Dear Clients,
We hope that you are well, and that you've had a productive year, and that you are successful in managing a sustainable & growing business.
The purpose of this newsletter is to keep you updated on things happening at Nittany Web Works, and to give you some ideas for better managing your websites.
Thank you to everyone who has been a client over the years, we hope we can serve you for many years to come! |
» HOLIDAY SALES REPORT
Our clients on average had a RECORD 'Black Friday' (11/27) and 'Cyber Monday' (11/30) this year!
For those using our E-Commerce Platform, this meant over $250k in sales (over 3,400 orders) in 4 days, 11/27 through 11/30.
This could be a sign of the economy turning around in general, but it's more likely the result of good strategy decisions and planning ahead for holiday sales.
» Article on CNN Money about Cyber Monday vs. Black Friday:
Cyber Monday sales up 14% over last year - Dec. 1, 2009
» NEXT IMPORTANT HOLIDAY DATES
Please let us know the "ordering deadline" for Christmas shipping so that we can put a message up on your site. This is the last day a customer can make an order and receive their shipment by Thursday 12/24. We also advise you to put a message about this in your 'New' email notification that you control in your account Settings, and in your 'Checkout Text'. That way, the customer is notified of the deadline.
(We sent a separate email about this to those of you who use us for Internet marketing and mailer design.)
» PERFORMANCE
With $ millions in e-commerce orders being processed this year, the platform has held up well, no major outages occurred and hosted sites continue to be speedy. It is designed to handle much more than is being thrown at it, and to be scalable.
» RECENT UPGRADES
International Orders
We recently added the ability to accept orders from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, South Africa & India.
To enable international orders on your account:
Login to your account, click Settings, Click the Checkout tab, select the countries you'd like to sell to, click save.
Important: You will also need to add shipping methods for the new countries: click Settings, click the Edit Shipping Methods button & add your new methods & set rates.
Category Landing Pages
This can be helpful on sites that have multiple brands and a high number of products, to help organize the site better. You can now setup a category(ies) on your site as a 'landing page', which acts as a container for sub-categories, and will not show all products in category, but bestselling products instead. If you wish to do this, let us know in advance so we can design CSS styles for the new landing pages.
» PLANNED UPGRADES
We're working to add new features to our system and enhance existing features. We estimate that these will be complete Q1 2010 or sooner:
- New Discount Module (many new options)
- Marketplace Shipping Status Export (Amazon only for now)
- Order Processing Interface Upgrades (to improve efficiency)
- Data Import Log Graphs - Products, Orders (for accounts with integrations)
- Minor Interface Improvements (products, categories, reports)
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» ADD MORE CONTENT, REGULARLY with a WordPress Blog
If you've ever thought about publishing a blog to go along with your other website efforts, you should consider using WordPress, hosted ON your site. Hosting your blog on-site is better for SEO/building organic traffic than having it on a separate domain or subdomain. We can setup a WordPress blog for you as http://www.yoursitename.com/blog/ . We would bill you for approximately 2-5+ hrs depending on the level of customization you want for the design.
Many don't know this, but a WordPress blog can also act as a CMS (content management system) for all kinds of content you may want to add to your site, not just blogging. If this is something you would like to get started, or have further questions, please let us know.
» GIVE YOUR WEBSITE A FACELIFT
Once you've had a website up for 2+ years, it may be a good idea to update the design of the site, to keep it fresh in the eyes of your visitors. If you're in this situation and would like to discuss it, email Jay at jayd@nittanyweb.com.
» SEO - BUILD ORGANIC TRAFFIC
When it comes to business on the web, one thing is clear: Google matters! Getting the ranks on Google that are going to help your web venture flourish is a 2 part process: (1) use the right keywords, in the right places on your site, in the right amount, and (2) get lots of links pointing to your site. Get friends with blogs to write about you, write high quality original content that other people will link to naturally, and consider contracting with a SEO (search engine optimization) professional.
We have been able to raise the traffic of some clients by over 400% in less than a year at great ROI. What is great about this traffic is that it is like in capital in the bank. AdWords, in contrast, shuts off as soon as you stop paying. We can setup a conference call to explore options & strategy - contact us for a free consultation.
» REVIEW GOOGLE ANALYTICS FREQUENTLY
Often you can find ways to improve site performance, increase visitorship, increase conversion rate, decrease bounce rate, or just know more about the way your site is being used. Jay would be happy to review your Google Analytics account with you, and its a good idea to do so every 1-2 months at a minimum.
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