Year: 2010

Digital Marketer, AI Consultant, Published Author, ClickFunnels and Kit Specialist

Payvment Logo

Payvment Expands Toolset For Power Facebook Sellers

August 17, 2010

Payvment, a leading e-commerce solution for Facebook Page administrators, has just introduced a number of new features including the ability for Etsy users to import their entire Etsy product catalog. Additionally, the company is releasing a suite of enterprise APIs for Facebook Stores. That means developers can now take advantage of the new IPN service, an Order Management API, a Shopping Cart API, and more, to automate the entire Facebook shopping experience. For those who are less aware of what Payvment is, they provide Facebook Page administrators with a full-fledged e-commerce solution which supports shopping and payments on the site. Right now the service is free to set up. The company’s business model has enabled them to reach tens of thousands of Facebook Pages with very little promotion aside from a small footer on each shopping tab which says “Launch your free store on Facebook” and links back to Payvment. While the volume of e-commerce transactions on Facebook is not known, many companies have been taking new steps to offer on-Facebook transaction support. Delta, for example, just announced that they would begin accepting purchases directly within their Facebook Page.   Whether or not these tests have proven to be successful is unknown, however there’s no harm in enabling buyers to make purchases anywhere they happen to be online, even if that location is Facebook. While we’re still waiting to hear more about the transaction volume of sales on Facebook, Payvment is currently the leading company in bringing e-commerce to Facebook. If you are interested in learning more about the company you can do so by visiting their website. Article by Neil O’Neill of AllFacebook.com Read more about Payvment for Facebook in my August 2010 article.

Payvment Logo

Create a Payvment storefront on Facebook in under 15 minutes

August 12, 2010

Please note: Since this article was written Payvment was sold and the links below might no longer be valid. I have left the article up for reference. Are you the crafty type and thought about selling product on Facebook?  What if I told you all you need is a Facebook and PayPal account to get started?  There are over 500 million customers waiting for you to set-up shop on Facebook. We’ve all heard of EBay, Amazon.com and some maybe have even heard of ETSY as places to sell and purchase product online.  But with the explosive growth of social media the new player in town for e-commerce is Facebook.  Payvment is a Facebook application that is free and easy for anyone to set-up.  It connects to your PayPal personal or business account to process payments using PayPal and any major credit card.  Right now the application is free while in beta and Payvment says that any Payvment Facebook store will remain free even after the public beta ends. Okay, so it might take a little more than 15 minutes to roll out a store but most will be up in running in less than an hour.  I would say the most time consuming isn’t setting up the store, but taking photos of your product to display in the store.  But setting up the customizations and adding product is a pretty simple process. Here’s what a typical Payvment storefront on Facebook looks like.  Notice the shopping cart above the product as the customers adds product to the cart.  Payvment lets you add product from any store on Facebook that use the Payvment application.  Payments are processed via PayPal accordingly with all shipping and tax calculated at checkout. When a customer clicks on an item they get a more detailed description of the item.  Notice the Fan Discount for those who are a fan of the page.  You can give fans of your page an instant discount on your products.  You don’t have to offer a discount but this is a pretty effective way to get others to “Like” your business and hopefully purchase product.  Payvment reports that a Forbes study shows that Facebook Fans are 41% more likely to recommend a brand and 28% more likely to continue using them.  They also state that a Facebook Fan is worth $136.38 on average and spends $71.84 more each year compared to non fans.  Could you imagine what that might translate into if you had 1000 fans? Those who are fans of your page can also “Share” a product they like which will post that item to their wall.  That gives store owners even more potential for new fans and sells.  Here’s an item I posted to my wall by sharing it from the ELytes Facebook store. Here’s what the Payvment product page looks like showing the price, price after fan discount, quantity, size, color and product description depending on the product you sell. Real-world Use of Payvment for Facebook Motivational speaker and author Johnna Johnson is using Facebook and Payvment to promote and sell her books, e-Book and workbooks.  With Payvment you can designate specific product as Featured Items.  If you know HTML you can also control the look of your storefront homepage.  Check out the list of Payvment stores below and see what others are doing for ideas.   Small business owner and single mom Rachel Dobbs uses the application on her fan page Pioneer Soap Works to sell her homemade natural candles, soaps, bath bombs and more from the comforts of her home.  I first met Rachel through Facebook when I was doing research for my book.  She started out selling her product to friends and family and then a local gift shop and a Saturday Market.  Now a majority of her business comes right from her Facebook Fan page after adding the Payvment storefront.  I asked Rachel her thoughts on using Payvment as a shopping cart solution.  She told me that it was extremely easy to install and having a little html knowledge helped.  It was about $100 a month for a shopping cart on her website and she only had 2 sales for the entire year.  With Payvment it easy for her to add new product to her store.  Rachel also likes that there aren’t any fees, monthly charges or percentage of your sales with Payvment.  It’s 100 percent free!  Within the first week of using the application her sales increased 40 percent. See sample Payvment stores on Facebook This is only a sampling of the over 30,000 and growing small/medium size businesses, major brands, and retailers using Payvment to build user engagement and revenue on Facebook. Yes to Carrots (Selling in U.S. Dollars) Elytes (Selling in U.S. Dollars) Johnna Johnson & Co. (Selling in U.S. Dollars) Grayce by Molly Sims (Selling in U.S. Dollars) Orglamix Cosmetics (Selling in U.S. Dollars) Vanity Shoes (Selling in Euros) Game Intern (Selling in U.S. Dollars) Claire’s Bowtique (Selling in U.S. Dollars) Athehof (Taiwan) (Selling in Taiwan New Dollars) Payvment Administration Payvment has lots of features including the ability to put your store in suspend mode.  This is useful for those who take a vacation and need to suspend business while away.  Managing your store is done though backend administration which is shown below.  New products are added here, product images, product descriptions, store categories, shipping information and modification of current store product.  Tax rates can be set-up for both domestic and international customers.   Video tutorials to help you get started quickly How to Quickly Launch a Storefront on Facebook How to Add Products to Your Facebook Storefront How to Set Up Facebook “Fan” Discount Pricing How to Set Up Inventory Controls How to Set Up Dynamic Rate Shipping and Sales Tax Are you selling on Facebook or online?  What do you use for a shopping cart?  Feel free to leave a comment below along with a link to you Payvment store. Build Your Store – Launch a Payvment Store…
Read more

Windows Live Writer makes blogging a breeze

August 9, 2010

Are you thinking about starting your own blog but scared off by technology?  It might not be as hard as you think when it comes to starting a blog.  If you know Microsoft Office you’re already halfway there.  If you don’t its still easy when you have tools that simplify the process.  Windows Live Writer from Microsoft is one of those must have tools for bloggers. Windows Live Writer lets you manage your blog regardless of where its hosted or the format you are using.  I use it to update all my WordPress blogs and an older blog I have on Blogger.  But it can be used with LiveJournal, TypePad, Windows Live Spaces, SharePoint and others.  Plug-ins are available that give Live Writer even more functionality.  Visit the Live Gallery to find out what’s available and to install plug-ins you find beneficial. The toolbar across the top of Windows Live Writer lets you control aspects of the font, text alignment, adding images, tables and inserting other items into your post.  You can also cut, paste and undo changes if you aren’t satisfied.  The side bar to the right duplicates editing tools such as current drafts, recently posted articles and inserts into your article.  It’s really easy to get around the application to create the perfect blog post. The edit mode tab allows you to create your article much like you would create a Word document(add images, hyperlinks, tables and more).  Preview mode loads the theme of your blog and gives you a sneak preview of what your readers will see.  It might not display a perfect rendition since it depends on the theme you use.  The bottom area of the application lets you assign categories, tags, the author, future publish date and more. Those who have a little more knowledge of HTML can click on the Source tab and use HTML code to customize a post before going live.  Here’s a great resource for those interested in learning more about HTML. If you have a blog have you used Windows Live Writer?  Another blogging tool?  Give it and try and see what you think and share some of the articles you’ve written with Windows Live Writer.  Please feel free to leave your comments below. Download Windows Live Writer Windows Live Writer Plugin Gallery By Dennis J. Smith

Promote Your Business or Cause Offline

July 29, 2010

Besides promoting your business or cause online using social media, you still have to use some traditional offline marketing.  The internet has made it easier to use those traditional ways for marketing and keep the cost down.  In promoting a few of my business endeavors I came across VistaPrint.com.  I took the advice of a friend and picked up a copy of a local business journal.  From that I was able to gather the names of new businesses and their addresses.  I then created a database using a contact database template I downloaded for free from Microsoft.  I was able to add the information to the database and then use Word to print labels for the postcards I designed.  The postcards were easy to create online and keep the look and feel of my book.  I slapped on the labels and a $.28 cent postcard stamp.  The 100 postcards were free thought VistaPrint (special promotion) and I only paid for shipping plus for a few modifications I had made. Besides postcards there are many ways to catch the eye of a potential customer.  You could create a t-shirt with your businesses logo and web address and give it away as a prize.  With websites like VistaPrint you can even get your first t-shirt free plus shipping.  There are tons of ways you can promote your business or cause offline and bring those new customers to your online endeavors. Since I am promoting a book I used Overnight Prints and created a bookmark that I handout to potential customers.  The bookmark is something they can use and is always reminding others on where they can buy my book or join the Facebook fan page.  Make sure you add all important information such as Facebook page, Twitter User Name, blog address or website URL.  Keep your theme the same for all promotional items to make your brand stand out.  Notice how the postcard above has the same look at the bookmark to the left.  Both have the same look as the cover of my book. Have fun with your promotion and feel free to post a comment with link to your offline promotional designs.

Start tracking Website and Blog visitors with Google Analytics

July 25, 2010

Analyzing with Google Analytics – The Basics There are many ways to keep track of website statistics like unique visitors, user browser preferences, location and other valuable information.  If you already have an account with Google it’s really simple to get started with Google Analytics.  Provide information regarding your websites and then simply paste the tracking code into your site, have Google verify that the code is correct and the rest is done automatically.  Best thing is that it’s free and has all the tools you need to discover the various trends of your website. Overview of your websites and blogs    The opening screen is going to give you an overview of all your websites using Analytics which gives you a quick breakdown of current trends. Below you see some of my websites and what the trends are for the current week and comparing it with the previous week. You can also compare to the previous day, month and year depending on how long you’ve been analyzing your sites. Information at hand can be sorted by visits, average time on site, bounce rate, percent of change and website name. The information is valuable in knowing what kind of changes you might make on a site to keep visitors longer or where your traffic is coming from. By clicking on "View report" you’ll get that more detailed information such as the type of browser one is using to view your site or what state, city or even country they are visiting from. More Detailed Information Right after clicking on "View report" the Dashboard for your site stats gets displayed with more valuable information. By default the date range is the same as the main Overview page and now gives you a graphical display and breakdowns of key site stats. The first stat you see is the amount of visits for each day in the date range and below that are the site usage information, visitor overview, map layout, traffic sources overview and content overview. By clicking on the down arrow on the Visits tab you can change the type of stat you want displayed here. You can choose from Visits, Pageviews, Page/Visit, Average Time on Site, Bounce Rate or the percentage of visits that are new. You can find description of each of these by visit http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics What to look for What kind of trends should you be looking for? Well that depends on what kind of goals you have in mind. If all you care about is getting visitors to your website then look for the Absolute Unique Visitors. But many of those visitors might have incorrectly made it to your site due to a bad search. The one trend I look at is the "Bounce Rate". The higher the bounce rate the more likely someone came to your site on accident such as bad search results. However if this number is low then chances are good search results got them to your site/landing page and they stayed and browsed. If they stay on your site then the next trend to check out would be "Average Time on Site" and "Pageviews". Those will give you a good indication of the quality of your website by showing you how long a visitor sticks around and how much stuff they checkout. It’s most important to have great content that’s relative to the visitor than just getting someone to visit your site. It’s also great when people are coming back to your site so it’s important to keep your content fresh and unique. Something noteworthy in the screen shot below is how many people are using Firefox, Safari and Chrome for their web browser. IE market share has been slipping and therefore it is important to keep this in mind when developing your website. I get frustrated when I can’t browse a site correctly when I’m using Firefox. Firefox is one of the most respected browsers in the industry and I’m going to assume that Chrome is going to gain market share quickly. What’s your browser of choice? 1-month view for one of my websites Stay tuned Next time we’ll take a look at some of the other aspects of Google Analytics and how you can use those to increase the type of visitors you are looking for. Resources: Google Analytic Product Tour Google Analytic App Gallery

10 must have WordPress Plugins

July 22, 2010

Being the most popular blogging platform in the world has its advantages.  There are millions of individuals and businesses that are using a WordPress blog.  Those blogs are the stepping stones to promoting a business or a cause.  Plugins make those blogs even more powerful and there are over 10,000 to choose from.  The best thing is they are all free and install in just minutes! We’ll cover some of the best plugins out there that make your blog more attractive to search engines, one that let you send a newsletter and others that will keep your readers on your site longer and some get you “Liked” on Facebook. All in One SEO Pack If you don’t have this plugin installed you should download it today.  It is the most downloaded plugin for WordPress blogs.  This plugin is used to assist in the search engine optimization of your WordPress blog.  Installation only takes a moment and set-up is fairly simple.  Find more information here on how to use it once you have the plugin installed. Akismet This plugin prevents spam from being posted to the comments section of your post.  The plugin checks your comments against the Akismet server to see if they look like spam.  The “Comments”" admin screen lets you review spam comments before they display below your post. Contact Form 7 Those looking for a way to gather customer information need to look no further.  The plugin Contact Form 7 uses CAPTCHA in order to prevent non-humans from submitting a form.  This plugin even uses Akismet to filter out any spam.  It can help you manage multiple contact forms and is customizable for those with a little more experience with code. Contextual Related Posts Keep your readers around longer with a plugin that displays related stories.  This plugin will display a list of related post at the end of the post the reader is viewing.  The plugin looks at the tags or the current article to match it with similar post the reader might like.  Therefore keeping them around longer on your site instead of reading one article and moving on. fbLikeButton Let your readers “Recommend” or “Like” your blog post and share them with one-click to their Facebook friends.  The plugin is customizable in look and feel depending on your blogs theme.  The button can be displayed before or after your post.  This is a great way to draw traffic to your blog from Facebook. Google Analytics for WordPress This plugin bills itself as the most complete Google Analytics plugin for WordPress.  Track where your readers are coming from, how long they are staying around on your blog and more.  The newest version promises to be faster when loading the tracking code. Newsletter Keep your readers coming back to your blog with a newsletter you compose.  It can be sent out on whatever frequency you like.  Your readers can opt-in to your newsletter with just a name and email address.  This is a very powerful plugin and you can read more information here. WP-DB-Backup Must have plugin to give you piece of mind that your hard work is protected.  This plugin is able to backup your core WordPress database on a schedule or when ever you need.  You can save it to the server, your PC or have it sent via email to protect your blog post.  It also allows you to backup other tables that are related to your WordPress blog. WP Google-buzz Facebook and Twitter still reign when it comes to social media sites.  Google might be the powerful search giant but its entry into social media with Google Buzz kind of fizzled.  However there is rumor that Google has something new coming down the pipeline. WPtouch iPhone Theme Give your blog that iPhone look and feel for your readers on the go.  WPtouch gives your WordPress blog an iPod/iPhone app look.  The admin controls for the plug-in give you lots of customization.  Viewer can toggle to the normal view for your blog with a flip of a switch. More information”¦ More Resources: WordPress Plugin Directory Affordable WordPress Hosting from GreenHostUSA ““ Starting at less than $10 a month!

MySpace back in the Social Media game?

July 21, 2010

MySpace used to be the king of social networking long before Twitter and Facebook dethroned it from the top.  But MySpace has new leaders and is about to get an update to its look and feel.  Will that be enough to save it from further decline?  Maybe. MySpace profiles just got a makeover and will start slowly rolling out to its users.  The profiles now have a much cleaner look and navigation menu to the left.  The “Stream” functions a lot like Facebook but has navigation choices over the top to filter the stream. According to the latest Alexa.com stats MySpace has about 66 million users.  The site ranks 25th in web traffic around the world and lands in 13th in the US for most visited websites.  But that’s a far cry when the site used to rank as one of the top visited sites.  Most businesses looking to promote via social media have already moved on to Twitter and Facebook.  However MySpace continues to be the site used to promote music and new movies. I still maintain my MySpace profile but not as often as my Facebook page or Twitter feed.  That’s because I believe they top MySpace when it comes to promoting a business.  But if you are looking to promote a band MySpace is still the king of music marketing. Do you still think MySpace is an effect social media marketing tool?

Have your blog speak to your readers with Odiogo

July 18, 2010

If you are looking for a new way to promote your business or cause you might consider a WordPress blog.  It is a great way to get high search engine results when tied to your organizations website.  Many of the plug-ins offered for WordPress are designed to share your blog with with others on Facebook, Twitter, other social media sites and are easy to add. Odiogo is one of those plug-ins that makes your blog stand out from others.  It gives your readers the ability to listen to your articles by the push of a “listen now” button.  If your followers don’t have time to read your current post they can take it with them on the go.  Odiogo turns your blog into a portable podcast. You install plugins by going to the Dashboard for your WordPress Blog and selecting “Plugins” from the menu on the left.  That will bring you to the screen below when you can search from hundreds of available plug-ins.  You can pick from Featured, Popular, Newest and Recently Updated.  If you know the name of the plug-in just type it into the search box.  Type in “odiogo” to install the Odiogo plug-in on your blog. Once you have the Odiogo plug-in installed you will need to register your blogs RSS feed.  You only need to submit your email address and the address of your RSS feed.  It is free to register and this how Odiogo monitors your blogs for any new post.  Your new blog post is then turned into an MP3 file that also your readers to listen to your post.  It can take a few minutes for the process to complete.  Readers just click the “Listen Now” button and the player automatically launches.  It also gives them the choice to load a podcast onto their iPod/iPhone or an MP3 for any MP3 player.  Try it out today by clicking the “Listen Now” button on the top of this article.  I think you’ll be impressed at the quality of translation.  Let me know what you think! If you know of any other WordPress plug-ins that are unique or help make a blog standout from others, please let me know. Get the podcast for this blog here!  

Find New Customers Using Twitter Search

July 10, 2010

Most people think of Twitter as a place others post what they ate for breakfast or tweeting ones every move.  Millions of people send tweets every day and tweet about everything from an experience with a company, complaints or even a request for information.  Twitter Search is a powerful tool you can use to connect with potential customers. Perform your search depending on the type of business you own.  If you own an online flower shop type in “flowers” to see all tweets where the word “flowers” appears.  If it’s a web hosting business enter “web hosting” to display all tweets mentioning web hosting. Just typing in a search term like “web hosting” could possibly yield several hundred tweets.  You might have a flower shop business located in Boise, ID and only interested in local customer.  With advanced Twitter search you can plug in your search term, specify a location and the distance from that location.  You even have the option to filter tweets by specific dates or even someone’s attitude (smiley face or a frown in the tweet). Now that you have your list of potential customers you can consider sending them a tweet or put in a request to follow them.  Below each tweet is the option to reply to the sender or view just that tweet.  Just hit reply and start typing your tweet right after the @username.  You might consider posting a link (use a URL shortener like bit.ly) to a special offer for Twitter users or recommend your business.  Be careful not to make it look like you are spamming them.  But most people looking for information will welcome your tweet.  If you entice them with the right offer you might find some new clients.  Keep in mind that you need to have a Twitter account to reply to or send tweets. The other advantage of using Twitter search is finding dissatisfied customers.  Finding those who are unhappy with your business can save you heartache.  Major companies like Qwest and HP are using this to connect with those who might be unhappy but don’t contact the company.  Instead they post their displeasure with a company in the form of a tweet.  Do a search of your company’s name to see what others might be saying.  It might save you from losing a customer or a chance to correct a bad situation. You don’t need a Twitter account to perform a search so check it out today.  How have you used Twitter Search to promote your business?  Happy searching!

Caldwell, Idaho USA

+1 (208) 600-3910

©  2026 Dennis J. Smith. Built using WordPress and the Mesmerize Theme