I’m glad to announce that we’re launching a new ecommerce site today, www.PetPetSupplies.com, which will focus on selling pet supplies and related products.

This is our company’s 4th ecommerce site and we’re going to launch another one next week and at least two more at Febuary 2008. Needless to say, we’re really pumped and excited to see how well these new sites will do.

So if you are a pet lover, go check it out and give me your thoughts; and if you’re not, that’s ok too, just tell your pet loving friends about it, or you can even blog about it or link to it from your website. Anything is welcomed!

Technorati Tags: Pet Supplies, Online Pet Store, discount pet products,

Google Checkout has launched for over a year and if you look at the marketplace right now, even though they had made a huge effort in promoting it (free processing, gift certificates…), the adoption of Google checkout is still not as prevalent as they (or I) want it to be.

How do I know it is not doing too hot? Just do some random searches on Google and you’ll see that not many advertisers have the Google Checkout badge next to their ad.

Here’re couple suggestions as to what Google checkout needs to do in order to give Paypal a run for their money:

1. Get on eBay

eBay being the biggest auction marketplace website in the world. It is a huge disadvantage to not be able to be used on eBay. Now, this is easier said than done of course, because eBay owns Paypal, which is Checkout’s biggest competitor. But is it possible to assert some pressure on eBay with the Adwords thing?

2. Get on Yahoo Store

Yahoo store is probably the biggest ecommerce platform online. If Checkout can do a join venture with Yahoo store just like what Paypal did, a lot more Yahoo merchants are going to adopt it. I know for a fact that many Yahoo store merchants want to take Google Checkout but don’t know where to get it integrated. (btw, it can be done) The main problem Yahoo store has with Google checkout is the TOS of Google checkout requires the checkout button to occur BEFORE the cart, which then violates the TOS of Yahoo store. Seems like for this to happen, some compromise has to be reached.

3. More benefits for Adwords Advertiser

Instead of giving free processing for the amount merchants advertise on Adwords, how about giving free adwords for the amount merchants process through Google Checkout? If Google checkout does that, I can see merchants pushing Google Checkout REALLY hard.

4. Buy Bill Me Later

Bill Me Later is one of the most widely adopted and fastest growing alternative payment method on the market. Google, you guys have so much money and have invested so much on Checkout already. Why not buy Bill Me Later? If you can buy it and somehow integrate the 2. The potential is unlimited.

I’m really tired of seeing Paypal dominating the online payment processing game, and I do believe Checkout is a superior product to Paypal. So guys at Checkout, please see if these suggestions are feasible for you.

Technorati Tags: Google checkout, Paypal, ecommerce,

One of our site WholesaleCollegeTextbooks.com just got a new look! It lays out the foundation of the changes we are going to implement on it in the next couple months - changing it from a regular ecommerce site to a shopping comparison engine specifically for college students.

So please go check it out and let me know what you think about the design!

Technorati Tags: textbooks, WholesaleCollegeTextbooks.com, comparison shopping engine, ecommerce consultant,

Yahoo Search Engine has just launched a series of new changes to its search function. The most notable change to it is the addition of Yahoo! Search Assist.

Quoting from Yahoo:

Most of you have already seen the real-time query suggestions we launched on Yahoo.com in July. Yahoo! Search Assist kicks it up a notch, bringing those suggestions to the search results page, along with related concepts that give users a point-and-click query refinement capability that enables them to explore a subject area they may be unfamiliar with.

One thing you’ll find when you use our new search experience is that Search Assist “automagically” drops down from the search box on the results page when it senses that you’re having difficulty formulating a query. But it only shows up when you need it or ask for it. It then offers real-time suggestions and concepts to explore, just like on Yahoo.com. We did this to avoid a common complaint about assistance technologies offered by other search engines — the “persistent assistance” that puts suggestions on the page regardless of whether a user wants or needs them.

Yahoo have been testing Search Assist over the past few months and they have seen significant improvements in user satisfaction from those tests. One metric we found was a 61% increase in successful task completion when users had Search Assist as part of their search experience.

I see these changes as positive for Yahoo and definitely closes the gap in terms of its usability with Google. It seems to me that Yahoo is taking a different route from Google by launching this search assist. What Google is trying to do is to understand searching behavior and come up with the suggestions themselves, where here Yahoo is trying to rely on the user to further refine the search results. This is certainly interesting to see how it pans out as to which model do searchers prefer and see if Google really has the ability to UNDERSTAND completely searching behavior and provide accurate suggestions.

Technorati Tags: Yahoo, Google, search engine, yahoo search, SEO,

Two of my Paypal accounts recently get limited due to some disputes on the charges. After trying to resolve the problems and restore the account status, I received an email from Paypal which says:

Title: Limited Account Access Appeal Denied

Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department

Now mind you that I did have a substantial amount of money in the Paypal account, so I was worrying that it would take 180 days to get my money back. And also, some part of my business relies heavily on using Paypal to receive payments.

Instead of panicking too much, I called Paypal and politely asked what the reason was (because it wasn’t said in the email), and they told me that it is because of some recent disputes and chargebacks. They then told me if I want to get my account restored, I should email appeal@paypal.com and resolution@paypal.com and tell them why I should have my account restored and how I would change to eliminate previous problems.

I did exactly that and in about 1 week, I got another email saying that my Paypal account is restored.

The moral of this story is, before you give up, try contact the people in charge, ask them what happened and try to resolve the problems. Hope this will help.

Technorati Tags: eBay, Paypal, ecommerce, payment processing, internet marketing,

Besides being an ecommerce entrepreneur, I sometimes provide consultation for business friends for their internet marketing like SEO and Google adwords management.

One of the first questions I get the most is - do I need an Adwords consultant?

The answer is yes.

Many business owners with a new online presence thought Google adwords is simply straight forward bidding on some keywords, writting some ads, and put it on Google. This cannot be farther away from the truth.

The truth is, a successful Google Adwords campaign require detail research of prospects’ search behavior, careful planning of adgroups, thorough copywriting of ads, choosing of landing page and conversion funnel, plus ongoing monitoring and split testing.

I recommend that if you’re serious about expanding your online business or using internet marketing to grow your company - go get an Adwords Consultant and outsource your PPC!

(Am I taking on new client? Not really at the moment, but you can email me to see when I’ll be available.)

Technorati Tags: Google, PPC, adwords consultant, adwords, internet marketing, adwords consultant

Ok here’s a breaking news, I just found out from my adwords account that Google is changing its formula for top a placement on adwords. Here’re the details from Google:

In the coming weeks, we’re improving how high quality ads are selected for top positions above Google search results. This change is designed to improve the quality of our ad results, and to give you more control over achieving top ad placement.

We anticipate that most of your ads will continue to perform as they have in the past. In some cases, you may see that ads previously shown alongside search results are now shown in top spots, and vice versa. As a result, you may see a change in the average number of clicks and average CPCs for impacted ads.

I think this is a great move by Google and will further ensure higher quality ads to achieve the top placement. The problem, however is, do you REALLY want top placement - which typically attracts tons of low quality click?

Let me know what you think about this new change in the comment section!

Technorati Tags: Google, PPC, adwords, internet marketing, adwords consultant

One of the first thing new online business owners consider is how to get traffic. So they spend all their time reading about SEO, PPC, email marketing, banner ads… spend resource implementing what they learned - and then to find out they’re not making enough money from all the traffic they got.

Now what?

As important as traffic is to an online business, the ability to monetize those traffic is an even more important skill to possess. Monetizing your website traffic is not JUST about increasing your conversion rate by split testing and website redesign. Its about engaging with your visitors, find out what they’re REALLY looking for, and providing it to them.

For example, one of our ecommerce site www.wholesalecollegetextbooks.com recently experienced a 200% increase in net profit overnight just because I thought of a way to monetize lost traffic. Realizing that many visitors exit our website because they cannot find the book they need - instead of showing “no results” when visitors search for a book we do not have, we show them results from Amazon and redirect them so we monetize through Amazon’s affiliate program.

This is just one of MANY possible ways to enhance the monetization of your visitors. Remember, online profit is a formula of traffic*conversion*monetization - while traffic and conversion can be improved through repetitive work such as link building and split testing - monetization requires paying attention to what your customer want and creatively providing them with that.

Be creative.

Technorati Tags: Amazon, ecommerce, monetization, Amazon affiliate program, Affiliate marketing

My textbooks company was recently a victim of a credit card fraud, causing us to lose around $4000 USD. It is somewhat typical, someone bought a whole bunch of textbooks from our site, and then suddenly email us to have the address change to Niger, Africa. It is quite obvious that it is a fraud, but my staff who processed the order was inexperienced and shipped out the books - causing us to lose $4000.

To make matter worse, we initially send them an invoice through Google checkout and Google cancelled the transaction because it is associated with “suspicious activity”; so my staff send the scammers an invoice through Paypal AND it went through!

You would think if Google checkout can detect a fraud, paypal should be able to - but NO!!

Not only was Paypal not able to detect the fraud, after we lost the chargeback, we even have to pay ANOTHER fee to compensate for the loss of chargeback!

Lets see how Google checkout is BETTER than Paypal:

1. Fraud Detection

How does Google Checkout protect me from fraud?

Chargeback resolution
All merchants are covered by our Chargeback Resolution Policy: our specialists will evaluate all chargebacks you receive through Google Checkout and, whenever possible, dispute them on your behalf. As an additional benefit under our Chargeback Resolution Policy, we also guarantee payment for all transactions that are eligible for Google’s Payment Guarantee Policy: If you receive a chargeback on an eligible transaction and provide Google with sufficient supporting documentation within ten business days after receiving a request from Google, Google will reimburse you within a week of receiving and reviewing the information.

Paypal? None of these stuff.

2. Chargeback Protection

The Payment Guarantee Policy is an unique benefit under the Chargeback Resolution Policy that offers you even more protection from unwarranted chargebacks. Here’s how it works:

Paypal? None of these stuff.

Conclusion? Google checkout is WAY cooler than Paypal.

Technorati Tags: Google, ecommerce, paypal, Google checkout

Here’s the latest blog post on the Google Adwords Blog, announcing the global expanstion of PPA Beta.

In March, we launched the pay-per-action (PPA) beta in the United States. Today, we’re pleased to announce the worldwide expansion of the PPA beta. Here’s a note from Rob Kniaz, the product manager for PPA:

PPA ads will appear on publisher sites in the Google content network. Publishers are free to choose the PPA ads most relevant to their site and run them in new ad units.

I have been using PPA since it launched for one of my lead generation site and has generated pretty good results, how would it expanstion affect YOUR business. Leave us a comment and let us know!

Technorati Tags: Google, ecommerce, pay-per-action, PPA, Google adwords