Justice Dept. Sues Apple and Publishers Over E-Book Pricing; 3 Publishers Settle

Overpaying for E-books? Well, the U.S. Justice Department has said enough. As Julie Bosman reports in the New York Times: “The Justice Department filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Apple and major book publishers on Wednesday, charging that the companies colluded to raise the price of E-books in 2010. Three publishers that were investigated — Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins — have agreed to a settlement, threatening to overturn a pricing model that allows publishers to set their own E-book prices, and dangling the possibility of lower E-books for consumers in the near future. Macmillan and Penguin Group USA, which were also named in the suit, did not settle.”
Say yea!! to lower prices.
Click U.S. Attorney General Holder’s photo for the full story.

Photo by Doug Mills for the New York Times
Posted in Online Retailing, Part 6: Merchandise Management and Pricing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Boost Your Sales with a Web Site Video

According to DemoClick: “Online video has revolutionized the way businesses use the Internet to advertise, educate, and inform their prospects, customers, and investors. Streaming video content has now become easier, more effective, and more affordable and is replacing the text and stagnant graphic design templates of yesterday.”
Click the image for the full PDF white paper.

Posted in Online Retailing, Part 8: Putting It All Together | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How to Find Your Authentic Voice on Social Media

As Ross McCammon says in Entepreneur magazine: “Social media are often so spontaneous that basic principles are necessary. And the most basic principle of all is: Write like you talk. Which is the best piece of advice any writer can ever get. ‘Write like you talk’ ultimately results in authenticity. What people–even people who are well aware that they’re being marketed to and that this isn’t entirely a ‘social’ situation–respond to is authenticity. When you write like you talk, you don’t do the following: respond to some jerk on Twitter with a canned response like ‘Thanks for the feedback!’; copy and paste a press release onto a LinkedIn discussion board; or post a PowerPoint to YouTube and call that ‘engaging your customers via social media.'”
Click the image for the full story. 
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