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By the time you read this, I will be on my way to New Orleans for a couple of days out of town.  Ironically, this post was inspired in part by the French Quarter of New Orleans – or at least some of the employees of that area.  There are some businesses in that area that have managed to survive the severe drought of tourists in the still-recovering post Katrina area, in fact some of them are thriving even on the slowest nights on and around Bourbon Street.

Believe it or not, they can teach you a thing or two about the way you operate your online business.

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Social media has taken the Internet by storm in recent years to the point where now profiles on popular social media web sites like MySpace or Facebook serve as a calling card more than I ever imagined possible.

In bars people don’t ask for telephone numbers anymore, even though they just bought the new iPhone 3G.  Instead, people are asked what their MySpace profile name is.

Are you using social media web sites to your advantage? If you aren’t you might want to get on that bandwagon soon because I guarantee that your competition is probably already there.

One note of warning before you proceed:  When an ecommerce web site goes social, the hard sell needs to take a back seat to the fun and light hearted, otherwise you are going to alienate your audience quickly.

Could it be that we have almost survived another work week?  I think so!

And just because I can, I have certified this post as Yahoo, Google and Microsoft Free!

The Ultimate Collection of Online SEO Tools
I just came across this link yesterday and have still barely made it through half of the excellent SEO related links they have available.  The fact that every one of their tools are web-based makes it that much more cool, especially when your hard drive is as bloated as mine is these days.

Obama Wants a Cyberterror Czar
Dismissing the current administrations attempts at curtailing cyber crime, the Presidential candidates detail their ideas for increasing cyber security and making us all safer on the ‘net.

Australians Want to Buy Online, study
Research has indicated that Internet users from Australia and New Zealand are twice as likely to make purchases online as their counterparts in the United Kingdom.

Have a great weekend!  See you on Monday!

According to the Hollywood Reporter, major film studio Lionsgate and video sharing site YouTube (a Google owned website, I might add) have come to an agreement regarding an ad-sharing deal that is likely to be the first of what could be many similar deals in the future.

In a nutshell what it equates to is a channel on YouTube that features clips of Lionsgate owned films, over which advertising will be placed.  The “Saw” films, classics like “Dirty Dancing” and even television series like “Weeds” are all included.

source:  Hollywood Reporter

San Francisco, CA – Terry Childs, 43, is in jail.  It seems that his employer upset him enough for him to cause a little problem on the job.

Did I forget to mention that Childs works (worked?) for the City of San Francisco as an IT Network Administrator?  Because yeah, he does/did.  It seems that after being disciplined on the job for lackluster performance, Childs felt the need to prove that he had mad skillz and proceeded  to set up a master password for the city’s FiberWAN (Wide Area Network) that only he has access to.

According to a press conference with San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris,  Terry Childs stands charged with four felony counts including improper tampering with computer systems as well as causing a denial of service that locks city admins out of the network.

After refusing to give up his own master password and reportedly giving police several fakes, he is being held on a $5 Million bond.  The network is still operational, but concern has been expressed as this network contains sensitive data ranging from confidential official email communications to police records and city employee payroll records.

It is estimated that the damage could end up costing the city millions of dollars, though the extent of the problem has yet to be revealed.

The lesson to be learned here?  Always stay on the good side of your company’s IT people.

A U.S. District Court Judge has ruled in favor of online auction site Ebay in a case brought about by jewelry retailer Tiffany in 2004.

In the suit, Tiffany claimed that Ebay was aware of and should be held responsible for site members who are selling counterfeit goods on the popular online auction web site, and that they were guilty of copyright infringement as a result.

In a comment, an Ebay representative was quoted as saying that it was a shame that Tiffany spent so much time and money on this court case when they could have been working with them to come up with a more productive resolution to the problem of counterfeit goods being sold online.

While Judge Richard Sullivan’s ruling does protect e-commerce retailers like Ebay and Amazon, it is largely seen as a victory for online consumers.

The power of the blogger is being realized and capitalized upon by companies big and small and tThe latest to jump on the bandwagon is one of the most recognizable household names in the United States.

One of Procter & Gamble’s most well known products is responsible for bringing as many as fifteen mommy bloggers to their headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio later this month.  Moms from all over the country are being flown to HQ for a special gathering to reach out to blogging mothers of young children Bryan McCleary, director of external relations for P&G baby care said.  “Mom bloggers are the new influencers," McCleary is quoted as saying.

Well, it seems to be that time of the week again – TGIF!

iPhone 3G hits the marketplace
At long last (has it really been all that long?), Apple releases that latest and greatest iPhone to the retail market today. The much-hyped updated version of the cell phone that does it all now does even more, with features including GPS and the accessibility of hundreds of other applications through Apple’s new App store.

The App Store gives iPhone users access to a tremendous variety of software in any of eighteen categories, over a hundred of which are free. I have become addicted to the Texas Hold ‘Em app, personally.

Flickr, Getty looking for the next great photographer
Online photo storage and sharing website Flickr (which is owned by Yahoo, for the record) has penned a deal with Getty Images that will make it possible for amateur photographers to have their work receive mass exposure they might never realize otherwise. Did I mention that Getty will be paying? [full story]

Gene Hoffman Jr. has written a fantastic piece over at E-Commerce Times called “Online Businesses: Recession-Proof or Just Lucky?” that discusses some of the reasons as to just how and why ecommerce businesses are not only surviving but thriving despite a struggling ecomony.

See you next week, folks!

We as Internet marketers have become accustomed to the ever-evolving ecommerce marketplace, but in light of an economy that continues to see (and find) new lows on a regular basis, it is time to start looking at the consumer and how they are changing before our very eyes.

According to an eye opening cover story in this week’s Advertising Age magazine, the average age of an American Head of Household is only six months short of 50 years old. The implications are tremendous as you might expect, but what does it mean to us as ecommerce professionals?

Well for one thing, pandering is out. Don’t even think about playing up 60 as ‘the new 40’. The article suggests playing up suggested advantages including safety, security, guarantees and experience.

Read the full article here.

How much impact do your words have? As a writer, I spend an inordinate amount of my time editing and re-editing my copy because I have always divided my writing process into two separate and distinct parts:

Part 1 is the draft copy. In simplest terms, this is when I allow myself to free associate on the topic, and I do so without editing or second-guessing what it is that I am writing. If it comes to mind, it finds itself on my page. While this can be quite liberating it is not a stopping point by any means.

After I have written on the topic at hand, I then put on my editor’s cap, grab my red pen and start hacking away at the copy. I look for tired and common words such as very (very tired, for example, could be overwhelmingly tired or simply exhausted.)

The point here is to give your web site content some serious power by making use of words that are less commonly used and therefore pack a more serious punch, especially from a search engine and marketing standpoint.

Here are 40 words that are guaranteed winners for web site content use:

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