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Special Report:

46 Shopping Days Until Christmas. Is Your Online Store Ready?
The latest industry surveys indicate that shoppers plan to complete more than fifty-percent of their holiday shopping online this year. If these projections are true, then online shopping for the fourth quarter will hit $26.2 billion - an increase of nearly twenty-five percent over the 2004 holiday season.

Q&A with VECTEC's Megen McMichael on Shopping Cart Systems
The shopping cart system has become the heart of where business is done online. Learn what features are considered must-have for small businesses, as well as other helpful tips on graphics, client customization and readying your shopping cart for the busy holiday shopping season.

How E-Commerce Has Grown & Changed - Virginia Businesses Share Lessons Learned
Online sales rose more than twenty-three percent this past year to $141.4 billion and by the end of this year online sales are expected to soar another twenty-two percent to $172.4 billion.

A Primer on Paid Search
During a recent e-commerce forum, Yahoo! Search Marketing expert Marc Cote of New York provided an in-depth analysis of Internet search and how it has become a leading way for companies to drive purchases, obtain leads and increase the value of a company's brand. This special report outlines a few of Mr. Cote's key points, as well as some of the latest literature detailing the various paid search options available to businesses.

How Businesses Can Improve Their On-Line Customer Service
Keeping with the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) here are a few time proven tips to help businesses improve that all important on-line customer service.

The Growing Popularity of Search Engine Marketing
Every spring, I make my annual pilgrimage to the East Coast Search Engine Strategies conference held by Jupiter Media, and as always, I am in awe at the growth of Search as an industry. This year there was a major paradigm shift; as .Pay per Click. marketing with Google AdWords and Overture gained in popularity, and Search Engine Marketing became mainstream.

Latest E-Biz News

SYSTEM DESIGN:Software Issues

New Offerings Ease E-Mail Headaches, Dennis Callaghan, January 3, 2002.
New software and service offerings from DYS Analytics Inc., GFI Software Ltd. and Gordano Ltd. promise to help e-mail system administrators get a better handle on their mail systems, specifically dealing with traffic management, security and remote access.

B2C:Shopping Carts

Top Ten Mistakes of Shopping Cart Design, Barbara Chaparro.
Typically when people shop in a store, they are rarely aware of their shopping cart, unless it has a squeaky wheel or is hard to steer. If this happens, at least they can trade it in for one that runs smoothly. Online users, unfortunately, do not have that choice.This article examines the usability of shopping web sites and identifies the top 10 mistakes of shopping cart design.

SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING:Directory Submissions and Link Building

The Art and Science of an Effective Link Building Campaign, Greg Jarboe, Jamie O'Donnell, June 9, 2004.
Is it wrong to buy or sell links? How far is too far in optimizing your internal link structure? If you operate a network of sites, can natural interlinking be perceived as link spam? This article attempts to answer these questions from special report from the Search Engine Strategies 2004 Conference.