Enkay Blog

PepperJam Store Builder

This review was requested by Pepperjam to showcase their new Pepperjam Store Builder. They requested a mini-review so its just a brief snapshot of this new store and will allow you to get a glimpse at it without a long detailed review as I usually do. The Pepperjam Store builder lets you manipulate the Pepperjam Network product feeds in real-time to build product storefronts for your website.

Basically, you will now be able to go through a system that will create a professional e-store for your products and its easy to use and won’t take much time at all. You can access millions of products from hundreds of Pepperjam’s advertisers to display in your store. You can pick from products, categories, keywords and merchants.

The Store Builder also lets you pick certain products or group of products by searching through the lists. For example, you want costumes for Halloween time, then you can specifically search for “Halloween costumes” to find the products that you’d want to display.

The best part has to be the Live Demo. Meaning, that you can see a live demo of what you’ve created, as you are creating it! You can create a storefront within 30 seconds and that means that you save more time and get the job done, faster! Below is a visual representation:

So if you’re interested in the Store Builder then don’t wait till later. Jump on the bandwagon now and experience the PepperJam Store Builder. Stay tuned for a new post coming really soon!

What Does It Mean To Be On Time?

Okay, so this topic really isn’t about blogging but it has to do with being professional and behaving in a business manner. This could help your blogging but its more to do with helping you become more successful. One of my professors always says “On time is late. Early is on time” . The point of this post is that lately I’ve been attending quite a few meeting and it seems like people don’t understand basic etiquette so I wanted to see what your thoughts are on this. This could actually relate to blogging because it deals with deadlines and things of that nature.

1) A Deadline is A Deadline – What people sometimes don’t realize is that even if you have a deadline outside of work, it means that theres a deadline and you have to meet it. Don’t be unprofessional and beat around the bush. Make an honest attempt.

2) If Youre Late, Please Communicate - If you’re running late to something and it was out of your control then let the party that is waiting know that you will be late. Don’t leave them in the dark hoping that they will continue waiting for you. Think about it, you could lose a business deal like that.

3) Don’t plan on being on time - The problem is that when you say that you want to be somewhere by a certain time, you plan everything as though its acceptable to be there on time. You know, shower, get ready, all that. You should plan on getting there 15 minutes early. That way you account for time in case you miss something or theres traffic or an accident. Account for the indirect things that can delay your time.

4) Be Professional - If you’re late and you know it, dont blame it on the traffic. Everyone can come up with an excuse. Apologize and mention that you meant to be on time. If this was your first impression, then you already blew it but make sure that if you are given a second chance that you do things the right way the second time around.

This post has been inspired by some of the meetings Ive had to attend and I wonder if you guys feel the same way. Do you think being early is a good idea or are you always running late? Whats the deal?

Weekly Update – October 28th

So, I have to apologize and let you know ahead of time that this week might be a little slow because I have a lot going on in terms of school but I’ll try to post as often as I can. First off, as promised, there will be a surprise the beginning of next month. This was something that was in the works but its in the process of being finalized. So that should be some good news.

If You Win, Reply!
The winner of my ebook contest never replied so David, the runner up, actually got sent the iPod today in the mail! This is why you should always check your email, you may miss out on some exciting news and free stuff too!

Welcoming My New Advertisers
If you haven’t noticed, I have almost sold out all my ad spots which is great news for the blog. I wanted to welcome the two new advertisers before I go into the weekly update for today. So, say hello to Thousand Dollar Profits & Andrea from According to Andrea!

      

Weekly Link Love

1) Suite J - Suite J talks about how the things on your desk relates to your personality. I think mines more of a control freak and a show-off type of thing. See where you fit in!

2) Franklin Bishop – Franklin discusses how to build a community on your blog which is very important for you to be able to sustain your blog. It should feel like a community in order for comments and interaction to take place. Its a great post that you should check out.

3) WebTrafficROI – WebTrafficROI talks about why they love twitter and why you should too. Twitter is a great tool that can really help you out in the long run so if you don’t know how it can benefit you, this list can help you realize that.

4) RomanDock Dot Com – Nick discusses how bloggers are getting their hands in the cookie jar. Its an analogy for how bloggers that are growing tremendously are not appreciative enough of their readers and what they should do and think about in order to maintain the one-to-one relationship with their readers.

5) Bruno Auger - Bruno discusses what SEO is and the importance of SEO which stands for search engine optimization. This can really help boost where you place in search engine rankings and this is a great post to help you realize what it really means and entails.

Well, thats the weekly link round up! Thanks for stopping by and once again, apologies for having a slow upcoming week but I promise to make it up to you guys. Have a great week ahead!

FeedBurner Gets On My Nerves!

So the day I was all excited about my Feedburner count nearing 200, Feedburner decided to eliminate my Google feed readers and that lowered my feed count to under 150 for a few days. I don’t really know what the issue with Feedburner is but its finally getting fixed. Here is what the graphs looked like before and after:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

So basically what happens is that Google Reader tends to not be picked up by Feedburner. I know that many of you have that this issue but never really wondered why it happened. I wonder if Feedburner is working on a fix for this since it seems to be quite prominent. Have you guys noticed anything similar to this?

Setting Your Advertising Prices

Advertising on my blog is getting more and more popular and as I browse around other blogs I try and see what ad pricing looks like and so far I’ve been impressed with some of the deals you can get but some blogs, I’m just not even sure how to describe it. The point is that, you cannot set your advertising prices at a level that is beyond what its worth. Same thing goes for any kind of commodity in your daily life. Example, if cereal was now $20 a box for something that originally cost $3-$5 a box, you’d either be really desperate to buy it or you’d stay away from it completely. Thats how advertising works. Maybe I can help you in setting your advertising prices:

1) Don’t Start Too Early – Sometimes, its not bad to advertise ads for 1 cent or $1 but you have to realize that it makes for a bad impression. Most advertisers may think that you perceive your ad to be worth nothing at all to be charging a dollar or less for it. Don’t start too early. Wait till the time is right.

2) Dont Start Too High – Problem is, that you don’t know what the right value is so you start off too high in the hopes that it might make advertisers believe that the benefit derived from buying adspace must be because of some great statistics. Don’t set your price at a certain level just because you think the ad is worth that much. Base it on actual statistics.

3) Look At Statistics - Look at what your statistics are and make sure that your statistics match the price. Think about whether the price is fair per subscriber or for your alexa and technorati ranks. I base it upon subscribers and unless I’m 250 and over, I won’t change the price of my ads. Even still they won’t increase by more than 20% if anything but even that is debatable. You want to entice your advertisers into realizing that the ad is a good value for the money.

4) Compare with Similar Blogs – Another idea is to see blogs that you believe are your competitors or are on the same level as you are. See their prices and compare them to what you had in mind. If your price is above average then you need to reconsider the pricing. If its below average then consider whether you want to sell it for that price or raise it to the average of other comparable blogs.

5) Would You Buy It? - The best way to see if your price is right is to decide (leaving your bias out) whether you’d be willing to pay that price for the ad. If you think that its a good deal then the price is right. If you think its over priced then its time to re-think the pricing. Its just that simple.

Is The Price Right For You?
So hopefully those of you, who don’t have your ads priced as yet or are re-thinking why advertisers are not sticking around, its time to re-evaluate your pricing based on my list. Have you seen overpriced ads? Do you think your advertising prices are worth it? Let me see!