May 2009
Table of Contents
We want to know what you want to know! Email education@doba.com with your suggestions of what you want to see in future issues of the Doba eNewsletter.
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Featured Article: Building Site Visibility: The Basics |
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Marketplace Spotlight: Choosing What to Sell Where |
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Member Q&A: The 25 Cent tour of the Doba Settings Page |
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Supplier Information: New Suppliers Added to the Doba Product Catalog |
Featured Article: Building Site Visibility: The Basics
(Note: Jake Sabey, our email guy extraordinaire, recently sent me a series of questions that Doba members said they wanted to hear about in an email. A number of those questions revolved around website visibility and online marketing, and that’s where I come in.)
Building Site Visibility: The Basics
I’m going to answer two reader questions today about SEO (Search Engine Optimization, also known as the art of making your site visible on the internet). If there’s more you want to know, feel free to shoot us an email with your questions.
Susan asked about “the best way to market your online website and subdomain sites.” She also wanted to know if “placing links to your website helps with search engines.”
Before I answer your first question, Susan, let’s get a little bit of background.
The SEO Landscape
When it comes to online search, Google is the undisputed king, with Yahoo and MSN as distant but relevant competitors. Between them, these three search engines drive over 95% of all online search traffic in North America (81% from Google alone). Engines like AOL, Ask and AltaVista are left to fight with hundreds of other search engines for the Big Three’s table scraps.
What does this mean to you, the online business owner?
It means that there are only three search engines worth worrying about when it comes to your site’s visibility, and, of those three, Google is by far the most potent. While each engine has its own unique traits, there are far more similarities than differences in the way they find and index web pages across the net.
So, in answer to your question, Susan, the best way to market your website is to educate yourself on what makes Google, Yahoo and MSN tick. The fun part is implementing what you’ve learned directly into your websites and your online marketing efforts. If you can design and promote your site so that it is friendly to the Big Three, you’ll be rewarded with a steady stream of relevant traffic.
Do Links Help?
For this section, allow me to defer to Rand Fishkin, Founder and CEO of SEOmoz.org, a site dedicated to all things SEO. In his “Beginner’s Guide to SEO,” he had this to say about links and why they’re important:
The theory goes that if hundreds or thousands of other websites link to you, your site must be popular, and thus, have value. If those links come from very popular and important (and thus, trustworthy) websites, their power is multiplied to even greater degrees. Links from sites like NYTimes.com, Yale.edu, Whitehouse.gov, and others carry with them inherent trust that search engines then use to boost your ranking position. If, on the other hand, the links that point to you are from low-quality, interlinked sites or automated garbage domains (aka link farms), search engines have systems in place to discount the value of those links.
- The Anchor Text of Link - Anchor text describes the visible characters and words that hyperlink to another document or location on the web. For example, in the phrase "CNN is a good source of news, but I actually prefer the BBC's take on events," two unique pieces of anchor text exist - "CNN" is the anchor text pointing to http://www.cnn.com, while "the BBC's take on events" points to http://news.bbc.co.uk. Search engines use this text to help them determine the subject matter of the linked-to document. In the example above, the links would tell the search engine that when users search for "CNN", SEOmoz.org thinks that http://www.cnn.com is a relevant site for the term "CNN" and that http://news.bbc.co.uk is relevant to "the BBC's take on events". If hundreds or thousands of sites think that a particular page is relevant for a given set of terms, that page can manage to rank well even if the terms NEVER appear in the text itself (for example, see the BBC's explanation of why Google ranks certain pages for the term "Miserable Failure").
- Global Popularity of the Site - More popular sites, as denoted by the number and power of the links pointing to them, provide more powerful links. Thus, while a link from SEOmoz may be a valuable vote for a site, a link from bbc.co.uk or cnn.com carries far more weight. This is one area where PageRank (assuming it was accurate) could be a good measure, as it's designed to calculate global popularity.
- Popularity of Site in Relevant Communities - In the example above, the weight or power of a site's vote is based on its raw popularity across the web. As search engines became more sophisticated and granular in their approach to link data, they acknowledged the existence of "topical communities"; sites on the same subject that often interlink with one another, referencing documents and providing unique data on a particular topic. Sites in these communities provide more value when they link to a site/page on a relevant subject rather than a site that is largely irrelevant to their topic.
- Text Directly Surrounding the Link - Search engines have been noted to weight the text directly surrounding a link with greater important and relevant than the other text on the page. Thus, a link from inside an on-topic paragraph may carry greater weight than a link in the sidebar or footer.
- Subject Matter of the Linking Page - The topical relationship between the subject of a given page and the sites/pages linked to on it may also factor into the value a search engine assigns to that link. Thus, it will be more valuable to have links from pages that are related to the site/page's subject matter than those that have little to do with the topic.
These are only a few of the many factors search engines measure and weigh when evaluating links. For a more complete list, see SEOmoz's search engine ranking factors article.
Conclusion
In my humble opinion, Susan, the best thing that you could be doing with your marketing time and effort is making your website more visible to Google, Yahoo, and MSN. If done well, this kind of SEO optimization will generate free residual traffic that is already searching for exactly what you sell. One of the most effective ways to make your site more valid and popular in the eyes of the search engines is by generating links according to some of the guidelines Rand pointed out (thanks, Rand).
While there are certainly many more areas you can explore in marketing your site (PPC, Directory Listings, etc.), this is certainly a good start. We can discuss some of the others in future emails.
Happy marketing.
About the Author:
Jimmy Dunn is the Online Marketing Manager at Doba. Before Doba, Jimmy was the Marketing and Business Development Manager for Sewell Direct. His expertise in SEO, PPC and onsite optimization along with a disconcerting love for Excel and data visualization make him the life of every party he’s ever attended. Jimmy graduated from BYU with a degree in English.
Partner Highlight
ProStores, an eBay company, enables small- and medium-sized businesses to sell products and services online through a completely customizable virtual storefront at their own internet domain, accelerating the growth and profitability of their overall business and extending their brand online. Use Doba's Push to MarketPlace tool to push Doba products directly into your ProStores webstore. Free one month trial!
Marketplace Spotlight: Choosing What to Sell Where
By Jeff Knight, Vice President of Marketplace - Doba
I am frequently asked if I have any suggestions on getting started on Doba. What items would I start looking at? How would I compete? Where would I sell? There are a bunch of different questions but they all revolve around what products would I pick and how would I sell (or merchandise) the items. Ironically, the choice of products depends largely on the choice of marketplace (eBay, Amazon, Craig’s List, personal website, etc) and my commitment or available resources for selling the item. In my opinion, the merchandising strategy dictates the products I would source to sell – not the inverse. This month, I want to explore a few quick and easy suggestions to illustrate this point.
First, the choice of sales channel is important. Selling on eBay if drastically different then trying to establish your own web store. For one, eBay buyers are deal or product focused shoppers. While successful eBay sellers do enjoy repeat business or need to consider customer retention – the auction (or listing), by definition focuses the shopper on a single transaction. The eBay seller has to be much more mindful of selling price and terms of the transaction then their retailer counterpart. It doesn’t mean that the web retailer doesn’t need to concern themselves with price – I am simply saying that the consumer has an easy means of viewing all items in a list – sorted by price (or time, location etc) that allows them to compare ‘like’ listings simultaneously on eBay. The positive is that it is much easier to drive traffic (buyers) to a listing then it is to acquire web traffic to your website – or at least less expensive for immediate sales. The downside is that you pay the same costs to acquire the next sale as you did for your first – whereas with a retail store (ignoring differences in overhead), it is possible to retain a customer for future transactions without paying additional acquisition costs.
For any strategy, after I have determined my sales channels; I would move to considering my demographic and the demographic I am comfortable in portraying externally to customers. Whether creating an eBay profile or hiring a professional creative team to market a website – it is important to spend time on your external image or ‘story’. People buy from people. If all aspects are equal or competitively comparable – a consumer will always choose a reseller they can identify with or trust. Trust can mean keeping your feedback score spotless, a membership with BBB, or a simple paragraph identifying you as a real person, selling real items for a real reason (yeah, really). If I chose to sell high-end, modern furniture – I would make sure my layouts and verbiage were very concrete, simple, detail rich with very little personal or antidotal marketing. If I was trying to sell tents and hiking gear – I may include images of me hiking through the Wind Rivers in Wyoming to help sell the story. If I were selling on eBay to earn some extra money to take my boys to Disneyland every summer, I would discuss my favorite parts of exploring the Magic Kingdom with my sons. The stories or images don’t necessarily have to be ‘you’ or even true per se – but a word of warning, make sure you are comfortable with the story whatever it is because people can sniff out a poseur easily.
Next, whatever products I choose to sell – I would ‘touch’ them as much as possible. There are two points here. Whether I have a warehouse full of an item or I am drop shipping directly a manufacturer of Doba – I would treat the copy and images from Doba as the minimum starting point. I would always add, subtract, and standardize the copy to fit my needs. If I am selling a commodity item (like consumer electronics); I may choose to make every product I sell share the exact same format, e.g. short description followed by specifications (always listed in same order), followed by my personal notes/thoughts on the item. If I were selling a lot of a particular item on eBay, I would order a sample, spread it out on my kitchen counter and take some candid, non-professional pictures. I would add my ‘real’ pictures to the canned manufacturer images included from Doba or from their site.
Second, when I mentioned earlier that my choice of strategy and resources dictated the item choice – I also meant that the time I would invest into selling the product would never exceed the return for selling the product. I wouldn’t spend several hours writing copy on an iPod or xBox but I might spend a few hours explaining every last feature of an ergonomic desk chair. The return on selling the product is not always the margin you made on the individual sale but also the investment into your future retail efforts. Spending time up front on a customer service and return policy – could save you on the backend and potentially save a future sale. The important point is that you need to invest time, resources and consideration into the sales process to make it work. While it may seem difficult or time consuming at first – you will quickly find it will not only get easier but pay off in sales.
About the Author:
As the Vice President of Marketplace, Jeff Knight is responsible for all aspects of the merchandising strategy, supplier acquisition, and vertical category management and fulfillment operations of Doba's marketplace. Prior to Doba, Jeff was Director of Merchandising for Overstock.com where he developed the growth and management of the Computer and Home Office category. Jeff's background includes merchandising and technology leadership roles at DealDeal.com and BCI International. He earned Bachelor and Masters of Arts degrees in Communication from the University of Wyoming.
Partner Highlight
3XP Websolutions
3XP Web Solutions gives you everything you need to start an online business in one complete and easy system, including a web store and a merchant account so you can accept credit cards. Best of all it is seamlessly integrated with the Doba product catalog! Also included are traffic analysis tools, search engine submission, domain name registration, multi-tiered affiliate program, and more. Click here to view 3XP's special offer for Doba members!
Member Q&A: The 25 Cent Tour of Doba's Settings Page
By Kay Russon - Doba
A highly ignored area of the Doba website is the Settings page. Yet, it plays a very important part of your membership. Let’s take a quick tour of the Settings page to help you monitor, understand, and get the most out of your Doba account.
Settings Homepage
To get to the Settings Page, click the "Settings" icon at the top of any Doba.com page. Clicking on it will take you to the Summary (or "My Account" page). Here you will find everything about your Doba membership from personal information to account details, and billing profiles to email preferences. This information can be helpful for business purposes outside of Doba as well. For example, if you need copies of your billing statements for tax purposes, they are all available in the account details section.
Personal Information Profile
From the Personal Information profile page you see your name, username, email, and more. Clicking "Edit" will allow you to change any of your personal information such as phone number, address, or your username. It is here that you would change or reset your password as well. The retailer ID is Doba specific, and used by some of our partners to link your account with your web page.
Below the Login & Contact Information is the Personal Plan Information. This contains questions requesting information about you and your background. Although optional, this information helps us customize email and education content to best benefit your business needs. Later, we will explain how to select what emails you receive from Doba.
Account Details
This section is a very important one. It shows the account type, billing date and the amount it will bill. It also show which Doba Membership package you have, and a description of what is included. You may also upgrade or downgrade your package from here.
Billing Profiles
This area all billing details. Here you can mange the credit card you have on file both for your account and orders. You may have a different card for each. This is also where you can edit an existing card to change the billing address or expiration date. Make sure that you click submit to save any changes your have made.
The second area is the billing invoices. This will give you an accounting of all charges and promotions or changes to your billing since you joined until the present. It is here where you would print past billing statements for your yearly income tax.
Hint: The easiest way is to highlight the information you want and copy to a Word or text document, then print them from there.
If you have signed up for Doba PrePay, this area will contain all the information about your PrePay account. You may add funds to your account, see any pending deposits, and review all of your payment history.
Email Preferences
Here you can select which type of emails you wish to receive from us. Selecting a subject will put you on the email list for that particular item. For example, if you wish to receive this newsletter, select the E-newsletter in the News and Updates section. If you want notification about your orders, such as tracking information, make sure you check the appropriate box under Order Notice. This will keep you informed and up to date about your orders and RMA’s.
By understanding the Settings page of Doba's website you can manage your account, get and set billing information, and receive the your desired emails.
Want to Hear from You! Want to see your question featured in the eNewsletter Member Q&A? Well we want to hear from you! Please email education@doba.com if you have any non-account related questions or topics you would like us to write about. If you have questions concerning your Doba account, such as billing, product or order questions, please search our knowledgebase site content or contact our Customer Support.
About the Author:
Kay “Papa” Russon is an eBay Certified Consultant, Customer Service Team Lead, and technical liaison for Doba. His knowledge, experience, and expertise assist retailers daily in running a successful online business. Before Doba, Kay was a team leader, supervisor, trainer and manager for World Support, Digital Equipment Corp., Digital Remote, SBC, AT&T, Macromedia, Sun Microsystems, and Motorola and served in the Army National Guard.
Partner Highlight
e-OnlineData
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Supplier Information: New Suppliers Added to the Doba Product Catalog
Starting an online business is relatively easy. Making it a success takes hard work and the right mix of products. To help you achieve your business-related goals, we recently added new wholesale suppliers and manufacturer to the Doba Catalog:
Farina - Our goal is to service not only our current business customers, but to allow the consumer to purchase directly from the manufacturing source. This allows our customers to obtain the highest quality products at prices significantly lower than they can be found through other channels.
Ferrum - Located in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, Consumer Genetics was established by a team of scientists to take advantage of new findings which relate directly to people’s lives. Our goal is to bridge the gap between science and ordinary people and to take these new discoveries directly to consumers in the privacy of their homes. The company's flagship product, the Pink or Blue Early Gender Test, has helped over 6,000 women find out "It's a boy!" or "It's a girl!" early in the pregnancy.
Wildspitze - R&E Enterprises LLC specializes in the business of rust removal. We sell a wide variety of products that remove rust from all different kinds of metals. We have been in business for over 5-years now, providing excellence in removing rust. We also offer hard to find unique car parts that will make your car one to envy.
Strahlhorn - Body Works Dance & Fitness, LLC. (mYoga) is the manufacturer and distributor of organic and eco-friendly yoga/pilates supplies and accessories. We provide everything from yoga mats to foam blocks, straps, bolsters, clothing and more.
Traunstein - Founded in 2001, the TOOBEEZ name means "tubes + easy". We are a small American company located in Pennsylvania.
Olala - Getting there start as a weaving webbing manufacturer, Orbitel International has groomed itself into an industry leader, with over 30 years experience in manufacturing quality pet and garment accessories. Later they entered into manufacturing paper products which allowed them to expand the business and enter into the party favor industry. With manufacturing plants in Taiwan, China, Thailand, and Vietnam it allows the products to be distributed all across Asia, Europe and the United States. Some of the major clients include Petsmart, Hartz, TJ Maxx, American Leather, Carrefour, and others. Our US operations are headquartered in Las Vegas, NV.
Camic - We design and manufacture our animal-inspired products in Raleigh, NC. Our items are made of laser-engraved 1/8" oak. Our coasters and coaster sets have 1/4" full cork backs. Our products make great gifts for animal lovers.
Nadelhorn - A distributor of thousands of products for wholesale trade and Internet business to business discount buying.
Gran Combin - As a leading authentic corset provider, we deliver the right balance of style, quality and value for our customers. We stock very large selections designed by corsetieres from all around the world. We also carry wide range of corset sizes that fit waist size up to 46 inches.
Longspeak - Distributor of film memorabilia.
Lincoln - They are Back! Distributor of variety of wholesale goods- Light Bulk Packs.
Pierce - They are Back! Emerald Baby manufactures their own all-original lullaby CD and an exclusive design embroidered fleece baby blanket.
Bogart - Distributor of home entertainment products including DVDs, games, and audio books.