I have in the past used OsCommerce, which is a decent shopping cart, but lots of work to get set up and everything working just the way it should be. I decided to look at hosted shopping cart solutions.

One option that I really like upon initial inspection was ultracart.  It has quick set-up, good support, and excellent flexibility with products.  The demo looks very professional.

Another shopping cart that I have heard many good things is Magento.  And it has a hosted option that is an excellent value.  And the feature list seems to match that of ultracart.

The third option that I am examining is 1ShoppingCart.  I have used this in the past and I know that it is a very reliable product.  I originally used 1ShoppingCart for their autoresponder and simple payment ability for downloadable products.  After I saw it’s capabilities I used it for quite some time – until I had my own merchant account and at the time my payment processor could not connect to 1ShoppingCart – so at that time I went on to a different solution.

One of the key things I will be looking at with all three of these shopping carts is their affiliate management tool. How easy is it for affiliates to sell the products and get set up in the system.  This is important with this project, and I think something that every online merchant should consider. An excellent way to extend your reach beyond your own website, even if you only use it as a way to increase referrals with your existing clients.

Facebook has made ‘Send email notifications’ as the default setting for any new groups where you are added. This means that when any new group members join the group, new posts get put on the group wall or people comment on those posts – you get an email for everyone.

One neat feature about this is that if you want to join in the discussion or welcome a new member, you can simply reply to that email and it will be automatically posted in the group.

But if you belong to an active group you may not want to get all those emails. Here is how to change your Facebook Group Email Settings to your individual preference.

First click on the little down triangle in the upper right-hand corner and choose ‘Account Settings’.  You can do this from any place in Facebook. You do not have to be in your group at the time.

On the ‘General Account Settings’ page look in the left hand column for the menu.  In that menu you should see ‘Notifications’ – you can click on that.

From there you will enter the ‘Notifications Settings’ page.  You can scroll down past your recent notifications until you find the section titled ‘All Notifications’.

In this area you should see ‘Groups’ listed and over to the far right side of the page click on ‘Edit’.

Now a new section will open that allows you to set some overall group settings related to key group activities.  Adjusting these setting is up to your personal preference, but allowing notifications for these settings will not overload your email inbox unless you belong to a great many groups.

After you have set your General Group notification settings you should click on the link to ‘Change email settings for individual groups’.  A pop-up window opens that shows all the groups you belong to.

Here is where you can set whether you get all those emails for every activity that happens in the Facebook groups you belong to.

Simply check the boxes of the Facebook groups that you want to receive all the notifications from.  And un-check the boxes where you DO NOT want to receive any email notifications.

Now click ‘Save’ to your new notifications settings and you are done!

Hope that helps,  .Jack

P.S. One other tip – why not get a free email account from one of the many online services (Hotmail, Gmail, yahoo, etc) and use it for all your social media accounts.  Then it won’t plug up your main email account (and devices like your smart phone) with emails that you don’t need to deal with on a regular basis.

This goes back to how we were taught to read and write.  Jane and Mike had a ball. They bounced the ball. The ball was red. They were bouncing the ball and it hit a tree. – the whole story was about the ball.

Begin every new content creation project (new web page, description of your products, blog post, etc) by first determining what is the central idea. That is what is makes it the core of search engine optimization.

Then come up with the best terminology for that idea.  You need to use the same term (keyword / phrase) on a consistent basis throughout your article.

From there write your article using what ever style that works for you (create outline, free write, etc). But keep in mind your central idea that is your keyword.

When your finished your article – take read through to see if you stayed on topic.  Possibly look for unique ways to insert the keyword/phrase into the text of the article.  Often you can replace pronouns with the keyword/phrase. (It bounced over Mike’s head >> The Ball bounced over Mike’s head).

There is no definitive answer to how many times the keyword/phrase should be in your content.  More than once for sure, but do not make it hard to read.  Some have said 2-3%, but that can get heavy on an individual term.

Next step to let the search engines know that you are trying to get at the core of search engine optimization and want your article ranked for those keywords is to use that keyword/phrase in certain key places that will show up on the webpage.

Be sure that the keyword/phrase is used in the webpage title and url.

It should also be used in an H1 (Heading1) tag on a website or in the post title of your blog.

And it should be used in your meta description.

Other good ways to really get to the core of search engine optimization is to highlight the keyword/phrase in bold, use it in a H2 (Heading2) tag, and/or use it in the alt tag of an image.

Let me know what you think the core of search engine optimization is if you do not agree with my advice.

Therefore, Facebook has designed a process to show each user the optimum updates on their unique wall.  The process that regulates what you see on the wall is called EdgeRank.  EdgeRank rates each item (update, photo, comment, etc) and then shows each user the ones with the highest ranking.

Facebook has two settings that allow you to have some control of your wall.  You can choose to use time as the major factor to determine what shows up on your wall – by choosing recent stories first.  This does not mean that time is the only factor, it only means that time plays a more prominent role in the sorting of stores you see, and that all stories are sorted by when they were posted. Or you can choose to have the best (as determined by EdgeRank) stories show up, regardless of time, by choosing Highlighted stories first.

Regardless of whether users choose recent stories or highlighted stories – the items with the best EdgeRank will show up more consistently and more often on the wall of your fans and friends.

Therefore to get the your message out to your Facebook Fans and Friends, thus engaging those friends and fans – you need to increase the EdgeRank.