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Birds In Flight And The Power Of A Remote Working Team

Do you remember the first time you took note of a flock of birds slipstreaming? And someone explained the way they fly aerodynamically and take turns to head up the V-shape and be carried along by the strength of their fellows? Nature is smart. We can learn a lot from it.

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No one wants to end up in a job they dislike, but many do. No one wants to be an island either, as a little internal survey we did revealed. At WooThemes, we are determined to make sure everyone in our team is flourishing, growing and enjoying what they give themselves to each day. We recently asked what it was folks enjoyed most about working for Woo. Continue reading Birds In Flight And The Power Of A Remote Working Team

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Make More Money through Ecommerce Analytics with Segment

It’s a simple idea – understanding how people use your store and catering to them will boost sales. What percentage of people abandon their carts? How many folks leave during the checkout process? What are the most popular products that we should feature on the homepage?

Analytics tools like Google Analytics and KISSmetrics can help you answer all of these questions, and optimize your site to close more sales.

When you’re ready to get more visitors, email and advertising tools like Bronto and Facebook Audiences can help you send personalized communications, drive traffic, and analyze the effectiveness of your campaigns. Continue reading Make More Money through Ecommerce Analytics with Segment

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Lessons learnt planning a big product release

We recently released version 1.6 of Sensei (our learning management plugin), which proved to be the biggest, most feature-rich release since the plugin was launched almost 18 months ago.

While, overall, I consider the release to be successful, I also learnt a lot during this release cycle and there are certain things I would have done differently in hindsight.

I’d like to share some of those insights with you here.

Continue reading Lessons learnt planning a big product release

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Create a custom Canvas homepage using SiteOrigin Page Builder

Many of our themes include a “Business” or custom homepage template that allows you to create a traditionally laid out landing page giving visitors and overview of your business. This is a good starting point however sometimes you might want some more flexibility to create truly unique layouts. Continue reading Create a custom Canvas homepage using SiteOrigin Page Builder

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Case Study: O V E R Clothing

With close to 2,000 entries in our Golden Ticket competition, it wasn’t easy picking a winner. So many of the sites we reviewed blew us away and we were left greatly impressed with our community and how they’re using WooCommerce. If Golden Tickets grew on trees, we’d be handing one to each of you!

We narrowed the pool of 1,965 entries down to a short list of thirty two, took a vote and agreed that Sinisa from O V E R Clothing deserved the mighty Golden Ticket. World, meet our winner.

over-website-preview Continue reading Case Study: O V E R Clothing

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Is There Demand for Your Product?

So, you’ve got a great product or service that you’d like to launch online. But you’re hesitant.

Why? You’re hung up on the potential of whether there is enough demand or too much competition in your niche.

And rightfully so.

The last thing you want to do is invest your blood, sweat and tears into a business idea, only to find out it’s a dud later down the road. Before you jump into anything, it’s critical that you assess both the supply and demand for the niche that you are selling into first. You want to get a sense of the potential market – or lack thereof – for your idea before pouring all your time, effort and money on it.

Here are some ways to assess the strength of your business idea before you get started. Continue reading Is There Demand for Your Product?

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Why Your Ecommerce Site Needs a Sitemap (And How to Generate One)

Ecommerce Sitemap63% of ecommerce sites have a sitemap.

That might seem like a high percentage, but what bothers me is the 37% who are missing out.

Why? Because a sitemap is an integral component in your online store’s success. Thankfully, a missing sitemap is an easily remedied problem. Here’s everything you never knew you needed to know about sitemaps so you get familiar with the concept and implement one as soon as possible.  Continue reading Why Your Ecommerce Site Needs a Sitemap (And How to Generate One)

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Setting Up Local SEO for Your Online Store

Local SEO91% of American adults own a cell phone.

Of them, 63% are connected to the Internet. And of them, 46% use theirs to search for local products and services.

That, right there, is why local SEO is important.

Although it won’t get your site in front of as many eyeballs, local SEO makes up for it by fixing many of the global variety’s drawbacks.

The competition is nowhere near as fierce – it’s easier to land your widget store on the top page of search results when you’re only up against the other five in your hometown. And, the resulting traffic will be of more use to you – especially if you sell at a brick and mortar location as well as online.

And now that Google’s giving more real estate to local results, e-commerce is quickly beginning to see the benefits in thinking smaller. So if you want to bring in more traffic from your own backyard, these 5 steps will set you well on your way. Continue reading Setting Up Local SEO for Your Online Store

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How to Get More Reviews for Your Online Business – The Legit Way

Nine out of ten buying decisions are influenced by online reviews.

That alone should convince you they’re important. But, if you need another statistic, half of your customers trust reviews more than the opinions of their own friends and family  especially when it comes to major purchases like cars, computers and travel accommodations.

Reviews are also crucial for local SEO, making up a tenth of your ranking factors. When people Google your company, many of the first-page results will be from review sites. So it’s crucial that there’s something on them.

However, as we’ve mentioned in a previous article, trying to buy them will almost always work against you. Various sites have started to come down on people who’ve been caught messing with their reviews, and you definitely don’t want to end up wasting your money on something that’ll just get you banned. Most fake reviewers are pretty inept at hiding it, anyway. We wish we had a dime for every Amazon review that sounds like it was written by a grinning telemarketer.

So, how do you get genuine reviews? Well, if you have a customer base established, you can… Continue reading How to Get More Reviews for Your Online Business – The Legit Way

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WooCommerce Growth Revisited: Four Million and Counting

It’s that time again, WooCommerce milestone time, WooHoo!  I’m not sure if it’s just me but these milestones are coming around way too quickly. Once upon a time in January 2013, before the bulk of our team began their Woo journeys’, (including myself) a huge party was thrown for 500,000 WooCommerce downloads, after all it took us 16 months to get there. All was well in the WooNiverse! A month into my personal journey at Woo and sure enough we hit the all important seven digit mark,with  one million downloads in June of last year. It took  just under five months following 500K. Are you tracking with me? 16 months from 0 to 500K, 5 months from 500K to 1 Mil, crazy right?

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Continue reading WooCommerce Growth Revisited: Four Million and Counting

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did_action( ‘wordpress-charity-hackathon’ );

It’s amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it. It’s even more amazing what a group of nearly 50 dedicated, talented and passionate WordPress users can do when they get together to build 9 brand new websites for 9 different charities in 1 day.

The UPliftment ProgrammeThis past Saturday we played host to Cape Town’s (and the world’s) first do_action( ‘wordpress-charity-hackathon’ );. The event was conceived and organised by members of the WooTeam and the individuals working on the sites were all willing volunteers from within the local WordPress community. The charities were all present on the day and worked with their teams to make sure the sites turned out just the way they needed. Continue reading did_action( ‘wordpress-charity-hackathon’ );