posted
due to an early morning coffee accident, my shift key doesn't work on all keys, so please excuse punctuation errors...
I found a website that hosts free virtual stores, complete with shopping cart and ability to catalog items for sale. I thought it would be a good way to get some internet sales for my dye sub stuff. I've spent about 6 hours on it so far, and because it's free, it's also rather limited in layout features, for example, I can't add any navigation buttons, and I can't edit the existing buttons. what I'm trying to accomplish is setting it up so that people can easily figure out how to order online. the stuff is almost all customized, so they need to be informed on how to get photos or artwork to me, what styles and color of font they can choose, and stock images available. what you see on the site is the best I could come up with. first two trials bombed when I put my kids on it to test it. If I could get some folks to test it out, and actually go through the order process (use the personal check option and your order will go to a pending status so I can delete it afterwards) and let me know what they think I would greatly appreciate it.
as some of you may know, one of the reasons I had to shut down my sign shop was due to developing fibromyalgia and not being able to work full time, or do as much physical work as the shop required. I'm hoping to get more internet sales so that I can cut back on doing the cat show booths as it sometimes is too much for me. I really want this virtual store to work out, but I've spent so much time fiddling with it that I've lost the ability to look at it through a customer's eyes. If any of you decide to take my store for a test drive, please just indicate in caps (assuming your caps lock works test in the instructions field during check out. for any of you interested in setting up a virtual store, the site is at http://www.freemerchant.com many thanks,
kelli
------------------ Kelli Cajigas aka Janda Dolphin deSigns & Banners “A satisfied customer will tell two friends, a dissatisfied customer will tell ten.”
posted
Kelli, Neat pics of the cats! If the site allows more than one image on the home page I would break the large 178k down into smaller separate images and optimize them, as it is this one takes a LONG time to load. At the current size 'on screen' at 72 DPI you should be able to cut the bytes in half without losing detail or at least cut it by 1/3. The images are just a little dark, use an image editor and lighten them with the 'gamma' control. Good start and good luck with your e-commerce venture.
------------------ Larry
Elliott Design McLemoresville, Tn.
If you can't find the time to do it right, where gonna find the time to do it over?
Posts: 486 | From: McLemoresville, TN. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
| IP: Logged |
posted
Kelli, I'm using safeshopper to host my temporary site too, though its not up yet i am still workin on it! It seems like its going to work out pretty good! Good luck to ya!
------------------ Ryan Ursta Ursta Graphics 27 West Shenango St. Sharpsville Pa. 16150 Call: 724•962•2206 "letters of Recommendation"
posted
Larry, thanks for the suggestions. I could only place one image, which is why I combined them. I've since followed your recommendation to lighten the image and I ran it through jpeg optimizer to reduce the size, it's 53k now I think which should make the page open a lot faster. that's the problem with having dsl, everything loads so fast that you don't get an idea of how long it takes most people.
ryan, I first signed up under dolphindesigns.safeshopper. It seemed complicated to get started building the page, and I put it off for when I could devote time to figuring it out. that was months ago. Meanwhile I forgot the password and they don't have an option to retrieve it for you, I e-mailed asking, but got no response. I finally had to start from scratch and give it a new name, thus the dd.safeshopper. at least it's short I found that it is pretty easy to set up, just a little tedious and not many options, as I mentioned. but for free, you can't beat it (exclamation point) let me know when you get your's set up.
------------------ Kelli Cajigas aka Janda Dolphin deSigns & Banners “A satisfied customer will tell two friends, a dissatisfied customer will tell ten.”
The site loaded quickly for me, I think it will serve you well!
Your timing for posting this couldn't be better, my husband was just bugging me to set up a site for his artwork. I think this will be just the ticket for me,too.
Of course I will have test your site first (hehe) I think I need to do something special with some pictures of my kitties....so many ideas...
Valerie
------------------ Valerie Connot DOA Flatliners North Wales, PA
Posts: 138 | From: North Wales, PA, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
| IP: Logged |
posted
Loaded quick for me too Kelli. Looks really good also. Layout is very good, and everything is easy to see and understand. I think it will do you well.
------------------ John Deaton III Deaton Signs&Grafix 109 N. Cumberland Ave.,Harlan, Ky. 40831 606-573-9101
posted
Valerie and John, thanks for taking a look. I guess Larry's suggestion really helped speed things up.
Bob (badges) A HUGE THANK YOU for test driving it with the mock order. I probably shouldn't have deleted your order so quick as you now won't be able to check the status of your online order (oops, I forgot about that option) I'm heading to Jacksonville this afternoon armed with biz cards carrying the url so I want to get it working right before I go. thanks again to all who checked it out for me.
still trying to work some kinks out of it. Bob reported a bad link, so that's on the list to fix. Now I have to figure out how to get the site in the search engines as quickly as possible. Coming up with good key words to describe the nature of my business is kind of difficult
------------------ Kelli Cajigas aka Janda Dolphin deSigns & Banners “A satisfied customer will tell two friends, a dissatisfied customer will tell ten.”
posted
Kelli, Checked it again today and the optimization helped tremendously. We're out in the sticks here in Tennessee and phone lines are all still the old analog type so internet connections are a bit primitive in speed, its a very good day if I can connect at 46 most of the time it's around 28 to 33 so I'm aware of timing the graphics I create for web work. With all the re-routing because of the ice storms it has been a pain to do anything on the web lately, there have been times when the progress meter would drop down to bytes instead of kilobytes. You're looking good!
------------------ Larry
Elliott Design McLemoresville, Tn.
If you can't find the time to do it right, where gonna find the time to do it over?
Posts: 486 | From: McLemoresville, TN. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
| IP: Logged |
test in the instructions field during check out. for any of you interested in setting up a virtual store, the site is at 
I found that it is pretty easy to set up, just a little tedious and not many options, as I mentioned. but for free, you can't beat it (exclamation point) let me know when you get your's set up. 
Printer-friendly view of this topic