Google Analytics allows you to track website statistics like page visits, amount of time spent on individual pages, how much your traffic has changed over different time periods, where your traffic is coming from and what times of day your site is busiest. It gives you tremendous insight into the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and what kind of traffic your site is receiving. Google Analytics is extremely user-friendly and after utilizing its tools, you will be able to create better targeted advertisements and promotions and ultimately create a website with higher conversions.

The Google Analytics module for Miva Merchant is the most current version. It fully supports the new asynchrous tracking code and includes features like on-site search tracking and e-commerce conversion tracking.

The Google Analytics module has been tested and is completely functional with the new Miva Merchant PR7 Wombat. You can even track statistics across subdomains and cross-domain.  With an active Google AdWords account you can also integrate your Google AdWords tracking code with Miva Merchant 5.5.

Take advantage of this free module for your new or existing Miva Merchant store with WebNet Hosting today!

WebNet Hosting is a leading provider and Premier Partner Miva Host located in the Washington, DC metro area. Visit http://webnethosting.net for more details on their managed Miva Hosting plans and e-commerce solutions for your website.

For more information about Google Analytics, visit http://www.google.com/analytics/.

Each month we profile a client that is operating a successful e-commerce site in our newsletter and blog.  This month’s company is Youngevity,  located online at Youngevity.net.  Youngevity is an authorized distributor of a line of healthy mineral supplements created by Dr. Joel Wallach.  The following is an interview with Christopher Scruby of Youngevity.net:

When did your site launch?  Give us a brief history of your business.
Originally we started on the web in 1995 writing natural health articles and marketing products for Dr. Joel Wallach (of “Dead Doctors Don’t Lie” fame).

We did not even have a shopping cart then. At that time it was phone in only and needless to say it was a slow process. We built our first websites with Notepad. There were few service providers that were stable at all and would crash constantly with nonexistent tech support. It was hard to keep a business up and running.

How long have you been using the Miva Merchant Hosting services from WebNet Hosting?
We found Miva in 2004. But we did not use it right away, mainly because our old host was having trouble making it function.

We moved our first site to WebNet in September of 2009, and then in December we moved our entire web presence to them.

So you were using Miva before you switched to WebNet?  If not, what made you switch?  If so, what made you sign-up with WebNet?
The hosting company we were with was not really able to support Miva well and minor problems became disasters. The site was not able to stand without constant intervention, sometimes offline for 24 hours or more. It was not a good way to do business online; totally self-defeating. We spent weeks working on the site to finally see orders coming in then it would stop, only to discover that the site was down and my last host was clueless as to how to fix it. Finally, we were out of business during Christmas and our old host was moving the server (during Christmas)? This was too much and it was then we found WebNet to be the best solution.

My hat is off to PJ and Vince of WebNet, who took a disaster (my Miva storefront), moved it, fixed it and had it running in 24 hours.  Actually, they moved two Miva storefronts. One was damaged and we had a hard time getting the files to make the move. We would have lost a year of work, not to mention Christmas sales revenue, if the WebNet team had not jumped in to fix it so quickly.

I cannot say enough about the WebNet crew! They are PRO and they respond quickly when I need them and seem to have the right answers. I have never seen this type of instant service in 15 years on the net.

What do you like most about Miva Merchant’s shopping cart software?
I like the Miva interface mainly because it is predictable in form and function. Once you get the learning curve behind you it becomes second nature to make modifications.

Making mods is well supported in the forums and if you do make mistakes, it is easy to revert to a copy that was working before.

Making product changes is not a big hassle as the fields are well defined and you do not have to be a tech guru to update product data on the fly. For us, this is crucial since we offer about a thousand items and they change all the time. Miva makes this so easy to manage that even our non-tech staff can update product data with little hassle.

What do you like most about WebNet Hosting?
This all comes back to the point, we were doing ok before WebNet, we stayed in the game but there were always problems on our site that would make it tough for us to grow. Plus, we had no real solid tech support to point us in the right direction. We are finally able to show a consistent growth of sales and revenue starting from the time we came to WebNet until now. We are having one highest ever monthly profit after another.

It is the same site, what is the difference? There has been minimal disruption of service for one thing. These servers are very stable and I always get immediate response from support. WebNet’s servers are fast; this translates into customers not leaving because of slow response.  A hidden benefit of fast servers is that search engine spiders will get deep into your site where you want them, as the time a spider stays on one site is short and limited by design. I can compare this activity to my older logs and see that there was nowhere near this much activity by the spiders before moving to WebNet.

This is key to being in business on the web. Speed of service, stability, durability of service.

How many items do you offer for sale on your site?
We currently have about 800 different products from 14 different product lines with more to add.

Do you use any modules?
Just the show basket and the mini basket. We try to keep the site as simple as possible because it seems as though our customers are more interested in getting right to the point which is getting their product ordered securely, rather than shopping on a flashy site.

Have you had any third-party development done on your site?
No, we have been hands on since the start in 1995. It makes more sense to me to be able to keep hands on rather than count on a “would be” developer to keep it updated for you. I have seen that go far astray of what is considered optimal in managing a site.

What do you use for credit card payments and what have your experiences been?
We have always handled credit card payments in house and never had problems.  Then again, we are still old school in that area. We have always taken security very seriously in this office and work behind layers of firewalls and limited access to our processing system.

How many employees do you have?
We have a small crew here of less than ten team members so everyone has overlapping functions.

What are your strategies for SEO?
First and foremost, I don’t spam the head tag with unrelated tags and keywords. Also, I spend time daily studying my logs to see keyword trends. Don’t make the mistake of guessing what people are searching to find you. Always remember that trends change and if you are not paying attention you will be yesterday’s news. Also, write real content (articles with some real meat on them) and never ever copy another person’s articles — having duplicate content is a sure path to page 1000 on the results. Furthermore, follow the Miva Forum for SEO tutorials because one can always glean new insight from the Pros.

What were some of your biggest mistakes? (so that others can possibly learn from them)
Read the SEO section above. Those lessons were learned through painful experience. Also, as you can see, the wrong hosting provider can do more damage to your online marketing efforts than you could ever possibly imagine. It hides out there as a hidden “WHY” things are not happening for you. If you are not on top of it you will be out of the game before it starts. Make sure the host is not limiting your bandwidth or dumping you on an overloaded shared server with a spammer that keeps getting your whole IP block banned for Viagra ads. You laugh — but it happens frequently! Don’t cheap out on domain services. We had a few heart stoppers in the early days with domain registration services. Go ahead and register your site for at least five years just for piece of mind. We had a (not to be mentioned here) cheapo registrar that actually gave my prime domain to my competition over the phone. So save the heartache. Spend the bucks with a reputable service.

What have been your biggest successes?
I guess the biggest success has been that I am still here doing this business online after starting from scratch with a 33mhz computer, 4megs of ram, two 20 meg hard drives, Windows 3.1 and a 1400 bps modem that was so slow, I could put coffee on and get the kids ready for school in the time it took to load a web page and download the email, providing it did not crash … 15 years ago!

Finding WebNet was a stroke of luck and for the first time I have been able to get back to building new sites and upgrading my existing sites, instead of constantly having to deal with crisis management. The professional hosting environment frees up a lot of energy one could waste on substandard providers, which by their nature are a risk due to incompetence.

Thanks for everything, WebNet! I feel we have finally arrived!

Take the time to visit Youngevity.net to learn more about their healthy mineral supplements and Dr. Wallach’s ideas!

Miva Merchant Modules are the ideal way of creating a fully customizable online store.  They are easy to install and require no costly outsourcing to a web developer to create custom programming.  Miva Modules typically cost between 1/10^th and 1/20^th of what the equivalent in third-party development would cost.

There is now a large enough market for Miva Modules that there are a number of developers and the competition between them has kept the quality of their products very high.  The main categories of modules available include:

• Website Look and Feel
• Email Management
• Ordering and Shipping
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Checkout Process Enhancements
• Promotions and Marketing
• Store Management

Through the proper use of Miva Merchant Modules, storeowners can truly make their websites stand out from the competition and take their stores to the next level.  Furthermore, thanks to SEO modules, page rank in the search engine results pages can be greatly increased.

With such an abundance of modules for the Miva Merchant shopping cart on the market, those involved in the e-commerce industry will be surprised by their ability to truly customize their websites like never before.  Miva Merchant puts the power into the hands of the storeowner.

Visit MM5Central.com for a list of the best-selling Miva Merchant Modules available.

Online business operators have a tendency to forget that the company hosting their store is the foundation of their business and a successful business needs a strong and reliable foundation. When looking for a web host, remember that finding the company with the cheapest price is not the goal. Paying a higher fee for better service and more dependability is ultimately the smartest decision. Conversely, the most expensive company is by no means going to be the best either.

When launching a new e-commerce business, finding the best shopping cart hosting for your needs can be a tremendously daunting task. There are simply so many web hosts out there and it is a tiresome and grueling process to separate the good guys from the bad. Many folks looking to start a website begin by checking out web hosting review sites and directories. On these sites, you can read what clients have to say about their current and former web hosts.

When searching for a host, do not be suckered into buying into gimmicks. Things like “unlimited” plans may sound appealing but there is really no such thing as “unlimited.” When a company says unlimited, that means that your site will be generally placed on an overcrowded server where you will be forgotten about. It’s important to research the history of the company and find a reliable host that is not trying to use sneaky marketing tactics to gain customers.

Your Host Dramatically Impacts the Performance of Your Store

There are a variety of major ways that your web host impacts the performance of your online store including:

1. Uptime and Downtime
2. Technical Support
3. Site Speed and Page Load Times
4. Management of your account including data, email, backups
5. Virus Protection
6. Defense from Hackers and Malware
7. The ability of your hosting to grow with your business (you should be able to increase hard drive space with one quick, simple call)
8. Your host should aid with the technical aspects of accepting credit card orders, including setting up a payment processing system.
9. Hosts should help you find developers or Miva Modules to make your site function properly.

No Such Thing As Good Downtime

Choosing a reliable web host and the correct plan for the amount of traffic your site will generate is of the utmost importance to the success of your online business. Site uptime and downtime are perhaps the most important components of how web hosting affects an online store’s performance. Downtime can really break an online business quickly.

Simply speaking, when your site is down and inaccessible then customers cannot make purchases and you cannot make money. Furthermore, potential customers cannot peruse your site. Let’s face it – people shop online to save time and money. If your site is continuously down then you will not be able to make it in the competitive marketplace of the Internet.

The industry standard for web hosts regarding downtime is a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Never sign up for a hosting package that does not guarantee at least 99.9% uptime because this will surely negatively impact the performance of your store. To put it in more practical terms, with 99.9% uptime, your site should never encounter more than around 45 minutes of total downtime per month.

Sometimes there might be a situation where your server has a critical error and your site may not be online for 99.9% of the month. In any such case, it is your host’s responsibility to credit your account with the pro-rated amount you owe for that month’s charges.

Quality Support is a Must

Reliability and good technical support go hand in hand. When choosing a new host, make sure that they have an excellent support staff. When you first call them, go with your gut instinct. Do they sound knowledgeable and easy to understand? Are they polite? Ask detailed questions and make sure you get well-informed responses. You want to have the comfort of knowing that in any instances of malfunction your issues will be resolved quickly and correctly. A solid web host will have email and phone support available 24/7/365.

Looking, feeling and operating professionally are critical components to running an e-commerce business. Having a sub par web host will toss professionalism out the window rather quickly. It is imperative to establish trust between you and your customers in order to successfully sell online. Customers will not feel safe spending their money with a site that seems unprofessional in any manner.

A Speedy Site is Essential

Another manner in which your web host can impact your store’s performance is your page load times. This can even affect your ranking within Google and the other search engines as they begin using site speed as a factor to determine page rank on the results pages. Having fast load times is imperative not only for the sake of ranking well with search engines but to make your customer’s happy. No customers like a slow site and chances are that if your site is not performing well, they might just click on over to your competition.

A Solid Web Host + A Good Business Model = Happy Customers + Success

Unsatisfactory web hosting can directly impact the customers of your store. Therefore, it is imperative that you choose a quality web host that will not play a part in your store functioning inadequately. Studies have shown that approximately fifty percent of consumers will leave a preferred site if they are experiencing technical problems. All it takes is one unhappy customer to begin the process of bringing down your business. If a customer is not happy the following results could occur:

1. They may never return to your store as a shopper again (this is especially traumatic to your business if they are repeat customers)
2. Word of mouth is a big deal. Unhappy customers have big mouths and they will most likely vent their frustrations with others.
3. A dissatisfied customer may leave a negative review regarding your business on a forum, message board or review site. One bad review can stick with you and your business forever so you must go to all lengths to avoid them. If it does happen, be proactive about it and try to squash it as soon as possible. Try to explain your side and apologize to the customer (remember, the customer is always right). Offer the person a discount or their money back to appease them. With today’s social networks, news travels fast. One tweet could go viral and your brand and image can be quickly tarnished.

WebNet Hosting provides fully PCI Compliant Miva Merchant Hosting and have been a Premier Partner Miva Host since 2004.

PinkPonyTail.com

The featured WebNet site for March is PinkPonyTail Presents, located online at PinkPonyTail.com.  PinkPonyTail Presents specializes in selling dolls, doll accessories and doll publications.  PinkPonyTail is an authorized gold label Mattel dealer for Barbie, her family and friends.  We spoke with Claudia Brookfield-Cogley, owner and operator of PinkPonyTail.com about her site and experiences running an e-commerce business.

What is the name and URL of your business?
Pink Ponytail Presents
http://www.pinkponytail.com

When did your site launch? Can you give us a brief history of your business?
I wanted to open a doll shop with my oldest daughter in the mid-1990s but the local economy alone couldn’t support such a specialized business, and the Internet was not very well established in our area yet.  So we shelved the idea, my daughter left the area.

In late 2003, I decided to move forward with the doll shop on my own.  The site was launched in spring 2004.  Having a website was essential for the success of the business.  We are located in a very rural area of Oregon and we needed to be able to reach doll collectors on a larger scale.  We now ship worldwide.  Some of our strongest international customers are  in Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Finland and Australia.

How long have you been hosting with WebNet Hosting?
WebNet has hosted Pinkponytail.com since 2007, and I am looking forward to a continuing working relationship for the future.

What made you sign up with WebNet Hosting?  Did you switch from another host?
My former webmaster recommended we move the hosting to WebNet and it was a great decision to do so.  Our two previous web hosts were somewhat unreliable and tech support was sketchy at best.

What do you like about WebNet Hosting?
WebNet has fabulous customer service and I really appreciate your technical support team.  After my former webmaster abruptly changed professions, I was left to figure out how to manage my website by myself.  I’ve learned a lot, but there is a lot that is still way over my head if a problem arrises.  WebNet’s tech people are patient, helpful and always available.

I really like that you are sending out a monthly newsletter and reaching out more to your customers.  The Internet keeps us all connected, but that human connection can get lost in the process, and I think it’s important that your customers know you care about that as well.

How many items do you offer for sale on your site?
Pink Ponytail is an Authorized Gold Label Mattel Dealer.  In addition to the full line of collector Barbies, we also carry many Play Line Barbie, Ken and Kelly dolls.  We offer designer doll fashions by Randall Craig and Dressmaker Details, as well as a large selection of Re-Ment Puchi Petites, which are collectible food miniatures from Japan (doll collectors love them for their dioramas and displays).  We also carry back issures of Barbie Bazaar Magazine, current issues of Haute Doll and Fashion Doll Quarterly.

Have you had any third-party development done on your site?
Yes.  The site was originally designed-to-suit by my webmaster.

What do you use for credit card payments and what have your experiences been?
I use PayPal as our payment gateway.  Overall, we have had positive experiences.  Although I have been very interested in using Miva Merchant, after we lost our webmaster and was left to manage the website myself, I felt converting to a full-blown shopping cart was a little too daunting to tackle.  So you can imagine how excited I am to have won the “Miva Merchant 5.5: The Official Guide” book.

The website currently uses the PayPal shopping cart, and we accept credit cards in addition to PayPal.  I would like to switch to Miva because I think it will offer me greater flexibility for the varied products we carry.  Currently we are using separate special ordering forms for orders that are submitted via email instead of going through PayPal because the shipping calculations using PayPal are so limited.  I plan to start using Miva after I familiarize myself with it and all that it has to offer.

How many employees do you have?
I am a one-woman doll shop.  And my husband packs up orders for shipment for me.

What are your strategies for SEO?
At this time in an effort to keep expenses low, I utilize doll collector message boards and other collector communities to drive traffic to the website.  It has been very successful to do so.

What were some of your biggest mistakes? (so that others can possibly learn from them)
I think one of my biggest mistakes was not setting up a full-blown shopping cart on the website from day one.  PayPal Checkout is very limited for shipping calculations for the many different products we sell.

What have been your biggest successes?
My biggest success is having developed a large, loyal customer base through individual attention and customer service.  If you take care of your customers, they will take care of you.

2.  http://www.pcicomplianceguide.org/
An educational site powered by ControlScan to address concerns regarding PCI Compliance.

3.  http://controlscan.com
The leading provider of PCI and security solutions for small to medium sized businesses.  Miva Merchant and WebNet Hosting are partnered with ControlScan to address the security needs of our clients as related to the PCI.

4.  http://knol.google.com/k/pci-compliance-and-the-pa-dss-protect-the-realm-of-e-commerce#
A Google Knol that examines the PCI guidelines and PA-DSS written by your’s truly.

5.  http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/1371-PCI-Compliance-Three-Important-Questions-to-Ask-About-Your-Shopping-Cart
A Practical eCommerce article that examines PCI Compliance as it relates to e-commerce shopping carts.

6.  http://www.thewhir.com/Webinar/pci-dss-compliance-in-the-hosting-industry
An hour long webinar featuring Rick Wilson – Executive VP of Miva Merchant, Craig Fox -  Founder & VP of Product Development for Pinnacle Cart and Stacy Griggs – VP of Sales for MaximumASP on the WHIR (Web Host Industry Review) that discusses the PA-DSS guidelines in-depth.

7.  http://www.thewhir.com/blog/Rick_Wilson/011410_Demystifiying_PCI_DSS_and_PA_DSS_Compliance_For_Web_Hosting_Customers
An extremely helpful blog post written by Rick Wilson of Miva Merchant that clearly addresses and “demystifies” the new PA-DSS guidelines.

8.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aagYuqwZYEY
A four part video series that clears up a lot of the confusion regarding the upcoming PA-DSS deadline and what it entails.  This is a link to the first installment in the series.  Make sure to watch the subsequent installments by clicking on the links to the next videos in the related videos menu on the right.

9.  http://usa.visa.com/merchants/risk_management/cisp_payment_applications.html
Visa originally established the Payment Application Best Practices (PABP) in 2005 before joining forces with all major credit card companies.  Visa explains the whole thing pretty well.

10.  http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/1028-PCI-Compliance-Frequently-Asked-Questions
A nice FAQ regarding PCI Compliance.

We hope that these links will help make sense of such a confusing topic that a lot of people have been struggling to understand.  It is very important to grasp these rules because they really affect everyone in the e-commerce and web hosting industries.  Just remember that by July 1, 2010, if your site stores or processes credit cards and/or confidential information, you MUST be compliance with the PCI PA-DSS.

Also, keep in mind that Miva Merchant will be a fully PCI compliant shopping cart by the July deadline and that WebNet Hosting offers totally PCI Compliant hosting.

Good luck!  Please contact us with any questions!

By utilizing Miva Hosting services, store-owners are able to accomplish previously difficult or impossible tasks with great ease. Miva Merchant 5.5 supplies store-owners with an array of completely modifiable design templates.  Miva users can also simply design and add any extra pages they desire for their stores such as Contact Information, About Us, Directions and Maps, Articles and News, Mission Statements, etc.

The more content offered about a business and the products or services being offered for sale, the better.  With this added information and the professional look and feel established by Miva Merchant’s SMT, customers will flock to the website and a sense of trust will also be developed.  Trust and security are probably the most important factors when it comes to people feeling comfortable with spending their money online.

SMT allows store-owners to make their business function and look the way they want it to.  SMT gives store-owners total control over the layout and design of every single page of their site and allows them the opportunity to move things around however they see fit.  SMT also gives e-commerce operators the ability to have different layouts from one page to another and supplies them with the power to place buttons, graphics, products and category lists wherever they would like.

SMT is  renowned for its simplicity and easy use of basic HTML commands.  With just a basic understanding of HTML, store-owners will have no trouble utilizing the SMT feature of Miva Merchant 5.5. SMT also gives a sense of individualism and style to Miva sites.  Not only does SMT make stores stand out amongst other e-commerce and Miva sites, it allows stores to be more functional to their target audience since store-owners can tailor all of the tiny yet important details of their site.

SMT has two variables. One is page specific and the other is a global site wide variable.  With these variables store-owners are able to change either an individual page or all the pages of their site.  Miva leaves it completely in the hands of the store-owner as to how their finished storefront, product pages and any other pages appear to viewers.  For example, one can easily add a search box to any page and even customize how search results are displayed.

If there is any confusion encountered regarding SMT and its many options, an extremely helpful instructions guide is merely a click away.  There is no additional cost for these features.  Store Morph Technology and support are integrated into the Miva interface and the design controls are very easily accessible.

Store-owners can feel safe to freely make changes to their site without worrying that they will cause any errors by utilizing the simple tracking system, which allows them to revert back to previous versions and even make notes on what works and doesn’t.  This makes sites essentially damage proof and creatively open for the owners to decide what suits their site.

Miva Merchant 5.5 puts the power of store design in the hands of the e-commerce store-owner by providing them with a unique and ground-breaking store design system.  Most importantly, SMT saves store-owners money because they will not need to purchase modules or hire third-party developers in order to obtain the desired look and functionality of their website.

For more detailed information about Store Morph Technology and how to utilize this feature, check out Miva Merchant’s SMT Mini-Primer.

Featured WebNet Hosting Site for February 2010

AwesomeAlmonds.com

Each month we profile a client that is operating a successful Miva Merchant site in our newsletter and blog.  This month’s company is Dr. Lankin’s Specialty Foods, LLC, located online at AwesomeAlmonds.com.  This site specializes in selling all natural flavored roasted almonds containing no cholesterol, artificial preservatives, added cooking oils or the guilt that goes along with most snack foods. Here is an interview with Dr. Kenneth Lankin, MD, owner and operator of AwesomeAlmonds.com.

What is the name and URL of your business?
Dr. Lankin’s Specialty Foods, LLC
http://www.AwesomeAlmonds.com

When did your site launch?
2002

Can you provide us with a brief history of your business?
As a physician, I founded the company because I was inspired by the research demonstrating the many potential health benefits of almonds including lowering cholesterol and reducing the risk of colon cancer.   In 2002, none of the large food companies were selling almonds based on their nutritional value.  So along with my business school classmates at the University of New Haven, I created Awesome Almonds® — a line of flavored, roasted almonds made with no added cooking oils.  Since I was in full-time practice, family members and other partners formed a team to run the company.  Going “online” with a website and online store was critical because maintaining a brick and mortar facility wasn’t feasible.

How long have you been using Miva Merchant?  WebNet Hosting?
We’ve been using Miva Merchant since 2002 and WebNet Hosting since 2007.

So you were you using Miva before you switched to WebNet Hosting.  What made you decide to sign-up with WebNet Hosting?
Yes, we used Miva as we started the business.  We switched to WebNet because we were having problems with frequent glitches with our previous hosting service, resulting in lost orders, missing payments and countless hours spent trying to rectify all these computer generated mistakes.  For our Miva makeover, WebNet was one of two companies suggested by Chuck Lasker.  I contacted both and decided on WebNet Hosting because of their superior customer service.  No regrets.

What do you like most about Miva Merchant?
The many available modules and the flexibility to grow proportionally to the needs of your business.

What do you like most about WebNet Hosting?
Customer service is #1.  I enjoy talking to real people who speak clearly and take a genuine interest in resolving issues.  The expertise level is high hence problems are solved quickly compared to talking to a call center halfway around the world where the rep has to put you on hold for 10 minutes while “checking something” (probably finding a supervisor who actually knows something or doing a Google search on your time).  Having said that, the inherent quality of the service is so good; we don’t need to call that often.

What do you like least about Miva?  What are some common problems?
Miva is not intuitive in many ways.  For example, to make adjustments to coupons, one must enter under the hyperlink about “order fulfillment.”  OK … I get it now but that’s not where I’d think to look.  To see the 2^nd page of the list of coupons one needs to hit a button called “update” (rather than “next page”).  Also the maintenance requirements seem complex.

What do you like least about WebNet?  What would you change?  What features would you add?
I can’t think of anything I don’t like about WebNet.  The online features are very useful, for both account and website management.

How many items do you offer for sale on your site?
We offer our three almond products: Cinnamon-Vanilla, Orange-Vanilla & Cocoa-Java — roasted, flavored almonds in various combinations.  We also have Awesome Almonds® mugs for sale.

What Miva feature(s) do you use most?
UPS pricing.

Do you use any modules?  Which ones?  Which are your favorite and why?
Yes.  Basket Tracker.  Buy X Get X Free.  Payment via PayPal.  Checkout button label.  Bread crumbs.  Basket tracker and bread crumbs are among my favorites because they help our customers navigate and track their pending purchase.

Have you had any third-party development done on your site?
Yes.

What do you use for credit card payments and what have your experiences been?
We use First Data Services and Authorize.net.  Authorize.net is awesome.  We have only been with First Data a short while.

How many employees do you have?
None.  We are all very part-time and virtual.  But put together the team makes things happen.

What are your strategies for SEO?
We are consistently on the first page of Google for the search term “almonds.”  The main ingredient, I believe, is our original and relevant content.  Ninety percent of our site is dedicated to providing information rather than selling.  Secondly, we’ve been at this for over 8 years, long before other companies became aware of the health benefits of almonds.   I have to believe the search engines give us some “credit” for our longevity on the topic. We also liberally provide samples of our products to bloggers specializing in the review of quality foods.

What were some of your biggest mistakes? (so that others can possibly learn from them)
Not realizing the differences among hosting options.  We started out with a good but very generic company.  It worked fine as long as we weren’t busy.  Being with a smaller but more specialized hosting company that understands the technical requirements of Miva has resulted in much improved uptime, faster page load times of our site, faster online processing for our customers and less time spent correcting errors.

What have been your biggest successes?
Top 3 Accomplishments:

1)Awesome Almonds® won first prize for two consecutive years for “Outstanding Snack Award” as voted by the Connecticut Specialty Food Association.  The Cinnamon-Vanilla flavor won the 2008 award and the Orange-Vanilla flavor won the award for 2009.

2) Awesome Almonds® was chosen as a supplier to Well Baskets, an enterprise that creates healthy baskets centered on health and wellness.  Like us, they are a family-oriented company who believes in the power of healthy food to help prevent disease and maintain good health.  Well Baskets, LLC is clearly among the premier companies in the healthy gift basket segment.  Their customers are precisely the people who would appreciate and enjoy our products: a physician-created snack.  We are not trying to be all things to all people.  We have a special product.  We really don’t want to be in Wal-Mart or other mass “big box” stores. Well Baskets is exactly the kind of specialized retailer we enjoy working with:  great people, great products, and a harmonious business model.  As we both have substantial presence online, it re-emphasizes the power of the Internet.  Our website is not only for the retail consumer, but also a way of forging new and creative business relationships.

3) We have a customer in England who has been ordering from us online during the holidays for over five years straight.  At times the cost of shipping has exceeded the cost of the product.  I’m sure there are plenty of excellent snack foods available in England but despite shipping costs, Awesome Almonds® has become a holiday tradition for that family.  That’s success!  It wouldn’t have happened were it not for the Internet, continuous improvements, and the excellent service we receive from WebNet Hosting.

Thanks to Dr. Lankin for participating in our interview!

• Create a site search function so shoppers can easily find items or services with little effort.
• Put this search function on all pages of your site.
• Organize your site with easy to navigate categories.
• Look at your site from a shopper’s point of view and make sure that shopping from your store is simple.

2.  Give Your Products and Services Extremely Detailed Descriptions.

• Online shoppers cannot physically see your offerings so provide high quality images of each item for sale.
• Give your clients the option to zoom in on and rotate images so they get the full picture.
• If selling used items or goods with any sort of imperfections, make sure that these defects are clearly visible.
• Use videos to show your products or services whenever possible.  This will often trump your competition.
• Along with video, use audio whenever possible to describe your products or services.

3.  Guarantee Site Security.

• Ensure that your site is PCI and PA-DSS Compliant.  Remember that not all hosts or shopping carts are compliant.  Miva Merchant 5.5 will be fully compliant with the PA-DSS by the July 2010 deadline.
• Install valid SSL Certificates so that confidential information is properly encrypted.
• Create a “Contact Us” page.  Customers will trust you more if you provide a physical address and telephone number.

4.  Supply Customer Reviews and Testimonials.

• Put a review system in place on your site.  There are review modules for Miva Merchant 5.5 on the market.
• Positive reviews of your products and service are perhaps the most important tool in establishing a successful online business.
• If a client sees that their opinions matter to you then there is a greater chance that they will become a repeat customer.
• Taking your customers’ ideas and opinions into consideration can greatly aid you in your marketing campaigns.

5.  Increase Your Site’s Speed and Page Load Times.

• People shop online to save time. They will generally be turned off by a site with slow load times.
• Use a qualified and knowledgeable business web hosting provider that has fast servers and an uptime guarantee.
• Ensure that your hosting plan provides adequate bandwidth for the amount of traffic your site receives
• Make sure that your host is willing and able to grow with you as your business grows and generates more traffic.

6.  Perform Proper Market Research.

• Study in-depth what your competition is doing including their marketing, pricing and basically all aspects of your business.
• Institute price-matching programs to keep up with the pricing your competitors are offering.
• Conduct research to find your target demographic and market accordingly.

7.  Properly Promote Your Business.

• Make sure you are reaching your target audience by listing your site in respective directories.
• Utilize site statistics tools such as the free Google Analytics to develop proper marketing plans.
• Conduct smart Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaigns to get to the top of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) for targeted keywords including link building, directory marketing, social networking, article marketing, forum and blog posts and many other techniques.
• Properly use meta descriptions and tags to guarantee the correct indexing and ranking in the search engines.

8.  Clearly State Your Shipping and Return Policies.

• No one likes any kind of hidden fees so be upfront about these policies.
• Offer shipping discounts for the purchase of multiple items.
• Offer free shipping whenever possible for customers that spend a certain amount of money with you.
• Be frank about who is paying for shipping when it comes to returns.

9.  Make Plainly Visible What Methods You Accept For Payment.

• Put accepted methods of payment on your home page.
• For smaller merchants, services like PayPal and Google Checkout may be sufficient.
• In order to be widely successful, realistically you will need to be able to accept major credit cards.
• The more payment options you offer the better.

10.  Devote a Page to Sale and Discounted Items.

• An abundance of online shoppers will jump straight to the clearance section just like many customers do in brick and mortar establishments.  People are drawn to bargains.  Simple as that.  Especially in today’s economy.
• Highlight your discounted goods as much as you can.

Properly following these steps will help any e-commerce merchant be on their way to running a successful online business.  Good luck!

Featured WebNet Hosting Site for January 2010

PlumbTile.com

Each month we profile one of our clients who are running successful Miva Merchant sites in our newsletter and blog.  This month’s company is Plumbtile.com – the premiere online retailer of luxury bath, tile and kitchen products all with the industry’s most competitive pricing.  Here is an interview with Lucy Rojas, CFO of PlumbTile.com.

What is the name and URL of your business?
Plumbtile
http://plumbtile.com

When did your site launch?
January 2004.

How long have you been using Miva Merchant?  WebNet Hosting?
Three years for Miva Merchant and WebNet Hosting.

Were you using Miva before you switched to WebNet?
We signed up at the same time.

What do you like most about Miva Merchant?
The variety of modules and can be applicable for different types of businesses.

What do you like most about WebNet Hosting?
No hosting problems.

What do you like least about Miva?  What are some common problems?
The customer service and technical support. They tend to refer us to the module vendor often times.

What would you change about your hosting?  What features would you add?
We don’t like to request tech support by email. If there’s an important issue we prefer to solve it with a phone call.

How many items do you offer for sale on your site?
Over 275,000 items.

What Miva features do you use most?
Import/Export, upload products.

Do you use any modules?  Which ones?  Which are your favorite and why?
Import/export, discount, feed shopping carts. Our favorites are those too. We get a lot of use out of those. We use a bunch more though.

Have you had any third-party development done on your site?
We have had outside consulting on page views, social media strategies, and the visual design of our site.

What do you use for credit card payments and what have your experiences been?
Authorize.net. We’ve been satisfied with it.

How many employees do you have?
10.

What are your strategies for SEO?
We have directory links, multiple blogs showcasing our products with links back to our site, Facebook and Twitter accounts, meta tag rewrites, properly spider-crawled .txt pages and domains that make sense to our business.

What were some of your biggest mistakes?
Working with inexperienced consultants.

What have been your biggest successes?
Steady increase of sales at above industry rates in a down-turned economic cycle.

Thanks to Lucy Rojas for participating in our interview!