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Facebook Expanding Gift Shop to Include Virtual and Physical Goods from Developers

Posted: 25 Aug 2009 10:09 AM PDT

We've covered the evolution of Facebook's virtual gifts extensively on Inside Facebook over the last couple of years, but tonight we're hearing that Facebook is about to start testing a major new expansion to the Gift Shop that will integrate items from third party developers. The move will expand Facebook's merchant platform beyond the "Pay with Facebook" tests that are running inside a few applications and, for the first time, integrate a variety of third party virtual gifts into the Facebook Gift Shop. In addition, for the first time, Facebook users will be able to purchase physical merchandise in the Gift Shop with Facebook Credits.

Facebook has just confirmed the test to us, saying that the changes will go live for a limited number of users tonight. Four developers are part of the initial program: American Greetings Interactive, GreetBeatz, Someecards, and Real Gifts.

Here's how it will work: gifts created by developers will be integrated into the Facebook Gift Shop alongside regular Facebook virtual gifts, marked with the developer's logo or icon. In the case of virtual gifts, the price will usually be 10 Facebook Credits or USD $1, the same price as most virtual gifts created by Facebook. However, physical gifts – for instance, say a dozen roses – might cost up to 500 Facebook Credits, or USD $50. When users select a physical gift, they'll be prompted to enter the delivery address in line, just like in a traditional shopping cart experience.

While Facebook says the launch is still a test, we think it's indicative of Facebook's desires to develop a much more robust merchant platform. Between the Gift Shop and payment service for developers, Facebook is in the unique position to build a robust commerce business and simultaneously create powerful new monetization opportunities for developers. And because all items in the Facebook Gift Shop are purchased with Facebook Credits, a growing gifts business expands the footprint of Facebook's virtual currency, which is also used in Facebook's application payments service.

When reached for comment, a Facebook spokesperson issued us the following statement:

"Yes, I can confirm that Facebook is making some changes to the Gift Shop that are expected to launch tonight. As we continue to provide users news ways to share with their friends around birthdays and special occasions, we are conducting a test in which third party developers will be able to offer virtual gifts in the Facebook Gift Shop.  This initial test is being conducted with a limited number of users and American Greetings Interactive, GreetBeatz, Someecards, and Real Gifts will provide gifts. We will share additional details of this program as they become available."

All in all, we expect developers to be very excited by the opportunity to participate in Facebook's Gift Shop for the first time. The sheer volume of users that Facebook has the potential to distribute premium content and merchandise to should be very attractive to any developer hoping to monetize through virtual gifts. In addition, it will be very interesting to see how sales of physical items within the Facebook Gift Shop go – this will be the first time Facebook has so heavily integrated physical goods for sale into the native Facebook experience.

Finally, Facebook's decision to open up the Gift Shop to third parties should present significant opportunities to those with licenses of popular brands. For example, just last week, Facebook launched a special set of Britney Spears-themed virtual gifts for 20 Facebook Credits (USD $2) each. We expect to see more tests like these as Facebook further opens up the Gift Shop in the weeks and months ahead.


Gavin O’Malley - Media Post

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

%%Facebook Expanding Gift Shop to Include Virtual and Physical Goods from Developers%%

Facebook Expanding Gift Shop to Include Virtual and Physical Goods from Developers

Understanding The Benefits And Advantages Of Using Autoresponders

Posted: 25 Aug 2009 10:03 AM PDT

advertisingIf you’ve reached the point of exhaustion trying to keep up with answering the mountain of e-mails that threatens to bury you alive every single day, you’re ready to learn about autoresponders.

The bad news is that people expect prompt replies to their e-mail inquiries. However, unless you can figure out how to work continual 24-hour shifts, or hire enough people to constantly monitor incoming e-mails (while they’re eating up your revenue), you have a problem. The good news is an autoresponder is an inexpensive—or even free—method of quickly responding to e-mails. What these programs do is automatically respond to incoming e-mails as soon as they are received.

E-mails are essential to your business for many different reasons. Most importantly, these invisible e-mail voices give you their feedback about your website—for free! However, if you spend all your working hours answering these e-mails, how are you supposed to run your business?

The answer is simple: use autoresponders.

Autoresponders are programs that automatically respond to your e-mails without you so much as having to click on your mouse.

There are a number of good reasons why you need an autoresponder besides just answering your e-mail. For example, autoresponders can be used if you need a way to send information about your services or products, price lists, or if there are repeated questions asked across large numbers of e-mails. Maybe you want to offer your site visitors a special bonus of some kind, such as advice or relevant articles. All of this can be handled by an autoresponder. Additionally, you can advertise your business and then build stable relationships with your customers by using autoresponders.

Autoresponder programs vary from software that runs with your e-mail program to a specialized script that runs on your web hosting company’s server. This kind of script may use a web page form or simply operate with your e-mail account. This kind of script is programmed to send out a standardized message whenever an e-mail is received. The message is sent to a particular script or e-mail address.

Some autoresponders can do more than simply send out standardized messages. They can send out an unlimited number of follow-up messages sent at predetermined interval of time. For example, you can set your autoresponder to send out a new message every day for as long a period as you desire.

There are numerous companies who offer autoresponders free of charge. Your website hosting company often provides autoresponders as a free service. If this is not the case with your web hosting company, there are numerous companies who offer this service for a small fee, or free of charge, providing you attach an advertisement for their company to your e-mails.

To personalize your autoresponder messages, you can attach a signature. Signatures in this case are much like business cards. You can include your name, company, all your contact numbers and addresses, and a brief message.

It’s a good idea to attach a signature to every e-mail that is sent out. This works as a repeated reminder of your business identity every time a customer sees it. The more they look at your signature, the more likely your company will spring to mind when your particular service or product is needed.

You can create a standardized signature that every employee in your business uses, or you can go wild, and let every staff member create their own personal signature. Of course, like everything in life, there are some rules and guidelines to creating a personal signature.

Keep the length of your signature between four to six lines of text, with no more than 70 characters in a single line. Make sure that your e-mail program does not cut off your text! The content should include your name, your company name, your e-mail address, fax number, and any other contact details, such as 800 numbers. Lastly, always include a short personal message about your company. It should be a subtle sell of your services or your products, and possibly your company’s reliability and longevity.

Another specialized use of autoresponders is to create courses that you can then offer your site visitors for free. You must choose a topic in which you are an expert and that precisely targets your potential customers.

Once you have carefully chosen your subject, divide it into a number of different sub-topics. Then offer your site visitor a free 10 or 15 day course, each day offering a different sub-topic. The first topic should always be a welcome message to your site visitor and an explanation about what is to follow. Your explanation should be enticing, getting the point across that you are offering free, quality information that your target audience will find of great value.

With every lesson, include the number of the lesson, the topic title, information about your company and its services or products. At the end, include a few blurbs about the next lesson to entice the subscriber to continue on.

Make sure each topic is packed with essential and valuable information, and leaves the visitor lusting to know more. Otherwise, you may lose them in the very beginning.

Of course, you have to write up your course before you can offer it. Once you have done this, and gone over the material carefully, employing a professional writer or editor if necessary, you must transfer your text to your autoresponder.

There are a number of quality autoresponders you can try out for a free or low-priced trial. Just go to Google and search ‘autoresponders’, then sign-up for your chosen autoresponder. Once you do, you will receive instructions as to how to set it up and transfer your text.

E-mail is an excellent marketing tool; it is inexpensive and it is fast. Use it to advertise your business by choosing your e-mail address carefully. Your website should contain different e-mail addresses for different contact requests. For example, use info@yourdomain.com for information requests, or sales@yourdomain.com for questions about sales. It’s a good idea to set up one for the owner, such as president@yourdomain.com. This presents your company in a personal, approachable light and insures that direct contact is provided.

Autoresponders are an effective and powerful marketing tool, allowing you to make contact with thousands of potential customers. This is an invaluable asset considering how many potential customers you usually have contact with before you make an actual sale. Essentially, an autoresponder allows you to automate part of your marketing campaign.


Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

%%Understanding The Benefits And Advantages Of Using Autoresponders%%

Understanding The Benefits And Advantages Of Using Autoresponders

SEO Search Engine Optimization is Essential for Online Success

Posted: 25 Aug 2009 09:31 AM PDT

If you are seeking online success with your business, then SEO search engine optimization is essential. Without adequately optimizing your website for search engine spiders or algorithms, you have little chance of your site receiving visible listings on the search engine results pages. That spells death to most online businesses.

Free traffic is by far the best, and if you are unsure how to use pay per click advertising such as Google Adwords properly, it could cost you a lot of money to correct inadequacies in your SEO. Only 1% of those that start in internet marketing actually make any money: largely because they do not know how to promote their website. There are other reasons of course, and a website is not always necessary, but if you have one then you must learn how to optimize it to attain as high a listing position as possible.

SEO search engine optimization is about telling search engines exactly what each page of your website is saying, and that it is highly relevant to the keyword, or search term, for which you have optimized it. Having a great looking website with a lot of well writen content on each page is not sufficient to earn you a listing on Google, let alone a high one that will bring you free traffic. It is essential that manipulate the search engine algorithms to calculate a high degree of relevance of your page to the requirements of those using Google and other search engines to find information.

Algorithms are mathematical formulae with no eyes. They are blind to your fabulous graphics and fantastic web design skills. They read the source code of your site, including the text. The way you format your text gives weighting to certain pieces of text, and lets the algorithm know what your important keywords are.

The spiders that crawl your site should be led to where you want them to go to, and good website design, site navigation and internal linking structure is part of achieving that. It is also a component of your SEO. THere is alot more to SEO than just soem H heading tags and keyword meta tags – much more. The majority of people do not understand what SEO is or how to optimize their site, even if learning how to do so could immeasurably improve their chance of online success.

However, there is more to search engine optimization that simply reading about it. You have to see it in action, and fully understand what you are doing when optimizing your website. There are still professionals who believe that you must have 2% – 3% keyword density on your page. They have disagreed with me strongly yet I know that what they say is rubbish: contextual relevance is what search engines are seeking these days, not interminable repetitions of keywords that will achieve nothing but get your site lost in the supplementary results that nobody sees.

There have been a large number of changes in search engine optimization over the last few years, and SEO is no longer what it once was. However, what won’t change is the benefit to you of having a full understanding of the principles behind the actions you are taking when optimizing your website form search engines such as Google.

SEO search engine optimization wil make all the difference to the success of your site, and likely even that of your business. Don’t just read about it: see it in action and understand it.


To understand the principles of SEO and how to apply it effectively, visit SEOcious where Pete will walk you through how he does it with his websites.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

%%SEO Search Engine Optimization is Essential for Online Success%%

SEO Search Engine Optimization is Essential for Online Success

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