When seeking a new niche for SEO-based online marketing, it pays to follow a few simple guidelines, in order to avoid the SEO deserts and truly make the most of your monetisation. Here’s three to bear in mind…

1. Avoid the “obvious”. Although a niche may have a lot of traffic volume surrounding its keywords, it may still not be the right one for you. See if it can genuinely be monetised by Google-searching the major keywords and seeing if there is much PPC advertising there. If not, it’s likely to be a sign that it’s a desert when it comes to revenue.
2. See which players are involved with the major keywords. If your Google search shows that it is only large corporate brands that are associated with the keywords, then you will have your work cut out to match resources with them – you will need the services of a top online marketing company with a great site strategy, and you will need to be prepared to make a lot of effort.
3. Check out the competition. If it is not all big brands in the niche, then take some time to see exactly who it is you’ll be competing with. There are various backlinks tools which can tell you exactly who is involved with the top search results associated with the keywords, and what kind of links you will require to compete with them. Again, a good internet marketing company will provide this service and bring a level of expertise to it that maybe you cannot.

Google remains the undisputed king of the search engines, according to new research – news that will come as no surprise to online marketing professionals.

The study by Experian Hitwise found that Google controlled a massive 90.64 per cent of the search engine market, in a year where British consumers have used search engines 2.3 billion times in January alone.

Yahoo and Microsoft Bing slightly improved their market share, with 4.16 per cent and 2.98 per cent respectively, but Google was untouchable, despite taking a slight drop in search share compared to December 2011.

The implications for online marketing are clear, Experian market analyst James Murray pointed out.

“Search is one of the most crucial elements of online marketing and our data shows that search is growing, with nearly 100 million more visits going to search engines this January than last January,” he said.

As well as the likes of Google, social networks like Facebook, Reddit and YouTube are becoming ever-more popular in driving internet traffic to commercial sites, Experian said. Internet marketing efforts need to bear this in mind and make content that is easy to share.

For its part, Google is striving to capitalise on the lucrative social network market, with researchers finding out that in December 2011 in the US some 49 million internet users visited its new social network Google+, a 55 per cent increase compared to November.

Below, we score and review the ten best free open source ecommerce platforms available, each with their own rating and what makes them stand out from others.

We, have many years experience in ecommerce and have worked with hundreds of etailers, helping them to sell successfully online. During this time, we have worked with almost every ecommerce platform and our impression of how a platform functions and handles what is expected of it goes a long way towards our recommendations to clients of ours when they are deciding upon the right ecommerce solution.

Within each ecommerce platform, we have rated (out of 10) the extendibility, development and optimisation of each (maximum score 30) based on our professional opinion and experience. Find out the explanation of each, below.

• Language – What language code the software is wrote in.
• Dev Level – The ability level of web developers/designers working with and developing your ecommerce site.
• Cost/Fees – Simply whether there is free/paid plans for use of the ecommerce provider.
• Extendibility – Measures how extendable the core platform is via the use of available plugins/add-ons and extensions in their marketplace.
• Development – Measures how well the platform is coded, both from a functionality, usability and security perspective.
• Optimisation (SEO) – Measures the level of optimisation the platform has to offer, and whether the flexibility is there to maximise the site potential in the search engines.
• Support – How easy it is to find support (either via official channels or otherwise) online. Via forums, blogs, tutorials or coming across many others who have experienced the same or similar issues.

Magento

• Language: PHP / MySQL
• Dev Level: Advanced
• Cost/Fees: Both free and paid plans available.

Magento hasn’t been around (2008) for as long as some of the other open source ecommerce platforms readily available on the web but has quickly grown to become one of the most widely used solutions in ecommerce. With its feature-rich administration panel, huge flexibility over the design, layout, control and feel, and ever-increasing collection of its own or 3^rd party extensions, Magento is a truly established leader in ecommerce software and powers some of the most innovative ecommerce stores online.

Selecting Magento has your ecommerce solution comes at a price though – not a literal price but in the sense that only the experienced of developers and someone familiar with the structure and functionality of the complex set-up will be able to deliver the most effective and rewarding of projects. There are a number of editions available from Magento depending on your required uses and scale of business, some of which cost. However, for most, the free downloadable ‘Community’ edition will be suitable. View/compare the range of Magento editions.

• Extendibility: 10/10 (tons of free and paid extensions for pretty much anything you require)
• Development: 10/10 (whilst a complex structure, it works and is coded well)
• Optimisation (SEO): 9/10 (great level of optimisation available built into the core platform)
• Support: 9/10 (loads of users, loads of tutorials and free help/advice can be found online via forums)

 Score: 38/40

Magento

OpenCart

• Language: PHP / MySQL
• Dev Level: Basic
• Cost/Fees: Free

OpenCart offers an ‘out of the box’ solution with install and setup with minimal manual intervention and configuration. Provided by default, is everything you would expect with core ecommerce functionality. OpenCart is an excellent choice for anyone looking to get started with selling online quickly and easily, with a wide array of extensions, both free and paid too, there is plenty of opportunity to customise your store cost effectively to suit your business needs.

Their own website is clean, easy to navigate, clear and concise – plus easy to find support, tips or anything else you might be looking for. And as such, you can find similar practice deployed into their ecommerce software.

• Extendibility: 10/10 (lots of modules for most things you would want, free and paid modules available)
• Development: 9/10 (clean, well coded and simple to work with)
• Optimisation (SEO): 7/10 (caters for most of the basics although 3^rd party modules could be required for complete customisation)
• Support: 9/10 (can find a great deal of support online, mostly via their forums)

Score: 35/40

OpenCart

Spree Commerce

• Language: Ruby on Rails / MySQL
• Dev Level: Advanced
• Cost/Fees: Free

Spree Commerce is available on the Rails framework so ecommerce functionality can be plugged into an existing Rails app/site. Spree is open source and heavily extendable via an array of extensions.

The design and development of Spree is exceptional, the level of quality is high right ‘out of the box’ ready for integration for an adequately equipped and ‘ready to perform’ ecommerce website from the off. Some of the extensions available are also much more varied than your typical ecommerce systems with some highly skilled developers producing some real neat enhancements to an already great platform. The fact that this runs on the Rails framework however, does deter many from using it and many lack the knowledge to work with Rails.

• Extendibility: 9/10 (some really neat extensions available for Spree, many of which are of great quality work)
• Development: 9/10 (lovely design and interfaces, modern, clean, structured and works well)
• Optimisation (SEO): 8/10 (level of optimisation available seems pretty impressive)
• Support: 7/10 (not a huge amount of resource online for assistance and could not locate a support forum, if you aren’t familiar with Rails, make sure you hire a developer that knows what he’s doing to save you a lot of frustration)

Score: 33/10

SpreeCommerce

 LiteCommerce

• Language: PHP / MySQL
• Dev Level: Advanced
• Cost/Fees: Free

LiteCommerce provides a powerful ecommerce CMS with Drupal’s CMS integrated into it as well. It can work as either as a Drupal module or as a standalone site. This platform makes use of some really nice elements to improve user experience at customer level and managerial level.

An excellent range of features are provided with the default core, everything that you would expect to get up and running straight away. I really love the advanced level and understanding of optimisation that has been included with social signals and open graph metadata being controllable on a per product basis from the back end.

• Extendibility: 7/10 (loads of Drupal modules already available if you’re making use of Drupal plus LiteCommerce integration otherwise there isn’t a great deal of add ons available, however all can easily be integrated from the back end of LiteCommerce)
• Development: 9/10 (really nice store front and admin back office, code is easy to work with)
• Optimisation (SEO): 10/10 (really up to date with what matters from an ecommerce SEO perspective, super job)
• Support: 7/10 (not a huge amount of information online although do operate a very good ideas system, bug tracker and Quora group.

Score: 33/40

LiteCommerce

X-Cart

• Language: PHP / MySQL
• Dev Level: Basic
• Cost/Fees: Free & Paid

X-Cart has a range of paid options with different types of licenses; the core open source platform can be downloaded for free (either X-Cart Gold or X-Cart Pro) however. Whilst the interfaces seem quite dated, most ecommerce fundamentals are provided with the core install.

There are number of modules for extending the platform available, most are at a ridiculously high price so unless you are hiring designers/developers to implement a custom build for you, expect to shell out a fair few hundred dollars just for a few modules.

• Extendibility: 4/10 (could not find any free modules, a number of high priced modules are available though)
• Development: 8/10 (easy to work with and well structured coded platform)
• Optimisation (SEO): 9/10 (advanced optimisation available throughout the store)
• Support: 8/10 (loads of resources online for advice, support and tutorials with X-Cart, mostly via their support forums)

Score: 29/40

X Cart

TomatoCart

• Language: PHP / MySQL
• Dev Level: Basic
• Cost/Fees: Free

TomatoCart is becoming a much more popular open source platform for ecommerce, it originally branched from osCommerce 3.0 modernising and improving the interface immensely in the process. The design is clean, the development is easy to work and well structured.

It is unfortunate that currently, the Tomato Cart demo is not functional which would have allowed for a greater insight into the store front and administration panel. There is also some issues with their own website in the sense that we’re unable to browse the extensions on their website without being pestered for a server username and password every few seconds.

Despite the minimal ability to really review this ecommerce platform, I do still feel this is one of the growing and complete systems hence why it makes this blog post. Unfortunately, this does limit my scores below however.

• Extendibility: 5/10 (not a great deal of extensions available but I believe most of them are free)
• Development: 7/10 (clean design/development to work with as far as I can make out)
• Optimisation (SEO): 7/10 (the basics are in place for optimisation – unable to vouch for any advanced level of customisation / optimisation)
• Support: 6/10 (less support online for this platform, plenty of advice and assistance from within their forums however)

Score: 25/40

TomatoCart

PrestaShop

• Language: PHP / MySQL
• Dev Level: Advanced
• Cost/Fees: Free

Prestashop is also one of the most favoured solutions for businesses when diving into the etail world. It used to come highly recommended (along with Magento by ourselves also). Since our recent experience with the platform however, having recently just completed a client design project with the transition from Actinic over to Prestashop, it is not a platform we will be rushing to work with again anytime soon.

The core Prestashop lacks many of the basic fundamentals of ecommerce, it also provides the core install with a ridiculous amount of modules already plugged into the system (whether you want them or not), some of which have been half integrated into the core rather than relying of the 3^rd party developers module CSS or JavaScript. There are also countless bugs and issues with the core, if you’re looking to implement a large scale design project for a client with this platform, expect to kiss goodbye to hours of your time resolving issues that you wouldn’t have expected to deal with nor factored in to your allocation of time for the project. What’s worse, is instead of Prestashop actually delivering basics that work into the default downloadable installation, such as the navigation menu (and the defaults provided, are awful), better versions of said elements are then provided in the form of paid modules (some of which are even sold by Prestashop admin). This then leads me on to state that there are very few free modules for Prestashop, many are paid modules, most of which are also poor development work/support for too.

• Extendibility: 7/10 (although little worthwhile extendibility for free)
• Development: 5/10 (major issues with core, lots of bugs, basic provision to work with, disappointing)
• Optimisation (SEO): 6/10 (basic level of optimisation is covered – titles, metadata and SEF URL’s)
• Support: 3/10 (easily lose hours/days searching for help, most of support/forum is French)

Score: 21/40

PrestaShop

Other solutions worth considering as open source ecommerce providers

UberCart (for Drupal)

ZeusCart

VirtueMart (for Joomla)

Business to business targeting – One of the most common responses we have received from business owners on Facebook advertising campaigns is “I don’t think Facebook is for us”. Many times people have a existing pre conception that Facebook is where their teenagers “hang out” chat about random events and generally waste their time. If you ruled out Facebook for business you could be making a big mistake. So how do you target for a business that is B2B ?

1. Sell the dream - As the owner of a business you have one thing in mind and that is making more money or generating more sales. Tap into this when you choose your ads image. Images like this will increase your ads click through rations and reduce your cost for fan via sponsored listings.

2. Keep it simple – When writing your ad copy keep it to a one line sentence and keep it simple. “Click Like” if you want to get more sales or Do you want to improve your business in 2012 “Click Like” now to find out how.

3. Spy on your existing fans interests – Make the effort to find out what your existing fans like or are interested in and tailor content accordingly. Dead Facebook fans on a page need to be engaged to bring them back alive and active.

4. Smile ! people respond to faces its called Facebook remember – Its easy to forget the basics of what makes Facebook so popular its faces. Including Happy faces will improve your ads responses and like numbers and drive down that fan acquisition cost.

Pick your favourite baby – Follow this same strategy when deciding on the best image to use for your ads.

5. Target, target , target – Did you know ? there are 2680 people currently studying at Oxford university that are Single ? Use Education and Workplace targeting to drill down to the right audience.

Digg has advantages. For one, it is like a one-stop-shopping site for people who want to find the latest news in their areas of interest. It also has many users; more people mean more views for your content. Another advantage is that stories catch people’s attention and then directs them back to the website. Many people use Digg for personal interests; but, like other social networking sites, Digg can be used to promote a business as well. Here are some ways to use Digg to grow your business:

• Create a profile. This is where you can highlight all the best things about your business. Include information about products and services. Be sure to also include links to your business’s website.
• Post stories. These are what will show up on the news pages at Digg. The most popular stories have catchy titles that pique user interest. Include links to your website within the story so that the Digg traffic is directed to it. It is important to find balance with the stories; do not post too often or in rapid succession. Doing so will cause other users to tune you out. It is best to post stories during peak hours (9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EST).
• Follow other individuals and businesses within your industry. By doing this, their stories will show up on your news. This will also enable you to find out what competitors are talking about.
• Get colleagues and employees to digg your stories. The goal is to get more diggs for your stories. When someone diggs your story, it shows up on their friends’ news; and if all goes well, they too will digg your story. As an employee, be sure to follow your company so that you can digg its stories.
• Add a “Digg This” button to your business’s website. This makes it easier for people to digg your website directly.

There are pros and cons to Digg just like there are with any other social media. If you are going to use Digg for your business, do some research whether to be sure it is the best option. If it is, devote enough time to it to really reap all the benefits from it.

Dave, an avid internet marketer, freelance writer and SEO specialist, infuses his knowledge of many different subjects into all of his writings. His current project includes a website about freelance writing and where to find freelance work opportunities and freelance jobs around the internet.

With mobile marketing becoming such an important facet of online marketing efforts these days, it is important to remember some of the ‘golden rules’ in this fastest-growing of areas. Here’s five top tips to help anyone planning a mobile internet marketing campaign make the most of it:

1. Make it short, sharp and punchy! Since mobile devices such as smartphones are most likely to be used on the move, and many possible transactions will take place during public transport journeys or waiting in a queue, it makes sense for online marketing campaigns aimed at mobile users to be divided into “bite-size” portions, making it easier for the potential customer to read and digest the content. If a marketing drive drags, the bustling mobile user will lose interest.

2. Ensure the personal touch. Because mobile phones are uniquely personal – they are far more “part” of the person using them regularly than computers or even laptops – they are perfect for tailoring online marketing campaigns across a wide variety of personalised platforms, such as social media giants Facebook and Twitter, SMS and email. A canny marketing strategy realises this and concentrates on being accessible, personal and fun.

3. Include video content where possible. People like watching video clips on their smartphones – and even more so, people like making films on their smartphones. As part of your campaign, encourage potential customers to make their own videos and post them on your website directly from their handsets. In this way, the campaign helps to create its own online “community” or a small-scale social network of its very own, instilling brand loyalty and encouraging participation in further promotional events.

4. Use mobile marketing as part of an integrated campaign. When mobile marketing techniques such as SMS form part of a comprehensive online marketing drive encompassing an optimised website, blog posts, SEO and PPC campaigns, the results can be spectacular. To make the most of this, make sure your site has campaign-specific landing pages for all of your mobile banners.

5. Tie your campaign in with other popular features among mobile users. Owners of smartphones and tablets use them all the time to receive news reports and gossip, weather forecasts, information about local events and sporting updates. Try to bundle some of this content with your own campaign, offering extra mobile content, money off coupons or other incentives. This tactic is especially effective for local businesses seeking to expand their local customer base.

Facebook fan pages are not just for personal users or enthusiasts, they have an important business function too, which Lancashire businesses can harness for their own good. They allow companies to connect with a much wider audience, throughout and beyond the Lancashire catchment area, for example.

Here’s another 10 reasons why Lancashire businesses should seriously consider setting up a Facebook fan page in 2012:

1. A huge market awaits! Facebook has over 600 million users alone, with half of this number logging on every day and spending around an hour surfing the site. Imagine how many of these are in the Lancashire area alone – then become aware of the fantastic possibilities for your business this provides!

2. Facebook provides its own analytics. With the Insights feature, Lancashire companies can track the demographics of their “fans”, sorting them by age, location and gender – thus helping you better target your marketing efforts. Comments on the page can also be tracked, helping to boost content.

3. Fan pages give you a branding opportunity. Lancashire-based companies can personalise their fan pages with their logo, bespoke backgrounds and designs – in fact, any “look” they desire to create a unique online presence.

4. There’s no limits! Unlike personal Facebook profiles, which only allow a maximum of 5,000 “friends”, there is no limit to the numbers a fan page can have – and the pages enable you to communicate directly with the fans, promoting special offers or informing of new products. For Lancashire businesses, they will be able to amass an ever-growing customer base, and communicate with them simultaneously.

5. Fan pages are great for SEO and Google. Because Google fully indexes fan pages, anything posted there will show up during an appropriate Google search, unlike personal profile content or a Facebook group. For businesses in the Lancashire area, this means that anyone in the area searching for the services your company provides will be able to find your fan page on Google – whereupon you can show them why you are the right choice!

5. Open entry. Facebook fan pages are open environments, where anyone who discovers the page can become a fan. This is unlike Facebook profiles or groups, where invitations need to be issued, or requests accepted. With potential customers in the Lancashire area stumbling upon your page via Google, they will be able to “try before they buy”.

6. High interactivity. Personal communication goes a long way in the modern digital marketing world, and fan pages are an excellent way to achieve this. Facebook fan pages mean a company can share content, videos or anything else they choose with thousands of potential customers – in Lancashire and beyond – absolutely free. This brings us to…

7. Free multimedia opportunities. Companies with a fan page can use it to upload as many files, pictures, videos, brochures and sound files as they want, with no extra charge. Compare this with the additional bandwidth charges levied by a traditional provider and you will soon see what a tremendous opportunity for engaging with your customer base this represents. Response rates to videos are much higher than just text.

8. Create events. When used together, Facebook fan pages and Facebook events are a powerful marketing tool. Fans can be swiftly informed about events or happenings related to your business in the Lancashire area.

9. Facebook fan pages direct traffic your way. All forward-thinking Lancashire businesses ought to have their own dedicated website, and fan pages are a great way to introduce first-time visitors to the site, by setting up the page as a mini-version – complete with ability to place orders or make enquiries. Facebook and the sponsored listings available also offer an excellent way of reaching your audience via a specific demographic.

10. Fan page design offers a great way to provide a highly professional presence for your business online. Engage with your audience on a regular basis and form a special relationship with your client base…

Online marketing is a constantly developing field of expertise, with innovations emerging weekly – but no development has been quite significant over the past year than the rise of mobile devices. With more people than ever before owning smartphones and tablets, mobile devices are fast becoming the most important factor among internet marketing experts, who all advise that optimising a website for mobile traffic is the priority for 2012.

Because smartphones and tablets such as the iPhone and iPad have a full browsing ability, unlike the previous generation of mobile phones, they can still navigate a “normal” webpage without too much difficulty. Nevertheless, they still benefit from a more mobile-friendly site – and this is especially true for commercial sites. From an online marketing perspective, increased mobile traffic leads to more sales and conversions, as nowadays an ever-increasing amount of online transactions are being conducted via mobile devices.

Search engine giant Google has confirmed once again that mobile queries reached a peak the week before Christmas last year – the same as in 2010 – which indicates that mobile users are making the most of their devices for the busiest shopping period of the year. With this in mind, retailers need to be offering internet marketing campaigns that target mobile devices and use adverts specially enhanced for these devices. They could even consider separate campaigns for mobile consumption with tweaked messages and offers – such as discounts for customers that place orders or make purchaes via their smartphones or tablets.

A report published last year by tech research company Gartner estimated that mobile traffic will overtake traffic from desktop and laptop computers by 2013 across the globe. With this “deadline” looming, any company or organisation that relies on its online presence should be optimising their sites for mobile traffic, if they have not already done so. The research also showed an underlying trend that is more worrying: many online marketing professionals had not woken up to this sea change in internet behaviour and did not trust users of mobile devices to register with their sites or make online purchases – although all the evidence points the opposite way.

Fortunately, good online marketing companies are perfectly placed to assist clients with the process of mobile traffic optimisation, and can offer both advice and technical expertise.

Make sure that your website is not left behind in the mobile revolution!

Planners and supplier from all over the world have joined i-Meet, and there is a plethora of countries listed on the registration page. The beauty of having such a global network is that if a planner is orchestrating an event in another region or country, he or she is able to connect with suppliers there well before the event is scheduled. In addition, discussing topics of the industry with people from different locations helps create a well-rounded view.

Planners can benefit from being members of i-Meet because they can find colleagues, exchange ideas, find answers from other professionals, and learn about the current trends in their field. The site features groups based upon both industry sector and geographical location. With over 50,000 suppliers from all over the globe, planners are sure to be able to find what they need. Planners can also gain access to reviews of suppliers, venues, etc. so that they will be well-informed before they make a purchase.

Everyone is interested in growing his or her business, and using an industry-specific network like i-Meet is a great way to do that. Suppliers will not have their profiles or advertisements drowned out by other industries, and planners will not have to sort through profiles that are irrelevant to their needs. Suppliers are able to build their experience and gain positive references and feedback so that they become more professionally recognized. And by connecting with other people in the industry, suppliers and planners will both become better at their jobs.

So, how does one build a business through i-Meet? First you create a profile as either a planner or a supplier and specify your location. If you are a planner, start discussions, join interest groups, request information from suppliers, showcase your skills, respond to requests for planners, search for venues, use planning tools, and exchange ideas with other planners. If you are a supplier, let planners know about your skills and services, join groups, take advantage of available media options, get leads on jobs, and earn good ratings from planners. Make your events memorable with i-Meet.

Dave, an avid internet marketer, freelance writer and SEO specialist, infuses his knowledge of many different subjects into all of his writings. His current project includes a website about freelance writing and where to find freelance work opportunities and freelance jobs around the internet.