Michael Roebuck's Blog

After reading that Mr. SEO had been Klogged, (read his blog post here), I figured I'd write about my own "klogging" as well.

I placed my prized klog on top of my bookshelf with all the other important gizmo's. There it will sit and help create puizzled looks on all the faces of those who enter my office.

Thanks Karl Ribas!

Yahoo! Poll Shows Three Out of Four Holiday Shoppers Will Buy Gifts Online and Most Are Likely to Purchase from Small Businesses

November 16, 2006 11:54 AM Eastern Time

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Three out of four (76 percent) holiday shoppers said they plan to shop for holiday gifts online, and a similar number, 75 percent, said they are likely to purchase gifts online from small businesses, according to a new survey commissioned by Yahoo! Small Business and conducted by Harris Interactive®. Survey respondents expressed strong support for e-commerce with small businesses that offer a secure payment system, easy customer checkout and free shipping......

Click here for full story

I'm not an artsy kind of guy. I tend to live for function and not aesthetics. When you have 5 kids, you just want things to work and not break!

Denise, my Administrative Assistant creates custom Stained Glass projects as a hobby. She, along with her Dad have two stained glass locations (LHA Elegant Glass) where they create these beautiful works of art. I had the opportunity to assist her Dad with some computer issues and really got to learn a lot about how stained glass was made and the time and effort required to produce this stuff. More importantly, I got to tour his house and see the many different applications of stained glass. From kitchen cabinets and picture windows to door panels and sun catchers. This stuff was really nice.

I guess I got bitten by some kind of bug because I wanted some of this. I have a bookcase in my office with two glass doors and I wanted my logo for All Web Promotion added to one side and 68mr (a small eBay company I run) on the other. I opted for a combination etching and stained glass window and was really surprised. It looks great.

The company name and URL is etched in glass and the surrounding border is stained leaded glass with my company colors. The pictures above aren't the greatest to show the color, but it looks really nice. Now I need to get the other window done! Installation is a breeze because the stained glass window simply replaced the regular glass in the bookcase. In fact, Installation of these stained glass panels anywhere is easy. You don't need to replace the glass windows in doors or big picture windows. The stained glass simply is placed over the existing glass. This is nice because if you move, you can take your glass with you.

So if you are interested in something unique and different for your home or office, give Denise a call and see what she can whip up for you or take a look around their website located at LHA Elegant Glass. Everything is custom and designed to your exact specifications. Tell them Michael sent you!

LHA Elegant Glass

Repeat Orders; For Yahoo to mark an order as "Repeat" the order must contain the same Billing Name, Email Address, Address and Credit Card Number.

What is a repeat order and why is it important? I'm sure you've been checking the "Repeats" link under the "Statistics" heading in your store manager. Or I'm sure you've noticed the very bottom of your order after it's been printed reading, "Orders from same customer" followed by order numbers. These are past orders placed by the same customer. For Yahoo! to mark an order as "Repeat" the order must contain the same Billing Name, Email Address, Address and Credit Card Number.

Unfortunately, that's all the information Yahoo! gives you regarding repeat orders. It's difficult to determine lifetime value or re-order rate using default Yahoo! statistics.

Understanding your repeat customers is important so you can track the lifetime value of a customer and determine how much money you want to invest in each new customer. It's also important for re-orders. If you sell a consumable product, how long does it take to get a re-order? Or more importantly, Why aren't customers coming back (or are they)?

Your marketing department may want to send an email to customers who haven't re-ordered in a set amount of time or multiple other efforts to achieve a higher re-order rate. Everyone knows it's cheaper to retain a customer then it is to obtain a new one.

If anyone has a cool Yahoo! tool, trick or any information regarding how to track this stuff, please let me know. Thanks!