Merry Christmas

This could be my last posting for this year (I say could because depending on how the mood takes me I may publish something else). So Christmas is here again. Its been a tough year for the high street - the Internet has faired better but times will be more challenging - I'm not trying to be doom and gloom, there is enough of that about without me joining the band wagon - This is the first time the Internet has existed when a crisis has occurred and the country heading towards a recession. It is going to challenge a few, a few will give up, but I believe that this is the time for online business to really become creative and step up to the plate.

I predict that next year will be a tougher year for ecommerce - it will be more competitive and cut throat - but it is also an excellent opportunity to get really good at marketing your business. The Internet is still the place to be and think about it, if you make your self a strong contender now then when this is all over you will be in a really strong position.

I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year. We will be back on 5th January and ready to help you implement your Internet marketing strategy.

Make sure you have your Products in Google Base!

There will be some of you who can remember when Google decided it was going to enter into the shopping comparison market. That is when you search for a product and a list of results for that product are presented to you with price comparisons against all the stores that sell that product. Googles version of this was called Froogle - which was a hit in the states, but struggled to get off the ground in the UK. Well now Google has Google Base - which is pretty much the same thing but is integrated into Googles Universal Search (or click on the Shopping tab in Google if you only want to search Google base results).

So what do you have to do to get into Google Base? Firstly you need to be able to export all of your products in to a csv file or xml feed. The information in here will tell Google the name of you product, the category it sits in and most importantly the price you are selling it at. It then makes this available for searching.

So for example, one of our clients sells PA Systems to the general public, bands and businesses - they have around 300 products - so we integrated a Google Base export. If someone now searches for a specific product that is in the company online catalog then it is like to come up in the Google search WITH the price next to it.

So why is this different to normal search engine optimisation (SEO)? well if you think about the mind set of the person who is carrying out the search - if she knows the exact product name she is looking for and when she searches not only is there a link directly to that product but there is a price as well - how much more of a qualified lead do you get? Should get pretty good conversion rates as long as your prices are competitive.

Give Google Base a go and see how it improves your ecommerce store.

VAT Changes and Ecommerce Systems

So the Government has decided to decrease VAT to 15% in a bid to stimulate the economy and in turn help businesses...

Am I the only one of the opinion that in the short term (and lets face it, these measures were implemented with the short term in mind) this change will actually cause even more problems for smaller business running online stores?

Why is this? Well many ecommerce stores (especially older ones) have the VAT rate fixed in the system - so now the Government has effectively given these business less than a week to get this technical issue sorted. This means they have to get in touch with their web developers and potentially spend a lot of money sorting this out! The only winner in this scenario is the web developer and even then, with lots of clients suddenly needing a big change without time to book it in, headaches will abound in the next week.

Why was the cost and inconvenience of this change not taken into consideration? The main difference between VAT and other forms of tax is that it relies on the VAT registered business collecting the tax from the customer on the Government's behalf. A simple 2.5% change will require all sorts of manual and automated systems being changed - and for many small business already up to their eyes in bureaucracy this is just one more thing they could do without - at potentially their busiest time of year.

To make this worse it all changes back again in 13 months time!! So we have to undo what we have just done.

I hope, along with pretty much other one else, that these new tax cuts stimulate the economy, but what a pain in the backside this will be for many in the meantime!!

The All New Google SearchWiki is now LIVE!

Have you noticed the subtle change that occurred today on Google searches? If you have a google account and you are logged in then it is all change on the Google.

Google SearchWiki is here. So what is search Wiki? Well it allows you to start having control over the results you get when searching. You can add website, remove website and comment on website in your search.

It is not clear at this stage why Google has done this, but you can be sure as eggs is eggs Google does indeed have a plan up it sleeve. I believe this is the next step in Googles quest to provide the most relevant information to the searching public. If you were not aware, Google is rumoured to be favouring local searches - that is if I am a looking for a plumber and I am carrying out my search from Newcastle, then the results on the search will weight the results to websites that are Newcastle based plumbers - so the results will be different to someone in Ipswich carrying out the same search.

What I believe Google are now starting to do is collect information from the people doing the search who will rank and comment on sites that are important to them and Google will put a weighting on this.

All very interesting.

Full Internet Marketing Partner Services UK

Mancala have just launched a new service to traditional marketing agencies. We are now offering Full Internet Marketing Partner Services in the UK.

Now the 'R' word is being knocked about by economists and bankers (I personally hate the word because as soon as it is said too many people become negative and it becomes self fulfilling - but I digress) it is clear that traditional marketing agencies are beginning to feel the pinch. Why? well their clients want to know exactly what the marketing and advertising money is being spent on and traditional methods do not accurately give you that. Internet Marketing can give that and more and more business (from the enormous blue chips to the smallest one man band) are using the Internet to find their customers.

We already have some big names on board. If you run a marketing agency but don't have the Internet marketing skills - never fear - talk to us, we can offer this as white label service so your client need never know, or we partner with you. Please check out the page on the website

http://www.mancala.co.uk/Services/Full-Internet-Marketing-Partner-Services-UK.mspx

Launch of our Internet Marketing DVD

By popular demand we have finally got round to launching our very own Internet Marketing DVD. The DVD includes a two hour presentation on how you can make your business a success of the internet using out straight forward techniques.

If you cannot attend one of our Internet Marketing seminars but want to get significantly more success from your website the I would recommend the small investment of £27 including VAT to buy this DVD. Not only that, if you implement some of the ideas in the DVD and you improve your business success online then we offer a no quibble money guarentee!!

The DVD is not for everyone - it does require the commitment from you to implement some changes to how you run your website. It is for those who are looking for a massive change in fortunes online.

You can order now at the Mancala Website.

Search Engine Optimisation - SEO Newcastle

Here at Mancala we don't just specialist in SEO in Newcastle. Of course SEO is a big part of Internet Marketing, but don't be fooled that it is everything to do with Internet Marketing.

Ask yourself this - if I drive a lot of traffic to my website is that enough? Well I will help you out if you are struggling to answer this. NO if is definately not enough. Have a think about how you are going to convert these extra visitors to leads or sales - most website are bad to woeful at doing this.

Download my podcast on Internet Marketing where I give some real tips on how you can generate leads from visitors.