by Claudia Bruemmer

TopTenWholesale’s newsroom has been publishing wholesale and retail news over the last six years, and our blog has been around since 2005. What articles do you think caught the attention of our readers over the last 12 months? To refresh your memory, below are the articles and highlights for our most popular stories of 2011.

Top Ten Flea Markets in the USA: This article covered the top ten flea markets in the US, from California to Texas to New York with many other states in between. Attending a flea market is a fun experience and most people find at least one good bargain. Maybe that’s why this article was the most popular piece ever. If you missed it, you may want to click the link and take a look.

Buying Liquidation Merchandise and Closeouts: Maybe due to the economy and people losing their jobs, this article was in high demand by those interested in buying overstocks, closeouts and customer-returned merchandise from major retail stores for reselling in stores, on eBay, at local flea markets and online. It’s a good business if you know how to attain low-cost inventory. This is a business where you can purchase for pennies on the dollar and sell at a profit with a little business acumen and sales experience.

Top Wholesale Predictions for 2011: We took a look at what would be the hot products of the year and shared the information with our audience. In 2011, the biggest draws were in electronics with digital products set to be big sellers. Yet, many non-tech products also made the grade. We’ll be writing another piece of predictions for 2011 once we have the data to make some predictions for this year.

Retailers Are Drop Shipping to Save Capital: As retailers felt the recession, they started looking for ways to increase sales without using too much capital. The perfect solution for many was to use drop shipping because this allowed them to take orders online without having to stock inventory. The fact they could ship directly from suppliers saved them money, too. With low overhead, zero investment, no warehousing and shipping to worry about, many retailers went this route in 2011.

A Mini Guide to SEO for Wholesale Suppliers: Last year, wholesale suppliers needed to allocate marketing dollars wisely. SEO remains one of the most successful and cost-effective online marketing tactics, so we decided to review the latest SEO techniques. Keyword research, title tags, meta descriptions, link building and on-page content optimization can go a long way toward gaining better rankings, traffic and conversions.

9 Tips for Preparing Your Website for Holiday Traffic: It’s smart for online merchants to start planning website improvements for year-end holiday traffic in July because if you’re unprepared, heavy traffic can temporarily shut down your site for hours or even days. Our 9 tips suggested what you might work on − things like easy navigation, wish lists, registry options, smart coupons, rewards, global payments, live chat and help desk options.

As Shoppers Move Online, Retailers Go Digital: It used to be that most people shopping for clothes, shoes, electronics or whatever went to local malls or neighborhood stores. However, now that the Internet is available 24/7, consumers have left the malls for online stores and virtual showrooms. That means brick and mortal retailers must be creative to keep their customers. TopTenWholesale tells these businesses how to upgrade their marketing strategy.

Priceless Pricing: While consumers have always been price sensitive, they seem to be more so today than ever before. Actually, the new Gen X and Y consumers are even more price sensitive than older consumers. John Stanley gives some advice on pricing strategies and examples of effective consumer pricing you can use to get more conversions.

7 Tips for Optimizing Images and Videos for Your Site: Whether you’re a supplier or a retailer, you’re likely to have a lot of product images and even videos on your site. These are digital assets that need to be optimized for top rankings, and if you’re not doing this, you’re leaving money on the table. We give you the top SEO tactics for optimizing your images and videos, which you can use to attract more traffic and conversions.

5 Tips for Creating Effective B2B Newsletters: Since email is one of the most popular online marketing strategies, all B2B marketers should take advantage of the power of email to enhance their image and sell more product. Email is a cost-effective way to nurture your customers and prospects by creating and maintaining relationships over time, namely throughout the long B2B sales cycle. Top Ten Wholesale gives you five important tips for creating effective B2B newsletters.

B2B Merchants Must Optimize for Mobile and Tablets: Smart B2B merchants will be optimizing their sites for mobile and tablet users since they will soon outnumber computers and laptops. More and more of your customers can now connect directly from their handheld devices, and that means your website must visually accommodate all these users. Top Ten Wholesale tells you how to minimize your site while maximizing your visibility in the SERPs.

Google Product Search Drives Merchant Sales: Google Product Search continues to be very important for online merchants because this price comparison shopping service helps drive customer traffic to merchant websites by displaying their products in the organic links. While not all online merchants use Google Product Search, it offers retailers the opportunity to display specific products in search results. Top Ten Wholesale tells you the benefits of Google Product Search and how to submit your product feed for display in search results.