Michael Roebuck's Blog

I'm sure you've gone into a brick and mortar store and tried to have that store match the price of a website. They probably refused.

Quite a few big box retailers have decided not to price match websites. In fact, some stores including Wal-Mart won't even price match items found on Wal-Mart.com or their own company website! And now the hot news topic is about some retail stores that are charging a "fitting fee." This is a fee charged to consumers to try on clothes. The fee is refunded if items are bought. Apparently, stores are getting fed up with consumers trying on clothes and then buying them online.

Is this a good policy? After all, E-Commerce is here to stay and a very valid rival for consumer dollars. No policy is going to change that. By having a blanket online price exception, you are strongly reinforcing the message that E-Commerce sites offer better deals. And you are then robbing yourself of the opportunity to fight that perception.

You can argue that websites have lower overhead and therefore can charge less. This may be true. But to not even price match against your own corporate website! That is wrong on so many levels. A customer is in your store with one hand on an item and the other on his wallet and the retailer decides not to do business with them. Probably because the sale can't be tracked back to the website and given proper credit. Some marketing guru with a Masters Degree determined that one!

Perhaps big box retailers forget that no-one has any money nowadays. Perhaps they don't care. Perhaps they didn't have dads continually beat into them that if a customer is willing to part with his or her hard earned money, take it any way you can and thank them very much.

My guess is that Amazon.com is making lots of money by the mere stupidity of others. And as long as companies refuse to merge channels and work in the best interest of the consumer, Amazon will make more!

Labels: amazon, matching, price, walmart

Yahoo! recently announced the availability of Social Media Sharing. The Social Media Sharing feature lets you add "Share on Twitter" and Facebook "Like" options to your store's product pages, which can encourage your customers to spread the word about your products to their social media networks. This boost to your marketing efforts can help you reach a wider audience, which in turn can help to generate more quality traffic for your store.

The Social Media Sharing feature is currently supported for Editor 3.0 templates, and can be enabled from the Store Editor Variables page (requires adding CSS), or by running the Design Wizard (NOT recommended for existing custom designed stores). If you're using custom templates, this feature can be enabled by inserting a new RTML operator into your store templates and adding CSS. The CSS styles can be downloaded from our Social Media Sharing CSS reference page.

To learn more about the Social Media Sharing feature, contact us!

Labels: facebook, media, social, twitter

Yahoo! has just announced the availability of the Customer Manager. When Customer Registration was released in mid-August, you were able to offer your customers the ability to register with your store, and to enjoy a more streamlined checkout process. Customer Registration is in use today by nearly 2,000 merchants with over 100,000 registered users. Until now, you haven't been able to view your registered customer data in one place.

With Customer Manager, you now have unique visibility into your registered customer data. With quick access to order history, average order value, total order value, last login date and more, Customer Manager brings new marketing segmentation capability to your business.

To view the Customer Manager, log into your store and you'll see the "Customer Manager" link directly under the "Orders" link in the "Process" column.

Read the help file here: Yahoo! Customer Manager

Labels: Yahoo Customer Manager Registration

Jill Whalen, CEO of High Rankings and a popular SEO Consultant published an article titled, "Google Sucks All the Way to the Bank!" I highly recommend you read the full article and subscribe to her newsletter if not already.

The article basically calls out Google for the decline in search result relevancy. It seems she is frustrated with seeing fluffy informational pages show up in the SERP's instead of retail commercial websites. She blames money as the tipping point stating PPC (where Google generates its revenue) is retail and traditional SEO (free) is fluffy information pages.

Isn't that what Google wants? Of course it's about the money. I agree with Jill that search results suck but I think they suck across the board. I don't have a solution either.

I've been a long believer that content should not be king in all instances. By telling clients to add content, you are telling them to create crap. Not just any crap, but unique crap that hasn't been created yet. How many different ways can you write about a retail product? I really only care about reading features and model numbers. I then go to Amazon to read the reviews. Anything over that is fluffy junk that some person had to write to fill space. Anything extra rarely has any meaningful purpose. Any extra fluffy content should be in the "About Us" section or other areas of the website.

And before you come back and say the content should be how to use the product, and what benefits it will give you, I tell you most of that content is junk as well. It was written to satisfy Google's requirement for content and therefore it was created for Google. NOT the customer.

Don't get me wrong, there are products out there that could benefit from explicit content. And I know that when 50 different websites are selling the same products there has to be differentiation. But I do believe there has to be a better way. It just hasn't been invented or implemented yet. Which means we will continue to see fluffy content pages rise to the top of the results.

Is this really part of Google's plan to make more money by forcing retailers to use PPC? Will organic SEO be replaced entirely by paid results? I'll have to consult my crystal ball and get back with you.

One thing is for sure; As long as Google rules the world, we must play by their rules.

Labels: content, copy, google

Yahoo! is hosting another Merchant Summit for its merchants on September 13-14 in California. Michael Roebuck, President of All Web Promotion (A Yahoo! Small Business Developer Partner), will be participating in a panel discussion on Practical SEO and SEM. The session will discuss practical tools in hand to help you improve and monitor your search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) results today. Learn real-life tips to improve your ad performance and site conversion rates. Presentation will include LIVE SEO site reviews. (Michael Roebuck is rumored to be talking specifically about PPC growth techniques such as A/B testing, keyword research and a Search Query Report.)

Later on, Michael will be hosting his own Round Table Speed Review Session. Get personalized feedback on how you can improve your site - for free. You’ll have a few minutes with a range of developer partners who will each share their opinions on steps you can take to improve your site. There's never been a quicker or more cost effective way to get individualized website feedback! Be sure to sign up to see Michael or any of the other Developer Partners.

Also, everyone is welcome to stop by the All Web Promotion table. We'll have design books showing various website and social marketing designs as well as information on our email capabilities.

Following the Merchant Summit, more All Web Promotion designers will appear for an exclusive two-day Yahoo! Developer Summit. This will consist of two days of Developer Training. Several of the All Web design team will be in attendance and receiving advanced training on the many Yahoo features we customize. From Account Registration to Website Analytics. In addition to general updates and information sessions, the designers will be taking an advanced programming course and Michael will be taking an advanced analytics course. By working and training with Yahoo, we can continue to improve our services, learn about the latest offerings and bring this back where we create the best websites possible.

Labels: developer, partner, summit, yahoo

Michael Roebuck, General Manager of All Web Promotion, talks about the importance of on-site customer reviews during an interview at Internet Retailer 2010.

Click to hear Interview with Michael Roebuck

Clicking link will open new browser window and start playing MP3 file. Entire interview is 7:49 minutes.

Labels: customer, interview, reviews

I love my new iPhone 4 but it keeps pushing email to the phone even though I have everything turned off and to manual. After speaking with numerous Apple service representatives, and trying everything from network resets to reinstalling email, I finally found a senior level rep named Tom who was extremely helpful. Thanks, Tom! No-one was able to provide a solution, but Tom listened, tried, and actually called me back a few times. Here is my scenario:



My iPhone has several email accounts including Gmail, Yahoo! Business Email and Mobile Me Email. I want the Mobile Me email to push to the phone immediately. This is my "emergency" email address. The other accounts are various work and social accounts that I only want to check when convenient for me. My problem was that the iPhone was pushing email from all accounts regularly. My phone was constantly vibrating or beeping to let me know I had new email. This was not going to work!!

It was actually talking with fellow employee Karl that we solved the problem. He was having the same issue. Here is what you do: Turn off Email Multi-Tasking. Yes, friends. You heard it here first and I can only hope Apple will release a future update that gives me the option to select which applications I want to use Multi-Tasking for.

Apparently with Multi-Tasking, even though you closed out of email, it was still active and therefore checking email. This may be a problem with other applications as well and may be cause for battery drain or other issues. Time will tell.

So how do you turn off Multi-Tasking? Easy. Double tap or click the "Home Button" located at the bottom center of your phone. (It's the round button with the white square on it) After double tapping, you'll see the icons of all the running applications. Find the email icon and put your finger over it. In a second or two it will wiggle and show a red circle with a line through it. Touch the red circle and it closes email from multi-tasking. Pretty easy, huh? Hard to believe several hours of support phone time (most of which was on hold) and this was the solution.



It's still quirky as you have to remember to close out of email every time or the phone will continue to check. But like I said, hopefully Apple will release a fix to give us the ability to select which applications to allow multi-tasking.

You heard it here first! Hope this helps.

Labels: email, iphone, iphone4

AllWebEmail made the news recently regarding it's standardization of terms and definitions that are used in measuring email marketing reporting as introduced by the Email Experience Council of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA/eec). This standardization will help provide consistent email metrics throughout the industry.

Read the full article here.


AllWebEmail, a division of All Web Promotion, Inc., is a leading email marketing service provider helping businesses for over 10 years to use email to effectively communicate with their customers. The company is managed by Peter Roebuck with help from partner, and brother, Michael Roebuck and has offices located in Oglesby, Illinois and Point of Rocks, Maryland.

AllWebEmail is an active member of the Email Experience Council (eec), an advocate for defining email standards and best practices, and has partnered with Return Path, Inc., a leading email deliverability authority.

For more information on AllWebEmail, their services, and role they play within the email marketing industry, please call 877-932-7766, or visit http://www.allwebemail.com.

Labels: allwebemail, email

Yahoo! is hosting a Merchant Summit for its merchants on June 11 in Chicago immediately following the Internet Retailer Conference. Michael Roebuck, President of All Web Promotion (A Yahoo! Small Business Developer Partner), will be participating in a panel discussion on Practical SEO and SEM. The session will discuss practical tools in hand to help you improve and monitor your search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) results today. Learn real-life tips to improve your ad performance and site conversion rates. Presentation will include LIVE SEO site reviews. (Michael Roebuck is rumored to be talking specifically about Yahoo! Store Manager Features that can be used to help identify keywords as well as track performance.)

Later on in the day, Michael will be hosting his own Round Table Speed Review Session. Get personalized feedback on how you can improve your site - for free. You’ll have a few minutes with a range of developer partners who will each share their opinions on steps you can take to improve your site. There's never been a quicker or more cost effective way to get individualized website feedback! Be sure to sign up to see Michael or any of the other Developer Partners.

Also, everyone is welcome to stop by the All Web Promotion table. We'll have design books showing various website and social marketing designs as well as information on our email capabilities.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Click the link to visit Yahoo! Merchant Summit

Labels: developer, partner, summit, yahoo

As the population becomes more internet savvy, so do their search queries. Every day, users are typing in more specific terms into their search engines to get a more direct and particular search result. This is because people have a better understanding of the way search engines work, and they also are coming to terms that they can be as broad or as specific as they want. More serious buyers know what they want, from the brand to the type of product they are looking to buy online. This is why it is vital to show up in the search engine auctions for specific terms. To clarify, a search engine auction is where you place a bid on keywords that are relevant to your target market. Based on the bid you place and the analytics of the search engine, it is then determined where your ad will show. This is why keyword selection is important to obtaining a successful pay per click campaign.

Going forward, there are two different of types of keywords. There are "short tail" keywords which are broad terms and "long tail" keywords which are more narrow and specific. (http://bit.ly/ck46H) As far as which type will generate more valuable traffic, the answer is debatable. The fact is both types of keywords have the ability to benefit you in different ways. With a broad match term, you have a chance to enter the same auctions as some long tail keywords. The downside is that they will not be guaranteed to show up in all auctions. The benefit of a short tail keyword is that it allows you to show up for unexpected and possible revenue generating queries. However these unexpected queries can lead your keyword to high costs and unnecessary traffic to your site. When you choose to use long tail keywords, you are at least guaranteed to show up for the more specific terms that your customers are searching for.

If you can incorporate both types you can cover all bases to ensure that your keywords are going to be seen by your target audience. Studies have shown that long tail keywords have a higher conversion rate than short tail keywords mainly because they are specific in nature. In many cases, if someone is searching for a specific type of product they are more apt to buy which is why long tail terms may be useful to a campaign. (http://bit.ly/6H2zje) While each type of keyword has its advantages there are downsides to both. Every business is different but with a little bit of experimentation you can find out what works best for you and your business.

Labels: long, ppc, short, tail

Search engine optimization are the techniques people use to get their website to appear in the search engines for certain keywords. When people go online to find information, they type words and phrases into the search engine. If your website is related to those words and phrases - you want it to appear when people are searching for information. This is why you need to use SEO techniques - to get your website in front of readers who are interested in what you have to offer.

One method of improving your positioning in the search engines is through the use of articles.

Make Your Way to the Top of the Search Engine Results

The easiest way to increase traffic to your website is to get your website listed in the first page of search results for the commonly used keywords for your topic. One word typed into a search engine (Like Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc) is a "keyword", while a series of words typed into a search engine is called a "keyword phrase". You want to know what people are typing in to find information related to the content of your website.

If you have a website about getting out of debt, you would want your website to appear in the search engines when people type such keywords and phrases like "get out of debt"; "pay off credit cards", and other related terms. The more relevant your website is to the keyword or keyword phrase being typed into the search engine, the better your positioning in the list of sites that come up after the internet user clicks "search".

As a website owner, your goal is to get your website to the top of the search engine results. Ideally, you would want to see your site in the first three spots - but anywhere on the first page should bring you a decent amount of traffic for your relevant keywords and keyword phrases.

Using Articles for Search Engine Optimization

Many people use articles as an SEO technique. Using articles for SEO is commonly referred to as "article marketing". If you are consistent with article marketing, you can often find your website listed on the first page of search engine results for your targeted keywords.

Article marketing works both on your website or blog, and through the use of article directories and other people's websites or blogs.

When you provide your own site with articles that include information about your topic area, search engines will recognize your website as one that provides useful information to readers looking for information on that topic.

When you post articles on your topic area to article directories and on other people's websites and blogs on similar topics, always include a link back to your site with your keywords or keyword phrases.

Linking to your site from other sites gives you what is called "backlinks". Backlinks play an important role in where your website is found in the search engines when people search for your topic.

You can contact website owners and bloggers who write about similar topics and ask if they would publish an article you write on their site. If they agree, ask for a link to your site using one of your keywords or keyword phrases. Each time you receive a quality backlink to your site using one of your keywords, you improve your search engine positioning for that particular keyword.

People say that "content is king" online, and this is true whether you are looking to engage readers on your website or trying to increase the number of visitors who come to your site. Write informative articles on your subject matter and post them both to your website and to article directories with links back to your site as a do-it-yourself search engine optimization technique.

Labels: articles, optimization, seo

It used to be that website owners needed to use keywords in their website content as a certain percentage of the overall content. You would obtain better search engine results if you had keywords placed in specific areas of the page, too.

Keywords are the words and phrases people type into search engines to find information. These are the same words that website owners and bloggers need to use in order to promote their website and increase the visibility of their website in the search engines for people who are looking for information.

Know What People Are Typing Into Search Engines

You first need to have a good idea what types of words and phrases people will type into Google or their search engine of choice in order to find the information you provide on your website. If you have a website about parenting children with autism, for example, what sort of keywords would people type into the search engine to find information you offer?

One method of discovering what people will type into search engines that gives you better results than guessing is to use Google's Keyword Tool. You can type in a phrase, such as "parenting children with autism" and it will return a list of similar and related keyword phrases, as well as how many people searched for those phrases in the last month, and as an overall average.

The Keyword Density Question

In recent years, the keyword question used to always be how many keywords you needed to include on your page in order for the search engines to determine your website is relevant to that topic.

Google and MSN used search algorithms to rank websites based on how many keywords were on the page and where they were located within the text. The search algorithms changed regularly, which made it hard for website owners to get their websites listed in the top of the search engine results for their targeted keywords.

Now, keyword density (the number of times your keywords appear on a page as a percentage of the total number of words) is no longer the big deal. The bigger search engines, including Google, have given up on keyword density as the method of sending traffic to a website and now use other methods for determining the quality of a website.

Google and Keywords

You no longer need to have keywords as a certain percentage of your content. Instead of striving for your keyword phrases to appear 5% of the time on your web pages, it is more important to create quality content that describes your topic clearly. Most of the time, you will use keyword phrases as you write the information naturally. Your content should be no less than 250 words.

Once you have written what needs to be said, you can go back and add a keyword phrase or two into your opening paragraph and maybe once or twice in the body of the text - but it should read normally and not feel "forced".

Yahoo and Keywords

Using the same natural writing method with one or two keywords added in will work for Yahoo's search engine optimization, as well. In addition to that, you may also want to place your keyword or phrase in the last sentence of your text since Yahoo places a little more priority on the last paragraph than Google does.

Your website content has always been important to your website rankings, and while the process has changed your content will always play a role in the amount of traffic your website receives. Updating your website or blog regularly with quality content will improve your page rankings and the amount of traffic your website receives.

Labels: keywords, seo

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Online businesses that sell products have two primary choices: stock inventory or use a dropshipper. Choosing whether to buy and stock an inventory of products on-site or rely on a dropshipper's inventory and delivery methods is a difficult decision that should not be taken lightly. There are pros and cons of both methods of getting products for your online business that must be considered carefully.

Stocking Inventory

Having your own products in stock can help you maintain quality customer service with fast shipments. You are in completely control of how long the ordering process takes from start to finish from the time the customer places their order until the time they receive their item.

Stocking your own inventory is a slightly higher risk business model than using a dropshipper for a new online business owner, since you need to purchase inventory before you have orders for the items. There is always the risk that the inventory you purchase and keep on hand doesn't sell.


When you maintain your own inventory, you pay less for the items you sell which enables you to turn a higher profit when your customers purchase your inventory at retail prices. You can purchase your items in bulk and at a discount if storing your own inventory; as opposed to buying one item at a time from the dropshipper when your customers place orders.

The main reason many people decide not to stock their own inventory is due to space concerns. Depending on how successful your online business is, you may soon find yourself out of room to store all of the items you keep in stock. If you outgrow your home or storage space, you'll need to find additional storage space in order to keep growing your business. The more inventory you maintain, the harder it is to keep track of what you have and where it's located as well - which can slow down your ability to send shipments to customers.

Using Dropshippers

The primary advantage of using a dropshipper is that it ends the hassles of stocking and tracking inventory and shipping to your customers. It's a business model that takes less effort than stocking your own inventory, and offers lower risk to you since you aren't faced with having to purchase items in advance that may or may not sell.

Using a dropshipper means you'll have access to stock photographs of the items you want to sell. Sometimes, a dropshipping company will even provide you with a turnkey website - making it quick and easy to set up your online shop and start selling. The downside to this is the amount of competition. The ease of entry into an online business relying on dropshipments means you'll be competing against large numbers of people trying to sell the same items and having websites that look similar to everyone else selling those same items.

Despite the advantages of using a dropshipper for your online business, there are a number of disadvantages you should consider as well. When you use another company to deliver your product, you may end up with customer support issues if your customer doesn't receive their purchase in a timely manner. You are relying on another company to ship the items on time - but it's really out of your hands if they fail to do so. Your customers won't care that those items are coming from a dropshipper, they're going to form their opinion of your company based on the dropshippers ability to get the products out on time.

If a product is returned by a customer, they're going to return it to you and expect a replacement or refund. When you receive the return, you'll then have to deal with the dropshipper to find out how to return the item and get your money back for the purchase.

Labels: dropship, dropshipper, inventory, stock

Having a home based or online business means you need a way to process payments from your customers. Accepting credit cards is absolutely necessary if you want to accept payment online. Imagine what would happen if you allowed customers to place orders on your website, but then required them to mail a check or money order before they could finish their purchase? Chances are, you'd lose every customer to your competitor's website where they could finish their purchase immediately by entering their credit card details for payment.

Choosing a payment processor or merchant account for your business can be overwhelming - you want to choose the one with the features you need and that will charge you the lowest fees. Luckily, you have many options and a variety of payment processors that offer different features that should accommodate whatever industry your business is in.

Merchant Account Options for Internet and Home-based Businesses

Home-based and internet businesses have a number of options for accepting credit cards from their clients. Where as retailers use a card reader to accept credit cards face-to-face, an internet business needs an online method for securely accepting cards as payment. Internet business owners can choose between a merchant account with a banking institution, independent sales organization or third party payment processor. Many merchant account providers have high approval rates, even with less than perfect credit ratings of applicants, and offer a variety of special features and options for an internet-based or home-based business.

Third Party Providers

When you use a third party provider to accept credit card payments, the customers payment gets deposited into a merchant account that works with the third party provider. Then you can transfer the funds to your bank account. This process can take several days from the time the customer pays and the time you can access the money and if you choose a fraudulent business as the third party provider, you may not see the funds from your transactions. Do your research carefully if working with a third party provider rather than a merchant account directly, to ensure they are a reputable business.

Merchant Accounts with Banks

When you open a merchant account with a bank, you have the confidence that the banking institution is secure and dependable. Online businesses may have a harder time opening a merchant account with a traditional banking institution however, as they are seen as a higher risk than a retailer with a physical location. You're also more likely to find yourself with a closed merchant account if you have charge backs from your internet business.

Independent Sales Organizations

For new businesses or business owners with less than perfect credit, using an independent sales organization is a good option for accepting online payments. Most of the time this type of organization is going to charge higher fees than other methods of accepting credit cards, but it's a good option for businesses who need to establish their credit before they can get other forms of merchant accounts.

Getting Paid from Credit Card Payments

When your customers pay for their purchases with credit cards, the funds are automatically moved from the merchant account to your business bank account. Fees are charged by the bank, third party processor or independent sales organization. The higher your sales volume, the lower the fees you'll be charged.

You have a number of choices for accepting credit card payments. Make sure to weigh your options and the fees each option charges before making a decision for which company to use as your payment processor.

Labels: credit, merchant, payment, processor