AmberWeinberg.com » eCommerce http://www.amberweinberg.com Design, Development and Freelance Articles and Tutorials Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:30:02 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 eCommerce Series: How to Add Your Sitemap To Google Webmaster Tools http://www.amberweinberg.com/ecommerce-series-how-to-add-your-sitemap-to-google-webmaster-tools/ http://www.amberweinberg.com/ecommerce-series-how-to-add-your-sitemap-to-google-webmaster-tools/#comments Wed, 19 May 2010 14:30:49 +0000 Amber Weinberg http://www.amberweinberg.com/?p=2705 CoreCommerce
Recently, we talked about how to verify your store’s site with Google Webmaster Tools and why it’s important to do so.

Now let’s talk about how to start using the Webmaster Tools. The very first thing you should do is to upload your sitemap.

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]]> http://www.amberweinberg.com/ecommerce-series-how-to-add-your-sitemap-to-google-webmaster-tools/feed/ 0 eCommerce Series: How To Write An Effective Product Description For SEO Purposes http://www.amberweinberg.com/ecommerce-series-how-to-write-an-effective-product-description-for-seo-purposes/ http://www.amberweinberg.com/ecommerce-series-how-to-write-an-effective-product-description-for-seo-purposes/#comments Wed, 12 May 2010 14:30:59 +0000 Amber Weinberg http://www.amberweinberg.com/?p=2662 There are millions of stores on the web that customers can buy from. Because of that, it’s very important to make sure your store is unique, optimized for users and easy to use. All of this, however, won’t matter if no one can find your store.

In order for people who have never heard of you to find your store, you need to be high on search engines’ list of results when users search for something related to your products. This is called search engine optimization.

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]]> http://www.amberweinberg.com/ecommerce-series-how-to-write-an-effective-product-description-for-seo-purposes/feed/ 0 eCommerce Series: How To Choose A Payment Gateway Provider http://www.amberweinberg.com/ecommerce-series-how-to-choose-a-payment-gateway-provider/ http://www.amberweinberg.com/ecommerce-series-how-to-choose-a-payment-gateway-provider/#comments Fri, 30 Apr 2010 14:30:10 +0000 Amber Weinberg http://www.amberweinberg.com/?p=2525 One of the most common questions asked by merchants is how to choose a payment gateway. Most people have heard about Authorize.net and Paypal, but what is the best for you and your clients? Is it ok to have just one payment option, or should you offer 2, 3 or more choices?

A payment gateway is a company that processes your credit card orders from your shopping cart and sends the money to your account. It’s important to decide which gateway to use because each have their own pros, cons and hoops you have to jump through in order to use them.

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]]> http://www.amberweinberg.com/ecommerce-series-how-to-choose-a-payment-gateway-provider/feed/ 2 How Can Google Website Optimizer Help My Business? http://www.amberweinberg.com/ecommerce-series-how-can-google-website-optimizer-help-my-business/ http://www.amberweinberg.com/ecommerce-series-how-can-google-website-optimizer-help-my-business/#comments Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:30:04 +0000 Amber Weinberg http://www.amberweinberg.com/?p=2373

Many people have heard of Google Analytics, but have you heard of Google Website Optimizer? Google Website Optimizer allows you to test and fine tune the workings of your site. Basically, you set up “experiments” to change around the layout and wording of your content. Google serves up these different versions to your visitors and then tracks which experiment had the best conversion rate. And best of all, it’s completely free!

The wording and layout of a page can significantly affect the amount of sales you make and Google Website Optimizer allows you to track which content performs better. If you’re familiar with using Google AdWords, then this should sound familiar to you. This allows you to test which call out button performs better, if it’s better to have your content on top or below a fancy image, or if it’s better to have a longer or shorter product description area.

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]]> http://www.amberweinberg.com/ecommerce-series-how-can-google-website-optimizer-help-my-business/feed/ 0 eCommerce Series: How Use Product Feeds To Expand Your Business http://www.amberweinberg.com/ecommerce-series-how-use-product-feeds-to-expand-your-business/ http://www.amberweinberg.com/ecommerce-series-how-use-product-feeds-to-expand-your-business/#comments Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:31:55 +0000 Amber Weinberg http://www.amberweinberg.com/?p=2261

This is the first of a series of guest posts I’ve written specifically for CoreCommerce’s blog.

When you first set up your store at CoreCommerce, you may wonder how to get initial traffics and sales to your store. After all if you’re a new business, potential customers who need your product don’t even know you exist. You can spend thousands of dollars on marketing and ads, but the best way to produce sales is by word-of-mouth and exposure. This is where product feeds come in.

What are product feeds? These are specialized services that allow users to search a database and compare products. They’re mostly review-driven, meaning better reviewed products are shown at the top, but these listings can also be optimized like a regular website can for rankings. Product feeds are great for driving traffic to your main store and get seen by customers searching for something to buy right now.

Let’s take a look at a few product feeds and how you can use them  for your business.

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]]> http://www.amberweinberg.com/ecommerce-series-how-use-product-feeds-to-expand-your-business/feed/ 0 Using WordPress As a CMS for Non-Blog Sites http://www.amberweinberg.com/using-wordpress-as-a-cms-for-non-blog-sites/ http://www.amberweinberg.com/using-wordpress-as-a-cms-for-non-blog-sites/#comments Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:51:57 +0000 Amber Weinberg http://www.amberweinberg.com/blog/?p=971 When WordPress first premiered several years ago, it was mainly for blog based sites with simple template changes. Now the WordPress platform is used from everything be it a blog, a normal site or even a eCommerce site.

Many clients are still in the mindset that WordPress has to be used for blog sites, and don’t understand that it’s a great platform to use for non-blog sites. Six months ago, I was of the same opinion; that WordPress as a CMS can’t hold a candle to a custom CMS.

Since then, I’ve been asked to add WordPress to almost every single site I’ve coded. It has definitely given me a lot of insight, plus a huge learning experience in both WordPress and PHP. I’ve come to find that WordPress is just as, if not more, powerful than a custom CMS in several ways. Let’s take a look at some pros and cons of using WordPress as a CMS.

The Pros of Using WordPress Instead of Going Custom

  • It’s already coded, which makes your development time faster, which makes the client’s bill cheaper.
  • No need to hire a back-end programmer.
  • Thousands of plugins – If you don’t want to code it or can’t, somebody probably has for you, just download and install with one button.
  • Most of the stuff you need is already built in with installation.
  • The backend interface is appealing in design and easy to use and navigate.
  • Almost anything that you can’t do in basic WordPress and doesn’t have a plugin can be easily coded into.
  • Millions of themes can be installed quickly for free or small sums and already coded, these can be customized as much as you want as well.
  • Ability of everything being dynamic and updating entire portions of the site is awesome.

The Cons of Using WordPress

  • There are some advanced features that simply can’t be programmed into WordPress because of its loop feature. For example, pagination on a static page showing posts.
  • All the eCommerce plugins stink and aren’t very extensive in features (and expensive).
  • You’re stuck with WordPress’s backend, unless you really want to get into styling it by hand – you might as well go with a custom CMS.
  • WordPress can get difficult to manage if the site is huge.
  • You have to hire a programmer if you want super custom functions.

Using Multiple Platforms

I once did a site with 3 different platforms: WordPress for their blog, a custom CMS for their site, and an eCommerce platform for their cart, all on one site. Now that I think on it, I probably could’ve combined 2 of the sections into 1.

While this site is so completely custom, that 3 platforms seemed a better way to go, it’s a PIA if I ever need to update the template files, since I have to update all 3.

Not only is it a pain to update, but it’s a pain for the client to have to login to 3 different sections of the site to update their content. Perhaps someone should work on an all in one blog-CMS-shopping cart solution?

Pre-Built CMSes

Non-blog pre-built CMS, like Joomla and Drupal, have similar pros and cons to WordPress, but are more powerful and great for larger and more programming-heavy sites. Of course these have their own set of cons, especially Joomla, which is neither user-intuitive or easy to customize.

Why Use WordPress For A Non-Blog Site Instead of a Pre-Built CMS?

There are several reasons I choose WordPress over Joomla or Drupal.

  • There is more support and tutorials for doing almost everything in WordPress.
  • WordPress’s code is easier to navigate and find functions in.
  • The plugins are fantastic for WordPress, crappy for Joomla.
  • The ability to have the blog section in case clients change their mind, which they often do.

Which Do You Prefer?

Do you prefer to use WordPress, a pre-built CMS or a completely custom CMS for your clients? Why?

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