Dear MonsterCommerce Merchant,

There is no doubt that for the majority of online storefronts, October-December are the three most important months of the year.

The facts are:

• Amazon.com's website processed 24 items per second, making 2003 their busiest holiday ever (source Business Wire 12/2003).
  
  
• In 2003 e-commerce holiday sales reached $11.72 billion where consumers spent an average of $200 million per day from Nov1-Dec 26, a 29% jump over the 2002 holiday season (source e-tailing.com).
  
  
• 51% of consumers started their Holiday shopping in November, up from 43% in 2002. The survey also reports that consumers spent $8.5 billion online in November, 55% ahead of November 2002 (source eSpending Consumer Survey).

It is time to fine tune your site to take advantage of the holiday surge.

I have written an eight part series that will teach specific techniques to help you tune your site to sell. You can click on the links below to read each of the eight lessons. Please take a few moments each week an consider implementing one suggestion per week. If you can implement all eight suggestions, your site will be ready to roll this holiday season.

I have personally assisted in the development, design and promotion of thousands of e-commerce stores. I have worked with clients both large and small. Through my experience, I have learned some amazing lessons about selling online. This series will teach you some things that you can't find in any text book.

The series includes:

• Lesson #1 - Shipping can make or break the sale. Do it right!
• Lesson #2 - Site policies - Customer confidence closes sales.
• Lesson #3 - Naming products. There is a right and wrong way.
• Lesson #4 - Testimonials - Your most under-used asset..
• Lesson #5 - 800 numbers - Essential!
• Lesson #6 - Title tags - Your ticket to SEO success.
• Lesson #7 - Site navigation - Creating a site that sells.
• Lesson #8 - Buy button blues - How a buy button can increase sales.

Feel free to email me or post in our forums if you would like to discuss the topic further. I hope you enjoy this series and that it helps you with your site.

Click here to begin with Lesson #1

Regards,
Stephanie Leffler
CEO, MonsterCommerce