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/.

How did you get started in the Miva Merchant community?
I was Vice President of Operations and Marketing at a national health products company. We decided to add online shopping to our static website, and our host happened to offer Miva Merchant as their e-commerce solution. As a new user, I signed up for the Miva Merchant user list (now a forum). I started out asking questions, then, as I learned more, answering questions from other users. Finally, people started asking if they could hire me, and I started a part-time consulting business. A few years later, in 2003, I went full-time.

What made you get involved in the creation of tutorials?
As a Miva Merchant consultant, I kept getting the same questions from clients over and over. Recognizing a pattern, I bought screen capture software and started creating tutorial videos to answer the most common questions. It saved me a lot of support time and allowed my clients to be less dependent on me for many tasks.

Word got around about my Miva Merchant tutorials to users who were not my clients. People asked me if they could watch the videos, so I came up with a subscription plan that allowed me to expand the topics and create more professional tutorials.

What role do you think social media plays in the e-commerce industry?  How do you think that those running online businesses can use social media to their advantage?
I am a social media addict. I use Facebook and Twitter constantly. However, I have my doubts that many e-commerce sites would benefit from the time it takes to manage social media accounts. It takes real commitment, engaging your connections, not just blasting out promotional posts.

For those willing to put in the time and effort, there are three ways I can see benefiting from social media:

1. Being accessible. While the big companies are completely out of touch, with almost no desire to engage their customers, a small e-commerce business can build true customer loyalty and word of mouth marketing through honest engagement. Additionally, you can get fantastic ideas for new products, product improvements, and marketing techniques. Step out of your ivory tower and you’ll be amazed at how much your customers want to help you.
2. Tech support and complaints. If I can send a quick question via Twitter about a product I purchased, and get an answer within a few hours, I will be impressed. If I complain, and I get a sincere response, I’m even more impressed.
3. Promotions. People are not too fond of obvious promotional posts in social media. However, every now and then giving an exclusive discount (coupon code twittertuesday, for example), builds interest in your updates and gets you onto special follow lists.

What role(s) does blogging play in the current web 2.0 landscape and how can blogging as well as applications like Twitter and Facebook bring a personal touch to businesses?
One major benefit of blogging is having constantly updated content on your site, leading to SEO benefits. Another is providing information that builds loyalty and trust. If you reveal yourself via blogging and social media, as long as you’re not a jerk, you will generate loyal ambassadors for your brand. If you are a jerk, stay far away from social media!

I’ll take this opportunity to give some e-commerce advice. Unless you have a proprietary product with high demand and no competition, you must differentiate yourself from the bigger online stores. The best way to do this, in my opinion, is to tell your story. Most people would prefer to do business with a person instead of a corporation. Personal photos, in depth stories, family references – all of these things can be done with a blog to build a reason to shop on your site versus Amazon.com.

Could you tell us a little more about your role with the popular Practical eCommerce magazine?
I founded Practical eCommerce Magazine. I used Kerry Murdock as my publisher. Even before the first issue was published, Kerry offered to buy the magazine from me. I sold it and helped with the first few issues. I wrote most of the first issue, half of the second issue, and some of the third issue. Eventually Kerry decided to discontinue the printed magazine and focus on 100% online content. It’s quite popular and I’m proud of my part in its creation.

What are your roles at the Miva Merchant conference?
I don’t have any predefined roles. At several conferences I taught a breakout session or two. At the recent 2010 conference I was asked to be the MC. I also moderated a guest panel and demonstrated the new Wombat version of Miva Merchant. I hope to have continued involvement in future conferences.

How do you see Miva evolving over the next few years?  How has it changed since you began working with it?
In the beginning, Miva was a barely-funded startup. Support was minimal as staffing was always below what would be required to properly support the product. But it was a good enough product to be worth the trouble.

Miva was then bought by a company named FindWhat, which turned out, even with the additional funding, to be a terrible fit. The product lost a lot of users and community support.

In 2007, the current owners bought Miva Merchant. Support increased dramatically, the product was greatly improved and the community became much more motivated. Miva Merchant 5.5 is light years ahead of the previous versions due to considerable investment in a complete platform redesign.

As far as the future, I believe Miva Merchant will follow a path similar to eBay, Skype and Salesforce.com, from a small company serving a tight-knit community of users, to a mainstream corporate software leader. With the software getting easier to use and the company providing services historically offered only by third party partners, the need for a user community to support each other is decreasing. The result will be either Miva Merchant becoming a large full service company like Volusion, or the company being acquired similar to Monster Commerce’s acquisition by Network Solutions.

What advice would you give someone who wants to start their own Miva store?
That’s a simple one. Be prepared to spend some money to get started. People wrongly believe they can start an entire e-commerce business for 500 bucks, mainly because of misleading ads from GoDaddy and Yahoo. The reality is, if this will be more than a hobby, if you’re serious, it’s going to require a minimum investment in the thousands of dollars. Get an experienced consultant to help, and do it right. Or, if you don’t have a big enough budget, spend what you have on some nice new clothes or a short trip, because doing e-commerce halfway is worse than not doing it at all.

Why choose Miva over other shopping carts (either hosted or open-source)?
I wrote a blog post, 10 Reasons Why I Prefer the Miva Merchant Shopping Cart: http://www.chucklasker.com/10-reasons-i-prefer-the-miva-merchant-shopping-cart/575/

How has your blog helped you generate business?
Anyone who has been involved in the Miva Merchant community for a long time can probably remember my entrance to the community. Instead of a forum, there was an email user list. When someone emailed to the user list address, everyone on the user list got a copy of the email. When someone responded, everyone got that one, too. This led to a lot of emails each day, as well as some lively discussions.

With this user list, I made waves by criticizing Miva (the company), loudly stating my opinions, and fighting off the old-school leaders of the community. I made people angry, but everyone knew me as a person who says what he thinks. I learned that notoriety and honesty can make an impact. My initial clients all said it was because of my willingness to criticize that they were interested in working with me. They trusted me. And by working to earn continued trust, I built a business.

I said all that to say, for me, a blog is a place to build a reputation. Combined with other social media, people can truly get to know you.

What challenges do you see facing the world of e-commerce now and in the future?
In the beginning, long long ago in the late 90’s, a small company was able to compete with the big companies cheaply and effectively online. This is no longer the case. As with anything else, the big companies have found a way to push costs up to exclude smaller entrants from making a dent in their businesses. And that just means us smaller guys need to be more creative, faster to react to market changes, and more engaged with our customers to succeed. This, I believe, is the challenge of the moment, and will remain so for a few more years.

If I tried to give an opinion about what is going to happen with the Internet beyond 2 or 3 years, I’d be showing myself to be a fool.

Can you tell us some of the reasons behind your success?
Even though I’m not rich, I do consider myself successful because I’ve been able to do what I love for over seven years with no boss. I can pick and choose who I work with, and I have never had to seek out new business. I credit this to doing something at all times, keeping myself out there and working continually. If business is slow, I look for opportunities to help others. I believe this creates a karmic response that leads to good fortune from sources I could not predict.

How has the recent economic downturn affected your business?
When the economy is slow, businesses must choose where to get the most return for their investment dollar. For example, they can spend four grand on a Yellow Pages ad, or they can invest less than that to hire a developer to create or rework their online stores for increased sales. More website work equals more developers needing help equals more subscribers to MerchantTutorials.com! In other words, the downturn has been good to me.

What can we expect from Chuck Lasker in the next five years?
I have no idea. I have learned to write my goals in sand, knowing that, working hard in one direction usually leads to unexpected opportunities from other directions. I could not have told you in 2005 that I’d be anywhere near where I am today, professionally. Hopefully, by 2015, I will be able to say that I am just as surprised and delighted by where I’ll be as I am now. If that includes a lot of beach time, all the better.

Each month we profile one of our clients that operate a successful e-commerce site in our newsletter and blog.  This month’s company is Lydia’s Land LLC.  Lydia’s Land specializes in selling handmade greeting cards for all occasions.  Each card is decorated with Lydia’s original artwork, using a wide variety of materials and textures to create extremely unique cards at an astoundingly low price – most cards retail for just $3.  The following is a discussion we had with Lydia regarding her site:

Can you give us a brief description and history of your business?
Lydia’s Land cards mate positive and uplifting quotations with handcrafted artwork to create products that attract buyers looking for truly unique greeting cards.

I use a wide variety of exciting materials and textures, such as marbleized paper, painted tissue paper, fabric ribbon, acrylic paint, and more to create eye-catching cards that bring customers back time and again.

Most of my greeting cards retail for just $3.00 and all are manufactured on 100% recycled paper.  Additionally, my cards can also be found in some of America’s finest card, gift, stationery, and book stores.

How long have you been using Miva Merchant?
We have been using Miva Merchant for at least five years.

If applicable, were you using Miva before you signed up with WebNet Hosting?  What made you choose Miva and WebNet to host your store?
We switched to WebNet because of their extensive Miva knowledge and because they informed me that I could stop buying the costly Miva Support plan from Miva Merchant for technical support because they would handle my technical support issues.  Also, my experience with my past host was horrible.

What do you like most about Miva Merchant?
The administration page is easy to use and user-friendly.

What do you like most about WebNet Hosting?
So far, I haven’t had any problems.  They have good technical support.

What do you like least about Miva?  What are some common problems?
I do not like that you need to buy third-party modules for features that, in my opinion, should be built into the product by default.

I also think the program could provide better user documentation.

What do you like least about WebNet?  What would you change?  What features would you add?
Personally, I wish they had a modestly priced VPS plan.

How many items do you offer for sale on your site?
Approximately 200.

Do you use any modules?  Which ones?  Which are your favorite and why?
I use Emporium Plus Toolkit.  It is simply the best module and includes so much increased functionality to your store.  It is like the missing link of Miva Merchant.

Have you had any third-party development done on your site?
No.

What do you use for credit card payments and what have your experiences been?
I use merchant services through my bank and have not had any problems.

How many employees do you have?
One.

What are your strategies for SEO?
I use a site-map to help search engines index all pages of my store.  I also utilize meta tags with strong keywords.

What were some of your biggest mistakes? (so that others can possibly learn from them)
Not having a large enough sales force.

What have been your biggest successes?
Building a loyal customer base of good customers that keep re-ordering.

Make sure you check out the unique greeting cards that Lydia makes at LydiasLand.com — Below is an example of one of her cards:

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!

Here are 3 Reasons why Miva is right for you and your business:

1. PCI & PA-DSS Compliance

Miva Merchant’s shopping cart will be 100% compliant with the new PA-DSS (Payment Application – Data Security Standard) guidelines by the July 2010 deadline.  Being compliant is a must for any sites that accept credit card payments or store confidential information in their databases.  If you are found to be non-compliant then your site faces serious fines.  Since a majority of small businesses could not afford to pay such fines, there is a strong likelihood that the sites could be forced to shutdown for non-compliance.  Therefore, it is imperative that you ensure you are following the guidelines. If you choose Miva Merchant as a solution to your e-commerce needs then you are already taking a giant leap in the right direction.

ControlScan has developed a tactical partnership with Miva Merchant to provide all-inclusive PCI compliance and security across any and all sites utilizing Miva Merchant Hosting.  Websites that use ControlScan’s services receive a seal from the company notifying customers that they are protected.  Generally, after posting this seal on their site, businesses will see profits from sales increase due to the sense of trust produced by the seal.  Trust, safety and security are keys to success in the world of e-commerce.

2. Store Morph Technology (SMT)

This popular and powerful new feature allows users to create stores that are totally customized to their specific needs based on provided templates. Store Morph Technology is a huge advancement in the creation, design and management of e-commerce businesses.

With SMT, storeowners have total control over the layout and design of every single page of their store and can move things around however they would like. SMT also allows merchants to have a particular layout on one page and a totally different layout on another page unlike many other shopping cart software programs. SMT is renowned for its simplicity and use of basic HTML commands.

SMT allows stores to become more functional to their target clients and customers by modifying small yet important details of a site. This way not every Miva Hosting store looks the same – you can make your site stand out amongst the competition.

3. Miva Modules

Miva Merchant 5.5 presents its users with the ability to purchase third party software and plug-ins known as modules that go above and beyond the abilities of SMT.  These modules are great for the business owner because they are easy to install, allow complete customization of their sites and are very cost-effective and affordable.  They allow big changes to be made without having to pay exorbitant amounts to developers to perform custom programming.  This brings us to a common myth — often times, those that opt for so-called “free,” do not realize the large amount of money they will end up spending to create the custom programming needed to make their stores run the way the want.  In other words, “free” shopping cart programs end up being anything but free.

There are numerous modules on the market that aid in a wide variety of tasks including:

1. Changing the physical appearance of a store
2. Altering the experience that different visitors will receive
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
4. Email Management
5. Ordering and shipping
6. Store and employee management

These are just three of the powerful features of the newest version of Miva Merchant – version 5.5 .