Posts Tagged ‘news’
Friday, May 8th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Let’s face it, consumers have cut back tremendously on their spending. Profits are down for many companies, and it doesn’t look like things are improving swiftly.
Unemployment is expected to keep increasing, even after the overall economy improves. We shouldn’t expect people to make a whole lot of purchases when they’re not sure if they’ll have enough income to pay for them.
Now is a good time to change our thinking on how to market to our customers.
I read an article on ZDNet, entitled “Forrester: e-commerce ‘better suited to withstand economic downturn’,” which gives some exciting information about the growth in the ecommerce industry, thanks, in part, to the economic downturn.
Ecommerce is a less-expensive way to do business because it doesn’t involve most of the usual costs of doing business in a mall or other shopping center. Plus, it’s cheaper to advertise online than in traditional media, as newspapers have painfully learned.
Most of their online spending is on email campaigns. Social media is also becoming a popular avenue for businesses, although search engine optimization is another way to reach targeted audiences. We had a seven-part series on search engine optimization that might be helpful in successfully implementing it on your website.
This topic is building on ideas I introduced back in March when I wrote back-to-back blog entries on the ecommerce industry: one about how retailers are investing in ecommerce and Web advertising, and the other on how consumers are spending more online.
In the second blog post, I pointed out that ecommerce sales will likely dip slightly in 2009 before increasing again in 2010. However, in the ZDNet article, the author says they might grow by 11 percent to $156.1 billion. Whichever study you look at, it appears ecommerce is outperforming nearly every other retail industry.
Profit attracts competition, so be mindful of how you enter into this market. Be sure to put your best foot forward by using eHarbor, Inc.’s affiliates to guide you through your website design and other important steps.
The photo of the water drop is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Gaetan Lee.
Tags: article, consumer, Ecommerce, economy, eHarbor, Forrester, humor, Media, news, positive, research, retail, search engine optimization, SEO
Posted in Ecommerce | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Technology might actually be a boon for traditional media providers, thanks to Amazon’s new version of Kindle, called Kindle DX.
If you read my blog posts on the New York Times and news media in general, you know that traditional news providers seem to be in trouble. Their revenue keeps falling, readership is mostly in decline, and other factors point to a shift in the way people gather news.
This Kindle development is a welcome bit of good news.
I read about Kindle in an article in Computer World, entitled “New Kindle creates new challenges for publishers.” This sounds quite exciting. The previous Kindle version had a six-inch display, but the new one will have a 9.7-inch display, making it easier to read books, newspapers, magazines and other content.
Instead of facing the problem of providing news free of charge, news publishers might actually be able to pull in decent revenue with portable devices like this. The New York Times has already been offering its content to Kindle readers for a monthly fee, but it is expected to lower that fee for the new version.
This is certainly a good opportunity for news publishers, but it comes with a few question marks. Since the technology is so new, it might be difficult to tell what price consumers are willing to pay. Also, news websites and blogs are still popular, and it might be difficult to persuade people to give up their free news sources for a portable, paid service. Cell phones can be used to read news articles, but they are much smaller, so maybe this is a viable option.
Amazon is the first to delve into this new industry, but there will surely be competitors soon, and that could also help news providers by giving them more avenues to sell their content through.
I’m glad to share this positive story. I might write a follow-up blog entry about the Kindle product after it debuts. We’ll wait and see. Stay tuned for more ecommerce stories like this in the eHarbor Blog.
The photo of Kindle and the New York Times is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of jocke66.
Tags: Amazon, article, Ecommerce, eHarbor, internet, Kindle, Media, new, new york times, news, online, positive, revenue, technology
Posted in Ecommerce, Media | 3 Comments »
Friday, April 24th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Two weeks ago I mentioned eHarbor, Inc. won its first game of the softball season in the Provo/Orem recreation league. On Wednesday, April 22, 2009 our team played its second game.
We were supposed to play our second game last Wednesday, but, amazingly, it snowed several inches and made the field unplayable. Snow in spring! Global warming, I guess.
Our softball team took the field Wednesday at 9:15 p.m. and kept swinging for the fence until we won 21-16. We’re now 2-0!
The game’s highlights included:
- Four eHarbor players batted 1.000.
- Two players hit home runs. Mike Sorenson, a Submit Solution representative, got an in-the-park home run, while Calvin Russell once again hit one into the parking lot.
Our team’s next game is scheduled for Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 6:15 p.m. Hopefully we won’t see any snow this time.
This is my 30th blog entry on the eHarbor Blog. We’ve come a long way in the past three months. I’ve been talking a lot recently about social media, news media companies like the New York Times and, of course, ecommerce. I thought I’d take a break from that hard and heavy stuff to talk about other things I find interesting – things that make me happy.
I hope you notice the tag logo we added to the eHarbor Blog. You can see it in the address window above. We made it using Favicon.
The photo of the baseball player swinging is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of AlphaTangoBravo / Adam Baker.
Tags: affiliate, baseball, company, eHarbor, flickr, Fun, game, news, orem, positive, provo, slogan, sport, Submit Solution, success, utah
Posted in Fun, eHarbor | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
By Robert Lockard
I read a Bloomberg article that said the New York Times is facing a large drop in revenue and is trying to cut back on its expenses to stay in business. The article is entitled, “New York Times Sees Further Ad Drop After Loss Widens.”
The New York Times is learning the hard way that ecommerce and online media are changing the way people gather information and the way marketers advertise their products to customers. They’re trying to stay afloat by cutting jobs, reducing their staff’s salaries and selling property and other assets to try to make up for lost advertising revenue.
All of this is prolonging the inevitable. Old media will have to adapt to changing conditions or go the way of the railroad.
For better or worse, Facebook, Twitter and other social-media sites are revolutionizing communication and information distribution. Marketers are shifting their advertising dollars online because it is much more cost-efficient to do so. Print faces serious challenges because of this.
One quote in the Bloomberg article stuck out to me above all the others. Thyra Zerhusen, managing director of Optimum Investment Advisors, said the New York Times has “to do a better job monetizing their online revenues.”
This seems to be a common theme for companies looking to make a profit online. Online marketers save money by hosting a website instead of renting space at a mall, but they need to understand doing business online is a big change from the old way of doing business and it requires different approaches to earning a profit.
I recommend going to Magellan Commerce’s redesigned website to find resources that can help you succeed online. These include search engine optimization, website design, and more.
You can also go to other eHarbor, Inc. affiliates: Submit Solution and Real Estate Promoter.
The photo of the tiger staying afloat is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of fPat.
Tags: advice, affiliate, article, Bloomberg, company, consumer, Ecommerce, eHarbor, facebook, flickr, future, internet, magellan commerce, marketing, Media, new york times, news, online, Real Estate Promoter, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Media, Submit Solution, twitter, web, website
Posted in Ecommerce, Media, eHarbor | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
The Internet has changed the way we do a lot of things. Ecommerce is changing the way we shop for goods and services. Online marketing is proving more popular to advertisers than other forms of media, especially in the current recession.
For better or worse, the Internet is changing the news media, as well.
It’s not easy being in the news business. They work hard to analyze stories and write up accurate and up-to-date information, only to have their work quickly summarized and modified for blogs, sometimes with little credit to the original author. There are even a few bloggers who point out all of the misspellings and bad grammar in otherwise good articles.
Often, bloggers practice fair use of copyrighted content by using only a small portion of an article and building their own ideas off of it. I did that with the story on consumers touching products.
Whenever I include an image, which is the property of someone else, I make sure to give credit where credit is due. You might notice my attribution at the bottom of almost every blog entry. I’ve done that from the very beginning.
We appear to be in an age when people like to think of information as free. That can be a good thing, but it can also lead to a lack of credible information in the long term, as news writers lose incentives to generate well-researched stories in the first place.
What inspired me to write about this topic is an article in Ars Technica, called “The newspaper industry’s attack on Google misses the point.” Fascinating read, by the way. I recommend it.
I thought this was an important topic to spend time discussing here in the eHarbor Blog. I hope to keep share more positive stories soon on eHarbor, Inc. and its affiliates: Magellan Commerce, Real Estate Promoter and Submit Solution.
The photo of the dilapidated Dallas Times Herald sign is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of adonis paul hunter / ahptical.
Tags: blog, change, Ecommerce, economy, eHarbor, future, google, growth, internet, magellan commerce, marketing, Media, news, online, Real Estate Promoter, search engine, Submit Solution, web
Posted in Ecommerce, Media | 6 Comments »
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Can’t touch this. No, not the M.C. Hammer song – actually, I’m referring to a flaw in the format of ecommerce. I recently read a Time Magazine article, entitled “Want to Save Some Money? Shop Without Touching.” In that article, they talk about a remarkable study from UCLA and the University of Wisconsin that shows that consumers who touch a product are much more likely to purchase the product and even want to pay more for it than if they don’t touch it.
“When you touch something, you instantly feel more of a connection to it,” said Suzanne Shu, who teaches at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and co-wrote the study. “That connection stirs up an emotional reaction – ‘yeah, I like the feel of it, this can be mine.’ And that emotion can cause you to buy something you never would have bought if you hadn’t touched it.” This quote is from the Time article.
How interesting. The Time article focuses on consumers, saying that they can potentially save money by keeping their hands to themselves at stores. While that is a good idea, and I intend to follow that advice, I think the results can send a completely different message to ecommerce marketers.
To me, this article brings up the problem that ecommerce is, by definition, online shopping. And the Internet is different than a mall. Therefore, online consumers, who are unable to touch products they see on websites, might be less able to connect with products and won’t necessarily be as interested in buying them. It’s much easier to shop around for the best deal online, also. It’s a competitive market online.
It is essential to get your name out there as much as possible while the recession continues and since you face this slight disadvantage. Even though potential customers can’t touch the products on your website, they can be impressed by your professional presentation, high placement on Google and other search engines, and the great content on your site that attracted them in the first place.
Ecommerce sales continue to grow, despite the recession, even while sales slow in traditional retail stores. Clearly, consumers are interested in shopping online, and the ability to touch products isn’t the most important part of the buying process.
If you would like to have a quality website, and utilize search engine optimization in your efforts to gain customers online, be sure to check out eHarbor, Inc.’s services.
You might also want to check out Magellan Commerce, which recently launched a redesign of its website. Other eHarbor affiliates include Real Estate Promoter and Submit Solution.
The photo of the Don’t Touch Me sign is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of F.S.M.
Tags: company, consumer, Ecommerce, google, internet, magellan commerce, marketing, Media, news, online, Real Estate Promoter, search engine optimization, SEO, study, Submit Solution, Time magazine, UCLA, web, website
Posted in Ecommerce, eHarbor | 6 Comments »
Monday, April 6th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
I get to fulfill my promise in my last blog post by writing about some of the great things happening at eHarbor, Inc. I’m excited!
Magellan Commerce, an eHarbor affiliate that was formed in May 2008, launched a completely redesigned and improved version of its website on Friday, April 3, 2009. It is quite an improvement, as you can see from the before-and-after screenshots below.
Original version of the Magellan Commerce website
New version of the Magellan Commerce website
Magellan Commerce designs websites, corporate logos, business cards, letterheads and postcards and more for businesses and individuals. They also help companies top search engines with search engine optimization.
Remember the SEO series we finished a little while ago? The tactics we discussed in that series, such as simplifying URLs, optimizing images and improving anchor text, are among those Magellan Commerce uses for its clients.
I recommend checking out the redesigned Magellan Commerce website for yourself today! Feel free to also visit other eHarbor affiliates, like Real Estate Promoter, Submit Solution and Direct Home Find.
I look forward to sharing more positive ecommerce news like this soon.
Tags: affiliate, company, Direct Home Find, Ecommerce, eHarbor, growth, internet, magellan commerce, new, news, online, positive, Real Estate Promoter, redesign, search engine optimization, SEO, Submit Solution, update, website
Posted in Ecommerce, SEO, eHarbor | 7 Comments »
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
By Robert Lockard
So far, it appears the Conficker C virus is not doing much damage, as many had predicted it would. The Washington Post published a satiric blog post on April 1, entitled “Conficker Worm Strike Reports Start Rolling In,” describing all of the damage being done by the virus. Then, at the end, the author included a note saying, “Just kidding - April fools!”
This keeps happening: the Cold War, Comet Hale-Bopp, Y2K – all of these events were supposed to bring about the end of the world, or at least a fundamental change in it. But they failed to live up to expectations. The world hardly changed at all as a result of these events. Yes, I know the Soviet Union fell apart at the end of the Cold War, and that was a pretty big change. But look at Russia today and you’ll see they haven’t really changed that much. President Obama just met with the Russian president to talk about nuclear disarmament. Sound familiar?
Pranks like Conficker C, which don’t deliver on their promises, might actually do a great deal of damage by leading people to lower their guard or simply not care about actual crises that come later on. I never try to fake people out so I can laugh at them and say, “Made you look!” because that damages credibility and makes people constantly on edge and less eager to trust others. That’s not what I want.
This discussion reminds me: Last week, eHarbor, Inc. treated its employees to a showing of the movie “Knowing.” The movie had a lot of good moments, and I especially enjoyed it because the filmmakers actually had the courage to *SPOILER ALERT* blow up the world. No sugarcoating, no simple solution, no endless number of countdowns to avert destruction, like in “Armageddon” (a movie that utterly failed to live up to its title) – just the whole world on fire. Now that’s a way to deliver on catastrophic promises.
Mind you, I don’t want the world to be destroyed and, after seeing the movie “Knowing”, I felt a little depressed. But I do like seeing promises fulfilled when someone bothers to make them. Heck, even “Back to the Future Part II” promised the universe, or at least our galaxy, would be destroyed by a time paradox – but that didn’t really happen. All I’m saying is I hope someday people who promise something earth-shattering will actually follow through with it. Until then, I won’t hold my breath.
By the way, eHarbor and its affiliates (Magellan Commerce, Real Estate Promoter and Submit Solution) have good news on the horizon that I can’t wait to discuss. We’re growing a lot and we hope to share the positive ecommerce news soon as new products are released and updates are added to our websites.
The photo of the cat and dog sitting together is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of MïK.
Tags: april fools day, armageddon, back to the future, computer virus, conficker c, eHarbor, flickr, funny, holiday, humor, Knowing, magellan commerce, movie, news, online, Real Estate Promoter, Submit Solution, web, worm
Posted in Ecommerce, Movies | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
By Robert Lockard
I’ve never been a big fan of April fools’ day. Trying to make people look like fools for trusting what other people say isn’t a good way to build trust or add anything positive to the world. I much prefer helping people smile, rather than laughing at their mistakes. With this in mind, I would like to warn my fellow ecommerce enthusiasts about a potentially damaging computer virus set to strike on April 1, 2009.
I promised I would talk about the Conficker C virus in my last blog entry. I’m sorry to talk about such a depressing topic, but I hope talking about it will be helpful to you. I am indebted to the Yahoo Tech News Blog for their informative blog entry on this topic.
I first heard about this virus in late 2008 at the Brigham Young University library, where they had messages on computer desktops warning of the danger of transmitting a virulent worm via USB drives. An earlier version of Conficker was already spreading by tricking computer users into installing it onto a computer when the AutoRun message comes up after plugging in their USB drive. It infected 9 million computers with this strategy, and it might infect even more with the new strain.
Many computers might be affected with the current strain of Conficker without users even knowing about it because it is not scheduled to become active until April 1.
No one knows what will happen when Conficker C does become active.
It might be used to steal personal information, take control of computers, erase hard drives or otherwise cripple computers. Now is a good time to back up your files and try to minimize your exposure to this virus. You might want to run a free Microsoft safety scan of your computer to help detect and hopefully get rid of the Conficker C virus before it’s too late.
I hope you’ll have a happy April fools’ day and not get fooled by this disruptive and dangerous virus. The photo of the Watch Out button is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Salim Virji.
Tags: april fools day, computer virus, conficker c, Ecommerce, eHarbor, flickr, holiday, important, internet, news, online, warning, web, worm
Posted in Ecommerce | 2 Comments »
