This is a short follow up post to my article on Are Coupon Code Searches Costing Our Online Store Money?. I got a lot of good responses and just wanted to summarize some of the main points. Ultimately, I decided to make a small change to our store based on one particular reader’s input and I wanted to talk about the effect this change had after just 2 days of operation. Usually, two days of testing means absolutely nothing but in this case, it firmly cemented in my head what I needed to do.
From the comments, pretty much everyone agreed that as a customer, seeing a coupon code field and not actually having a coupon code carries a negative psychological effect on the whole shopping experience.
For one thing, most of you that responded stated that seeing an empty coupon field is an instant signal to go off …
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Every couple of months, I take an in depth look at the search keywords that people use to arrive at our online store. In addition, I also use keyword tools to see whether people are doing searches for our business directly.
Photo By MissMessie
Much to my surprise, I found that some amount of searches were for the term “Bumblebee Linens coupons” or “hanky coupons bumblebee” etc… I guess it’s only natural that shoppers search for coupons.
But the truth is that we rarely give out coupons yet we prominently display a coupon code field during checkout. The fact that customers are looking for coupons makes me wonder whether they are prematurely exiting the checkout process in search for nonexistant discounts.
Why We Don’t Issue Coupons Very Often
There are different schools of thought when it comes to coupons. Some companies always have coupon codes outstanding as a way to entice customers …
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When I first saw the title of Adam’s new book, I thought to myself…”Why would I possibly want to unautomate my finances?” If I’m getting by with the status quo, why would I ever need to change things up?
The truth is that there are a lot of us who are just coasting through our financial lives and living from paycheck to paycheck. And because we still manage to get by, we tend to ignore all of the little things that negatively affect our financial livelihood in the long term.
In his book, Adam provides concrete steps and tutorials on how to “unautomate your finances”. In other words, he teaches us how to re-sensitize our financial lives, to start saving and to stop getting by with excessive debt.
Who Is Adam Baker and Why Should I Listen To Him?
For all of you who don’t know Adam, he …
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Adwords, like any tool, is a double edged sword. If used improperly, it can flush your money down the drain. But used correctly, it can be a very powerful driver of sales to your online store. The main problem however, is that most new users fall into the money wasting category.
One of the biggest mistakes that newbie Adwords users make is to misuse broad matching keywords with their campaigns. To illustrate my point, I’d like to tell you about some of the boneheaded mistakes that I made early on with our Adwords campaigns.
As I mentioned in some of my previous articles on How To Use Adwords The Right Way With Your Online Store and The Realities Of Using Adwords Effectively, finding the right keywords to use is an iterative process that requires patience and the right tools. And the only way to refine your campaigns properly …
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Many personal finance and “get out of debt” blogs often advise their readers to avoid the use of credit cards at all costs. For some people, it’s all too tempting to buy more than you need and waste money on frivolous items when all you have to do is hand over a piece of plastic. By paying for everything in cash, you force yourself to correlate the cost of the items that you buy with actual dollar values which in theory helps curb your spending.
Photo By Andres Rueda
While these mind games work for the average individual, when it comes to running a small business, credit cards are an absolute must. My personal opinion is that if you lack the self control to watch your spending, then you have no business becoming an entrepreneur either. When running a small business, it’s important to watch what you …
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Ever since my wife and I bought our new home, we’ve been using a variety of contractors to help change a few things around the house. For example, we had new tile and carpets put in, changed the layout of the house a little bit and had the outside of the house painted as well. While everything we remodeled turned out okay, overall our experiences were a mixed bag and it had nothing to do with the quality of the work that was done.
Photo By Atomicshark
In fact, every one of my contractors did a fantastic job at whatever was assigned to them, yet I would probably not recommend at least 2 of the 3 contractors to friends or use them ever again. Why? It’s because it takes more than a good job to leave a lasting good impression on a customer. Sometimes even a small …
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The other day, I was having a conversation with a friend who works at a popular search engine company, and he was telling me about some of the idiotic ways people use their web browser. Did you know that the majority of people type in their search query straight into the URL box at the top of the browser? Did you also know that a good number of people don’t use search at all and instead just append a .com to whatever they are looking for?
Photo by Dana-2
It’s funny because as he was telling me these things, he was expecting me to look surprised and shocked but instead, I just stood there and smiled. After running our online store for the past several years, stories like this don’t faze me at all anymore. I’m well aware that there are a ton of people out there …
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Many would be entrepreneurs don’t start their own venture because they are afraid of failure. And quite frankly, they have every right to be afraid. After all, we are constantly bombarded by vague sayings like “9 out of every 10 startups fail” or “chalk up your first startup as a learning experience”, or my favorite, “most relationships and marriages can’t survive a startup”. After you hear enough of these cliches, you soon start believing them.
Photo by Jeffrey Beall
The problem is that these ideals are further reinforced by the various entrepreneurship blogs out there that are telling everyone to fail early and fail hard because that is how you learn. Everywhere we turn, we are constantly reminded that statistically speaking, there is an extremely high probability that your first startup is going to die so it’s better to get that first failure out of the way.
Seriously folks…If …
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