Experience our New Drag and Drop Site Builder!

So it's been a little while since we've updated ... we're sorry for the negligence! We've actually been hard at work trying to improve your experience with us here at IPOWERWEB. One of our latest and greatest achievements has been the launch of our new Drag and Drop Site Builder, the Basic version of which now comes in all of our hosting plans (even if you've been a customer with us for years--it's not just for newbies). In the past, we'd heard some honest feedback from customers, letting us know that, as a novice, it's just not easy to create a site right away. With that input in mind, we've made it our mission to give you access to tools that will get you up and running on the web within minutes of signing up your hosting plan.

So, what is the Drag and Drop Site Builder?
Simply put, our new Drag and Drop Site Builder allows you to create a dynamic, polished website by dragging and dropping the elements you choose onto your web pages. It's seriously simple. Unlike other site building tools, our Drag and Drop Site Builder's flexible interface lets you move fluidly from one design aspect to another, so you can add content, create new pages, experiment with design templates and more, in any order you like. The Drag and Drop Site Builder enables you to:

* Edit content with a point-and-click interface.
* Customize a variety of design templates with your own images and logo.
* Upload photos to create an album.
* Add custom HTML.
* Include a blog.
* Add an ecommerce element.
* Customize a contact form.
* Tie in all those other things you like to do online into your website, including YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Del.icio.us and more!

Not only that, but integrating these elements is a cinch; you just drag the element from the tool bar and drop it into place on the page--then click the element to configure or personalize it.

If the Basic version isn't enough, we've got Premium and Ecommerce upgrades available for more features. Currently the Ecommerce Element enables you to integrate Google Checkout or PayPal to turn your website into an online store. Simply drag and drop product blocks onto your pages, and customize images, descriptions and prices as you go. Also, this year we're working to integrate outside merchant accounts, so be on the lookout for this awesome feature in the future.

Interested in checking it out? You can find Drag and Drop Site Builder under the Web Site section of your control panel. For those of you potential customers-to-be, we're working on launching a trial so you can "try before you buy" ... We'll keep you posted (ha, no pun intended) on when it's ready to check out!

Online Sales Down So Far this Year? Don't Fret

comScore released a report today indicating that up until Cyber Monday (which was this past Monday, Dec. 1st), e-commerce sales had been down by about 2% compared to November last year. However, probably due to holiday sale prices many online retailers tout during the post-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy, Monday yielded a 15% jump over last year's Cyber Monday sales.

Additional key findings from the report include:

* Overall, retailers appear to be giving more aggressive discounts this year in an effort to encourage consumer spending; 51% of consumers surveyed indicated that the number of discounts and promotions seem higher this year than last year (compared to 12% who thought discounts were fewer).

* 39% of those surveyed indicated they felt the crowds at retail stores were fewer this year than last year, whereas 7% felt the number had increased.

Of course this is great news for our e-commerce customers here at IPOWERWEB. We truly hope your online sales end up following the post-Thanksgiving trend reported by comScore! Check out today's press release for more details on the report.

And at the risk of irritating some of our readers with an upsell, if you haven't already, it might be a good time to take advantage of a couple of the discounts *we're* offering for e-commerce-izing your site .... If this annoys you, feel free to skip the following bullets ;)

* CM4all E-commerce is available for 1/2 price off your first term (month, quarter, year) through Dec. 18.

* Existing ShopSite customers can take advantage of 1/2 price off their first quarter or year for ShopSite Manager or Pro (call us for details: 888-511-4678).

* PowerPay (our preferred credit card processing partner) is now offering the Authorize.Net Fraud Detection Suite--included with your payment gateway solution.

Okay--you can open your eyes again.