Building Mashups with JSONP, jQuery, and Yahoo! Query Language

In the previous article of this series, we introduced JSONP (JSON with Padding) as a way to overcome browser same-origin policy limitations while combining and presenting data from third-party sources. This article continues this process and shows you how to use Yahoo! Query Language (YQL), a JSONP service from Yahoo!, to build a mashup Web page using jQuery.

Özses, Seda and Salih Ergül. IBM (2009). Articles>Web Design>E Commerce>JavaScript

Selling Advertising

Considering selling advertisements on your web-site? Here are some things you should think about.

Content Strategy (2007). Articles>Web Design>E Commerce

Manufacturer Sites that Sell

The job of a retail site is to attract the consumer, sell the product, and deliver it. In the case of a manufacturer site, the only difference when encountering a retail customer is that, instead of delivering the product, the site may deliver the customer—to an authorized retailer.

Tognazzini, Bruce. Nielsen Norman Group (2007). Articles>Web Design>E Commerce>Usability

Increasing Online Sales: Simple Usability Problems To Avoid

When designing an online store, you have to consider many different types of customers: repeat customers, first-timers, people in a rush, etc. One thing that would help all of them is optimum usability. You can achieve this in a variety of ways, starting with eliminating the most common usability problems from your website. Fixing any one of the following eight common usability problems will get you started on the path to usability and user-experience heaven and, ultimately, more sales.

Holesh, Kevin. Smashing (2009). Articles>Web Design>Usability>E Commerce

How To Bid Profitably On Nonconverting Keywords

Google has a bidding methodology called Budget Optimizer that attempts to maximize the traffic you receive for the keywords in a campaign. This is useful for early buying cycle keywords. However, every keyword should be reaching some goal regardless of where it falls into the buying cycle. It was difficult to track the effectiveness of these campaigns until recently when Google made some changes to Google Analytics. Now you can more effectively bid on early buying cycle keywords, or keywords that you want exposure for, but do not have direct returns by combining the new Google Analytics goals with a budget optimizer campaign.

Geddes, Brad. Search Engine Land (2009). Articles>Web Design>Marketing>E Commerce

Make More Money: Best Practices for Ads in Search Results: Part 2

In this installment of Search Matters, we’ll continue our discussion of ads in search results. Understand what makes a good ad. Limit cannibalization. Provide ads for internal merchandise instead of third-party advertising. Pay special attention to ads on pages that appear if there are no search results.

Nudelman, Greg and Frank Guo. UXmatters (2009). Articles>Web Design>Search Engine Optimization>E Commerce

Make More Money: Best Practices for Ads in Search Results: Part 1

Conflicting demands make many UX professionals think of ads as a necessary evil. Customers frequently go out of their way to say they hate ads, while marketers always seem to try their hardest to stuff as many of them as they can on each search results page on your site. This leaves many UX design professionals caught in the middle, trying to balance the ad equation—and frequently failing to fully satisfy either customers or marketers. For this 2-part column, I’ve teamed up with advertisement and eyetracking research guru Frank Guo to present real-world strategies for successfully integrating ads into your search results. The goal is making money without unduly turning off your customers.

Nudelman, Greg and Frank Guo. UXmatters (2009). Articles>Web Design>Search Engine Optimization>E Commerce