Animate Images for Your Ecommerce Website

Start by setting the movie size and the frame rate for your animation.
(Click for larger image).

Subtle animation is a wonderful way to give your ecommerce website visual appeal. Now, we don't mean frantic spinning, blinking Flash cartoons that distract and annoy. Instead of placing a static product image on your site, you can just as easily add an animation that pans slow across an image or that zooms slowly into it.

If you think animation software is expensive and hard to use, you may be surprised at just how quickly and affordably you can this. I'll show you how to make a sophisticated animation in minutes using a program called Swish MiniMax 3.

Download the Animation Software

The full-featured Swish MiniMax 3 is available as a free 15-day trial download. This program was designed to make it easy for anyone to make website animation. And at $69.95, it costs a lot less than some other big name programs. Swish MiniMax 3 creates standard SWF format files so they behave just like regular animations, and your visitors to your small business ecommerce site can view them on virtually any Web browser.

Place your cropped image over the movie box. Here we're panning this image so it's aligned to the left edge of the box and extends past it on the right.
(Click for larger image).Create a Movie

Once you’ve installed Swish MiniMax 3, launch the program. From the New Movie or Project dialog choose Movie Templates. Click Default, and then click OK. In the middle of the screen you'll see your movie, which is way too big right now.

Right-click it, choose Movie >Properties and adjust the size until it's how you want it to appear on your website. For a banner you might size it to around 600 x 100 pixels, or as a side image something like 160 x 200 is a good start. If you're replacing an existing image on your website then size the movie to that image size. In this tutorial, I've sized it at 400 x 100 pixels.

When selecting a Frame Rate, use the default value of 25 frames per second as a start. Don't choose less than 15 or the movie will be choppy, and while more than 25 will result in smoother animation you will also get a much larger file size. Next, select the Stop Playing at End of Movie checkbox, and click OK.

Once your image is in your movie you need to determine what kind of effect you will use. Here we use the Move effect.
(Click for larger image).Add Your Image

The next step is to find an image to use and to insert it into your movie. Choose Insert >Import Image and open the file that you want to use. The file should be larger than the movie so that you can zoom it or pan it in your animation. I like to crop my image to size in a photo-editing program before I start. For this project, my image is 550 x 104 -- just a little taller than my movie and 150 pixels wider.

From the editing area, drag your image on top of the movie box outline -- make sure to cover the outline completely. If you want your animation to pan across the image -- a smart look that's easy to create -- then place the image so that its left side butts up against the left side of the movie. It will extend some distance over the right side of the movie.

In the Effects tab set the animation effect. We've moving this image 150 pixels to the left.
(Click for larger image).

Locate the timeline at the top of the window. Click in the timeline just opposite the name of the image. Right-click the blue marker and choose Move. The marker will jump forward about 10 frames, which is not sufficient, so drag the end of the marker to around frame 75 -- at 25 frames per second this gives you a three-second animation.

In the bottom right of the screen is an Effect tab, and it should show the word Move in its text box. Locate its Motion tab and set the _x: value to 'Move Left by' to indicate that you want the image to move to the left. Then set the number of pixels. My image is 550 pixels wide and my movie is 400 pixels wide so my image can move 150 pixels.

Click the Play button on the main toolbar to play your animation. Make sure that your image covers the movie box at all times; if the image moves too far to the left so that the movie box shows, then reduce the number of pixels it moves to the left.

Test and Save Your Animation

When your animation works properly, export your movie by choosing File >Export >HTML + SWF. Select a folder in which to store the movie and the web page file, and click OK. Swish MiniMax will create an SWF file and a web page that will play the file for you.

To render your movie choose File > Export, and Swish MiniMax creates the swf and html files for you.
(Click for larger image).

Test your animation by opening the page Swish MiniMax created in your browser, and watch as the movie plays.

You can now take the code from this page and place it in your webpage where you want the image to appear. Alternately you can use the web page Swish MiniMax built as the basis for your own web page. Remember, to upload both the html page and the swf file to your website.

If you save your Swish MiniMax project file by choosing File >Save, you can open and edit it again later, if desired.

Once you have seen how easy it is to create a simple yet sophisticated pan animation in Swish MiniMax, you'll want to explore its other animation features -- for example, you may want to add some text and animate it moving in the opposite direction to the image.

Helen Bradley is a respected international journalist writing regularly for small business and computer publications in the USA, Canada, South Africa, UK and Australia. You can learn more about her at her Web site, HelenBradley.com

Animate Images for Your Ecommerce WebsiteCourt to allow class-action suit against Walmart on pay discrimination

Ecommerce Design: A Graphics Software Guide

From designing logos to resizing product images, running an ecommerce site involves a lot of graphics. Whether you need image-editing software, illustration software or desktop publishing software, choosing the right graphics program doesn’t have to be hard. Our guide explains everything you need to know to make a picture-perfect decision. Small Business Computing has all the details.

In a perfect world, a firm of hip, twenty-something art-school grads handles all of your company's graphics design and image-editing work. Reality, however, dictates that you either have an employee who's adept at handling the graphics needs of your business, or you handle it along with all your other responsibilities.

And so in the real world, you have to know somewhere between a little and a lot about graphics software to make the right purchase decision for your needs, budget and level of expertise. Here's what you need to consider before you commit time and resources to a solution, along with a sampling of our favorite programs in a range of categories and prices.

Read the complete graphics software guide

Ecommerce Design: A Graphics Software GuideBuffett’s parrot gets OK for downtown Nashville cafe

Study Says to SMBS: You Don't Know Security

What you don’t know about security will hurt you -- and your customers. That's pretty much the bottom line of a study sponsored by Panda Security that found most SMBs take a fairly weak approach to protecting their customer data. This, in turn, makes them a big target for cyber-criminals. The problem is disturbing, particularly for customers who go online to buy products and services. Small Business Computing has the full report.

Small and midsized businesses might be the lifeblood of the U.S. economy, but according to the latest Internet security survey from Panda Security, their generally lackadaisical efforts to protect consumer data is also making them a prime target for cyber thieves.

More disturbing, particularly for customers swiping their credit cards or purchasing products and services online, the survey reveals that the vast majority of SMBs claim they don't know how to effectively prevent identity theft, lack the resources to install the technology that could thwart the majority of cyber attacks and, worse, seem to believe that it's really not their problem.

Read the complete small business online security article

Study Says to SMBS: You Don’t Know SecurityNissan, Renault, Daimler enter parts-sharing deal

Build a Small Business Ecommerce Site with…Intuit

Starting up your own small business ecommerce website can be overwhelming for a budding entrepreneur -- especially if you don’t have the technical or design experience to jump in and create your own small business website. That's where Intuit Websites can help.

Small Business Computing spoke with an Intuit executive and interviewed small business and ecommerce entrepreneurs who use Intuit's services. Check out the full story and see if Intuit Websites is the right choice for you.

According to Intuit, a leading provider of business and financial management software for small business (and the maker of QuickBooks, Quicken and TurboTax), approximately 50 percent of SMBs do not have a website. That’s nearly 15 million businesses in the United States that are missing out on one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to market their business to prospective and existing customers -- and to increase sales.

Why do so many small businesses still not have a website? “There’s a lot of apprehension and concern about ‘How do I market myself online?’” explained Angus Thomson, vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Grow Your Business division.

Read the complete Build and Manage a Small Business Website with Intuit article

Ecommerce Entrepreneur: Business-Building StrategiesBusiness plan matters, but other steps come first

Amazon Profit Soars 68% Amid Wider Ecommerce Industry Rebound

In the latest signal that the ecommerce sector is bouncing back from the recession, online retailing giant Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) said that its first-quarter profit rose 68 percent, posting earnings and revenue figures that easily topped analysts' expectations.

Amazon reported net income for the quarter of $299 million, up from $177 million in the same period last year. That translated to earnings of $0.66 per share, five cents higher than analysts' consensus projection, according to polling by Thomson Reuters.

Overall sales spiked to $7.13 billion, 46 percent ahead of last year's mark of $4.89 billion, and well above the $6.87 billion analysts were forecasting.

Today's results follow healthy first-quarter financials turned in by other online retailer and advertising bellwethers in the past week, including eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO).

Collectively, the improved performances indicate that consumer confidence is beginning to bounce back and that advertisers are again starting to spend more freely.

Unlike many of Amazon's smaller ecommerce rivals, including eBay, the recession has treated the company fairly well. Amazon has enjoyed brisk revenue gains even through the lean quarters of 2008 and 2009 as consumers took to the Web in search of bargains. Amazon, by virtue of its volume, has been able to undercut competitors' prices, analysts have noted.

Last year, during what now appears to have been the nadir of the recession, Amazon saw its net sales soar 28 percent over 2008.

While Amazon continues to expand the merchandise available through its ecommerce hub, either from Amazon directly or through its third-party merchants, the Kindle e-reader remains the company's principal interest. Throughout the holiday season, Amazon loudly trumpeted that the Kindle was its best-selling product, and that it was selling more electronic books than paper versions. Then on Wednesday of this week, Target announced a deal to sell the device in its retail stores, the first time the Kindle will be available outside of Amazon.com.

Of course, the Kindle, widely credited with jumpstarting the long-stagnant e-book market, is now facing a substantial competitive threat with the introduction of Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad tablet, a device that offers Web browsing, a full-color screen and an enormous repository of third-party apps in addition to its e-reading capability.

Additionally, Amazon has been locked in heated disputes with publishers over the licensing and revenue-sharing terms of the titles available in digital format through the Kindle store.

Amazon does not disclose sales figures for the Kindle.

Kenneth Corbin is an associate editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.

Business briefs: Community Health’s profits increaseAmazon Profit Soars 68% Amid Wider Ecommerce Industry Rebound

Ecommerce Marketing for Entrepreneurs

Forget conventional wisdom; it's been done to death. Unconventional thinking will get you a whole lot further in business. At least that's the premise behind GotBiz.tv, a new WebTV network of business- and marketing-oriented shows to help entrepreneurs of every stripe -- online, ecommerce or brick-and-mortar -- succeed by standing out from the competition. So, climb outside of the box. Small Business Computing has the details.

Andrew Lock is a firm believer that entrepreneurs need to think unconventionally and stand out from the crowd, and he's put his money where his mouth is with his new venture, GotBiz.tv.

GotBiz.tv, which launched on April 1, is a WebTV network focused on business training and education for entrepreneurs.

"Most business training is just educational and somewhat staid and boring," said Lock, founder and CEO of GotBiz.tv. "I wanted to provide something different, and I believed that I could bring something that would hopefully revolutionize how business education is taught."

Read the complete Marketing Strategies for Entrepreneurs article

Ecommerce Marketing for EntrepreneursConsumer confidence nearly doubles locally

Animate Images for Your Ecommerce Website

Start by setting the movie size and the frame rate for your animation.
(Click for larger image).

Subtle animation is a wonderful way to give your ecommerce website visual appeal. Now, we don't mean frantic spinning, blinking Flash cartoons that distract and annoy. Instead of placing a static product image on your site, you can just as easily add an animation that pans slow across an image or that zooms slowly into it.

If you think animation software is expensive and hard to use, you may be surprised at just how quickly and affordably you can this. I'll show you how to make a sophisticated animation in minutes using a program called Swish MiniMax 3.

Download the Animation Software

The full-featured Swish MiniMax 3 is available as a free 15-day trial download. This program was designed to make it easy for anyone to make website animation. And at $69.95, it costs a lot less than some other big name programs. Swish MiniMax 3 creates standard SWF format files so they behave just like regular animations, and your visitors to your small business ecommerce site can view them on virtually any Web browser.

Place your cropped image over the movie box. Here we're panning this image so it's aligned to the left edge of the box and extends past it on the right.
(Click for larger image).Create a Movie

Once you’ve installed Swish MiniMax 3, launch the program. From the New Movie or Project dialog choose Movie Templates. Click Default, and then click OK. In the middle of the screen you'll see your movie, which is way too big right now.

Right-click it, choose Movie >Properties and adjust the size until it's how you want it to appear on your website. For a banner you might size it to around 600 x 100 pixels, or as a side image something like 160 x 200 is a good start. If you're replacing an existing image on your website then size the movie to that image size. In this tutorial, I've sized it at 400 x 100 pixels.

When selecting a Frame Rate, use the default value of 25 frames per second as a start. Don't choose less than 15 or the movie will be choppy, and while more than 25 will result in smoother animation you will also get a much larger file size. Next, select the Stop Playing at End of Movie checkbox, and click OK.

Once your image is in your movie you need to determine what kind of effect you will use. Here we use the Move effect.
(Click for larger image).Add Your Image

The next step is to find an image to use and to insert it into your movie. Choose Insert >Import Image and open the file that you want to use. The file should be larger than the movie so that you can zoom it or pan it in your animation. I like to crop my image to size in a photo-editing program before I start. For this project, my image is 550 x 104 -- just a little taller than my movie and 150 pixels wider.

From the editing area, drag your image on top of the movie box outline -- make sure to cover the outline completely. If you want your animation to pan across the image -- a smart look that's easy to create -- then place the image so that its left side butts up against the left side of the movie. It will extend some distance over the right side of the movie.

In the Effects tab set the animation effect. We've moving this image 150 pixels to the left.
(Click for larger image).

Locate the timeline at the top of the window. Click in the timeline just opposite the name of the image. Right-click the blue marker and choose Move. The marker will jump forward about 10 frames, which is not sufficient, so drag the end of the marker to around frame 75 -- at 25 frames per second this gives you a three-second animation.

In the bottom right of the screen is an Effect tab, and it should show the word Move in its text box. Locate its Motion tab and set the _x: value to 'Move Left by' to indicate that you want the image to move to the left. Then set the number of pixels. My image is 550 pixels wide and my movie is 400 pixels wide so my image can move 150 pixels.

Click the Play button on the main toolbar to play your animation. Make sure that your image covers the movie box at all times; if the image moves too far to the left so that the movie box shows, then reduce the number of pixels it moves to the left.

Test and Save Your Animation

When your animation works properly, export your movie by choosing File >Export >HTML + SWF. Select a folder in which to store the movie and the web page file, and click OK. Swish MiniMax will create an SWF file and a web page that will play the file for you.

To render your movie choose File > Export, and Swish MiniMax creates the swf and html files for you.
(Click for larger image).

Test your animation by opening the page Swish MiniMax created in your browser, and watch as the movie plays.

You can now take the code from this page and place it in your webpage where you want the image to appear. Alternately you can use the web page Swish MiniMax built as the basis for your own web page. Remember, to upload both the html page and the swf file to your website.

If you save your Swish MiniMax project file by choosing File >Save, you can open and edit it again later, if desired.

Once you have seen how easy it is to create a simple yet sophisticated pan animation in Swish MiniMax, you'll want to explore its other animation features -- for example, you may want to add some text and animate it moving in the opposite direction to the image.

Helen Bradley is a respected international journalist writing regularly for small business and computer publications in the USA, Canada, South Africa, UK and Australia. You can learn more about her at her Web site, HelenBradley.com

Ecommerce Design: A Graphics Software GuideCourt to allow class-action suit against Walmart on pay discrimination

Small Business Tips: Selling Digital Goods Online

Digital goods, also called electronic goods or e-goods for short, describes any item sold to consumers in a digital format. This type of product includes computer games and applications, e-books, music, ringtones, cellphone cards via unique pins, website templates or even crochet and sewing patterns.  

Selling digital goods online can be a good small business for any entrepreneur who authors these types of products, as this type of small business has little upfront costs to start -- with the exception of having your own Web site.

For the ecommerce aspect of the small business, you will need a digital goods delivery system to handle the sale and downloading of the product. When you use an online service provider for the transaction, you're responsible for creating or providing the digital product, uploading the files to the online service, and providing contact and payment details in addition to writing descriptions of each item. 

To sell and deliver the digital goods online, there are a number of service providers to choose from.  Entrepreneurs tend to like this type of small business, as most online delivery services are free until you make a sale. When a sale is made, however, you can expect to pay a commission fee for using the online service to deliver the digital goods to the customer.

The online service will handle the e-commerce transaction for you -- including the invoicing, payment, and delivery system -- taking a percentage of the transaction fee, leaving you to simply concentrate on creating your product and managing your new small business.

While there are a number of digital good service providers online, not all offer the same features; but there are some key things you should look for.  Here are five tips to help budding entrepreneurs choose the right digital delivery provider for their small business.

1. Know the Fees and Pay-out Amount

Transaction and hosting fees will vary from one online service provider to the next.  Some may require you to pay a monthly subscription fee to use the service, while others may take a percentage-based commission of your sales -- or both.  The digital goods service provider will handle the transaction, take its cut and often hold your portion of profits until you reach a set dollar amount in your account before it send you the funds.  Be wary of providers who set this pay-out amount to a high rate, or you might wait a long time to receive payment for the sales you made.

2. Ensure Compatibility with Websites and Blogs

It is important to ensure you can seamlessly integrate the online service you choose into your own website or blog -- especially in the case of self-published artists who often manage their own site for fans. You want to choose a service provider that has a cart system you can customize to blend in with your own Website design. Also, look for easy cut-and-paste code to display the shopping cart buttons or a storefront widget on your own site.

3. Look for a Fully-Featured Shopping Cart

In some cases you may have related tangible goods to sell -- for example in addition to selling digital versions of your self-published music, you might want to sell a CD version, or you might want to sell printed posters of your most popular digital images.  To offer both types of goods you need to ensure the digital goods cart is fully-featured and can handle related tangible good sales.  

Features to look for include shipping calculation, inventory management, sales tax and a packaging-and-shipping cost calculator. These are the standard ecommerce functions that you would need to sell any related tangible products online.

4. Look for Secure, Reliable Product Delivery and Storage 

Any digital goods delivery system must provide instant, secure digital product delivery that protects both the consumer making the purchase and the small business.  After check-out and payment has been completed, customers should receive a secure link to download the item immediately.

To protect you, that link should expire after the maximum number of download attempts (or hours) has been exceeded.  Some systems offer other security features, such as “stamping” e-books with a unique transaction ID so you can track people who “share” your digital good after they purchase it.

You should also ask a provider about server security and what they do to protect consumers from downloading files that may have become corrupt or virus-infected through their storage servers. It is also important to ensure the digital-good delivery provider offers secure back-up of your merchandise.

5. View the System from a Consumer’s Perspective

The final thing you should do is to look at the system from a consumer’s perspective. Make sure the cart offers lost of features for your customers. Be sure to offer a number of payment choices, including PayPal, other online payment services, and different credit cards.  

The best advice for an entrepreneur choosing a delivery system for his or her small business is to test-drive the solution before buying it.  For this, simply make sure that the cart is easy to use and that consumers will be able to make a purchase and download the digital goods in a satisfactory manner.  

Even if the cart has all the features you want as a seller, if it's confusing or difficult for consumers to use, you’re better off choosing a different online service provider.

Starting a Digital Goods Business

The following Ecommerce-Guide.com resources will help you further investigate starting your own small business selling digital goods:

E-Commerce Tools: Five Ways to Sell Digital Goods OnlineAutomated Licensing, Rights Management for Digital ArtistsThree-for-All: Affordable Selling Services for Digital Goods

Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG

BUSINESS BRIEFS: Ingram Content Group works with Apple on iPadAmazon Profit Soars 68% Amid Wider Ecommerce Industry Rebound

Amazon Profit Soars 68% Amid Wider Ecommerce Industry Rebound

In the latest signal that the ecommerce sector is bouncing back from the recession, online retailing giant Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) said that its first-quarter profit rose 68 percent, posting earnings and revenue figures that easily topped analysts' expectations.

Amazon reported net income for the quarter of $299 million, up from $177 million in the same period last year. That translated to earnings of $0.66 per share, five cents higher than analysts' consensus projection, according to polling by Thomson Reuters.

Overall sales spiked to $7.13 billion, 46 percent ahead of last year's mark of $4.89 billion, and well above the $6.87 billion analysts were forecasting.

Today's results follow healthy first-quarter financials turned in by other online retailer and advertising bellwethers in the past week, including eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO).

Collectively, the improved performances indicate that consumer confidence is beginning to bounce back and that advertisers are again starting to spend more freely.

Unlike many of Amazon's smaller ecommerce rivals, including eBay, the recession has treated the company fairly well. Amazon has enjoyed brisk revenue gains even through the lean quarters of 2008 and 2009 as consumers took to the Web in search of bargains. Amazon, by virtue of its volume, has been able to undercut competitors' prices, analysts have noted.

Last year, during what now appears to have been the nadir of the recession, Amazon saw its net sales soar 28 percent over 2008.

While Amazon continues to expand the merchandise available through its ecommerce hub, either from Amazon directly or through its third-party merchants, the Kindle e-reader remains the company's principal interest. Throughout the holiday season, Amazon loudly trumpeted that the Kindle was its best-selling product, and that it was selling more electronic books than paper versions. Then on Wednesday of this week, Target announced a deal to sell the device in its retail stores, the first time the Kindle will be available outside of Amazon.com.

Of course, the Kindle, widely credited with jumpstarting the long-stagnant e-book market, is now facing a substantial competitive threat with the introduction of Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad tablet, a device that offers Web browsing, a full-color screen and an enormous repository of third-party apps in addition to its e-reading capability.

Additionally, Amazon has been locked in heated disputes with publishers over the licensing and revenue-sharing terms of the titles available in digital format through the Kindle store.

Amazon does not disclose sales figures for the Kindle.

Kenneth Corbin is an associate editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.

Business briefs: Community Health’s profits increaseAmazon Profit Soars 68% Amid Wider Ecommerce Industry Rebound

Ecommerce Design: A Graphics Software Guide

From designing logos to resizing product images, running an ecommerce site involves a lot of graphics. Whether you need image-editing software, illustration software or desktop publishing software, choosing the right graphics program doesn’t have to be hard. Our guide explains everything you need to know to make a picture-perfect decision. Small Business Computing has all the details.

In a perfect world, a firm of hip, twenty-something art-school grads handles all of your company's graphics design and image-editing work. Reality, however, dictates that you either have an employee who's adept at handling the graphics needs of your business, or you handle it along with all your other responsibilities.

And so in the real world, you have to know somewhere between a little and a lot about graphics software to make the right purchase decision for your needs, budget and level of expertise. Here's what you need to consider before you commit time and resources to a solution, along with a sampling of our favorite programs in a range of categories and prices.

Read the complete graphics software guide

Buffett’s parrot gets OK for downtown Nashville cafeEcommerce Design: A Graphics Software Guide

Ecommerce Marketing for Entrepreneurs

Forget conventional wisdom; it's been done to death. Unconventional thinking will get you a whole lot further in business. At least that's the premise behind GotBiz.tv, a new WebTV network of business- and marketing-oriented shows to help entrepreneurs of every stripe -- online, ecommerce or brick-and-mortar -- succeed by standing out from the competition. So, climb outside of the box. Small Business Computing has the details.

Andrew Lock is a firm believer that entrepreneurs need to think unconventionally and stand out from the crowd, and he's put his money where his mouth is with his new venture, GotBiz.tv.

GotBiz.tv, which launched on April 1, is a WebTV network focused on business training and education for entrepreneurs.

"Most business training is just educational and somewhat staid and boring," said Lock, founder and CEO of GotBiz.tv. "I wanted to provide something different, and I believed that I could bring something that would hopefully revolutionize how business education is taught."

Read the complete Marketing Strategies for Entrepreneurs article

Ecommerce Marketing for EntrepreneursConsumer confidence nearly doubles locally

Ecommerce Design: Writing an 'About Me' Page

With so much focus being placed on writing ecommerce content for product description pages and shipping FAQs, a storefront owners’ About Me page can often be overlooked -- but it really shouldn’t be.  This is the page on your ecommerce site that inspires confidence in potential buyers.

Getting Started: What is an 'About Me' Page?

In this case, the title really says it all. From your online storefront or business Web site or blog, readers can click the About Me or About Us hyperlink to learn more about you, your business and your services.

Almost all companies that host online storefronts, Web shops, online auction and other selling marketplaces let you customize your About Me page. You should develop content for it before you even launch an online store. If you don’t create a good About Me page, then you risk sending shoppers elsewhere to make a purchase.

About Me Page Content

For smaller online sellers and retailers, the About Me page is often a personal reflection of yourself or your business. It includes content that will show customers that you are indeed a legitimate seller, and that they can feel safe when making a purchase from you.

There are standard objectives to consider as you create the content for an About Me page. The following four topics will help guide you in creating an excellent About Me page to boost buyer confidence.

1. Tell Customers who you are. Provide a good overview of your business and its history.  For online sellers using eBay and other marketplaces, you don’t need to write in such a way that you sound like a business. Instead, keep it honest and write it about yourself and the selling experience you have as an individual person conducting transactions online. The goal of this section will be to confirm that you are a legitimate business or individual whom consumers can trust.

2. Describe your expertise and skills. Buyers want to know the person they are dealing with is a professional who understands their needs and requirements.  If you are selling a specific category of product or a service, tell your customers how you got started and why you had such an interest in this particular category.

3. Use quality photos to validate your statements. High-quality, professional-looking photos validate your written content.  Some ideas for complementary images include a photograph of you, a picture of your retail store if you have one, or even an image showing your personal handiwork in progress.

For example, if you sell handcrafted birdhouses, a nice photo of you doing woodworking will highlight your skills and abilities. Or, if you sell animal-free products, add a photo of you taken with some furry critter friends.  The image you choose should authenticate at least one subject or statement you have included in your About Me page.

4. Don’t skimp on contact info. Contact information confirms that you exist beyond a URL.  Contact information validates you as a legitimate person or small business. Providing it tells potential customers that they're free to contact you with questions or concerns.  Unfortunately, the Web is full of About Me pages that offer nothing but a fill-and-submit contact form or a basic e-mail address.

If you want customers to feel safe enough to give you a credit card number, you have to prove that you and your business exist.  You can legitimize your business by making sure your About Me page offers customers a number of ways to reach you. Provide a phone number, a mailing address and also an e-mail address. Consider adding hours of operation and a time zone by the phone number you provide.

Note that using PO boxes and free Web mail accounts (like Hotmail or Gmail) will lower the trust factor.

Set the Right Tone for About Me Pages

Before you start writing an About Me page, consider the tone of the page and how you want to present yourself to the customer. Writing the content in the first or third-person -- “I am” or “we are” versus "The Company is" -- plays a big role in how customers perceive you.

Writing in the first-person is like having a face-to-face conversation with the customer, while the third-person will make you appear more corporate.  One tone is not necessarily better than the other,  it just depends how you want your business to be perceived.

A caution for small online sellers: savvy customers who know you are a individual seller and not a business with retail outlets, may think that using third-person in your About Me page is a bit pretentious.  

The best advice: keep it simple, be descriptive, and make sure the tone stays true to your business.

Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG.

Business plan matters, but other steps come firstEcommerce Design: Writing an ‘About Me’ Page

Amazon Profit Soars 68% Amid Wider Ecommerce Industry Rebound

In the latest signal that the ecommerce sector is bouncing back from the recession, online retailing giant Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) said that its first-quarter profit rose 68 percent, posting earnings and revenue figures that easily topped analysts' expectations.

Amazon reported net income for the quarter of $299 million, up from $177 million in the same period last year. That translated to earnings of $0.66 per share, five cents higher than analysts' consensus projection, according to polling by Thomson Reuters.

Overall sales spiked to $7.13 billion, 46 percent ahead of last year's mark of $4.89 billion, and well above the $6.87 billion analysts were forecasting.

Today's results follow healthy first-quarter financials turned in by other online retailer and advertising bellwethers in the past week, including eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO).

Collectively, the improved performances indicate that consumer confidence is beginning to bounce back and that advertisers are again starting to spend more freely.

Unlike many of Amazon's smaller ecommerce rivals, including eBay, the recession has treated the company fairly well. Amazon has enjoyed brisk revenue gains even through the lean quarters of 2008 and 2009 as consumers took to the Web in search of bargains. Amazon, by virtue of its volume, has been able to undercut competitors' prices, analysts have noted.

Last year, during what now appears to have been the nadir of the recession, Amazon saw its net sales soar 28 percent over 2008.

While Amazon continues to expand the merchandise available through its ecommerce hub, either from Amazon directly or through its third-party merchants, the Kindle e-reader remains the company's principal interest. Throughout the holiday season, Amazon loudly trumpeted that the Kindle was its best-selling product, and that it was selling more electronic books than paper versions. Then on Wednesday of this week, Target announced a deal to sell the device in its retail stores, the first time the Kindle will be available outside of Amazon.com.

Of course, the Kindle, widely credited with jumpstarting the long-stagnant e-book market, is now facing a substantial competitive threat with the introduction of Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad tablet, a device that offers Web browsing, a full-color screen and an enormous repository of third-party apps in addition to its e-reading capability.

Additionally, Amazon has been locked in heated disputes with publishers over the licensing and revenue-sharing terms of the titles available in digital format through the Kindle store.

Amazon does not disclose sales figures for the Kindle.

Kenneth Corbin is an associate editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.

Business briefs: Community Health’s profits increaseAmazon Profit Soars 68% Amid Wider Ecommerce Industry Rebound

Ecommerce Design: A Graphics Software Guide

From designing logos to resizing product images, running an ecommerce site involves a lot of graphics. Whether you need image-editing software, illustration software or desktop publishing software, choosing the right graphics program doesn’t have to be hard. Our guide explains everything you need to know to make a picture-perfect decision. Small Business Computing has all the details.

In a perfect world, a firm of hip, twenty-something art-school grads handles all of your company's graphics design and image-editing work. Reality, however, dictates that you either have an employee who's adept at handling the graphics needs of your business, or you handle it along with all your other responsibilities.

And so in the real world, you have to know somewhere between a little and a lot about graphics software to make the right purchase decision for your needs, budget and level of expertise. Here's what you need to consider before you commit time and resources to a solution, along with a sampling of our favorite programs in a range of categories and prices.

Read the complete graphics software guide

Ecommerce Design: A Graphics Software GuideBuffett’s parrot gets OK for downtown Nashville cafe

Ecommerce Marketing for Entrepreneurs

Forget conventional wisdom; it's been done to death. Unconventional thinking will get you a whole lot further in business. At least that's the premise behind GotBiz.tv, a new WebTV network of business- and marketing-oriented shows to help entrepreneurs of every stripe -- online, ecommerce or brick-and-mortar -- succeed by standing out from the competition. So, climb outside of the box. Small Business Computing has the details.

Andrew Lock is a firm believer that entrepreneurs need to think unconventionally and stand out from the crowd, and he's put his money where his mouth is with his new venture, GotBiz.tv.

GotBiz.tv, which launched on April 1, is a WebTV network focused on business training and education for entrepreneurs.

"Most business training is just educational and somewhat staid and boring," said Lock, founder and CEO of GotBiz.tv. "I wanted to provide something different, and I believed that I could bring something that would hopefully revolutionize how business education is taught."

Read the complete Marketing Strategies for Entrepreneurs article

Consumer confidence nearly doubles locallyEcommerce Marketing for Entrepreneurs

Ecommerce Marketing for Entrepreneurs

Forget conventional wisdom; it's been done to death. Unconventional thinking will get you a whole lot further in business. At least that's the premise behind GotBiz.tv, a new WebTV network of business- and marketing-oriented shows to help entrepreneurs of every stripe -- online, ecommerce or brick-and-mortar -- succeed by standing out from the competition. So, climb outside of the box. Small Business Computing has the details.

Andrew Lock is a firm believer that entrepreneurs need to think unconventionally and stand out from the crowd, and he's put his money where his mouth is with his new venture, GotBiz.tv.

GotBiz.tv, which launched on April 1, is a WebTV network focused on business training and education for entrepreneurs.

"Most business training is just educational and somewhat staid and boring," said Lock, founder and CEO of GotBiz.tv. "I wanted to provide something different, and I believed that I could bring something that would hopefully revolutionize how business education is taught."

Read the complete Marketing Strategies for Entrepreneurs article

Consumer confidence nearly doubles locallyEcommerce Marketing for Entrepreneurs

Amazon Profit Soars 68% Amid Wider Ecommerce Industry Rebound

In the latest signal that the ecommerce sector is bouncing back from the recession, online retailing giant Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) said that its first-quarter profit rose 68 percent, posting earnings and revenue figures that easily topped analysts' expectations.

Amazon reported net income for the quarter of $299 million, up from $177 million in the same period last year. That translated to earnings of $0.66 per share, five cents higher than analysts' consensus projection, according to polling by Thomson Reuters.

Overall sales spiked to $7.13 billion, 46 percent ahead of last year's mark of $4.89 billion, and well above the $6.87 billion analysts were forecasting.

Today's results follow healthy first-quarter financials turned in by other online retailer and advertising bellwethers in the past week, including eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO).

Collectively, the improved performances indicate that consumer confidence is beginning to bounce back and that advertisers are again starting to spend more freely.

Unlike many of Amazon's smaller ecommerce rivals, including eBay, the recession has treated the company fairly well. Amazon has enjoyed brisk revenue gains even through the lean quarters of 2008 and 2009 as consumers took to the Web in search of bargains. Amazon, by virtue of its volume, has been able to undercut competitors' prices, analysts have noted.

Last year, during what now appears to have been the nadir of the recession, Amazon saw its net sales soar 28 percent over 2008.

While Amazon continues to expand the merchandise available through its ecommerce hub, either from Amazon directly or through its third-party merchants, the Kindle e-reader remains the company's principal interest. Throughout the holiday season, Amazon loudly trumpeted that the Kindle was its best-selling product, and that it was selling more electronic books than paper versions. Then on Wednesday of this week, Target announced a deal to sell the device in its retail stores, the first time the Kindle will be available outside of Amazon.com.

Of course, the Kindle, widely credited with jumpstarting the long-stagnant e-book market, is now facing a substantial competitive threat with the introduction of Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad tablet, a device that offers Web browsing, a full-color screen and an enormous repository of third-party apps in addition to its e-reading capability.

Additionally, Amazon has been locked in heated disputes with publishers over the licensing and revenue-sharing terms of the titles available in digital format through the Kindle store.

Amazon does not disclose sales figures for the Kindle.

Kenneth Corbin is an associate editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.

Amazon Profit Soars 68% Amid Wider Ecommerce Industry ReboundBusiness briefs: Community Health’s profits increase

Study Says to SMBS: You Don't Know Security

What you don’t know about security will hurt you -- and your customers. That's pretty much the bottom line of a study sponsored by Panda Security that found most SMBs take a fairly weak approach to protecting their customer data. This, in turn, makes them a big target for cyber-criminals. The problem is disturbing, particularly for customers who go online to buy products and services. Small Business Computing has the full report.

Small and midsized businesses might be the lifeblood of the U.S. economy, but according to the latest Internet security survey from Panda Security, their generally lackadaisical efforts to protect consumer data is also making them a prime target for cyber thieves.

More disturbing, particularly for customers swiping their credit cards or purchasing products and services online, the survey reveals that the vast majority of SMBs claim they don't know how to effectively prevent identity theft, lack the resources to install the technology that could thwart the majority of cyber attacks and, worse, seem to believe that it's really not their problem.

Read the complete small business online security article

Social Networking Sees Rise in Cyber CrimeNissan, Renault, Daimler enter parts-sharing deal

Ecommerce Design: Writing an 'About Me' Page

With so much focus being placed on writing ecommerce content for product description pages and shipping FAQs, a storefront owners’ About Me page can often be overlooked -- but it really shouldn’t be.  This is the page on your ecommerce site that inspires confidence in potential buyers.

Getting Started: What is an 'About Me' Page?

In this case, the title really says it all. From your online storefront or business Web site or blog, readers can click the About Me or About Us hyperlink to learn more about you, your business and your services.

Almost all companies that host online storefronts, Web shops, online auction and other selling marketplaces let you customize your About Me page. You should develop content for it before you even launch an online store. If you don’t create a good About Me page, then you risk sending shoppers elsewhere to make a purchase.

About Me Page Content

For smaller online sellers and retailers, the About Me page is often a personal reflection of yourself or your business. It includes content that will show customers that you are indeed a legitimate seller, and that they can feel safe when making a purchase from you.

There are standard objectives to consider as you create the content for an About Me page. The following four topics will help guide you in creating an excellent About Me page to boost buyer confidence.

1. Tell Customers who you are. Provide a good overview of your business and its history.  For online sellers using eBay and other marketplaces, you don’t need to write in such a way that you sound like a business. Instead, keep it honest and write it about yourself and the selling experience you have as an individual person conducting transactions online. The goal of this section will be to confirm that you are a legitimate business or individual whom consumers can trust.

2. Describe your expertise and skills. Buyers want to know the person they are dealing with is a professional who understands their needs and requirements.  If you are selling a specific category of product or a service, tell your customers how you got started and why you had such an interest in this particular category.

3. Use quality photos to validate your statements. High-quality, professional-looking photos validate your written content.  Some ideas for complementary images include a photograph of you, a picture of your retail store if you have one, or even an image showing your personal handiwork in progress.

For example, if you sell handcrafted birdhouses, a nice photo of you doing woodworking will highlight your skills and abilities. Or, if you sell animal-free products, add a photo of you taken with some furry critter friends.  The image you choose should authenticate at least one subject or statement you have included in your About Me page.

4. Don’t skimp on contact info. Contact information confirms that you exist beyond a URL.  Contact information validates you as a legitimate person or small business. Providing it tells potential customers that they're free to contact you with questions or concerns.  Unfortunately, the Web is full of About Me pages that offer nothing but a fill-and-submit contact form or a basic e-mail address.

If you want customers to feel safe enough to give you a credit card number, you have to prove that you and your business exist.  You can legitimize your business by making sure your About Me page offers customers a number of ways to reach you. Provide a phone number, a mailing address and also an e-mail address. Consider adding hours of operation and a time zone by the phone number you provide.

Note that using PO boxes and free Web mail accounts (like Hotmail or Gmail) will lower the trust factor.

Set the Right Tone for About Me Pages

Before you start writing an About Me page, consider the tone of the page and how you want to present yourself to the customer. Writing the content in the first or third-person -- “I am” or “we are” versus "The Company is" -- plays a big role in how customers perceive you.

Writing in the first-person is like having a face-to-face conversation with the customer, while the third-person will make you appear more corporate.  One tone is not necessarily better than the other,  it just depends how you want your business to be perceived.

A caution for small online sellers: savvy customers who know you are a individual seller and not a business with retail outlets, may think that using third-person in your About Me page is a bit pretentious.  

The best advice: keep it simple, be descriptive, and make sure the tone stays true to your business.

Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG.

Business plan matters, but other steps come firstEcommerce Design: Writing an ‘About Me’ Page

Ecommerce Design: A Graphics Software Guide

From designing logos to resizing product images, running an ecommerce site involves a lot of graphics. Whether you need image-editing software, illustration software or desktop publishing software, choosing the right graphics program doesn’t have to be hard. Our guide explains everything you need to know to make a picture-perfect decision. Small Business Computing has all the details.

In a perfect world, a firm of hip, twenty-something art-school grads handles all of your company's graphics design and image-editing work. Reality, however, dictates that you either have an employee who's adept at handling the graphics needs of your business, or you handle it along with all your other responsibilities.

And so in the real world, you have to know somewhere between a little and a lot about graphics software to make the right purchase decision for your needs, budget and level of expertise. Here's what you need to consider before you commit time and resources to a solution, along with a sampling of our favorite programs in a range of categories and prices.

Read the complete graphics software guide

Ecommerce Design: A Graphics Software GuideBuffett’s parrot gets OK for downtown Nashville cafe

Amazon Profit Soars 68% Amid Wider Ecommerce Industry Rebound

In the latest signal that the ecommerce sector is bouncing back from the recession, online retailing giant Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) said that its first-quarter profit rose 68 percent, posting earnings and revenue figures that easily topped analysts' expectations.

Amazon reported net income for the quarter of $299 million, up from $177 million in the same period last year. That translated to earnings of $0.66 per share, five cents higher than analysts' consensus projection, according to polling by Thomson Reuters.

Overall sales spiked to $7.13 billion, 46 percent ahead of last year's mark of $4.89 billion, and well above the $6.87 billion analysts were forecasting.

Today's results follow healthy first-quarter financials turned in by other online retailer and advertising bellwethers in the past week, including eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO).

Collectively, the improved performances indicate that consumer confidence is beginning to bounce back and that advertisers are again starting to spend more freely.

Unlike many of Amazon's smaller ecommerce rivals, including eBay, the recession has treated the company fairly well. Amazon has enjoyed brisk revenue gains even through the lean quarters of 2008 and 2009 as consumers took to the Web in search of bargains. Amazon, by virtue of its volume, has been able to undercut competitors' prices, analysts have noted.

Last year, during what now appears to have been the nadir of the recession, Amazon saw its net sales soar 28 percent over 2008.

While Amazon continues to expand the merchandise available through its ecommerce hub, either from Amazon directly or through its third-party merchants, the Kindle e-reader remains the company's principal interest. Throughout the holiday season, Amazon loudly trumpeted that the Kindle was its best-selling product, and that it was selling more electronic books than paper versions. Then on Wednesday of this week, Target announced a deal to sell the device in its retail stores, the first time the Kindle will be available outside of Amazon.com.

Of course, the Kindle, widely credited with jumpstarting the long-stagnant e-book market, is now facing a substantial competitive threat with the introduction of Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad tablet, a device that offers Web browsing, a full-color screen and an enormous repository of third-party apps in addition to its e-reading capability.

Additionally, Amazon has been locked in heated disputes with publishers over the licensing and revenue-sharing terms of the titles available in digital format through the Kindle store.

Amazon does not disclose sales figures for the Kindle.

Kenneth Corbin is an associate editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.

Amazon Profit Soars 68% Amid Wider Ecommerce Industry ReboundBusiness briefs: Community Health’s profits increase

Ecommerce Design: A Graphics Software Guide

From designing logos to resizing product images, running an ecommerce site involves a lot of graphics. Whether you need image-editing software, illustration software or desktop publishing software, choosing the right graphics program doesn’t have to be hard. Our guide explains everything you need to know to make a picture-perfect decision. Small Business Computing has all the details.

In a perfect world, a firm of hip, twenty-something art-school grads handles all of your company's graphics design and image-editing work. Reality, however, dictates that you either have an employee who's adept at handling the graphics needs of your business, or you handle it along with all your other responsibilities.

And so in the real world, you have to know somewhere between a little and a lot about graphics software to make the right purchase decision for your needs, budget and level of expertise. Here's what you need to consider before you commit time and resources to a solution, along with a sampling of our favorite programs in a range of categories and prices.

Read the complete graphics software guide

Buffett’s parrot gets OK for downtown Nashville cafeEcommerce Design: A Graphics Software Guide

Ecommerce Design: Writing an 'About Me' Page

With so much focus being placed on writing ecommerce content for product description pages and shipping FAQs, a storefront owners’ About Me page can often be overlooked -- but it really shouldn’t be.  This is the page on your ecommerce site that inspires confidence in potential buyers.

Getting Started: What is an 'About Me' Page?

In this case, the title really says it all. From your online storefront or business Web site or blog, readers can click the About Me or About Us hyperlink to learn more about you, your business and your services.

Almost all companies that host online storefronts, Web shops, online auction and other selling marketplaces let you customize your About Me page. You should develop content for it before you even launch an online store. If you don’t create a good About Me page, then you risk sending shoppers elsewhere to make a purchase.

About Me Page Content

For smaller online sellers and retailers, the About Me page is often a personal reflection of yourself or your business. It includes content that will show customers that you are indeed a legitimate seller, and that they can feel safe when making a purchase from you.

There are standard objectives to consider as you create the content for an About Me page. The following four topics will help guide you in creating an excellent About Me page to boost buyer confidence.

1. Tell Customers who you are. Provide a good overview of your business and its history.  For online sellers using eBay and other marketplaces, you don’t need to write in such a way that you sound like a business. Instead, keep it honest and write it about yourself and the selling experience you have as an individual person conducting transactions online. The goal of this section will be to confirm that you are a legitimate business or individual whom consumers can trust.

2. Describe your expertise and skills. Buyers want to know the person they are dealing with is a professional who understands their needs and requirements.  If you are selling a specific category of product or a service, tell your customers how you got started and why you had such an interest in this particular category.

3. Use quality photos to validate your statements. High-quality, professional-looking photos validate your written content.  Some ideas for complementary images include a photograph of you, a picture of your retail store if you have one, or even an image showing your personal handiwork in progress.

For example, if you sell handcrafted birdhouses, a nice photo of you doing woodworking will highlight your skills and abilities. Or, if you sell animal-free products, add a photo of you taken with some furry critter friends.  The image you choose should authenticate at least one subject or statement you have included in your About Me page.

4. Don’t skimp on contact info. Contact information confirms that you exist beyond a URL.  Contact information validates you as a legitimate person or small business. Providing it tells potential customers that they're free to contact you with questions or concerns.  Unfortunately, the Web is full of About Me pages that offer nothing but a fill-and-submit contact form or a basic e-mail address.

If you want customers to feel safe enough to give you a credit card number, you have to prove that you and your business exist.  You can legitimize your business by making sure your About Me page offers customers a number of ways to reach you. Provide a phone number, a mailing address and also an e-mail address. Consider adding hours of operation and a time zone by the phone number you provide.

Note that using PO boxes and free Web mail accounts (like Hotmail or Gmail) will lower the trust factor.

Set the Right Tone for About Me Pages

Before you start writing an About Me page, consider the tone of the page and how you want to present yourself to the customer. Writing the content in the first or third-person -- “I am” or “we are” versus "The Company is" -- plays a big role in how customers perceive you.

Writing in the first-person is like having a face-to-face conversation with the customer, while the third-person will make you appear more corporate.  One tone is not necessarily better than the other,  it just depends how you want your business to be perceived.

A caution for small online sellers: savvy customers who know you are a individual seller and not a business with retail outlets, may think that using third-person in your About Me page is a bit pretentious.  

The best advice: keep it simple, be descriptive, and make sure the tone stays true to your business.

Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG.

Ecommerce Design: Writing an ‘About Me’ PageBusiness plan matters, but other steps come first

Ecommerce Marketing for Entrepreneurs

Forget conventional wisdom; it's been done to death. Unconventional thinking will get you a whole lot further in business. At least that's the premise behind GotBiz.tv, a new WebTV network of business- and marketing-oriented shows to help entrepreneurs of every stripe -- online, ecommerce or brick-and-mortar -- succeed by standing out from the competition. So, climb outside of the box. Small Business Computing has the details.

Andrew Lock is a firm believer that entrepreneurs need to think unconventionally and stand out from the crowd, and he's put his money where his mouth is with his new venture, GotBiz.tv.

GotBiz.tv, which launched on April 1, is a WebTV network focused on business training and education for entrepreneurs.

"Most business training is just educational and somewhat staid and boring," said Lock, founder and CEO of GotBiz.tv. "I wanted to provide something different, and I believed that I could bring something that would hopefully revolutionize how business education is taught."

Read the complete Marketing Strategies for Entrepreneurs article

Ecommerce Entrepreneur: Business-Building StrategiesConsumer confidence nearly doubles locally

Ecommerce Design: A Graphics Software Guide

From designing logos to resizing product images, running an ecommerce site involves a lot of graphics. Whether you need image-editing software, illustration software or desktop publishing software, choosing the right graphics program doesn’t have to be hard. Our guide explains everything you need to know to make a picture-perfect decision. Small Business Computing has all the details.

In a perfect world, a firm of hip, twenty-something art-school grads handles all of your company's graphics design and image-editing work. Reality, however, dictates that you either have an employee who's adept at handling the graphics needs of your business, or you handle it along with all your other responsibilities.

And so in the real world, you have to know somewhere between a little and a lot about graphics software to make the right purchase decision for your needs, budget and level of expertise. Here's what you need to consider before you commit time and resources to a solution, along with a sampling of our favorite programs in a range of categories and prices.

Read the complete graphics software guide

Ecommerce Design: A Graphics Software GuideBuffett’s parrot gets OK for downtown Nashville cafe

Ecommerce Design: Writing an 'About Me' Page

With so much focus being placed on writing ecommerce content for product description pages and shipping FAQs, a storefront owners’ About Me page can often be overlooked -- but it really shouldn’t be.  This is the page on your ecommerce site that inspires confidence in potential buyers.

Getting Started: What is an 'About Me' Page?

In this case, the title really says it all. From your online storefront or business Web site or blog, readers can click the About Me or About Us hyperlink to learn more about you, your business and your services.

Almost all companies that host online storefronts, Web shops, online auction and other selling marketplaces let you customize your About Me page. You should develop content for it before you even launch an online store. If you don’t create a good About Me page, then you risk sending shoppers elsewhere to make a purchase.

About Me Page Content

For smaller online sellers and retailers, the About Me page is often a personal reflection of yourself or your business. It includes content that will show customers that you are indeed a legitimate seller, and that they can feel safe when making a purchase from you.

There are standard objectives to consider as you create the content for an About Me page. The following four topics will help guide you in creating an excellent About Me page to boost buyer confidence.

1. Tell Customers who you are. Provide a good overview of your business and its history.  For online sellers using eBay and other marketplaces, you don’t need to write in such a way that you sound like a business. Instead, keep it honest and write it about yourself and the selling experience you have as an individual person conducting transactions online. The goal of this section will be to confirm that you are a legitimate business or individual whom consumers can trust.

2. Describe your expertise and skills. Buyers want to know the person they are dealing with is a professional who understands their needs and requirements.  If you are selling a specific category of product or a service, tell your customers how you got started and why you had such an interest in this particular category.

3. Use quality photos to validate your statements. High-quality, professional-looking photos validate your written content.  Some ideas for complementary images include a photograph of you, a picture of your retail store if you have one, or even an image showing your personal handiwork in progress.

For example, if you sell handcrafted birdhouses, a nice photo of you doing woodworking will highlight your skills and abilities. Or, if you sell animal-free products, add a photo of you taken with some furry critter friends.  The image you choose should authenticate at least one subject or statement you have included in your About Me page.

4. Don’t skimp on contact info. Contact information confirms that you exist beyond a URL.  Contact information validates you as a legitimate person or small business. Providing it tells potential customers that they're free to contact you with questions or concerns.  Unfortunately, the Web is full of About Me pages that offer nothing but a fill-and-submit contact form or a basic e-mail address.

If you want customers to feel safe enough to give you a credit card number, you have to prove that you and your business exist.  You can legitimize your business by making sure your About Me page offers customers a number of ways to reach you. Provide a phone number, a mailing address and also an e-mail address. Consider adding hours of operation and a time zone by the phone number you provide.

Note that using PO boxes and free Web mail accounts (like Hotmail or Gmail) will lower the trust factor.

Set the Right Tone for About Me Pages

Before you start writing an About Me page, consider the tone of the page and how you want to present yourself to the customer. Writing the content in the first or third-person -- “I am” or “we are” versus "The Company is" -- plays a big role in how customers perceive you.

Writing in the first-person is like having a face-to-face conversation with the customer, while the third-person will make you appear more corporate.  One tone is not necessarily better than the other,  it just depends how you want your business to be perceived.

A caution for small online sellers: savvy customers who know you are a individual seller and not a business with retail outlets, may think that using third-person in your About Me page is a bit pretentious.  

The best advice: keep it simple, be descriptive, and make sure the tone stays true to your business.

Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG.

Business plan matters, but other steps come firstEcommerce Design: Writing an ‘About Me’ Page

Amazon Profit Soars 68% Amid Wider Ecommerce Industry Rebound

In the latest signal that the ecommerce sector is bouncing back from the recession, online retailing giant Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) said that its first-quarter profit rose 68 percent, posting earnings and revenue figures that easily topped analysts' expectations.

Amazon reported net income for the quarter of $299 million, up from $177 million in the same period last year. That translated to earnings of $0.66 per share, five cents higher than analysts' consensus projection, according to polling by Thomson Reuters.

Overall sales spiked to $7.13 billion, 46 percent ahead of last year's mark of $4.89 billion, and well above the $6.87 billion analysts were forecasting.

Today's results follow healthy first-quarter financials turned in by other online retailer and advertising bellwethers in the past week, including eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO).

Collectively, the improved performances indicate that consumer confidence is beginning to bounce back and that advertisers are again starting to spend more freely.

Unlike many of Amazon's smaller ecommerce rivals, including eBay, the recession has treated the company fairly well. Amazon has enjoyed brisk revenue gains even through the lean quarters of 2008 and 2009 as consumers took to the Web in search of bargains. Amazon, by virtue of its volume, has been able to undercut competitors' prices, analysts have noted.

Last year, during what now appears to have been the nadir of the recession, Amazon saw its net sales soar 28 percent over 2008.

While Amazon continues to expand the merchandise available through its ecommerce hub, either from Amazon directly or through its third-party merchants, the Kindle e-reader remains the company's principal interest. Throughout the holiday season, Amazon loudly trumpeted that the Kindle was its best-selling product, and that it was selling more electronic books than paper versions. Then on Wednesday of this week, Target announced a deal to sell the device in its retail stores, the first time the Kindle will be available outside of Amazon.com.

Of course, the Kindle, widely credited with jumpstarting the long-stagnant e-book market, is now facing a substantial competitive threat with the introduction of Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad tablet, a device that offers Web browsing, a full-color screen and an enormous repository of third-party apps in addition to its e-reading capability.

Additionally, Amazon has been locked in heated disputes with publishers over the licensing and revenue-sharing terms of the titles available in digital format through the Kindle store.

Amazon does not disclose sales figures for the Kindle.

Kenneth Corbin is an associate editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.

Amazon Profit Soars 68% Amid Wider Ecommerce Industry ReboundBusiness briefs: Community Health’s profits increase

Looking to Place a Free Classified Ad? Try This List.

When it comes to online selling using free classified ad listing sites, the bigger and more well-known classified sites, like Craigslist and Kijiji, are top-notch. Still, online sellers do look elsewhere -- especially individual and part-time sellers who may have the odd item or two that is not suited to listing on eBay and eBay alternative sites (if you are looking for auction-based sites, see this eBay Alternatives list).

Free local classified ads are an excellent option for online sellers who have larger items that are difficult to ship. They're also good for selling low-profit items where eBay and PayPal fees really cut into your overall sales profit.

This Free Classified Ads list covers five different sites where you can list your items for sale online.

BackpageBackpage is a free classified ad site that currently offers more than 400 cities and regions from the United States, Canada and Mexico. As with most local classified sites, you post online ads in the region that is closest to you.  Backpage is free to use to post most buy, sell and trade ads; the exceptions include adult entertainment and personals.

Premium ad placement is also available on Backpage. Called "Sponsor Ads," these ads will get a visible placement at the top or right-hand side of every page in a particular category.  Sponsor Ads also let you post ads in more than 100 cities with a single posting form.

CraigslistCraigslist is also a free classified ads site. Users simply choose a location site; you can choose cities located in the United States, Canada, Asia, the Americas and Europe and then you post your ad on the Craigslist site nearest your location. 

On Craigslist, most classified ads are free to place. Specific sections for some cities do carry a fee, however. For example, you must pay a fee if you want to list ads in job postings, brokered apartment rentals and adult service categories.

EBay Classifieds (Kijiji)

EBay Classifieds launched originally in the U.S. as Kijiji.com in June 2007, however the U.S-based free classified ads site has recently been renamed to eBay Classifieds. Some international sites, such as South Africa, Australia and Canada will still run under the Kijiji brand name.

This classifieds network has individual Web sites for specific countries including the United States, Canada, China, Taiwan, Germany, India and others. Once you choose a country, you then select the city or region closest to your own location for posting an ad.

Posting and replying to ads on the site is completely free. You can post up to 25 unique ads each day, with each ad staying online for 60 days. Some individual country sites offer fee-based Premium Placement Ads, or you can pay a fee to bump your ad back to the top position in a category listing.

Ecommerce-Guide Tips:  10 Tips for Selling on Kijiji, Will Rebranding Help eBay Take on Craigslist? Hoobly

Hoobly is another fun, free classifieds site that integrates a local classifieds market into a national marketplace, using its custom "Ad Filter" technology. This lets consumers look for general ads and then be more specific about location.  

Ads placed on Hoobly are free, however you may opt to place a Premium Ad which is posted to a paid area and is basically a “category targeted” message that runs at the top of Hoobly pages. Premium Ads are bid-for-placement, pay per click (PPC) ads.

Ecommerce-Guide Tips:  Review: Hoobly Ad Site as eBay Alternative

Oodle

Oodle is a well-known free classifieds service that pulls millions of listings from all over the Web. Oodle offers options for consumers to buy and sell through online classifieds; it allows advertisers to promote their local listings, and it also works as a partner for publishers to power their own classifieds.

Currently, Oodle is available throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland and India, plus it operates the popular Facebook Marketplace. Consumers can place an Oodle ad for free, by creating an online account. When you post to Oodle, your classified ad may also be posted to hundreds of other sites.

Oodle ads are live for 30-days with unlimited text and up to nine pictures.  More frequent and professional sellers who would like to post more than one ad per category can use Oodle Pro, a comprehensive package for advertising your listings on the Oodle Network. Oodle Pro plans start at $25 per month.

Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG.

Will Rebranding Help eBay Take on Craigslist?Companies can pay for ads on Twitter

eBay Profits Leap as Payments, Online Sales Grow

In a sign of the ecommerce sector's resurgence -- and the recovery of one of its leading marketplaces -- eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) posted solid first-quarter earnings, edging out Wall Street forecasts and topping its financial performance from a year earlier.

Thanks to the strong performance of its payments division, the ecommerce giant posted an 11 percent profit over last year, reporting net income of $398 million in the first quarter, up from $357 million a year ago.

Excluding one-time charges, eBay reported net income of $554 million on earnings of $0.42 per share for the first quarter, a penny ahead of analysts' expectations and up from $0.39 cents per share in the first quarter of last year. Revenue came in at $2.2 billion, just edging out the Street's consensus estimate of $2.18 billion, and up 9 percent from a year ago.

"Our first quarter results reflect another strong step toward achieving our three-year growth and profitability goals," eBay President and CEO John Donahoe said in a statement. "We are becoming a more customer-focused and technology-driven company, delivering more innovative products and experiences and driving operating efficiencies to reinvest in growth. We are improving the fundamentals of our business, strengthening eBay Marketplaces and aggressively growing PayPal to become the leader in global online payments."

In many ways, those fundamentals represent a key indicator of the state of the online economy -- one chief reason why they're so closely watched. eBay's marketplaces unit serves as a key trading hub and inventory clearing house for online merchants, for instance, while its PayPal online currency is a force to be reckoned with in online payments.

Both groups saw sizable bumps in revenue during the quarter. eBay's payments division, dominated by PayPal, accounted for 37 percent of the company's revenue in the first quarter, raking in $809.3 million, up 26 percent from last year.

The company's core marketplaces unit, which includes the main eBay.com site, Shopping.com and other ecommerce hubs, brought in $1.4 billion in revenue, a 13 percent year-over-year increase.

The results also help solidify eBay's solid performance in the holiday quarter, when it saw its earnings jump 16 percent from the year-earlier period.

Donahoe has been shepherding eBay through a turnaround during his two years at the helm of the company.

The numerous initiatives and policy changes the company has undertaken under his stewardship include several changes to the listings and feedback policies aimed at improving the shopping experience for buyers, changes that have often met with strenuous objections from sellers.

That turnaround strategy has aimed to transform eBay into a more "customer-focused company," Donahoe told analysts on a conference call discussing the company's earnings. Another pillar of his vision for the turnaround is to ramp up eBay's technology platform and nurture a spirit of innovation throughout the company.

"We've made good strides in our technology and innovation, and we're just getting started," Donahoe said.

Donahoe has also been working to move the marketplace toward fixed-price listings, discouraging the auction model that has largely defined the company since its inception.

Most recently, eBay has been making aggressive strides in the mobile and social industries. The company has launched several shopping and payment apps for the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android devices, and has partnered with social sites like Facebook to broaden its reach, both domestically and internationally.

eBay has been actively pursuing payments partnerships with overseas vendors, including a deal with China UnionPay, which Donahoe boasted will soon add 1.3 billion Chinese consumers to PayPal's potential market.

While the company continues to press ahead with its turnaround strategy for the marketplaces division, Donahoe looks for the steepest growth in the payments sector, particularly as other firms begin to roll out mobile ecommerce applications. But eBay feels like it's ahead of the curve, noting that within three weeks of launching the PayPal iPhone app last month, it registered more than 1 million downloads.

"You're going to see lots of announcements around online payments and mobile payments in the coming months," Donahoe said. "We continuously and closely monitor the competitive landscape, and feel confident about our position and our competitive advantages."

Kenneth Corbin is an associate editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.

Tractor Supply shares up on higher 2010 earnings outlookWill Rebranding Help eBay Take on Craigslist?

Amazon Profit Soars 68% Amid Wider Ecommerce Industry Rebound

In the latest signal that the ecommerce sector is bouncing back from the recession, online retailing giant Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) said that its first-quarter profit rose 68 percent, posting earnings and revenue figures that easily topped analysts' expectations.

Amazon reported net income for the quarter of $299 million, up from $177 million in the same period last year. That translated to earnings of $0.66 per share, five cents higher than analysts' consensus projection, according to polling by Thomson Reuters.

Overall sales spiked to $7.13 billion, 46 percent ahead of last year's mark of $4.89 billion, and well above the $6.87 billion analysts were forecasting.

Today's results follow healthy first-quarter financials turned in by other online retailer and advertising bellwethers in the past week, including eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO).

Collectively, the improved performances indicate that consumer confidence is beginning to bounce back and that advertisers are again starting to spend more freely.

Unlike many of Amazon's smaller ecommerce rivals, including eBay, the recession has treated the company fairly well. Amazon has enjoyed brisk revenue gains even through the lean quarters of 2008 and 2009 as consumers took to the Web in search of bargains. Amazon, by virtue of its volume, has been able to undercut competitors' prices, analysts have noted.

Last year, during what now appears to have been the nadir of the recession, Amazon saw its net sales soar 28 percent over 2008.

While Amazon continues to expand the merchandise available through its ecommerce hub, either from Amazon directly or through its third-party merchants, the Kindle e-reader remains the company's principal interest. Throughout the holiday season, Amazon loudly trumpeted that the Kindle was its best-selling product, and that it was selling more electronic books than paper versions. Then on Wednesday of this week, Target announced a deal to sell the device in its retail stores, the first time the Kindle will be available outside of Amazon.com.

Of course, the Kindle, widely credited with jumpstarting the long-stagnant e-book market, is now facing a substantial competitive threat with the introduction of Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad tablet, a device that offers Web browsing, a full-color screen and an enormous repository of third-party apps in addition to its e-reading capability.

Additionally, Amazon has been locked in heated disputes with publishers over the licensing and revenue-sharing terms of the titles available in digital format through the Kindle store.

Amazon does not disclose sales figures for the Kindle.

Kenneth Corbin is an associate editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.

Business briefs: Community Health’s profits increaseOnline Advertisers Start Spending Again

Unified Communications Boost the Bottom Line

Running an ecommerce Web site is tough enough without worrying about missed or poorly routed calls. A unified communications system can corral all the ways you communicate with customers, vendors and employees into one neat, efficient channel. Read the full story at Small Business Computing.

Do you remember when 99 percent of business communications consisted of phone calls and the U.S. mail?  It wasn’t that long ago.  Do you ever wish communication could be that simple again? There's no returning to that simpler time, but unified communications can instill much-needed order.

Read the complete Unified Communications article

Unified Communications Boost the Bottom LineAirline merger talks boost stocks

eBay Offers Intelligent Customer Support

Talk to any eBay buyer or sellers and you'll find that sometimes it is difficult to get help when you don’t know how to do something on eBay -- and scrolling through pages of FAQs is time consuming and it may not even address your problem or answer your specific question.

However, eBay  is taking customer service to a new level by offering its members access to intelligent customer support using virtual agents. The company previously offered virtual agent support on its sites in France, Germany and the United Kingdom, but now has rolled it out on eBay.com and the eBay.ca site.

Ebay's VirtuOz virtual agent interprets questions and guides customers towards a resolution.
(Click for larger image).How They Work: Intelligent Virtual Agents on EBay

Mark Gaydos, vice president of worldwide marketing for VirtuOz, the company providing the intelligent agent customer support on eBay.com, describes the agents as intelligent online robots -- or bots for short. "Intelligent agents are computer programs that interact with users. It will interpret their questions and guide them toward a resolution,” he said.

A customer may ask “Why can’t I cancel my bid”? The agent, through a series of questions may determine that “canceling the bid” is not the real issue, but instead the person is unable to log in to their account to perform the action.  In most cases, the initial questions posed by the virtual agent are simply to better clarify the customer's real question or source problem so the correct resolution can be offered by the agent.

The virtual agent will keep digging deeper until there is only one valid resolution for the problem.  Say, for example, that you access the virtual agent and ask:  “How do I cancel a bid?” The agent would start the resolution process by asking if you are a buyer or seller.  It continues to ask questions until it can narrow down the specifics of your issue. 

The virtual agent could even look up specific information if you are logged in to eBay, or show you images or direct you to the correct page for resolution. When necessary, the virtual agent could even pass you on to a live customer service representative.

According to Gaydos, the virtual agents work well on Web sites because they can jump to a number of topics in less than a second and ultimately identify the real problem.

Dealing with Business Rules

When providing a resolution, Gaydos said that the path the virtual agent takes is based on eBay’s specific business rules, combined with the information that a shopper submits. EBay is a company with a lot of business rules, sets of procedures and a unique language, which makes deploying intelligent agents a challenge.

“EBay has a variety of business processes and rules around a number of things, such as products, what you can and can’t sell, returns -- all of these business rules can change depending on the country or even the state the user lives in,” explained Gaydos.

Of course, one also has to consider that many of eBay’s business rules change, depending on whether you are the buyer or seller on the site, and what level of seller status you have.

Another interesting aspect of deploying virtual agents on a Web site is the linguistics layer of the software. In eBay's case it meant ensuring the many common eBay phrases and terms one would use in a customer support conversation are accounted for and can be identified by the virtual agent.

When first deployed, Gaydos says clients typically have around a 70 percent resolution rate, but as more information and language is programmed in and the virtual agent is tweaked, the successful resolution rate averages 92 to 93 percent.

The Cost of Using Intelligent Virtual Agents

VirtuOz intelligent agents are, according to Gaydos, cheaper than the cost of using phone support or online live chat support.  The  pricing model is based on a per successful resolution fee, which can range from five to 50 cents per resolution.

Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG.

Business plan matters, but other steps come firsteBay Offers Intelligent Customer Support