Join fellow Yahoo! store owners September 13th and 14th in Santa Clara California for the Yahoo! Merchant Summit. This is an exclusive event open only to Yahoo! Merchants. You will have the chance to meet the Yahoo! Small Business team along with developers and partners for two days of fun and learning.

Hear what the experts have to say about Marketing, Best Practices, Social Media and more. If you didn’t have the chance to make it to Chicago in June, this is the perfect opportunity to catch up on all the latest news and product trends.

After the sessions end on the 13th, everyone will be  heading over to the Yahoo! campus to mix and mingle with Yahoo! VIP’s. Transportation will be provided between the Marriott and the Yahoo! campus.

Last but not least, meet the team from KingWebmaster!

We will have a table at the Summit both days-can’t wait to see you there!

When compared with traditional print writing,  internet grammar and usage is full of “exceptions to the rule”. This can prove intimidating whether or not you feel you possess adequate writing skills. Thankfully, we now have a reference guide.

Yahoo! is set to release “The Yahoo! Style Guide”; it will be available in print as well as digital versions. In fact, you don’t necessarily need to buy it- the companion website is full of tips.

The site gives advice on writing for the web, editing and a resources section. The resources section has information on basic webpage coding, SEO and additional tools of the trade. It also has an “Ask an Editor” section where you can submit your most perplexing questions to Yahoo!’s editorial staff.

There is also a word list that features many newer terms or words and phrases that aren’t commonly found in a dictionary. For example, when to use real time and when to use real-time, you will have to check out the site to find out for yourself!

The print and digital versions will release simultaneously on July 6^th, but you can take advantage now of the free resources on the website.

You know summer is in full swing when the mercury is soaring, kids are out of school and the 4th of July is just around the corner. The holiday weekend has traditionally been known for widespread retail sales – have you ever tried implementing a holiday sale in your store?

KingWebmaster’s Promo Manager makes it so much easier to do just that. This powerful tool allows you to customize your promotion by choosing from a variety of conditions and rewards to achieve your sales goal. With 5 conditions and 4 rewards to chose from, the combinations are virtually limitless.

Conditions

Cart Contents

Total Value of Cart

Day, Time, or Day of the Week

Shipping Address

Discount Code

Rewards

Free or Discounted Individual Item(s)

Free or Discounted Items(s) From a Category

Free Shipping

Discount off Total Order Amount

In addition, the Promo Manager allows you to block certain items or blocks of items and has an easy to use Administration System. You can even specify a combination of multiple promotional conditions!

Not only can you reward your customers with special deals, the Promo Manager actually makes your job easier by attracting more visitors and converting them into customers. See how JewelBasket.com increased conversion rates and revenue with help from the Promo Manager.

What are you waiting for?

Celebrate the 4th this year with explosive sales that will rival the fireworks!

We had a great time meeting new friends and catching up with old ones.

If you didn’t get a chance to attend the IRCR or Yahoo! Summit in Chicago, Yahoo! is holding another Summit in Santa Clara California on September 13th and 14th. KingWebmaster will also be attending that event.

For an in depth look at the Chicago Summit, check out Ina Steiner’s article from AuctionBytes.com.

How has the economy affected your business spending? Without a doubt, cut-backs and adjustments are part of life-business and personal. But, you can’t cut everything, can you? To ensure growth and prepare for the future, you have to decide when and where to invest. But choosing where to put your limited time and capital can be a challenge.

The 6th annual Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition is set to take place in Chicago at the McCormick Place West Conference Center from June 8-11th 2010. It is the nation’s largest e-commerce show boasting 6,000 attendees, 175 expert speakers, 91 sessions and 407 exhibiting companies. This year’s agenda will focus on the resurgence of e-retailing in the rebounding economic climate. Learn how to position yourself to grab your share of consumer dollars and continue growing your business by providing premium customer experience and exceptional value.

Being held in association with the IRCE, is the Yahoo! Summit on June 11th. This is an exclusive event for Yahoo! merchants only. You will be able to meet the Yahoo! small business team, developers, partners and other merchants. The day will focus on product trends, features and useful tools.

These two events are a one-two punch of invaluable information and networking opportunities. Learn from industry leaders, network with your peers and even meet the experts from KingWebmaster!

Be sure to stop by and say hi, we will be attending the IRCE and have a booth at the Yahoo! Summit.

Through all of our research and development, we’ve found that a lot of websites and web pages have some less than awesome URLs so we thought we’d share a few tips on how to choose ones that work for your store.

When choosing a URL for your store, think about your customer. How are they going to find you? If your answer includes search engines (even a little bit), then your domain name is the start of any SEO campaign you pursue.

1. Your URL should include keywords that your customers are going to search for, not necessarily the name of your company. If I was as recognizable as Nike, than having “nike(dot)com” is vital to people finding me, but if I’m-hypothetically- selling seashells, I might want to lean more towards a URL that will clue-in the search engines. My seashell shop is named From The Sea and I import and sell seashells all over the world. After some keyword research, I decide to go with the domain “exoticseashells(dot)com” because that’s something my target audience would look for in Google or Bing or Yahoo.
2. Don’t overdo it. Your URL shouldn’t be more than 3 or 4 words long, because you don’t want your shoppers to have to type in a bunch of hyphens. They won’t remember a disjointed name and they’re not going to try. “Amazing dash seashells dash and dash other dash oceanic dash treasures…” is just too much! It’s painful to read. A keyword or two, yes, but don’t try to cram in your store’s inventory and subjective description words.
3. Speaking of inventory, utilize the ability to create your own IDs for items in your Yahoo! store. If I’m going to sell sand dollars from Sarasota, I’d create a findable ID, like “exoticseashells(dot)com/sarasota-sand-dollars.” Not only does that make it easier for customers to find my products (and look more trustworthy than “exoticseashells(dot)com/pg1…45564324lojmn”), it also makes it easier for me to keep my products organized when I’m entering contents into categories.
4. Spell everything correctly! I can’t stress this one enough. Spelling things correctly is vital to communicating with your customers. When they search for you, they’re going to spell keywords correctly, and if they don’t, their search engine will recommend the correct spelling. What are you trying to communicate and are you doing it in a way that your target audience is going to understand?