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"Ecommerce News Around the Web" is our weekly review of articles, blog posts and other news items that could interest ecommerce merchants. Ecommerce SSL is Broken, Says Conference Founder - The Inquirer Black Hat 2010 conference founder Jeff Moss is adamant that commerce's secure socket layer (SSL) is broken. "Thirteen years down the line since the first conference and we're still not able to conduct business online," he said. Others disagree, saying there is still considerable usefulness for SSL. The Reason Customer's Don't Pay Online: It's a Pain - Fortune Magazine Purchasing on the web is not as easy as one would think, given that it is 2010. Customers still run into many roadblocks using their credit cards to buy online, sugge...

Each month, we compile a list of the ten most popular Practical eCommerce articles published that month, based on the number of page views. Here are the ten most popular articles for July 2010. Six Facebook Applications to Sell Your Products In this, the third installment of our series on social commerce, social media expert Paul Chaney writes about six applications developed to help merchants to sell on Facebook. Apps covered include Voiyk, ShopTab, Sortprice, Shoutlet, My Merch Store, and LetMeIntroduce. Not PCI Compliant? No Problem The PCI Security Standards Council has long held that online shopping carts, which are either "Payment Applications" or "Validated Service Providers" as defined by that organization, must affirmativel...

Forum: Search Engine Optimization Posted By: jonjon10 Post Time: July 30th, 2010 at 4:30:43 am

Forum: SEO Chat Gaming Center Posted By: WilleyWilley Post Time: July 30th, 2010 at 2:28:11 am

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Many ecommerce merchants think of user experience in terms of the user interface. They take great pains to optimize the aesthetic appearance of their sites with the goal of increasing conversions. Yet, it’s often the less sexy backend issues that are driving customers away, and increasing operating costs to boot. One of the most common complaints I hear from online merchants is they failed to consider what their businesses and customers would require as they grew. At some point they discover that smooth customer transactions require seamless backend integrations, and that their organizations must monitor and engage customers throughout the entire customer lifecycle. Getting there is difficult because companies outgrow software solu...

The 2010 holiday season is nearly here. With that in mind, Practical eCommerce will publish a few good holiday-selling tips each week. Our first installment, provided by experienced ecommerce professionals, is below. Create Holiday Landing Pages Create custom landing pages for your email, pay-per-click and other marketing programs, using the following steps: Show the breadth of products that you carry by displaying a grid of 30 popular products that represent gift categories. Include links to those gift categories for more ideas. Include a special offer that you don't display elsewhere. Free expedited shipping and free bonus gifts are always good for the holidays. Percent-off discounts may not be the best option if you have...

I recently changed SEO jobs. I went from an agency that manages clients' search-engine-optimization efforts, to an in-house SEO manager for a single company. I knew previously, from working with many ecommerce clients, that business models and product offerings have an impact on SEO success. But now I’m living it. Groupon, my current employer, is a daily deal site for consumers, selling one steeply discounted deal to a local business in each city every day. This could be, for instance, a 60 percent discount to a popular Austin, Texas restaurant. For local businesses like that restaurant, it’s an advertising vehicle that brings in new customers and creates buzz around their offerings. For search engine optimization, it’s here-today, ...

In this second part of a five-part series on Web Services, you will learn how to install and use MagpieRSS, a popular RSS parser. This article is excerpted from chapter 20 of the book Beginning PHP and Oracle: From Novice to Professional, written by W. Jason Gilmore and Bob Bryla (Apress; ISBN: 1590597702).
- MagpieRSS MagpieRSS (Magpie for short) is a powerful RSS parser written in PHP by Kellan Elliott-McCrea. Its freely available for download via http://magpierss.sourceforge.net/ and is distributed under the GPL license. Magpie offers developers an amazingly practical and easy means for retrieving...

For our second free weekly helping from the Think Vitamin Membership video library we Jim looks at how to create the perfect login form using PHP.

Don’t forget to check out the video library for free videos as well as learning more about our new membership service.

Hey there!

It’s Wednesday, so this mid-week roundup is devoted to all things business and development.

Some links are newsworthy, some retweeted across Twitter, and others just meet our “awesomeness” requirement, and regardless we hope you’ll enjoy them. Without further delay:

• Start Experimenting With CSS3 Animations (via@leemunroe)
• Arggggh! Subterfuge. Why Design Contests Are Bad (via Core77)
• Open Source Your Career (via Stefan Koopmanschap)
• Agile + UX, Remembering What a Team is Supposed to Be (via Thinking & Making)
• If you’ve ever worked on a brand identity or run into challenges you’ll enjoy “Processed Identity,” which s the story of how you got “there”

Wildcard: Get to Know an Internet Commenter (via McSweeny’s)

Please shoot me links to projects your working on or awesome things you’ve released! news@thinkvitamin.com

Handpicked by,

Chrissie (@tenaciouscb)