Tuesday, September 25, 2012

The Value of E-Commerce and Online Store-Management Applications E-Commerce Websites

The steady increase of e-commerce websites in the World Wide Web had triggered the development of different maintenance tools in which web owners can use to allow themselves to maintain their own websites without the assistance of a professional web developer. This is when e-commerce and online store-management applications were developed.

What is an E-Commerce and Online Store-Management Application?

An e-commerce and online store-management application is a program used to maintain e-commerce websites, allowing people who have little to no knowledge of web programming and web development to maintain their own websites with little assistance from a professional e-commerce web developer.

This is very similar to the purpose of using a Web CMS or WCMS to maintain a website. However, these programs possess more functionality which allows these to manipulate an e-commerce website.

Popular E-Commerce and Online Store-Management Applications According to different expert web developer Philippines, there are many online store-management applications used today, and some of the most popular are:

Magento

Magento is an open source ecommerce web application that was launched on March 31, 2008. Varien, the company owning Magento, formerly worked with osCommerce. They originally planned to fork osCommerce but later decided to rewrite it as Magento.
There are currently three versions of Magento, the Professional Edition, the Enterprise Edition, and the Community Edition. The Magento Community Edition is the only free version of Magento available. 

osCommerce

osCommerce (“open source Commerce”) is an e-commerce and online store-management software program. It can be used on any web server that has PHP and MySQL installed. It is available as free software under the GNU General Public License.
There are currently two supported stable releases of osCommerce. Versions 3.0 and 2.3 are developed as two independent programs, and as such do not share code. Contributions, the official name for the open-source community developed plugins, are developed for either 2.x or 3.0, and are incompatible with one another. There is much more support, and are many more contributions for osCommerce version 2 releases than version 3. Contributions are updated, or released daily. 

PrestaShop

PrestaShop is a free, open source e-commerce solution used by more than 120,000 active stores around the world. It supports payment gateways such as Google Checkout, Authorize.net, Skrill, PayPal and Payments Pro via API. Further payment modules are offered commercially.


The software makes extensive use of AJAX in the admin panel, while module blocks can be easily added to the store to provide extra functionality; these are normally provided free of charge by independent developers. The makers of PrestaShop have an official marketplace for priced modules and themes entitled PrestaShop Addons.

There are a number of volunteers who support and contribute their own Addons to PrestaShop. Contributors often program additional features for the software, on top of the 275 features available by default.

Source from Margarette McBride of IT Company Marikina

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Learning about Facebook’s Capability for Successful Internet Marketing

Facebook is one of today’s most visited websites in the World Wide Web. And it was because of this that Facebook became the popular place to market a business which in turn led to the growth of an Internet Marketing technique that focuses mainly on Facebook and other popular social media sites. This is SMO or Social Media Optimization.

What is Social Media Optimization?

Social Media Optimization, or SMO, is a type of Internet Marketing technique which involves mainly marketing the business through the use of several different social networking sites. And one of the most popular is Facebook.

Why Facebook?

According to many Internet Marketing experts, SMO evolved from SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in which one of their most popular technique is the use of social networking sites not only to create one-way links, but also to promote a business in a social networking hub. One of those that SEO have used is Facebook.
Facebook, though more popularly known for its use as a way for people to connect with friends and relative, or to meet new friends not only locally, but globally, Facebook had also incorporated a way for businesses to interact with their customers and clients, as well as a way to market their business through the millions and millions of people subscribed to Facebook.

Popular Facebook Marketing Techniques 

There are many popular techniques used in Facebook today to market their business through Facebook. Some of the most popular are Facebook pages, Facebook Ads, as well as through Facebook applications which led to the growth of facebook applications developers today.


Facebook Page 

One of the first way to use Facebook as a marketing tool is by creating a Facebook page. Facebook had evolved to incorporate a page solely for businesses. But unlike the first time in which Facebook business pages was used, these pages now has the tool that marketers can use to measure their success in Facebook marketing.


Facebook Ads 

Another popular use of Facebook in Internet Marketing is its Ads. Similar to how Google Ads works, Facebook Ads allows for strategic targeting of customers and clients by taking note of their interests. This way, businesses can easily target their clients. However, unlike the use of Facebook pages, Facebook Ads require a fee.


Facebook Applications (Apps) 

Facebook Applications, or Apps, have also been used as a marketing tool in Facebook. Rather than to use ads, many businesses have hired expert Philippines web developer which can provide them a way to market their business without having to be too obvious as to scare their clients or customers. One popular way is to use Facebook games, which are also considered as apps, to market their business, such as their products and services.


Friday, September 7, 2012

Different Popular Facebook Marketing Techniques

What makes Facebook Applications or Apps a popular tool in web marketing? Facebook, other than a popular socialization media in the World Wide Web, is also known as one of today’s most popular and in-demand web marketing medium. 

Facebook Marketing

Facebook marketing is a popular method in web marketing which involves the use of Facebook. It is part of a larger web marketing technique called SMO or Social Media Optimization which aims to use social media websites as a means for marketing a business.

However, because of the many techniques used in Facebook marketing, many web experts have started to offer it as a separate service. This is when Facebook Applications or Apps became a prominent service across the world in which the demand for expert Facebook application developers became apparent. 

Different Popular Facebook Marketing Techniques

There are many popular techniques used in Facebook Marketing other than just Facebook Applications. Here are some of those: 

Facebook Pages

One of the first methods that web marketers used in Facebook Marketing is by simply creating their business’ Facebook profile.

In the past, even before Facebook had integrated the creation of business pages, along with fan pages and other popular types of profile pages in Facebook, many businesses have used Facebook not only as a base for web marketing, but also their own and free website. 

Not only did they have a way for showcasing their services or products, the use of Facebook pages also allowed them to market their business freely in Facebook. One method of doing this was to add people to their page then market their business to those that agreed. 

Another is the use of Facebook’s tagging system. With this, businesses can easily expose their business’ products and services in Facebook without having to add more people to them. This method also gives them the chance to attract more market.

Facebook Ads

In addition to the use of Facebook Pages, another popular technique used in Facebook Marketing is using Facebook’s own Ads. It is similar to the use of Google Adwords in which Facebook can accurately pinpoint those that may have interest in a business’ products or services by taking note of the user’s interests, as well as the kinds of activities happening in their wall.

Facebook Applications or Apps

One of the most recent techniques used in Facebook Marketing is the use of Facebook Apps. The advantage of using Facebook Apps is that the opportunities are endless, as long as Facebook allows the creation of third-party applications that users may freely use.

One way of using Facebook Apps is by making a Facebook game which aims to market a business’ service and product. But one of today’s most popular uses of Facebook Apps that many expert Facebook applications developers have made is with promotions.



It’s functions are similar to Facebook’s tagging system, but is much easier to add people as well as share to anybody interested in the promotion. The advantage of using this is that businesses can track the success of their marketing campaign across Facebook, and also allows them to increase their fan-based just as easily.