EvePearl.com has that interesting business combination of a products AND services shopping cart / ecommerce platform like WebCart© that could deliver a customized look and feel for each of her product sets. But at the same time she needed a content platform to offer up information related to her makeover services. Eve - otherwise known as the Makeup Artist to the Stars - was recommended by the visionary Eisenberg brothers at that newly public web conversion and analytics consulting company FutureNow. A good part about the project was that though it complex in scope, she basically knew what she wanted and that made the core of the project relatively simple. First, Eve wanted a new look and feel for her site. Second is she wanted to introduce a whole new level of functionality for her customers to offer them video casts, interviews, an updated high end photo gallery and lots of other web content she could not easily manage with her prior Content Management Solution (CMS) software. Besides adding in all this brand spanking new function set, she also wanted to be able to manage updating the content on her own. So the short story is that my angry web designer delivered a first draft in 9 days I think and at it's core, he made it happen. Just to give you an idea of the process. We reviewed over 500 web sites for keywords like cosmetics, beauty supplies, makeup, beautician and makeovers. We built a spreadsheet of best practices in terms of what links were common between most of the closely competitive sites. We looked for common icons that would give her new site the credibility the customers expected. And finally, we looked at color schemes to see what we could efficiently create without requiring customers to learn a whole new site comprehension. If you review the Case Studies section of my site, you should find a more comprehensive review of the steps we took to redesign her site and then integrate the old content into the new platform. I am very proud of this site because it took a lot of effort from all parties involved and everyone delivered a noteworthy effort. This does not always happen and that is why I am mentioning it now.

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If you have reached this page of your own volition, then indulge me a bit as I share with you an overview of projects I've been lucky enough to be involved with. They span a wide range of web services but if you have read my Internet Prosperity 4 Pillar Web Site Seduction report you will quickly see how each of these projects is really part of an integrated effort towards Internet Prosperity. The 4 Step web seduction is pretty simple actually in terms of its core. Where it gets complicated is in the execution. This is how it works.

1. You design a web site. Here you basically want to find the best practices in the arena in which you intend to compete and implement them into your design. As well, this includes color schemes and layout considerations that will be appreciated by your end users. And most importantly, good web copywriting. People read web sites differently than they read printed things like books, magazines and newspapers. You need to ensure that your web copy combined with nice use of imagery, "compels" the users to take the actions you desire.


2. You put your web site onto a web platform that is geared for maximum web efficiency. This involves a few items. First is an online content management system that enables you - the webmaster - to change the content on your site without having to hire advanced web engineers. The second and often overlooked item is the actual structure of the web pages in terms of how they are named (ie. URL's) and how the content is written on each page. If you want your pages to be picked up by the search engines then your pages need to be search engine friendly. The short story here is that simple .html pages are not the most efficient way to manage web site content.


3. Once you've got the site launched is when the real fun begins. The web as many before me have said, is not a field of dreams. Once you build a site and get it out there, you really need to "get it out there". We call this process a "traffic strategy". When you think of the word strategy it implies multiple steps - ie. a process. In the world of web parlance, a comprehensive traffic strategy encompasses search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click (PPC) traffic (ie. Adwords and Overture), affiliate program related visitors and any other type of advertising and/or word of mouth that drives visitors to your site.


4. The final step of web seduction is called "conversion analysis". Now that you've driven people to your site, you need to maximize your conversions (ie. the actions you want people to take on your site). To achieve maximum conversions you need to have analytics software running on your site and you need to study your web traffic at least once a week just to see what pages people are hitting, where they come from and what they do once they reach these pages. This is almost a full time job. Part of this process also includes analyzing your PPC campaigns to ensure you are paying the minimum amount you can pay while obtaining the maximum amount of traffic.

Ohh! That is a lot of web seduction in 4 paragraphs. So cutting it short, what you will find on this section of my site is a portfolio of web projects that fall into one of these 4 Pillars of Internet Prosperity. Have fun!

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So this is not necessarily a new web design project but I am posting about it now because it is in a similar industry to EvePearl.com and since I've gotten my feet pretty wet with cosmetics, it makes sense to put  up a little information about this site too. CMKCosmetics.com is an interesting situation because she sells cosmetics to everyone in one sense, because everyone has the potential to use her makeup products to look more beautiful. However, she also has an exciting niche market opportunity to sell cosmetics to a very particular type of customer. That niche is served by her brand of Shabbat Cosmetics. These are lipsticks and eyeshadows for example that are formulated in such a way that Rabbis approve of their use on the holy sabbath. Without getting into the details too much, not only did this site have the opportunity to showcase products for a definable audience, but it also had to take into consideration the social mores of that community. This meant that the photos used on the site had to be meet a certain level of acceptability for modesty. As well, the whole color scheme of the site had to be in a sense "sensible" and not too flashy. That is a tough bill to fill to sell "sex" but not look like it too much. Well maybe she wasn't trying to sell sex, but it's a pretty fine line between getting all dolled up looking good and crossing the threshold to a bedroom. Yet, that may be a male point of view. From the woman's perspective beauty and all the accoutrements used to enhance one's beauty, are not really about sex but about a self perception. In the fashion world, you are what you wear - and not necessarily for an ulterior motive. So the CMK  cosmeticsweb project was noteworthy more because of the limitations presented by the niche audience than because it gave me a chance to showcase some enhancements we had made to the WebCart Ecommerce platform. We are always adding new configuration options to WebCart so it is almost like commonplace - though some of the features you will see on CMK are quite nice. look at all the alternate images of the lipsticks to get an idea of what I mean.

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This page will contain Ecommerce strategies and analyses of shopping cart software platforms.

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