• What could be worse than SOPA and PIPA? A similar Act on a global scale. Find out why some believe ACTA ‘Is More Dangerous Than SOPA’.

• Even if you didn’t take your site offline to protest SOPA, it’s important that you know How To Handle Downtime During Site Maintenance. Make sure you don’t confuse search engines — it could impact your rankings.

• HTML5 – this is why it’s hot. Amazon Scoots Past Apple’s Rules With HTML5 iPad Kindle Store. If you recall, Apple wants 30% of in-app revenue, this is a good workaround.

• While the 2012 predictions posts have for the most part died down, check out why shopping cart abandonment is set to rise in 2012.

• How Netflix Measures You to Maximize Their Revenue & How It Can Help Your Business is a good reminder why you must calculate customer lifetime value to know how much you can spend to acquire a new one. PS: Netflix’ LTV is 25 months and $291.25.

• Fun fact: the top 5 passwords used at Gawker account for about 25% of all users. The #1 password is — wait for it — 123456 (over 3000 accounts!) For more reasons why you should be diligent to push users towards secure passwords, check out Data Monday: Login & Passwords.

• Spotted in the wild: a paid search ad that lands the user on a customer review page rather than a product page. This is a great way to build user trust, no matter what you’re selling.

• You know we love infographics, and this one comes to us via Econsultancy: Profiling the Social Gamer. Hint: it’s not an 18 year old boy.

• The New York Times broke a story on an Amazon seller who offered refunds for 5 star reviews. Is this gaming the system, or mere incentivizing word of mouth? You decide.

• Search engine updates are often game changers, and the recent Panda update has big implications for duplicate content. Get caught up with Dr. Pete’s Duplicate Content in a Post-Panda World

• In other Googlenews, the digital marketing world is still crying in its Starbucks cup over the big G’s move to shroud referring keywords for logged in Google account users. But gracious gurus share their tips for working around this likely permanent change through advanced segmentation and filters. Thank you!

• Earlier this week we discussed best practices for subscriber management. One of the tips was actually to help folks unsubscribe. Did Monty Python write your unsubscribe page? 9 tips to make it better delivers exactly what it promises.

• Another tip re: subscriber management was to test subject lines for reengagement campaigns. But which the best subject lines to use for inactive subscribers?

• We know tablets are now outselling PCs, and we’re on pace to see 35% tablet penetration of online users by 2014.

• How about some stats on mobile app usage? Here’s a teaser: 38% 
iOS & Android users stick with an app after one month, 14% 
iOS & Android users stick with an app after six months. After 12 months, only 4% are left.

• We know tablets and e-readers are changing the way we consume information. Did you know digital titles set to outnumber print by 2013?

• Coveting the rich snippets of your competitors in search results? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out Schema.org – Why You’re Behind if You’re Not Using It… Hint: it has to do with your SERP (search engine results page) click through rate potential.

• Pop quiz: what’s been proven better for usability, left or top aligned form labels? Find out after the click, for the what and the why.

• Don’t forget the infographics! Some fun facts about Google and What is Google Adwords? How the AdWords Auction Works for your viewing pleasure.

PS: Amanda and Linda will be at Meshwest Vancouver on Monday, if you’re at the conference, please flag us down and say hi. Stay tuned for coverage from the event next week.

Off-topic: Also worth mentioning is the UK Christmas Shopping 2011 infographic I meant to include in our September link list. Did you know that 4pm is the peak time for workplace shopping in the UK? Might be a good time to send those Tweets, Facebook shares and emails…

Looking for help with ecommerce? Contact the Elastic Path consulting team at consulting@elasticpath.com to learn how our ecommerce strategy and conversion optimization services can improve your business results.

• Quite possibly my favorite. post. ever. When CTAs Attack – 10 Real World Call to Action Examples (That’s CTA for call-to-action, I didn’t misspell cat). Mix a bit of LOLcats meets FAIL Blog meets photo montage of downtown Vancouver – all in a conversion optimization context of course.

• Do you A/B or multivariate test? Read this. Why Website Test Results Don’t Always Add Up & What To Do About It.

• By now you’ve heard about Google Wallet, yeah? They have at least one customer…

• Google’s been busy. 2 more announcements: Google Analytics Premium (its paid, enterprise edition) and real-time analytics feature to all GA accounts. (Oh, and Google+ business profiles are on the way.) So that’s 3 announements. Plus the Wallet thing. At least 4.

• Is your brand name “plosive”? Did you know brands that begin with plosive letters like C, K, P, B and D are more memorable?

• The Million Dollar Question: What’s the ROI of social media marketing? Rand from SEOmoz shares his tips for measurement including why and where social matters, which social metrics to track and some juicy tools for measurement.

• How about an infographic on Social Media ROI?

• Now onto mobile: is it time to stop using downloads as your measure of success? “Download numbers are no guide to how much money is being made.” True.

• Mobile apps must die? Really? They just got here! Interesting notes from the Breaking Development conference session of the same name on the problem with mobile apps and how to move beyond.

• From the same conference: how to speed up your mobile site. Great tips!

Looking for help with ecommerce? Contact the Elastic Path consulting team at consulting@elasticpath.com to learn how our ecommerce strategy and conversion optimization services can improve your business results.

• Move over infographics, make room for…storygraphics? Unbounce explains SEO Cat in the Hat style.

• Want to Improve the usability of your store locator? UX Movement has a simple tip: combine “City and State or Zipcode” into one form field label.

• Want to add a little oomph to your product images? Rishi from Retail in the Eyes of the Everyday Customer shares a few examples of images augmented with product information.

• Web Performance Today compares user’s expectations for mobile performance between 2009 and 2011 – as expected, we’re becoming more demanding for fast loading pages, even on mobile devices!

• For you design and usability buffs out there, how’s about a mega-list of mega-menu examples?

• Still fumbling through the new version of Google Analytics? Here’s a cheat sheet for some of its new features.

• Four guidelines and 18 tips for email content – the title says it all.

• Christmas in July? Well, yes – planning for holiday campaigns! Planning For The Holidays: A 12-Point Checklist by Chad White, based on his research for the Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season.

• Confused by your PPC metrics and reports? The Rimm-Kaufman Group demystifies 24 of the top paid search metrics.

• For the more advanced, how about analyzing your “top versus side” performance in Google Adwords? This feature is now available for your paid search ads.

Infographic by – Conversion Optimization Company Invesp

Now you’re ready for Internet Marketing Jeopardy, or at least impressing your friends at parties. Have a great weekend everyone!

• Google +1 is still making waves around the blogosphere, and by now you should have noticed the little +1 chicklets in Google Search and on participating websites. While benefits to marketers include social proof on their websites and potentially better search rankings and attractiveness in search, Web Performance Today reminds us those little lines of javascript can cost you page load speed (which affects rankings, customer experience, etc). WPT shares some tips for minimizing the damage, and how to determine if social widgets are worth the load.

• Google has also integrated +1 with Google Analytics, so you can measure the interactions with the chicklet on your site. Cardinal Path shares how.

• Janet Satterthwaite weighs in on the branding impact of ICANN‘s decision to open up domain name extensions (e.g. .starbucks), and examines the SEO implications (hint: no impact on search rankings).

• Branding Strategy Insider provides tips on how you can enhance consumer perception of value without resorting to deep discounting in Marketing and the Psychology of Savings.

• The name says it all: Building Faceted Navigation That Doesn’t Suck.

• I’m gaga over infographics, and Get Elastic posted its first of hopefully many this month on the contextual use of mobile devices. Graham Charlton’s collected 10 Mind-Blowing Mobile Infographics at Econsultancy if like me, you can’t get enough infographics.

• Speaking of pictures, remember those Mr. Men books? Michael King’s Agency vs In-House vs Freelance SEO: The Endless Debate (starring Mr. Men) turns the SEO pro, creative team, IT guy, account manager and client into Mr. Men complete with comic strips and an intelligent assessment of the pros and cons of agency vs. in house SEO. Bookmarked!

• How Do You Turn Your Site Conversion Killers Into Winners? Again, the title is self-explanatory. Via Econsultancy.

• Anna Yeaman has 12 ideas for encouraging scrolling. While her examples are email creative, you can apply the principles to home pages as well.

• Justin Palmer kills it with 10 Tips for Mastering Google Remarketing Ads. If you haven’t given remarketing through Google a thought, you’re missing an incredible opportunity.

• And finally, Dr. Pete brings some perspective on how much revenue Google googed in last year. About 3.6 Billion Justin Bieber albums worth. Right on. That’s a lot of Ad Sense.

Happy Canada Day to my Canadian compatriots and early Independence Day to my fellow Americans! We’ll be back on Tuesday.

• Perhaps the biggest news of May June (so far) is the rollout of 2 new social buttons. Long anticipated Google +1 is now available for web pages, not just from search results. Hey, if I waited for June’s Blogger’s Digest – it’d be ancient history! Not to be overshadowed, Twitter also released a new button, the Instant Follow. Check ‘em out.

• UX Matters describes how you can harness the powers of free and scarcity and work them into your UX, persuasively.

• Web usability expert guru Master of the Universe, Jakob Nielsen, has a new beast to conquer – the mobile web. Check out his learnings from user testing the iPad and tips for making the most of your mobi real estate.

• And the phoenix rises…JC Penney has rebounded from it’s Google penalty. Proves there’s hope after a fall with the search engines.

• Some juicy mobile stats: How tablets are affecting the usage of other devices.

• File this under “don’t be a Borker.” Borker the New Yorker, aka the guy behind DecorMyEyes whose SEO strategy was over-the-top bullying of customers, pleaded guilty to 2 counts of sending threatening communications, 1 count of mail fraud and 1 count of wire fraud and could face up to 6 1/2 years in prison.

• If you’ve ever wondered how many bad reviews does it take to send a customer running away screaming, Econsultancy shares Lightspeed Research’s findings on the subject.

• Does Facebook ever contribute to sales? The social networking juggernaut provided Danny Sullivan with exclusive stats including ecommerce examples of the impact of the “Like” button on traffic and revenue.

* Levi’s saw a 40 times increase in referral traffic from Facebook after implementing the Like button in April 2010 and has maintained those levels since.
* Outdoor sporting goods retailer Giantnerd.com saw a 100% increase revenue from Facebook within two weeks of adding the Like button.
* American Eagle added the Like button next to every product on their site and found Facebook referred visitors spent an average of 57% more money than non-Facebook referred visitors
* Children’s clothing retailer Tea Collection added the Like button to sale merchandise and saw daily revenues increase 10 times.
* ShoeDazzle added the Like button to all of the products on its site and within the first month had thousands of likes for its top products.
* ShoeDazzle also lets people login to its site using Facebook, and Facebook-connected users were 50% more likely to make repeat purchases every month than average shoppers.
* When a Ticketmaster user posts a specific event they are attending, or may want to attend, to Facebook, it generates $5.30 of direct ticket sales
* Eventbrite reports that a link shared on Facebook is worth $2.52 in ticket sales (see also here and here)

• Have you explored the new Google Analytics interface? Cardinal Path (not to be confused with Elastic Path, LOL) has put together a thorough tutorial on how and where to find things in the new GA.

• For some comic relief, check out Mark Brownlow’s How good of an email marketer are you? is a gas, and you might learn something about email marketing to boot.

Looking for help with ecommerce? Contact the Elastic Path consulting team at consulting@elasticpath.com to learn how our ecommerce strategy and conversion optimization services can improve your business results.

If you’re new here, Blogger’s Digest compiles useful topics that other ecommerce bloggers have covered recently that I think you would enjoy gleaning from.

• While we all whine about conversion rates sucking, remarketing can be an affective way to stalk follow up with customers who are willing to buy but have just plum forgot about you. This can be accomplished with trigger email or display advertising. Check out Mark Brownlow’s Trigger email (r)evolution: 9 naive questions and Chris Soames’ Google Adwords Remarketing: what is it and how to use it best?.

• Who can get enough tips for reducing cart abandonment? Amy Africa’s series of 30 Proven Tips for Reducing Your Abandoned Carts are worth a read: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 to come…

• Ever encountered the “infinite scroll”? You know, when a page appends itself with more listings, photos, Tweets etc. when you reach the page (rather than using pagination). David Murton shares the perks and pitfalls of infinite scrolling from a usability perspective.

• If you’re a Google Analytics user, you may still be scratching your head as to where to find a certain report in the new interface. Cardinal Path (no relation) has a handy cheat-sheet for locating reports in the new GA.

• Lunametrics has a solid guide to help you make the most out of multichannel funnels in Google Analytics.

• Ever been confused about how to manage and optimize your comparison
  shopping campaigns? CPC Strategy offers a free ebook, How Conventional Wisdom Ruins Merchant Comparison Shopping Campaigns. Check it out.

• Here’s some food for thought: is one page checkout really the holy grail of ecommerce conversions?

• Justin Palmer tells it like it is: 4 shocking truths about your ecommerce website, including “no one cares about your design.”

• If you’re as geeky as I am (geeky or nerdy?) you’re very interested in tablet market share! Luke W has compiled some stats on the current state of the tablet market that may help you prioritize where your development efforts will be focused in the next 12 months.

• Meet +1: Google’s Answer To The Facebook Like Button is a comprehensive explanation of what it is and how it can help your SEO and social media marketing. (I think the real exciting part is the coming ability to add a +1 button to your web pages).

• Information Architecture, Faceted Navigation & Duplicate Content (Oh My!) tackles the SEO issues every ecommerce site must address – how filtered and faceted navigation affects your SEO (including duplicate content) and how to deal with it. Via SEOmoz.

• Graham Charlton of Econsultancy shares 25 essential mobile commerce tips covers the basics of what you need for a usable and useful mobile retail site.

• Even if you don’t have a mobile site, you need to pay attention to mobile email. Dave Chaffey shares some tips on email design for mobile devices.

Cancelling an Order

via Erik Andresen

Spinal Tap Amps

via

Good Code

via xkcd

Order Tracking

via xkcd

A New Captcha Approach

via xkcd

Coupon Code

via xkcd

Trade Expert

via xkcd

Academia vs. Business

via xkcd

iPhone or Droid

via xkcd

Compiling

via xkcd

That explains this:

Life Before Google

Reprinted with permission from

Did you know?

April 1st is traditionally known as “All Fools’ Day” in the Western world, a day to for grown adults to pull stupid pranks that otherwise would not be tolerated on other days of the year. The term “April Fool” refers to a prankster who plays a trick after noon (in some countries like Australia, the UK and New Zealand). Elsewhere, the jokes last all day. It’s not a legal holiday, but some pranks may warrant an employee a “permanent vacation.”

Care to share in the comments your most outrageous April fool, whether you were the prankster or the pranstee? (The folks at Elastic Path has been known for some doozies!)