There are many factors that influence the success of a site. The most important is the content. Top quality content can me even poorly designed sites beloved by visitors. Beyond that, though, there are technical issues that can influence search engine ratings of a site, things like security, speed performance, mobile friendliness and SEO. We just came across a website the offers a free evaluation of these four factors that affect both search engine ratings and the perception of individual visitors to the site. It’s called Website Grader and it’s a service provided by Hubsite. We tested... [...]

Our friends over at WebsiteBuilder.org sent us a cool and informative infographic to share with you. The information here can improve your email marketing success tremendously. With 119 facts, you’re sure to find something you don’t already know that will bump up your results. Click on the graphic to read their article and see their infographic.  [...]

ComScore has just released its latest statistics on top websites, based on number of monthly visits. The results are generally in line with our intuitive expectations, but there are a few surprises. The top 5 are: 1. Google sites, including YouTube, etc. (with nearly a quarter billion visits per month) 2, Facebook 3. Yahoo 4. Microsoft 5. Amazon AOL comes in at number 8, not as prominent a position as in its heyday, but still quite strong. LinkedIn (16) beats Twitter (18), which beats SnapChat (21), which beats Pinterest (23). You will recognize most of the other top 50 site found in this list. You... [...]

Since 2004, Vstore.ca has been a host to free e-commerce stores for small businesses. These stores were supported by ads that Vstore placed on these e-commerce sites. They also offered premium versions of the stores that were ad-free. They offered a free auction service for the stores they hosted, as well. Offering a free service such as this isn’t a cost-free process; the servers and maintenance are expensive. The costs have to be covered by advertising or by upsells to a significant portion of the clients, or the service isn’t economically viable. Sadly, Vstores.CA has concluded that... [...]

Yesterday, the US Supreme Court affirmed Colorado’s right to require online merchants to collect sales tax from Colorado residents who buy from them. Until now, buying online from a merchant located in anther state has required the buyer to pay sales tax directly to the state, rather than requiring the merchant to collect tax, in behalf of the state. States prefer the latter because individual payments directly to the state are a “hit or miss” proposition. The state can more easily hold a merchant accountable than it can hold thousands of individuals accountable. If other states... [...]

Here are a few tips on building a business online. Many people try and fail. Maybe these will help you succeed. Be professional in all you do. You don’t want to make a quick buck; you want a long-term business. First, always take the high road. Sleazy marketing will bite you. It’s no way to build a real business. Second, carelessness in your work or lack of serious, concentrated action can kill an otherwise profitable business. Procrastination, at best, delays your success. And it can do more, killing your business completely. Understand the “landscape” 1. Know where... [...]

I recently received an email from a marketer with the subject line: Download Ten Kindle Courses With PLR For Free, Philip! (Worth $1,379) This sounded interesting. Even if I didn’t want to use the PLR, I might learn something about creating a Kindle book. So I opened the letter. This was one of those cases of “What the large print (in this case, the headline) giveth, the fine print taketh away.” The text of the email said that if you buy a particular product, then you could receive the “Ten Kindle Courses With PLR For Free”. So they were not actually free; they were... [...]

Microsoft is recommending that users of Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) (called Windows Defender on Windows 8) look elsewhere for their future antivirus needs. Originally, it was a top-tier antivirus product, but over time, Microsoft has reduced support for it and have said that they are providing all the virus information they find to 3rd-party antivirus software makers and are no longer seeking to be at the top of the heap. In fact, a Microsoft spokesperson, Holly Stewart, says it’s normal for MSE to be one of the least effective solutions, since by definition other vendors would take... [...]

You’ve hear the saying, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch”. That’s true online, too. (IM NewsWarch is still the exception.) Free services have bills to pay, just like everyone else. They will find a way to pay those bills; almost always from their users. One extreme example of this is the Hola service (http://hola.org), a proxy that anyone can use at no charge. Wonderful;right? Well, not necessarily. When you sign up for the service, you are agreeing to their terms and conditions and their privacy provisions. In the terms, they say that they can use your PC... [...]

If you are running an online company, it’s critical that you have a reliable computer. If your computer goes down and you can’t write or place ads, if you can’t respond to orders or inquiries, even if you can’t check your email, that’s a big setback. Some people treat their computers like they treat their cars, replacing parts whenever something breaks, and staying with what they have. Around here we keep ours 6-7 years. However, no matter how frequently you upgrade, eventually you must upgrade. Maybe you are at the place where you need a new computer. You want to... [...]