What or who is Zibbert? It is our new Content Management System (CMS) that we developed in partnership with our friends at MediaSauce. Zibbert is actually a 3D character created by MediaSauce to demo their graphic skills. It seemed like a natural fit to have him also introduce the new CMS. Check him out here.

www.zibbert.com

What you will see is an example of the Performance CMS package. This package is the premier of three packages, view packages here, that are tiered by price and features for businesses and organizations. We basically took all the elements which we found most companies needed and packaged them in one CMS. Our overriding principle for the CMS was that it had to be very easy to use, require no HTML knowledge and be fun. MediaSauce provides the creative direction including designs for these packages which means you get a look and feel that can’t be beat.

Since we are increasingly mindful of Search Engine Optimization, every Zibbert package comes with basic SEO including monthly Google Analytics reports at no extra charge for as long as you own the site.

Contact us today to let us know how Zibbert can help your business grow.

Now that Christmas is on the way, I am sure that I am not alone in increasing the amount of web surfing in online stores. I could blog a whole book on what makes an effective online store but that kind of analysis is readily available all around the web.

I want to instead focus on Bill Me Later, a company that offers instant credit for purchases on Amazon.com, recognized as the leading online retailer.

As Project Manager for Small Box, I am continually offering free and paid advice on the variety of online payment methods. Since the New York Times has written about it, I expect the whole world will be aware of it very soon.

Typically my advice to our clients starts with open source solutions integrated with a PayPal payment gateway. This represents an easy and affordable solution for e-commerce web companies, offering greater flexibility than the popular Yahoo! store platform and a branded opportunity that cannot be provided by an eBay store for example. Although every solution had benefits and pitfalls, any one of them can be a low cost solution to get started selling products online.

Add to that the intriguing Bill Me Later payment option. Within three seconds a buyer can receive approval to buy now-pay later. How does it work? Apparently through access to your credit records, customers wary of entering their credit card information can receive a paper invoice from Bill Me Later in the mail, and pay over time with interest, just like any credit card.

Their rates according to the article are competitive too, compared to standard rates paid on transactions by the major credit card companies. As the economy is changing with regards to credit, privacy concerns remain a high priority, online buyers remain skeptical of buying online, and online retailers continue to find new methods of luring buyers of big ticket items with good credit, it certainly seems this is a trend to watch on the coming year.

Came across this interview with 50 Cent concerning the changes happening in the music industry. He welcomes the fan who “steals” songs online. He knows the live show and merch are the revenue streams that matter now.

50 Cent Interview

We’ve been wondering around here in Small Box land how Google Local works. It seems to be running on a different system than normal Google search results. So our SEO guru Ben Jehring has been doing some research and came across this cool blog post. The blogger did some reverse engineering to see what online directories were influencing Google Local. So the trick is to get your company listed and well review in these directories and it will improve your Google Local results which should improve traffic, revenue, etc.

http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=50#more-50

We sometimes encounter businesses who have a little sticker shock when we present them with a proposal in the thousands for their new website. They know they need a website but they don’t understand how it could possibly cost more than a few hundred dollars. Although they don’t have an issue with spending thousands on a Yellow Pages ad they aren’t convinced that they could see a similar or greater return with a website optimized for search engines. So, in this blog I compare ROI (Return On Investment) for the Yellow Pages versus Search Engines.

The Kelsey Group’s recent (03/06) study of how people look for needed services shows that Yellow Pages still has a strong grip on the market.

All consumers surveyed – print Yellow Pages, 61%; search engines, 12%; directory assistance, 12%; online Yellow Pages, 7%
Annual income over $75,000 – print Yellow Pages, 51%; search engines, 27%; online Yellow Pages, 14%; directory assistance, 6%
Teens – search engines, 47%; print Yellow Pages, 28%; directory assistance, 13%; online Yellow Pages, 9%
http://www.kelseygroup.com/press/pr060320.asp

But what you also see here is that those with a higher income are using search engines 27% of the time compared to 51% for the Yellow Pages. Teens, who are more comfortable with the web having grown up with it, are preferring search engines to the Yellow Pages 2 to 1. I think it’s a safe bet to assume that this trend will continue until the Yellow Pages’ market share is considerably reduced.

So if a company is investing $2000 a year we recommend that they look at what they will pay the Yellow Pages over 3-5 years and then re-allocate 25-50% of those funds to the web in the form of improvements to their website including SEO work (Search Engine Optimization) and PPC (Pay Per Click advertising). So in our sample case the company is spending $6-10,000 and should reallocate about $2-5,000 to the web depending on your client base. Also, it’s important to remember that a new website is a one-time cost and a quality site should last 3-5 years.

We would be happy to sit down with you to examine how you can more effectively spend your advertising dollars to reap the best possible ROI.