Is it just me or is the new STI intoxicatingly ugly? It reminds me of a Ford Focus.

You be the judge, leave your thoughts in the comments. Happy Friday! Via AutoBlog

Just quick FYI for you guys… We added a quick and small product (line) for you.

Tomioka Racing - Racing Ramps (Great for lowered vehicles)

Activate. Feature. Start Selling.

If you need a contact for supplying these give the guys over at Nukabe a call - 888-591-6277. Tell them RPMWare sent you!

I got a question this morning about our pricing and whether or not we are going to raise it. Apparently there is a rumor going around that we are raising prices to $500/mo when we hit some goal.

THIS IS ABSOLUTELY 100% FALSE. PRICES ARE NOT GOING UP.

We’ve actually lowered prices since we launched in April. The plan everyone is on was once $351 then $349 and now $299 where it is expected to stay indefinitely.

If there are any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Another good load uploaded and audited.

• Brembo - OEM, Cross Drilled and Slotted Replacement Rotors
• Exedy - OEM Clutch Kits, Forks, Master/Slave Cylinders, etc, etc
• Fujita - A few price drops and some new releases
• K1 - Complete Line
• Kaaz - Complete Line
• Megan Racing - Complete Line
• Nagisa - Complete Line
• Tanabe - Complete Line
• Ueo Style - Complete Line

Make sure you turn on (active/non-active) each line *if* you want them on your site - Just remember to set pricing first!

If you have questions, comments or requests feel free to e-mail me - matt@rpmware.com

Help us get the word out about RPMWare and we’ll reward you handsomely. We just started a new program, you send us a client (either thru a referral code or link) and we’ll pay you $299 once they pay for their first month of service (after the free trial).

Signup here and start raking in the dough. As always direct any questions, comments, concerns, etc. to Matt or I. matt@rpmware.com | kyle@rpmware.com

It was recently brought to our attention that the live shipping rate calculator was quoting low shipping rates. When we sent rate requests to UPS, UPS was replying with the shipping cost for the shipper, not the published rate on UPS.com.

This was fixed and now all shipping rates exactly reflect what is on UPS.com. Check your shipping markups / markdowns (Settings | Shipping Methods) and let us know if you see any issues. kyle@rpmware.com

As you all know RPMWare keeps getting better and better because we’re always adding features, making things work more smoothly and adding more product lines. We’re on version 1.5 now. There are over 80,000 lines of code and millions of records in our database and we’re just getting started. We’re gearing up for v2.0 and we want your feedback.

Below is a very simplified version of our to-do list for your review. Please let us know what is most important to you and your business. If you have a feature request you don’t see below let us know and we’ll add it to the list. Also, give us some feedback on what you think we’re doing well so we can keep it up. Based on your feedback we’ll set the development schedule and timeline for v2.0.

Big Stuff

1. Templates (Let Clients Define HTML - Completely Customizable)
2. Content Management System (CMS) / Blog
   1. Clients can create page templates
   2. Clients can add as much content as they want to each page
   3. SEO Friendly URLs
3. Easily Support Multiple Services (Websites, Website + Profile, etc.)
4. Add/Edit Customers & Orders Thru Backend
5. Google Checkout
6. Product Group View
   1. Arrange Items / Sort Order (Bestselling, Featured, A-Z, Z-A)
   2. List View - Grid View
7. Product Reviews
8. Product Tagging
9. Product Addons (e.g. Filter Cleaning Kit for Intake)
10. Related Products
11. Filter Results by Specs
12. Callouts - Add Images / Text to specific Ecommerce Pages
13. FedEx Live Rates
14. Reporting
    1. Order Totals
    2. Best Customer(s)
    3. Best Item(s) - Most Viewed, Most Sold
15. Visitor History (You Recently Viewed…)
16. Marketing Pages
    1. Page Name, Page Body, List of Featured Products
    2. Put items in specific order
17. Bread crumb navigation
18. Brand Showcase (Specific page when clicking on a brand)
19. META Tags
20. Wishlist
21. Customer Login Area (”My Account”)
    1. Recent Orders
    2. Address(es)
    3. Reviews
    4. Tags
    5. Shopping Cart
    6. Wishlist
22. Client Added Description - Client Adds to Manufacturer Description
23. Limit based on Model / Submodel
24. Document Discounts
25. Customize Order Confirmation E-mail
26. Featured Brands / Groups / Items
27. Download price sheets
28. Estimated shipping time per brand, group, item
29. Ship from zip by brand for drop ships
30. Shipping discount by brand

Little Stuff

1. Upload different types of multimedia (files, video, sound)
2. Clickable tracking numbers
3. Explain what CVV2 is
4. Vehicle select flickers
5. SQL Polling (Specs Table, Vehicle Details Table)
6. Change Order Status
7. Reset Password (Admin, Customer)
8. Delete Customer Level
9. Universal Parts on ItmGroupDetail.aspx (hard to tell you are looking at a universal part)
10. Tax Shipping (Y/N)
11. Checkbox to send email or not on order status changes
12. Froogle (Google Base) Feed
13. Add CC Type in Order

Please send you suggestions, comments, etc. to kyle@rpmware.com or leave a comment on the blog. Thanks!

We just pushed a new feature we’ve been working on for a while live and I’m sure you’re gonna love it.

Beautiful, keyword packed, search eangine friendly URLs. The screenshots below will show you the before and after.

This is the single best thing we can do to boost your ranking in the search engines. Over the past 30 days about 40% of your traffic came from the search engines; we’re hoping to significantly add to that with this new feature.

Your old URLs still work so any links you have coming in will continue to work without any issues.

We also updated the sitemap files to include the new URLs. The search engines will automatically download the new file the next time they index your site. You can speed the process up to informing them you have a new file to pickup.

As always please let all your questions, comments and concerns be heard. Go check out the new SEO URLs.

Now that we have Google Analytics up and running again let’s put some of its features to use. Measuring your conversion rate is a simple way to gauge your site’s performance.

To get it setup login to your Google Analytics (GA) account and click Edit in the settings column.

On the next page you will see “Conversion Goals and Funnel.” Click edit next to G1 (you can configure up to 4 goals). You should see a page like this:

If you are using the RPMWare SSL Certificate (the default) the Goal URL is: https://xxxxx.rpmware.com/Store/Account/OrderConfirm.aspx where xxxxx is your RPMWare URL. If you are using your own SSL certificate the Goal URL is: https://yourdomain.com/Store/Account/OrderConfirm.aspx

Next, assign a Goal name and make sure it is active. If you want you may define a funnel to track your visitor’s path to checkout.

Finally make sure the Case sensitive checkbox is not checked and that Match Type is “Head Match.” Hit Save Changes and you are ready to start tracking your conversion rate.

Remember as with all business metrics you must take each with a grain of salt. You conversion rate isn’t the only thing to watch. Your traffic counters, pages per visit and time on site are also important metrics. Our industry is notorious for horrible conversion rates. I’ve been working with automotive websites a long time and have never seen anything much higher than 1.00%. Typically customers are going to check you out online, call with some questions, think about it for 3 days, check with the wife or parents then put in their order. Unfortunately it’s not as cut and dry as a book from Amazon.

Let me know if you have any questions and be sure to swing by for live support this Thursday. We’ll have a ton to talk about this week.

We just pushed a new feature live. You can now limit the makes of vehicles available on your site. Want to specialize in Hondas, Nissans? Turn off all the other makes and those will be all your customers see.

First, select the vehicle makes you want to display on your site. By default they are all enabled. [Items / Set Applications Active Status]

Once you submit your selected applications RPMWare will prompt you to recreate the XML file that powers the search by Year / Make / Model drop-downs. Follow the instructions and you’re all set.

Soon we will expand this to specific models in each make so you will be able to specialize in specific cars like the EVO or Supra. If you have any questions, as always, please don’t hesitate to ask.