer that has had a bad experience shopping online will avoid shopping online again. A business that has gotten poor results with their website because the web developer they chose was inexperienced, will just feel that online marketing won’t work at all for them.

There are also a large number of young men and women, as well as those recently made redundant, that are starting up their own businesses and are looking to those of us already established in the industry for guidance on the way to go with this.

It’s up to each business owner to decide what sort of methods he will use. Do you want to sign on a large number of customers that will use your services once or over a short period of time or do you want to develop longer term relationships built on old fashioned, good service and hard work?

If you choose the first method and are tricking people into signing up for your services, not providing good value and are not getting results for your customers the bad news will get around quickly enough and you may end up out of business. This is especially true with so many people using social networking web sites. News of bad service travels much faster than good reviews.

Are you providing the best products and services? If not, are you providing better value for what you do? Do your customers fully understand what they are getting for their money? Take a look at your business and see if you can develop a business model that’s good for your customers as well as for yourself.

Let’s go back to “Big, Bad Google”. They state on their Corporate Overview page: “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” They do this by providing “an easy-to-use free service that usually returns relevant results in a fraction of a second.” Looking just at the search side of Google’s businesses the changes they have made over the years have all focused on returning “relevant results” not because they are really nice guys, but because that is what makes people come back to use the Google search engine again and again. Focusing on this has brought about the “dominance” that is resented by their competitors and search marketing professionals that are looking for short cuts to success.

This resentment is even stronger now that Google AdWords have brought financial success as well. Google has made their products and services easy to use, with full documentation and helpful videos. They now have staff speaking at most industry conferences and using social networking tools to more fully communicate and assist users of all of their products.

This shows the importance of setting the right mission statement for your business and, once you have done this, maintaining your focus on that mission to bring best results for your business. What do you want to achieve in your business? Are you looking to just make a living or are you looking for greater satisfaction in helping others achieve their business goals; or do you need to be the best (in number of sales, awards, publicity)? Are you looking to build up your business to a point where you can sell it on to another bigger business? Your goals are going to be based on the type of products/services as well as what your personal needs are. I am not judging any of these goals, just saying that it’s important to define them and remain focused.

By developing the best mix of products and services with the right pricing structure you then have a business that is financially viable and, hopefully, lucrative with a base of happy, loyal customers (as well as happy, loyal suppliers) that are with you for the long term and referring you to their friends and colleagues – working with you to build a successful business that is around for the long term. Just have a look at “10 Things Google Has Found to Be True”.

Ann Donnelly has her own blog with News and Views on SEO, Web Development, Online Marketing and the internet in general — and maybe some other posts on business and life itself.

Her business O’Mahony Donnelly E-Business Development specialises in Search Engine Placement &
Offering a full line of Online Marketing Services:
- Web Design & Development
- Shopping Carts & Payment Processing
- Search Engine Placement
- Email Marketing
- AdWords Campaign Management
- Social Networking (Blogs, Forums, etc.)
- Online Customer Service

Damien Mulley is running another innovative competition to find the best Search Engine Optimiser in Ireland. The competition has become known as the Geansaí Gorm Competition. (although I think it is being spelt “geansai gorm” without the accent. I’m sayin nuttin! ) This phrase was chosen so as not to pollute the rankings of actual businesses because it was unlikely that there are many trying to sell geansaithe goirme online (bang goes the Spailpín Fánach’s line in blue jumpers…)

The competition runs until 3pm on December 1 2008 so if you are really good there is still time to get ranked in Google for geansai gorm. I’m really looking forward to seeing the resuls. I’ll be keen to see how much social media helps the winner or whether the purchasing of AdWords helped. I’ll keep you posted on the results.

Now I’m off to sell all the mentions above of geansai gorm to the contenders…

On the 1st September last Google launched Chrome, their take on the web browser. Their motivation according to their graphical (though somewhat previous) press release was that browsers today are simply a conduit for most people to get at the web applications they are using online like email, photo applications, colloboration applications, customer relationship management and tracking application to give some enterprise oriented examples. Therefore browsers should be stripped down and fast, fast, fast.

I had some initial difficulties installing Chrome on Vista (solved by saving then installing rather than running the install directly.) Although I found a number of queries from other users on Google Help Forums having the exact same issue, I couldn’t find a fix. I have it installed now and like many others I miss my add ons that I have installed in my IE and Firefox browsers most especially and surprisingly my Google toolbar!

I will collate some other more knowledgable reviews and post links here but I would love to read or link to your reaction to Chrome so please leave comments below. In terms of doing business on the web, while the figures still have to come in on the take up of Chrome, there is no harm in checking that your own site or sites for which you are responsible work in Chrome. I have no doubt that Google have a cunning plan to get us all on Chrome sooner rather than later!