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There are two major Web design errors that can cost you up to 70% of your conversions.  I am dead serious and not exaggerating. I have personally seen an immediate decline of 70% in both sales quantity and dollar amount that stayed at that level. The cause was a site redesign that included these two common mistakes. Imagine having an existing business suddenly lose 70% of their sales!

So what are the two worst ecommerce Web Design mistakes you can make? Read more…

The most important point every online business needs to know is this: Conversions (how many people take the desired action - whether that is completing a purchase, gaining potential leads, or increasing a subscriber base) are more important by far than increasing traffic.

It does not matter how much traffic you receive if those visitors do not take the desired action.

This is vastly more important if you are buying traffic in any form. Read more…

Let’s take a humorous look at a serious subject. How you write - especially if you’re a business - is important because your readers will make assumptions based on your style. Some will even refuse to read what you write or decide against doing business with you over tiny typos or grammatical errors.

I wonder how many realize what their spell checker does not catch? The title of this post is from one of the many humorous spell checker poems written about spell check programs. Ode to a Spell Checker is another.  Whoever composed these went to great lengths to poke fun at spell checking programs, but they do make the holes in the use of such tools painfully obvious. Read more…

What do you do when your vehicle needs repair and you aren’t near your mechanic? Or you don’t have a mechanic? Who can you trust not to overcharge? How do you know if a business is trustworthy and competent? Would you feel better with a personal recommendation?

That is what online reviews are: personal recommendations by people just like you or me. The more reviews you can read, the better feel you can get for who to hire, where to shop, and what to do - especially in an emergency or when traveling in unfamiliar areas. Here’s how you can do that anywhere, any time… Read more…

This is a step-by-step process for taking a Screen Capture using a Ubuntu application named GIMP, saving that screenshot and inserting it into a WordPress post or page. Before I switched to Ubuntu I would have done this using SnagIt but it did not install properly for me under Wine so I went searching for another solution.

Searching online for +”screen capture” +ubuntu turned up How to take a screenshot or region capture like Snagit in Ubuntu. Thanks to Richard Baxter at SEOGadget for taking the time to share this process. This post elaborates on his by adding how to insert the captured image into a WordPress post.

I already had GIMP installed and using the directions provided at the SEOGadget link I was able to grab a piece of a screen using this step-by-step process: Read more…

In order to install .exe programs on a PC running Ubuntu you use an application called Wine. Installing Wine is simple. Just click on Applications, then Add/Remove, type Wine in the search box and and place a check in the box in front of Wine Windows Emulator. Click Apply Changes and Wine will be installed for you.

So far I have tried to use Wine to install two of my favorite programs that do not have Unix versions and found several excellent references on using Wine. Read more…

Learning any new skill can take time so focus on the basics and posting content at first.  Adding images and advanced features and plugins can come later. I suspect many a would-be blogger got bogged down trying to figure out all the options or how to insert an image or screen capture and gave up before they really got started.

If you’re new to blogging, start here: Read more…

Each Local Listing site requests similar but slightly different information. The following form is a compilation of all of the data required when listing your business or Web site on the Local Listing sites listed.  You can use this form to gather your own information. Feel free to print this out and share it with others.  Read more…

You don’t have to operate what Internet Marketers refer to as a “brick and mortar business” to benefit from local directory listings. Every business - whether it operates entirely online, has one or more physical stores, or serves a limited geographic area - would be well-advised to obtain as many incoming links from quality local listing directories as possible.

This is true even if none of your target audience buys from you locally! Here are seven excellent reasons to immediately start requesting listings - whether you sell locally or not: Read more…

Do you have so many passwords already that they could throw a convention? How would you like to know about a simple way to have a different secure password for every account that you can easily “remember” whenever you need it - without looking it up? Read on. Read more…