Not much to report - I am experimenting with the WP-Ecommerce plugin and Wordpress. Instead of wasting your time and posting just for the sake of posting, when I have something sensible to say, I post here again

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Well waddayouknow - following on from Friday’s post about how to perform web publicity well, there is now a comment from Eli of Market Theme (the competition of WP e-Commerce) that just missed my post on Friday or I would have mentioned it.

The post is a bit different to Dan’s but also enjoys my pleasure for using it as a demonstration of good Internet public relations:

• The comment is relevant to the blog post.
• It offers value to any blog reader who is also looking at e-commerce plugins for Wordpress.
• It gets his company’s URL onto my blog which the search engine takes notice of and he scores another inbound link.
• It provides a useful tip.
• His post directs me to a product demo.

I am not taking Eli’s advice yet; instead I am using an entirely different site as a test site, which is totally blank without a single file in it except just one called ROBOTS.TXT.

This little file prevents any search engine spiders from indexing the site until I am ready for them to. I would hate all my fiddling of pages to get indexed until matters were ready for prime time.

The way to do this is very simple:

Create a pure text file called ROBOTS.TXT

Place the following two lines in it:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

The first line means:  “Attention all spiders and web-bots”

The second line means: “No indexing of any folder whatsoever is allowed”

For an easy overview of Robots.txt go here.

Every day there are many comments left on each post I make and most I immediately delete.

Why?

Because they are spam.  See this blog post for a discussion on spam.
Spam seems to fall into 3 categories on this particular blog:

• A blatant unsubtle list of URLs - usually linking to online ph*rm*c**s or p*rn sites. (Sorry for the asterisks.  They are there to prevent this blog post itself being classed as unwanted.)
• A comment that is of such a general nature that it could be applicable anywhere. Usually these are accompanied by unwanted URLs as well.
• A very subtle form of spam which seems to have some sort of relevance to the post, but doesn’t really add any value. Such posts are really designed merely to create a link to the sender’s side and thereby increase the sender’s ratings.

Whatever form they take, this is comment spam - unwanted irrelevant comments - and I delete them immediately. There is a Wordpress plugin called “Akismet” which automates this process and I will probably start using it once I get tired of manually deleting the spam after having a good laugh at some of those attempts to be classed as legitimate.

Then comes a comment from WP eCommerce showing the way that it should be done.

Please take a look at the comment placed by Dan Milward. I have come across his name in connection with the WP eCommerce plugin discussed in yesterday’s post, but I have not yet corresponded with him directly. Dan works for the company that creates the WP e-Commerce plugin. Either he has been following this blog (unlikely), or he created a Google Alert for any new posts that feature the word “WP e-Commerce” (more likely). Google Alerts send you a daily digest of the latest web pages that Google catalogues which have a particular word or phrase in it.

Dan’s post typifies the real usefulness/business-aspect-trade-off that makes the Internet great.

• The comment is relevant to the blog post.
• It offers value to any blog reader who is also looking at e-commerce plugins for Wordpress.
• It gets his company’s URL onto my blog which the search engine takes notice of and he scores another inbound link.
• It provides a link to Wordpress’ plugin download site.
• His response immediately indicates to me that his company offers other services as well and is on the ball, which impresses me. As a result, I am very likely to do business with them one way or another.

All in all, a very effective win-win situation whereby his services are publicised without spamming and gives me a good feeling about them. You want to know how to publicise your site on the Internet?  That’s how it’s done!

OK, the decision is made - for better or worse. We go with Wordpress and add an e-commerce plugin to it.

An e-commerce plugin? I thought you were going to program this all yourself, Dave?

No, sanity has prevailed again. Rather get the best possible e-commerce plugin and spend enough time with it to extract the maximum from it.  If it still won’t quite do the trick, then custom-programming will have to be brought to bear. But first, the best plugin needs to be found. From quite a few that I have found, there appear to be three popular possibilities whose owners seem to be really serious about their product:

1. Market theme
2. Shopp
3. WP E-commerce

Now which one to choose? That choice had better be the right one, or more time will be lost…

• They all say they are the best and will do wonderful things for me.
• They all offer a whole hoard of features, most of which I do not understand.
• Some advertised features I see no necessity for.
• Some advertised features I doubt will work the way I want them to work.
• They all cost money (albeit not a devastatingly large amount).

What to do? Well, the best way would be to set up a site and try them out. Oops… One claims to be free (WP E-commerce), but you need to buy at least one essential add-on. The rest don’t seem to offer trial versions at all.

Well, let’s start with the free one. If it does the job more or less, then they have made the sale and I’ll go with them. Otherwise, I’ll have to buy the next most-promising one. Or maybe I’ll bite the bullet and get all three and try them out. Expensive but maybe wise. I’ll decide later and start with the free one for the moment.

Now, where to set it up?

• On a local server? This will probably take too long to set up and may not be totally compatible to what is offered by my hosting company anyway.
• Delete the old site (after backing it up, of course) and install the test setup in its place? This would be fine, but in the meantime there would be no site up at all! And if I ran into payment-gateway problems, at least there would be an existing site to cross-check with, if I didn’t delete it.
• Rent some new server space temporarily, and point another domain name to it? This might be the most expensive option, but it wouldn’t break the bank either!

So, the third option it must be. Now to order a new site and let the site hosting company set it up. This usually takes 24-hours so in the meantime, I’ll continue trawling the Internet for information on these three plugins…

Wordpress is a blog, right? - Right!

Wordpress is designed for people to post new pieces of prose and pictures regularly, right?  -  Right!

Wordpress is not designed to be an e-commerce solution, right? - Right!

Wordpress can’t really be used as an e-commerce solution, right? - Wrong!

It seems that Wordpress can be customized into just about any kind of web site. The customization potential is enormous - it seems like it was designed to be taken and messed about with. Let’s take a look at what an e-commerce site needs:

1. A database to store the stock for sale. In our case this would be downloadable PDF courses.
2. A way to retrieve those database entries together with their illustrations. In our case this would be example pages.
3. An easily expandable menu system.
4. A search facility.
5. A shopping cart and payment system.
6. To be Search engine friendly with the ability to add metatags to pages.
7. To be able to easily facilitate the addition of new database pages and link to static pages.

Wordpress offers:

1. A database.
2. A way to retrieve those database entries together with their illustrations.
3. A flexible, expandable customizable menu/navigation system.
4. A search facility.
5. The availability of an e-commerce plugin.
6. Search engine friendliness - you won’t believe how fast a new blog post gets indexed by Google.
7. An easy way to facilitate the addition of new database pages and link to static pages.
8. Open source software with built-in permission to be modified.
9. Many other possibilities that I haven’t yet even discovered.

I found a wordpress demo theme for a clothing shop which uses an e-commerce plugin (recommended by one of those helpful Business Warriors), which with a bit of imagination could serve as a very good basis for Fundisi.

This is definitely the way to go. Notify the reverse-engineering department and let’s see how this thing works…

As promised, this blog now reflects current activities and developments in the saga of getting Fundisi.com on the road to a successful e-commerce site.

As of yesterday, Version-1 of the site is now history. (For interest’s sake you can still see what it looks like - but this will be temporary and will be replaced by something much better as soon as possible.)

Uppermost on my mind during the previous 24 hours has been what system to use for the new site. Do I begin DHTML/PHP/MYSQL programming from scratch; building the site pages; the secure shopping cart pages; and all the admin pages and consoles? Or do I piggy-back on an existing modifiable system as we did with Zen-cart?

Doing everything from scratch has the huge advantage that the programming is unique to the needs of Fundisi, while everything that we require can be realized exactly how we want it.

While there is much to be said for not “re-inventing the wheel”, we came up against some really awkward problems using Zen-Cart. Because we battled to get around the fact that it was not easy to create our unique “look and feel”, and to place the graphic elements and input forms exactly where we wanted to, we had to make many compromises. It made matters even more complicated when we attempted to implement the two-shopping cart system. (Click here for an explanation of our ill-fated two-shopping-cart system). I use the word “ill-fated” because, as of yesterday, the idea of the two-shopping cart system (as well as the site itself) has also been scrapped forever because it’s too complicated. The guinea pig site testers could not seem to come to terms with the idea.

On the other hand, yesterday I received lots of feedback from the Business Warriors Forum. (See my earlier blog post about this group). All the gurus giving advice emphasized the difficulty and time commitment involved in “programming from scratch”. They all suggested using Joomla, Drupal and other platforms as a basis. Having had exposure to Zen-cart, I was dubious.

Then, another possibility was mooted: Create the whole site using Wordpress as a basis.

More about this alternative tomorrow.

BTW, if you have anything that could assist my thinking and decision-making processes, please do not hesitate to comment on one of these posts.

What happens when the site sucks and you need to re-design it?

Late last week the sky fell on my head! In the process of publicising this blog, I received a comment from the Business Warriors forum (see my earlier blog post about this group) from a wise young man who knows much more about Internet commerce than I. In effect, he said “Re-design the main Fundisi.com site”. I asked him to be a bit more specific, and he obliged with a fair amount of detail. (Constructive criticism backed up with logical reasons might be hurtful, but it is very helpful.) Another comment was also posted on this forum from another expert. It was brutally critical (and even more helpful). Effectively they both implied that the site really sucks.

Now after so many months of development, I’m sure you understand that I have a large emotional attachment to this site. My first reaction was horror and annoyance. My next reaction was, “OK, they may be experts, but my site is designed to be easy for Joe Soap to use. It couldn’t be simpler…”

However, it’s important  to try and remain objective. I realized that I was far too familiar with the site and probably couldn’t see the wood for the trees. Time to bring in some guinea pigs who will test the site. Fast. The reason why I hadn’t done this sooner was because you’ve got to have a functioning site to test before you can test it. (Or so I thought.) Once we had the site more or less up and running, it was so far behind schedule and so over budget that all I wanted to do then was bring it on line as soon as possible. Money had run out, and my predominant feeling was that the site had better start bringing in some sales.

I quickly spanned in quite a few testers who were unfamiliar with the site and simply told them to browse the content, choose a course, and buy it. I gave them no instructions at all.

The results from the guinea pig test were frightening and left me in no doubt that the gurus were correct. “User unfriendly” was the consensus. Everything would need to be re-designed and programmed again.  Sure, some of the development programming code could be re-used, but, in essence, I start building a new site today.

The very expensive moral of the story:

Get feedback from potential users early and often. Since site evaluation is subjective, never trust your own judgement since you are way too close to the project.

From now on, this blog will reflect the development of a new site. This time, it will not be the re-telling of something that is done-and-dusted, but rather, I will be reporting back with information as it happens. My opinions, thoughts and decisions will reflect my current state of mind and may well be subject to change as the story unfolds. Stay tuned…

Another way to attract potential customers to your site is to issue press releases. Trade-related sites are always happy to tell their readers about new products. Hobby-related sites are even more interested in publishing stuff which might be of interest to their readers. The same goes for educational sites.

What is a Web Press Release?

The concept of the press release dates back to the early part of last century when newspapers began to get popular and gain a large readership. If you wanted to get something publicised you had three choices:

• You could take out an advertisement - this cost money.
• You could write a letter to the editor and hope that he would consider your letter interesting or controversial enough to publish it. This cost nothing.
• You could send the Editor a letter, not for publication as such, but merely to inform him (they were all “hims” in those days) about an upcoming event, or something that happened or about something new. This also cost nothing, but the editor was under no obligation to do anything about your notification. If the editor found this interesting, he would send a reporter to get the story. This was called a newspaper press release.

Nowadays in our Internet culture the principle is still basically the same, but the concept of the press release has broadened to include sites which are not necessarily newspapers. There are many sites that act as a hub of information for specialist trades and hobbies and that often run a sort of news column in their blogs or on their home pages. There are many bloggers who have immense influence because they have a huge number of readers. But they all need something to write about.

When a new course comes out and is put up on Fundisi.com, we try to find sites that might be interested. For example, when we add a new course to the series on electronics, we notify a large number of electronics related sites that such a course is now available, and that they would be doing their readers a service by telling them about it. Or, to take another example, when we produce a new course on household tips and how-tos, we try to notify all the women’s magazines, whether the medium is electronic (web based) or traditional (print based). A link on a web site pointing to ours is of great value in boosting the search engine ratings.

The watch word here is publicity. It is better to be mentioned in an article than to place an advert because the advert is obviously biased while the article is created according to the editor’s/webmaster’s discretion.

It’s a long hard full-time job.

Yesterday I wrote about how not to build an e-mail Newsletter list. Today, we’ll look at what does work.

The first newsletter that you create would be an introductory one, telling the reader all about your site and what the newsletter would do for them. It should be very carefully written so as to make the reader really want to receive the newsletter. In our case, the content tells the reader about what kind of courses we offer and what they will do for the reader to make his/her life easier. We stress the very low unit cost per course as well as the fact that it doesn’t take hours and hours of reading before you get to the “meat”.

It is vitally important that you inform the first-time recipient of your newsletter of the opt-out possibility. This should be big, bold and unmistakable in the first newsletter. In subsequent newsletters you can relegate the opt-out link to “small print”, but not on the very first one. This inspires trust up-front.

Here’s the Trick

Have just one standard introductory newsletter which you manually and clearly mark with today’s date. This very same letter gets sent to every new person on the list. Personalize this letter as much as possible (within time constraints). Thereafter, slot them in with all the other readers who all receive the same e-mail shot.

Where do you get those valuable e-mail addresses?

• The first method is to send the introductory newsletter to everyone you know on your current list of contacts. Everyone - your customers, past customers, friends, social acquaintances etc. They presumably all know you or about you, so it’s ethical.
• Got a full inbox with good stuff mixed up with junk? Next, you send the introductory newsletter to everyone who e-mails you about anything. Even send a newsletter to someone who has spammed you. Once again, that’s ethical.
• Start a blog. Maybe more than one. Like this one, or maybe like my other blog - Photography by Example. If someone leaves a comment, you’ve got their email address. Modify the introductory newsletter so that it has relevance to the blog, and send them a copy.
• When customers gradually start dribbling onto the site, make sure that after they have browsed around, they need to log-in to browse more. This requires them to initially register and leave a valid e-mail address. On the sign-up form, let them un-tick if they would not like to receive the newsletter.This is what our sign-up form looks like:

Fundisi.com's Sign-up Form

• The next method is to collect everyone’s email address that you meet, and ask them verbally if you might send them a copy of your newsletter. They are unlikely to refuse a personal request. In our case, Fundisi.com is not specialized on any particular topic or profession, so every single person that we meet who has an e-mail address is a potential customer. This last option will only net you local e-mail addresses, but it’s amazing how the word about something good can spread internationally very quickly.
• Promote your newsletter and your site with press releases both on-line and off-line.

Once you have some sort of a list, the next step is to automate the newsletter as much as possible. You should only work manually initially. Here I recommend that you take a look at the services of a company called Aweber Communications. They take over the whole newsletter rigmarole for a very reasonable price, leaving you free to do other non-repetitive work. These guys have really got it together!

The next method of finding customers is to build an e-mail list and to send out regular newsletters. Since most existing and potential customers would not normally return to the Fundisi main site on a regular basis all by themselves, monthly newsletters are an ideal way to keep our customers informed about new courses that have just been published. That way, they get continually reminded about the site and enticed to nibble at new courses. The same principle can apply to your business as well.

Spam and Permissions

Spam is simply defined as unwanted, unasked-for email.  If you send someone a newsletter, it is very important to do this on a permission basis - no one likes unsolicited spam, and some countries have even made spam illegal. In fact, it’s simply discourteous. Don’t even think about it.

But how does one build up such an email list of willing recipients for a newsletter?

By the way, if you are just jumping in to this blog here, please understand that this entire blog details the trials and tribulations that we encountered (and still are encountering) in setting up an e-commerce educational web site from scratch. The purpose of this blog is to help others who are also trying to set up an e-commerce site - pointing out many of the mistakes that we made - and offering hard-won nuggets of useful information. Click here to read the beginning of the story which is documented in the very first posts of this blog. Subsequent posts keep to a “sort of” chronological order, so you need to read from ‘the bottom up’. If possible, I try to blog on this topic each and every weekday.

How to Build an Email Newsletter List from Scratch?

First off, it’s not easy and you have to get creative. It’s the old story of the chicken and the egg - which came first? How does one keep contact with past customers and get new addresses without an existing list to work from?

What doesn’t work IMHO (in my humble opinion)

• There are companies that sell huge databases of e-mail addresses all neatly categorized according to perceived interests and demographics. You could buy such a list and add it to your existing addresses (if any). I don’t believe in this method, because the density of potentially interested people represented by such lists is likely to be very low. In addition, they didn’t give you permission to e-mail them. So I feel this is not really a viable option.
• You can go through trade directories or the telephone yellow pages (like Germany’s braunchenbuch - insert your country’s equivalent) and look up companies who seem to fall into a particular category. This is as bad an option as the previous one.
• You can ask colleagues and even competitors in the same kind of business to share their lists with you. Or you could exchange lists. This is nearly as bad an option as the previous ones.
• You could visit a trade-show and collect business cards from exhibitors. At first glance this seems a better idea, but the problem here is that the e-mail recipient is usually not the person that you spoke to on the trade-show stand. So once again, you are a stranger sending mail without permission. It doesn’t build a respectable image.

Tomorrow, I’ll deal with what works better…