Found a new service today that looks like a wonderful tool for organizations that want to sell a few items without all the headaches that full-blown ecommerce websites tend to create. Big Cartel is a simple build-it-yourself shopping cart that is perfect for bands, indie record labels, and artists that have a few things they want to make available. You can even sign up for free if you have 5 or less products. You will have a dot.bigcartel domain, but if you are only going to sell a few products, that’s no big deal.
You might wonder why FreshYields, a company that builds ecommerce sites, would blog positively about another company that builds ecommerce sites. Well, it’s really pretty simple. It’s important for our prospective clients to research all alternatives before deciding which solution is best for them. We feel it’s our obligation to find the perfect fit for any firm or individual that approaches us about ecommerce, internet marketing, or even just web design. Everybody has different goals, and it is important to not only meet those goals, but to do it efficiently. Oh, and their site’s design it pretty kick-ass. I’m a sucker for clean, standards-based design.
via Andy Beal at Marketing Pilgram,
By the end of this year, 70% of large companies will be blogging. Here are my questions:
Is this a good thing?
What percentage do you think will do it the right way?
Is there an audience for this many corporate blogs?
Do people really care?
Do they need blog design work?
Will the blog carry over their corporate identity properly?
No, seriously, do they need blog design work? 
…launched a couple of months ago, with no fanfare from us. That’s what happens when the blog is down.
Gaga for Lulu is an upscale children’s boutique. Fresh Yields performed all aspects of the site build, from identity design to ecommerce backend. We will be embarking on a comprehensive Search Engine Marketing and Optimization plan in the coming months.
In this hectic world of sales and marketing to prospective clients, it feels good to produce something for an organization that is out there making a difference in the lives of children from all over the world. Mending Kids International is one of such organizations. Many remember the story of the Guatemalan conjoined twins who were separated at U.C.L.A. back in 2002 with the help of funding from Mel Gibson. I have had the chance to meet these wonderful little girls on a visit to California, and their smiling faces move everyone around them.
There are many more stories of children in need, and Mending Kids International is helping by bringing donated medical care to needy children worldwide. We are happy to announce that their new website has officially launched today.
Be sure to check out the live redesign of cssvault.com. Elena is a brilliant designer, as can be seen in all the work she has done for me over the years.
Trouble awaits if you do not have a solid plan to launch your web presence. Take, for example, Juicy Fruit’s new blog. Looks neat, huh? Well, the critics don’t agree. And when the critics have blogs that attract at least a quarter million (yes, thats million) visits a day, and they rip you a new one, things aren’t looking so neat.
As seen and read on Boing Boing…
How bad does Juicyfruit’s blog suck? Let’s count the ways.
1. You can’t enter the blog directly. You must enter through the main page.
2. You have to wait a long time for the main screen to load up its Flash garbage.
3. You have to wait another eternity for the “blog” to load.
4. The text window for the blog content is the size of a postage stamp.
5. There’s only one entry in the text window.
6. The navigation is as confusing as the zero-G toilet in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
7. The actual content is as bland as a piece of Juicyfruit with the flavor chewed out.
37 signals latest blog post on the Signal vs. Noise blog brings up a good point, as does some of the comments that follow. Showing the user visually what they are ordering at the confirmation screen can be a powerful usability feature that can instill confidence in a web shopper. But how much is too much? Obviously this will not work for some ecommerce sites where shoppers order many products at one time.
We are, really. We don’t just design pretty websites. We design pretty marketing websites. We don’t just implement ecommerce solutions. We implement ecommerce marketing solutions Everything you put on the web is marketing material. You are marketing to users. Whether it is just to get them to find info about your cause, your products, or to buy something from you, your web site is a marketing tool. Every decision we make about our projects should be thought of in a marketing sense, and how we can get the user to interact the way we want them to.
The old style of marketing doesn’t work as well anymore, thanks in part to the internet. Your users are your best, and cheapest marketing source. Hell, they may even pay you to market your product. They may fall in love with your product, or service, or cause online, buy it or into it’s theory, and start posting it on their blog. Then a few others pick up on it, and the ROI on your pretty marketing website goes through the roof.
The portfolio section is coming along, and should be up soon. Check back in the next few days. I know the content in some sections is a little lacking as well, which I am working on…
Seth Godin has followed up his first free ebook on bettering websites, Knock Knock, with the fittingly titled sequel, Who’s There. This version is more geared towards blogging, or should I say, viral blogging.