Barack Obama has lead a very unique, successful online campaign that I believe has helped him achieve the popularity, excitement, and buzz this past year. However, last week, when I browsed to his website I found that his site may be falling into what we like to call: creating FUDs (fears, uncertainties, and doubts).

On most ecommerce websites category pages and their categorization schemes are driven by a business process giving very little attention to the heart of any transaction: the online visitor.

Ultimately, a category page plays an important supporting role in funneling traffic to product pages. Amazon.com, for example, expects the visitor to navigate to the product page to add an item to your cart.

Content is King!

The statement above has become the holy grail of blogging. No matter what we do content still is and will forever be the main catalyst to drive your blog to success. Without an eye catching, attention grabbing content it is hard to persuade readers to “hang” around your blog and compel them to subscribe. We have all seen blogs that have been launched around the same time but one hits the rock bottom whereas the other reaches the heights of success. They both might be expert in the same field, but one rises and the other fails. …

Most websites do not pay close attention to the design of their top navigation bar. Yet simple changes made on this location of the page can make huge differences in conversion optimization. Prior to going bankrupt, Tower reported that they were able to double their conversion rates by adding a new navigational feature to their site.

While there are no concrete rules on what elements you should include on your top bar, there are several elements you should consider.

Redesigning an existing ecommerce site is much harder than you may think. However, there are a couple of things that you can do to organize your ecommerce site that will immediately increase your conversion rate.

In my first post, I discussed the first seven areas you should evaluate your ecommerce options. The areas we covered in the first post are:

Out of the box features Time-to-market Ease of migration from current systems to new platform Ease of integration with external and internal systems Scalability issues Ease of customization (branding, change of look and feel, etc.) Upgrade challenges with an ecommerce package

In this post I discuss the other 6 areas you should consider when choosing an ecommerce option:

Companies have three main options to choose from when it comes to implementing an ecommerce site:

Custom build the e-commerce website Choose an e-commerce packaged solution Go with a hosted ecommerce solution

Each of those options has advantages and disadvantages. And while there are no correct an absolute answers in this area, there are some common approaches to select the best solution that will coincide with the business’s mission and objectives. A solution that works well with one business model might not be the best option for a different one. You also should consider the short and long-term costs …

So you know your site needs to be optimized and now just need to find someone to do it. The following questions are ones you need to ask to ensure that you maximize your investment:

1. What increase in conversion rates should I expect?

Can a conversion optimization company guarantee a specific rate increase? I am yet to meet a credible company that is able to guarantee specific results. The truth is, every conversion project comes with its own unique situation. However, a good conversion company should invest time with you up-front to set target goals for any planned …