Comments by growmap

This is a post for every blogger and the concept can also be useful to ecommerce stores. People do not buy until they are absolutely certain that they can trust you and the product is exactly what they are seeking and worth the money. Online sellers have two tasks:

Do everything you can to help them feel comfortable buying from you. Put a photo of your business on your about page. (Conversions go up when people visit that page just before checking out!)

Make sure you can be contacted. Provide phone numbers and an address on your site. Consider using services such as BuySafe, OnlineBBB, TrustGuard, ShopperScanned, SiteSafe, Authorize Net, McAfee Secure and others.

The second task is to provide them all the information you possibly can on each product. Consider using more than one image. Be sure your descriptions contain everything they need to know: size, color, material.

Unless you answer EVERY question they have they are NOT going to buy! Consider manning Live Chat as often as you can. Volusion has an excellent free option. Being available to answer a quick question will greatly increase your conversion rate.

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I just tested and this also works in other search engines including my favorites DuckDuckGo and Zuula. I like to use the Zuula blog search function to eliminate non-blog results. I just wish Zuula would add DuckDuckGo as a search engine option so I could have the best of both worlds!

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Hi Terry,

Most people don’t realize how complicated creating a top blog is. Read How to Start a Successful Blog Based Business to get an idea of what I mean when I refer to an “advanced blog”.

Ssuccessful blogs require optimum usability, layout and features, plugins to optimize interaction and search engine placement, knowing something about keyword research and copywriting, and so on.

I believe there are people who have a niche they love and know a lot about who just need the vehicle to get started and someone to send them traffic. That post explains the Joint Ventures we’re doing.
Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..How Much Is A Memorable Logo Worth?

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Hi Mikael,

I know that welcoming new commentators helps them feel comfortable and hopefully come back soon. Balancing the time required is a never-ending challenge.
Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..How to Get Your Free Business Listing in Yelp

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Thank you. Yes, they do encourage comments and unfortunately also spam comments, but that is the price we pay for being generous with links.
Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..How Much Is A Memorable Logo Worth?

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No, you’re NOT the only one. The photos don’t do anything for me either and they distract from what I went there to do.

The photo today is beautiful (unlike many have been); however, it doesn’t have anything to do with searching.

I am a wordsmith and not an image person so that may affect my opinion.

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Hi Alex,

There is never a better time than now. Learning about logo design turned into an enormous project with a very long post to match. My hope is that it will be of great benefit to anyone who needs a logo designer or intends to create their own and also to encourage designers to work with small businesses.

Judging by your subscriber numbers not having a logo doesn’t seem to have held you back but having one could certainly make your blog stand out better. I am looking forward to having Derek make mine more shareable so I can better brand my posts at FriendFeed and elsewhere.

Any blogger with a following can really benefit by using their logo or Avatar to brand what gets shared on sites like FriendFeed. Regular posts are easy to overlook but those with your logo on them are sure to be easily seen.
Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..How to Create and Install Favicons

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Thanks for the clarification. You could use one of them for different feeds. Some FF users have tons of feeds in their accounts and others only have their own blogs in them. Research might be a good idea. Use it to see how the FF experience varies depending on who you follow?

Have you read my post about Social Networking sites missing the boat on improving the user experience through making content on their interests and users who post it easier to find? That would also provide the very best way to monetize the site and provide a much needed way for small businesses to reach potential customers. See How to Optimize Social Networking Sites
Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Be Pro-Active and Take Calculated Risks

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Hi Kate,

My personal answer would be that Twitter has usability issues they really should have addressed long before now. Anything confusing is a negative that limits who uses any system. Apparently they don’t feel the need to fix anything since Twitter is so popular and growing so fast. Perhaps they should rethink that as there are many dormant or abandoned accounts and at least some of those are due to their usability issues.
Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Select Keywords First to Make Your Content Easy to Find

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Hello Elle,

How we each use Twitter varies over time as we find new ways to make it useful. It can be very useful for getting a quick answer, doing research using Twitter search, contacting busy people who would be challenging to get in touch with anywhere else, and learning about breaking news. It grows on you.
Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Add a Twitter Field to Your Comments

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What we're really talking about here is the ILLUSION of scarcity; that scarcity that has been artificially manufactured by marketing. No doubt there will still be plenty of that. The most important real scarcity is time. Those who provide what saves us time will be the most successful now. For those whose value system does not have money at the very top the world could now evolve into a better place for all instead of a funnel transferring money and other valuables to those who already have the most.

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Welcome Agnes,

If I were creating the list today it would no doubt be much longer but I would still have those people in my favorites. I probably should update it with my special Must Read FriendFeed folks. I finally created a separate list to make sure I didn’t miss they share but especially to ensure I always see their blog posts.
Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Freelancer Challenges - Logo Graphic Designers

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Yes, Darren is probably just as famous for the name ProBlogger as he is for his name - or even moreso. Given the Privacy Issues online I often use him as an example of why using your real name and photo are NOT really necessary.

It makes just as much sense to brand your blog name and Avatar with the added advantage of preserving your privacy and avoiding serious problems such as the death threats that Kathy Sierra and Michael Harrington faced.
Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Intelligent Bloggers to Consider Reading

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Hi Lisa,

FriendFeed has always been a great place to have lively and complex discussions and now with the DM feature it is even better. I keep hoping they’ll respond to my post about Monetizing Social Networking sites to make all the quality content we share there more easily accessed.
Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..How to Add Your Free Business Listing to infoUSA

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Hello Tina,

I decided to do this as a compromise between deleting short comments and answering them all. At some point I will have to only answer some comments - probably those asking questions or adding substantially to the discussion but for now I am still encouraging businesses to interact more fully.
Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Select Keywords First to Make Your Content Easy to Find

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