This magic button is almost always forgotten, but 90% of the time when you don’t see what you think you should be seeing on a webpage, the culprit is the same: cache.

Imagine: a few hours after discussing some edits to your site with your trusted designer. Your designer says he just updated the graphics or layout of your website and you’re excited to see it. You go to your favorite browser (which I hope is not IE), and type in your url. “Hm, that’s funny, I thought they said it was updated, do they think every day is April Fools or something?!” Then after an email and a phone call they confirm that they did update the page, you go back to it once again and still don’t see anything different! By this time you are wishing you could reach through the phone and smack somebody. You look on a different computer and see the update, and are beyond confused when you go to your computer and still don’t see the update.

Eventually, the designer tells you to try refreshing or clearing your cache. That sounds like a good plan, but what the heck is he talking about? Cache is one way smart guys have determined the internet can work better and faster. Essentially when your browser (for example Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer) views a webpage it copies it from the internet to your computer. Then if you view that page again your browser remembers that it’s seen it recently, so it displays your local copy rather than connect with the server and download a new copy every single time. Especially with linked images and files such as style sheets and scripts. This helps you see the internet and websites faster. This is a good thing except when you want to see the most updated version in your browser.

There are however a couple ways you may tell the browser to forget the cached version of the page and load it all fresh from the server. The standard shortcuts are (windows) ‘ctrl + F5′ and (mac) ‘cmd + R’. You can also go to your browser options and delete browser history, but that will clear all your cache and not just the page you are on. This is almost always the case when you’re not seeing what you should be seeing on a site. So next time it happens, take a moment and hit F5 to save a headache.

If you have a Facebook account, chances are you are a fan of something or someone. But, if you’re hesitant to join in the social media hoopla (don’t worry, I was too) here’s how fanpages work. When you set up a Facebook account for a company, you actually create a fanpage, where Facebookers from all over the world can become a fan of your company and suggest their friends become fans also. Any status updates from your company show up in the newsfeed of all your fans. You can use this to make fans aware of specials, introduce new products or use special Facebook fan only discount codes!

Many national companies have utilized fanpages, such as Macy’s, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. However, not everyone has an attractive fanpage. What makes these companies stand out from everyone else? These companies, and several others, have integrated a section, such as the company homepage, About Us or Contact Us pages right into Facebook. You can check ours out here!

Not only can you have your homepage be a part of your Facebook fanpage, but you can also have all of your fans and fans-to-be default to particular Facebook tabs. For example, many fans-to-be are directed to the homepage or About Us tab in the fanpage, while actual fans are directed to the fan comments tab or a tab introducing new products or specials.

So, how is it done? Facebook uses a special language, FBML (FaceBook Mark-up Language) to code the insertion of your website page. There is a special application in Facebook (FBML app) that translates the code of your website into FBML so your content can be viewed in Facebook. You can search Facebook for the application and follow directions or, if you are anything like me and this stuff is just way beyond your realm of geekiness, call us at Cornerstone and one of our gurus would be happy to help get you set up with an appointment for your very own Facebook Facelift! (no surgery required!)

Free shipping offers can cost your company a bundle, but they may produce ROI that makes them worth the expenditure. As you explore your options, you will probably be interested in a whitepaper from Experian CheetahMail that examines questions like these:

• Are more companies deploying free-shipping emails?
• Are free shipping emails as effective now as they were in the past?
• Which factors can positively or negatively affect a free-shipping promotion?

At the Hitwise blog, Bill Tancer provides a link to the free, downloadable whitepaper—and highlights its findings on heightened interest in free-shipping offers during the holiday season:

• People are beginning to search with the term “free shipping” earlier and earlier in the year. In 2007, the first holiday surge occurred early in November; in 2008, however, it happened in mid-October.
• The most-common searches include a brand name, the phrase “free shipping” and the words “code” or “codes.”
• “The actual peak for ‘free shipping’ searches each year is the first week of the New Year,” notes Tancer, “as online buyers look for post-holiday sale items.” In the first week of 2009, volume during this period increased 75 percent compared with the first week of 2008. “[G]iven CheetahMail’s data,” he continues, “[this] might indicate a gap between vendor offers and consumer interest.”

Our Po!nt: Before you implement a costly strategy like free shipping, be sure you’re timing your offers for optimum ROI.

Source: Hitwise. Click here for the full post.

Today many companies are using e-commerce to grow their brands online and impact the bottom line growth. The challenge is to make sure the customer understands what it is he is buying and to make sure it will solve the problem they have. Medalist offers a series of layer clothing that is designed for just about every climate and condition. Making sure you select the right clothes for you needs is easy now on Medalist’s new online store design.

From selecting the right category to the application it is now simple to be outfitted for your next adventure or situation.

Medalist Store Home Page

One real advantage in Medalist’s new store is that you are now able to see what climate conditions each of their products are best suited for to make sure you are ordering the right types of clothes for your adventure saving time and increasing value as well as satisfaction.

Medalsit Product Page

These are just some of the ways Cornerstone Media Group is leading the way in helping our clients by creating solutions that keep your company’s brand IN demand 24/7!

There are two primary tasks involved in building and opening a Web store: planning and implementation.

Planning
Having a successful Web store involves much more than just an “If you build it, they will come” mentality. You aren’t ready to get started until you’ve done a significant amount of planning.

Decide What to Sell
The products that you offer for sale are – of course – a critical factor in Continue Reading »