Next Generation Shopping

Affiliate networks are so far behind in technology it isn’t even funny.  Specifically I’d like to see some improvements to their reporting systems.

• Web Services access to reporting data.  Currently, CJ will export reports for you and upload them to FTP or allow you to download them.  Its a waste of bandwidth when you are getting more than you need.  Web services would allow getting the right reporting data at the right time.  End-users can then build their own customized reporting systems.
• Ability to filter (not just sort) reports by sub-id (SID in CJ, u1 in LinkShare)
• LinkShare - Ability to select date range of reports by Transaction Date or Process Date (like in CJ).  The data is present, there is no reason for this option not be implemented.
• LinkShare - A RSS feed or easier way (could easily be a Web Service call) to access which Merchants have paid for the month.  Or be more like CJ and just take payments ahead of time.

I don’t think I’m asking too much here.

I was coding a bit today with the Shopping.com API and something was messing up my HTML and screwing up my app.  After debugging for a while it turns out the description field for a product coming from an Amazon Marketplace merchant’s description was the culprit.  Here is the entire description:

<span><img src=”http://www.comfortchannel.com/images/Get_Adobe_Reader.jpg” alt=”Click here to download Adobe Reader 7.0 for faster loading speeds” bor…

Malformed HTML. The whole description was a portion of HTML, without the end “>” bracket.

You’d think:
a) The merchant would fix it in their datafeed.
b) Amazon would strip it out.
c) Shopping.com would strip it out their partner feed.

Wait, Shopping.com doesn’t even strip it out of their own site! Aghhhh!
 

Maybe Comfort Channel (via Amazon Marketpalce) should try using SingleFeed, or another datafeed optimization product, which I’m sure would reject the feed prior to submission until the issue was corrected.

Soo… Then I tried to write this blog entry via Windows Live Writer and it crashed with an “Unexpected Error.” I clicked OK, but the error wouldn’t go away. Good thing Live Writer is marked as Beta, otherwise I would have been a little upset (sarcasm).

Its been a good day, really.

So you may have already heard that Google has won the bidding over Microsoft for DoubleClick.

Recent rumors had Microsoft aiming to buy DoubleClick for about $2 billion, so the announcement signals that a bidding war had erupted with Google, said industry analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence.

The deal is a clear loss for Microsoft; it stands to affect Yahoo as well, because with DoubleClick, Google gets a much-needed boost in display advertising, Sterling said. (ComputerWorld, April 13)

Most of the analysts like Sterling have discussed the boost in banner and graphical advertising this will bring for Google.

But a very scary issue is that they also are taking over the affiliate network Performics. God only knows what Google will do with them. Performics sent out this letter to their publisher network: Read more »

During the retailer forum session at Search Engine Strategies NYC a member of the audience said “I have a store that I just started up. Right now we are in the $0 dollars sales area. What are some tips for getting started with an E-Commerce store?”

A great summary response from the panel covered a majority of the avenues for building from the ground up.

• Build links and SEO – Long term initiative, no shortcuts.
• Advertise on Search Engines (SEM) - Instant results; Testing and basic analytics is important.
• Utilize Available Services in the Shopping Vertical

• List on Google Base / Froogle - Results dependant on product being sold. 
• Sell on auction sites, specifically eBay and link back to your e-commerce store in the description – Short term
• Sell on marketplaces like Amazon zShops, or Ebay Express
• Use Yahoo! Merchant Solutions (free setup) to power the site

• Easier/Cheaper to get listed in Yahoo! Shopping search engine

• Datafeed Optimization (DFO) - Be found for more search terms.  Shorter term initiative.  (See SingleFeed for a good solution).

I’d also suggest that new merchants should try to announce some initial promotions and get free exposure through deal or coupon sites. And don’t forget getting friends and family to help spread the word.

[Entry related to the Retailer Forum session held at Search Engine Strategies 2007 NYC.]

Duplicate content issues affect a variety of webmasters including: the affiliate marketer, the mashup developer, and the E-Commerce store manager.

Here are some prime examples:

• Affiliate site with product descriptions coming from Merchant datafeeds
• Shopping mashup where the product information comes from partner(s) Web Services / APIs.
• E-Commerce store where product inventory information comes from a partner or supplier.

What do all of these scenarios have in common? They all can suffer greatly from duplicate content. If you are using a content source that is widely used, chances are your site is probably going to be seen as having duplicate content by the search engines. The best way I can tell you to look at duplicate content is by measuring your own value added. If your site is adding no further value to the content source it is generally not going to be liked by the search engines, and rightly so. From a consumer standpoint we don’t need 100 affiliate websites to appear first in Google with all the same exact content.

From what I gather there is no 100% solution. One suggestion in the session was Read more »

A great tip I picked up at the Sitemaps & URL Submission session yesterday was that webmasters now have an easier way to submit their sitemap files.

Sitemaps can be discovered automatically by utilizing the Robots.txt file. Currently, this is supported by Google and Yahoo!, with MSN and Ask.com to support it shortly. Pretty cool.  However, when I asked the Google spokesperson “If you add a sitemaps file via the Robots.txt will it automatically appear in my Google Webmaster area?”  The answer was No.  If you wish to see the sitemap file appear in your Google or Yahoo Webmaster account you must add it in the Webmaster area first.

[Entry related to the Sitemaps & URL Submission session held at Search Engine Strategies 2007 NYC.]

It’s day three here at SES NYC, and the conference is going strong.  I’ll have some posts up shortly, as well as some session notes, but in the meantime here are some interesting sessions I’ve attended:

Sitemaps & URL Submission
Duplicate Content & Multiple site Issues
SEM Benchmarking
Paid Ad Techniques

The “Retailer” track sessions are yet to come and hopefully they will be informational ones.

If I was to ask a random merchant ”Does your site advertise in the Music or Movies section of Shopping.com?”   From what I have seen lately, the likely result would be 99% of them telling me “No.”

So here is the scenario… I searched for the most recent Star Wars DVD on Shopping.com. My Search was for “Star Wars Episode III DVD“, which I think is a pretty popular one.  The result: Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, is ”No longer available.” Oh really? Well over at Yahoo! Shopping they tell me different. Yahoo! tells me the product is still available and shows me 9 merchants who all have the product in stock.

It doesn’t stop with this one example.  Many DVDs are listed “No longer available” and most of the Music section has only one or two Merchants selling a product (mainly Overstock.com).

How does this effect the developers using the Shopping.com API?  The Shopping.com API will return no results for a search where a product is “no longer available.”  As far as a developer knows, the product doesn’t exist in the Shopping.com database.  Developers using the API are left with no option but to report that the users’ search returned no results.  The API should be at least be returning the product data without any store offers since this is happening with many DVDs, CDs, and especially with older product models in other categories as well.

To me this is a serious problem for both consumers using the Shopping.com website and developers using the Shopping.com API.  I hope the new management is going to do something about this.

I’ve taken several months off of blogging to focus on other things.  However, I’ll be blogging more often starting next week.

First on the list are these topics:

• Coverage of Search Engine Strategies in NYC
• Updates on Shopping APIs
• General Industry Analysis
• Other Tidbits on Shopping Comparison, SEM, Affiliate Marketing and Related Topics