Wade C
Stainless
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2004
- Location
- Wiggins CO. USA
Here is some of what I know about setting up your own online presence both website and online store info. Its limited to what I know, which really is limited, but as I find I need something, the two different applications I use have great community support and its fairly easy to find help or learn to do it yourself.
I’m not a great “teacher” or “technical writer” so I ask for your forgiveness in advance. I’m sure I will miss things, explain some things poorly, or out right miss important aspects of the process. Feel free to ask any questions, correct me, or suggest things for the benefit of others. Ill do my best, but again, I’m really only familiar with the specifics of what I have done and features that I have used or needed, and learned them accordingly. I am no expert in any way, I have learned all this stuff with help from a friend and a bunch of forum reading. So if you’re at least someone computer literate, and able to teach yourself from online forums and support pages, you really can do about anything you put your mind to. Fortunately, most of the “goodies” people want on their sites are not that difficult. It’s the fancy stuff that can get little interesting.
Here is sort of a Table of Contents that I will try and follow.
I probably won’t have time to do this all in one shot, but Ill also try and avoid the Wrustle Syndrome and try and get the installments done in a timely fashion. I tried to get a good dose in this initial post so everyone has something to chew on while Im working on the rest.
For reference, my website is www.webfootcustomcalls.com
I am in a small niche in the hunting/sporting goods/hobby wood working world of Game call making, where I resell molded parts and call making tools. I also sell tools that I have designed and manufacture, and tools that I design and due to lack of machinery, sub out some of the work – primarily Wire EDM, Heat Treat, and Grinding.
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[/FONT] 1. Web hosting and Domains:
In some ways this is one of the most daunting parts of starting a website. Who to use, what features are needed, what does it cost, why do I need this feature or that feature and so on.
I spent a lot of time looking around at web hosts. There are free ones out there with limited features, major “big deal Charlie” host that cost a ton, and about anything in between. I settled on using Webmaters.com, currently it’s about 10.00 a month (paid yearly), with a lot of features, free domain registration as long as you stay current, and the best part of all, the customer service for me has been second to none. Honestly, I think I have gotten better customer service from them, than I have been able to provide my customers, even though I pride myself in giving the best customer service I can. But I seldom need to contact Customer Support.
You can register domains a lot of places, Go daddy, about any web host – like Webmasters, and I’m sure plenty other places that just do domains. If you’re just registering a domain, you’ll have to pay for that, and for the hosting separately. If you register the domain through the web host, many times the registration for the domain is free.
When you are looking at a web host, I suggest you identify the way you are going to build the site, and what it will contain first, before signing up. Some software and utilities require certain features, and some hosts charge extra for some things. For example, most, if not all CMS’s and Shopping Carts require a database. Some sites have limited numbers of databases free, and charge for additional, some are unlimited, some databases are additional. Payments for online stores sometimes require additional security, SSL for example. So depending on your payment method, you may need a dedicated SSL certificate. From what I have seen, a dedicated SSL will NOT be free, and can be somewhat expensive. So be sure to check out the requirements not only on the software youll be using, but also third party services that will be integrated into the software. Many times, these are called Modules, Extensions, or Apps.
As a general thought… do your homework on your web host/domain registrar… though you can change from one to another, it is a hassle and it will also knock your site out of commission for anywhere from a few days while the DNS updates, to much longer if you run into compatibility issues.
When you’re looking for your “Name”… most web hosts and domain registrars have a utility that is called “WhoIs”. This is basically a name search… sort of like looking in the phone book to see if the name you want to use is already being used. There are sites that will do just that as well, www.whois.net for example. Also, depending on operating system, you can do a WhoIs type command from the command line. I believe Linux will allow you to do a whois from the command line like this.
[root@linux]# whois www.websitename.extension
Remember, the longer the name, the more the customer, (and you) have to type to find it, send an email or what have you. Shorter is better, but too short can be hard to remember, confusing, or more likely to already be in use and therefore unavailable. I made that mistake when I set up my site. I opted for www.webfootcustomcalls.com instead of a more abbreviated version like WFCC.com, WEBFoot.com, or the like… some where already taken, others weren’t, but I thought, “no one knows WFCC” and thought the full name was better. I should have gone with WFCC knowing that I would “make people know who WFCC was.”
2. Theories about the layout
One thing that has stuck with me from my one CIS class in college was that if a page takes longer than 20 seconds to load, a high percentage of visitors will go somewhere else. So make the “home” page fairly simple, and quick to load. Remember, not everyone has a high speed internet connection. Also, remember how you feel every time you go to some website that loads some “entry” page with a flash animation that you have to sit through, just to hit the “Click here to enter the site” so you can actually go to the site itself. I hate that, and quickly go somewhere else. If they want to waste my time with their silly animation, they obviously don’t think my time is valuable.
K.I.S.S.
Keep it simple ______! At least the initial pages. Its fine to get down and dirty and have pages and pages of content, but make the high demand stuff simple, easy, and easy to get to. The nice thing about a CMS is that you can put pages where ever, and it automatically puts the pages into the sub category you want. So make the category pages nice and clean and simple, and the put the detailed, long, and complex stuff on a secondary page. So if people want major details and info, they can get it, but if they just want to see what you are all about… they get it from just looking at the home page, or the category page. A CMS is very handy for this, and hence its name, Content Managing System, and popularity in the web-world. A CMS automatically creates the layout, and you just manage the content. So setting up the layout once, covers the whole site. You just manipulate content as needed. The way I see a CMS, it basically allows you to set your website up sort of like a forum. You have categories, with topics in each category, and each topic contains threads, and each thread contains the information. Making it easier for the admin to control the content and layout without having to change every linking page, and the layout helps the viewer find what they want more efficiently. The way I see it, if they are there seeing what I’m about… I want it easy and obvious. They dig for details, then the gloves come off and I get long winded.
FAQs:
Set up a FAQ page. Here you can address the oddities of the site, tips for navigation, contacting you, how you operate and why and so on. You can head off a lot of time consuming questions by answering them here. A good FAQ page will take a lot of time to create ONCE, a bad one will take a lot of time answering the same questions over and over. Especially if you do everything via email like I do. It also gives you the option, when you get a repeat question that is answered on the FAQ, the ability to reply to the email with the link to the FAQ page, or copy paste the answer, instead of having to reply to every email asking, “What’s your phone number, I can’t find it on the site”
Do a lot of “testing” when you are about to go live. Have friends, family, and neighbors check it out, give you feed back, grammar and spelling checks, flow, feel, ease of navigation…
3. Etomite 1.1 (CMS)
Start off by finding a good FTP program. You will need it. I use FireFTP as an extension to Mozilla Fire Fox. Its free and a very good program. You’ll see a pattern here… Free seems to come up a lot Also, when editing files, WordPad is nicer to deal with than Notepad, but there is a program called NotePad++ that really makes things nice if error checking. When you get errors, it usually refers to line numbers… which also includes blank lines. Notepad++ gives you line numbers to the side, so you don’t have to count lines… and when you’re looking for code on line 375, its nice to not have to count from 1.
There are a lot of different CMS’s out there, but I am only familiar with Etomite. Being free, well developed, and fairly simple to work with are the reasons I chose it. I played with Joomla and Mambo a little, but found that though very powerful, with the power, came complexity and confusion. That is when I found out about Etomite.
You can read up on Etomite by doing a search, or going to www.etomite.org.
If you go to the Etomite site, they have a demo where you can log in and actually play with and change things so you can get a feel for what it is like. Demo - Etomite Demo - The Etomite Project
If you decide to use it, install is fairly easy, but a bit time consuming if you don’t have a fast connection. The documentation pages can guide you through it quite well, assuming you have a little understanding of websites and website back of house admin. Documentation Home - Etomite Documentation Homepage - Etomite Documentation
To be continued...
I’m not a great “teacher” or “technical writer” so I ask for your forgiveness in advance. I’m sure I will miss things, explain some things poorly, or out right miss important aspects of the process. Feel free to ask any questions, correct me, or suggest things for the benefit of others. Ill do my best, but again, I’m really only familiar with the specifics of what I have done and features that I have used or needed, and learned them accordingly. I am no expert in any way, I have learned all this stuff with help from a friend and a bunch of forum reading. So if you’re at least someone computer literate, and able to teach yourself from online forums and support pages, you really can do about anything you put your mind to. Fortunately, most of the “goodies” people want on their sites are not that difficult. It’s the fancy stuff that can get little interesting.
Here is sort of a Table of Contents that I will try and follow.
- Web hosts, hosting, Domain names and registration
- General theories of layout
- CMS (Content Management System) Etomite version 1.1
- Uploading and setup
- General explanation of some modifications and features of Etomite
- Online Store: OpenCart (I am currently using version 1.4.7 because I haven’t had the guts to try and upgrade to 1.4.9b – but suggest if you are starting from scratch – start with 1.4.9b)
- Uploading and setup
- Features, Modules, and customization
- General thoughts on the process and things I learned “the hard way”
I probably won’t have time to do this all in one shot, but Ill also try and avoid the Wrustle Syndrome and try and get the installments done in a timely fashion. I tried to get a good dose in this initial post so everyone has something to chew on while Im working on the rest.
For reference, my website is www.webfootcustomcalls.com
I am in a small niche in the hunting/sporting goods/hobby wood working world of Game call making, where I resell molded parts and call making tools. I also sell tools that I have designed and manufacture, and tools that I design and due to lack of machinery, sub out some of the work – primarily Wire EDM, Heat Treat, and Grinding.
[FONT="]
[/FONT] 1. Web hosting and Domains:
In some ways this is one of the most daunting parts of starting a website. Who to use, what features are needed, what does it cost, why do I need this feature or that feature and so on.
I spent a lot of time looking around at web hosts. There are free ones out there with limited features, major “big deal Charlie” host that cost a ton, and about anything in between. I settled on using Webmaters.com, currently it’s about 10.00 a month (paid yearly), with a lot of features, free domain registration as long as you stay current, and the best part of all, the customer service for me has been second to none. Honestly, I think I have gotten better customer service from them, than I have been able to provide my customers, even though I pride myself in giving the best customer service I can. But I seldom need to contact Customer Support.
You can register domains a lot of places, Go daddy, about any web host – like Webmasters, and I’m sure plenty other places that just do domains. If you’re just registering a domain, you’ll have to pay for that, and for the hosting separately. If you register the domain through the web host, many times the registration for the domain is free.
When you are looking at a web host, I suggest you identify the way you are going to build the site, and what it will contain first, before signing up. Some software and utilities require certain features, and some hosts charge extra for some things. For example, most, if not all CMS’s and Shopping Carts require a database. Some sites have limited numbers of databases free, and charge for additional, some are unlimited, some databases are additional. Payments for online stores sometimes require additional security, SSL for example. So depending on your payment method, you may need a dedicated SSL certificate. From what I have seen, a dedicated SSL will NOT be free, and can be somewhat expensive. So be sure to check out the requirements not only on the software youll be using, but also third party services that will be integrated into the software. Many times, these are called Modules, Extensions, or Apps.
As a general thought… do your homework on your web host/domain registrar… though you can change from one to another, it is a hassle and it will also knock your site out of commission for anywhere from a few days while the DNS updates, to much longer if you run into compatibility issues.
When you’re looking for your “Name”… most web hosts and domain registrars have a utility that is called “WhoIs”. This is basically a name search… sort of like looking in the phone book to see if the name you want to use is already being used. There are sites that will do just that as well, www.whois.net for example. Also, depending on operating system, you can do a WhoIs type command from the command line. I believe Linux will allow you to do a whois from the command line like this.
[root@linux]# whois www.websitename.extension
Remember, the longer the name, the more the customer, (and you) have to type to find it, send an email or what have you. Shorter is better, but too short can be hard to remember, confusing, or more likely to already be in use and therefore unavailable. I made that mistake when I set up my site. I opted for www.webfootcustomcalls.com instead of a more abbreviated version like WFCC.com, WEBFoot.com, or the like… some where already taken, others weren’t, but I thought, “no one knows WFCC” and thought the full name was better. I should have gone with WFCC knowing that I would “make people know who WFCC was.”
2. Theories about the layout
One thing that has stuck with me from my one CIS class in college was that if a page takes longer than 20 seconds to load, a high percentage of visitors will go somewhere else. So make the “home” page fairly simple, and quick to load. Remember, not everyone has a high speed internet connection. Also, remember how you feel every time you go to some website that loads some “entry” page with a flash animation that you have to sit through, just to hit the “Click here to enter the site” so you can actually go to the site itself. I hate that, and quickly go somewhere else. If they want to waste my time with their silly animation, they obviously don’t think my time is valuable.
K.I.S.S.
Keep it simple ______! At least the initial pages. Its fine to get down and dirty and have pages and pages of content, but make the high demand stuff simple, easy, and easy to get to. The nice thing about a CMS is that you can put pages where ever, and it automatically puts the pages into the sub category you want. So make the category pages nice and clean and simple, and the put the detailed, long, and complex stuff on a secondary page. So if people want major details and info, they can get it, but if they just want to see what you are all about… they get it from just looking at the home page, or the category page. A CMS is very handy for this, and hence its name, Content Managing System, and popularity in the web-world. A CMS automatically creates the layout, and you just manage the content. So setting up the layout once, covers the whole site. You just manipulate content as needed. The way I see a CMS, it basically allows you to set your website up sort of like a forum. You have categories, with topics in each category, and each topic contains threads, and each thread contains the information. Making it easier for the admin to control the content and layout without having to change every linking page, and the layout helps the viewer find what they want more efficiently. The way I see it, if they are there seeing what I’m about… I want it easy and obvious. They dig for details, then the gloves come off and I get long winded.
FAQs:
Set up a FAQ page. Here you can address the oddities of the site, tips for navigation, contacting you, how you operate and why and so on. You can head off a lot of time consuming questions by answering them here. A good FAQ page will take a lot of time to create ONCE, a bad one will take a lot of time answering the same questions over and over. Especially if you do everything via email like I do. It also gives you the option, when you get a repeat question that is answered on the FAQ, the ability to reply to the email with the link to the FAQ page, or copy paste the answer, instead of having to reply to every email asking, “What’s your phone number, I can’t find it on the site”
Do a lot of “testing” when you are about to go live. Have friends, family, and neighbors check it out, give you feed back, grammar and spelling checks, flow, feel, ease of navigation…
3. Etomite 1.1 (CMS)
Start off by finding a good FTP program. You will need it. I use FireFTP as an extension to Mozilla Fire Fox. Its free and a very good program. You’ll see a pattern here… Free seems to come up a lot Also, when editing files, WordPad is nicer to deal with than Notepad, but there is a program called NotePad++ that really makes things nice if error checking. When you get errors, it usually refers to line numbers… which also includes blank lines. Notepad++ gives you line numbers to the side, so you don’t have to count lines… and when you’re looking for code on line 375, its nice to not have to count from 1.
There are a lot of different CMS’s out there, but I am only familiar with Etomite. Being free, well developed, and fairly simple to work with are the reasons I chose it. I played with Joomla and Mambo a little, but found that though very powerful, with the power, came complexity and confusion. That is when I found out about Etomite.
You can read up on Etomite by doing a search, or going to www.etomite.org.
If you go to the Etomite site, they have a demo where you can log in and actually play with and change things so you can get a feel for what it is like. Demo - Etomite Demo - The Etomite Project
If you decide to use it, install is fairly easy, but a bit time consuming if you don’t have a fast connection. The documentation pages can guide you through it quite well, assuming you have a little understanding of websites and website back of house admin. Documentation Home - Etomite Documentation Homepage - Etomite Documentation
To be continued...