Every day I check out the 100s of subscriptions in my RSS feed about marketing, PR, advertising, branding, social media, and a host of other topics of interest to small businesses that sell online. Most of what gets posted isn’t earth shattering but I reserve Fridays for the best reads of the week. So here you have it, the most valuable things I read in the business blogosphere this week:

• Lose the Discounts – Get Elastic suggests that discounts are a tax on the uninteresting. While they may be a useful tool in a down economy, the article is an interesting read. Are you relying to heavily on discounts?
• SEO Consult says using color in your keywords is a great way to improve search engine optimization
• 5 Areas Businesses Overspend/Underspend
• Art Biz Blog’s thoughts on selling art in a bad economy.
• Very hand diagram explains which social media tools are best for different objectives
• 5 Easy Ways to Maximize Your Social Media Content
• Tips for Driving Targeted Twitter Traffic
• How often should I email my subscribers?
• 5 Web Design Concepts You Need to Know (even if you’re hiring a professional web designer)
• A Timeline for Getting Started on Twitter
• Product Packaging Tips for Flat Products (cards, paper, etc)

Google Products is a Google search tool that allows users to search for stuff to buy. Unlike regular Google search, you don’t get listed there just because you exist. You have to actually submit your product listings to Google Products. Is it worth your time/effort? In my experience yes. It’s driven considerable sales to my e-tail business with no cost or effort (once I set things up). That’s right, Google Products is FREE, it just requires a little technical know-how to get on there.

Below is a step by step of what’s involved:

1. Visit the merchant center.

If you already have an account: Go ahead and log in
If you don’t have an account: click the “create an account now” link, create your account and then log in.

2. Click Settings (left nav bar)

a. REQUIRED: Under “General” you’ll want to fill out all the required information about your online shop and then click save.

b. OPTIONAL: If you click FTP it will tell you you can use this area to copy a file from your computer to Google’s server. (Meaning the file with your product listings). This is one option for getting your product listings into Google Products although it’s not one I’ve messed with. If you want to go that route click their “Learn More” link for details.

c. OPTIONAL: Taxes and Shipping
You can use this section to enter details about your shipping methods and where you charge sales tax. This isn’t required information but you can fill it in if you want.

d. OPTIONAL: Adwords
This area lets you link  your Adwords account to your Google Products account. If you use Adwords and you want to connect it the process is pretty straightforward, you just enter your Adwords account number. If you don’t use Adwords, skip this.

e. OPTIONAL: Checkout
Only needed if you actually want to use Google Checkout, otherwise leave the Do No Use Checkout radio button checked. If you do want to use Google Checkout you’ll be able to use this screen to connect your Google Checkout to your Google Products

3. Click Data Feeds
This is where you’ll actually start uploading products.

a. Click New Data Feeds

i. Enter your target country, feed type (choose Googlebase unless you already have a feed set up for shopping.com or shopzilla, you probably don’t), and file name (this can be any name you want, like myproducts.txt). When you are done, click “Save Changes”

ii. You’ll now be on the Data Feeds dashboard and you have TWO options

FIRST:  Manual upload. This is best for people who aren’t very technology savvy. You create a feed file on your computer (see step 4) and you upload it. The good news is that this is super easy, the bad news is that Google Products listings expire after 30 days so you’ll need to upload a new file at least every 30 days. If you want to go this route you’d click manual upload, find the product feed file on your local computer and click upload and process.

SECOND:  Scheduled uploads. This is what I do and it’s more involved to set up but it also means I never have to log into or think about Google Products unless I want to. The short answer to how my set up works is this:

• I have all my products in a database (If you use Zencart or OScommerce or some other shopping cart software then you do too)
• I wrote a PHP/mysql script to query my database and grab all my products and put them in a text file formatted for Google Products
• I set up a cron job to run my script every week and refresh my text file.
• I then click “create” under upload schedule for my data feed, put in how often I want Google to check my text file and where Google can find it.

I realize to most of you that’s going to be some pretty confusing technical jargon. If that’s the case, stick to manual uploads for now or work with a web pro who can set your system up as I described above.

4. Create a Data Feed File
If you are going to do a scheduled upload, you’ll have your website create your data feed file for you. You’re probably pretty tech savvy if you are doing this and can find the specs on your file format here.

If you are doing a manual upload, you probably need to create your data file manually. You can review all the instructions on how to create data feed files here, but below are some CliffsNotes:

Open a new file in Notepad (or another text editor) and save the file as myproducts.txt (or whatever name you used from step 3 section a.i. for file name).

The first line of the file will have your headings for your feed. The ones I recommend are title, description, price, link, condition,id, image_link, and product_type. Each of these headings needs to be separated with a tab. You can use additional headings if you want. Check Google’s documentation to review all the options.

The second line will contain a product. You’ll enter the product’s name (tab) product’s description (tab), product’s price (tab), link to where the product can be purchased (tab) condition of product (tab) product id (tab), link to picture of product (tab) product type.

(Notes: link to where product can be purchased can’t be your main website, it has to be the product page. Condition of product is probably new unless you sell vintage items, in which case you can enter good or whatever you want. If you don’t use product ids just give each line a number like 1 2 3 etc. Product type suggestions can be found here, just scroll down.)

Click to see a picture of what your file will end up looking like.

Now you have your file ready for upload. You can upload it using the manual upload process described in step 3. As you have more products to sell, you’ll need to add them to your text file and re-upload them to Google. (Unless you’re using an automated system like mine.)

5. Analytics
Once your products are uploaded you’ll be able to click “My Products” and see all the active products you have and how many clicks and impressions they got. You’ll also be able to click “Data Quality” to find any problems in your feed. The performance report will summarize how your listings are performing overall. You can use the Analytics data to try to make tweaks to your listings and increase traffic and sales.

Hope this Google Products Tutorial helps some of you get started with Google Products. I realize this tutorial may have been a little confusing/technical so if you would like help setting up with Google Products I can be hired on a consulting basis to give you personalized help. Otherwise, you may be able to find answers to your questions on Google’s user forums or by doing a search for answers to your questions.

The subject of today’s post is a mantra uttered frequently by engineers (although it’s probably said by other types of professionals too). What it means is when planning a project, you can only have 2 of those 3 objectives met. If you want it fast, it’s either going to be expensive or the end result is going to suck. If you want a good end result you can either do it on the cheap and take your time or spend mad cash and have it tomorrow. You get the idea. This same principal applies to growing your business, especially when it comes to things like web design, marketing and PR.

If you want to make a big effective splash in a short frame of time be prepared to hire professionals, be prepared to spend on advertising. If you haven’t got much cash to spare be prepared to take your time and learn to do things the right away on your own or suffer the crappy consequences.

Below I’ve outlined a few popular strategies for growing your business and which virtue you’ll sacrifice to make use of them.

GOOD & CHEAP (not so fast)
- Building your own press list and individually querying each press contact
- Learning HTML and PHP and developing your own website
- Learning GIMP or Photoshop and editing your own product images
- Learning to implement your own search engine optimization
- Actively using your social media profiles regularly to engage customers
- Growing your own newsletter subscriber base and marketing to them

CHEAP & FAST (not very good)
- Posting a link to your shop on Craigs List
- Setting up social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc. and waiting for fans to connect with you
- Making a few 100 flyers to advertise your business and leaving the stack of them in a local cafe.
- Using a press list you found online and mass emailing all of the contacts with the same pitch.
- Scoring free business cards from Vista Print that come with Vista Print advertising on them.
- Spamming people with links to your shop, even if they have not opted into receiving a newsletter from you.

FAST & GOOD (not very cheap)
- Hiring a top notch PR firm that can deliver results (CAUTION: Read my post about how to go about this before you try it)
- Paying for online or print advertising
- Hiring an SEO consultant (This is fast’ish. SEO is never instantaneous but a pro will probably get results faster than a newbie)
- Hiring a photographer to shoot and edit your product photos
- Hiring a graphic designer to develop a brand identity package for you (business cards, logo, etc.)

In my personal opinion good shouldn’t really be up for debate. I am always willing to sacrifice either speed or cost to get good results.  Another thing to keep in mind is that the more emphasis you place on any one or two of these values, the more the less emphasized value(s) are going to suffer. Sometimes you may get away with being fast and good while still cutting a few cost-related corners, but the more you veer off into one of these objectives, the more the others are going to suffer.

1. Splash Pages
The more clicks you give the customer to deal with, the more of a chance you have to lose them. Don’t make visitors click through a splash page in order to get to the goods.

2. Inconsistent Navigation
A well designed website has a consistent navigation bar on every page of the website. The navigation is usually found on the top of the page or to the left.

Bonus Points: Make sure the names of the things on your navigation bar make sense to the visitor. Using obscure clever lingo to call out the pages on your site doesn’t help the customer understand where he or she can go on the site.

More Bonus Points: If you have a lot of second and third level pages use breadcrumbs to help the user navigate. A breadcrumb is a listing on the top of the page that shows the visitor how they got where they are and how to get back to where they started.

3. Flashing/Blinking Stuff
The blink tag is not your friend and animation should be used sparingly if at all. These moving objects distract the visitor and make it difficult to focus. If you are going to use animated elements, make sure they don’t flash too quickly.

4. Too much copy/hard to read copy
Going on for paragraphs about how your new collection of earrings was inspired by your day at the ocean while the wind tousled your hair will put customers to sleep. You want to keep your copy concise and punchy. Product features should be bulleted so they’re easy to skim. Make sure pages on your site are easily scanned so people can make sense of each page in a few seconds.

5. Hard-to-Find Contact Information
Don’t hide from your customers. If you don’t make your contact information easy to find it makes your site less trustworthy and reduces your chances of making a sale.

6. Disorganized FAQ
For starters, most of the FAQ items should already be answered on your site. FAQ should just be a place to reiterate information you already supplied where appropriate. For example, your sizing chart should be on your product pages. However, you can still include a note on your FAQ about where to find sizing charts, in case customers missed it on the product page.

Second, break up FAQ items into categories like shipping or returns, so customers can quickly find answers to their questions.  Put an FAQ table of contents on the top of your FAQ page and allow visitors to click headings to jump to the section that answers their questions.

7. Incomplete Product Details
Make sure your product description answers every question about your item. How does it fit, does it feel heavy, what is it made of, how do I care for it, is it suitable for children? (20 Questions Customers May Have)

8. Shopping carts that require registration
This is one of my biggest gripes about Etsy. If you have your own website, make sure you aren’t making this mistake. Don’t make customers sign in/sign up to give you money.

9. Pop Ups
Most browsers now block pop ups. If you’ve found some sneaky way to pop things up any way, you’re probably just being annoying. I understand that you want people to join your mailing list, fill out your survey or check out your clearance sale but find another way to make it happen. Pop ups are the hard sell and they’ll leave a bad taste in the customer’s mouth at best. At worst the customer will leave immediately.

(This is not to say you can’t have a photo enlarge feature that the customer clicks and pops open a large view. I am talking about things that pop up automatically trying to demand the viewer’s attention or trying to make them take an action.)

10. Unprofessional web design
Your web site is the face of your business. It’s probably the only face your customers will see. You want to look your best and you want a website that engenders trust so people will give you money. If you have a shabby looking website, that’s not going to happen. Spring for a professional designer if you don’t have sufficient web design skills. There are lots of web designers out there with affordable rates that specialize in working with small businesses. The money you’ll invest in their services will pay off in the long run with greater sales. Not to mention that a nice looking website makes it much easier to get press.

Image by Art Comments

Here and there you’ll see debate crop up about whether customers want to see human models on websites or in product photos. The naysayers will usually have a germaphobic argument about not wanting to buy something another human touched/wore/looked at/etc. There are definitely those people out there but it’s probably not most people. After all, most of us buy clothing in stores that’s been tried on by other customers, so we’re used to the idea that someone else may have had an item on before we purchase it.

If you sell something like earrings or underwear, it makes sense that customers might be wary of buying that type of item if it’s been worn. In those cases, you can still use a model, just be sure to indicate to customers that the item they’ll receive is not the exact item in the picture. (Chances are you won’t even have to make a note of that unless you sell on a site like Etsy. We all know when we shop on the Victoria’s Secret website that the underwear on the model is not the exact same item that we’ll get in the mail. Otherwise VS might have a very different kind of customer base.)

So why do I advocate for using human models? Two main reasons:

1. Scale and Fit
If I see a pair of dangling earrings sitting on a white background it may be hard to imagine how they’ll look on a person. Even if you tell me how many inches long they are, it helps to see the earrings in an ear so I instantly understand if they’ll dangle down to my shoulder or my jawline.

If I see a tote bag on a chair it might be hard to imagine if they bag is going to just hold a loaf of bread and a bag of oranges or if I can fit my entire haul from the farmer’s market in there. I can get a better sense if I see the bag slung over a human shoulder.

Clothing should be a no-brainer. Unless a model is wearing it, I can’t tell if the dress comes to just above the knee or all the way down to mid-calf. I can’t tell if the empire waist is fitted or loose. A mannequin might solve some of those problems but a mannequin probably can’t address point number 2, below, speaking of which…

2. Lifestyle/Relatablity
Human models help customers identify with your brand. A customer wants to feel like the product they’re buying is made for someone just like them. Stores like Talbots and Forever 21 might both sell plain white tank tops this summer, and if you saw them photographed on a mannequin they might be almost indistinguishable. We know those stores have radically different audiences, and part of the way they signal to consumers who they’re trying to woo is models.

If your target audience is a preppy looking, all-American, clean cut bunch use models that look like that. Pick models that are your customers’ age and share your customers’ style. If your brand is edgy and punky you might want models with blue hair and nose rings.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article on the importance of using visual cues to help increase your brand’s affinity with your target market. Your choice of models can be extremely helpful in this regard.

Also make sure that the models you choose have the same body type as your target audience. If you sell plus-sized items use plus-sized models. If you sell fitness items, use athletic models. If you sell maternity, make sure your models look pregnant. Even if you sell something like skin care items, incorporating a happy looking model in a bathtub into your web design can help sell the idea that your product is enjoyable.

So, all this talk of models might seem intimidating. How do you find them and get good shots of them? Here are a few places to look.

1. Friends and Family
Use friends and family ONLY IF they’d be an appropriate choice as models for your brand. If they would be, this can be a pretty inexpensive route to go.

2. Craigs List
You can find just about anything on Craigs List, including inexpensive models. You might not get professionals but you don’t necessarily need that. An aspiring model might be willing to work for a fairly low rate to help build her portfolio. If you aren’t confident in your photography skills, you might also find photo majors at your nearby university willing to do the work at a lower rate than a professional photographer. Keep in mind that you’ll get what you pay for so if you need things to be perfect, consider working with pros. If you’re willing to take a chance on people that are new to modeling or photography you can probably save some dough this way.

3. Stock Photography Websites
Sites like istockphoto.com have a large assortment of photos that you can use for product images or website design. If you need a picture of a baby in a generic looking bodysuit or a girl in a bathtub, this option may be your best bet. You probably will have to sift through a lot of images to find images you want to use, but if your needs are fairly generic this is definitely the cheapest and easiest way to get pictures of models.

Every day I check out the 100s of subscriptions in my RSS feed about marketing, PR, advertising, branding, social media, and a host of other topics of interest to small businesses that sell online. Most of what gets posted isn’t earth shattering but I reserve Fridays for the best reads of the week. So here you have it, the most valuable things I read in the business blogosphere this week:

• Creating Visual Consistency for Your Small Business – an excellent read about establishing a consistent visual look for your company. These tips are essential for building a brand.
• Running Giveaway Competitions for Links and SEO – an interesting take on leveraging the power of contests to build links to your site and help search engines notice it.
• Why Do you Have a Cheap Looking Website? – A short read that makes a valuable point. Your website is the face of your business and probably the only face most customers will see, this is why it’s so important to not skimp on web design.
• When Companies Should Avoid Public Apologies – Good guidelines on when not to apologize to customers publicly (or at all maybe). This article was inspired by the Kevin Smith vs Southwest Airlines battle that erupted over Twitter this past week.

When you ship merchandise from your e-tail website, there are certain things your package should contain, in addition to the actual merchandise of course.

1. Branded Invoice
Don’t simply print a receipt from Etsy or Paypal. Instead, design a professional, branded invoice with your logo and fonts. Include details such as date, billing address, contents of the package sent and their price.

Bonus Points: When customers place an order on my retail site, they can check a box to indicate that the order is a gift. When they do this, we mail a gift invoice instead of a regular invoice. Our gift invoice does not include any pricing information and includes a note from the sender. Implement a similar feature on your website so gift recipients get a special invoice with their order.

2. Return Information
On your invoice, or someplace else in the package, you should reiterate your return policy and return instructions.

3. Contact Information
Provide customers a way to get in touch in case there is something wrong with the order. Include your website URL, your contact email address and, if possible, a customer service phone number.

4. Swag
Provide a little something extra that will surprise your customer, preferably something they will keep, like a pen or magnet, although samples may make sense too if you sell edibles, cosmetics or bath/body goods. More on that topic here.

Bonus Points: Enclose a coupon for the customer’s next purchase.

Last month I wrote a post about my peeve with most indie biz blogs, they’re boring. Today I’m throwing out a few ideas for blog topics. Stuff that would be fun to write about and probably hold your customers’ attention.

1. Your favorite recipe
2. Your sources of creative inspiration/artists you like
3. Top Something List (comic strips, classic porn stars, travel destinations)
4. A tour of your hometown (best shops, restaurants, hotels, neighborhoods, etc.)
5. A photo tour of your house
6. Cute pictures of your pets
7. A How To (score points with the ladies, clean your entire house in under an hour, eat pizza without burning the roof of your mouth)
8. A funny conversation or experience you had
9. A cause you care about, how you got interested in it and how you support it
10. Something amusing you found on the internet

It’s very important to understand that your website and marketing efforts have to complement one another. Your marketing efforts are 100% wasted if your website is not up to par. Likewise your amazing looking website is going to go to waste if your marketing efforts suck. Your marketing efforts and your website are like the two wheels of a bicycle. If either the front or back tire is flat you aren’t going to go anywhere.

So if your sales aren’t where you think they should be, it’s important to figure out which wheel of your bicycle is busted.

Your Site Sucks
If you’re getting lots of traffic to your website or shop and not making any sales, there may be something wrong with your site. Some possible culprits:

• Your pages take forever to load
• You don’t have enough images
• Your site design is amateurish and doesn’t inspire customer confidence
• You don’t have a sizing chart
• You don’t have a return policy posted
• Your checkout process is long/difficult/requires users to create an account
• Your product photos are amateurish
• Your site navigation is confusing
• Your website copy sucks

It can be tough to be objective about your own website. If you can’t identify what’s wrong ask friends or family for their honest input. Ask your mom or another older relative to try to buy something on your website and see where in the process she seems to get confused. Hire someone with experience to give you advice about your website. Until you figure out what exactly is keeping most people from making a purchase, ease off on marketing and turn your attention to fixing your website.

Your Marketing Sucks
Maybe you’re getting almost no traffic to your site, or you’re getting traffic but it’s just not resulting in sales. Here are some possible causes:

• You aren’t targeting your advertising appropriately
• You aren’t using social media appropriately
• Your SEO sucks and search engines can’t find you
• You haven’t developed an appealing brand
• You suck at generating any publicity
• You aren’t generating valuable publicity
• You are misusing your Adwords account
• Your ad design sucks
• You’re not using a newsletter or your newsletter isn’t very good

Pinning down the flaws in your marketing plan can be challenging. It’s mostly the kind of thing you get better at with experience. You’re already well on your way by following Smaller Box for tips, and hopefully you’re reading some other good marketing publications too. Other things you can do include bouncing marketing ideas off of friends or fellow business owners or hiring help to get advice. Bad marketing can get expensive quickly (either monetarily or time-wise), so it’s important to identify black holes in your marketing efforts.

Every day I check out the 100s of subscriptions in my RSS feed about marketing, PR, advertising, branding, social media, and a host of other topics of interest to small businesses that sell online. Most of what gets posted isn’t earth shattering but I reserve Fridays for the best reads of the week. So here you have it, the most valuable things I read in the business blogosphere this week:

• Scoutiegirl Suggests that Comments are the Way to a Bloggers Heart
• PR Couture Reviews New Service For Finding Sales Reps
• How to Use Social Deals to Promote Sales
• 5 Common Shopping Cart Mistakes That Make Your Website Lose Money
• 5 Minute Fixes to Improve Your Website
• Can’t afford Photoshop? Here are some web-based alternatives
• 7 Fixes for Your Terrible Email Subject Lines
• This Is Why Social Media Isn’t Working for You
• The Motherlode of Info on Establishing Wholesale Terms and Policies