Isn’t that kind of like saying they will never need a telephone?

Seems like a great opportunity ahead….Happy New Year!

Not Every Business Needs – or Wants – a Web Site

Research Shows Key Online Tools Have Yet to be Embraced by Majority of Small Business Owners
RIVERWOODS, Ill., Dec 16, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) — In spite of a growing interest in social networking, online transacting and using a Web page to promote their operations, the majority of small business owners still don’t consider use of the Internet as mandatory in running a small business in America today, according to research from Discover.

“Over the last three years we’ve seen a steady increase in the number of entrepreneurs who are going online to promote and grow their businesses, but the Web has yet to become a must-have tool for everyone,” said Ryan Scully, director of Discover Business card, which commissions monthly research by Rasmussen Reports. “While traditional methods for marketing and advertising a small business still work, Web resources are starting to make a difference for a significant number of entrepreneurs when it comes to finding new business leads.”

Discover has been tracking the business concerns and economic confidence of America’s 22 million small businesses since 2006, and some key trends are emerging with regard to online resources.

“My Business Will Never Need a Web Site”

The number of small businesses with their own Web sites has grown 36 percent in the past two years, but still fewer than half of owners have one. The number of small businesses that have Web sites grew from 33 percent in November 2007 to 45 percent in August 2009.

Forty-six percent of small business owners said it is a myth that every company should have a Web site, 44 percent felt the opposite and 10 percent were not sure. Consumers seem to agree. While 46 percent of them say that they expect every business will have a Web site, another 37 percent don’t think every company needs one. The remaining 17 percent weren’t sure.

“Just because a small business doesn’t have a Web site, doesn’t mean it can’t be found on the Internet,” Scully said. “Most telephone listing services give their business customers some kind of online option, which means a search engine can probably find a phone number or address for most of the businesses you’re looking for.”

When asked to choose from a list the biggest reason why they don’t have a Web site, 41 percent of small business owners said that their business doesn’t need one, 19 percent indicated “cost,” 16 percent chose “not enough time to monitor and manage,”10 percent selected “some other reason,” 9 percent said “complexity,” and 1 percent answered “not sure.”

The remaining 4 percent had no doubt: They chose the option: “My business will never need a Web site.”

“That’s not so hard to believe,” Scully said. “Many corner markets, drycleaners, bakeries and other mom-and-pop operations have enough neighborhood foot traffic that they really don’t need the Internet to turn a profit, even if it might contribute to one, but the need isn’t 100 percent. On the other hand, I’ll bet 99.9 percent of them have a phone.”

Social Networking and New Business Leads

Small business owners are increasingly leveraging online tools and resources to connect with customers and generate new business leads.

The number of small business owners who are part of a popular online social networking site has jumped from 22 percent in October 2007 to 40 percent in April 2009, and 40 percent of small business owners said this year that they have used e-mail to promote their businesses.

Nearly half of all owners said that they have used social networking sites to promote their businesses, and nearly a third of those owners said the biggest benefit of using these sites is getting new business leads.

As for consumers of small business products and services, 47 percent say they are more likely to use a business or a service if it has a web site and 43 percent would consider using a business that they heard about on a social networking group.

Data was collected as part of the monthly Discover Small Business Watch poll of 750 random small business owners with less than five employees. Consumer data is from a random sample of 3,000 users of small businesses. The survey of business owners has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points; the margin of error for consumer data is plus or minus 1.8 percentage points.

The views and opinions expressed by small business owners and consumers who participate in the Small Business Watch survey are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Discover Financial Services or its affiliates.

DATA  Small Business Owners (Random sample: 750)
1. Is it a myth that “every” business needs a Web site? (August 2009)
46% Yes
44% No
10% Not sure
2. Does your business have a Web site?
(August 2009 – November 2007)
45% – Yes – 33 %
54% – No – 65 %
1% – Not sure – 2 %
3. What is the biggest reason why you don’t have a Web site? (August 2009)
41% My business doesn’t need one
19% Cost
16% Not enough time to monitor and manage
9% Complexity
4% My business will never need one
10% Some other reason
1% Not sure

4. Have you ever used e-mail to promote your business? (April 2009)
40% Yes
58% No
1% Not sure

5a. Are you a member of any online social networking community such as Facebook, Linked-In, My Space or Twitter? (April 2009)
38% Yes
62% No
0% Not sure

5a.i Are you a member of a popular, general-interest online community? (October 2007)
22% Yes
78% No

5b. [answered by those who said yes to 5a. ] Have you ever used social networking sites to promote your business? (April 2009)
45% Yes
55% No
0% Not sure

5c. [answered by those who said yes to 5.a] What is the biggest benefit to your business of being part of an online networking community? (April 2009)
32% Getting new business leads
26% Not benefited at all
18% Benefited in other ways
17% Getting business tips
2% Getting new suppliers
2% Getting new employees
3% Not sure

Consumers (Random sample: 3,000)
6. Do you expect every business, small or large, to eventually have a web site? (September 2009)
46% Yes
37% No
17% Not sure
7. Are you more likely or less likely to use a small business that has a web site? (September 2009)
47% More likely
17% Less likely
34% It would have no impact
3% Not sure
8. Would you consider using a service or small business that you heard about on a social or business networking site?
(September 2009 – October 2007)
43% – Yes – 31%
32% – No -55%
26% – Not sure – 14%

About the Small Business Watch

The Discover Small Business Watch is a monthly index measuring the relative economic confidence of U.S. small business owners who have less than five employees, a segment that consists of 22 million businesses producing more than a trillion dollars in annual receipts. The Watch is based on a national random survey of 750 small business owners. It is commissioned by Discover Business card, which strives to offer the best business credit card for American small businesses, and is conducted by Rasmussen Reports, LLC (http://www.rasmussenreports.com), an independent survey research firm. The numeric index is calculated by assigning values to responses to a set of six consistent questions. The base value of the Watch was established at 100.0 based on surveys conducted in August 2006. In addition to generating the index, the Small Business Watch surveys small business owners every month on key issues, and polls 3,000 consumers four times per year to gauge purchasing behavior and attitudes towards small businesses. For past results and survey data, visit http://www.discovercard.com/business/watch. For information on Discover Business card, visit http://www.discovercard.com/business.

Related posts:

1. Getting Your Email Through The Spam Filter
2. How To Choose an eMail Marketing Partner

Mr. Zip , 1960-1980

Choosing an eMail Service Provider (ESP) is critical to ensuring the deliverability of your message to the right audience at the right time.  An ESP may be used for transactional emails to your existing customers in process, and for prospecting to lists of former and prospective customers and those who have signed up for newsletters and such.  While there are many technical and interface usability issues to consider, I look at these top five areas when evaluating email service providers:

1. Support
2. Professional Services
3. Deliverability
4. Reporting
5. Pricing

1) Support.

During the sales process you will meet rainmakers, executives, subject matter experts, high level technical support, and creative directors and so on.  The real question is: who is going to be there after the contract is signed?

• Account Management – who specifically is responsible for your daily needs? Is this person a sales person, or a true account manager who is assigned to make sure you are getting the most for your money every day? Great account managers are incented to be your advocate inside the organization and get you what you need. They also bring best practices and help connect you to other experts who can help you to improve what you do. The Account Manager should have a voice inside the company, and an escalation process for when things go wrong. If not, then you are on your own, subject to whoever is yelling the loudest at that particular moment.
• Executive Level Support – Ideally, the CEO will know you are a new customer and will reach out to your CEO. He or another executive should be available to you in the event you cannot get satisfaction through the regular channels. There needs to be a relationship with an executive who will be assigned to you as an ultimate escalation point. If are they too busy being executives to deal with customers like you, then you need to keep looking.
• Ongoing support – you need to clearly define support levels you will receive, paying particular attention to the contractual Service Level Agreements (and penalties for failing to comply), how support works during business and non-business hours. Are the services US based, or based overseas?

2) Professional Services.

Depending on your internal or agency resources, and your level of experience in email marketing you will likely want to engage your ESP for professional Service.

In addition to delivering the email, what else can the ESP offer in terms of professional services?  Creative services, deployment services, white listing, data hygiene, analytics, personalization, multivariate testing and measuring, and so on are the types of services you may need.  First you need to understand what your ESP does and does not offer, what your options are, and how pricing works.  Some companies will charge you on a time and materials basis, others sell you blocks of time which get used over a defined period (typically 12 months).  Make sure you understand how the project scoping process works, change order management, account management, and sign off once services are delivered.

Also make sure you understand the ESP’s database backup and recovery procedures, and how long they keep your data.  Understanding service level agreements is critical here.

You may also find some ESP’s have certified third party consultants who can handle part or all of your email campaigns on an outsourced basis.  This is a pretty good option, especially if you are new to email marketing – you can rely on them and train your internal team members as you grow the program.

3) Deliverability

Spam is running higher than ever, so deliverability is key and should not be assumed or taken for granted.  The very best ESPs will already have a relationship with an email reputation monitor, a third-party that will monitor email address services providers (Google, AOL, MSN, Yahoo, etc.) to see whether emails are arriving safely and provide blacklist monitoring, pre-deployment spam filter checks and more.  The best in class ESPs will have direct relationships with the major ISPs and participate in their advisory boards or other forums.

Ask specifically who your prospective ESPs are working with and what they do to keep their reputation high. Directly ask what their latest reputation score is. The higher the score, the better their deliverability rates are; so ask what the ESP does to keep itself above board, maintain its white list status, and what will they do to prevent you from making a fatal mistake that could result in blacklisting.

Adhering to CAN-SPAM is a two way street – the client owns this responsibility as well.  Not only is it a legal concern, but it’s just smart business.

4) Reporting.

Email marketing lives and dies by its analytics, and your ability to take action based on the data.  Your ESP needs to provide great analytics that work with your existing platforms.

An ideal ESP reporting platform will measure your email campaign results and performance with advanced tracking tools and easy-to-read reports.   Basics include:

• Delivery open and bounce rates
• Link click tracking and performances Track who clicks your links and who doesn’t.
• Sales revenue from subscribers.
• Segmentation based on click, open, and sales activity.
• A/B and Multi variate test results for messages, subject lines, forms, offers, ad campaigns etc.

Advanced ESP’s will provide, or integrate with,  a predictive modeling and analytics platform to identify your most profitable customer segments and predict the optimal marketing campaigns for each.   You will also need an API that will easily integrate with your database.

5) Pricing.

Email marketing is probably one of the most cost effective parts of your overall marketing portfolio.  It is relatively easy, inexpensive, and does not consume a lot of resources.  An effective email marketing manager will find lots of existing creative assets which can be repurposed as part of your email marketing campaign.  But some ESP’s have pricing schemes that will just drive you crazy.

Things to look at when considering ESP pricing include:

• Monthly annual retainers or minimums – may ESPs will lock you in for a minimum commitment, even though you may not reach that level for some time. Look for a model that scales with your campaign, maturity in email marketing, and usage
• Cost per email. Look at this from a number of angles, including cost per delivered email, opened email, cost per visit and so on.
• Services – pricing for professional services is where a lot of money is made by ESPs, and a sore spot with me. The very best ESP’s will construct a flexible professional services pricing schedule that allows you to scale your usage without having to commit to unreasonable levels or to speculate as to how much service you will need 9 months in the future. Ask for volume disco9utn look backs on a 12 month basis or other ways to let you use their PS organization cost effectively. Ask what the cost per hour is for the people doing the work – often times a fair amount is built in for account management oversight fees.

Shopping for a new Email Service Provider ESP.

I have a very simple process which is most effective for choosing an ESP.  I advocate a three step approach:

1. Define what you want to do, and what your expected outcomes are.   This is harder than it sounds.
2. Send that definition to several (no more than 7) reputable ESP’s as a Request for Information (RFI) to see if, when, and how quickly they respond with a tailored response outlining how they can address your needs.
3. Based on the responses and what you learn, send a formal Request for Proposals (RFP) to 3-5 of their very best respondents to your RFI.  From here you can evaluate their hunger for your business, working style, responsiveness, and ability to meet your needs and add additional value.

Always check references and ask deep, probing questions.  Dig deep into their worst experiences and how things were handled.  Once you choose and ESP, the cost and aggravation of switching will be very high – so you want to get it right the first time and have a phenomenal long term relationship with the winning partner.

Related posts:

1. Getting Your Email Through The Spam Filter

Tom Kulzer, CEO of AWeber

Ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to subscriber inboxes is an increasingly difficult battle in the age of spam filtering. Open and click thru response rates can be dramatically affected by as much as 20-30% due to incorrect spam filter classification.

Permission

Confirming that the people who ask for your information have actually requested to be on your list is the number one step in the battle for deliverability. You should be using a process called confirmed opt-in or verified opt-in to send a unique link to the attempted subscriber when they request information. Before adding the person to your list they must click that unique link verifying that they are indeed the same person that owns the email address and requested to subscribe.

Opt-in Email Subscriber Addresses

When requesting website visitors to opt-in ask for their “real” or “primary” email address instead of a free email address like Yahoo or Hotmail. Free emails tend to be throw away accounts and typically have a shorter lifetime than a primary ISP address.

Email List Maintenance

Always promptly remove undeliverable addresses that bounce when sending email to them. An address that bounces with a permanent error 2-3 times in a 30 day period should be removed from the list. ISP’s track what percentage of your newsletters bounce and will block them if you attempt to continually deliver messages to closed subscriber mailboxes.

Message Format

Usage of HTML messages to allow for text formatting, multiple columns, images, and brand recognition is growing in popularity and is widely supported by most email client software. Most spam is also HTML formatted and thus differentiating between requested email and spam HTML messages can be difficult. A 2004 study by AWeber .com shows that plain text messages are undeliverable 1.15% of the time and HTML only messages were undeliverable 2.3%. If sending HTML it is important to always send a plain text alternative message, also called text/HTML multi-part mime format.

Content

Many ISP’s filter based on the content that appears within the message text.

• Website URL: Research potential newsletter advertisers before allowing them to place ads in your newsletter issues. If they have used their website URL to send spam, just having their URL appear in your newsletter could cause the entire message to be filtered.
• Words/phrases: Choose your language carefully when crafting messages. Avoid hot button topics often found in spam such as medication, mortgages, making money, and pornography. If you do need to use words that might be filtered, don’t attempt to obfuscate words with extra characters or odd spelling, you’ll just make your messages appear more spam like.
• Images: Avoid creating messages that are entirely images. Use images sparingly, if at all. Commonly used open rate tracking technology uses images to calculate opens. You may choose to disable open rate tracking to avoid being filtered based on image content.
• Attachments: With viruses running rampant and spreading thru the usage of malicious email attachments many users are wary of attached documents. It’s often better to link to files via a website URL to reduce recipient fear of attachments and reduce the overall message size.

CAN-SPAM Compliance

The January 2004 Federal CAN-SPAM law introduced a number of rules regarding the delivery of email. It’s important you have your legal counsel review your practices and ensure you are in compliance. The two most important rules include having a valid postal mail address listed in all commercial messages and a working unsubscribe link that is promptly honored to remove the subscriber from future messages.

Reputation

Reputation services are often used by large ISP’s as a way to vet email senders regarding their email practices and policies. Businesses listed with these services are then given less stringent filtering or no filtering at all. Several reputation services are:

• http://www.isipp.com/iadb.php
• http://www.bondedsender.com
• http://www.habeas.com

Relationships & Whitelisting

Contact with major ISP’s and email providers is essential in letting them know about your requested subscriber email. Many large providers such as AOL and Yahoo have specific whitelisting programs and postmaster website areas to ensure your email is delivered as long as you meet their policies and procedures in handling your opt-in list.

Email deliverability is about ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to the intended recipient. While no single tip will enable you to get 100% of your email delivered each one utilized as a group can go a long way to reaching that goal.

No related posts.

Part of the campaign is educational, which is where the “don’t be that guy” idea comes in: trying to teach kids to not be the guy in college who is always broke, has huge credit card debt and bills, and never has the rent money.  To illustrate the concept – there are 5 viral videos.

And this is where they start trying too hard.

I love viral videos,  and anyone who has done one knows how hard it is to create one.  They need to be funny, clever, iconoclastic, sincere, worthy of sending on to someone (“you’ve GOT to see this!”), and somehow promote your brand or product in a way that’s acceptable.  We created a YouTube video of a time-lapse etch-a-sketch drawing of LeBron James a few years back and it got several hundred thousand views within the first month.  There was really no messaging, just something cool for the fans to enjoy.

So check out the videos from Fifth Third Bank:

As soon as I watched these, I thought:

• These are really trying too hard to be funny, cool and viral-worthy.
• Have you ever seen three guys living in a house like this?  Looks like it came straight out of the Pottery Barn Catalog.
• I have a hard time imagining three college guys in matching Snuggie’s.
• The McLovin look-alike is an interesting choice, as is the Zac Effron-esque “responsible guy” Jim.
• I also love the assortment of chips, dips and salsa all neatly presented in colorful crockery on the coffee table.  My coffee table was a big box covered with a sheet, surrounded by dead soldiers of various kinds…

So its easy to pick apart a video that is way too slick and overproduced, with a script that was clearly written by folks in a beige conference room…but the worst part for me is that none of these videos get the real point across that you can really mess up your finances in college and Fifth Third bank has a way to help you manage your money.  If someone were to send me this video, none of the branding or education would have made it on my radar – just McLovin sitting in his Snuggie wishing he had better lines.

Related posts:

1. How To Choose an eMail Marketing Partner
2. I Don’t Need No Stinkin Web Site
3. Getting Your Email Through The Spam Filter

I recently spent time with the folks at Google in Ann Arbor before taking off to Hawaii for ten days.  During the day we spent a lot of time talking about the trends that enable web based businesses, and which trends will drive the “next big thing”.  I won’t tell you that I had an epiphany on the beach because that is 1) far too cliche, and 2) not true at all because I was busy every day starting at 6 AM walking the beach, scuba diving, snorkeling, playing tourist and in general relaxing while chaperoning my son’s high school band trip.  But, I did let some of the things I discussed with the folks at Google sink in and marinate a bit, all the while not worrying about my online businesses because I could stay connected via my BlackBerry and see how things were going.  Unlike my brother who has a true brick and mortar storefront, my stores are open 24/7 to the entire country and make money regardless of where I am.

So whether you are a 4-hour work week-er thinking about your own entrepreneurial slant on how to start a business on the web, or if you are a venture capitalist considering which deal to invest in next, here are some of the mega-trends which are shaping the future for businesses online:

1) Computing Power continues to get better, cheaper, faster at an exponential rate.

If you subscribe to Moore’s Law, then you made a good bet.  In 1965 Intel co-founder Gordon Moore made a prediction which basically stated that the number of transistors which can be placed on a chip will double every two years.  This trend has held since the 1970′s and is true today.  But the trend is not just limited to computing power – it also applies (to a lesser extent) to network capacity,  storage capacity, “pixels per dollar” for digital cameras and so on.  And at the same time the dollar cost per computer MIPS (millions of instructions per second) has dropped at a similar rate.  So you get the best of both worlds – faster and more capable computing power at a lower cost.

The tangible result is that anyone can have instant access to virtually unlimited computer processing capabilities, storage and network bandwidth without having to invest a dime in any of it.  You can use a simple solution from GoDaddy, Host Gator or any number of providers who are out there providing hosting services with tons of free add-on’s like e-mail, security, application software, etc to launch your business. Amazon.com has launched it’s own version of infrastructure services called Amazon Web Services to leverage their investment in computing power, storage and network bandwidth.  The inexpensive computational power that is available now lets companies like Zillow.com compute property value estimates on over 70 million properties using proprietary and third party data, and then puts that power in to the hands of users via the web for free.  Farecast.com does a similar thing, using massive computational power to forecast when you should buy your next airline ticket based on historical data and airline yield management practices, for free.  I can remember selling one gigabyte disc drive storage systems for $100,000 just 15 years ago – now I get 2 GB thumb drives for free as trade show give aways.  

So as the cost of computing becomes a non-issue, you can open your mind to new ways of presenting data, making it available to your users, and providing amazing graphical and video treatments.

2) The “Long Tail” is for real

Chris Anderson first coined this phrase to describe niche business strategy of selling a large number of unique items, each in relatively small quantities.  The same concept applies in search engine marketing and optimization with companies optimizing for multi-word and obscure searches which tend to have higher  potential for driving sales than more generic terms at the “head” of the tail (see chart).  His book The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More is a classic among those building their businesses online.

The Long Tail concept is one of the driving forces behind Amazon.com, Netflix.com, eBay, and others.  And its something you have to stay on top of because the tail will change with current events, news, changing consumer preferences and so on.  According to Google,  20% of  new searches are for terms that are new from 3 months prior.  You can see the rise and fall of interest in terms, and the events that drove interest, on Google Trends.  

So with the ubiquity of search engines as the way that people now choose to use the web, the ability to drive sales and profits from obscure products or search terms becomes very real.   There may indeed be a market for your left handed orange oven mitt.  

3) The “Wisdom of Crowds” is for real

The “Wisdom of Crowds” is a book written by James Surowiecki in 2004 which basically states that collective minds make better decisions than individuals, or even experts.  While you can argue that “group think” is not necessarily a good thing, the concept applies well for online businesses and has important implications for how you present yourself online.

The web has opened up ample opportunity for individuals to express their opinion, and to comment on other’s opinion.  User reviews on Overstock.com are far more powerful than any product description could ever be.  User comments on RateNerd.com give direct and immediate feedback on their experiences with bank offers and promotions, and let them suggest other unadvertised bank deals.  Wikipedia.com Yedda.com and Yahoo Answers provide a forum for people to share information, and for the community to vote on that information.  Google’s Page Rank algorithm is powered largely by the number of sites linking to another site – in essence tabulating votes and assuming that like minded sites that link to each other know something.

There is great power in being adopted by the crowd.  Whether its creating that elusive viral video on YouTube, or having a huge traffic spike after being “stumbled” by an influential user on StumbleUpon, the crowd effect can be a real driver for your business.  And of course it cuts both ways – negative reviews can kill you.  At the same time, it’s important to let the crowd make up its mind – in the Overstock.com example, it is critical that they allow both good and bad product reviews to be posted.  If they only allowed for positive reviews, it would quickly be dismissed as “fake”.  By allowing new users to read both good and bad reviews, they are perceived as “real” and will earn a higher degree of trust.

4) Open Your Mind to Open Source Computing Platforms

Back in the good old days of high margin computer software development, proprietary systems were the way to go.  These “closed” systems meant that you had to completely buy into a specific company’s flavor of computing (IBM, Microsoft, even Apple in the early days) with training, hardware, tools, data bases, etc.  The advent of “open source” computing makes the underlying computer code available to anyone, thus reducing costs, speeding innovation and development, and increasing the number of folks who can work on the software platform.

At the risk of going down a geeky discussion of application development protocols etc, let me sum it up this way: open source computing platforms have a similar impact on software development as Moore’s Law does on computing power.  It makes your software better, cheaper, faster.  

So for anyone looking to build a business online, this means reduced costs and increased speed to market with your new site.  I can have a free, search engine optimized content management system up  and running my blog or content site in literally five minutes by using WordPress.   I can put my entire company or network of virtual assistants on an enterprise class document management system with full collaboration capabilities using Google Apps in just minutes, for free.  And for both of these platforms, there are plenty of free or low cost add on’s that allow me to integrate additional functionality into the site (ad serving, Twitter integration, analytics, newsletter sign-ups, and so on).   Apple is now in the game, and its iPhone App Store has made the iPhone the most popular cellular phone ever – and Apple had to spend zero on the development of these applications.  They just made the platform available and smart developers (following the wisdom of crowds and the long tail) made software that people want at their expense, hoping for future profits.

5) Look to the Cloud

The network power that enables these first four mega-trends is something called “Cloud Computing”.  Cloud computing refers to software and data that exists in cyber-space as opposed to on your server or PC.  With all your data and applications stored in “the cloud” you can access it from anywhere, and someone else is responsible for securing, hosting, and maintaining your software/data infrastructure.  This, again, means better-cheaper-faster and more scalable infrastructure for you to run your business.

By having my business run in the cloud, I eliminate the need for a physical server room with raised floors, endless wires, IT staff, boxes of cables and software manuals, etc.  I also don’t have to worry about security and software updates because someone else does it for me.  Think about the power of using an application like SalesForce.com to manage your network of sales people and your customer management system with no investment in systems or IT staff, all for a low monthly fee.  Best of all, it’s infinitely scalable – thus allowing you to ramp resources up or down as your business needs them.

Put it all together and what have you got?

By putting the five trends together, you have an emerging picture of building a business online with infinite amounts of cheap computing power that allows customers to collaborate and find the products and services that fit their individual needs.   You can pull together big ideas for merging massive amounts of data, graphics, video, satellite images etc and delivering those results in real time to a user’s desktop or mobile device.  And you have the ability to do it from anywhere in the world, 24/7.  The implication and opportunity for marketers and entrepreneurs is enormous.

Related posts:

1. I Don’t Need No Stinkin Web Site
2. How To Choose an eMail Marketing Partner
3. Getting Your Email Through The Spam Filter

In case you aren’t familiar with Google Checkout, it is their answer to PayPal, plus a bit more.  Google Checkout lets users use their stored information on Google to make their purchase , thus reducing shopping cart abandonment  and increasing sales. The big advantage was for AdWords advertisers who offer Google Checkout as they can place the Google Checkout badge in their AdWords ads, which differentiates the listing. On top of that, the AdWords spend counts to offset the merchant service fee that would normally be charged by 10 to 1 – so if you spend $100 on AdWords, Google will waive up to $1,000 in merchant services fees for all purchases using Google Checkout during that month.  You can read my full write up here.

As of  May 5, 2009,  Google will discontinue the AdWords match against Google Checkout merchant services credit card processing fees.  Any AdWords transaction processing credits accrued during April 2009 will be applied towards transactions that occur on May 1-4, 2009. Google Checkout’s transaction processing fees then transition from 2.0% + $0.20 per transaction rate to a new tiered fee structure, where the rates will vary depending on the dollar amount of your monthly sales processed through Checkout. 

The new fees are an exact match of PayPal’s fees.  So if your business is driven by Google ads it makes sense to offer Google Checkout.  If your business is driven by eBay and Yahoo ads then PayPal makes sense.  Of course, shopping around for merchant fees makes a ton of sense and you can really save money by comparison shopping and negotiating.  I continue to be surprised by the number of online stores who dont offer either one – in my book the more payment options you give the customer, the better.

PayPal Transaction Fees

Google Checkout Transaction Fees

Related posts:

1. How To Choose an eMail Marketing Partner
2. I Don’t Need No Stinkin Web Site

So here are seven that I think are useful, let me know which ones you like.

1) Google Analytics

Google Analytics provides actionable insight into how to optimize websites, online campaigns, and even offline marketing efforts.  It is a sophisticated yet easy to use application which will help you determine which marketing initiatives are driving the most valuable traffic to your site and how best to convert those visitors once they are there.  It integrates with AdWords, giving you atomic level detail on which keywords are most profitable or driving the desired action. Read my full review on Google Analytics here.

2) Google Checkout

Google Checkout is a payment process which integrates with your AdWords campaign and your website, allowing your customers to buy from you quickly and securely using a single username and password.  Once they use Google Checkout, the system processes their payment and their order  in conjunction with your shopping cart.  Read my full review on Google Checkout here.

3) Google Product Search

Google Product Search (you may remember this as “Froogle”) helps shoppers find and buy products from merchants across the web.  When you list your products in Product Search, shoppers can quickly and easily find your site, delivering you more traffic and helping you to increase sales.  And if you accept Google Checkout for payment, the Checkout badge will appear on your Product Search listings, driving even more traffic and confident shoppers to your site.  Read my full review on Google Product Search here.

4) Google Trends

Google Trends lets you see who is interested in any given  topic, on a local or worldwide basis.  You can enter up to five topics and see how often they’ve been searched on Google over time.  Google Trends also shows how frequently your topics have appeared in Google News stories and in which geographic regions people have searched for them the most.  Read my full review on Google Trends here.

5) 800-GOOG-411

1-800-GOOG-411 is a voice activated system offering directory assistance Google Search results from any phone (mobile or land line, it doesn’t matter) for free. Which means you can now stop paying $1.50 to the phone company every time you need a phone number.  Read my full review on 800-GOOG-411 here.

6) Branded Channels on YouTube

You Tube lets you build a brand channel which is a premium (but free) customizable page where you can present all of your video content.  It lets you build a centralized video library which acts as a hub for the community to watch your videos and connect with your brand.  And while it’s free, quick and easy, it’s something your competitors probably won’t think to take advantage of – giving you a differentiated brand experience.  Read more about building a branded channel on YouTube here.

7) Gmail, Google Base, Google Apps, etc.

OK, I am cheating on this one a little bit.  But between Gmail, Base, Apps, Webmaster Tools, Earth, Suggest, Finance, Health, etc there are just too many to choose from.  Maybe my favorites should really be the ones that put money in my pocket like AdWords and AdSense….

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Google Analytics provides actionable insight into how to optimize websites, online campaigns, and even offline marketing efforts.  It is a sophisticated yet easy to use application which will help you determine which marketing initiatives are driving the most valuable traffic to your site and how best to convert those visitors once they are there.  It integrates with AdWords, giving you atomic level detail on which keywords are most profitable or driving the desired action.

With Google Analytics, you can:

• Compute ROI on your marketing campaigns
• Customize reports and schedule distribution to your colleagues
• Develop strategies for ad campaigns, website initiatives, merchandising and e-commerce,
• Discover which customer segments are most valuable
• Drill – get curious about whats going on with your traffic

The package is a breeze to install – you just paste the Google Analytics tracking code into each of your web site pages and begin tracking immediately.   You can track and compare all your ads, email newsletters, affiliate campaigns, referrals, paid links and keywords on Google and the other engines.  Tracking referrals gives you insight into your social media, article distribution, and link building SEO initiatives by showing you where the traffic is coming from.

The e-commerce tracking allows you to track transactions to a campaign and keyword, by traffic source.  It will tell you the value of each visit in actual dollars for any time period you choose to measure, or compare one time period to another.  You also get sophisticated funnel visualizations to see which pages result in lost conversion, and a site overlay which shows traffic and conversion information for every link on your site.  All for free.

Lastly, Google has included the ability to drive “experiments” to see how different landing pages will perform in your conversion funnel.  Experiments can range from simple A/B tests to sophisticated multi-variate tests.   I used to pay thousands of dollars for a single multi-variate test and it took tons of marketing and engineering resources to implement the test.  Now I can do it for free, and it’s not that hard to implement.  Cool!

Click here to check it out at the Google Analytics home page.

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Google Product Search (you may remember this as “Froogle”) helps shoppers find and buy products from merchants across the web.  When you list your products in Product Search, shoppers can quickly and easily find your site, delivering you more traffic and helping you to increase sales.  And if you accept Google Checkout for payment, the Checkout badge will appear on your Product Search listings, driving even more traffic and confident shoppers to your site.

Listing your products in Product Search is completely free, with no set up or hidden costs.  Because Product Search delivers unbiased and objective search results the same way Google Search does, the ranking is based solely on the quality and relevance of your product listings.

One really nice feature is the ability to upload your product catalog in bulk via XML feed.  Several shopping carts support Google Product Search and will generate your feed and upload it with just a few clicks.  You can update the feed as often as you like, but you must maintain it monthly as all listings expire after 31 days.  See my reviews on the  GoDaddy Quick Shopping Cart and Volusion’s e-commerce platforms as both of these make it easy to use Google Product Search.

One shortcoming is the confusing number of names that Google uses for these products.  “Base”, “Product Search”, “Shopping”, “Checkout” all are part of the same set of tools you will need to work with.  I think someone there could simplify the naming conventions for dumb marketing guys like me.  Drive more clicks for free at http://base.google.com/base/help/sellongoogle.html.

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Google Checkout is a payment process which integrates with your AdWords campaign and your website, allowing your customers to buy from you quickly and securely using a single username and password.  Once they use Google Checkout, the system processes their payment and their order  in conjunction with your shopping cart.

If you already offer Pay Pal, it makes sense to add Google Checkout as an option for your customers.

Google Checkout lets users use their stored information on Google to make their purchase – they just need to type in their username and password.  This convenience reduces shopping cart abandonment, and can increase your sales.  Click here to see the Google Checkout Tour.

AdWords advertisers who offer Google Checkout can place the Google Checkout badge in their AdWords ads.   The small Google Checkout icon sits to the side or underneath your AdWords listing (and your Google Product Search feed listing) which differentiates your ad from those without the badge.  Google studies show a higher click thru rate and user trust on ads which display the Google Checkout icon.  Best of all, your AdWords spend counts to offset the merchant service fee that would normally be charged.  In fact , Google will match your AdWords spend by 10 to 1 –  so if you spend $100 on AdWords, Google will waive up to $1,000 in merchant services fees for all purchases using Google Checkout during that month.

In my experience, Google Checkout is not as widely accepted as PayPal, but that will change overtime.  If you’re going to sell on line, its better to have more ways for your customers to pay.  As an example, you can see how it’s integrated by adding an item into this Volusion Shopping Cart.

So, to review: you can get more clicks, more sales, less expense with Google Checkout.  What’s not to like?

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