MonsterSmallBusiness Forums > I Am New And Have A Few Questions

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MonsterSmallBusiness Forums > MonsterCommerce > How do I?

anastasis

Oct 10 2003, 09:57 AM

So I went ahead and signed on with

Commerce yesterday and I am now tinkering with the Admin Panel and learning my way around. I have a few questions:

1.) First off, how do I go about creating a new page? Do i create it and upload it through FTP?
2.) When the FAQ says that this is compatable with Dreamweaver, does that mean that it is easy for you to cut and paste the code into the WYSIWYG editor or is there more power to this?
3.) HOW DO I CREATE A NEW PAGE!!!

I think I am just missing it or something...

mgriffin

Oct 10 2003, 10:32 AM

anastasis,

QUOTE

3.) HOW DO I CREATE A NEW PAGE!!! I think I am just missing it or something...

That depends...

1. Do you want to create a new product page with a photo, description, etc?

OR

2. Do you want to create a page that you can link to from anywhere in your site?

Answer1: If you want to add a product to your site, go to inventory/product editor - then click the link that says add a new product.

From there, you can tinker with different aspects of the product. If you want to add custom html for your product description; click the "html" check box next the WYSIWYG button. Next, copy and past your html into the list box.

Note you'll have to change the path names to photos in your html. The path would be somthing like this images/products/..../.......file extension.

Warning: If you add your html then view it in the WYSIWYG editor, all path names to your pictures will change to http://www.yourdomain.com/etc/etc ***You do not want to leave it this way**** Make sure the paths read images/products/etc/etc.file

Answer2:
If you want to create a page that can be linked to from anywhere in your site, go to: site HTML/custom pages - then add your page. Again, you can copy and past your html into the list box. Each custom page you create will be assigned a url. Use that url in your html for links, etc.

I hope this helps. Enjoy!

anastasis

Oct 10 2003, 10:37 AM

Thanks. Found the custom page area. Also, what if I want to create a page that keeps the overall feel of the site, but does not just have one product on it. For example, it will be a music store, so I would want a best sellers page and a pre-orders page, etc.

Sorry if I am being redundant. I promise I will catch on soon. I supported an online HTML editor in my last job and I may be too used to that old one.

mgriffin

Oct 10 2003, 11:01 AM

You'll have to get a bit creative for a best sellers page.

I would:

create a category called Best Sellers (inventory/categories)
Go to the products you want to be part of the Best Sellers. Then, clone the product (a button at the bottom of each product - in editor mode). At the cloned product, change its category to Best Sellers.

By the way, your custom pages will keep the same feel as the rest of the site. Each page when "called" will appear within the frames of your store.

Captain

Oct 10 2003, 11:04 AM

mgriffin,

Thanks for helping out anastasis. It is very kind of you to take time out of your day to help a new client.

anastasis

Oct 10 2003, 11:13 AM

You have been a great help. Another question, how do I customize the product specials section of the front page?

mgriffin

Oct 10 2003, 12:06 PM

Captain,

No problem - I enjoy it!

Anastasis,

I'm not sure what you mean by product specials section. Are you using version 3.0 or 4.0? Put a link to your site in your posts so that I can check out your site.

sabres00

Oct 10 2003, 01:37 PM

Anastatis-

You can do a variety of things for your home page specials.

If you mark a product home page special, then they appear on the front. You can set how many product wide you want to show, along with how many total products.

This is pretty basic. There are other ways (though not dynamic) to make your front page have a different look and feel. We do provide a remote scripting buy button that you can place anywhere. It acts just like a buy button attached to a product (and in fact it is attached to the product in terms of each buy button code is a little different for each) and when you push the buy button, it adds the product to the cart.

So, if you wanted, you could go into your news and message HTML editors and starting placing some HTML code you created (either by hand or from the WYSIWYG) and then you can literally paste the buy button code in and associate your products in that manner.

This does entail more work then just standard clicking the home page special box... but the possibilities are nearly endless when it comes to this.

Hope this helps out some!

robert

Oct 10 2003, 02:09 PM

Welcome to the community, Anastasis!

The admin panel may seem overwhelming at first, but it really is very well organized. Once you get a hang of things making changes will be a breeze.

I find that the best way to make pages is to use a full-blown html program such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver and then copy/paste the code into the custom page. It's fast and easy. Must upload any images first for faster referencing.

This is a great place to learn from others. Good luck with the biz!

sabres00

Oct 10 2003, 02:53 PM

You can do that too... just be certain to only take the code from in between the body tags. The <HTML> <HEAD> and <BODY> tags are already created on each asp page. Adding another is not only redundant, but bad for search engine optimization. Most spiders will crawl until the </HTML> tag is reached. If you have that in your top of page editor, then only code down to that closing tag will be crawled and all your relevant content will be missed.

robert

Oct 10 2003, 03:34 PM

Sabres, it is okay to include the <body> </body>, right? It is just the </html> that causes the problem, correct?

Thanks!

sabres00

Oct 10 2003, 04:08 PM

Robert-

I suppose it is ok... but it is poor HTML coding style. You should stick to one set each of html, head, and body tags. Clean code will always do better in the search engines.

anastasis

Oct 10 2003, 04:42 PM

Here is a link to my store... http://66.216.121.120/

Now, I am trying to make the left and right columns dark grey just like the toolbar. I was able to change the shopping cart, however I cannot find out how to change the info on the right.

EDIT*********************
OK, I see that those columns actually have a background image. Now, I have a bigger problem. Whenever I log in and make changes, they hold. However, if I log out and back in, they are back to the default. This is only happening on the left and right columns. My top page stays correct and everything stays.

sabres00

Oct 10 2003, 05:17 PM

Anastasis-

I'm not sure I follow what you are saying. You probably want to call into tech support at 800-353-6582 so a tech rep can help you out. They are around to assist such issues all day!

robert

Oct 10 2003, 05:27 PM

I believe you are looking for the "Site Wide Main border color" option. Go to Site Layout>Site Wide Colors Fonts and Sizes. Click on Site Wide Colors. It is the first option.

MonsterCEO

Oct 11 2003, 07:28 AM

Anastasis-
Looks like you are making good progress. Did you get that border issue resolved?

MGriffin-
You are going to love this. In the V4.0 (which Anastasis is running) you don't have to clone a product to add it to a best sellers category. You can actually add items to multiple categories right in the product editor.

Thanks Team!
-gup

MineralBeauty

Oct 11 2003, 02:42 PM

That will save alot of time

especially if you want to create catagories like : new items, on sale, gift kits...etc

Captain

Oct 11 2003, 06:43 PM

Mineral,

Kinda off topic, but I like your signature in the forum >>

Exchange links with us to improve each others rankings.
For the holidays - 10% off to our

friends. Coupon Code:

Really good idea...

robert

Oct 11 2003, 07:34 PM

Off topic, but I really like the category html (not be be confused with the subcategory html). Whoever suggested Category html is truly brilliant!

With this feature you could put related products in a single "category A" and then create a lot of search functions to let customers sort through the stuff in the category. Those links can be put at the top of the page as an index or in some other format.

For example, I could put 300 sterling silver beads under "Beads" and then in category html create links to search for beads on the basis of size, motif, weight, degree of ornation, etc.

Cool! Or as Captain would say, "Sweet!"

MineralBeauty

Oct 11 2003, 07:55 PM

robert - Wow...

thats sounds like a great option. Is this in V4.0?

Captain - Im glad you like the signiture...I have been reading about SEO and that link popularity plays a big role in ranking in addition to the basis of optimizing pages. As far as the discount...we all know its tough around the holidays, so it will be nice to help each other out...

krazykickz

Oct 11 2003, 09:18 PM

Robert.. how do you set it up to search in terms of size? Please share how you are going to do this. I have been needing to have a search by size for all of my categories but only found one solution to do it.

The way I am doing my search by size is I am making it a category called "Search by size". and my subcategories are going to the the sizes I need In my case shoes: so my subcategories will be women sizes, and then men's sizes.

After they click on men or women. I am going to make a unique number graphic for each number and when they click on the size it is going to go to all the products we have in that size.

The way we are going to get the products in these size subcategories is with the clone feature.

Let me know how you sort all categories by size if possible or what you do.

THanks

robert

Oct 12 2003, 12:38 AM

All you have to do is create a keyword for the product and then use that keyword in a search string. I have not yet looked up the code for 4.0 but in 3.1 you would use something like this:

http://www.yourdomain.com/search.asp?7=keyword

Keywords are inserted through the product editor.

If you want to let the customer search for something in size L (or whatever), create a code like sizel for the product.

We've been running google ads that link not to a page but to the outcome of a search. It works in 3.1.

Tomorrow I will look into the manual to see what we need to do for 4.0.

cbhale

Oct 12 2003, 09:40 AM

robert,

Or maybe "BitterSweet"

Bittersweet

Oct 12 2003, 03:56 PM

example is:

index.asp?PageAction=PRODSEARCH&txtSearch=sizel

hope this helps

krazykickz

Oct 12 2003, 03:58 PM

That is it....lol

I have been going nuts for nothing....I need to read the manual...

adminguy

Oct 12 2003, 11:03 PM

QUOTE

I have been going nuts for nothing....I need to read the manual...

Yikes...I think you just got added to the tech support department's "Wall O' Customer Quotes"

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