Those frustrated with osCommerce will usually turn to the osCommerce Community Support Forums for answers, but answers are not always available to the problems they face. In all honesty, there are some pretty decent online stores utilizing osCommerce. After all, it’s open source, and a free e-commerce solution. And for many, free is the only way to go.

There have been several alternatives to osCommerce, such as ZenCart, CRE Loaded, PrestaShop, and Pinnacle Cart. One alternative which many may not be familiar with is Magento. Magento is an open source eCommerce platform developed by Varien, a Los Angeles company founded in 2001. The flexible platform offers up features that store operators require for their business. And the interest in Magento is growing steadily, with over 525,000 downloads.

If you’re looking for an osCommerce alternative, download Magento and give it a whirl. The platform has the ability to attract the attention of the marketing world, offering up essential SEO and product management tools.

Identification…

Remember to get your name of your business out to everyone. It’s important you include your business name in emails, business cards, brochures, receipts, voice messages, etc. It’s a bit difficult for others to spread the word about your business if they can’t identify who you are.

Expecting the Unexpected…

One of the most effective ways to get people talking is to offer the unexpected to your visitors. If you have the ability to offer something for free, go for it! Just make sure that what you are offering is valuable. Everyone loves free stuff, but not everyone loves free junk. If you’re offering something of value for free, your visitors will more than likely spread the word to others. You want to build interest and get people talking.

Spark Interest…

Communicate with your customers. While you’re hoping for others to spread the word about your business, why not start spreading the word yourself? Encourage others to spread the word about what you are offering. It doesn’t hurt to ask others to tell a friend about your business.

Start getting the word out today!

Some of these methods may seem repetitive, but they work! If you are already implementing them, GREAT! If you haven’t used these methods and techniques yet, now is the time to learn how and why you should be using them.

Blog All About It…

Blog it! It’s as simple as that. Take a few moments to create a free blog on either Wordpress or Blogger. Once you have your free blog set up, link back to your product site. You’ll be amazed how much free laser targeted traffic you can obtain through free blogs. Just be sure that your blog is relevant to your product site. Splash your blog with some high quality content such as articles, related industry news, etc. Remember that you want to be using certain keywords and keyword phrases while creating this content.

Participate in Related Communities, Forums, Groups, and Message Boards…

There’s nothing like becoming part of groups and forums that bring people together interested in the same topics as yourself. Just remember not to spam these sites with your business information. If you interact with others in communities, provide useful information and build a bit of reputation for you and your business. You just may be surprised at how much good and quality traffic you can obtain.

Write Articles…

I’ve mentioned this a billion times before. Writing articles can drive massive amounts of laser targeted traffic to your web sites. Check out ways you can outsource article writing if you are not interested in writing articles yourself.

Don’t Forget The Basics…

Forgetting the basic ways to drive traffic to your site is easy to do. I shared some traffic increasing tips a little while back, so feel free to review some of the basic effective methods.

Pay Per Click Advertising…

If you have a little money you can spend on advertising, PPC advertising through Google AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing can bring a significant of laser targeted traffic to your site. Just be cautious so you don’t go broke in the process. PPC is awesome when it works, but if you’re not careful you can go through a lot of money with little results. Take the time to research specific keywords and phrases, and learn a little bit about your competition.

I have had much success using Google AdSense, but I am very careful when choosing which sites I want to display ads on. Below you will find 5 reasons why you should not use AdSense on certain websites.

1. Google AdSense Can Be Bad For Business

Did you know that you could be severely harming your business by choosing to display Google AdSense on your website? I know, you’ve probably read countless articles and e-books claiming you can become a millionaire through AdSense. I am not here to say this can’t be done, but at what cost to your business?

I’m quite confident in saying that Google AdSense can be bad for your business.

I’ll set up a little scenario to help you understand how Google Ads can be bad. Let’s say you own John’s Used Cars, a used car business. And let’s say that you have one of the nicest looking used car lots in town. Your car lot is set up better than the rest of the ones in town.

Now picture all your cars lined up nicely on the lot, all waiting to be sold. Except there is one thing different about your car lot. Next to each car you are selling is a billboard, or a sign with an advertisement on it if you will. Each advertising sign that is next to the cars you are selling is telling your potential customer to check out another used car lot down the street. Sounds a bit silly doesn’t it? Here you are displaying your cars for sale, surrounded by signs advertising sales at other used car lots down the block.

Now apply this scenario to your online business. If you have a nice looking website created for your business, full of high quality content, why do you want your content surrounded by advertising links to other relevant websites? You are literally telling your customers to go somewhere else and shop. And what’s in it for you? A few pennies here and there when the visitor to your website clicks a Google AdSense ad.

What you just did is sent your customer away from your site, a really big mistake. This is bad for your business, because you set yourself up to lose potentials customers, sales, and leads. All the time you have spent trying to drive traffic to your site goes down the drain.

2. Google AdSense Unprofessional?

I’m willing to say that if you have Google AdSense ads plastered across your site, your site falls into the unprofessional category. I know many will argue about this, but in my view it’s true. People who use AdSense will go hog wild and begin placing ads carelessly throughout their website. This is usually done because others say earning money through your ads is all about placement. This is true, however your nice looking website has now become a huge bulletin board of advertisements.

Google AdSense does allow you to customize the look of the ads you place on your website, but only to a certain extent. Let’s go back to the used car lot business that I mentioned a few moments ago. Let’s say there are two sales people working at this used car lot business. Both sales people are dressed very professional, however one is wearing 25 buttons advertising other businesses. Which sales person would you be more comfortable with? Without being too judgmental or bias, it’s pretty safe to say that you’d rather be approached by the sales person who is dressed professionally, without all the buttons.

3. Google AdSense Creates a Distraction to Your Visitors

How many times have you visited a site about a certain topic, only to be bombarded by ads for another topic? It happens all the time. If you have a website about video games, why have a bunch of advertisements for wedding dresses? There is usually some sense of control, but there are times when the ads just don’t match up to the content. I think this is a HUGE problem, and creates an unnecessary distraction to your site’s visitors.

It’s crucial that you grab the attention of your visitors within the first few seconds, otherwise you just may lose a customer. If you focus on creating a web site with less distractions, you will more than likely have better results in the long run.

4. Google AdSense Can Cost You Advertising Money

Using Google AdSense can end up costing you more than you think. This applies to many web site owners who use Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising to drive traffic to their site. PPC can be a highly effective form of advertising, but you just might be throwing everything out the window when you use PPC advertising and AdSense at the same time. Imagine you are spending a specific dollar amount on PPC advertising each day, yet the majority of your traffic that comes through PPC ends up clicking on the AdSense links on your site. Where’s the benefit here?

You just spent advertising money to bring a visitor to your site and immediately send them somewhere else. You didn’t capture any leads, make any sales, and just drove the customer away from your business. NOT good! Yes, you can earn money from the AdSense ads that are being clicked, but they aren’t worth nearly the same amount value as a good lead you might have captured during this process.

5. Google AdSense Can Cause Lack of Focus

This one is important to you as a web site owner. It’s very easy to lose focus while creating a decent quality web site. Many will lose focus on creating good content, and will constantly be looking for ways to increase revenue through their AdSense ads.

This is fine if you have a website with a sole purpose of earning money through AdSense ads alone, but if you have a website for your business, you’ll begin to lose focus on creating content that can increase the revenue for your business. And the whole point of creating a website for your business is to build your business, build a customer database, and earn money.

So there you have it, some of my reasons to think twice before adding Google AdSense to your business site. I am not here to tell you that you should never use Google AdSense to earn money. You just should be cautious when it comes to using this method to make money.

If you are not quite sure what HubPages is, let me help you become a little bit familiar with the site. HubPages allows users of the website to create their own unique page, a Hub as they call it. You can pretty much customize the page any which way you choose, selecting various types of content such as pictures, text, videos, links, etc.

The nice part is that it’s extremely fast and easy for users to begin creating their own Hub. All you have to do is create a free account, pick an appropriate title for your Hub, add a few tags, and you’re well on your way. Pages are created using capsules, and it’s the capsules that contain various types of content. If you have created a Squidoo page, you’ll be able to relate to this type of page creation.

Once you have added the capsules you choose, all you have to do is publish the page. Within minutes you’ll have your own unique Hub being displayed for others to see. This is where all the good stuff comes into play, because you’ll have an audience to market to, and the potential of making some money is quite good.

Your page will not automatically make money for you however, you’ll have to put some thought into it’s creation. You will have to put forth a good amount of effort and spend quality time on your page to take full advantage of the money making opportunities HubPages offers. HubPages has a rating system in place, called a HubScore. The HubScore is a score ranging from 0 to 100, with 100 being the highest quality score. The more original and unique content you have on your Hub the better your score will be. There are a variety of factors which ultimately determine your HubScore, but you’ll receive a higher score if you focus on original and high quality content for your page.

So now that you have somewhat of an idea of what HubPages is, let me share with you a few ways you can make money with HubPages.

• Create A Unique Hub

Like I mentioned a few moments ago, a high quality hub will boost your status on HubPages. You want to reach out and grab the attention of your readers. There is no better way other than creating high quality and original content. You’ll be off to a great start if you have had experience writing good articles. Visitors to your page who enjoy what you have created will often leave comments.

There is excellent potential of building a steady stream of traffic to your page. This is where you want to be sure and link to your own personal website for the products and services you offer. Just remember to link to relevant information. If you have created a Hub about digital camera products, don’t link to your website that’s selling cookbooks. If you are providing useful and informative content, chances are you’ll be able to build traffic to your own site if you add links in the appropriate places. Building traffic is a key to making money on HubPages, and with that said I’ll move on to the next bit of advice…

• Add Tags

Don’t forget to add tags for your Hub. Tags are important because they help catogorize the information that your Hub is offering. Remember that you want to add relevant and high quality tags, because these tags are important keywords for your site.

• Build Traffic

You want to get your Hub noticed by people, so you’ll have to become active and participate in various activities. Comment on other people’s pages, join groups, join fan clubs, and participate in forums. All these types of activities will allow others to discover who you are and the Hubs you have created. Remember, your goal is to be seen. You can create a funnel of traffic from your Hub page to your personal site by simply becoming active and gaining trust from your readers.

• Google AdSense, Amazon Affiliates, and eBay

If you create a good Hub page and build a good amount of traffic, you can make some money through Google AdSense, Amazon, and eBay. Now I have a slightly different opinion that many when it comes to earning money using these methods. If I’m trying to market a specific product or service and am trying to ultimately direct people to my own site, I don’t want people to click away on Google AdSense or Amazon/eBay affiliate links.

Yes, you can make money when people click on these links if you are setup with Adsense, Amazon, and eBay, but use caution and know when and when not to use these methods. If you’re simply creating an informative Hub about a certain niche, by all means use these methods of making money. If you’re marketing your own website, think about it a bit more before sending your readers off in another direction.

Following these tips will most certainly help you create a decent Hub at HubPages. As always, I suggest experimenting different methods and techniques to see what works and what doesn’t. Testing can make a huge difference when it comes to your profits. Oh, and as always, Have Fun!!

Did you know that simple images on your site can drive traffic to your website for free? Best yet, if used correctly, the traffic that comes to your site will be targeted traffic, the best traffic you can receive. I’ll quickly share a few tips on how to experience an increase in traffic. These are all extremely quick and easy to do, and best of all it doesn’t cost you a single penny.

Naming Your Images

Focus on the titles that you assign to each image throughout all of the content on your website. Naming your images so that they are SEO friendly is an important step during this whole process. Let’s say you have a website that’s focused on recipes, better yet, leftover turkey recipes. When listing your recipes, you may choose to display a photograph of the finished recipe, such as a photo of a turkey pot pie. Instead of displaying your image with an obscure title such as “tpp01.jpg”, name your image “turkey-pot-pie-recipe.jpg”. Using hyphens to separate each word in the title of your image is a better option than an underscore.

Use Alt Tags

Always remember to add alt tags to your images when you are including them on your website. Your alt tags should be relevant to the image that you are posting. So let’s go back to the turkey pot pie example. If you wish to display an image of a turkey pot pie created from a recipe, label your image with an alt tag such as “Turkey Pot Pie Recipe”. The alt tags show up on search engine result pages rather than the titles of the image.

Choose Your Images Wisely

If you haven’t experimented around with image searches such as Google Image Search, now is the time to do so. Spend some time searching through the site before adding a specific image. I’m going to dive back into the whole turkey pot pie example once again. Let’s say you use Google Image Search to search using the phrase turkey pot pie. Click on the image beneath to get a better look at what’s being shown. You’ll see that searching for this phrase will return 808,000 results.

Now let’s try something a little bit more specific. Try a Google Image Search using the phrase double crusted turkey pot pie. Click on the image below to see that this search will return 85,100 results. This opens up a window of opportunity for you. If you choose to be a bit more specific and include an image on your site of a double crusted turkey pot pie rather than just a turkey pot pie, you’ll have less competition when it comes to having your images indexed and displayed on Google.

Relevant Text With Images

Remember to include relevant text and keywords near the images you are posting. This can help the search engines index your site and rank your images. There are all sorts of ways you can include images within the content of your website, however you’ll have to experiment with what works best so that you can achieve the best results.

Making Your Images Unique

Nothing is better than including your own unique images within the content of your website. But of course there are times when you’ll include some images or photos that are available for free across the internet. When you use free images, be sure and resize them and make them unique to your content. Having a new and fresh resized version of the image can help separate the image from all the rest across the web.

I’m certain that if you implement these tips that you’ll find an increase of traffic to your site. Always remember to monitor your site’s stats to see what is being found and what isn’t. This will give you the ability to make necessary changes when it comes time.

Start your promotions early! There’s nothing better than getting a little bit ahead of your competition. More and more people are eager to get things done as quick as possible. So you as a marketing professional must find some creative ways to have your marketing campaign stand out among the rest.

Though it’s good to inform everyone about your sales, use a little bit of caution. Be sure that you don’t spam your customers through email. Sending informative reminders are very effective, but sending similar emails filled with the same promotions will easily annoy your readers. If you are trying to hard too make a sale, potential customers will sense your aggressiveness and might just look elsewhere.

Remember to market to your existing customers, not only new ones. Yes it’s important to attract new buyers, but don’t forget the ones you already have. While you are coming up with new and creative ways to promote to new customers, run some promotions for our current customers. Customers that have already bought from you will appreciate the fact that you have included them in new promotions.

And one thing you most certainly don’t want to forget…spread a little holiday cheer! It’s important that you as a seller get into the holiday spirit while promoting your business to customers.

A very safe and Happy Thanksgiving to you all, and much continued success with your holiday marketing campaigns.

Before you write your next classified ad, remember the following…

• Effective headlines…

It’s extremely important that you put some thought in to your ad. The first thing you’ll want to do is create a catchy headline. Headlines are usually the first thing that will be noticed, so use some extra thoughts and energy here. There are plenty of eye catching keywords you can utilize if you want to grab some attention. The keywords and phrases you choose will depend on what your advertising of course, but examples such as “free”, “limited”, “one time offer”, “secret”, and “must see” will usually do the trick.

• Add some flare…

Adding some flare to the body of your ad will help your ad be a bit more appealing to the reader. Adding things such as bullet points, bold text, highlighted text, and underlined words can draw a little bit more attention.

• Be brief and to the point…

Remember to make your ad brief and to the point. Writing long and boring paragraphs will most certainly lose the attention of your reader. Try and make in impact with a limited amount of words.

• Tell the readers what to do…

It’s true. Most people reading a classified ad eagerly await instructions on what to do next. So many advertisers will write an ad but leave out the action. Telling readers to buy a certain product, call a phone number, sign up for something, or visit a specific location or website will usually be more effective.

Follow these simple steps the next time you create your classified ad, and your ad will be a bit more effective.

Having other writers write your articles can actually save you a lot of time.  If you are working on multiple projects, it can help to have someone else write your articles for you.  Professional writers will usually know what keywords to focus on, and will be knowledgeable when it comes to specific search engine optimization techniques.

If you decide to outsource, there are several good resources you can utilize to get your projects done.  Be sure and do some resource before selecting a freelancer to write your articles.  There are a whole lot of people willing to take on the job, but you have to look for the good ones who will write your articles for a reasonable price.  Excellent places to start are GetAFreelancer.com, Elance, and ScriptLance.  Keep in mind that it sometimes takes a little bit of time to sort the good writers from the bad.  Unfortunately you can’t always rely on the feedback a writer receives.  So if you choose to take this route, think wisely.

There simply are times when you need to focus on a certain part of your project more than another.  The only way you’ll know weather outsourcing your articles is right for you is by experimenting.  See what works better.  You may ultimately decide that having someone write for you is not the way to go.  On the flip side, you may find out that having others write for you provides a boost in both traffic and sales.