Ecommerce, by T0PS30

Johan Terpstra, known to many as T0PS3O, moderator at Digital Point, is the Head of IT for JustBuyOnline Ltd, a UK based professional e-commerce business.

Below are his answers to questions we put to him on June 11th, 2005.


Johan, could you please give us a brief history of your ecommerce site, www.justbuyonline.co.uk
The Just Buy Online site is our company's corporate site. It links through to our current online shops. We've been involved in e-commerce for about 20 months now and it's time the corparate site gets an update to reflect the current status of the company.


JustBuyOnline.co.uk acts as a portal to 4 other sites, www.buy-a-mattress.co.uk, www.justnaturalstuff.co.uk, www.actiongear.co.uk and www.theaquariumshop.co.uk. Does this mean you only actively promote the one site?
(Now 5 actually, just launched a new shop!)

No, not at all. We have approximately 1400 products for sale right now across the 5 shops and we promote pretty much each and every page. Both in terms of SEO as well as SEM.

The corporate, non-ecommerce enabled site is actually the only that isn't heavily promoted (yet) apart from a few ranking experiments such as KW misspellings.


You fulfill some orders yourselves, but the bulk of them are handled by utilising dropshipping. What are the key advantages and disadvantages of using this system?
That's correct. Key advantage is we don't have to stock the (bulky) items. The importer/supplier already has good warehouse facilities so why should we move the stock and store it ourselves if we don't have to? It also means 'we' can have more stock so actually at any point in time, virtually our entire range is in stock.

Disadvantages are few. Generally, buying stock yourself is cheaper per unit than dropshipping individual items, though we skip on the cost of warehousing so it probably cancels each other out.


As head of IT, what is your main (online) method of promoting your business?
We get the majority of our traffic from search engines. SEO is our main way of getting quality traffic at low cost. Partly thanks to DigitalPoint we enjoy excellent rankings.

Besides SEO we spend enough of AdWords to get the Christmas present sent DHL straight from California. We also run PPC campaigns through Overture.

We're also present on the free shopping comparison engines like Froogle.

Since almost all online sales start with a search, search engine traffic will remain our focus.

We have done TV shows and radio interviews as well and are always interested in other efficient means of marketing. Online advertising remains my personal favourite though due to its instant nature and trackability of ROI.


In a time of stagnation in the UK retail market, how do you view the future of your ecommerce sites?
High street retail may be slow right now but e-tailing is growing steadily and the peak isn't even in sight yet. In April, conventional retailing fell 1.3% year-on-year whilst online sales soared with 30% growth acceleration. Online sales is now 7% of total retail sales and I am convinced this will grow considerably especially over the next 2 years. We're getting to the stage where 100% of the nation can get affordable broadband so even more people will start buying from feature rich online catalogues.

So based on these industry facts, I am sure there's no reason to take things slowly.



When running an online business, such as yours, what are the main hurdles to growth?
Staffing is relatively expensive here in the UK / London area so that's a bit of a cash flow balance. Ideally you'll want to earn first, then spend it. That can be tricky and slow things down at times. Technically there are no limitations as far as I'm aware. There are limits to how much traffic you can possibly get for certain niches so to breach such a traffic plateau we might have to look into alternative traffic sources.


In any type of market there is nearly always competition. As the company's SEO and Marketing expert, how do you ensure that you rise above your competitors?
By understanding what is required to rank well. For TheAquariumShop.co.uk for instance, because of our efforts and the fact it's a nice, themed niche, we can brag about owning over 120 top 10 rankings on Google UK of which over 40 #1's. How I got them, I'll leave as a question for you and my competition.



For the type of business you run, what area of SEO do you consider to be the most important to get right?
There are tons of these spammy 'lets-list-search-results' type of sites out there or review sites etc. that we have to compete with in the rankings. So one of my areas of focus is to make sure we create the impression we actually sell the item they are looking for. In terms of SEO this means the correct use of titles and meta description, because the snippets that show in the SE's are really important to get the attention of those looking to buy.



In your opinion, what are the key attributes required to gain success in ecommerce?
First you need something to sell. A product that isn't already slashed to death. Then you need a functional website that can be easily found. The buying process should be effortless. Pre/After sales enquiries and customer services should not be thought of lightly. It's annoying having millions of people selling on eBay for peanuts, but at least we can outperform bedroom auctioneers with quality assistance.

A mix of those and some secret ingredient should get you going.



Finally, many of the products you sell are available offline, ie fish tanks from www.theaquariumshop.co.uk . Why should a potential customer choose to buy such an item online from your company instead?
Because we deliver them. We often tell them we're sorry they can't come and look at them but refer the customer to a local stockist, even whilst we know it's basically a competitor. Not many people have a car that suits picking up a 5 foot fish tank for instance so they go ask the question in their LFS (local fish store) then go home and order from us. They get to choose a day that suits them and we deliver the aquarium on a pallet right to their door. It works out fantastic and our customers love that service.

A lot of aquarists also own multiple tanks and most of the brands we do are well known so there's little for them to find out about. They know what to expect when ordering their second tanks. We deliver from Penzance to Inverness as fast as next working day and I can assure you we're the only ones right now that can offer that.


See just what Johan has achieved by visiting JustBuyOnline now.

yfs1 : uncovered

yfs1 is an experienced webmaster and prolific forum poster who has recently started a new article submission site, ArticleDepot. Within just a few weeks he is receiving hundreds of new articles and also many hundreds of visitors each day.

Below are his answers to questions we put to him on June 3rd, 2005.

What is the philosophy of your organisation?
The main goal for Article Depot is to provide a two-pronged resource for webmasters. The first is a place where they can distribute their articles and gain the SEO benefit of the links contained within. The second is to provide them with related and useful content to supplement their site and gain greater exposure. We combine these two things with a "Keep It Simple" philosophy. There are no confusing signups or new code to learn. Most article submissions take less than 20 seconds from start to finish.

What are the organisation's plans and goals?
Our goal is to become a leading article distribution site by constantly adding new features that benefit the people that make Article Depot what it is, the webmasters.

What do you consider to your site's strengths and weaknesses?
Our strength is our ability to adapt. We always have features in development. Our biggest one right now is to have an RSS feed which webmasters can put on their site and display articles in their chosen category as they are submitted. This would mean they could have fresh content and wouldn't even have to come to the site. Our weakness may be our passion for this type of site. We are always trying to see things through webmasters eyes which can be difficult when you have the level of involvement with a site that we do.

What made you decide to run an article site?
I am a webmaster myself and I saw a need for a certain kind of article site. I struggled to find it so at first decided to build one to meet my own needs. It has now taken off with over 2,000 submissions every two weeks and unique visitors increasing 10% a day. I believe in it and feel it's the future of SEO. Content will always be important and can often help protect you from Algo shifts.

As the owner of ArticleDepot, what do you find to be some of your biggest challenges?
By far the biggest challenge we face is SPAM. With any distribution site, most times you are judged on the value of your site by the quality of the articles. This is why each article is viewed by a human reviewer before being added. This ensures the quality of our database and ensures you are getting the quality you expect when you come to Article Depot.

Do you think that content is still king?
I still believe in Content as King in an overall sense. Most SEO's these days have taken to the phrase “Links are King, Content Is Queen” but I would disagree. I don't disagree for a moment that links are essential and important, especially with Google. What I would argue is that if content is used correctly it can excel in places links can't. The sandbox is a prime example. No matter how many links you manage to get, it is unlikely you will be able to escape the sandbox. However, by using content during this time, you can actually rank for 1000's of less competitive keywords that aren't held by the sandbox. Many times those 1000's together bring in significantly more traffic than the one competitive keyword.

How do you ensure that the quality of your content remains high?
The only way possible which is human intervention. Each article is read and reviewed to be sure it has the quality we expect at Article Depot. Most webmasters have a lot of pride for what is being distributed in their name so for the most part the majority of articles are approved within two hours.

Of all the articles that have been submitted to ArticleDepot, which one sticks out as your favourite?
In general some of my favourite articles are those where people show a passion. Recently we had an article where someone basically meant to vent out their frustration with returning something in a store. What followed was one of the funniest and well written pieces I have seen in a long time. If that person applied that passion to all of their writing, they would probably be quite successful.

What are your tips for writing a good article?
Write on what you know or have a passion for. This comes out in the article and gives it a quality you just can't fake. An authoritative article is better than a rehash every time.

Are backlinks from your site SEO friendly?
Absolutely. This was a major issue I saw with other articles sites. Most of them either limit the location of the links to areas that do not make sense or pass them through their own site in an effort to stop any benefit going to the webmaster. This goes against the ideals of a world wide web and at Article Depot we are very sensitive about the importance of links from both a SEO perspective and a visitor one.

Why should someone submit their article to your site first?
They should submit an article to us first because of the quickness in which our articles are spidered (Currently between 2-5 days), the SEO friendliness of our outbound links which are all static, and the fact that we have more and more webmasters coming to Article Depot to get content for their sites.

Most people submit articles to gain links to their sites. What, if any, other benefits do you see from posting articles to your site?
Its also about exposure. Many times in peoples' rush to just get links they forget about the benefit of having control over the content that surrounds those links. Most of our submitters see a signifigant rise in conversions (whether that's a sale or a signup) because people are more likely to click on a link when it is surrounded by content they are interested in. Footer links will never go away but the real power has always been in above the fold natural links.


Why not submit your article to ArticleDepot today.

Webmaster Interview : Thomas Jenkins

Thomas Jenkins is an upcoming article writer who recently decided to run his own article submission site, www.WebDesignArticles.info

Below are excerpts from an interview he kindly gave us about his site, which he began at the beginning of March, 2005

Are backlinks from your site SEO friendly?
Indeed, we also try to use key words as the anchor text for links to author's site, our research shows this helps with ranking.

What is the philosophy of your organisation?
We endeavour to provide a comprehensive resource for webmasters, supplying them with up to the minute articles and resources.

What do you consider to be your site's strengths and weaknesses?
A strength of our site is that it has articles on a range of topics, from a number of experts. Also, everything on our site is free. The weakness is that authors have to submit their site via email, this is a weakness we will be fixing soon, along with a new, sleeker look and many more tools and articles.

What are the organisation's plans and goals?
Our plan is to update the site design, making it easier to use and more organised structurally. Our goal is to become the number 1 web article site. The place authors go to first to submit their articles and the place where readers go first for web research.

What are some of the challenges you face as a site owner?
We face the same challenges as other article sites, there is a lot of competition out there. However, I see this as a good thing, it drives us to ensure our site remains top quality. We don't want to be left behind, we want to lead the field. A challenge a little more specific to webdesignarticles.info is the extension '.info', users aren't as familiar with this as some of the others like .com and .co.uk - we hope this is something we can overcome, as our site is an info site, so it is logical.

Is content still king?
Absolutely, but it increasingly has to share its thrown with things like quality links and keyword density. However, in my opinion, there is no point having a site that ranks high if the content is useless. People will simply click that little X at the top right of their screen.

How do you ensure that the quality of your content remains high?
This is one of our top priorities, quality content is what drives our website. That is why I personally approve every article submitted to us before adding it to the site.

What is your favourite web article to date?
Haha, this is going to sound far to immodest, but its the truth. My favourite articles are 'The @kins Diet' and 'Google: Internet Democracy?' Both by me. I am just really proud of how they turned out and how readers responded to them.

What are your tips for writing a good article?
You should write about something you know inside out but in a way you possibly have not explored before. Try to be unique but do NOT go against conventional wisdom just for the sake of it, try and back things up with research.

What are your best 3 tips for gaining inbound links?
Number 1 has to be create a quality website that people want to link to. Other than that you should write articles and submit to article sites. Also submit to directories.

Why should someone submit their article to your site first?
If they submit to our site first, their article will get plenty of exposure, as we feature new and quality articles. Furthermore, as we have some quite well know authors writing for us, outsider article site content developers use our site to draw content from.

Why do you run an article site?
I write articles myself and decided that the logical step was to set an article site. I love running my article site because of the feedback and encouragement i get from our readers. Most people submit articles to gain links to their sites.

What other benefits, if any, do you see from posting articles to your site?
The reason i started writing articles was to give something back to the online community. When i was starting out I learned a lot from online articles written by experts - I wanted to help others with the knowledge i had gained. On a less altruistic note, writing articles gives you credibility, it shows that you know what you are doing, it helps show people that you are an expert in your field. I have people that have contacted me, specifically requesting my content development services because they liked the articles i write.

Upcoming interviews :

1. yfs1, article and directory site owner, popular poster on forums.digitalpoint.com
2. Googlest.com, recently featured on TV