07 June 2011 ~ 7 Comments

WordPress Shopping Cart Options

Most new website customers or pickup webmasters will know how to use Wordpress and resist learning complex newer website applications. The use of an app like wpStoreCart is also a safe recommendation to make for any new or startup enterprise business user that had a catalogue or extant products to utilize the database plugins. This enables any Wordpress blog to become a shopping cart, with varying functionality on the back end.

The concept that a blog can be used as a sales tool is a common one, but many of those entrepreneurs who might most benefit from their domain hosting a blog based shopping cart. The website hosting account that has installation options for WordPress can also integrate its workings with the saved database information resident in the web hosting account. This transforms any historical blogsite into a content rich network on deep linked content that continues on to product listings. MarketPress,  RapidExpCart and QuickShop work too.

For diet-sized websites, the FatFreeCart allows instant creation of the “View Cart” and “Add to Cart” buttons right in your WordPress blog posts. This make affiliate reviews very readable content.

The Cf Shopping Cart application is an option for those who want a more customized look to their shopcart without sacrificing plug and play adaptability with Wordpress uses. Some Wordpress blogs can be started and compiled, publishing daily to garner new fans and new bookmarks.

These content rich posts can be historically embedded into the SEO machine online as soon as possible. Only later, when the fine tuning of the web catalogue and the more stringent social network strategy gels, can the website user become more proficient at administrating the more complicated functions within the shopping cart administration.

Many new vendors, Ebay  sellers and other online vendors believe they have to developed a full fledged custom website for a sales portal. This is neither true nor time efficient. A simple solution to how to sale items online with pictures, descriptions, shipping details and specifications is to install a shopping cart software application. But the unfamiliar names of these shopping cart applications will seem strange to the very people who need them.

Avactis, CF Shopping cart, MiniKart, Duka, and others provide options for Wordpress users to form an entire sales platform inside a Wordpress installation.

Beginner WordPress users will be looking for a shopping cart plugin that they can install and understand the use of easily. The complexity of the offerings of many shopping cart softwares aren’t even needed by most users. But the advanced know-how required to evaluate the Wordpress software is more than beginners can muster. They must know the ease of use values in relationship to the business uses the Wordpress shopping cart  is for, which only comes with the very experience that takes away the need for a cribbing.

Beginner uses looking to adapt a Wordpress into a shopping, or add shopping car functionality to an existing website have choice beyond Amazon.com and Ebay plugins. These work with custom fields in a database used currently by the business owner. Since any spreadsheet can be made into a database using Access, the import of the item number fields, inventory information, and financial transactions can be implemented into an existing WordPress blog.

MiniCart is another WordPress compatible shopping cart for integration with blog engines.
Allows embedding items into posts and can be used for donations. Avactis Shopping Cart uses sales affiliate widgets for discretionary application within WordPress. One basic tip when merging databases is to create a unique record identifier that will always the shopping cart administrator.

Using DukaPress is another way that Wordpress blog users can customize the way their cart looks when incorporated into a Wordpress. For more advanced users, the DukaPress plugin creates the backend inside the Wordpress architecture for those who don’t want to read a huge manual. If the domain name is also one with the word “store” in it, additional content can be quickly added to that site if it is installed as WordPress or has a wordpress directory on the file tree.

For hand on data users, posts mentioning certain products can also incorporate the post ID as the product code. This happens automatically with YAK, a funny word for a workhorse open source e-commerce plugin.  YAK is a WordPress Shopping Cart that supports posts and pages as products, allows multiple purchase options and supports item categories.This makes an excellent addon for xisting sites where the webmaster does not want to tinker with existing architecture too much.

FoxyShop is one option if the domainer is looking for something a little different. The application for FoxyShop is actually a  WordPress Shopping Cart owned plugin. The free Plugins can be easy to install or nightmares, depending on the template. FoxyShop is one that connects to the FoxyCart shopping cart service.  With FoxyShop you can user WordPress for inventory management. This plugin offers a full API that allows developers to create a custom ecommerce solution.

Wordpress Simple Cart is just what it sounds like. Items from a resident worksheet or online file app can be combined using the utility of a Wordpress interactive menu. If you or a domain owner, or website client want a massive utility for vending wares added or linked to from another site. A simple WordPress installation will also enable a shopping cart that supports WordPress Multisite and BuddyPress.

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10 March 2011 ~ 0 Comments

Grandma’s Blog Recipe

To get many newby domainers over the beginner’s hump, here is a tried and true launch recipe to get your blog or site started without the huge all consuming resource intensive crash launch every domain name owner dreams of. Instead of a lousy construction page, a parking page full of links, or a 404 error give your search traffic something sticky to look at. This is the way to build a webpage that can yield revenue, job opportunities, and give you legitimacy in the blog world. That’ a springboard to real online marketing power when the big idea comes along.

1. Setup the WordPress

Browse the instructions and don’t get overly technical. All the Google adsense widgets mean nothing without content marketing and promotion. And oh yes traffic. We’ll get to that later. Learn the basic editing and posting techniques for posting blog entries. The search engines don’t give extra points for marked up sites with nice colors. They count words and content. Focus on that a big part of the job is done. Don’t change to templates with custom code requirements or special code tweaks you won;t know how to fix or roll back. Understand how to post, edit, edit comments and submit an RSS feed.

2. Blogroll Personal Bests

One article that is much better than the “Hello World” post is the best list. This the list of the best of the best websites for this niche audience. You don;t have to do much, just come up with 150 words and a description of each and why they would appeal to your end users. Link the article to your Blogroll links page link. Don’t make these look like the links on every other site. Come up with newer sites that browsers will check out because they don;t know what they do.

3. Be Savvy on the “About Us” Marketing

Most of these pages elicit a snore. But the whole point of a domain is to dream up the perfect user base. Wise domainers use their “about us” page to tell a funny story or help the browsing end user understand why the website is personal and has meaning to you. That way the reader can decide if they identify with those emotions. Don’t forget to put deep links to the rest of the website in this text or at the end of the prose in other related links.

4.Invite Guest Stars

Before launching the blog, invite a few friends to prepare guest posts to flesh out the beginner’s look at the site. These people will use the links to their work in networking for jobs and to friends, without yo even asking them to do so. If they put a profile on the end of their submissions mentioning their pet projects, employer, or hometown, those words end up being searchable text down the line.

5. Plan your SEO Link Strategy

Hang out your shingle at affiliate program sites, at web administrator forums, or anyplace where advertisers want to reach their user niche on a budget. This way marketing their product also markets YOUR site. be very selective about using social networks until you have an exclusive offer or something that makes users stop and check it out. Don’t spam.

Mix all ingredients, save, and launch!

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27 September 2010 ~ 1 Comment

WordPress Comment Frustration

I would like a word about administrating comments in WordPress, if I might. I administer 6-7 blogs and on any one day I can be working between them, submitting posts and publishing entries. One of the tasks that absorbs too much of my time is the weeding of spam comments, especially when a huge array has been submitted. This has become an awesomely irritating task that does not lessen over time.

It seems to me there should be some core functionality that argues against a spam comment submitter posting where their comments are not welcome. Not only are they risking their urls be submitted to the “hate” lists, but with adult material and pornographic links, these amount to a sheer nuisance. There simply no reason seven to eight thousand comments a day which will be deleted should be occurring.

Over time the aggregates are staggering. My readers for any of my sites are not porn searchers, and none of the keywords for any story can be resulted from an SEO search for those names. Yet time after time obnoxious links with undesirable words crop up, in comments stuffed with links I have no intention of approving. You’d think there would be some way to turn the spigot off.

I can see how many people simply ply onto my blog without reading it. It shows in the poorly worded in and inaccurate “responses”. What stuns me is the amount ungrammatical postings and clearly spun nonsense posts that are still nevertheless commented daily. Many are obviously form illiterate typists. Why would I want pidgin English from a spam url on my site?

I am going to start writing letter to domain registrars and hosting companies demanding these sites be taken down and emails disabled for any link that hits my sites more than 5 times with pornographic materials and illiterate, unconnected spun posts. I am also going to chronicle the results, if any. It seems to me there should a line beyond which consistent spam posting becomes Internet abuse. Malicious posting cannot be ruled out.

The most frustrating thing I find about these posts is how badly they are skewed to my website topics. I can go to blog A and see posts with backlinks suited to the keywords for sites B, C and E and have to delete them. I can go to Blog B and see comments with backlinks suitable for sites A D and H. And so on. If you are going to make the effort to mechanize posting or even do it by hand., why can’t the writer match the blog comment to the subject?

The answer, of course, is that someone has hired an illiterate non-English speaker working from a foreign land to do the backlinking. They certainly understand enough English to pile porn links into the comments and save. But since they can’t read English they are throwing all their backlinks at the wall to see what sticks. And I am getting really tired of cleaning off the wall.

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22 August 2010 ~ 11 Comments

Surfing Hosting Accounts

While navigating three hosting accounts in one morning I remembered more than I wish I had forgotten about the in’s and out’s of relative advantages of different hosting companies. Administrating Wordpress websites is about as easy as being a webmaster can get short of editing mere HTML pages strung together. But it can still be a headache. And performing tasks in MySQL on no coffee is torture.

I went between Godaddy.com and 1 & 1 Hosting, between 1 & 1 hosting and Hostgator, and back again from Hostgator.com to Godaddy again. This is the chore when different hosting accounts get different parts of the hosting account offering formula right and different parts of it wrong. Experiencing multiple hosting account interfaces before breakfast can take a lot of elbow grease and keyboard forgiveness.

A lot depends on the browser. At one point in the project I realized I had both Firefox and Internet Explorer open because one hosting account stayed open better in Explorer while another transited better between navigation screens in Explorer. But Explorer seemed more secure in certain parts of the hosting account interface where security was tighter, and Firefox sort of stalled in the Backup/Restore pathway of commands.

GoDaddy.com does have a cornered market on the Godaddy Hosting Connection installation utility. It’s a nice arrangement that unfortunately you have to learn to be comfortable with. Control panel and ControlPanel Deluxe have that absolute party favorite of all hosting account surfers, Fantastico. Except to get version information you have to sift carefully and compare versions and perform upgrades per application before executing database restore and upload tasks.

The jury is never really out when debating which hosting account vendor online is the best. Certainly Enom.com is a stable bedrock names registrar. but just try and get a name hosted there or working with any application without Indian medicinal juju working for you. Frustration with one hosting account leads to the germination of another at a new company. This cycle can only continue so far.

Godaddy.com has the most fluid domain manager but the bells and whistles flavor of the nonstop “Buy This” circus inside a hosting login can’t exhaust even a patient webmaster fast. This administration environment seems very commercial next to the minimal functionality of the Hostgator Control panel. The Fantastico “hosting connection” delivers good install functionality for third party applications, if the versions are consistent with the “exit” versions on other outgoing site hosting accounts.

What this means is that a WordPress install at Godaddy might be at Wordpress 3.01.01 yet the Fantastico release at HostGator might have the WordPress installation release only at 2.98.2. This means the security and support is not guaranteed for custom tweaks and plugins that are the main feature of the updated Wordpress. Backwards blog migration is never a pretty site.

Thus the hosting account selection equation might be reduced to the smoothest and most updated installation suite. Yet so many functions inside the Control Panel (except Fantastico) can remain untouched for the life of the account. Or worse, they can be experimentally tried with brilliant reactions of equal parts of glee, panic and chaos. Having the tech support number close at hand is a must.

The hosting at 1&1 hosting is a curiosity to me. The custom tweaked interface for administration of the hosting account seems to mask more than it reveals of available and necessary domaining chores. The ease of use never seems to be 100% there. For a domainer intent on SEO and marketing and domain name promotion, supposedly only programmers venture this far.

I have a 1 & 1 hosting account that it took a considerable amount of time to cancel, simply because the process was so labyrinthine I barely got the confirmation of the account cancellation in time. I got quickly into the habit of not using the account because I didn’t like the interface as was constantly stalled by the “lookup and see” factor involved in very simple tasks.

To be sure, Godaddy captures a big part of its hosting and domain business from ease of use and familiarity. But not often do I get the opportunity to see triple hosting company side by side performance. I remember how much I resisted the Godaddy interface on my journey from ControlPanel. I like the direct file management approach but miss the protections and hidden file attributes of the Godaddy File manager.

For the 1 & 1 Hosting file access was almost impossible, rendering many templates and theme graphics closed to customization. I used to cling tearfully to my Control panel until an installation version got so vulnerable to failure almost every operation was liable to disappear from day to day. This is the sort of thing that causes hosting account migration.

My love affair with Fantastico was long and meaningful. But many other administration options when navigating through reseller accounts and multiple hosting trees became necessary. Godaddy is a hosting account utility most webmasters will shoulder sooner or later simply by nature of the amount of domains hosted there. Until there is a definitive result for the best hosting company for SEO, the choice for domainers remains personal.

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09 August 2010 ~ 25 Comments

Flippa.com

When people tell me they just don’t know how to make money online, Flippa is one of the sites I suggest they try to work with. This site vends readymade websites to buyers at auction prices. But the difference between Flippa and many auction areas of other domainer forums is that zero Alexa, zero traffic, zero anything plus content and code gets you in. These stat sets are ones that every domainer had tons of names for.

For $19, the domainer (or man on the street) can vend a website already up. This takes the profit model of the domain name world a bit further. Instead of relying on the domain resale market, autoblog engines can do the work and output the site. The money making potential of a speculative name buy just got that much more possible. The domainer creates their own multiples of opportunity.

The employable resources toward a website for domainers have always been a part of their hosting plan. Hosting companies like Godaddy offer a plethora of webmaster site publishing choices in the “Connection” area. Site templates, HTML code, and open source applications allow even newbie domainers full site design flexibility. Writing the content was all that was needed.

But today content writers in every language are an easily sourced commodity online. Getting original and keyword rich text up is as simple as writing a few emails and selecting a contractor. A little do-it-yourself juice poured directly onto the hot griddle of the hosting account can deliver some piping hot websites. And Flippa allows novices a turn at bat, as well.

For many domainers the market to sell domains feel closed to them. It takes a few successes to get their groove going as market entrepreneurs. What is not made clear to many business individuals looking to get into the domain name industry is that for some domain name sales happen instantly. For others it can take many years. The returns are varied, and there is no guarantee of profit.

Flippa.com changes all that. A quick survey of the site shows what auctions have sold. The other side of the Flippa.com coin is that now name owners can shop for sites that fit the keywords for site names they already have. Instead of chancing content they don’t want or need, webmasters can analyze available site text for purchase. If the Flippa vended website fits the bill, then they can bid their budget.

Flippa allows those with good domaining ideas and good ideas for domain names to follow through on those concepts and take profit from their brainstorms. The world is full of end user business leaders who will have the “vision” to buy the finished product. These are not the same people who will fund its growth or development however.

Flippa.com closes the gap between domain name website end user customer and domain reseller. And just think what kind of traffic your website will get while being “shopped” at Flippa.com. This is a chance for web designers, webmasters, writers and domain name entrepreneurs to showcase their packaged services. As many free markets, a sales history tells the tale.

Flippa.com will remind most domainers that flipping domains may soon be like flipping houses. If you can build it, you can flip it. The synonymous energies between the commodity of commercial real estate and domain markets as properties continue. The energy the individual domainer puts into every site, and the elbow grease researching keywords and SEO, will cap the Flippa.com revenue potential.

There is a free downlaod of the Flippa flipping book inside, as well as offers for discounts on SEO tools like SEMrush and Domainsamurai. Phone verification is needed. Sign up today, and see if your domain gifts can be utilized to the fullest.

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06 April 2010 ~ 9 Comments

How a Domain Blog Can Get you a Job

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One of the most common complaints I hear from younger people today is how they can’t get a job. But they often have little or no work experience to qualify them for better paying positions. The opportunity is at hand to display unmistakably superior communications skills, but to enhance one’s knowledge of business before they ever get hired.

Managing a blog is like managing a business. For many bloggers, blogging is a business. Authoring content, designing the site, administering ads and dealing with Google ad search engines, as well as other site enhancement products, all these are the dynamics of the modern online business. The attributes and skills that come from editing a blog and managing a blog domain website can be very welcome additions to any resume.

Picking a domain name is the fun part. The domain name will have resale value no matter what happens as a result of the effort and hard work put into the blog. The blog entry database will also have resale value for those who want to establish a blog without writing all the posts. And the network of contacts one makes online administrating a blog or website can serve any job applicant well as a personal or work reference.

The domain blog is an investment in any student’s future. The verifiable proof of managing a network, efficiently working with a deadline, selecting advertisers and reviewing traffic results is exactly the kind of critical thinking employers are looking for. One domain, one Wordpress installation, and one hosting account can make the slacker student of today the enterprising business maven of tomorrow.

The blog can treat whatever topic the author chooses, yet the ongoing addition to the blog can allow for a fruitful dialogue between the administrators and the readers. Researching online resources and trying new methods and techniques for attracting visitor traffic is an education in itself.

The successful generation of comments and participation can show employers that the author writes persuasively and affects other people successfully. This is a golden rule of business and should indicate to employers a lot about the applicant’s independent administration of job skills.

But domains for blogs and websites aren’t just for high school and college students. Part-time, underemployed and unemployed individuals can also reap benefits from blogging their domain online. One blog application with a history of entries indicates to an employer that the time spent wasn’t just wasted. Filling in that empty space can seem reasonable with a content-rich website to show for it.

Actively promoting the website and learning about online domaining might actually build a career opportunity where none existed before, in a new media company or department. There is no age limit to having a blog.  Students can build content over time and compose a subject and topic focus that shows hiring managers and recruiters they know how to manage information for impact.

Working on a  blog with a suitable and catchy domain can assist the job hunter in many ways. Instead of responding to people about how unemployed you are, you can discuss your blog insight instead.  Many times people lie about their interest in a given industry or topic. But it’s hard to challenge the interest of a job applicant who has written hundreds of essays (posts) on their own time about that subject, and the proof of it is online.

Offering a business card at the end of the job interview to the website can finish a so-so interview on a high note. And running a blog or website gives an interviewer new and interesting questions to ask. Perhaps the company wants to improve their website or your blog gives them an idea for sales or marketing. These positive effects of your job hiring cycle won’t happen if you don;t have a blog or domain website to back it up.

Ongoing investment of time and resources can pay off for an individual who wants something to say about the means they use to advance their causes. The professional domainer or blogger has an advantage that they can leverage existing networks or contacts to bring new information to light. Whether it’s for a green way of life, lower taxation, or progressive legislation, an applicant can demonstrate independent thinking and organization from hosting a blog.

Choosing a domain and building the blog can improve the self-confidence of many job seekers. For the student, with graduation time coming up, a domain and hosting gift certificate makes the perfect gift. The student can spend their time online improving their future and heightening their chances at a great job. And friends and relatives can feel like they have done something to help contribute to their betterment.

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