There are a great deal of opportunities when it comes to e-commerce. The level of opportunity depends on your geography and service. The key to success, with an e-commerce portal, is to stand out above your competitors. To do this, you need to first outline the personality (brand) of your company and form the culture around it. People want to do business with companies they know, like, and trust. You have to convey your passion and authority for your products or services in order to success in e-commerce. For example, I have a number of e-commerce shops that sell gift items. One of my most successful is centered around a specific dog breed. I not only have this breed as my dogs but I offer advice to my customers as well. My customers not only can tell that I stand by my products but that I "get" them and know first-hand what it's like living with this specific breed. If I didn't have that passion and personality, this specific shop would never have become successful. Need further help? Just schedule a call with me.

This really depends on your target audience but Zendesk allows for scalability that most startups need. You would need to gauge the level of knowledge needed for your agents - which is dependent on your startup industry. For example, if you are a company like AirBNB, you may not need an extensive knowledgebase for your outsourced agents because the website users are not going to ask specific programming questions. However, if you are a technology company, your agents may need backend white-papers to help customers solve functionality problems themselves.

This is definitely a tricky question as many platforms and services for SEO reporting are out of date and not current with the newest search engine algorithm changes. As there could be 100 or more algorithm changes on Google alone, each month, you need a solid platform that is reliable and timely. The two that I recommend you check out are Moz.com and Raven Tools. Moz is my preferred platform as the team is always on the cusp of breaking SEO news and changes. If I can further help you, give me a call.

This really depends on the type of e-commerce platform and the platform on which it is built. For my e-commerce clients, with less than 1,000 products, the best business plan reference book would be The Success Principles by Jack Canfield. However, you must first understand the triggers you would need to captivate and persuade your audience to purchase. For that, I would recommend Fascinate by Sally Hogshead. When you start to get into the larger e-commerce retail websites, you run into more dynamic data and database strategies to ensure that your website runs smoothly and can be indexed by the search engines properly. The book recommendation would depend on what platform your website is built. However, Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug would be a good starting point as the business plan would be contingent on the flow of the website and customer purchase power. If I can further help you in any way, contact me. I'm always here to help.

If the "experts" do not show their expertise through the success of their own online marketing campaigns, then they are not an expert. That does not mean that they do not know what they are talking about but, rather, that they don't make it a priority to implement their own techniques for their own business success. The best leaders in the field take the time to build their own brands - as well as the brands of their clients. If there is anything else I can do to help you, let's connect.