I met Vincent online on MyBlogLog.com and found out that he runs an online personalized gift shop called Heartbeat. He started the business two years ago and the site is written in English and Chinese. Heartbeat.com.my provides online customers the opportunity to buy a variety of gifts like mugs, tee shirts, key chains, etc. which can be personalized with photos and wordings, making the experience of choosing a gift more personal and meaningful. For those of you who do not enjoy shopping and need to buy a gift, you can do it all online and the gift will be shipped to you. Completely hassle free (I like that).

Heartbeat is promoting a Christmas gift pack and is currently having a competition to find the most creative couple photo. The website’s FAQ section clearly explains how to place your order online and how you should upload the photos for the gift you wish to personalize. If you like self-expression gifts, then visit Heartbeat.com.my

Recently an influential business investor who has been in the information technology (IT) industry for decades said something that got me thinking. He said that in today’s IT world, the success of an IT company is not to just focus on the technology but to focus on distribution. He was referring to IT storage technology. I said to myself this also holds true for internet businesses. Whether it is e-commerce, blogs, video sharing, forums, software, etc., viral distribution is crucial to the success of the business. Your online target audience will not know about your online business unless you find a way to reach them through some form of online distribution channel.

There are two phases in any online business. Firstly you must get yourself recognized in cyber-world. Then when people recognize your business, you must convert them from visitors to fans. Hence, find a way to get them to stick around. Only then will you be able to get repeated sales and form a relationship with your customers.

The first phase – Getting recognized
Search Engine Optimizers (SEO) are specialists in distributing your business URL to online communities, search engines, directories, etc. They do the “Shout Out” distribution for you. They also optimize your site through keyword strategies to get your site seen up in the list of search engines results.

Then there is reciprocal link distribution where back links to your web site will push up your page rank. A page rank tells others how popular your site is. This is measured by the number of links back to your site. Online advertising is another getting recognized strategy used by almost all online businesses. You can advertise through Google’s Adwords, Yahoo or other online advertising companies, i.e. AdBrite, etc. Some companies are using game distribution channels to advertise their products using in-game advertising methods or social network distribution channels, i.e. Facebook, MySpace, etc. to advertise or “Shout Out”.

The second phase – Sticky fans
Once you are recognized online, the number of visitors coming to your web site will increase and you have to think of ways to keep them coming back. Hence, converting visitors to fans. If you have an e-commerce web site, you need a good shipping and supplier distribution. If you run a blog or forum, you have to provide good content. You have to build a good team of contributors and moderators. You may also want to keep in touch with your fans through email-outs regularly to remind them of your existence and to inform them of new content, products, etc.

This is on-going because fans that do not stick around will go elsewhere and become fans of competitor web sites. Nothing is set in stone. The online business is always open to new ideas for example in recent months, companies are creating API’s for developers to create sticky applications for their web sites, particularly social networks. Ideas for creating viral distribution is key because we already have a good internet technology infrastructure. It is how and what we add-on to the existing technology that will give online businesses the extra edge in the business.

Having said that, if you are looking for ways to get recognized, check out my reciprocal link exchange web site and start creating back links to your web site.

Plaxo’s social network, Pulse has seen a surge in traffic since the launch of their application built using the OpenSocial API.  It is reported the traffic jump from 200,000 around Nov. 1 to 1 millon on Nov. 14. 

Plaxo allows users to build social networks based on the content built by their e-address book.  Using OpenSocial, Plaxo users can create professional and personal profiles that include photos and contact information.  The success of Plaxo social network using OpenSocial API says a lot about the potential of OpenSocial.

Google released a tutorial on Website Optimizer today on YouTube. The video is quite a lengthy demonstration on how to set up tests using the optimizer to help optimize your website. Website Optimizer is available in Google Adwords. That means you need an Adwords account but you can use Website Optimizer independent of Adwords. I call the Website Optimizer the third of Google’s online marketing product trilogy.

1. Adwords was created by Google to drive traffic to websites.
2. Analytics was created to measure, analyze and chart the traffic.
3. Website Optimizer is to test website pages for potential changes on the pages to convert a web surfer to a customer.

There are two types of tests available in the Optimizer. They are the A/B test and Multivariate test.

The A/B test uses a control script to redirect visitors to different versions of the webpage. In the A/B test you set up more than one version of the webpage and by embedding the control script, the application will then redirect visitors to the different webpages and you can then compare the data for each of the webpages.

The Multivariate test is different in the sense that you test with only one page but change the location of various sections on the webpage to test the different outcome from the visitors. Multivariate test will have the control script and section script embedded.

How useful is this tool? I think it is a very useful tool if you are in the online marketing business and you are using Adwords and Analytics because the optimizer serves like a what-if analysis tool for web marketers. Watch the video from Google and let me know your thoughts.

Amazon has made a timely launch of Amazon Prime in the UK this November to lure Christmas shoppers to shop online at amazon.co.uk.  The Amazon Prime program is an exclusive membership for unlimited free 1-day delivery.  The cost of the membership is £49 per year.  This is not a new membership program as it is already used in US and Japan.  Amazon’s statement on Amazon Prime:

“Amazon Prime will take the effort out of ordering.  There will be no minimum purchase and no consolidating orders.  One-day delivery becomes an every day experience rather than an occasional indulgence.”

There will be discounts for Express and Evening delivery and the Amazon Prime benefits can be shared with up to four family members per household with no extra cost.

If you are an Amazon customer and return to the website more than a few times a year to buy your favourite DVD, book or CD, then Amazon Prime will be a catalyst to spend more because psychologically you would want to make sure you get the most from the £49 membership fee.  One-day delivery is very attractive to a lot of shoppers especially this time of the year.  Imagine before Amazon Prime, you wait up to 5 days to a week for your merchandise because you choose not to pay delivery charges and opt for free delivery.  Now you can get it the next day and you can do all your Christmas shopping from the comfort of your living room.

 

With Google’s share above $700 and their announcement of OpenSocial (an API developers to create applications for social networking sites) and the most recent announcement of an operating system for mobile handsets, it is no wonder we are questioning if Google has overtaken Microsoft in the online business.

Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer told reporters in Tokyo that Google is not ahead of them except in the area of online search.  Ballmer was unable to comment on Google’s mobile plans because the plans are still in the early stages and have not been implemented.  It is reported that Ballmer acknowledged that Microsoft’s online business has not been profitable for some time but the online advertising revenue is growing.  Now with Microsoft’s part acquisition of Facebook, they are in the position to compete with Google and there are interesting times ahead for both Microsoft and Google.