Ecommerce Links March 2013

March came in like a lion, out like a lamb, with a ton of great content in between. Here are my top 10-plus-one for the third month of 2013.

• You may have spotted a clever April Fool somewhere around the Web. Mashable rounded up over 50 pranks, with notable ecommerce related stunts by Birchbox, Redbox, American Eagle, Sony, Kayak, REI, Modcloth, Netflix, Wayfair, Hulu, Nokia, Samsung, Square and more.

• What are the rules of engagement with CTAs (calls-to-action)? Smart Insights discusses where is the best place to put your CTA, analyzing a number of landing pages from a variety of industries.

• What's the ROI of responsive design? Luke W dug up some data from 4 websites (O'Neill, Skinny Ties, Time Inc and Regent College) that spill the beans on the quantitative impact of going responsive.

• Responsive design has been hailed for its SEO benefits, but can it be bad for SEO? Check out Bryson Meunier's controversial stance on the topic, and the lively commentary that follows.

• Do you know your ROA? Discover your Return on Analytics with Avinash Kaushik , complete with mathematic formula.

• Econsultancy shares the good, bad and ugly of abandoned basket emails.

• How to convert free users to premium? KISSmetrics' got the goods on how to turn users into customers.

• On the flip side, how about some tips on how to reactivate your customer base.

• By now if you're a Google Reader user you've heard of it's impending closure...have you picked an alternate RSS reader yet? If you need some suggestions, Econsultancy has over 40 options for you.

• Storefront Backtalk asks if Google's patent for customized pricing for digital content is brilliant -- or an imminent disaster.

• Ready to put the test in testimonials? MECLABS' got 6 ideas for testing testimonials for ya.