Articles of Interest to PC Entrepreneurs
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Any of these articles may be republished by other
newsletter, magazine or ezine publishers as long as they are posted intact with all
credits. If you are an author and would like an article added to this list, email the
article in HTML format to mtims@matcopublishing.com
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Trials and Tribulations of Putting up a Real Web Storefront, Part Two
by
Michael A. Tims
In part one of this little drama, I explained how I had chosen a web hosting service and had gotten my domain name registered. Now I needed to get something put together to publish on that empty site in cyberspace.
At first I thought that maybe I would purchase a commercial software package that was specifically designed for building web storefronts. Software like Dell Online or Amazon.com might use. What a shock. Software packages such as AbleCommerce Developer 2.6, Cat@log 2.5, iCat Electronic Commerce Suite 3.0, Microsoft Site Server 3.0, to name just a few, start at about $3500 and go as high as 6 figures. Too steep for my meager budget. I had to find a cheaper solution to setting up shop on the web.
I mentioned that I had used shareware programs in the past to write simple HTML code, and even though there are some very good HTML shareware software available to download from the web, I didn't want to be stuck writing code for each of the pages of my new web site.
I had read some reviews for WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) web site development software such as Adobe Pagemill 2.0, Atrax the WebPublisher 4.0, Symantec Visual Page or Microsoft FrontPage 98, but didn't know which one to try. Even at only about $150 street prices, I hated to buy the wrong software. Several of my math students showed me their web pages they designed in computer class and since they used the Microsoft FrontPage software to create their pages I was convinced. If a 16 or 17 year old could put together a good looking web site, so could I.
One nice thing about FrontPage is the ability to import a web page from the Internet to use as a template. How many times have you surfed the web and landed at a site you thought was real nice looking and wouldn't mind having the same look to your site? FrontPage has many nice looking templates of its own also, that you can modify to give them your own design touches.
For starters, I found a web site that I liked and imported the page into FrontPage. This became the basis for my whole web site design and the first or INDEX.HTML page. It had space at the top for a banner ad which I thought was important. (Later on I planned to try swapping banner ads with other web businesses). The main page was divided into two columns with room for my company logo at the top of the left section and room for the table of contents on the right side. I searched the web and found a site with background GIFs that I could download and found one that was pleasant to look at and didn't interfere with the reading of text placed on the background. I've seen some neat looking web sites, but you couldn't read the text because of the busy background or colors of the text clashing with the background color.
I also searched for sites on the web where you could create and then download your own banner ad or logo. There are several sites where you can do this, but I ended up using the animation utility that comes with FrontPage itself. With a little practice, I designed my own animated logo as well as a banner ad that I could later exchange.
Anyway, I finally got the first page looking pretty good and then used this page as a template to put together the
50 or so pages I finally ended up with. In this way each page had the same look and feel.
One of the sub-pages of my site was an index for a catalog of hobby type electronics construction plans I sell. There are over 200 items in this section alone and I wanted my customers to be able to browse my site and put the plans they wanted to purchase into a shopping cart. When they were done shopping, they would check out using their charge card to pay for the purchases. To get to that point was easier said than done.
If you search the web for "shopping cart software", you get 5444 (at last count) hits. There are shopping cart software packages from about $300 to several thousands. I shopped and compared features and shopped some more. I finally decided on a software package called CartIt. I was able to download a shareware version to play with (www.cartit.com) and once I had the easy to install software mastered, I sent in my $300 for the registered version. What I liked about CartIt is, I didn't have to set up a whole database of items, prices, options, weights, etc. The software is what is called a CGI (Common Gateway Interface) executable program that goes into a sub directory of your web site, which is commonly called cgi-bin.
CartIt comes with a Microsoft FrontPage Plug-In called Commerce Monkey which will write the HTML code for each item you have for sale. Following each product description, you call up Commerce Monkey from the Tools menu and type in the product number, description, price and weight. The program then puts a [BUY] on your page after the product description. Now when a customer clicks on the [BUY], the item goes into his shopping cart. Very neat and very efficient. When a customer checks out, if you do not have a merchant account for accepting credit cards, the CartIt software can be set up to tally a customers order, adding sales tax if applicable along with shipping and handling charges. The customer types in his name and address and is then able to print out his order form to send by mail along with their payment. Good, but not what I wanted to end up with.
Another goal I had set for my new web site was to get a merchant credit card account. I had one in the past when I owned a retail electronics store in northern Michigan and I had tried to get it reinstated for my mail order business. No way! The bank would not even consider it, even with over 20 years in the mail order business. They insisted that I have a real store front or I could not get my merchant account back. I tried several other banks but they all said the same thing. Back to surfing the web.
Type in "credit card merchant account" in AltaVista and you get over 3000 hits. It seems like everyone and his brother is trying to sell merchant credit card accounts. I did say, "sell", so check out each offer. the rates vary for monthly fees, discount rates per transaction, processing fees per transaction, percentage of monthly sales, etc. Some charge application fees some don't.
I made application for a merchant account through "creditcards.com" and was approved for a merchant account. With just a couple of changes to the CartIt configuration file, a customer was now able to make purchases online using a credit card. Now when the customer checked out his shopping cart, he would fill out the name and address form and if he checked the box for credit card payment, he would be whisked away to the secure site of "authorize.net" where the customer would input his credit card number and expiration date. Authorize.net would then automatically verify the card number and if ok the order was complete. At that time, authorize.net would send two emails. One copy of the order is sent to my order email box, set up for this purpose by my web hosting service. The other copy is sent to the customers email box so he will have a copy of his order. Within 3 days the funds are electronically added to a checking account I set up just for my new virtual ecommerce web site. The only thing I have to do is fulfill the customers order. Everything else is automatic.
Now that I had my web site up and running pretty much automatically, I had to turn my attention to promoting my web site. After all, what good is a fantastic web site if nobody knows your there, but there's not enough space here. It will have to wait for the last installment of this article.
===================================================AUTHOR PROFILE
Michael A. Tims is a retired high school math teacher but has run a mail order business as a sideline for over 20 years. Being a self taught computer NUT, one of his passions has been to find unique ways to use a PC to enhance or enable a small business venture.
Mr. Tims has written numerous magazine articles on PC basics or using a PC in business and is the author of the published book, "101 Computer Related Businesses", as well as a syndicated column called, "PC Biz of the Month".
Visit his new web site at www.matcopublishing.com and let him know what you think of it. Many other articles may be read at www.matcopublishing.com/articles.htm
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