Back in February, we mentioned the possible Yahoo/Microsoft merger and the effects it might have on small business owners (see: “Is the Potential Microsoft/Yahoo Marriage on Your Small Business Owner Radar?“). The offer is back on the radar, but this time with a different proposition.

Microsoft said Sunday that it was no longer seeking to acquire Yahoo!, which may mean a partnership is in the works instead.

The statement on Microsoft’s site is as follows, “Microsoft is not proposing to make a new bid to acquire all of Yahoo! at this time, but reserves the right to reconsider that alternative depending on future developments and discussions that may take place with Yahoo! or discussions with shareholders of Yahoo! or Microsoft or with other third parties.”

Yahoo’s annual meeting with shareholders is set for July 3rd, which means more information on this possible partnership may be revealed at that time.

A Search Engine Rankings report released by comScore, Inc. on March 19, 2008 shows where major Search Engines stand in regards to their percentage of power in the online market at this time:

February 2008 U.S. Core Search Rankings
In February, Google Sites extended its share of core searches to 59.2 percent, up from 58.5 percent the previous month. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 21.6 percent, followed by Microsoft Sites (9.6 percent), AOL LLC (4.9 percent), and Ask Network (4.6 percent).

February U.S. Expanded Search Rankings
In the February 2008 analysis of the Top 50 properties worldwide where search activity is observed, Google Sites led with 7.4 billion searches. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 2.3 billion searches, followed by Microsoft Sites (984 million), and AOL LLC (864 million).”

Regardless of the possible merger, facts show that it would still be highly likely for Google to dominate the market in online searchers and advertising revenue. The merger may, however, be good news for online advertisers. A combined effort between Yahoo! and MSN could help to improve the ease and functionality of their search marketing tools, which remain sub par to Google’s at this time as well.

Learn More:
“Microsoft Approaches Yahoo Again, This Time As a Partner“- Wired.com
Microsoft-Yahoo Partnership Wouldn’t Dethrone Google- USAToday.com
comScore Releases February 2008 U.S. Search Engine Rankings- Comscore.com

-Stacie Leonard, Ecommerce Marketing/Copywriting

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Honor Memorial Day and promote special savings with new Memorial Day and Tax Refund homepage graphics, created just for you by our design team. Show site visitors your support for May 26th and offer sales for those itching to spend their tax refunds.

To save a graphic for uploading, right click on the image and hit Save Image As.

Uploading your Memorial Day/Tax Refund Graphic
From the admin area of your site, click on the Settings Wizard button, located to the left of the Instant Help button. Then under the Design Wizard section, click on Your Content. Under the Home Page Article section, you can now upload your previously saved image so that it is displayed on the homepage of your site.

These copyrighted graphics are intended for the sole use of Volusion clients only. Use of these graphics by other sites or competitors is strictly prohibited and can result in legal action against the offending parties.

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Kyle Hungate at Hungate Business Services decided it was time to stop relying on the phone and purchase orders and time to bring his business online.Initially, Kyle just wanted to use the internet to take orders. He had no intention of pushing his business online. “Going online for us was more to capture receivables from our existing client base faster using Volusion’s shopping cart software in conjunction with accepting credit cards. When customers ordered supplies from us before using traditional methods i.e. check, it wasn’t uncommon for us to wait over 45 days to get paid. We chose

Volusion over other shopping carts on the market because of the simplicity to setup the store—none of our staff had any real web experience. We evaluated other carts but without question Volusion was the easiest to evaluate and the step by step ‘how to’ movies were invaluable,” said Kyle.

Kyle got some unexpected results from using Volusion to open his online store. “We never planned really to sell beyond our client base initially! We thought we would just tell our clients about the site and try to solve our problem with account receivables–we estimate that 60% of our sales so far have been clients outside our normal customer base.”

Kyle turned to Volusion’s design team to make his site, www.hbsx.com, look professional. “Communication and the experience with the design services was top notch, Yuri did a wonderful job. I sketched out what I thought would be a good storefront and he expanded it to make it functional and very appealing to the visitor,” said Kyle.

Hungate Business Services has big plans for the online space. “Our plans going forward are to grow and expand our online offerings to our clients as much as we can. We have seen the power of the online business and it’s definitely more of a focal point for us now. We hope in the very near future we can dedicate a team to serve our online community just as we have for our brick and mortar operations.”

Michelle Greer, Marketing Specialist
http:/www.volusion.com

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Volusion customer MAKE Magazine is holding Maker Faire this weekend, May 2nd and 3rd at the San Mateo playgrounds.

What is Maker Faire?

Maker Faire is a two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset. It’s for creative, resourceful people of all ages and backgrounds who like to tinker and love to make things.

Check out what Engadget and CNet have to say about Maker Faire.

If you’d love to see what the Makers make this time, you can order tickets directly from their store.

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Corey Anderson started his first commercial janitorial business in 1993, and relied heavily on feather dusters as a “staple” in the industry. Over the years he struggled to find quality feather dusters, and when he did, they were extremely overpriced. As Corey’s business grew, he developed a supply division for his corporation (Alta Supply, Inc.), and sold these janitorial supplies nationally to cleaning companies. The product line

focused on hard-to-find supplies that janitorial companies used in their everyday operations. FeatherDusterDepot.com later became its own division as the demand for feather dusters was far greater than any other products that were sold.

Corey chose Volusion as his first choice for an ecommerce provider. He had no problem getting familiar with Volusion’s tools. “I don’t know any HTML, or coding whatsoever. The store was a breeze to set up. The tutorials were great, and it was fun to have a human going through the examples. His typos and corrections on the tutorials were humorous, and brought a certain ‘real-ness’ to the experience. We have received great feedback from customers stating how nice our site looks. Little do they know I had little to do with it–it is all Volusion. How wonderful it is to be up and successfully running from day one.”

Corey sells business to business as well as business to consumer. “For business to business clients, we rely on the coupon code and bulk discount scheduling for this. These two features are critical.”

Things are looking up for featherdusterdepot.com. What are Corey’s plans for his store? “Three things. 1)Grow 2)Grow 3)Grow. We have enjoyed being profitable from day one with Volusion, and we intend to grow by leaps and bounds. With continual SEO tuning, and other marketing strategies, we hope to be in the number one search position for our product–Feather Dusters.”

Michelle Greer, Marketing Specialist
http://www.volusion.com

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