popular posts – The Merchant Stand

It’s the last week of 2010 and I’m looking over the statistics to see which articles have been viewed by the most readers during the year. The top 10 posts share a few things in common. They are about team organization, strategy, and metrics management. When I originally created the Merchant Stand back in 2008 I had intended to focus mainly on eCommerce and internet marketing topics. Yet through my thoughts and writings, I’ve found that it’s the strategic positioning and business alignment posts that I’m most passionate about and that generate the most interest. The tactics of successful eCommerce and internet marketing are important and I will occasionally write about them. But my main focus will continue to be my thoughts and experiences around the business drivers and team structure that define efficient and successful eCommerce teams.

This marks my 159th post on The Merchant Stand. The top three most read posts of 2010 are:

1. Operational effectiveness and strategic positioning – My thoughts on strategy writings from Michael Porter about using operational activities to position products and services strategically. I used Zappos and Chick-fil-A as two primary examples.

2. Defining organizational entropy – An original post defining organizational entropy as a measure of disorder or randomness by which work is created within an organization. You’ll wonder how work ever get’s done after reading this one.

3. Metrics management for eCommerce teams – Metrics management is more than web analytics. In this post I explore key performance metrics that are relevant for measuring business success.

1. 4 Steps for Organizational Agility – Not to be confused with software development agile methods, this post looks at ways organizations can become more agile. If you are looking for ideas on how to get more work done in a quicker time frame then this post is for you.

2. Customer focused eCommerce: Volume testing techniques – A summary of how organizations can use performance testing, load testing, and stress testing to achieve better customer focus from their eCommerce portfolio.

3. 10 Questions with Mike Cottmeyer – An interview with agile development thought leader Mike Cottmeyer. The post explores Mike’s thoughts on the current state of agile development in the software industry.

4. Top 10 Reasons Why You Want Your Boss to Read Your Blog – A combination of humor and seriousness of why you want your boss to read your blog. I wrote this post after my boss quoted a blog entry to me during a phone conversation.

5. Social Media Awareness – My thoughts on how to promote social media awareness within your organization or with your friends.

93 posts are now in the Merchant Stand archives covering topics on Internet marketing, customer focus, eCommerce, organizational design, personal productivity, and business strategy. My goal is to write about business insights that will spark ideas for you to use in your business. I hope you find the content relevant and meaningful. Drop me a note if you have any topics that you’d like to discuss in 2010.