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Most merchants are always on the look for a new and worthy shopping cart software to meet their customers’ needs. OpenCart is getting more popular and has become the light at the end of the tunnel for most webpreneurs. However, we might ask what exactly is OpenCart and how will it help your online business?

OpenCart is an open source PHP-based online shopping cart system. This robust e-commerce solution makes it easy for webpreneurs to create their own online businesses and participate in e-commerce at a low cost. It is designed feature rich, easy to use, search engine friendly and with a visually appealing interface. Your website would work just like the ones that are created for big companies. With a completely interactive website of your own, you go head-to-head with the competition. OpenCart is feature rich and simple to use so you can get started right away for a minimal cost.

OpenCart comes with a vast set of features out of the box that are perfect for a small to medium sized business. These features include: , Unlimited Categories, Unlimited Products, Unlimited Manufacturers, Open Source, Documentation, Templatable, Multi-Language, Multi-Currency, Product Reviews, Product Ratings, Downloadable Products, Automatic Image Resizing, Multiple Tax Rates, Related Products, Unlimited Information Pages, Shipping Weight Calculation, Discount Coupon System, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Module System, Backup & Restore Tools, Printable Invoices, Sales Reports.

Opencarts accepts multiple payment gateways. It is easier for customers to pay and simpler for you to collect. These payment gateways includes: OpenCart accepts multiple payment gateways including 2Checkout, LiqPay, AsiaPay, Authorise Net, Moneybookers, Mal’s E-Commerce, CCAvenue, PayJunction, Cash On Delivery (COD), PSIGate, BluePay, NOCHEX, SagePay, HSBC WorldPay, CCNow, PayMate, ChronoPay Cheques, Money Order, PayPal, PayPoint, eWay, eGold, Verisign and LinkPoint.

You will have no problem in dealing International customers. OpenCart also supports an array of available languages. Languages supported by OpenCart include English (default), French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Hungarian, Indonesian, Farsi, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Turkish and Polish.

The cart is a lot easier to program with, and in effect will be easier to make changes to and provide extra functionality required by clients. Open Cart is perfect for small to medium sized online retailers like myself, it’s robust, flexible, well designed and best of all it’s free. Opencart is a very useful tool in your quest to make money online.

Many refer social media as another tool to pump their marketing messages into especially companies which have found that success in traditional marketing outlets like PPC, SEO, email marketing, TV, radio, or print have slowed down. And so comes SMO or Social Media Optimization. SMO is a way of enforcing changes to optimize a site through Social Media or online communities. Furthermore, it is the next level in viral marketing where word of mouth is produced and passed through the use of networking in social bookmarking, video and photo sharing websites like, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, Reditt, Flicker etc., The method of SMO includes adding up RSS feeds, social bookmarking buttons, blogging, and anything that can allow you to communicate. Examples of these are adding photos, videos and blogs. The main focus of Social Media Optimization is to boost or motivate traffic to your site from other sources other than search engines.

Breaking down the site walls so content can be easily found is what Social Media Optimization is all about. Content that are circulated and shared by the community could easily be accessed. Without depending strictly on search engines, we are still able to get our site or content visible. Social Media Optimization allows you to effectively circulate information and generates an intense amount of interest for a relatively unknown product or service . It also positions the brand to the customers in their own terms and environment that yields to a more genuine marketing message.

However, implementing social media marketing tactics for any reason without a solid strategy in place will ultimately lead to confusion and disappointment in your efforts in the social media space. It is similar to throwing darts blind folded. You are throwing the darts without even knowing what or where the bull’s-eye is. Once in a while you might hit the dartboard, and it would be a miracle if you hit the bull’s-eye.