What are the 10 biggest blunders e-commerce webmasters make?

By "Top" I mean most widespread and most damaging.

There seems to be scores, but I have noticed that no one seems to agree
on the top ten.

Too much Animation? Poor copy? No Definitive USP? Lack of headlines?
Frames? Poorly written code? Lack of a well defined target? Too many
product lines? Poorly established credibility or security? Lack of
autoresponders?
Not enough pay options? No testimonials? Cheap lookin' graphics? Lack of
Corp ID and branding? Failure to adequately promote?

What's your e-ppinion?...lol

"Tech 22" <projectteamiii@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:bkaqt3021u@enews4.newsguy.com...
>
> By "Top" I mean most widespread and most damaging.

Here are my top three:

- The biggest problem is probably spam. Its costly, annoying, and it wastes
everyone's time.

- Scams. There are all kinds of rip-offs out there. Everything from pyramid
schemes, mlm scams, tax fraud, you name it. The sad thing is that many of
the people who promote these things don't know that they're involved in a
scam.

- Lack of a work ethic. People who are looking for the easy way or who are
trying to get for something for nothing lose.

Mike

"McWebber" <mcwebber@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:bkbgqm01chv@enews4.newsguy.com...
>
...
>
> As far as too much animation, any site that needs a "Skip Intro" link has
> too much animation.

I think #4 on my list would have been that people, or (ahem) "small
businesses," put up what they like to see themselves and what they think
people will buy, as opposed to what people really want to see and buy. More
broadly, I would say that many businesses don't have the knowledge or skills
required to run a business, but, most people can gain those skills by
reading books, taking classes, and learning as they stumble along (like the
rest of us).

Mike

For retail websites:
1) Not having a focus for their website. Too many retail websites just seem
to forget that they're trying to sell something. Everything on the website
should be leading the visitor to a sale.

For professional websites:
1) Lack of evidence that they know what the Hell they're talking about. A
website of a professional should have articles by that professional
available on their website. The professional should regularly add new ones
..... at least once a month. Ideally, the articles should use something
that's hot in the news as a springboard for writing the article. Visitors
should be able to sign up for an email list that will inform them when the
next article is put on the website with a link in the email for quick access
to the article. Too many professionals think cool graphics will get
customers. It only does if that's your specialization. Otherwise,
professionals should be revealing the secrets of their trade. In other
words, making the website valuable to the potential customer. Letting the
customer know the professional's philosophy towards the different aspects of
professional's business and potential client's business. And this mistake
is done by the small one-man-shop professionals and the multi-national
corporations. If this mistake alone were corrected, the web would be such a
wasteland as it is today.

For both retail and professional websites:

2) Not keeping the website fresh and up to date. You can tell that most
have never re-visited their websites since putting them up. And most that
do revisit it only do so to update the personnel listing ... six months
after the new employee has been hired. All websites should be at least
looked over once a week and at least once a month, something new should be
done to it. At least once a year, it should be a complete overhaul.

3) Bad links. There is NO excuse for a bad link on a website. There are
now programs and services which businesses can purchase/hire that will
regularly check to make sure all the links on your website are active.
These checks should be done at least once a day. It can be during the
middle of the night, but it needs to still be done. If any broken link is
discovered, the program/service needs to take immediate action to notify you
of this problem. The good ones will send you a diagnostic of the problem to
speed up the process for you.

4) Thinking that the website is a first-level advertisement. Websites
should be viewed as second-level advertisements. Something that people come
to due to another advertisement leading them there. Depending on search
engines to lead the world to your doorstep is just plain stupid. It's on
the same logic of having a store in a cheap but bad location and just
depending on the Yellow Pages to bring you customers. At best, the website
can be your closer. Realistically, it will just be a sales assist.

5) Lack of promotion of the website.

Scott Jensen
--
Like a cure for A.I.D.S., Alzheimer, Parkinson, & Mad Cow Disease?
Volunteer your computer for folding-protein research for when it's idle.
Go to http://www.distributedfolding.org/ to sign up your computer.

Personally the Structural Integrity and effectiveness of the set of
offers, the Informational Architectonics as a whole seems to be
generally ignored/ under developed on the web ... even with many
fortune 500 companies. It seems that confused looking front pages, flash
excessive splash pages touting obscure slogans and competing elements
clouding visitors focus seems to be a real problem for simple consumers
like myself.
Less sizzle, more steak.

I Think businesses lose a lot of money with:

~Slow loading sites (lighten up some those images, or at least post a
summary of the sites benefits in the top 25% of the front page so that
they can read/ distract themselves while the images/ page loads)

~Sites that don't offer to take your money (e-brochure type sites which
make up 65% or so of all biz sites). Hey, sell something , Americans
love to shop (USA), the secret is to shove money into their pocket
(exclusive offers) then set it on fire (timed offers) with specially
targeted offers (niched offers.).

~Sites that sell unrelated products in multiple product lines... Wanting
to be all things to all men and master none.

~Sites with no well defined privacy, security policies. With 80% of
visitors backing out at the checkout page or blue page, this is a real
problem. (Although one may suspect lack of a clear ratecard or prices
for customers, combined with competitors queries also sends clicks to
the secure page hunting prices).

~ Sites which fail to build/ maintain an ongoing, interactive
relationship with the visiting prospect, failing to garner "share of
mind")

~I agree also that neglect of "Total Marketing"... (not working from
what it is-demand down, but instead operating under pre WW2 Ideas of
Product centered Marketing --"I'd love to sell this, and If I sell it,
they will come".. is also a Major blunder...boy, a rash of sites made
that mistake...lol

~zion~

Frames or Lack of Frames? I'm a newbie on line so I'm not that widespread
yet but I am working on updating my gift site and I read that Frames should
be avoided as search engines don't know what to do with them. Your
comments?
Harriet, Paper & Images
http://paperandimages.home.att.net




"Tech 22" <projectteamiii@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:bkaqt3021u@enews4.newsguy.com...
>
> By "Top" I mean most widespread and most damaging.
>
> There seems to be scores, but I have noticed that no one seems to agree
> on the top ten.
>
> Too much Animation? Poor copy? No Definitive USP? Lack of headlines?
> Frames? Poorly written code? Lack of a well defined target? Too many
> product lines? Poorly established credibility or security? Lack of
> autoresponders?
> Not enough pay options? No testimonials? Cheap lookin' graphics? Lack of
> Corp ID and branding? Failure to adequately promote?
>
> What's your e-ppinion?...lol
>

Harriet wrote:

> Frames or Lack of Frames? I'm a newbie on line so I'm not that widespread
> yet but I am working on updating my gift site and I read that Frames should
> be avoided as search engines don't know what to do with them. Your
> comments?

Frames have issues regarding bookmarks, search engines, printing and
over all site usability. Here is a link to alt.html FAQ that talks about
frame problems in detail.

http://www.html-faq.com/htmlframes/?framesareevil

HTH,
Bien