Southern CA User Group

[dotCOM-steven]

Would there be any interest in a Southern California MIVA / E-Commerce user group?

It would be open to any shopping cart although MIVA would be a majority of the users.
Quarterly meetings in either San Diego or Orange County.
Guest speakers from all disciplines of e-commerce.

Let me know via direct email or this board.

Steven

[James Harrell]

Hi Steven,

Great idea, and I'd love to attend a local user's group.

Regards,
James

[jason - jmh web services]

Hi Steven,

Great idea, and I'd love to attend a local user's group.

Regards,
James

James,

FYI, you just missed the texas one. But there will probably be something in Atlanta at the beginning of Nov and Los Angeles at the end of Nov.

[d_host]

This is more than just a one-time mini conference. I think Steven's planning on starting a 'user group' with regular meetings, and this will encompass more than just MIVA Merchant users. It's more of an all-around e-commerce user group, which should, hopefully, appeal to quite a few more people than just MIVAites.

[jason - jmh web services]

This is more than just a one-time mini conference. I think Steven's planning on starting a 'user group' with regular meetings, and this will encompass more than just MIVA Merchant users. It's more of an all-around e-commerce user group, which should, hopefully, appeal to quite a few more people than just MIVAites.

Excellent. That sounds really good.

[dotCOM-steven]

User Group

To help explain more...this will be for ALL E-Commerce users even though, at first, it will represent more MIVA people.

Quarterly meetings will allow store owners, developers, and interested 3rd party people to get together.

We will have guest workshop leaders that will give non-sales instructions on "how to" topics. These topics can be related to developing budgets, finding and keeping employees, search engine updates, marketing, expanding markets, legal, and anything to help build the bottom line of any store owner.

It will also give a chance for store owners to talk with each other and share the joys and fears about their business.

We will also start a user-forum, send out press releases, and work with e-commerce publications to make sure we are represented with a good cross-section of users, developers, and hosting companies. Yes...I would hope we can also have other hosting companies be a part of our Southern CA group as it is important that we all work together.

The reason we have 3 instead of 4 quarterly meetings is to allow MIVA to have a conference and make sure there are no conflicts.

I have had some really positive emails over the weekend and I hope to keep the energy level high.
Keep your emails coming and ideas flowing. I hope to have someone on-line by the time the MIVA conference is here.

Steven

[Red Flare]

I am for it, although its a bit of a drive from the Bay Area

[erichar11]

I'd be interested too. Especially if it's not just Miva specific. I'm looking at other shopping carts, so hearing what others have to say would be of great interest. And... for those of us that can't get to SD or Orange County, a web cast would be cool. Just a thought.

[dotCOM-steven]

Webcast - southern CA user group

A webcast is a great idea.
At first it will just be a "reply" but we can work on a live event. It just depends on where we hold the meeting and what type of internet connection we can get.

Since we have also have a company/division that does online media we can set that up quickly.

I'm hoping to have our first meeting in October or November.
Since MIVA conference is in September this gives us a little break from the conference.

Give me a list of topics and I'll do a search for the experts.

And, yes, it will be e-commerce focused with a little MIVA mixed in instead of all MIVA with very little e-coomerce mixed in. There will be plenty of time before or after the group meeting to spend time with each other too.

[erichar11]

Topic - Marketing

So you have spent months setting up your websitewith great products, now what? SEO, affiliates, inbound links, offline ads, etc. How about some actual people who have actually built a successful business online. I'm not talking about businesses that have 500K to spend on marketing, but successful 1-2 person businesses that are making a good living off their internet business. I want to know specifics. What problems did they incurr, what and why about their strategies.

Topic - Automation
So your making money, how does one automate the web business so your spending more time marketing rather than on day-to-day activities. This has been a hot button for me as I've been able to automate a lot of what we do, but each piece (fullfilment, shopping cart, analytics, etc) are individual products and and they are difficult to tie together. How are others doing this?

Topic - Review my site

I'd like to take a specific site (a user who attends the user group) and really get into the details about what they are trying to accomplish, what are their strategies. I'd like the members to really dig in and figure out what works and doesn't work.

Topic - Product showcase

Not your ordinary vendor comes in and shows their product. I'd like to see specific examples of how a vendors product has solved a specific problem, hopefully a UG member. Don't show me just a product, show me resolutions to my problem.

Lastly, I know I'm asking alot, but some of the UG's out there talk about products but not about how to create a successful internet business. So let's get focused on helping people build successful businesses and find out what others are doing to make their business work.