In case you needed further incentive to create a Facebook presence – outside of their 800 million active users – the social network has announced that starting in January, 2012, they will be offering free ads to small businesses. Teaming with the National Federation of Independent Business and the US Chamber of Commerce, Facebook will offer up to $10 million of free advertising to 200,000 small businesses – or $50 each.

Part of the program will be teaching small businesses how to leverage Facebook for eCommerce. Users will be able to learn how to build a Facebook page and how to create a paid ad campaign. These campaigns can include display ads and “Sponsored Stories”. This is Facebook’s program that allows, say, a skate shop in San Diego to highlight videos posted by one of its customers using their product. These lessons will be offered through a series of webinars and live on Facebook’s cross-country road show that they’re organizing with the help of states’ Chambers of Commerce. Details on Facebook Tour ’12 will be announced down the road.

The eCommerce possibilities of the social networking site are pretty impressive. It’s a marketing tool that can show off your videos or feature your special offers and discounts. It can also serve for real transactions: hotels, restaurants and basically any service company can take reservations. And for customer service – both showing customers love and showing attentiveness to their complaints — Facebook is truly great.

You can get some ideas from small businesses that are maximizing Facebook at the Social Media Examiner 2011 Small Business Facebook Pages Awards.

This is practically a risk-free opportunity for jumping into eCommerce. When it costs nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose!

Like.

Skybox Creative is a San Diego based Brand Consultancy with an emphasis on Web Design and SEO. Get in touch for a free quote on your next design project or search engine marketing campaign! info@skyboxcreative.com or call us at 619.381.3825

Amazon.com Amazon Associates provides an opportunity for people to make money by referring qualifying traffic to the Amazon.com website. Associates drive internet traffic to Amazon.com through specially formatted links that allow them to track sales and other activity. Monthly payments are made to Associates. Once you join the program, they will give you access to Associates Central, an extranet exclusive to our Associates. This is the place where you will build your links, view your traffic and earnings reports, and read about the latest news and opportunities available to you through the program.

Current participants in the Amazon Associates program include large, well-known sites, niche content sites and blogs, comparison shopping engines, search engine marketers, and everything in between.

An Amazon Associate can earn anywhere for 4% to 8.5% depending on sales volume. They have even teamed up with endless.com (a shoe, handbag and accessory retailer) to offer up to a 15% commission on qualifying traffic leads.

It only takes about 5 minutes to set up an account and your ready to integrate one of the easy-to-install options on your website. You can build Affiliate links to Amazon through a variety of banners, widgets or even your very own aStore. The aStore eCommerce option offers the opportunity to create a dedicated shopping area (with shopping cart) on your website in minutes.

Below is an example of the Carousel Widget you can easily integrate into your site.

For a list of all available Amazon.com widgets, click here. But before you go, be sure to purchase one of our recommended items above

We’ve once again been inspired here at Skybox Creative by the power of WordPress. Sure, it’s a great blog tool and publishing platform, but can also be converted in a fully functional eCommerce website. We have just launched one very user-friendly eCommerce website for SKIN1 by Dr. Gram.

Launched today, SKIN1′s eStore offers customers the ability to select products and shipping options, checkout, and then securely complete the transaction using PayPal. This eases the workload and financial burden for the client by eliminating the need for a merchant account, payment gateway and SSL certificate. Simply sign up for a PayPal business account and start accepting payments the same day. The payment processing page is customized with your business name so customers feel safe and secure through the entire process.

Check it out! http://www.drgram.com/estore

On the front end of the site, you can add and remove items from the shopping cart with all the functionality of a custom-built eCommerce. On the back end of the site, the client has the ability to track inventory and sales, as well as the potential to upload new products and descriptions.

This new way of creating eCommerce for sales driven sites benefits both the retailer and the customer, making it all a little easier for us (in this case, to achieve healthier skin).