E-Commerce is for You

Posted on October 26, 2012 by dzineit

Most people think an e-commerce site is only for selling physical products on line.  They think of the internet as a place to offer books, DVD’s, fashion items, etc. and that all products and services of an e-commerce site are only available on line. While this is true for a lot of e-commerce sites, not every e-commerce site involves selling physical products.  E-commerce can be an important part of every business.  If you are running a business based on services rather than actual physical products – e-commerce can be relevant to your business as well.

Businesses that are selling services need to understand that e-commerce transcends physical goods.  Service oriented companies can use the online community as a payment channel for things such as exercise classes, beauty services and tickets that will be consumed in a separate physical location.  By offering on-line promotions and sales opportunities to potential customers, businesses like these can reach a broader sales base and facilitate the purchase of their services.  Using an on-line payment system opens up an entire new way to offer and sell your services.

Selling your services on-line for future consumption can also be a market research tool.  Selling your services on-line can help you collect information on your most loyal customers and reach out to them.  You can use the information gained from on-line analytic sales tools to enhance your business as well as enhance the customer experience.  This information allows you to offer a different kind of personalized customer service.

Lastly, in today’s world the ability to purchase services on-line offers convenience.
Not having to run to the store to buy a subscription or gift certificate is a time saving way to increase revenue.

So whether you are selling beauty services or exercise classes, consider e-commerce for your site.  If you are not doing so – you may be missing a valuable sales and marketing tool.

 

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Peter Crisafi (Peter Crisafi dzineit)
dzine it, inc. +1.212.989.0813
26 West 23 Street
New York, NY, 10010 U.S.A
Specialty:
News; Web Programming

Upgrading Your Browser

Posted on October 25, 2012 by dzineit

Everyone who uses the Web – uses a browser.  Whether you are shopping, reading, banking, researching, emailing or using social media – you access all of these web pages through a web browser. Without a browser you cannot view or interact with websites. If the version of the browser you use is old – you could be limiting your web experience. There are many reasons to upgrade your old browser and enhance your online viewing.

Firstly, old browsers are very slow. Every web page that loads in a browser has to perform a number of different tasks. One of those tasks is the process of loading different files. These files include images, programming scripts, and other resources that help improve the look and functionality of the website you’re visiting. Old browsers do not perform these tasks with the same speed as new browsers. This makes your experience on the web considerably slow and can sometimes cause your browser to crash or freeze.

Outdated browsers often can’t display new websites properly because their display capabilities are very limited. New browsers support new web technologies (like HTML5 and CSS3). These languages serve as a foundation for many websites today and for virtually all new websites and web apps. But unfortunately, many of these new websites will neither look nor function in the same way in old browsers like IE8.

Old browsers are less stable, and much more vulnerable to viruses, spyware, malware and other security issues.  It goes without saying that these are big problems to be concerned about—especially for people who shop online.

Lastly, older browsers like IE7 and IE8 will not automatically notify you to update.
Newer browsers like Google Chrome will automatically update to the latest version or will notify you to download an update.

Updating your browser is free and won’t take long.  So whatever you are doing on line – make the most of it by using a new and updated browser.

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Peter Crisafi (Peter Crisafi dzineit)
dzine it, inc. +1.212.989.0813
26 West 23 Street
New York, NY, 10010 U.S.A
Specialty:
IT Technology; News

Dzine it Wins Silver Davey Award for Website Home Page

Posted on October 24, 2012 by dzineit

New York, NY (October 22, 2012) –  The International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA) announced today that New York based dzine it, a web development and digital marketing firm, has won the Silver Davey for the company’s website home page design. The Davey Awards is the leading awards competition designed specifically for small firms, agencies and companies worldwide to compete with their peers to win the recognition they deserve for the finest creative work.

dzine it was selected from nearly 4,000 entries from across the US and around the world.  The award recognizes the achievement that comes with being a “Creative David” – getting strength from big ideas, rather than big budgets.

“This year’s winners truly represent a smart, nimble approach to creativity and embody the quick thinking, resourceful nature that make small agencies so unique” noted Linda Day, Executive Director of the IAVA. She added, “On behalf of the entire International Academy of Visual Arts, I want to thank this year’s Davey Awards entrants and winners for sharing their amazing capabilities and talents, allowing us to once again highlight the best small firms worldwide.”

“We are really happy to win this Davey. The dzine it website is always evolving.  We are constantly coming up with new ideas and ways to market ourselves and our clients.  We want our website to be a reflection of this process”, says Peter Crisafi Vice President of dzine it. “We are actually about to launch a new look for our firm’s website that will reflect even further the innovative talent we have here at the firm.  We look forward to many more years of great competition and being recognized for our achievements by true visionaries in the creative website world.”

The Davey Award is the latest in a series of recent award recognition for dzine it. The firm won the 2012 Silver W³ for Website Marketing Effectiveness of ICC Website, the 2012 Interactive Media Award (IMA) for Outstanding Achievement in the Health-Nutrition Category, 2012 Hermes Creative Award International Competition and a 2012 Horizon Interactive Award.

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Peter Crisafi (Peter Crisafi dzineit)
dzine it, inc. +1.212.989.0813
26 West 23 Street
New York, NY, 10010 U.S.A
Specialty:
Awards; News

LINKEDIN’S NEWEST FEATURES

Posted on October 18, 2012 by dzineit

LinkedIn recently unveiled the latest feature to its social media network – 150 super influencers who fans can follow — a news feed similar to Twitter.

Fans can follow high profile figures such as President Obama, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, physician/writer Deepak Chopra and Virgin founder/CEO Richard Branson among others.  Unlike Twitter, there are no140-character limit on updates and the communication is designed to be business-related.

“People come here for a purpose,” says Dan Roth executive editor at LinkedIn. “They’re at work or thinking about work. It’s not about their personal lives. When asked when the next round of super-influencers will be added, Roth replied, “The answer is we don’t know.”

The group’s ability to engage LinkedIn’s audience will be ranked by views, likes, comments and shares that are visible to all users. Such metrics will both act as a self-regulating feature, but will also prompt the inevitable ranking of the top 10 and bottom 10.

LinkedIn users can now generate and consume original content on the site – with the rolling out a long-form publishing tool — basically a blogging tool — so people can post lengthier, media-rich updates to their profile pages. Both tools will be available on the desktop site and LinkedIn’s mobile apps.

These additions are the latest evolution for the nine-year-old LinkedIn. They come following Twitter’s decision in June to no longer let users tweet to LinkedIn. It’s a sign that LinkedIn is making strides to become more than a place to store your online resume. And with each of its recent updates, the professional social network is beginning to more and more resemble the other popular social networking sites – Facebook and Google+.

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Peter Crisafi (Peter Crisafi dzineit)
dzine it, inc. +1.212.989.0813
26 West 23 Street
New York, NY, 10010 U.S.A
Specialty:
Digital Marketing; News

E-Commerce Payment Essentials

Posted on October 17, 2012 by dzineit

Some of the most important elements in building an e-commerce site are the tools needed to select merchandise and pay for it online.  Understanding these tools — the shopping cart, merchant account and payment gateway will help you create a website that will work well and be successful.

First, every e-commerce site needs a shopping cart. The shopping cart allows customers to select from the merchandise you are offering and place the items they want into their “basket” just as if they were shopping in a brick-and-mortar store. The shopping cart totals the entire order for the customer, allowing them to see tax and shipping rates. The shopping cart then collects the billing, shipping and payment information and processes the order.

Next you will need some way of accepting online payments. This generally means credit cards as most e-commerce purchases are made with credit or debit cards online. A merchant account will allow you to accept major credit cards for goods and services. Merchant accounts aren’t the same as ordinary bank accounts even though ordinary banks provide them. In a way, merchant accounts act as a contract between the business owner and the bank. If you want your online business to thrive, you’re going to need a merchant account.

Lastly you will need a payment gateway. Your payment gateway serves as the link between your site and the credit card processors. A customer enters credit card information to purchase your product or service. This data is passed to the merchant web server and a payment gateway through a secure socket layer (SSL). An example of a payment gateway is Authorize.Net. Once payment information is submitted on the Authorize.Net secure order page, the payment gateway sends the data to a credit card authorization network. That network then verifies that the customer’s credit card is valid and has sufficient funds to clear the transaction. The payment gateway then returns the result of the transaction.  If the transaction is approved, the sale is completed and the customer is given a receipt. If the transaction is declined, the customer is prompted to try again with a different card. A payment gateway also helps reduce the number of fraudulent orders you receive. This is done by declining orders where the address and zip code don’t match the credit card billing information, or where the three-digit CVV number is entered incorrectly.

Be sure to pay equal attention to all of these areas – merchant account, shopping cart, and payment gateway selection. Doing so will help you have a successful e-commerce website.

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Peter Crisafi (Peter Crisafi dzineit)
dzine it, inc. +1.212.989.0813
26 West 23 Street
New York, NY, 10010 U.S.A
Specialty:
Interesting Articles; IT Technology; News

Tips on Using Pinterest for Your Business

Posted on October 12, 2012 by dzineit

Pinterest is a rapidly growing social media billboard used to share products with others.  As with other social media, it can be a very useful tool to market your business if used right. The secret behind Pinterest working for your business is getting content to be shared quickly and frequently. This will help in moving a consumer from browser to purchaser.

Below are some tips on how to use this online billboard.

1. Have things to Pin.   Make sure you have photos, graphics, diagrams and other visuals on your site for people to pin.  Anything visual that can be shared is good. If you sell physical products, one of the most obvious ways to use Pinterest is to share images of your products.  Bloggers are using Pinterest to create visual directories of content they publish by using photos or other graphics in their blog.  You need to use some sort of image in your blog so Pinterest has an image to pull when your post is pinned. Video promotion works exactly the same was a blog promotion, except you can actually embed your videos right into Pinterest. On line videos can be very powerful for small business owners, so this is the perfect way to use Pinterest for promotion.

2. Update Frequently.  Pinterest is social media and like any other social media you need to keep updating often.  You should add images, pin and re-pin as well as comment on a regular basis.

3. Use Descriptions.  Make use of the caption/description space available on your pins. Use Pinterest caption space to give as many details about each visual as possible.  This should help enhance viewer interest.

4. Be Creative.  In addition to using what’s on your site, you can create pin boards and pin photos of things that are related to your products. This will give you the scope to be much more interesting and even more relevant to your customers.  Although your goal may be to promote your own business and drive traffic to your website or blog, you should also consider creating boards that highlight great images, content and information from others. One way to do this is by creating a board that features your own clients or customers.

5. Integrate Pinterest with the other social media you use for your business.
When you pin something, you’ll see that you have to option of tweeting about your pin if you like. You can also add Pinterest to your Facebook timeline which will automatically post your pins to Facebook.

Take a look at your business or blog. If you apply these tips Pinterest can be a great way to promote and market your business online for free.

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Peter Crisafi (Peter Crisafi dzineit)
dzine it, inc. +1.212.989.0813
26 West 23 Street
New York, NY, 10010 U.S.A
Specialty:
Digital Marketing; News
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