If you've been following this thread, AMA Internet/eCom SIG Leader TobyBloomberg asked Jay Berkowitz to post from the WebMasterWorld.com Pub Conference VI in Orlando. It has been my pleasure to share the latest news from one of the leading groups of internet marketers in the world.

I met the dynamic team from http://www.monstercommerce.com/. They have created a self-serve eCommerce store builder that is easy to use and fully featured. The product line includes: a newsletter tool, Search Engine
Optimization service and web design.

Stephanie Leffler, CEO of Monster Commerce shared a classic dot.com start-up story, of seeing an opportunity, starting out of Partner Ryan Noble's parents garage in St. Louis in 1998, and building a successful business with over 4,000 customers. "Our niche is medium size Commerce businesses, our clients include the US Open, John Deere, Road and Track and Woman's Day." Stephanie's favorite stories include a 20 year old woman profitably selling Nike Air runners at http://www.krazykickz.com and a woman in the Midwest who's puppet business has been such a winner she has had to add a canopy onto her garage just to protect outgoing orders.

Monster Commerce President Ryan Noble added "The product costs $194 for set-up and $79 a month and we offer a 30 Day Money Back Guarantee. We have 24/7 customer service and our tech. and sales teams handle over 500 calls per day."

Competitors include Yahoo! Stores, http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/merchant http://www.freemerchant.com/, Nexternal and Microsoft's Commerce Server which ranges between $7,000 and $19,000 http://www.microsoft.com/commerceserver .

My wife and I hired an agency to build our first eCommerce store for $15,000 in 1997. Where was MonsterCommerce when I needed them?

Jay Berkowitz
CEO
http://www.tengoldenrules.com