Urban Vancouver

Hello,

The new format is to set the date of the post to be the date of the event, so that they appear in order. Is there anyone out there who can tell me how to make them to appear in the right order now? (As in, from oldest to newest, rather than newest to oldest).

If customers linger for a while on your help page, or in the checkout process, or any other area of your site, it may indicate a customer has some anxiety (or got up to get a coffee and a donut).

This is a good idea from an Internet Retailer article on how to employ live chat profitably:

Orvis invites customers to chat only when they are on certain pages, such as customer service. “We have a lot of stuff on the customer service page,” Wolansky says. “If 15 seconds go by and you’re still on that page, you’re probably looking for something and haven’t found it.”

Orvis also offers chat to customers lingering on the checkout page. But Orvis does not offer chat on product pages, where visitors may linger reading reviews, examining photos, watching videos and comparing products. “Sitting there for a long time is not an indication you have a problem,” Wolansky says. “I don’t want to bother you.”

With the help of web analytics, retailers can map out the typical paths taken by customers who buy, and identify deviations that indicate a visitor is likely to leave, says Kevin Kohn, executive vice president of marketing at chat provider LivePerson Inc. If a lot of visitors abandon after two minutes on a particular page, he says “when someone’s there for a minute, 45 seconds, it’s not a bad idea to reach out offering assistance.”

Next Free Ecommerce Webinar...

Selecting the Right Ecommerce Software in Six Weeks or Less
When: January 21st, 2009 @ 9am PT/12pm ET
Panelists:
Bill Mirabito, Founder and Principal Analyst, B2C Partners
Jason Billingsley, VP Innovation, Elastic Path Software
Register to Attend...

You may also like these similar posts:

• Saving Sales With Triggered Coupons
• ShopTogether is Live Chat Help on Steroids
• In-Store Pickup Tips for Multi-Channel Retailers
• Bloggers Digest - 3/7/2008
• Recovering Sales from Abandoned Shopping Carts With Email

We're hiring again... and if you're a social media strategist with a social-change frame of mind, then do we have the job for you:

Social Signal is offering a great opportunity to be part of a team of smart, creative people who are making a difference in the world. If you are a social media expert with great strategic, writing and organizational skills, you can put your expertise and skills to work on projects that speak to your passion for social change. And you’ll find that the joy of working with kindred spirits can be matched by the thrill of helping our team do its best work and our business to thrive.

WHO WE NEED:

We’re looking for a social media strategist who can work with a team to create innovative visions for online community and social media projects, and turn those visions into reality. The right person is great with people, words, technology and details. We need someone who:

• is a strategic communicator - a great writer who thinks in terms of messages, audiences and communications goals
• lives and breathes online, and is contagiously passionate about what Web 2.0 means for organizations and the world
• has experience with client relations, PR or account management: a true people person who is also terrific at managing projects, tracking details and getting it all done
• loves working with a team to generate ideas and deliverables that are more creative than what you could achieve flying solo
• shares our excitement about how social media can support organizational innovation and progressive social change.

The posting's here. We're looking for someone who's as immersed in this weird and wonderful world of social media as we are, someone with a passion for changing the world - or at least their corner of it - and someone who's a delight to work with. If that sounds like you, then please: apply within.

When my daughter and husband were married, a strand of beads was held in their hands. From a crystal bead that came from Great-great Grandmother Sarah's necklace to a stone from their favourite beach, each token holds a message from those who will support them in their marriage.

Just like birthing beads in Africa, where each woman attended by a midwife adds a bead to the midwife's strand, increasing its power and significance, this strand of beads gains its power from the wishes and love of each person who contributed a bead.

I have always loved ritual. As a child, I was more in love with the ritual of the Anglican church service than the Christian faith itself. I loved the music, the chanting, the link with history. When the church dropped the Book of Common Prayer and the use of Latin in daily service, I was ready to leave. I had to be content with the occasional trip to Europe, where, slipping into a Catholic Mass in Rouen, I could feel at home and recite the Latin words without thinking. In labour, I sang the Gloria without even realizing what I was singing. The ritual of recitation (not the faith) brought me strength.

In labour, these remembered rituals can be so potent. I often hear women in labour singing old hymns or songs or nursery rhymes in the shower. Women often revert to their mother tongue in labour, even if they've been speaking English for years. A Ukranian nurse shouting in the hallway has the power to make a woman from Kiev smile and relax. Sometimes, hair brushing, just like a mother will do for a child, will be the link to the past that calms a woman in labour.

At a cesarean birth long ago, Tibetan monks brought in a fuschia-coloured silk scarf, or kata, that had been blessed by the Dalai Lama. That was the first piece of cloth to touch the baby after birth. The OR was transformed by this ritual. The walls seemed to fall away...the surgical steel disappeared. All that seemed to remain was the baby, shining in the light.

Birthing beads, a mala, a blessed kata, a song, a whisper in the ear...these rituals mark our important life events. I wonder what rituals my own children will use to mark the birth of their own children...what rituals I will witness at the births of my clients this year... I wonder.

YouTube users are 1.5 times more attentive and engaged in advertising than TV viewers…

Source: Ads on YouTube have higher impact than on TV.

I’m not sure why anyone is surprised by these findings. It’s a classic question of permission marketing versus interruption marketing.

YouTube ads have to be found, referred to or sought out to be seen. Viewers have explicitly chosen to view them. They can also stop them at any time, skip to the next video or navigate away.

TV ads get bundled into the viewing of TV shows. No one asks for them or chooses to see them. Viewers have limited opportunities to navigate away — change the channel or turn the TV off.

So next time you see someone comparing video on the web with TV, remember they’re not comparing the same things. They’re comparing different modes of marketing.

And one of those modes connects far better with its viewer.

Here’s the full article from behind the wall of New Media Age:

Ads on YouTube have higher impact than on TV

YouTube users are 1.5 times more attentive and engaged in advertising than TV viewers, according to research conducted in partnership with General Motors Europe, Motorola, media agency MindShare and the Online Testing Exchange (OTX).

The research used eye tracking and biometric data to reveal the brand impact of advertising on YouTube. It found recall and attribution for an ad viewed was up to 14% higher than watching the same ad on TV. Viewing a silent ad on YouTube in addition to a normal TV ad also improved ad recall and attribution.
 
Ads on YouTube can impact the perceptions of elusive audiences like young men and infrequent TV viewers. They also have a halo effect and increase brand perceptions such as innovative, cool, dynamic and unconventional.
 
Motorola’s brand metrics increased by four times and GM Europe’s metrics rose three-fold when YouTube impressions were combined with TV.
 
Martin Sir, manager of European media strategies for General Motors Europe, said, “Immersive experiences like YouTube have changed and will further change the way entertainment and branded content is consumed and used.
 
“For GM Europe, distributing video content over the internet is far from novel but doing so in a way that’s always relevant for and engaging to our consumers remains challenging. This research supports us in our pursuit to further embrace these emerging advertising opportunities,” he added.

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Since kicking off the Phones for Fearless campaign collection on Dec. 23rd, the phones are piling up, responses are coming in from far-flung places, and the story appearing in myriad social and traditional media outlets.

We are still accepting donations at Raincity Studios so bring your old devices down to help bridge the digital divide in a very tangible manner. While you are backing up your data and bundling your power cords, here are a few highlights and notes to bring you up to speed on the success so far.

Sun Profiles DTES Artist

Gillian Shaw's blog posts and Vancouver Sun article helped muster another round of exposure for the project. Of particular interest is the way she worked Walter Lynxleg's work into her story with a photo gallery in her 12-21-2008 blog post "Donate your cellphone".

Here's a video interview with Walter Lynxleg (who) "overcame homelessness and is now hoping to put together a book of photos of people living in the neighborhood and the people trying to help them"

Later, Ms. Shaw followed up with Walter's story in the print edition article on December 28, 2008, "Life on the streets seen through a simple lens - Walter Lynxleg, once homeless, uses a cellphone camera to record life in his Downtown Eastside community."

Walter is quoted saying, "I was homeless," said Lynxleg. "Then I got a job and managed to save enough money to get a place to live. Now I take photos of people who are helping people on the Downtown Eastside. I am planning to publish it in a book that I am calling Angels Without Wings."

Walter is now the recipient of a video camera and training from Steve Jaagger (Reached.com) who explains, "I'll give him a seat in our video class and I'll give him a video camera," said Jagger. "He can go into an Internet cafe and store his videos on YouTube. Guys like Walter are trying, all they need is a little bit of help. He is very passionate about the whole native thing. He wants to finish his Grade 12 and go back to his community and start showing the young guys -- you can do something."

Thanks Gillian for providing this sterling example of a complimentary relationship between "social" and "trad" media - (note: we really need better terms or no terms to describe these artificial differences)

Fearless in West Ender, tabloid edition

Jackie Wong from WE (WestEnder) gave a call to talk about the campaign. She asked how the phones would be used, how we used social media to spread the word, and why Raincity Studios is involved. I won't answer all the questions here, instead read the article "Technology for All - Campaign seeks to put discarded electronics into the hands of the poor" from the January 1~7 2009 edition. To whet your appetite here's a photo of poster boy, Kris Krug holding a copy of the print version complete with his photo supplied by yep, me ;-) plus a quote from yours truly about the campaign tactics:

Developers at Raincity Studios have been using Twitter, Flickr, and blogging platforms to spread the word of the Phones for Fearless campaign. “The thing that’s neat about using tools like Twitter, blogs, and Flickr is it opens us up to a much bigger audience,” says Dave Olson of Raincity Studios. “We’re getting responses from California and Ottawa. It really gives us an opportunity to amplify our message to a much wider area, and much more quickly.”

Gallery of Donators

We've tried to snap a picture of each donator, along with a festive message and their phone. This helps put a face to the donation and thanks everyone for their generosity. Big ups to Lorraine Raincoaster for creating a custom blog post of gratitude for each person.

Did you donate? Go to fearlesscity.ca Media Arts section to see your dossier. Add a comment if we missed your blog/twitter/whatever link.

Along with publishing a custom blog post for each donator Raincoaster published a massive blog post round up in Phones for Fearless: Day 1 and Phones for Fearless Campaign Update along with a barrage of Twitters (via @raincoaster and @fearlesscity).

Selected Posts

Here are a few quick hits of my fave posts from the plenty (more phonesforfearless posts on the Fearless City blog):

Phones for Fearless 2008 » Vancouver Blog Miss 604 by Rebecca Bollwitt

Stylefinds: Phones for Fearless CityPhones for Fearless | ChalkedUp

Creativity at Work - Phones for Fearless! Donate your old phones to change lives

Lowther Rinse Repeat » Fearless City Cell Phone Drive

Fade to Play » Mobilised for Fearless! and Do you have an old phone? Please donate it to Fearless City

Please donate your mobiles to Fearless, see you tomorrow! | Roland

Say no to gadget clutter, donate to Fearless City

Hmm, Does this Twitter Thing Really Work…? « Me Like The Interweb

and my very fave from Sean Orr's Chalked up:

A Christmas Miracle just happened. Sort of. I was mobbed by a pack of elves. Not just any elves however, these were social media elves and they were all a twitter. One of them handed me a bottle of homebrewed winter ale (for my Dad), another a tasty chocolate, one of them handed me a pen to write a message to the homeless and took my picture holding it up, while yet another packed a bowl for me to smoke! How festive! All I had to do apparently was get on my toboggan and spread the word! Give us your used phones!!! I would give them mine, but I just bought my first cell last year. DO THIS.

Mobile Geekery

Finally, if you want to know more about the mobile tech Fearless City and partners are brewing up, listen to the podcast with Roland Tanglao and I riffing about Mobile Non-Profit Campaigns and Projects - on Raincity Radio and Roland's epic post SMS Framework + FeedAPI = SIFT awesomeness for Fearless and Whistler.

Here's the podcast blurb and link pack for your convenience:

Mobile technology can change the world - or at least help people express themselves with art and improve safety too. Raincity Studios' Support Services Coordinator and digital experimentalist, Roland Tanglao discuss an assortment of mobile-themed projects and initiatives with host DaveO including:

• Sift Tool
• Mobile Muse
• Vancouver Art Gallery Fuse night
• Homeless Nation
• Fearless City
• Phones for Fearless campaign

Recap

1. Used mobile cell phones and digital cameras are still accepted at Raincity Studios
2. Check out Phones for Fearless blog/photo galleries, add comments, favourites etc.
3. Drop a comment if we missed your post or donation - we aim to please ;)

Since kicking off the Phones for Fearless campaign collection on Dec. 23rd, the phones are piling up, responses are coming in from far-flung places, and the story appearing in myriad social and traditional media outlets.

We are still accepting donations at Raincity Studios so bring your old devices down to help bridge the digital divide in a very tangible manner. While you are backing up your data and bundling your power cords, here are a few highlights and notes to bring you up to speed on the success so far.

Sun Profiles DTES Artist

Gillian Shaw's blog posts and Vancouver Sun article helped muster another round of exposure for the project. Of particular interest is the way she worked Walter Lynxleg's work into her story with a photo gallery in her 12-21-2008 blog post "Donate your cellphone".

Here's a video interview with Walter Lynxleg (who) "overcame homelessness and is now hoping to put together a book of photos of people living in the neighborhood and the people trying to help them"

Later, Ms. Shaw followed up with Walter's story in the print edition article on December 28, 2008, "Life on the streets seen through a simple lens - Walter Lynxleg, once homeless, uses a cellphone camera to record life in his Downtown Eastside community."

Walter is quoted saying, "I was homeless," said Lynxleg. "Then I got a job and managed to save enough money to get a place to live. Now I take photos of people who are helping people on the Downtown Eastside. I am planning to publish it in a book that I am calling Angels Without Wings."

Walter is now the recipient of a video camera and training from Steve Jaagger (Reached.com) who explains, "I'll give him a seat in our video class and I'll give him a video camera," said Jagger. "He can go into an Internet cafe and store his videos on YouTube. Guys like Walter are trying, all they need is a little bit of help. He is very passionate about the whole native thing. He wants to finish his Grade 12 and go back to his community and start showing the young guys -- you can do something."

Thanks Gillian for providing this sterling example of a complimentary relationship between "social" and "trad" media - (note: we really need better terms or no terms to describe these artificial differences)

Fearless in West Ender, tabloid edition

Jackie Wong from WE (WestEnder) gave a call to talk about the campaign. She asked how the phones would be used, how we used social media to spread the word, and why Raincity Studios is involved. I won't answer all the questions here, instead read the article "Technology for All - Campaign seeks to put discarded electronics into the hands of the poor" from the January 1~7 2009 edition. To whet your appetite here's a photo of poster boy, Kris Krug holding a copy of the print version complete with his photo supplied by yep, me ;-) plus a quote from yours truly about the campaign tactics:

Developers at Raincity Studios have been using Twitter, Flickr, and blogging platforms to spread the word of the Phones for Fearless campaign. “The thing that’s neat about using tools like Twitter, blogs, and Flickr is it opens us up to a much bigger audience,” says Dave Olson of Raincity Studios. “We’re getting responses from California and Ottawa. It really gives us an opportunity to amplify our message to a much wider area, and much more quickly.”

Gallery of Donators

We've tried to snap a picture of each donator, along with a festive message and their phone. This helps put a face to the donation and thanks everyone for their generosity. Big ups to Lorraine Raincoaster for creating a custom blog post of gratitude for each person.

Did you donate? Go to fearlesscity.ca Media Arts section to see your dossier. Add a comment if we missed your blog/twitter/whatever link.

Along with publishing a custom blog post for each donator Raincoaster published a massive blog post round up in Phones for Fearless: Day 1 and Phones for Fearless Campaign Update along with a barrage of Twitters (via @raincoaster and @fearlesscity).

Selected Posts

Here are a few quick hits of my fave posts from the plenty (more phonesforfearless posts on the Fearless City blog):

Phones for Fearless 2008 » Vancouver Blog Miss 604 by Rebecca Bollwitt

Stylefinds: Phones for Fearless CityPhones for Fearless | ChalkedUp

Creativity at Work - Phones for Fearless! Donate your old phones to change lives

Lowther Rinse Repeat » Fearless City Cell Phone Drive

Fade to Play » Mobilised for Fearless! and Do you have an old phone? Please donate it to Fearless City

Please donate your mobiles to Fearless, see you tomorrow! | Roland

Say no to gadget clutter, donate to Fearless City

Hmm, Does this Twitter Thing Really Work…? « Me Like The Interweb

and my very fave from Sean Orr's Chalked up:

A Christmas Miracle just happened. Sort of. I was mobbed by a pack of elves. Not just any elves however, these were social media elves and they were all a twitter. One of them handed me a bottle of homebrewed winter ale (for my Dad), another a tasty chocolate, one of them handed me a pen to write a message to the homeless and took my picture holding it up, while yet another packed a bowl for me to smoke! How festive! All I had to do apparently was get on my toboggan and spread the word! Give us your used phones!!! I would give them mine, but I just bought my first cell last year. DO THIS.

Mobile Geekery

Finally, if you want to know more about the mobile tech Fearless City and partners are brewing up, listen to the podcast with Roland Tanglao and I riffing about Mobile Non-Profit Campaigns and Projects - on Raincity Radio and Roland's epic post SMS Framework + FeedAPI = SIFT awesomeness for Fearless and Whistler.

Here's the podcast blurb and link pack for your convenience:

Mobile technology can change the world - or at least help people express themselves with art and improve safety too. Raincity Studios' Support Services Coordinator and digital experimentalist, Roland Tanglao discuss an assortment of mobile-themed projects and initiatives with host DaveO including:

• Sift Tool
• Mobile Muse
• Vancouver Art Gallery Fuse night
• Homeless Nation
• Fearless City
• Phones for Fearless campaign

Recap

1. Used mobile cell phones and digital cameras are still accepted at Raincity Studios
2. Check out Phones for Fearless blog/photo galleries, add comments, favourites etc.
3. Drop a comment if we missed your post or donation - we aim to please ;)

The final variable in the Marketing Experiments conversion sequence is “a” for anxiety about following through with a purchase.

Some of this anxiety is about the product, some is about you as a retailer. You must address both. And unlike friction (resistance) which must be minimized and balanced with an attractive incentive, anxiety needs aggressive overcorrection on your website.

Ecommerce anxiety comes in a number of flavors, including fears about:

• Quality of the product
• Quality and reliability of your customer service
• Will the item arrive on time?
• Will the product be as described or as appears on screen? Is it the right color or size?
• Will it fit? Is this item true to size?
• What if the product needs to be returned?
• Is this site secure (privacy, credit card information)?
• Is this really the best price?

Today’s post will focus on anxiety on the product page specifically.

Addressing Anxiety About the Product on Product Pages

The e-tailing group conducted a consumer survey last summer and found that product descriptions were the most important to help make a purchase decision, followed by the merchant’s guarantee, stock availability and quality of images. (One can assume for certain categories like jewelry and apparel, images are even more important).

The survey also found:

• 76% believe content is insufficient to complete research or purchase online “always, most often or some of the time”
• 79% “rarely or never” purchase a product without complete product information
• 72% will abandon a site for a competitor or research further online, typically finding what they want elsewhere

Product Descriptions

One of the most effective ways to address customer fears in product descriptions is to research what actual buyers of the product care about by reading customer reviews — including reviews on other sites like Amazon, Buzzillions and competitors.

Product Images

Multiple views and zoom tools are very helpful for customers to get a closer look of a 2-dimensional image. Showing products in context can dramatically improve conversion because it shows the relative size of an item, what it can hold, how it looks on a person and so on.

The increasing use of video merchandising like Martin + Osa’s shop-by-outfit and Tiger Direct’s video reviews/demos are also effective.

Customer Reviews

There are many statistics touting the virtues of customer reviews, even negative reviews, improve conversion because it gives customers more information about a product (that doesn’t come out of a marketer’s mouth) and a better sense of trust.

Beyond just having reviews, the usability of your reviews can improve conversion, like allowing customers to hone in on 1 star reviews or 5 star reviews:

Or allowing products to be rated by attributes:

Amazon also allows customers to vote reviews as helpful and not helpful, and shows the top positive and top negative reviews, and allows search within all reviews:

Pluribo is also an exciting technology that uses natural language data mining to summarize a product’s strengths and weaknesses extracted from a number of product reviews. So far, it’s only available for select categories on Amazon through a Firefox browser extension.

But Amazon doesn’t have all the review-toys, Shoes.com uses Bazaarvoice’s Ask & Answer product, and Shoeline has its own Return-o-Meter to reduce customer fears about products.

Stock Availability

Showing that an item is in stock is good usability, as well as sizes and colors in stock without the customer having to add to cart to find out. Nine West does this well with rollovers and broken outlines:

Overstock creates a bit of anxiety — good anxiety (urgency) on products close to selling out:

Limited Inventory!
Sell out Risk: VERY HIGH
In Stock if you order today: Leaves our warehouse in 1-3 business days.

Note the buying guide link and “you can always remove it later” assurance are appropriately placed as these are other fears customers may have.

Next Free Ecommerce Webinar...

Selecting the Right Ecommerce Software in Six Weeks or Less
When: January 21st, 2009 @ 9am PT/12pm ET
Panelists:
Bill Mirabito, Founder and Principal Analyst, B2C Partners
Jason Billingsley, VP Innovation, Elastic Path Software
Register to Attend...

You may also like these similar posts:

• Using Product Images to Reduce Size and Color Fears
• Trigger Email: Asking for Customer Reviews & Video Reviews
• Do Customer Submitted Photos Add Value?
• Can Product Images Improve Conversion? Showing Products in Context
• Improving Product Descriptions Using Competitor Customer Reviews

It's still snowing outside, so I'm just going to think ahead to the summer. I'm really sad (but, oh, so happy) to say that we'll be away in Scotland, England, and France from August 3rd until September 8th.

Returning clients have already started to call for the month of August, and I've had to break the news gently. I do hope that any other returning clients who are due in August will still call and use me as a resource (I'm always here for you to call!) But, you may want to consider working with my favourite midwives for this pregnancy! You'll be in amazing hands.

I'm still accepting 2-3 more clients per month for due dates in March, April, May, June and up to July 15th...then from September 15th through the Fall. So, if hiring a doula is on your to-do list...please don't put it off. It's shaping up to be a busy year!

We’re taking a closer at several personal “life stream” platforms, in a effort to discover which offers the best options and features, based on my own set of criteria.

I explained the problem that spawned this little experiment in a previous post on my personal blog, but I’ll sum it up again here briefly. As an online marketer, photographer, “micro-blogger,” and multi-media hobbyist, I’m quite active on the web. I contribute to about 7 blogs regularly, two of those self-hosted, but still a visit to my existing personal blog doesn’t serve as evidence of that activity at all. And since I’ve chosen a Wordpress.com hosted site for JordanBehan.com, it doesn’t allow for Javascript widgets or auto-posts from the likes of Flickr or Twitter to reflect that activity.

And so my quest has been to find a “life feed” site of sorts, that will be an accurate representation of the rest of my web activity mixed in with my infrequent personal blog posts. Hence, we dissect the features available from Tumblr.com, Soup.io, OnSugar.com and StoryTlr. I’ve experimented with all four (and many more I assure you) and pitted these against one another in a “Battle Royale-esque” cage match. Let’s size up our challengers:

Tumblr

The Tale of the Tape: Popular among Valley elite types, I had high hopes for Tumblr when I first signed up. An app with this much web cred certainly enters this battle as a heavy favorite.

The Blob by Blow: With the ability to display feeds from a number of sources and services, custom CSS and custom domain options, Tumblr comes out swinging and delivers on everything it promises.

The Decision: Without the ability to create on-site pages or menu navigation of any kind, Tumblr simply doesn’t promise enough, and does not emerge as the victor in our little mano-y-mano. My Tumblog remains live, but unless Tumblr starts rolling our features like Wal Mart rolls back prices, it’s not long for this world.

Soup.io

The Tale of the Tape: Soup enters this battle as one of two underdogs, but the little app from Austria punches way above its weight. Soup has all the functionality of Tumblr with a different (and after a short adjustment period, decidedly better) user interface (UI) for posting items and site layout/design. Offering free custom CSS and free domain mapping, Soup is a serious contender, especially for the price.

The Blow by Blow: For starters, I should mention that moments after joining Soup (and Twittering about it), I had received personal messages from the founder, and both the Soup account and Soup founder Christopher Clay were following me on Twitter. Big bonus points there. But while Soup offers the ability to write a site description with html (effectively letting me hack together a site menu) its lack of pages and real menu options still limit its potential to be our overall winner.

The Decision: I had early excitement about Soup, and had been using it for a cute little romantic project I built for my wife at Nubnoo.com. For this purpose; themed feeds based on search criteria, Soup is an ace. Alas, while I still have my personal Soup feed live and I hold a great deal of sentiment for it, it too comes up short in this project packed with pugilistic puns.

OnSugar.com

The Tale of the Tape: As more of a personal blog platform, and less of a “life stream” service, OnSugar is a bit out of place on this list. Still, I wanted to have a look at its features and offerings. After all, a new blog platform? Well it must be better, right?

The Blob by Blow: OnSugar is easy to use, looks great and does most everything that a personal blogger would want it to do. Except unfortunately for the aforementioned auto-posting from feeds, etc. OnSugar founder Bob Sugar replied to me on Twitter when I talked about this pending post, so he too deserves some credit for the personal touch.

The Decision: Sadly, OnSugar is a mere also-ran in this particular battle, as it doesn’t meet the basic criteria of the contest in question. Still, if you’re looking for a great free blog platform as an alternative to Wordpress.com and the like, it’s worth a look.

StoryTlr.com

The Tale of the Tape: It’s built by just two dudes, one in in Belgium and one in the Netherlands. How good could it be? From their About page: “eschnou is our PHP Wizard and alardw the CSS Ninja.” The homepage presents a compelling set of solutions, so this little tool edges its way into our contest as a huge underdog.

The Blow by Blow: Storytlr displays content in two ways: As a “Lifestream” or as “Stories,” which are determined by a start and end date, and comprised of all items from your feed published during that time. As an example, I made a “story” of my trip to Korea last year. While it does not offer me pages or top of page menu navigation, it does offer a detailed “widgetized” sidebar that is satisfactory. Additionally, Storytlr lets you export any of your feeds as a .csv with one click, which is a neat little option for end users wanting to create a simple backup of their publishings.

The Decision: Since a winner must be declared in this tete-a-tete, it’s time to call it. The Champion, by decision, is none other than this surprisingly useful little tool called Storytlr. It offered more functionality, a great UI and the right set of options to almost completely solve my personal site dilemma. No surprise either, when you consider that a certian French blogging visionary seeded the idea in their heads:

From the Storytlr “About” page: A few months ago we saw this video from Loic Lemeur who was asking about a way to help him build ‘the centralized me’. We liked the idea because it sounded like reinventing the good old ‘personal page’, realizing that a blog can only capture one angle of what we did online. More over, we felt that this page had to be personal, and not yet another profile page locked in a social network, and plastered with company branding.

The Conclusion: I’ve ably documented some of the strengths and weaknesses of many of the above contenders, and as the dust settles I’m left with a decision: stick with Wordpress and continue with a mostly inactive site, or switch completely to Storytlr, and instead show a noisy feed of Twitters, pics and sundry blog posts. If I am to do the latter, I have a few feature requests for the two Euro whiz kids in question:

1. The ability to create pages, and have them displayed in the top menu navigation below the header.
2. The links to “My 2.0 Life” are great, but they should (have the option of a) link to the profiles in question, not just the feeds.
3. Let me change the names of the Headlines, Tabs, etc. (ie. “Lifestream” = Jordan’s Stuff, “My 2.0 Life” = Anything but “My 2.0 Life”)

If I start to see some of these developing, I’d be happy to pay for the service, fellas.
That concludes this little webby rope-a-dope for now. I’m glad I went through the exercise for a number of reasons, but feel as though it is anything but complete. I hope that you will offer your suggestions and ideas in the comments. I’ll update you on any new findings or game-changing feature releases from these competitors and others in the space.

To a software developer, there is nothing more gratifying than seeing your software being deployed and used in the real world. It's a cliché with awesome truth: real artists ship (mugs above!)! Over the last year and a bit, I have been involved in the Raincity SIFT Tool which is an SMS, MMS and RSS text, photo and video social media aggregator (check out the fabulous SIFT and mobile podcast recorded with the incomparable Dave Olson if you want to hear me pontificate about this in a vocal stylee!) developed for New Media BC's Mobile Muse 3 mobile cultural and artistic research platform. Over the last six months or so, SIFT has been deployed and used very very successfully in many many events by Vancouver's Fearless City and the Resort Municipality of Whistler. After the jump: highlights of those events, and more on the people and technology behind SIFT.

SIFT has been used in over half a dozen events primarily by Mobile Muse Showcase Partners, Fearless City and Whistler, here are some highlights:

• Car Free Vancouver 2008
• Mobile Swarm
• Parade of the Lost Souls 2008
• Whistler Film Festival
• Mobile FUSE 2008

SIFT, being a Raincity project, is built on Drupal. In particular the Drupal 5 SMS Framework which Tylor Sherman (RCS alumnus now back at school) contributed greatly to. As well other excellent Drupal modules from the community such as FeedAPI which forms the basis of Placeblogger and many other RCS projects and others' sites on the web.

What's next? Well the SMS Framework continues to thrive. I think there's a great future for old skool archaic but ubiquitous mobile and voice services to be integrated further into the web. Developers shouldn't have to learn arcana about crusty 'ole telco and mobileco protocols and services and should be able to access voice, SMS, MMS, and other mobile, voice and telco services through more modern interfaces like REST. Like the Mobile Muse 3 Platform, twilio, iotum and others are doing for example!

Finally, there's a myth of software being developed by the "lone wolf". In my experience that's simply not true. A lot of great stuff gets started by one person or a very small team but to bring it to production quality and fruition, a larger team is required. The RCS folks who contributed in alphabetical order complete with hockey analogies of their contributions are:

• Ronan Berder (GM of the Shanghai team who helped the Shanghai team execute in the third period)
• Richard Eriksson (Ran the zamboni to allow the other players to shine on the ice!)
• Audrey Foo (Last minute cleanup of the rink including feedapi and other housekeeping)
• Steve Krueger (Theming for first and second periods)
• Niall Morgan (Third period theming from an RCS up and coming rookie)
• Boris Mann (Coach and GM for the first first two and a half periods)
• Tylor Sherman (Youthful Star centre up from the minors for the first two periods)
• Roland Tanglao (Yours truly: assistant coach for the first two and a half periods, GM and coach for the last half period)
• Harry Wang (Star winger for the third "UI revamp" period)
• Makara Wang (China's 'great one', who polished off Drush, YouTube, SMS and MMS and other tech opponents in the third period with aplomb and gusto that would make Don Cherry proud!)

To a software developer, there is nothing more gratifying than seeing your software being deployed and used in the real world. It's a cliché with awesome truth: real artists ship (mugs above!)! Over the last year and a bit, I have been involved in the Raincity SIFT Tool which is an SMS, MMS and RSS text, photo and video social media aggregator (check out the fabulous SIFT and mobile podcast recorded with the incomparable Dave Olson if you want to hear me pontificate about this in a vocal stylee!) developed for New Media BC's Mobile Muse 3 mobile cultural and artistic research platform. Over the last six months or so, SIFT has been deployed and used very very successfully in many many events by Vancouver's Fearless City and the Resort Municipality of Whistler. After the jump: highlights of those events, and more on the people and technology behind SIFT.

SIFT has been used in over half a dozen events primarily by Mobile Muse Showcase Partners, Fearless City and Whistler, here are some highlights:

• Car Free Vancouver 2008
• Mobile Swarm
• Parade of the Lost Souls 2008
• Whistler Film Festival
• Mobile FUSE 2008

SIFT, being a Raincity project, is built on Drupal. In particular the Drupal 5 SMS Framework which Tylor Sherman (RCS alumnus now back at school) contributed greatly to. As well other excellent Drupal modules from the community such as FeedAPI which forms the basis of Placeblogger and many other RCS projects and others' sites on the web.

What's next? Well the SMS Framework continues to thrive. I think there's a great future for old skool archaic but ubiquitous mobile and voice services to be integrated further into the web. Developers shouldn't have to learn arcana about crusty 'ole telco and mobileco protocols and services and should be able to access voice, SMS, MMS, and other mobile, voice and telco services through more modern interfaces like REST. Like the Mobile Muse 3 Platform, twilio, iotum and others are doing for example!

Finally, there's a myth of software being developed by the "lone wolf". In my experience that's simply not true. A lot of great stuff gets started by one person or a very small team but to bring it to production quality and fruition, a larger team is required. The RCS folks who contributed in alphabetical order complete with hockey analogies of their contributions are:

• Ronan Berder (GM of the Shanghai team who helped the Shanghai team execute in the third period)
• Richard Eriksson (Ran the zamboni to allow the other players to shine on the ice!)
• Audrey Foo (Last minute cleanup of the rink including feedapi and other housekeeping)
• Steve Krueger (Theming for first and second periods)
• Niall Morgan (Third period theming from an RCS up and coming rookie)
• Boris Mann (Coach and GM for the first first two and a half periods)
• Tylor Sherman (Youthful Star centre up from the minors for the first two periods)
• Roland Tanglao (Yours truly: assistant coach for the first two and a half periods, GM and coach for the last half period)
• Harry Wang (Star winger for the third "UI revamp" period)
• Makara Wang (China's 'great one', who polished off Drush, YouTube, SMS and MMS and other tech opponents in the third period with aplomb and gusto that would make Don Cherry proud!)

Despite the fact we just wrapped up the holiday season and rang in a new year, the 2008 economic crash has some people feeling a little glum. It is the most serious economic crisis we have faced since the Great Depression, so I can understand.

Global stock markets fell as much as 20% in a single week, dozens of banks either failed or were rescued by government and private institutions, companies started laying off employees because of reduced demand and the big three automotive companies got multi-billion dollar Christmas loans.

But cheer up emo investor!

BusinessPundit.com has served up some pretty humorous remixed logos to help you keep your chin up durring these financially stressful times. enjoy.

Collage assembled by flickr user wmliu.

Original story and logos by www.businesspundit.com

addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fblog.adhack.com%2F2009%2F01%2F02%2Frecession-inspired-logo-remixes%2F'; addthis_title = 'Recession+inspired+logo+remixes'; addthis_pub = '';

If you’re new here, welcome! And thanks for subscribing to Get Elastic. Friday is Blogger Digest day where we highlight posts from other blogs that are of value and interest to online retailers and Internet marketers.

• Rand Fishkin’s 10 Irrational Human Behaviors and How to Leverage Them to Improve Web Marketing is a phenomenal post based on Chris Yeh’s Outline of Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions. It’s full of interesting facts and take-aways - very relevant to ecommerce. Example:

III: The Cost of Zero Cost

In the real world, this effect was demonstrated by Amazon’s free shipping. After Super Saver shipping was introduced, Amazon saw sales increases everywhere except for France. It turned out that the French division offered 1 franc ($0.20) pricing instead of free pricing. When this was changed to free, France saw the same sales increases as elsewhere. Another real-world example: People will wait in line for absurdly long times to get something for free. Free is one of the most powerful ways to trigger behavior.

Lessons to Apply to Web Marketing:

*Offer free stuff, but make sure you get ROI from it (traffic/ad views/email addresses/etc)
*Be prepared for the fact that people will ENJOY free stuff more than normal, simply because it is free. Use this to your advantage and give away to those whose love & affection you need (reporters, bloggers, pundits, haters, etc.)
*Making people work to get something for free is a great way to trigger behaviors that might otherwise cost a fortune (think web surveys, information classification, data entry, etc.)

• Kevin Hillstrom illustrates how search overstates Email ROI.

• A recent ForeSee report shows many retailers’ e-stores declined in customer satisfaction this year, one of the hardest to fall being Gap. ForeSee suggests the 4-in-1 checkout diluting the Gap brands may be to blame, but it could be a mix of factors.

• Have you so far tuned out of the Twitter talk on the blogosphere and feel the need now to get up to Tweet? Check out 20 notable posts about Twitter.

• ShopNBC and MyWeddingFavors report huge conversion gains from using video online. Are we far away from video being the new product image? Anna Yeaman from Style Campaign interviews Kendall Rhodes on online video production and success strategies.

• In Should all Departments Have “Customer Experience” as their Number One Priority? Arianna from PlumberSurplus explains a situation involving a return that the retailer had to disapprove because it fell outside of its RMA (Returned Merchandise Authorization policy). She asks retailers to join the discussion on where the line should be drawn between company and customer responsibility, when should you meet in the middle and when does it become completely unprofitable to do so?

Hope you all had a wonderful New Year.

Next Free Ecommerce Webinar...

Selecting the Right Ecommerce Software in Six Weeks or Less
When: January 21st, 2009 @ 9am PT/12pm ET
Panelists:
Bill Mirabito, Founder and Principal Analyst, B2C Partners
Jason Billingsley, VP Innovation, Elastic Path Software
Register to Attend...

You may also like these similar posts:

• Thoughts on Shipping from StartUp Nation
• Yes Virginia There Is a Santa Claus & He Searches for Free Shipping
• Bloggers Digest 10/17/08
• Amazon M-Commerce: Introducing Text-Buy-It
• Are Dollar Discounts the Worst Incentives?

News of a drop in holiday sales comes as no surprise this year. Overall holiday retail sales were down 5.5% in the month of November, and 8% in December up to the day before Christmas, compared to the same periods in 2007, according to MasterCard Advisors, a subsidiary of MasterCard Worldwide. But wait! eCommerce sales were [...]

It’s the end of an exciting year for Get Elastic. Thank you to all our readers who have subscribed, forwarded, Tweeted posts and voted for Get Elastic in various contests. Happy New Year to you all, and if you’re a new reader, here’s a recap of the best of Get Elastic, 2008!

January

Webinar:

12 Things Retailers Must Learn from Christmas ‘07 with Linda Bustos of Elastic Path Software + companion blog post

3 posts to check out:

Cross-Selling Tips for eCommerce
Hack Week Part 2 - Using Google Trends for International Search Marketing
Using Geo-IP to Tailor Content Delivery

February

Webinar:

Love Your Landing Pages with Ayat Shukairy of Invesp Consulting + blog recap

3 posts to check out:

Continue Shopping Means What?
Make Email Look Good In Gmail - 8 Design Tips for Images-Off
Social Media With a Side of SEO: Hold the Spam

March

Webinars:

Jon Stewart or Oprah: What’s Your Website Personality? with Carolyn Gardner of Sitebrand + blog recap
Effective Merchandising: What Sells? with Mike Svatek of Baynote + blog recap

3 posts to check out:

Tracking Affiliate Orders Through Telephone Sales
Tips for Tracking Offline Orders: PPC and Catalog
How to Ask for Customer Reviews - Nicely.

April

Webinar:

Web Analytics for Online Retailers with Eric T. Peterson from Web Analytics Demystified + blog recap

3 posts to check out:

Optimizing for Product Colors: Long Tail Gold or Duplicate Content?
Why Innocent Emails Get Flagged As Spam
Email Marketing Trend: Animated GIFs

May

Webinar:

The Key to PPC for Online Retailers with Ryan Gibson from the Rimm-Kaufman Group
+ blog recap

3 posts to check out:

Top Online Retailers Not Showing Up on Google!
PPC Advertising: Are You Selling Yourself In Your Ads?
404 Not Found Pages: The Good, The Bad & The Funny

Free White Paper:

How to Write an Ecommerce RFP

June

Webinar:

9 Ecommerce Innovations: What’s Now & What’s Next with Jason Billingsley of Elastic Path Software + blog recap

3 posts to check out:

Asking Customers to Go Steady: Tips for Repeat Orders
Using Product Images to Reduce Size and Color Fears
Improving Product Descriptions Using Competitor Customer Reviews

July

Webinar:

3 Things to Die For: Web Analytics Unleashed with Avinash Kaushik from Google Analytics + blog recap

3 posts to check out:

Can Product Images Improve Conversion? Showing Products in Context
Stop Google Analytics From Stealing Your Valuable AdWords Keyword Data
Should You Remove Keywords With Low Click Through Rates?

August

Webinar:

The Art and Science of Choosing Ecommerce Technology with Bernardine Wu of FitForCommerce + blog recap

3 posts to check out:

Yes Virginia There Is a Santa Claus & He Searches for Free Shipping
Holiday SEO: Using Amazon Bestsellers for Keyword Research
The Psychology of Numbers in PPC Ads

September

Webinar:

I Know I Should Be Testing, But with Bryan Eisenberg of Future Now Inc. + blog recap

3 posts to check out:

Optimizing Product Reviews for Different Buyer Personalities
Do Hacker Safe / McAfee Secure Badges Increase Sales?
Uncovering the Hidden Profit Treasures of Your Company

October

Webinar:

Holiday Wishlist for Mobile Commerce with Bill Mirabito of B2C Parnters + blog recap

Delivering an Integrated Ecommerce Experience for Empowered Customers with Josh Lannin of Oracle and Peter Sheldon of Elastic Path Software + blog recap

3 posts to check out:

Free Shipping: Got It? 10 Ways to Flaunt It
How to Find an Online Reputation Manager
Crutchfield Email Covers 4 Buyer Personalities

November

Webinar:

Multi-Store Retailing: Perks and Pitfalls with Jason Billingsley of Elastic Path Software + blog recap

3 posts to check out:

Should Retail Email Sell or Inform? An A/B Split Test Case Study
Tapping Twitter to Understand Customers and Develop Personas
CSN Stores Eases Howsers Last Minute FUDDs

December

Webinar:

Dangerous Marketing Ahead: How to Break Bad Habits and Survive a Deep Recession with Jeff Molander of Molander & Associates and Jonathan Salem Baskin, author of Branding Only Works on Cattle
+ blog recap

3 posts to check out:

Reducing Friction in the Sales Process
Where Will MAP Pricing Lead Online Retail?
Are Cash Discounts the Worst Incentives?

Once again, thank you for reading, subscribing to, commenting on, blogging about, Tweeting and forwarding Get Elastic with others in 2008, and we look forward to carry on the ecommerce marketing conversation with you full bore into 2009.

Next Free Ecommerce Webinar...

Selecting the Right Ecommerce Software in Six Weeks or Less
When: January 21st, 2009 @ 9am PT/12pm ET
Panelists:
Bill Mirabito, Founder and Principal Analyst, B2C Partners
Jason Billingsley, VP Innovation, Elastic Path Software
Register to Attend...

You may also like these similar posts:

• Bloggers Digest 11/07/08
• Bloggers Digest 12/26/08
• Bloggers Digest - 7/11/08
• Bloggers Digest 10/3/08
• Internet Retailer Announces Elastic Path One Page

Get Elastic reader and ecommerce blogger Scott Wilson (aka That Software Guy, The Cart Blog and @thatsoftwareguy) informed me today of a new merchandising tactic on Amazon. It appears Amazon has replaced its “Better Together” cross-sells with bundling. Of course, this could be a split test, but Scott and I both can see this technique in action when we visit Amazon.

Before - Better Together

Screenshot credit: Register Hardware

After - Frequently Bought Together

The customer now has the option to add all 3 to the cart, or pick of the 3. Giving the customer some choice but not too much choice is key here. I imagine the uptake would be far lower if the customer was presented 5 or more choices, simply because it requires too much thinking and could cause a “paradox of choice.”

Word choice: Frequently Bought Together vs. Better Together

Though Better Together sounds more smooth, it could be that there is a higher degree of social trust with “Frequently Bought Together” — it’s more clear on why the cross-sell is presented (rather than head scratchers like marmite and .Mac software. Of course, this could be a short-term test.

I also spotted some product pages pitching “Best Value” cross-sells rather than “Better Together” which may be more appropriate in this economy:

Personally I think this is a great idea, and it’s another reason I’d love to be a fly on the wall in the Amazon web analytics war room.

Next Free Ecommerce Webinar...

Selecting the Right Ecommerce Software in Six Weeks or Less
When: January 21st, 2009 @ 9am PT/12pm ET
Panelists:
Bill Mirabito, Founder and Principal Analyst, B2C Partners
Jason Billingsley, VP Innovation, Elastic Path Software
Register to Attend...

You may also like these similar posts:

• Jason Billingsley Raps With The Cart Blog
• Continue Shopping Means What?
• What do you Recommend? A Guide to Ecommerce Cross-sells
• User Generated Cross-Sells? Why Is Nobody Doing It?
• Amazon Checkout: Do You Really Wanna Get In Bed With Amazon?

Offering a chance to win a shopping spree is a great way to attract customer reviews without paying-for-production. Often this is done through email or on a post-purchase thank you page — but this is the first time I’ve spotted the incentive on a product page:

This screen shot is from Macy’s.

Next Free Ecommerce Webinar...

Selecting the Right Ecommerce Software in Six Weeks or Less
When: January 21st, 2009 @ 9am PT/12pm ET
Panelists:
Bill Mirabito, Founder and Principal Analyst, B2C Partners
Jason Billingsley, VP Innovation, Elastic Path Software
Register to Attend...

You may also like these similar posts:

• How To Ask For Customer Reviews - Nicely.
• Trigger Email: Asking for Customer Reviews & Video Reviews
• Reducing Customer Anxiety About Products on Product Pages
• Turn Customer Reviews Into Word-Of-Mouth Marketing
• Do Customer Submitted Photos Add Value?

Well it’s that time of year…the time where everyone gets together to celebrate the past year and think about the year ahead. Here are few ideas if you are planning on having a party of your own.

They fall in order of how you might like to serve them…the first is Kir Royale, which is simply champagne and cassis - Kir Royale is the perfect beverage to ring in the New Year!

Now when it comes to the food, don’t get too carried away with cooking, remember you want to have a good time as well. Keep it simple by whipping up a few platters. You can’t go wrong with a good cheese platter and a good antipasto platter, full of olives, roasted peppers and sliced meats. Looking for another idea, how about an easy to make, yet delicious smoked salmon platter.

Now for dessert you can make something nice like this yummy banana and browned butter tart, or perhaps you might want to skip dessert all together and go straight for the Irish Coffees!

From all of us here at Rouxbe, we wish you a healthy and happy New Year.

Well it’s that time of year…the time where everyone gets together to celebrate the past year and think about the year ahead. Here are few ideas if you are planning on having a party of your own.

They fall in order of how you might like to serve them…the first is Kir Royale, which is simply champagne and cassis - Kir Royale is the perfect beverage to ring in the New Year!

Now when it comes to the food, don’t get too carried away with cooking, remember you want to have a good time as well. Keep it simple by whipping up a few platters. You can’t go wrong with a good cheese platter and a good antipasto platter, full of olives, roasted peppers and sliced meats. Looking for another idea, how about an easy to make, yet delicious smoked salmon platter.

Now for dessert you can make something nice like this yummy banana and browned butter tart, or perhaps you might want to skip dessert all together and go straight for the Irish Coffees!

From all of us here at Rouxbe, we wish you a healthy and happy New Year.

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