Check it out... the other day I received a complimentary edition of Mike Moran's newest read "Do It Wrong Quickly: How the Web Changes the Old Marketing Rules", which just hit bookstores earlier this month. Kickass!

An excerpt from the back of Mike's book states:

A "thanks" goes out to Mike. I'll be sure to give it a read and a review sometime soon.

Thanks man!

I just finished reading the latest issue of the Practical eCommerce Magazine (that's the September / October issue for those of you keeping track at home) where I found a very interesting cover story titled "One Hundred Notable Shopping Carts". As the title might imply, PeC has outlined their list of the 100 most notable shopping carts (as according to the number of active users), and has named Yahoo! Small Business (aka Yahoo! Store) in the top 10.

Yahoo! Small Business, ranked 9th with 47,000 active users, fell just 3,000 users shy of topping Shop Site and AFCommerce Shopping Cart for the number 7 spot. According to Practical eCommerce's count, there are more than 300 hosted and licensed shopping cart solutions available today. That's a lot of shopping carts, and certainly makes the task of picking a solution a very difficult process... especially for those small businesses with limited resources.

Michael Valiant, a product management and marketing specialist for 1ShoppingCart, offers the following suggestion to small businesses evaluating shopping cart solutions:

I couldn't agree with Michael more. I have the privilege of working with many young, small businesses at the beginning stages of their website's development and most seem to be very concerned with finding a shopping cart solution that will not only meet their current needs, but those in the future as well. Personally, my recommendation to small businesses will almost always be to invest in a Yahoo! Store from Yahoo! Small Business. Yahoo! Small Business acts as a trusted partner that helps merchants easily establish and grow their businesses. They offer a fully hosted solution with a secured shopping cart, free 24/7 support, and several advanced marketing features which make it easier for merchants to track online promotions, as well as tap into search engine resources.

A "congratulations" goes out to my friends over at Yahoo! Small Business. You guys have worked very hard to put out such a superb product, and I for one am glad to see that you're recognized for it. You may be number 9 on the list, but you're certainly number 1 in our hearts.

Check it out... last week I was interviewed by my man Paul Boisvert (the infamous Paul B.), Sr. Technical Content Producer from the Small Business division at Yahoo!. The interview was published just yesterday on the official Yahoo! Store blog, and features lots of search marketing goodness... in terms of my personal SEM insights, tips, and strategies. Paul tailored this interview specifically to the Yahoo! Store audience, but after reading it myself, I believe most of it can also be applied to most small businesses and DIY search marketers.

My favorite question from the interview was when Paul asked:

My response:

All in all, I thought Paul did a great job with this interview. His questions were certainly on-point, and they provided some really worthwhile and "meaty" information for his readers. If you're interested... feel free to mosey on over to the Yahoo! Store blog and have yourself a read.

Let me start by saying that I'm not a Rush super-fan in any way. I don't own any of their albums or tees nor do I follow them from venue to venue. I don't dislike them or their music... I just don't know it.

This past Saturday some buds and I caught a Rush concert at the "First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre" (formerly the Tweeter Center) in Chicago. We actually ordered tickets several months ago, and got some decent seating. Not as good as WrestleMania 23 back in April, but they were good nonetheless.

The concert itself was a blast, and it turns out that I even recognized a few of their songs... one of which was "YYZ" as featured in the Guitar Hero 2 video game. Here are a few shots from the concert:

The only downer of the night (for me anyway - but I'm sure the guys would agree) was having to fork up 10 bucks a beer. It was like being robbed, but asking for it. Oh well, that didn't stop us from downing a dozen or more, but it sure put a hurting on our wallets. Well, except for my friend Dubz who just happens to be rich as hell.

Bossman dropped off the latest issue of "Maximum PC" at my desk early last week (the October 2007 issue or Volume 12 Number 10 for those of you keeping track at home). Between he and I, we manage to put in our fair share of reading in a single month... at least in terms of search marketing, general marketing, web design, graphic design, Internet, and technology related blogs, magazines, and books.

In this issue I came across a tiny clipping titled "Firefox Closes in on IE". I've always had an interest in the "browser wars", as it's commonly referred to as, and have often wondered if Firefox would be the browser that would ultimately knock IE off its throne... or at least give it a run for its money (and we're talking Bill Gate's Microsoft IE so you know that's going to be a hell of a jog). The clipping stated:

In the short amount of time that Firefox has been available for free download; it's been able to do what no other browser has been able to do... compete head-to head and toe-to-toe with the Microsoft's IE. Think about that for a second. Firefox owns 30% to 40% of the European browser market... what a truly remarkable feet. I'm not exactly sure what Firefox's current share is in the US market, but I'd imagine those numbers have also risen in recent months.

So... what does this mean to you website owners, designers, and marketers? Well as Firefox's popularity and overall public usage continues to grow, you'll all be responsible for ensuring that your work remains in perspective with your Internet audience... even if that means developing and optimizing websites with the Firefox browser in mind.

Just for kicks, I gave my website's stats a once over and found some pretty interesting details about my visitors and their choice of browsers. Near 45% of my website's visitors use Firefox. Granted, I blog in a technology-based industry where using Firefox is widely more accepted and common, but I still think that's a good representation of the kind of numbers we can expect to see in coming years from Firefox and other industries.

Is your website optimized for the Firefox browser? What percentage of visitors / readers / leads / clients / customers are you loosing on the account that its not?

The other day, while on phone conference with a potential client, I was asked if I knew what the industry standard was in terms of Pay Per Click (PPC) management fees, and where All Web stood in relation to those standards. Honestly, I was a bit taken back by this question. I had never once been asked this and know very little about the pricing models of other PPC management providers. Although I couldn't really provide much value to the client's question - I certainly couldn't speak intelligently on the subject or bullshit my way through it - I was able to fork up the following response:

So I ask you... how accurate was my response? The few PPC management companies that I happen to know of either bill a flat rate for their services or a combination of a flat rate and a percentage of spend. For you PPC providers out there... what do you charge for management services? For you clients or individuals who've done some research lately... what kinds of pricing structures are you coming across?