Building that web backend really counts!

I've been busy the last couple of days picking up tips for those of you who either run online/e-commerce businesses, or want to do so. I'll be writing lots about this topics in the weeks to come, but though I'd pass on some basics from my Web developer for those in urgent need.

The first thing for beginners is to know that when you're selling products or services online a lot of the marketing tools can be built into your Web site. As I keep saying, you will have to keep marketing and often in very conventional ways. But the Web offers amazing options that didn't exist 10 years ago, or even less.

Here are some things I'll be covering in the weeks to come:

1) Page editing tools so you can go into your Website and make changes without having to engage your Web designer;

2) Email capture /broadcast – So you can create an email database and be able to broadcast announcements, specials, promotions to a wide group of people;

3) Payment online –You'll want to know whether PayPal or shopping carts are right for you at this stage of your business;

4) Search engine optimization -- How to be best located on the Web to increase traffic is tantamount and something we'll be covering;

5) Analytics tools to assess your traffic -- These are key to your marketing/sales strategy;

6) Search engine placement –- There are lots of tricks the seasoned e-commerce pros know about increasing your visibility through the search engines. We'll cover that, and get into lots of tips on Web-based marketing.

No need to wait for all those blog entries to come out. Post your thoughts, interests and needs NOW. I'll take them into consideration when I'm writing.

Tips for picking electronic mailing lists

These threads came over my Hidden-Tech discussion list the other day, so I'm passing them along. For tech advice, it's the best. www.hidden-tech.net.

QUESTION: Electronic Mailing Lists

Hi folks,
I've been looking for a product similar to Yahoo! or Google Groups. Also
like ListServ, or Majordomo, but newer and with intuitive, clean GUI. I
don't want ads, but anything anyone could inform me about would be great!

ANSWER:

Mailman has pretty straight forward web-based interface. You need a
Linux mail server (eg Sendmail) w/ web server (eg Apache) installed.
Mailman allows users to add and remove themselves from the list. The
lists can be configured to allow unmoderated discussions or only
moderator postings (either anouncements or moderated discussions).
Mailman maintain archives, which can be public (web accessable by anyone) or
private (only accessable to list members).

Deepwoods Software has this setup and can provide you with as many
Mailman driven mailing lists. Visit view link to see
the currently available public mailing lists or visit
view link for more information. Mailing lists are $2.50/month/mailing list. No ads.