When I’m not criticizing the latest stupid idea (sigh, I need to be more positive), this is the kind of stuff I like to do at work–build landing pages for SEO and PPC reasons. Currently, these wonderful pages aren’t getting crawled well, so I’ll link to ‘em to give them some love, as well as demonstrate what my job is like to all those people who are always asking.

Play Kitchens

Stock Car Bed

Sand and Water Table

Children’s Wagons

Climbing Toys

This year, online shopping was huge. The most obvious advice for future online gift purchasers that became evident this last month is this: order early. eTailers (that’s e-retailers) everywhere have problems keeping a super-accurate inventory this time of year, and what is available in abundance today may be found to be in short or no supply tomorrow. Also, shipping companies are not perfect. Packages get lost or delayed every once in a while, especially around this time of year when temporary help may be employed.

The second big lesson is that eBay does not always mean cheapest. At Step2 we sell factory-direct from www.step2direct.com. This year we had a Free Shipping Special on our most popular kitchen, which sells for $199.99. eBay sellers have been peddling them for $220-230 each, ording from our website and having them shipped to their bidders. That’s 28 people who could be buying their children a play food set or a couple of Disney DVDs. Not only did it cost them more, but it is now looking as if the extra delay required to go through an eBay sale might mean some of them don’t receive their kitchen by Christmas.

The next time you buy something online, do your homework. Sometimes typing in www.(brandnamehere).com or checking with major retailers such as Target.com or JCPenney.com will land you a much sweeter deal than Mr. ISitAtHomeAllDay from eBay.

Wow, the Step2 Motorcycle has been selling like crazy today. It gets put on the MSN homepage as one of the “Top 20 Toys”, and we’re swamped with traffic. Behold, the power of massive exposure.

If you’re shopping for Christmas gifts for young people though, $25.98 includes shipping from www.step2.com.

When you type a phrase into Google, you might get a few relevant results. But it seems like you’re guaranteed to get a bunch of “junkmail” results–one from every shopping site in the known universe, (plus now it seems like the unknown universe is impingin upon my searches!) Why?

I just started working with Step2, (http://www.step2.com, or http://www.step2direct.com) and working in their internet marketing department has got me learning way more about the internet than I ever imagined existed. It seems that SEO, Search Engine Optimization, is a huge business now, and making your site show up at the top of a search list costs a lot of dough. You can see this as a good thing (finally, no more of those stupid geocities homepages that were made in an hour and still keep kicking five years after they’ve been abandoned.) Or you can see this as a bad thing (I don’t want to buy anything, I just want to learn!)

A seach usuall also gets you a bunch of sponsored links, which statistics tell us many people glaze right over. I, personally, didn’t even notice them the first time I searched for our company on Google. (Where’s the site? I’m not seeing any links!) Retailers pay big bucks for you to see their site first, and then your eyes just whizz past it, mostly due to the conditioning of seeing so many spammed ads over the past few years. (ie, you search for Hardwood Flooring and end up with a link for a T-Shirt customization place that boasts “Buy Hardwood Flooring T-Shirts Today!”)

Good grief, when will it end? Never, probably. Every time they find a way to filter out those jerks, the jerks find new ways to get back in. It just goes to show that the internet has spread lots of information, but also lots of pathetic punks who just want to make a quick buck, and will trash anything to get it. Thanks to Google though, sponsored links might finally settle down. You see, if you “spam” the internet by buying every single keyword, you get a lot of clicks that are people who aren’t looking for your stuff. Google tracks those false leads, and charges the sites that buy them more per click. Hmm… Google, please crank up the rates and put those jokers out of business. And please, find a way to do that with “organic” search results as well. For the rest of you out there, download the Google toolbar and start ranking pages as crud if they turn out to be so. Make the web a better place for all of us!

Praise the Lord, today is my last day managing a RadioShack in Akron, Ohio. It takes a certain type of person to do retail management, and I don’t think I’m that type of person. Monday I start working with the internet division of Step2. (http://www.step2.com) My title: “Interactive Marketing Specialist” Fancy, huh?

I’ve been struggling through a really sore throat today and finally decided to give in and see a doctor, because it might be strep. Being sick really stinks, it makes getting out of bed harder, makes enjoying your last day at work harder, and means you have to go waste 13 hours in the waiting room at your local clinic waiting for them to swab your throat and send you home.

No grand revelations from God this morning, but I didn’t really get to spend much time with him. My verse for the week: Psalm 8:3-5
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
(4) what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
(5) You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.