Yahoo! Store SEO Blog

Orange Dog Collars | Yahoo! Store VIDEO ads on The YouTube

Here's a video I made of Orange Dog Collars on the YouTube. Notice the ad that appears within the first 10 seconds of the video. This is pretty cool. I'll let y'all know if I get any conversions from these orange dog collars video ads or not...

How many people are copying you?

Found a cool analytics utility called TRACER from tynt.com. You put a javascript code on your Yahoo! Store pages and every time someone copies and pastes text and/or images from a page in your Yahoo! Store, Tynt's TRACER logs it, tracks it and (if they use a rich HTML client) inserts a trackable link into the HTML.

I ran it on some of our more important pages and around 2% of visitors are copying our content on the pages I tracked. However, I think most of the folks copying and pasting our images and descriptions from a  product page like the Tritronics Sport Basic shock collar are taking notes and NOT stealing our content.

Here's a screen shot of me copying some text off my personal homepage:

And when I paste the copied text into a RICH HTML client, I get this. Notice the link after READ MORE

and here's what my TRACER dashboard looks like:

and here are the TOP PAGES copied

and here are the top IMAGES COPIED:

I'm not seeing any additional links from this OR the text being copied showing up in The Google, so I guess our copyright police are doing their job! I'm removing the script this afternoon but wanted to share.

This is what my Dad used to call "neat to know." It's interesting but what action can you take with it? I guess my takeaway is that I probably need to get around to adding an "email this to a friend" functionality!

Back to work!

Rob Snell,
Somewhere in rural Mississippi

PS This post is more of a NOTE TO SELF rather than a recommendation. The more scripts you run on a page, the slower the page load time which can SERIOUSLY hurt your conversion rate.

5 things I wish I knew before my house burned down

Here's a shot of what an expert witness called "my so-called library" because there were so many comics! What this photo DOESN'T show is that there are two feet of partially burned comics and books underneath the top layer and I had to dig through all of that over hours and hours to make a decent list of what burned up.

I wrote this email to Chuck Rosankski, owner of Mile High Comics and though more folks could benefit from it if I posted it here.

Hope this finds you well. I always enjoy your newsletters, especially your reports from San Diego. I'm not surprised that folks underestimate the importance of comics retailers. You guys are the mortar that holds the bricks of the industry together.

As a former comics retailer now turned consumer, I have a luxury I didn't have as a retailer. I get into comics when the mood strikes me. I read for awhile, and then I take a break for 5 or 6 months. Without retailers showing up every day, I wouldn't be able to do that, so THANKS to all the comics retailers who work their tails off so I can enjoy my comics.

My house burned to the ground a couple of years ago and I lost all my books and comics. I was out of town, and the fire fighters rescued my dog, so it wasn't a tragedy, but I learned several valuable lessons that I'd like to pass on.

Odds are, your house won't burn down, or you won't have a flood, or your water heater won't leak, but maybe 5% of folks reading this will have some event happen and taking a few simple steps might make your life easier.

MAKE A RECORD OF WHAT YOU HAVE

Folks need to make a quick 20-30 minute video of the contents of their house not only to prove what they had, but in the unlikely event that something happens, the video will remind you of what you lost so you can file a complete insurance claim. The fire was over two years ago, but every week or so I remember having something that I forgot to file for and now it's too late. Make sure you upload your video to the internet or store it in your safety deposit box.

MAKE SURE YOUR INSURANCE COVERS YOUR COLLECTIONS

My homeowner's insurance actually DID cover my comics, books, and small original art collection, probably because most of what I read is not "collectable" but collections of reprints in books OR comics that are still retailing for cover price 10-15 years later. The one difficulty I had was that I had to prove what I had lost.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ENOUGH COVERAGE

I was also somewhat under-insured. I had plenty of coverage for what I owned when I bought the house, but the five years after that as a bachelor with a litte extra expendable income I bought more and more guitars, music equipment, books & comics, and clothes. Doh! Every year or so take a look at all the new things you have and make sure you have enough contents insurance.

GET FULL REPLACEMENT VALUE COVERAGE

I also didn't have full replacement value coverage so everything I did claim was depreciated which means I got $200 for an antique leather couch my grandfather bought in 1950. You can buy full value replacement coverage for 20% or so more per year, but ask your insurance agent.

FINALLY, PUT DIGITAL COPIES OF YOUR PHOTOS AND MOVIES ONLINE

I know I lost a ton of personal stuff, but thankfully I had recently scanned so many things and uploaded them that I had multiple digital copies of my very important personal photos and mementos.

I mean, what would I have done if I lost this?

Odds are, your house won't burn down, or you won't have a flood, or your water heater won't leak, but maybe 5% of folks reading this will have some event happen and taking a few simple steps might make your life easier.

-- ROB

Best IRCE panel Stuart Wallock of Dell.com

A bit more positive post this time:

1. SW: DELL tested to see what (language) was best: top rated, hot sellers, on sale, or "new at Dell." And "TOP-RATED" converted far betterabout 3 hours ago from web
2.   
3. To get more folks to write reviews, have a contest. Dell sees 20% lift. Other guy more like 50%. I think topright @ronpereira said 30% liftabout 3 hours ago from web
4. SW: "make (the review) easy to submit. make it short. easy to answer. and give examples so the customers know what to write. "about 4 hours ago from web
5. SW: "The silver bullet to entice people to write reviews is (send) a dedicated email, but give the customer a few weeks with product."about 4 hours ago from web
6. MEASURE RESULTS with analytics. SW: "when people click on my reviews tab... the conversion ...on that product goes through the roof. "about 4 hours ago from web
7. Moderate but DO NOT CENSOR reviews. "1 star review next to a great 5 star review brings all the legitimacy in the world" to reviewsabout 4 hours ago from web
8. "Customer spotlights ... avg 4 percentage points higher on conversion. (A)verage order value is 18% higher than configuration next to it."about 4 hours ago from web
9. customer spotlight = actual review of an actual customer and the exact product that they bought, and merchandise with customer quotesabout 4 hours ago from web
10. Stuart Wallock "the customer’s voice is much more powerful than the merchandiser or the company’s voice."about 4 hours ago from web
11. just got my IRCE notes back from my typist. Here are some goodies from the REVIEWS panel -- StuartWallock of Dell.com firstabout 4 hours ago from web

A Yahoo! Store's Mail Order Manager problems

Yet another reason why I no longer can recommend

Dydacomp's Mail Order Manager for Yahoo! Store owners.

Good luck with MOM. This sucks. 

I heard more stories like that when I did my Yahoo! Store Order Management software survey. On the other hand, I have some long time clients who (last time I checked) swear by Mail Order Manager.

When OrderMotion more than doubled our cost, we switched all our Yahoo! Stores from OrderMotion to Stone Edge Enterprise and are delighted at the savings AND the software. I still have a few friends paying the 1% of sales "revenue" share to OM and they love it. To each his own!

from: http://mailordermanagerexperiences.blogspot.com/

DydaComp, the parent company of MOM is suave, persuasive and savy. They say they have a 30 day return window but you better read the fine print. Here is what the fine print says: to return the program back to DydaComp you must notify them, get an RMA and the program disk cannot be opened. There is a restocking fee of 25% within 15 days of purchase. There's a 50% o restocking fee for returns between 16 and 30 days of shipment. Beyond the 30 day window, no refunds will be processed. If you want to take legal action, you will have to do it in New Jersey--where DydaComp is domiciled.

UPDATED: Yahoo! Store / Yahoo! Small Business *IS* up for sale

 
"They have been approached by [major buyout firms] but they are proactively looking to sell to a strategic investor like a Careerbuilder or Monster.com," peHUB quoted a source as saying.

Am tracking stories here:
http://www.robsnell.com/is-yahoo-small-business-hot-jobs-yahoo-store-for-sale.html

July 22, 2009

Looks like Yahoo! Store *IS* for sale. I heard rumors buzzing all over the IRCE 2009 show, but no one would say who!

Now some folks I know are sharing intel. No names and no company names that I can share yet, but it looks like things are coming to a head.

from Greg Sterling's Search Engine Land article:

Yahoo is trying to control expenses, shed groups and properties that are not strategic and invest where the most value is to be found. However, given Bartz’s remarks about the importance of local and small business advertising and its newspaper consortium, it’s very strange that Yahoo would be selling these two properties.

I TOTALLY agree with GS here. What's up with Carol Bartz and the Yahoo! Executive team?

As a Yahoo! Small business customer since 1998, I've always had the confidence that EVEN THOUGH Y!SB and Yahoo! Store were small potatoes compared to the $$$ in display advertising and search marketing (PPC), the Yahoo! Store part of Y!SB was so profitable that Y! would leave it alone.

My guess is that Y! generates 4-5 BILLION (with a B) in sales for the 45-50K Yahoo! Store owners and gets $125 MILLION a year in rent and revenue share fees from merchants.

IN MY DUMMIES BOOK I wrote:

Yahoo! is pretty serious about its Web-hosting business. It’s not a sideline or an afterthought. Nowadays, anyone with a T1 line and a server can set up a box and be a "Web-hosting company," but sometimes it takes a $45 billion market-cap company to do things right.

Well, does it?

Yahoo! Store is also a recognized name brand for shoppers, so potential customers feel more comfortable shopping with you.

We use Yahoo!'s domain for our checkouts! And we just switched from store.yahoo.com to store.yahoo.net. Changing the cart to a non-Yahoo! DOMAIN will be even more confusing to our regular customers.

What about uptime? Load balancing infrastructure? Image hosting with Akamai? Is this still true?

For example, huge surges in traffic aren’t a problem when you have a Yahoo! Store. Yahoo! has an incredible load-balancing infrastructure so that you don’t have to worry, for example, if your store gets mentioned on Oprah and 10,000 people suddenly swarm your store.

I STILL really don’t understand all of this propeller-head stuff, but I’ve seen stores handle tons of traffic (10,000 people a day) and not crash.

Yahoo! Stores can also handle the huge spikes in (overall Internet) traffic, for example, like the Christmas rush, where the entire Internet is swamped with millions more shoppers than usual.

And what about all those YAHOO domain URLs?
  On Google I show:
    site:store.yahoo.com 29,700
    site:store.yahoo.com 419,000
    site:stores.yahoo.net 662,000

Also, Yahoo! Small Business has over 2,000,000 "customers" but I'm at least 50 or 60 of those because they count each domain owner and/or hosting account and/or Yahoo! ID as a separate customer.

Yahoo! is a bit expensive compared to bargain-basement Web-hosting and Shopping Cart software. Honestly, you’ll pay more for Web hosting when you have a Yahoo! Merchant Solutions account, but I believe this expense is actually a good thing because you really do get what you pay for.

Look, any time there's a major change, the bean counters always look for ways to sneak in a price increase. I wonder if there will be revenue share changes? But why should I share revenue with a (speculation) Monster.com?

And what about the people? Y!SB has a killer staff? The last round of layoffs cut REALLY deep. We lost some good folks.

I don't know how I feel about this...

Rob Snell

Yahoo Store owner, author, blogger, evangelist since 1997:

PS (speculation) It would be pretty damn funny if Yahoo! Store became Monster Store, especially after Yahoo! tried to buy Steph and Ryan's MonsterCommerce.com but NetSol beat 'em to the punch.

PPS FYI -- Reporter peeps: Yahoo! Merchant Solutions is the catchall marketing name for Yahoo! Small Business division’s services package, which includes domains, business e-mail, Web hosting, and Store. The “Store” part of Merchant Solutions is what used to be called Yahoo! Store and consists of the Store Manager and Store Editor.

Yahoo! Store Marketing -- Slides from Y!Summit for Merchants

Slidecast 2009 Yahoo! Store Marketing | Email & Customer Engagement Rob Snell

View more presentations from Rob Snell.

Whoops. Don't put a %20 on the end of your URLs. Thanks, Mike!

http://www.robsnell.com/ordermanagementsoftware.html

http://www.robsnell.com/ordermanagementsoftware.html%20 won't get you there in Google Reader. Thanks for the heads up! -- r

Fill out my Yahoo! Store Order Management Survey, get free stuff...

Howdy! We currently use OrderMotion for my mom's Yahoo! Stores. While it's not perfect (reporting: boo!), it works pretty well, but it's NOT cheap. And, as you might already know, OrderMotion is rolling out a another HUGE rate increase in 2009 with their new OMX software, so we're currently looking at alternatives for a PLAN B.

Going from Web-based software ("in the cloud") back to locally-based software on a network server makes me nervous. I know we'll need a server with all kinds of back ups, a better firewall, and probably a contract with a local IT company, but I hate this! This is SO frustrating! I'm used to concentrating on getting more sales, not finding out what I don't know that I don't know about maintaining an IT infrastructure...

Yahoo! Store owners: Can I ask you for a quick favor because I'm researching order management software and I need your help because you know more than I do! Can I pick your "retailer brain" for less than 5 minutes? Please take my  survey on order management software.

Answer 10 survey questions and I'll make it worth your while by sharing some unpublished transcripts of interviews and presentations I did earlier this year. Included in your PDF will be info from SOME of the following 2008 content:

    * Excerpts from a couple of video interviews from eMetrics,
    * text from a radio interview on increasing conversion rate,
    * my notes from Internet Retailer 2008 Presentation
    * info from my Brazil SMX2008 "Content is King" speech,
    * notes from when I testified to Congress this summer,
    * notes on Y! Web analytics videos we did with Avinash & Co.
    * and my PubCon 2008 presentation on 17 things you can do to make more with your Yahoo! Store...

I'm making up a nice little New Year's present in PDF for my Y! Peeps which I'll pull together by the end of New Year's Day and the ONLY way you can get it now is by taking this quick little survey.

Personally, I obsess over increasing conversion rates, ramping up your Internet marketing, maxing out your SEO efforts, not going broke with PPC, etc., but I figured if I shared some unpublished goodies with you, you would share what YOU know, with ME about YOUR experience picking order management software!

Anyway, you share a few facts with me and I'll share some new info I picked up this year with you. Thanks for your time!

Here's to your continued success and dealing with these "interesting times" in 2009!  http://www.robsnell.com/ordermanagementsoftware.html

-- Rob Snell,
Somewhere in rural Mississippi freezing his tail off...

14 Anagrams for Yahoo! Store

• A Horsey, Too
• Say Hero, Too
• A Hooters, Yo!
• Teary, Ooh So  
• Ratso Hooey!
• Are Hos To Yo   
• Sorta Hooey
• A Hoe Rots, Yo!
• Hero Oat-Soy
• Easy, Ho Root!
• Has Yore, Too  
• So, Hoary Toe!
• Aye! Ho Roost

and my fave: Hooray, Toes!

Yahoo! Store genius Istvan "RTML 101" Siposs launches RAPID EDIT -- a huge leap in productivity for Store Editor

This weekend I got an email from my good buddy, Istvan (RTML101) Siposs about a cool new add-on to Store Editor. He said he came up with "Rapid Edit" which was saving tons of time by giving him a shortcut straight to the EDIT PAGE of every page.

EDITING YOUR STORE THE OLD WAY -- As most Yahoo! Store owners know, nowadays if you want to change something on a product or section page, first you log into the Store Editor, browse to that page, then click the EDIT button. The EDIT PAGE window appears, you make your changes fields and click UPDATE. It's not too bad once you're logged in, but browsing and waiting for pages to load can take a little bit of time.

RAPID EDIT WORKS ONLY IN THE STORE EDITOR -- Anywhere there's a link, RAPID EDIT puts a small red asterisk * next to it. Links work the same as before, but click that red asterisk and you jump straight to the EDIT PAGE.  This  saves one click and one full page load for every page you edit!

Istvan installed a demo on one of my Yahoo! Stores and the staff loves it. He also added an on/off switch. I've tried it and if you do any editing at all it saves a ton of time. Sweet!

Man, I've always wanted to know how to do this! Istvan's RAPID EDIT is an order of magnitude better than my JUMP TO EDITOR. See http://www.ytimes.info/raedforyast.html for more info.

Oh, one other thing: I think Istvan & Mike want to do another seminar in early 2009, but this time in Hawaii! Any takers? -- ROB

Avinash Kaushik's 4Q

Avinash

ECOMMERCE
Buy
Check prices
Compare products
Check order status
Check promotions

LIST OF POSSIBLE QUESTIONS for RobSnell.com

value="1"   Add a review
value="2"   Ask an expert
value="3"   Buy
value="4"   Change my status
value="5"   Check for product updates
value="6"   Check friend updates

value="7"   Check messages
value="8"   Check my account
value="9"   Check news
value="10"   Check order status
value="11"   Check profile
value="12"   Check promotions

value="13"   Check prices
value="14"   Compare products
value="15"   Consult a review
value="16"   Create an account
value="17"   Download materials
value="18"   Download software

value="19"   Enter contest
value="20"   Expand my network
value="21"   Find a job
value="22"   Find contact information
value="23"   Find store locations
value="24"   Learn about products

value="25"   Listen to music
value="26"   Look at pictures
value="27"   Make a payment
value="28"   Make a request
value="29"   Obtain company information
value="30"   Post a job

value="31"   Post blog comment
value="32"   Read
value="33"   Read blog
value="34"   Read blog comment
value="35"   Read latest news
value="36"   Research

value="37"   Search for friends
value="38"   Seek technical support
value="39"   Sign up
value="40"   Submit a complaint
value="41"   Subscribe to RSS
value="42"   Try a demo

value="43"   Update account information
value="44"   Update profile
value="45"   Update pictures
value="46"   Upload video
value="47"   View profile(s)
value="48"   View/share widget(s)

value="49"   Watch a demo
value="50"   Watch videos
value="52"   Browse
value="53"   Check schedule
value="54"   Download podcasts
value="55"   Find locations

value="56"   Get directions
value="57"   Give feedback
value="58"   Learn about company / brand
value="59"   Make a donation
value="60"   Make a reservation
value="61"   Post item

value="62"   Register for an event
value="63"   Register/Become a member
value="64"   Report a problem
value="65"   Request a quote
value="66"   Seek support
value="67"   Subscribe to a mailing list

value="68"   Get information about a disease
value="69"   Find the cause of a symptom
value="70"   Get information about a drug
value="71"   Find online tools to help with management of a health condition
value="72"   Get information about a healthy lifestyle topic
value="73"   Get information about a medical test or procedure

value="74"   Add a listing
value="75"   Apply for a loan
value="76"   Ask a question
value="77"   Become a partner
value="78"   Become a reseller
value="79"   Become an affiliate

value="80"   Book a trip
value="81"   Browse events
value="82"   Chat
value="83"   Check events calendar
value="84"   Check shipping costs
value="85"   Choose a destination

value="86"   Comment
value="87"   Compare offers
value="88"   Complete transaction
value="89"   Consult job opportunities
value="90"   Contact company
value="91"   Contact customer service

value="92"   Contribute to the forum
value="93"   Download music
value="94"   Find a doctor
value="95"   Find a hotel
value="96"   Find a solution to a problem
value="97"   Find a specific article/publication

value="98"   Find activities
value="99"   Find hotel information
value="100"   Find information
value="101"   Find opening hours
value="102"   Find pricing information
value="103"   Find suppliers

value="104"   Find vacation ideas
value="105"   Get information on an already-booked trip
value="106"   Join forum
value="107"   Learn about services
value="108"   Learn about solutions
value="109"   Learn about volunteer opportunities

value="110"   Lease
value="111"   Modify a listing
value="112"   Obtain detailed information on post grad courses
value="113"   Obtain detailed information on undergrad courses
value="114"   Plan a vacation
value="115"   Post a review

value="116"   Read ratings
value="117"   Read reviews
value="118"   Redeem a gift certificate
value="119"   Rent online
value="120"   Rate an item
value="121"   Request a sample

value="122"   Request catalogue
value="123"   Request more information
value="124"   Reserve a room
value="125"   Schedule appointment/activity
value="126"   Seek admission or scholarship information
value="127"   Seek product specifications

value="128"   Take a tutorial
value="129"   View account details
value="130"   View partner information

Yahoo! Store Technical Supports Rocks!

OK. Not a real substantive post, here, but more of a shout out to some people who probably only get feedback when folks are pissed off.

Yahoo! Store Technical Supports rocks! Been working on some experimental RTML stuff and I keep locking up my store. I get the error message: Your store has 5 or more pending requests.

For the past 2 weeks I'd like to say that the fine folks in Yahoo! Store / Yahoo! Merchant Solutions tech support have been extremely helpful and have not made fun of me once. KILL THE EDITOR again fellas!  --

Rob Snell

Somewhere in rural Mississippi about to head to the jungle

Yahoo! Store Folks Take Note > Blogging Works!

And I still don't even have this blog's title tags set up right. Typepad is FRUSTRATING... Wordpress here I come...

Cool Flickr Slideshow Maker -- Yahoo! Store Book Reviews

from http://flickrslidr.com/index.php

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Garmin 496 Aviation GPS: Yahoo! Store Skygeek Gets It

Our fellow Yahoo! Store owner Mr. Steven Styles gets it. Check out his Youtube video on the Garmin 496 Aviation GPS.

Baby Bro Steve and I are in upstate NY visiting a couple of rev-share clients. Mr. Styles took us for a ride in his aeroplane where he showed me how cool his Garmin 496 GPS is.

Check this video here:

What is your best converting keyword? You want that in the anchor text of any link. Whether your keywords are car flags, or autism awareness, or custom rubber wristbands/ cancer wristbands - always always always get your most popular / valuable keywords in that dang anchor text! -- r

What do Dog Training Collars have to do with Yahoo! Store and SEO?

Just got an email from someone who attended the email Webinar a couple of weeks ago. Based on that email and a few other comments at Internet Retailer, I think folks want more info about SEO.

Honestly, the secret to good Yahoo! Store SEO is write good text CONTENT and get more LINKS than the other guy.

For example, when I'm working on my Dog Training Collars pages, I get my brother to write out what he says on the phone to customers who call and ask questions. This content is good for two reasons: 1) It answers the questions from folks who might NOT call and may only read the Web page and 2) it's keyword loaded and great for free search engine traffic.

Then you need LINKS. Some folks say great content gets links by itself, but I like to give my content a little bit of help. More on that in a bit...

Rob

PS Thanks to all the folks who have been so patient over the past year or so. I'm back in the saddle again and promise to crank out more content, so I'll get more links... ;)

Yahoo! Store Testimony from Rob's visit to Congress is now up.

Yahoo! Store Testimony (written) from Rob Snell's appearance at the "How Online Advertising Impacts Small Firms" Congressional hearing is now available on house.gov.

Technorati Profile

<a href="http://technorati.com/claim/7t58wfed" rel="me">Technorati Profile</a>

Search Engine Strategies NYC Party List -- SES NYC 2007

Just got an email from my cousin, Joe Morin, SEO to the CEOs about the SES NYC Party Schedule. If the TSA guys would let me, I'd bring him a big ole jug of mamaw's mash.

Thanks, Joe! I'm looking forward to SES NYC and having some fun after weeks of dealing with the house fire fallout. :/

See SES NYC 2007 Search Parties

OK - Here it is. This is the thread that I will be updating with all information that I receive regarding parties, events and gatherings for the upcoming Search Engine Strategies Conference in New York City April 10 - April 13, 2007.

If you are a search engine or vendor events coordinator and are planning an official gathering or even an informal one that you would like me to promote, then send me a PM with all of the details that you would like included. If you are an attendee and you've heard of a great event, also feel free to send me a PM and I'll look into adding it to the list.

Yahoo Store blogger, Rob Snell's house burned down. (Everyone's fine.)

Howdy. Haven't been blogging much lately, but that has more to do with new girlfriend, new client workload, new content I've been writing for other folks, and wrestling with an 800 lb. purple gorilla. Long stories, all. I have lots to tell and soon, but then my house pretty much burned down this weekend. (See excerpt below when link expires. Must've been a slow news day because I made the front page of Starkville Daily...)

SHORT VERSION: I was out of town for a wedding in Memphis. Volunteer firefighters risked their lives and got my dog out from under the house, and Georgia's fine. It's just stuff, but lots was photos and family stuff.

I have insurance. Probably not enough. Check your CONTENTS insurance as well as the details on what is and is not covered!

I'll be back blogging, but it may be a while. Y'all be good, now! -- Rob

Overnight fire damages local man's home

Kirk Rosenhan/SDN The home of Rob Snell on Highway 12 West was heavily damaged in an predawn fire Sunday morning. The cause of the fire is believed to be electrical in nature, said County Fire Services Coordinator A.K. Rosenhan. 

By BRIAN HAWKINS
Starkville Daily News

An Oktibbeha County man's home was partially gutted and sustained heavy heat and smoke damage during a predawn fire Sunday morning.

The home of Rob Snell was discovered burning by a passerby about 12:15 a.m. Sunday, said County Fire Services Coordinator A.K. Rosenhan. Snell was not at home at the time of the fire, Rosenhan said.

Responding volunteer firefighters from the Central Oktibbeha and Adaton-Self Creek departments found the west end of the house engulfed in flame, with fire piercing both windows and the roof.

The room where the fire was primarily concentrated was a former carport that had been enclosed and renovated into a library, Rosenhan said.

"What was formerly the exterior wall helped stop the fire from spreading too far into the rest of the house, but there was extensive heat and smoke damage throughout the entire home," Rosenhan said.

Firefighters were able to extinguish the bulk of the flames in a just a few minutes, but were on the scene for more than two hours ensuring that flames didn't reignite, Rosenhan said.
Firefighters were also concerned that Snell's dog, which is kept in a fenced area behind the house, was missing, Rosenhan said.

"We were told that when the dog got scared, he would run under the house, so there was a bit of concern. Fortunately, the dog was found was unharmed," Rosenhan said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but is believed to be some sort of electrical malfunction centered around a specific wall, Rosenhan said.

Your search marketing ads are, like, so 2006

Your Yahoo! Store's search marketing ads are, like, so 2006...

I'm waiting on some cool new CONVERTING KEYWORD harvesting tools to finish running and thought I'd remind everyone to check your paid search ads for references to 2006. First, search your ads for 2006, then change those ads until you see something like this:

 

Also, make sure your STORE has no more outdated references to 2006 in CAPTIONS or NAME fields...

To find pages with 2006 in the NAME field, search each engine for this: site:yourdomain.com intitle:2006

Back to harvesting $3,750,000.00 worth of keywords for Mr. S... Whew. I'm getting tired...

2007 Yahoo! Store Reviews -- Now is the time to check yourself

Wow. Happy New Year, Yahoo! Store Peeps...

After doing that free Webinar with Monitus Mike, I've been totally swamped with Yahoo! Store Site Reviews.  I'm seeing so many of the same issues across all these Yahoo! Stores, that I thought I should post about it...

I address many of these issues in my column in next Yahoo! newsletter, but I'm going to share a little free pre-info with y'all. Click the link below to read some questions you should ask yourself about YOUR Yahoo! Store:

I got klogged over the holidays

http://blog.karlribas.com/2006/12/interview-with-rob-snell.htm

I got "klogged" over the holidays by my good friend, Karl Ribas. He took it pretty easy on me most of the interview, but his follow up questions were pretty brutal... Happy New Year, folks! - -Rob

Yahoo! Store Owners Should Also Pimp Out Their Yahoo! Local Listings, too

Blog reader, Mark, just pointed out that the Yahoo! Local page for Copy Cow is actually better than the Google local page for Copy Cow. He called me on it and he's right! For a college town, Google is even more important than ever, but why turn down free traffic from Yahoo?

ALSO -- Looks like I dropped the ball on optimizing the Copy Cow Copy Shop name on Yahoo!, too.  I have the flu thing going around (post CHICAGO SES) and am home, so I'm playing on the Net instead of getting caught up on 3 weeks of work (read on...)

Yahoo! Store Owners Should Signup for WebmasterWorld Supporters Forum

Seriously! Brett Tabke and crew ROCK! Sign up here. $150 a year gets you stuff like this: http://www.webmasterworld.com/supporters/3182425.htm

Last night I posted this reply last night in the Webmasterworld Supporter's Forum:

(About negative keywords...)

Personally, I hate editing these big honking keyword lists with thousands and thousands of keyword phrases! It's no fun. I guess I'm just lazy, but I want a very fast way to see ALL the keywords driving traffic to my Web site: the Good, the Bad, & the Ugly.

Making ATOMIC KEYWORD LISTS and using that word list to generate a NEGATIVE MATCHING or CULL LIST is one of the most effective things I've ever done to tighten up my flabby PPC campaigns. (Continued...)

 

Yahoo! Stores should sign up for Google Local

Am back from Chicago SES 2006 where I froze my drawl off. Catch up is a REAL bear! Here's an off-topic post, which falls under secondary search engine optimization for Yahoo! Stores (with phone listings in the Yellow Pages).

Ok. I know, I know. "Google, Google, Google." Yahoo has local search and local Web sites, too. I'm posting this particular post because I just got my Google Local postcard today with my PIN number so I could activate my Starkville, MS copy shop's Google Local page, and I'm posting these screen shots so Craig and Rachel and Joe and Karl and Sally and Dave and Jessica and Kelly can see that I really did get the postcard and that the SEO efforts are already working!

Hopefully, Craig should have more info about using Google Local / Google Maps in your secondary SEO efforts. I think Rachel has an article about local search optimization, too. Wonder if they read this? If they do, they'll get a link! It's almost like writing good ole Yahoo! Directory listings! Hope that's not keyword stuffing!

OLD NAME: Copy Cow

NEW NAME: Copy Cow Copy Shop, Color Copies, and Fax

Yahoo! Store Webinar Recap...

Dear Folks,

Howdy! Thanks to everyone who made it to the free SEO Webinar last Friday. Mike & I had a blast! Looks like we’ll being doing more and more of these!

ATTEND MIKE’S FRIDAY WEBINAR
Mike has a webinar on his MONITUS tools on this Friday, and I wish I could be there, but I’ll be up in the air somewhere over Illinois headed home to Mississippi about the time he gets cranked up. Good luck, Mike! Y’all need to see this:

MIKE'S 12/08/06 Webinar
Unlocking keyword data from your Yahoo! Store
https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/145776187 -- Keywords are the life and blood of any e-commerce operation. Learn how to find your best converting keywords and how to optimize your site in this informative 60-minute webinar. See https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/145776187

CHICAGO
Am in Chicago for Search Engine Strategies 2006 freezing my drawl off! I speak on Thursday at 12:30 doing SEO site reviews. As you probably know by now, I get pretty excited about this stuff! If you happen to be here for SES, come by and get your site reviewed.

SES is always crazy busy and there’s not enough time to see everyone I want to see. So far I’ve seen lots of fellow Yahoo! Store developers: Dave & Sally Burke from VisualFuture.com, Michael Roebuck and the crew from All Web Promotion, and even met some really nice folks from OneChoiceForYstore.com.

FREE META DESCRIPTION RTML TEMPLATES
Like I said in the Webinar, if you posted a Yahoo Store book review of my book on Amazon, and attended the Webinar, and your store uses custom RTML templates, I’ll give the first 25 people who email me my super-meta-description RTML template. I still have a few templates left, and they’re going fast. I’ll even install them for you, if you’d like.

Thanks to all the folks who already posted reviews of my book on Amazon. My flight was earlier on SUN than I thought, so I'll get your free META DESCRIPTION templates uploaded when I get back from CHICAGO SES 2006. I get a little paranoid mucking about with real sites when I'm out for a week with somewhat intermittent net access and with SES I'm pretty much unplugged and trying to learn as much as possible...

WEBINAR NOTES:

Here’s why I obsess over SE
Search Engine Optimization works for free Web traffic

NUTSHELL: 60 Second SEO Webinar

• Start with a SE friendly foundation
• Collect converting keyword phrases  (CKWP)
• Put CKWP in TITLE tags and body text
• Use internal links (CKWP in anchor text)
• Get off-site links (CKWP in anchor text)
• Write unique content in CAPTION text
• Get more links than the other guy

FOUNDATION: Unlock Parking Brake

1) Pick your main domain
2) Redirect Yahoo! Store URLS (301)
3) Create custom error pages (404)   
4) Use free search engine tools    
5) Turn on XML feeds   
6) Fix the WWW / non WWW problem

FOUNDATION: Pick Your Main Domain   

• Use one domain per store
• Use main domain as Store Entry Point
• Link consistently on the site
• Set the Google WWW / non-WWW Switch

FOUNDATION: Redirect Yahoo! URLS   

• Yahoo! Domain Redirect Settings
• Use the Y! URL 301 Redirect
• All store URLS >>> to your main domain
• So account.stores.yahoo.net/pagename.html becomes …www.domain.com/pagename.html
• Consolidates link popularity
• Fixes the CART / SEARCH problem

FOUNDATION: Create custom 404’s       

• Yahoo: Page Not Found Handling (404s)
• YUCK: Default error page redirects to your homepage
• Make a whoops.html page
• Use Apple.com’s 404 as a model
• Turn Custom 404 on under MGR: Preferences

FOUNDATION: Turn on XML Feeds       

• Free Shopping Engine Traffic
• Google’s Froogle, Shopping.com, etc.
• Allows some 3rd party XML export tools to work
• Monitus tools, tools.solidcactus.com, visualfuture.com
• YUCK: Folks can steal your store
• Client example, scrapers will anyway …

FOUNDATION: Search Engine Tools       

• MGR: Create a Google Sitemap for Your Store
  • http://www.google.com/webmasters/
• MGR: Authenticate with Yahoo! Site Explorer
• Use SE Advanced operators
  • Site:domain.com to see pages indexed
  • Link:domain.com to see back links

FOUNDATION: Fix the non WWW problem   

• One URL for every page
• stores.yahoo.net/account/pagename.html
• I use BASE HREF
• Fixes links off the page
• Consolidates link popularity
• RTML hack for lack of non-www 301 redirect
• Most RTML folks can do this

Optimize your online store

• Profit from your product knowledge
• Work your most valuable Web pages (MVP’s)
• Create a self-optimizing store with templates
• Collect converting keywords

1) Retailers: You are an expert

• Show your expertise
• Write relevant copy
• Tell me what to buy

Collect your expert content

• Harvest product Q&A from your sent emails
• Record & transcribe customer phone calls
• Ask customers if they have product questions
• Add this product info to your product pages

Pump up your product pages

• Rewrite manufacturer product descriptions
• Play “20 Questions” with each product
• Use competitors’ ideas (both retailers and manufacturers)
• Use other manufacturer content:
  • Press releases
  • Product sell sheets
  • Owners’ manuals
  • Catalogs & brochures

2) Optimize your most valuable pages

• Home page
• Info page
• Top 15 Section pages
• Top 100 $$$ Products

Optimization starts at home

• Branding
• Merchandising
• Navigation
• WISMO?
• Load speed
• SEO

HOME PAGE: SEO Powerhouse

• Title tag - Use 10-12 words
• Meta description - Company info SERPS snippet.
• Body copy - Keyword-loaded. 500+ words
• Text link navigation - Keywords in sidebar / footer
• Embedded links - 100 votes
• HOME PAGE: Merchandising
• HOME PAGE: Navigation
• HOME PAGE: Customer service

Get the 411 on INFO Pages
“More than 50% of folks who order view our info page…”

Use FAQ style links

• Show me how I can contact you
• Who you are & where you are

SEO SECTIONS (Category pages)

PRODUCTS: Start with best-sellers

3) TEMPLATES: Self-Optimize

• Create a self-optimizing store by using RTML templates
• Build SEO elements right into your store pages
• TITLE tags, META DESC, H1 headlines, links
• Use SMART RTML for better SEO
• Automate marketing messages with RTML
• Free shipping, you save, mfg logos, free gifts

Create automatic TITLE tags
CUSTOM TITLE TAG = Name + price + savings

Create automatic Meta Descriptions

Add FREE SHIPPING text (detail)

Show manufacturer logos

Build in links for good navigation

• Link to PREVIOUS, UP, NEXT product
• Anchor text gives SEO benefits
• Makes easier browsing / editing

4) Cash in on Converting Keywords
COLLECT: Converting keywords
OPTIMIZE: Store product and section page text/links
TRACK: Search engine rankings
ADVERTISE: Buy paid search ads

Rinse and repeat

COLLECT: Converting keywords

• Use your Yahoo! Store stats:
  • Emails. Orders. Reports. History.
• Get third party analytics
  • Monitus + Google Analytics; Indextools, ClickTracks
• Use PPC conversion tracking data
  • Google Adwords / Yahoo! Search Marketing

Converting keywords case study
(thanks for permission JK!)
200,000 unique keyword phrases
194,305 phrases did NOT convert
5,695 phrases DID convert
4,758 unique terms with one order each
1,150 unique terms with 2 – 1000 orders
Obsess over the $$$ money terms

OPTIMIZE: Product / section pages
Broad match:  keywords on page
Phrase match: exact phrase on page
Find Most Relevant Page on Your Site
If not, create a Landing Page
Link to most relevant page in CAPTIONS

TRACK: Search engine rankings

TRACK: Your top 200 $$$ converting keywords
Watch your Top 1000 Converting Keywords
Don’t ignore your more obscure words #1001 - 6000

ENGINES: Google, Yahoo, MSN, Froogle

TOOLS: Bruce Clay’s SEO Toolset + Web Position Gold

ADVERTISE: Buy paid search ads

• Google Adwords – IMPROVED!
• Yahoo! Search Marketing (Overture) -- NEW!
• MSN AdCenter -- NEW!

So now you know what to do with your Yahoo! Store!

1. Pimp your product knowledge and profit
2. Work product by product, start with your best-sellers
3. Build in the basic SEO and conversion elements
4. Collect your converting keywords and cash in

And now, Mr. Michael Whitaker…
THE END

Free Yahoo! Store Webinar on Friday

We're already "sold out" but I'll hold a few more slots for blog readers who didn't sign up in time.

Make More with your Yahoo! Store
FRIDAY, DEC. 01, 1pm ET - 1 hour
$97 (FREE for Yahoo! Store Merchants)

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP - Free to Yahoo! Store Owners

Learn how to drive search engine traffic to your store and then all the way to the bank.

In this free, one-hour Webinar, you'll learn secrets of Store SEO (search engine optimization): How to optimize your Yahoo! Store products and sections to get free search engine traffic.

Also, guest speaker Michael Whitaker of Monitus.Net's Store Tool Set will show you how to measure how you're doing. See what's working and focus your efforts on the marketing that gives you the best bang for the buck. SIGN UP NOW!

EVENT: For Yahoo! Store Owners Only: Make More with your Yahoo! Store

SPEAKERS: Rob Snell, Michael Whitaker

DATE: Friday, December 1, 2006. 1:00 pm, Eastern. (10:00 am Pacific time).

HOMEWORK: Not mandatory, but recommended reading assignment: "Starting a Yahoo! Business For Dummies," CH16 + CH17. Now available in stores nationwide or online at Amazon.com - Just search for Yahoo! Store

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP - Free to Yahoo! Store Owners

Yahoo! Store RTML Data Extractor

My good buddy Dave @ Visual Future just tweaked his new export tool, the Yahoo! Store RTML Data Extractor: This tool extracts data from a specially formatted page at your store. It also comes in handy when you want to extract a particular section of your site, make backups of your data, or keep track of your images. If you have MS Access, here is a database that is set up to help manage the data from this tool. In General You'll type in your information and receive a .zip or .tgz file containing your results.  For Dave's Yahoo Store export tool, click here. And enjoy!

-- Rob

P.S. I'll be in Vegas, presenting at PUBCON on Thursday! Wish me luck!