While on LinkedIn recently I saw a question about increasing sales on an ecommerce website. I wanted to share my response as I think it is one of the keys to figuring out how to sell more online.

Here is the question:

We have a website that sells art prints, sculpture and photography, but have only sold one piece. Any ideas? We already had a company help with keywords, still only one sale…

Now most of the responses fell into the technical realm. From traffic, process, stats, SEO, to order processing. I believe you have to take a step back and look at things such as positioning and niche target market.

Here is my response:

All these comments are good but most are on the technical side, I’ve found most Ecom issues have to do with positioning and reaching the target market–not traffic.

First step would be to find one niche that you can dominate in. Create unique positioning for that product line and focus on reaching the core influencers within that niche.

Let’s say you pick sculpture… take a look as a consumer of these items and see what they see. Search with the SE’s, real time search engines (like SocialMention.com), and social media.

Once you have a deep understanding of this then focus like a laser on reaching this core audience in a unique and engaging way. Might be via social media, might be with forums, targeted ad buys, or increased search engine optimization. The key is focus and positioning.

Position your product line in a completely different and engaging way compared to the competition. Introduce personality and uniqueness.

Today we talk with Jeff Foster from WebBizIdeas.com. Jeff gives some great tips and advice on your opportunity within Bing, Yahoo, and Foursquare. Some items we talk about are…

• Is Bing local worthwhile?
• Does Bing have a webmaster tools like Google?
• What about content and Bing?
• What is up with the merger between Bing and Yahoo?
• What does it mean for the future of search?
• What are your opportunities with Foursquare?

Once again if you have any feedback or questions you can feel free to email Jeff directly.

Listen Below

Got to talk to Jeff Foster again and we covered some great information. Listen to the show below.

We first talk about what type of things you should really be focusing on in the search engine world. How to create content and the elements that make up a great content strategy.

Then we move on with the ever important aspect of search marketing–link building.

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Bing is not giving in even though Google–the king of the hill–continues to knock them down. With Google’s recent announcement that Caffeine is in full release it’s Bing’s turn to talk about it’s future releases.

Bing Webmaster

First from Bing is a no cost toolset for websites and webmasters. It’s built on Microsoft Silverlight 4 and with feedback from webmasters and others with SEO knowledge. Part of this release is the “Index Explorer”, think tree view for webmasters to see how Bing is crawling their site.

There could potentially be huge news here. First this looks like it will allow webmasters to access specific items and management controls. URL blocking, cache blocking, and even possible re-crawl requests. If this is something that catches on I’d expect Google Webmaster Tools to follow suit.

Real Time and Social Search Results

Bing released in May real time results. This new search is called Bing Social and can be found here. Social and real time results is really the next frontier for both Google and Bing and I would anticipate we will see tremendous growth in these spaces.

What Does This Mean?

Now more than ever does it matter that you have a social strategy. A strategy that focuses on trusted accounts and connecting with your target market. It used to be just a nice extra to be on Twitter but now if you want want a total digital solution it’s a must. There’s also the advent of searching within Facebook. We’ve mentioned before this is the true power of the platform.

In closing keep Bing on your radar and check to see what you opportunities make be as they continue to keep relevant.

Today on DefiningNewMedia.com Jeff Foster talks with Scott Scanlon about search engines, SEM, and SEO. We talk about the latest release from google called Caffeine.

Some of the questions we answer:

• Has Google and the search engines changed drastically?
• What exactly is Google Caffeine?
• What should you do about it?
• Your strategy going forward to be found on search engines…
• Can and should you take advantage of trending topics?

Each Friday Jeff and I will discuss search engine and online marketing related topics. From real time search, google, bing, yahoo, and other search related items.

Listen to the show below