"Fill In The Blank"

We've been plannin' this weekend for a week and a half
Hope you ain't thinkin' that we're movin' too fast
This trip can be whatever you want it to
I'll pick where we go and you can pick what we do
We could
In the water, in the truck
On a blanket 'til the sun comes up
With each other on the river bank
Yeah I'll leave it up to you, baby fill in the blank
I know a little spot thirty miles outta town
We can do what we want, won't be nobody around
I love hanging with your friends and your family too
But there's some things that only two people should do
We could
In the water, in the truck
On a blanket 'til the sun comes up
With each other on the river bank
Yeah I'll leave it up to you, baby fill in the blank
We could
In the water, in the truck
On a blanket 'til the sun comes up
With each other on the river bank
Yeah I'll leave it up to you, baby
We could
To some music real slow
'Til we can't no more
If the clouds roll in we could, in the rain
Yeah I'll leave it up to you, baby fill in the blank
Yeah the options are endless, baby fill in the blank
Oh Yeah

Thanks for taking a look at Starting a Yahoo! Business For Beginner. When the folks from Wiley Press approached me about writing this blog, I think I may have come off as more than just a little cocky. I boldly asserted, “I am the guy to write this blog.” Why? I’ve lived Yahoo! Store since April 1997. I’m not saying I know more about Yahoo! Store than anyone else, but I do have as broad an experience with the platform as anyone I’ve ever met.

Around these parts, our Yahoo! Stores make the mortgage payments and then some, so we pay pretty close attention to what increases sales. Working with 300-plus retailers has opened my eyes to the myriad ways we all sell online using the same exact platform. I learn something new from every retailer I work with.

Also, I think I’ve worn almost every hat you can wear in the Yahoo! Store universe as both a retailer and an online store developer and marketer. I’ve been a new store owner, neophyte online store builder, entry-level HTML coder, graphic designer, product photographer, box packer, telephone order taker, shipping manager, e-mail marketer, customer service phone rep, RTML hacker, search engine optimizer, and sales copywriter.

I’ve also tried tons of different ways to sell online. Some have worked. Others haven’t. Look, I’m not embarrassed to say I’ve made lots and lots of mistakes trying to stay on top of Internet marketing. Learn from them! If I’m still doing something today, it’s because it works! I’ve had some home runs with sites that have made some of my clients rich (and me fat and happy), generating millions and millions of dollars in sales.

After nine years, I’ve found that it just takes a good idea, a little bit of luck, and lots and lots of good ol’ hard work to be successful online. The better your idea and the better your luck, the more successful you’ll be, but it really just comes down to who wants it bad enough. Opportunity shows up in work clothes. In this blog, I give you the tools and show you the path that worked for me, but you have to do the heavy lifting.

This blog is filled with more than nine years of proven Internet marketing strategies and tactics sprinkled with online success stories and hard-learned lessons from Yahoo! Store owners who have successfully competed with the big online players. This blog is paying a debt to all the retailers and other folks who shared information that helped me stay alive long enough to figure out what I was doing. I expect you to pass this knowledge on to future retailers.

This blog is what I wish I knew in April 1997. Anybody got a time machine? In this blog, you find answers to questions about:

• Creating an online store that sells
• Driving more traffic that converts into sales
• Profiting from keywords
• Processing credit cards online and offline
• Finding out what’s really selling online
• Maximizing sales on an existing store