FEATURE ARTICLES

Stop other sites from stealing your text and images

In order to encourage the use of original content and to stay in accordance with copyright laws, the major search engines may exact ranking penalties and even ban sites that are copying and hosting text or images that have been stolen from another website. Find out if other sites are stealing text or images from you, and learn how you can get them to stop.

Dedicated Network Solutions® SiteSafe™ SSL Certificate increases ROI and conversion rate
MonsterCommerce tested approximately 40,000 checkout transactions on about 500 storefronts to see how the SSL certificate impacts checkout conversion. Shoppers at sites that were not using a dedicated security certificate were 4.5% less likely to complete checkout. Learn more about this study and how you can now get a discount on an SSL certificate.

MonsterCommerce.com - re-designed!
The MonsterCommerce website has been completely reorganized and redesigned. It now offers an innovative new site design, easier navigation, streamlined content and more.

MonsterMarketplace merchant spotlight
Congrats to Michael and Kathy Dennis for their site, CasesGalore.com, which was featured as the Merchant Spotlight for the month of August. Read more about their achievements.

MonsterWebDesign launches revamped template service
Online shopping spikes during every holiday season, which can pull your site's profits up for the entire year. Now is the best time to consider your site's professional appeal in time for the busy holiday shopping season. MonsterCommerce's design team offers a variety of options. Over 20 all new, advanced storefront templates are being offered for store owners on a budget. Each will give your site a fresh, user-friendly look. A professional designer can implement a template for you in 2-3 business days. Take a look at all the new templates or take advantage of 10% off a custom design:

Take Five

Each month, we ask a different MonsterCommerce merchant the same five questions regarding their online business and its success. This month's featured merchant is EasytoGrowBulbs.com

MonsterCommerce Merchant since: 7/20/2004
Owner: Jim Threadgill and Jill Fielder
Best-Selling Product: Bulbs for fragrant flowers and giant ranunculus (Persian buttercups).  Also unusual types of amaryllis for holiday and winter decorating.

1. What is your favorite feature about your site right now?
   Through the MonsterCommerce VIP program, we redesigned our product page template to suit the needs of our line. This includes being able to provide a large product image, an easy to read list of product attributes (common and botanical name, plant height, growing zones, flower color, etc.), a detailed item description and a chart that displays discounts for multi-package purchases. This approach has improved the look of the page and encouraged customers to buy larger quantities of flower bulbs.
   
   
2. What was one major obstacle to your store's success, and how did you overcome it?
   Like most newer sites, our initial challenge was generating cost effective traffic. We've relied on carefully managed Pay Per Click advertising, but have also worked on building links and with MonsterWebPromotion, on SEO. Additionally, we've developed a media contact program to let garden writers in key geographic regions know about what we have to offer to warm weather gardeners.
   
   
3. To what do you attribute most of your site's success?
   Unusual and high quality products coupled with a clean, simple presentation. We elected to pare the site presentation down to a bright, uncluttered look. Also, to instill confidence for new gardeners, we developed product specific bulb planting guides so buyers could have the information needed to ensure success in their gardening efforts.
   
   
4. What is the best or most rewarding experience you've had so far with selling online?
   Lots of positive customer feedback. We've received many emails from buyers who are pleasantly surprised by the size and freshness of the flower bulbs they receive.
   
   
5. What web site or online tool or resource would you not be able to live without?
   We've relied on Pay Per Click advertising to jump start site traffic and would not have been able to see the good short term results we've enjoyed without it. We've also received positive reviews from online newspaper articles (San Diego Union-Tribune and others), national magazine mentions (Sunset) and gardening organizations (National Gardening Association) with hot links to the site.
   

Industry News

• The state of e-commerce: online shopping trends
  Online shopping reached $65 billion last year, with a huge spike during the holiday shopping season.
• AskJeeves launches paid listing service
  Any advertisers wishing to place ads directly through AskJeeves itself can now do so.
• Most users reach websites using search engines
  A recent study shows that most web surfers at home use search engines to get to most websites.
• Baby boomers spend more money online than others
  37% of baby boomers who bought online spent more than $250 online in the past three months.
• New search engine market figures
  Google has 48% of the search market, while Yahoo has 21% and MSN has 12.4%.
  

We hope you enjoyed this month's edition of the MonsterCommerce e-newsletter. Please visit the newsletter subscription page to view the archives.

Regards,
The MonsterCommerce Team