The United States is struggling to find an alternative fuel. It is in the best interest of the country to do so and to lead the world with a new approach, much as we have with other technologies. So why hasn’t the USA found an alternative to oil? The answer lies in the fact that there currently aren’t any viable alternative fuels, although many potential new fuels are being explored. A breakthrough is needed to overcome a number of issues. Read the rest of this entry »

Once you have a working Amazon store script, you must populate it with products. To do that, you need browse nodes. Browse nodes are Amazon’s category codes. There are browse nodes for parent categories, such as DVDs (130), Photo (502394), Kitchen (284507) and all of the major categories displayed on Amazon.com. There are also child-nodes representing all the subcategories within a parent node. Read the rest of this entry »

Almost every large, successful online merchant uses an affiliate marketing program to drive new business to their sites. Affiliate marketing allows web site owners to post links, logos, product images and banner ads on their web site with a link to a merchant’s site. Every time a user clicks on the link, visits the merchant’s site and buys something, the affiliate gets a commission on the sale. It’s a win-win-win scenario for all involved. The user finds what he or she is looking for, the affiliate gets a small reward for sending a customer to the merchant’s site and the merchant picks up new customers and business. Read the rest of this entry »

Pay-per-click advertising is becoming a necessary part of the Internet marketing mix for most companies when there is a need to drive immediate traffic to their Web sites. Google AdWords is the most popular pay-per-click program on the Internet. However, if you are not attracting a very select targeted group of users who are specifically looking for what you offer, the costs can quickly get out of control and may be prohibitive. Many Google AdWords users do not know that they can take steps to drive down the cost of an AdWords campaign by using an AdWords feature called negative keywords. Read the rest of this entry »

Google finally clarified a much debated issue about the use of images to draw attention to AdSense ads. AdSense is Google’s advertising program that allows web site owners to place ads on their sites. AdSense is a revenue sharing program where the web site owner receives a portion of the ad revenue whenever a user clicks on an ad. Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, I admit that I am addicted to my home theater. My wife and I both enjoy watching movies on Friday night and it has become a bit of a family tradition. I also think that exciting things are happening with the new high definition television (HDTV) products that are hitting the market. Prices have steadily dropped over the past few years and I think they will stabilize in 2007, so it is time to start to understand the new lingo that goes with new technology. Read the rest of this entry »

The United States and most of the Western world has a monkey on its back and that monkey’s name is oil. If we are to survive as free and prosperous nations, we must find a way to end our addiction to oil and shake that monkey loose. Read the rest of this entry »

Anyone who is interested in the newest high definition television technology is probably also looking at high definition DVDs. Two competing and incompatible technologies have once again emerged. It’s deja vu all over again as we are re-subjected to today’s equivalent of the Sony’s Betamax versus JVC’s VHS video format war of the early 1980s. You would think that Sony would have learned a lesson, but it looks like they are at it again. This time with rival Toshiba. Read the rest of this entry »

Kaizen is a a Japanese philosophy that means "continuous incremental improvement". Kaizen is commonly applied to the manufacturing process in Japan. It is also applied to everyday aspects of the workplace, where it is referred to as gemba kaizen. Gemba is a Japanese word for the workplace, and in particular, the workplace where products are developed. The kaizen approach can also be applied to web site development and Web site management. Read the rest of this entry »

Troubleshooting JavaScript errors can be difficult. Most errors are subtle and not very apparent. However, even the most subtle error can render the JavaScript code on a page inoperable. Fortunately, most browsers have built-in JavaScript troubleshooting tools that make the job much easier. Read the rest of this entry »