FEATURE ARTICLES

Tips for enhancing your PPC results

All websites need traffic to be successful, and the best place to look for the most targeted traffic on the Web is the major search engines. It can take time to get your site to be listed in the top ten rankings of the search engines. In addition to their free listings, many search engines offer paid advertising for which you will pay per click (PPC). These tips will help break down the basics of PPC for you and also provide you with great tips for enhancing your results.

The importance of good site content

Adding new information to a website will be helpful for search engine optimization, increasing linking efforts, as well as building and marketing a business.

MonsterCommerce: a leader in secure storefront technology
MonsterCommerce recently upgraded its security architecture to better meet the Payment Card Initiative (PCI) standard. "As an e-commerce industry leader, it was important to increase the confidence of our clients that we were doing the best for security, and also help consumers feel comfortable that their online transactions are safe," says Megan Buckley, head of software development. "A smaller company without much experience with encryption now has this process taken care of for them." Read More

Let MonsterCommerce help you update your storefront
Do you have data and file management needs for your online store? Take a moment to review some of the services that MonsterCommerce offers to assist store owners with essential tasks during the busy holiday shopping season, including file and data management, product upload, image optimization and technical consultations. For more information, visit the KnowledgeBase site:

Congratulations to July's MonsterSellers
The MonsterSeller Award medal is given to those merchants who sell a specified number of products, within a month, through their MonsterMarketplace store listing. Their listing is marked with a Platinum, Gold or Silver medallion, which helps enhance credibility. Click here to view the MonsterSellers for August.

MonsterMarketplace merchant spotlight
Congrats to Bryana Guckin for her site, SoftClothBunz.com, which was featured as the Merchant Spotlight for the month of September. Read more about her achievements.

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 NortheastMarineElectronics.com

MonsterCommerce Merchant since: 2/4/2004
Owner: James DeMarest
Best-Selling Fishfinders

1. What is your favorite feature about your site right now?
   The ability to modify and add products quickly.
   
   
2. What was one major obstacle to your store's success, and how did you overcome it?
   I think one obstacle was the merchant account billing and the credit card charges. I have not overcome it entirely, but I continue to monitor it very closely and make adjustments where I can.
   
   
3. To what do you attribute most of your site's success?
   The ability to work with one firm to handle the entire site from the shopping cart to search engine optimization.
   
   
4. What is the best or most rewarding experience you've had so far with selling online?
   Talking to people from across the country, and being able to help them outfit their boat.
   
   
5. What web site or online tool or resource would you not be able to live without?
   I use the search engine optimization (SEO) tools very frequently to monitor my own site as well as others that might be ranking well. I then try to figure out what I can change to make my site better.
   

Industry News

• Consumers want secure online shopping
  A majority of all consumers see a secure environment as the most important factor in shopping online.
• Thoughts for food: key ingredients for selling food online
  How to establish a brand, know your target audience, and set up an easy-to-use e-commerce site for selling food.
• Canadian internet advertising to top $500 million this year
  Year-end sales for online advertising in Canada are estimated to be $519 million with display advertising taking up the largest portion of the pie.
• Search engines driving traffic to car sites
  Nearly 21% of visitors to car-related websites get there through search engines.
  

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