Beginning January 1, online business with consumers in the European Union (EU) is subject to new Value-Added Tax (VAT) rules. If EU-based customers purchase digital goods from your business, this tax change affects you — regardless of where your company is based.
Examples of digital goods are downloadable or electronically transmitted e-books, stock images, music files, software, video footage and training manuals.
Online video is a hit! It’s popularity has some sources calling YouTube the web’s “second search engine.” Then there are stats like these from a study by Animoto (described in this Search Engine Watch post):
In addition, using video on websites is frequently cited for sales conversion impacts of 80 percent on up. (Here’s a link to one such a source. )
Save time and money on shipping this holiday season with the new WooCommerce Stamps.com extension — an option worth considering by anyone operating an online store.
Here’s what you can do with this new extension:
Think “blog post” when you hear the term content marketing? Blogging was one of the earliest content forms and can be a significant element of content marketing — but it’s rarely the only one. Potential elements are numerous and can include email campaigns, an active social media presence, downloadable white papers or e-books, even in-person events.
Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as “the strategic approach of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.” Key aspects of the approach are providing information (content) that educates, entertains and engages members of the target audience, establishing the content provider as an accessible authority on the matter at hand, and developing a relationship of trust and loyalty with audience members.
Is your website ready for holiday shoppers? Earlier this month, Shop.org released its 2014 online holiday sales forecast. The National Retail Federation’s digital retail division predicted an increase in November and December of 8 to 11 percent over last year – anticipating up to $105 billion in e-commerce transactions this holiday season.
With this optimistic forecast in mind, those who operate online stores have only a couple of weeks to finalize preparations for the shopping rush. Here is a checklist to determine your readiness:
Increasingly, we’re hearing from clients and prospects who are seeking help with optimizing the online search results for their business website. Search engine optimization (SEO) is an essential part of successful online marketing.
Interested in knowing more about SEO? Check out our July post on the topic.
Once initial SEO measures are in place, it is important to monitor your results going forward. Doing so will keep you informed about what is and is not working and help you identify early-stage problems – like a “healthcare” check-up for your website. Each time you monitor your results, you will have information to help you make adjustments for maintaining or improving your search results.
Do you operate an online store with WooCommerce? We work with a number of businesses that are successfully operating e-stores using this WordPress plugin.
That’s why we are pleased to share the good news that WooCommerce has released its new iPhone App.
Now iPhone and iPod users with a WooCommerce e-store can easily stay connected to their store on the go.
Have you jumped into the world of content marketing or blogging? Small business owners who have been hanging around us for awhile have likely heard about the benefits of posting new content regularly on their websites, with blogging being one way to accomplish this. Last year, we published an introduction to content marketing and its importance for small businesses as well as follow up posts on strategy and tips for busy business owners.
If you’re publishing regular content on your site, then you want to get as much mileage as possible from that content. (We know the time and effort it takes!) We recently found a KISSmetrics post that addresses this subject, providing advice on using social media to do just that, and we dedicate this post to sharing their insights.