Reduce costs for running your online business (Small Business Ecommerce Link Digest)

OK, so now we’re having a debate about what to call these troubled times, whether recessionary or not. I say, who cares? There’s work to do, customers to find, product to produce. Let’s look this week at ways to save money doing it.

• First up, we’ve got regular thinks favorite Linda Bustos from Get Elastic with not one, but two thoughts on how to save money on your search marketing. Early this week, Linda looked at how Google Analytics can cost you money in your AdWords spend. And, if that wasn’t enough, she followed up with an insightful examination of whether to remove keywords with low clickthrough rates.
• One argument Linda makes against dropping low conversion rate terms in her article is their contribution to offline sales. Holly Buchanan from GrokDotCom follows up with a good look at just how tied search is to the offline sales. Saving money on terms may cost you sales in other channels. So, choose wisely.
• The good guys at GigaOM take a look at 15 sites to cut your startup operating costs. And those of your more established business, too.
• And, lastly, Mike Moran picks up on my thoughts about how customers use mobile phones with a key point about costs limiting usage. He writes, “as long as carriers are charging by the minute or the megabyte…people will be careful about how much they browse on their cell phones.” Of course, the recent surge in metered internet charges might do the same to the PC-based web. So, obviously, one way to keep your costs down is to avoid the folks intent on soaking you for access.

See you next week folks. And remember to subscribe to thinks today to never miss an update.