December 2008 StoresOnline Merchant Newsletter

Greetings from Robert Schow, VP of Customer Operations

Happy Holidays from StoresOnline Customer Support. This season can be an exciting time for you as an online entrepreneur. As shoppers search frantically for the perfect gift, your store can be a source of holiday cheer. This month we will be discussing the importance of Meta tags and how to implement them in your site.

What are Meta Tags?

“What are meta tags?” is one of the most frequently asked questions regarding search engine optimization (SEO). Simply put, Meta tags provide information about a given webpage, most often to help search engines categorize it correctly. To better understand what Meta tags are, consider the meaning of the word "Meta.” The definition of Meta is something that refers to itself. An example of this meaning would be a movie-within-a-movie. Also consider the following description contained within Merchant Services. In public speaking, the speaker may get up in front of the audience and say, "Today I am going to speak to you about…" This would be considered Meta discourse, or in other words, dialogue specifying to the listeners what the speaker will be telling them.

Similarly, the development and implementation of Meta tags in your website can be tremendously beneficial in communicating to your audience. In the case of your website, your audience is search engines. The purpose of the tags is to inform the search engines the information that a given page contains. How well Meta information is written and presented will affect your search engine ranking.

Keep in mind that Meta tags are decreasing in importance. However, contrary to some recent reports, it is still crucial that meta tags be in place, correct, and complete for your site to be successfully ranked by search engines.

Which types of Meta Tags are important to include in my Website?

There are three main kinds of Meta tags that you will want to include in your site. Each Tag is described below:

1. Title Tag - This is the most important tag when it comes to the search engines. Your Title meta tag should be between 8-12 words and contain keywords throughout. In the search engine results, these Title tags will appear in the “blue” heading above a result.


2. Description Tag – This tag allows you to establish the description of a page for search engines. Your description should be between 20-30 words in length and should contain keywords throughout. In a search engine inquiry, the description tag will appear in black writing just below the title.


3. Keywords Tag - The Meta Keywords tag provides search engines with additional keywords to which a given page may be relevant. The Meta Keywords tag should be no more than 10-12 different keywords or keyword phrases relevant to that given page. Each keyword should be separated by a comma and a space. The Meta Keywords tag is sometimes useful as a means to reinforce the keywords that relate to a page. Remember that not all search engines use this tag in elevating a page’s listing. However, it is still important to include this tag, as some search engines still use the Meta Keywords tag as a determining factor in a page’s placement in their rankings.

• Remember, meta tags will not be visible by your customers or those using your site (except for the Meta title which is visible in the browser’s title bar).

How do I create Meta Tags for my website?

Once you understand the purpose of meta tags, implementing them is relatively easy. Follow the steps below to ensure that your Meta tags are implemented correctly.

1. Title Tag


1. Click on the Pages menu.


2. Select the page to which you want to add the Meta Title Tag, and then click the Edit button at the bottom of the page. This action will open the Page Edit page (eventually, you will create a Meta Title tag for every page).


3. Type your Meta Title tag definition in the Meta Title textbox (the information you add here will be visible to everyone that comes to your website, and will be shown above in the blue bar in the Window Browser at the top of your screen).


2. Description Tag


1. Click on the Pages menu.


2. Select the page to which you want to add the Description Meta Tag. This action will open the Page Edit page (eventually, you will create a Description Meta Tag for every page).


3. Click on the Meta submenu on the right side. This action will open the Page Meta page.


4. If there is not a value for description, click Add in the bottom left corner of the page. If there is a value for Description, click on it once and click Edit to proceed to step “F” (make sure the drop-down menu reads Name).


5. Enter "Description" in the Name field.


6. Enter your actual description (20-30 words in length) in the Value field. The text that defines your description is entered in the Value field.


3. Keywords Tag


1. Click on the Pages menu.


2. Select the page to which you want to add the Meta Keywords tag, and then click the Edit button at the bottom of the page. This action will open the Page Edit page (eventually, you will create a Meta Keywords tag for every page).


3. Click on the Meta submenu on the right side. This action will open the Page Meta page.


4. If there is not a value named Keywords, Click Add in the bottom left corner of the page. If there is a name for Keywords, click on it once and click Edit to proceed to step “F” (make sure the drop-down menu reads Name).


5. Enter "Keywords" in the Name field.


6. Enter your actual keywords (10-12 words in length) in the Value field.
   
   

Customer Support Holiday Schedule

Chat Support
Christmas
Closing midnight MST Dec. 23rd
Re-opening 6am MST Dec. 26th

New Years
Closing midnight MST Dec. 30th
Re-opening 6am MST Jan. 1st

Phone Support
Christmas
No phone support Dec 24-26

New Years
No phone support Jan 1

StoresOnline University Training Set

StoresOnline’s most comprehensive DVD training set, StoresOnline University, is more than 14 hours of detailed training to assist you with each part of the process to establish your eCommerce websites. Our experienced and successful trainers and support staff walk you through 7 stages of development to make the most of your websites as you research your ideas.

Call 1-800-491-1408 or visit www.storesonlinespecialtraining.com/university for more information

New StoresOnline Pro Features

Product and Product List Message Elements: You now have the option of adding product or product list elements to your customer email messages. This feature gives you the ability to link to your products directly in your customer emails.

Coming Soon: New video tutorials on Relevancy Search Engine Optimization, Finding a Drop-Shipper, and The Reverse Search Tool.

Storesonline Marketing Webinar Series

Starting with an Introductory Webinar, StoresOnline has created a structured timeline of testing and marketing strategies to streamline your efforts with your websites.

These training Webinars are designed to continue and expand your knowledge base in order to optimize the time and effort you spend with your website package investment. StoresOnline is confident that this will help to increase your marketing success.

Call 1-800-716-9332 or visit www.storesonlinemarketing.com for more information

Featured Testimonial

"I love this business I'm running now, because I have flexibility and I'm in control, and I don't have to go out looking for jobs and I don't have to stick to 9:00 to 5:00 and I could have more time with my daughter."

Lilly Gery
www.easyfuntoys.com
Click Here to read Lilly's story

Our customer service and programming departments are committed to providing the best possible service to our merchants by listening and responding to their needs. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for our customer service department, you may visit us at www.myquickresponse.com for 24/7 Customer Support Live Chat. You may also call 801-434-8582.

As always, we are grateful to have you on board as a merchant with StoresOnline! See you next month!

Robert Schow
VP of Customer Operations
StoresOnline, Inc.

November 2008 StoresOnline Merchant Newsletter

Greetings from Robert Schow, VP of Customer Operations

The holiday season can be a great opportunity for online entrepreneurs. There are several promotions that you can use during the holidays, including general discounts, free shipping, or specific sales on holiday-themed products. You probably already use several of these promotional techniques. However, using holiday-themed promotions lets you associate your product with the total holiday experience. We at StoresOnline wish you success with this year’s holiday traffic.

Drop-Shipping

Drop-shipping is a great way to sell your products online. What is Drop-shipping? Drop-shipping is the process by which a retailer can sell products online without keeping any goods in stock. The customer’s order and shipment details are forwarded to the manufacturer or supplier, who then ships the goods directly to the customer. As a retailer, your profit is the difference between your cost and the retail price. Drop-shipping can help keep your overhead low and your profits high. Better yet, taking advantage of a drop-shipper can save time and reduce stress, which will allow you more time to market your website an attract new customers.

There are two methods of drop-shipping: blind and regular. With blind drop-shipping, your drop-shipper will use your label and/or shipping information, so that the customer believes the product is being shipped directly from you. With regular drop-shipping, your customers will receive their product from the manufacturer without a change in the label or packaging. Be sure to clarify what type of drop-shipper you have partnered with in order to provide the highest level of service for your customers.

One of the main benefits of utilizing a drop-shipper is being free from the burdens of holding inventory and shipping product. However, there are other potential negative aspects of drop-shipping to be aware of. Because the product is not physically available, you may not always have current information about stock levels or quality control. You will not have control over the shipment process, so be sure that you choose a reliable drop-shipper. Be sure that your customers have the correct return information. This is especially important if you are not using a blind drop-shipper.

If you decide that drop-shipping is a good way for you to simplify your business, there are many ways to find a reliable drop-shipper. Don’t feel obligated to limit yourself to one drop-shipper. Having back-up suppliers is a good idea to ensure that you always have products available for your customers. Here are just a few ideas to get you started:

• After selecting a product that you would like to sell, research the manufacturers and suppliers online. Often you can find information on product packaging to help you start your search. Contact the company in which you are interested, and inquire about having them drop-ship their products for you. Depending on the size of the company or type of product, they may decline. Do not get discouraged! Ask them for their distributors, and inquire down the line until you find someone who is willing to drop-ship. Remember to have confidence when contacting potential business partners. Researching information about their company and online sales will give them confidence in your abilities. For additional assistance, see the sample inquiry e-mail in merchant services for ideas on how to approach potential suppliers.


• Also, consider contacting the owners or buying agents of local brick and mortar stores that already carry products that are of interest to you. Again, do not get discouraged if they do not accept. Small business owners or manufacturers of unique products may not be familiar with the term drop-shipping. Explain the process and the benefits for both parties. Finding a good drop-shipper can take time, but it will be worth your effort.


• Another way to find drop-shippers is to use an online search engine, such as Google or Yahoo. Simple searches can produce exceptional results. Remember to use both broad and specific searches. For example, searching the phrase “men’s watch” and then “Rolex Oyster Perpetual Yacht-Master” will yield very different results! In addition, using different words like dropshipper, drop shipper (mind the space), manufacturer, or supplier will produce different search results. This process will give you more options to choose from and a variety of companies to contact.


• If you do not have a specific product in mind, consider attending a trade show or subscribing to a trade magazine. By doing either of these, you make yourself available to companies looking for ways to expose their company name and products. Contact your local exposition center and check websites like http://www.tsnn.com/ for upcoming events.


• Always remember that when contacting drop-shippers by phone, e-mail or in person, you are attempting to forge a professional business relationship. Tell them your name, your company name, and where you found their information. Explain that you are interested in selling their products on your website, and ask what information they need from you to get started. Consider having a “starter” site completed with your basic company information. With the Avail247 communication package, you can provide your domain-branded e-mail and toll-free phone and fax numbers, all while keeping your personal information safe and secure. A well-built quicksite will establish a level of professionalism that will translate to your retail website.

The process of finding drop-shippers will get easier as you become more comfortable with contacting new people and offering your services. Above all, remember to not get discouraged, as this process can take time! As you build a positive track record, more opportunities will be available to you. In time, you may also be able to develop relationships with suppliers that were previously unwilling to do business with you, and secure better terms for your business.

If you need additional help in finding a drop-shipper, remember to search “dropshipper” in merchant services for more information. Your StoresOnline customer service representatives are more than happy to help you with any part of this process. Good luck!

Holiday Suggestions

Remember with the holidays coming up to be sure to test your website to make sure everything is properly connected and set up. Testing would include making sure your ordering rules are configured the way you want them to be, charging the amounts that would best suit your business, and making sure you have your credit card processor connected properly. If you have any questions on how to do this, please be sure to contact Customer Support at 801-434-8582.
Be sure to activate your account for the upcoming holiday season so that you may be able to take orders and suggestions through your toll-free phone/fax number and email. Remember, the toll-free number is only available in the US. To activate your Avail account, be sure to visit us at www.myavail247.com. You can receive a discount code from a Customer Service Representative by calling us at 801-234-5982.

Customer Support Holiday Schedule

Chat Support
Thanksgiving
Closing midnight MST Nov. 26th
Re-opening 5am MST Nov. 28th

Christmas
Closing midnight MST Dec. 23rd
Re-opening 6am MST Dec. 26th

New Years
Closing midnight MST Dec. 30th
Re-opening 6am MST Jan. 1st

Phone Support
Thanksgiving
No phone support Nov 27-28

Christmas
No phone support Dec 24-26

New Years
No phone support Jan 1

StoresOnline University Training Set

StoresOnline’s most comprehensive DVD training set, StoresOnline University, is more than 14 hours of detailed training to assist you with each part of the process to establish your eCommerce websites. Our experienced and successful trainers and support staff walk you through 7 stages of development to make the most of your websites as you research your ideas.

Call toll-free 1-800-491-1408 for more information

New StoresOnline Pro Features

Product and Product List Message Elements: You now have the option of adding product or product list elements to your customer email messages. This feature gives you the ability to link to your products directly in your customer emails.

New Tutorials: The Relevancy Search Engine Optimization article has been updated in Merchant Services. The article contains time-tested optimization techniques as well as a new step-by-step tutorial on optimizing your site.

Coming Soon: Video tutorials on Relevancy Search Engine Optimization, Finding a Drop-Shipper, and The Reverse Search Tool.

Storesonline Marketing Webinar Series

Starting with an Introductory Webinar, StoresOnline has created a structured timeline of testing and marketing strategies to streamline your efforts with your websites.

These training Webinars are designed to continue and expand your knowledge base in order to optimize the time and effort you spend with your website package investment. StoresOnline is confident that this will help to increase your marketing success.

Call toll-free 1-800-716-9332 or visit www.storesonlinemarketing.com for more information

Featured Testimonial

"With the StoresOnline Program, everything is right here...you can make the change, and five minutes later, that change is online. You don't have to wait for programmers and you don't have to wait for somebody else to approve what you've submitted to them."

James Wall
http://www.smokinjoejones.com/

Our customer service and programming departments are committed to providing the best possible service to our merchants by listening and responding to their needs. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for our customer service department, you may visit us at www.myquickresponse.com for 24/7 Customer Support Live Chat. You may also call 801-434-8582.

As always, we are grateful to have you on board as a merchant with StoresOnline! See you next month!

Robert Schow
VP of Customer Operations
StoresOnline, Inc.

July 2008 StoresOnline Merchant Newsletter

Greetings from Robert Schow, VP of Customer Relations

The summer months are upon us, and with the heat come new and exciting opportunities for our merchants to increase their site-building knowledge. In this newsletter we will discuss a free merchant webinar that we will be hosting on July 17, 2008 at 3 PM MST.

Merchant Webinar
Do you feel as if you don't have all the answers you need all at once? Or feel as if you have great information at your hands but need some kind of interaction, or someone to talk to?

What is a webinar you might ask? If one were to look on the internet for the definition it would tell you a webinar is short for Web-based seminar, a presentation, lecture, workshop or seminar that is transmitted over the Web.

Benefits of a Webinar

• A key feature of a Webinar is its interactive elements -- the ability to give, receive and discuss information. Contrast with Webcast, in which the data transmission is one way and does not allow interaction between the presenter and the audience.
  
• Participants are able to interact with the instructor(s) and ask questions and get answers in real time that pertain to the topic in discussion.
  
• Webinars offer a convenience to the participant and a low cost level if any at all (FREE), depending on the business decision of course.
  
• These types of online courses have a higher impact than being able to take what you have in the help button, merchant services, and even the Getting Started Packet simply reading this material.
  
• No travel is required.

Attending a webinar is like attending any seminar apart from the place where the event takes place. Instead of meeting in a conference room you meet in a virtual conference room on the web. Joining a meeting does not take long and is relatively fast and easy.

With the way technology is today and the added convenience Webinars bring to any given company for further instruction of a certain discussion or topic, Stores Online is proud to announce our first Customer Support Webinar which will be held on July 17, 2008 live at 3 PM MST, and we invite all active merchants that wish to receive further enlightenment in setting up your own personal websites.

Our topic of discussion will be in regards to setting up your own Ordering Rules which if you are familiar with, will calculate the shipping costs of your orders which you ship out to your consumers that visit and purchase from your website. We will have some of the best instructors in this given area of discussion.

Again we invite you to join us on July 17, 2008 at 3 PM MST live where we will discuss with you Ordering Rules and then open the last few minutes to Questions and Answers.

Check http://www.storesonline.comfor a link to the webinar.

New StoresOnline Pro Features

New Design: Cologne and Nouveau are now available in StoresOnline Pro. Check them out by clicking on the Site tab.

Default Categories: You can now turn on and off the default category using the Set Default and Remove Default buttons. Selecting a Default Category can save you time while adding new products to your website. For example, if you know that the next 20 products that you add are going to be in your “Summer Collection” category, select that as the default category. As you add these 20 products, you won’t need manually assign each product to the “Summer Collection” category, it will be done automatically. Then, when you start adding products that belong in another category, you can switch the default category to that one. If you are adding a variety of products that are all in different categories, then you might want to click the Remove Default button so that you can assign them to their correct category one by one.

New Tutorials: There are two new tutorials available in Merchant Services: Anchor Text Linking and Pay Per Post Advertising. These are both brand new optimization and marketing techniques that are proving to be quite affective.

Introducing the Avail 24/7 Communication System from StoresOnline. Make Your Small Business Look, Sound, and Feel Like a Big Business! Get your own Toll Free Number now by calling customer support at 801-434-8582. Manage your account online and view your voicemail, email and faxes in one location.

_____________________________________________________________

Featured Testimonial

Gerald worked with 164 people in his company-all who dreamed of striking out on their own some day. Proudly, Gerald proclaims, "Everyone I worked with kept talking about doing it, and talking about doing it, and talking about doing it. So I went out and did it. And they are still talking."

Karen West and her son, Raymond
www.kozykomfortbykaren.com
Click Here to read their story

_____________________________________________________________

Our customer service and programming departments are committed to providing the best possible service to our merchants by listening and responding to their needs. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for our customer service department, you may visit us at www.myquickresponse.com for 24/7 Customer Support Live Chat. You may also call 801-434-8582.

As always, we are grateful to have you on board as a merchant with StoresOnline! See you next month!

Robert Schow
VP of Customer Relations
StoresOnline, Inc.

June 2008 StoresOnline Merchant Newsletter

Greetings from Robert Schow, VP of Customer Relations
The summer months are upon us, and hopefully the heat stokes your entreprenurial engines. Get ready to hit June hard by making a strong statement with your site design. In this newsletter we will discuss how to design a website that makes the right statement and ensures your customers that their experience with your busoness will be worthwhile.

Design to the Point
Your website is the only salesman for your business that your customers will ever meet. It is your showroom, your brochure, your customer service department and the nice person behind your checkout counter. In short it is the entire customer experience rolled into one package. With that in mind you should be aware of the importance of properly designing your website.

Many people build websites to suit their personal tastes. They include their favorite colors and pictures, and they make it a very enjoyable experience for themselves. But is that the point of an eCommerce site? eCommerce has one point, and that is to sell a product or service.

Remember the point of your website and you will design a website that can succeed.

Discussion
Your website has a very simple job, to sell your product. Your Home Page is designed to welcome visitors and assure them that they have found exactly what they are looking for. Your Contact Us page is designed to reassure visitors that if there is a problem, you can be easily reached for help. Your About Us page is designed to assure potential customers that you are a company run by real people that they can trust. Your information pages help the customer make the decision to buy, and your Product pages are designed with just one goal, to get visitors to click the “Add to Cart” button, turning them into customers.

Application
As you design each section or each page, go through the following list and make sure that, whenever possible, what you are doing meets the outlined requirements.

Content
Is the content of your site accurate, up to date, relevant and useful?
There may be plenty of other sites with identical content. Make sure your site has information for your customers that they can trust. Make your site a resource to them by including addition information beyond making a purchase. Most buyers visit a site at least four times before they buy anything. A site that has useful information will be visited frequently, and if return visitors already trust your site, they will be ready to buy from you when the time comes.

On the other hand if your site has old news or yesterday’s model how does that look to visitors? Who would take the chance of buying from a poorly maintained website?

Is your site unique?
Remember this can be a help or a hindrance to your website. You want to be unique and memorable without being unusual or strange.

Technical Questions

• Does each page load in a few seconds when accessed from a dial-up connection? If your Home page has large graphics you may lose impatient visitors.


• Does everything function properly?


• Are there any broken images?


• Are there any links on your site that lead to a page that cannot be displayed or that cause any other errors?


• Does the ordering process function properly when used with systems running on all platforms?


• Does the ordering process work with all products and payment and shipping options?


• Does your site fit on a screen 800 pixels wide?

Nothing will tarnish your credibility like a broken site.

Marketing Questions

Your page must tell each visitor:

• WHO you are.


• WHAT you sell.


• HOW MUCH the product costs.


• WHY someone should purchase the product.


• WHY someone should purchase the product from you.


• WHY someone should purchase the product now.


• HOW to obtain the product.

Does your page look professional?
Run a spell check on every line of your site. Mistakes are not the message you want to send to your visitors.

Is the header and navigation bar consistent throughout your site?
Many visitors will enter your site from pages other than your home page. Make sure they can find their way around.

Does your page elicit a want or a need from your visitors and does it show them how your product can solve it?
People don’t buy cars because they want cars. They buy cars because they want to go places, sit in luxury and look cool. Sell the experience and then offer the solution.

Does the text on your page take longer than a few seconds to read?
Often, people skim content rather than read it. Most of us read the bold type whenever we can and web surfers are no exception. If your webpage contains as much information as a page from a book, then how much of it is actually being read?

If so break it up with bold subheadings like this one.
Long passages of text are often necessary to say all that needs to be said. However, remember that people shopping on the Internet are often pressed for time and have numerous other sites trying to sell them the same thing. Say what you need to say in as few words as possible.

Bulleted lists have several benefits:

• They make key points more memorable.


• They show your selling points to those of us who are :


• Too lazy to read the whole page.


• In a hurry.


• In the habit of reading the bold type only.

Does your page have large graphics?
Large graphics or too many graphics distract your readers from the message you are trying to get across. Some graphics are necessary and can be a very effective tool in selling but keep in mind that people seldom buy anything based solely on the images they see. Images may get your customer's attention, but they will buy based on the printed word.

Use images to punctuate and enforce the information on the page. A picture may be worth a thousand words but have you ever bought anything based on just a picture?

Does your page focus on selling to the right group?

People who view your site can be divided into three groups:

1) Those who have already decided to buy your product.
2) Those who have decided not to buy.
3) Those who have not yet decided.

The first group is nice but they don’t require any selling, just a working website. The second group will not be moved but only visit the site to browse. The third group is the only one on whom you can hope to have any effect whatsoever.

Focus your efforts on turning the “undecided” visitors into customers. Otherwise, you are not making the best use of your website.

Common Mistakes in Website Design

Unclear text - The information on your website is useless if customers can’t read it. While small fonts, fancy or unusual typefaces might look nice to your eyes, many visitors have different screen resolutions, color settings and might be using browsers that do not support your typeface. Stick to dark text on white or light backgrounds, and use standard typefaces like Ariel, Times or Courier.

Hard to find Links - Create links that are clearly links. Links are the key to any webpage; do not make it difficult for your visitors to find what you are trying to show them.

Incompatibility - Microsoft Internet Explorer, or “IE”, is still the most common browser in use today, so it makes sense to design your pages to work in that environment. A few years ago 95% of all Internet traffic was using IE, but that number is dropping steadily. It is more important than ever to test your site using Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Netscape Navigator as well as many other browsers.

Forms - Simplify the forms you need and remove any unnecessary forms. A website should not be like a trip to the DMV. You need a secure order form that contains all the required information needed to process the order. A contact form is a must for permission marketing, but it should be as simple as possible, containing name and email only.

Horizontal scrolling - Page widths must be limited to avoid the need to scroll horizontally. Scrolling down is not an issue, but keep in mind the "above the fold part of the page" rule. Get your visitors' attention with the first thing they see, and they will gladly scroll down to see what else you have to say.

Flash and Script - Flash is great, but until everyone has super fast broadband every flash animation breaks the first website rule of avoiding long loading time. Flash increases your loading times by 30 seconds on a fast connection and several minutes on dial-up, which many of your visitors still use.

Scripts can be useful and generally don’t take too long to load, but they frequently fail to work properly. If you want to use scripts, make sure you know what you are doing and test your pages using systems running on all platforms before you go live.

If your site is designed as a showcase for your technical expertise, then design it that way. If it is designed to sell products, then limit your efforts to things that promote that goal.

Pop-Ups - Users almost universally hate pop-up windows. They are not only an annoyance but many feel they are an invasion of privacy. Pop-ups may also make your visitors fear for their safety, because pop-ups can carry spyware and even viruses. Most of your visitors probably employ pop-up blockers, so your work will be wasted anyway.

Lastly remember to listen to the experts. Look closely and frequently at other sites and see what they are doing. If you see a good idea, use it on your site.

Summary
You have invested time and money into your business. You have researched and selected a product, secured a supplier and soon will begin marketing your site in earnest to bring traffic to your site. All of this will be wasted if your site isn’t designed to sell. It’s not a difficult concept. Your website sells a product and if you make that your goal and test it frequently, you will turn traffic into sales. How quickly and efficiently you do that will determine how much profit you turn, as well as how soon you will see it.

Designing your site to sell is critical to success. Keep testing and improving your site and you will be on your way to a successful Internet business.

While searching for a supplier and setting up your business, we recommend Avail as well, it will give you the professional appearance without the cost.

Managing communications with your clients is the core of your business. Avail is the professional, easy to use, affordable communication solution that will give you control over your phone, fax, and email systems, all from the convenience of your computer.


Call customer support to activate your account today 801-434-8582

Use Avail to Manage Your Phone Calls:

Avail works together with your existing phone and phone line. No special equipment is needed. Login to your account online to update and maintain your menus, greetings, teams, and employees. Avail gives you the ability to see a list of all calls, answered or unanswered and to listen to your voicemail.

Use Avail to Manage Your Faxes:

When you work with Avail software, you do not need a fax machine to receive faxes. Avail receives your faxes as email attachments in the same place that you read your emails and listen to voicemail. Your account comes with a toll free fax number making it convenient for local and non-local customers to send faxes.

Use Avail to Manage Your Email:

With Avail, you can send and receive email from the same inbox that you listen to voicemail and view faxes. Avail allows you to use all the standard email features plus the expanded functionality that comes from having your email, faxes, and voicemail managed from the same application.

Use Avail to Manage Your Contacts:

Customers contact you by phone, fax, and email daily. Establish long-term, profitable relations with your clients and obtain reoccurring business, then it is critical to ensure that your communication avenues are open and running very smoothly.

Avail will also help you by:

• Saving You Money: Avail eliminates the need for a fax machine and extra fax line


• Providing You Worldwide Access: Avail is web based, so you can retrieve messages and faxes from your email.


• Increasing Your Company’s Reliability: No more busy signals for clients or paper jammed fax machines. With Avail, you get your faxes, emails, and phone calls and messages organized in one place.
  
  Call customer support to activate your account today 801-434-8582

As a reminder, Imergent Financial Services in conjunction with Home Savings of America is offering merchant discounts on home mortgages. Whether you are purchasing a home or refinancing your home, we are a great resource for you to find affordable financing solutions. Call us anytime for a free consultation at 866.918.8866.

Also, stay tuned for our Financial Advocate Network Release in July. Included is a suite of financial products and services that are available to Merchants at significant discounts. Our financial dashboard tool “ABOUND” will also be a key part of the release that will enable individuals to run a free financial fitness evaluation, optimize their finances, accelerate the payoff of their debts and mortgages with the revolutionary software, and improve cash flow. Feel free to check out the website at www.financialadvocatenetwork.com.

Featured Testimonial
“I can be teaching in my classroom and when I go home and check my website, I can have $2,000 worth of sales that I didn’t have to do anything to get, once the website was built. You go out shopping, spending money, and you come home and you see that money has been replaced because people have being purchasing from you.”

Karla with a K
www.proclubgear.com
Click Here to read Karla's story >>

Our customer service and programming departments are committed to providing the best possible service to our merchants by listening and responding to their needs.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for our customer service department, you may visit us at http://support.myquickresponse.com/ for 24/7 Customer Support Live Chat. You may also call 801-434-8582.

As always, we are grateful to have you on board as a merchant with StoresOnline! See you next month!

Robert Schow
VP of Customer Relations
StoresOnline, Inc.

Handle Complaints and Keep Customers - wikiHow

Handle Complaints and Keep Customers - wikiHow

May 2008 StoresOnline Merchant Newsletter

Greetings from Robert Schow, VP of Customer Relations

IMPORTANT NOTE: Phone support will be closed on Monday May 26th in observance of the Memorial Day holiday. Chat and e-mail support will still be available on May 26th.

It is May! Wow, seems like we were just in January yesterday. Hopefully all of you are doing fantastic on your websites. Last month we learned about Inbound Links. This month we will broaden our horizons by learning about Social Networking.

Social Networking via Blogs
Promoting anything online boils down to one thing: getting links. You submit articles to either A) get quality inbound links, or B) get your link in front of your (human) target market. You exchange links for the same reason - for traffic and search engine benefits. You pay for advertising so that you can put your links in front of people who are searching for products/information you offer on your site.

But with a blog, it comes much easier - and for the most part, naturally. You’ll find that you get a large number of unsolicited natural links, and that those links will be posted in places that get seen by a large number of potential visitors and readers.

Why is this? The blogosphere is made up of information hubs, grouped by topic and style by both individual readers and authority sites, which creates a natural breeding ground for super-networking between information publishers.

This group, as a whole, links very freely to sources that relate to their own - or, simply put, to ‘bloggers that they like’. In the end this creates an entire network of related information for each niche, and even micro-niche, within the blogosphere.

Don’t set out to be “The Lone Blogger”!

Previous teachings may have left you thinking that “linking out” is a bad thing. You may leak “Page Rank”. Or worse, lose your visitors by sending them to someone else’s link. But when it comes to blogging, you will actually increase your readership dramatically by getting involved… and by linking out freely.

Here are 7 ways that you can get involved:

1) First and foremost, if you are currently using Blogger.com – you may want to try using a WordPress blog on your own domain. There are other solutions out there (such as type pad, for example), but you’ll find WordPress super easy to use and an endless source of help and information on it across the web. This is important, because WordPress has TONS of ‘perks’ to blogging that you won’t find elsewhere.

2) Second and equally important, if you have a “splog” (a “spam blog”), it’s time to trade that in and start publishing quality content. In order to truly do well with a blog long-term, you need to post useful information on a particular topic on a frequent basis.

3) Having your personal style shine through in your posts is a big plus. Even if you’re quirky, because your readers love ‘real’ and that’s why they’ll keep coming back. The winning combination in your actual writing is: Quality Content + Personal Style. You might be funny, geeky, outrageous, dry - whatever. But this tends to be a big ‘attraction factor’ with blogs.

4) Make use of your Blogroll and link out to related blogs, or blogs that you frequent yourself. Wordpress has a feature that will automatically alert the bloggers that you link to, and most of them will check out your site - and add you to their blogroll if they like what they see.

5) Include Tags in each of your posts. Try using the plug-in here: http://www.broobles.com/scripts/simpletags/, which allows you to include tags at the end of each individual post. This is VERY easy to do - not as complicated as it sounds. Simply put the code at the bottom of each of your posts with relevant words that pertain to that post.

Once you publish your post, check out the hyperlinked tags at the bottom. Click on each one and you will see a listing at Technorati of posts on other blogs that are also tagged for that particular word. Check those out, and if they are interesting and related… leave a comment! When you are given the option to put in your URL, link back to your individual blog post on the same topic (not your “home page”).

6) Frequent blogs that you like, or that are on similar topics as your own, by subscribing to them through a feed reader. Check ‘your favorites’ no less than once a week, and post comments on any interesting new posts you find there. You can find active, popular blogs on just about any topic in some of the major blog directories.

7) When you find posts of particular interest (while going through the steps above), mention them in your own blog posts. In WordPress, when you link out to an individual blog post on another blog, it shows up in the comments section of that post as a “trackback”. It’s automatic, and it’s that simple: you link to a post and an excerpt from YOUR post shows up in their comments.

When their regular visitors and new readers are finished reading the article, they will notice your excerpt and link at the bottom. Many of those readers will click through to see your comments on this post, or to continue their research of the topic. It’s a great “traffic sharing” method - highly encouraged in the blogosphere!

As you get more involved, and become ‘known’ in your particular niche, you will find that others link as freely to you as you are linking out… which improves your overall exposure, your readership, and your search engine rankings.

What kind of results can you expect?
Try tracking your results. The goal is to see the number of unique visitors and an increase to the number of inbound links showing up daily!

iMergent Inc., parent company of StoresOnline, launched our mortgage and financial services division November 17, 2007 under a Federal Bank Charter Home Savings of America. This new division will continue the tradition of outstanding customer service and innovation that you have come to depend on from StoresOnline. The timing is great as fixed rates are near historic lows-15 Year fixed rate is available today of 5.125%!! iMergent Financial Services is currently able to provide residential and commercial real estate lending, credit enhancement services, and equipment leasing. Make sure to check out future additions of the newsletter for more details on each of these exciting new services.

Product Spotlight: Prime rate is now 5.0% and just recently we have seen a rally in Mortgage Bonds. What does this mean? 30 year mortgage rates have dipped down again. Currently a 30% fixed mortgage is available at 5.625%--Don't hesitate to call us for a FREE, NO OBLIGATION RATE QUOTE. We also offer FHA financing which enables customers to refinance for cashout to 95% of the homes value.

Our financial specialists are standing by to help you with any of your financial needs.
Call: 866.918.8866 OR Email: contact@imergentfinancialservices.com

We are happy to announce that you can now get your logo designed directly through us. We are pleased to offer this new service to you in addition to our websites.

We want to help you attract the right customers for your business. First and foremost, your logo should look great and serve a functional purpose. A quality logo design should be distinctive, polished and memorable.

Average Competitor's Basic Package: $300 - $600

StoresOnline Logos Basic Package: $185

Our designers are some of the industry's best! Giving you a quality logo is the most important thing to us. We will provide you with a variety of fresh, unique logo concepts, customized specifically for your business needs, while communicating with you throughout the process.

Example Logos: Let our work speak for itself. Below are some actual logos created by StoresOnline Logo

Get Your Logo Started Now! WWW.STORESONLINELOGO.COM

New StoresOnline Pro Features

Product Export: "Delete" and "Product URL" are new columns being added to the Product Export in pro for Tab and Excel formats.

The delete column will allow for a mass product delete. The Product URL column is the "Example URL" found in the product edit screen of the builder providing the full web path to the product.

Essence and Zepher Color Scheme: Essence and Zephyr both had their site elements color based on the primary color, when they should have been based on Link or Navigation. We have changed the color that the site elements are based on. In Essence they will be based on Link color and in Zephyr, the Navigation color.

Page Element: A new page element, Recently Viewed Products, has been added to Pro. The new element displays a list of products recently viewed by a site visitor. "Recently viewed" can be found under the Navigation group of elements to add to a page.

New Design: Cologne is now available. Please make sure that you check it out.

Avail: We have added an explicit column for sorting by first name and last name and added the labels back into the person edit screen.

New feature in the Store Builder: If you get an error at the top of the page and it is related to a field not being filled in or the data being invalid, the corresponding field will be highlighted and if you put your mouse over the highlighted field, it will give you the details of the error.

For example, if you add a Standard Product and instead of filling in the SKU and Product Name fields you hit the "Done" button, you will get 2 errors: "SKU is Required" and "Product Name is required". The SKU and Product Name fields will be highlighted. If you put your mouse of the highlighted field, it will show you the error for that field.

Introducing the Avail 24/7 Communication System from StoresOnline. Make Your Small Business Look, Sound, and Feel Like a Big Business! Get your own Toll Free Number now by calling customer support at 801-434-8582. Manage your account online and view your voicemail, email and faxes in one location. Talk to your customer support representative today!.

Featured Testimonial

"[My manager] just told me I was done...It devastated me. It turned me off on the corporate world and everything else. But now they're supplying my products...I think in the grand scheme of things, I think them letting me go was the best thing that ever happened to me."

Jerry Lillie
www.tanks-to-pans.com
www.yourautocoolingsource.com
Click Here to read Jerry's story >>

Our customer service and programming departments are committed to providing the best possible service to our merchants by listening and responding to their needs. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for our customer service department, you may visit us at www.myquickresponse.com for 24/7 Customer Support Live Chat. You may also call 801-434-8582.

As always, we are grateful to have you on board as a merchant with StoresOnline! See you next month!

Robert Schow

VP of Customer Relations
StoresOnline, Inc.