This client is in the throes of opening up a retail location, where 2 businesses will be location – Event Planning and Photography (focusing on Babies and Weddings). They are hoping to add a bakery later on.

The owner had already paid someone to design the logos and setup 3 initial websites plus a brochure. The designer had to move to Germany, however – and the owner was not comfortable working remotely (although I’m sure the designer could have done this!).

What I found when arriving onsite reminded me of the importance of staying organized with your data. They had data strewn across 3 different machines, weren’t sure of where the logo file were – in fact, weren’t even sure what format the files were in. It also took some time to find the login information for the GoDaddy account to see what had already been setup.

[As an aside - the original designer also signed them up for "account protection" - which means that we will have to jump through some serious legal hoops before we can get the domains transferred over to MidGaHosting.com - a MUCH friendlier and less expensive option].

The staff are also in some serious need of training in basic computer processes – and some decisions need to be made regarding file management, network sharing, printer setups – all with an  eye to increasing efficiency. After all, the less time spent LOOKING for a file means more time WORKING on it, right?

Small Biz is a tough market, yet so very important to our country. It is a TOUGH decision to spend money on training because it is an intangible thing – yet having on-site training from a GOOD trainer can pay extraordinary dividends in terms of efficiency gains and aggravation reduction!

I’ll be talking with the client after the dust settles about doing some onsite training. It’ll be interesting and fun!

I looked at several different possibilities – Magento, etc – even looked at using WordPress, which could be theoretically doable – but settled on Prestashop because the base store is free, and it comes with a plethora of features. It is easily extensible with add-in modules (similar to the WordPress Widgets and Plugins) – many are free, and there is an active paid developer community as well.

Other attractive features are the options for multiple languages, multiple currencies, multiple shipping partners (which I don’t need for this particular store), and the template design setup.

The shop has been up and running for some time – I am still loading product into the store at odd times, so it will be some time before there are more than a few products available.

Overall, I am pleased with the software. The only two “gotchas” I had to wrestle with were the PHP upload settings on the server – fortunately my host provider (MidGaHosting.com) allows me to change the settings to allow larger file uploads), and needing to unblock some ports on the hosting firewall, which took a bit of trial and error.

Prestashop is available at Prestashop.com. Tell them the MaconMacGuy sent you!

For example, all of the hosting accounts – from the very cheapest all the way to the most expensive Dedicated hosting package – available at MidGaHosting.com come with multiple email accounts. You can access your email via the traditional route – using an email client like outlook or Thunderbird – or you can use Webmail.

The advantage here is that using you@yourbiz.com as your business email is that is reminds people of our business, of your domain, of your website – thus boosting your brand.

While we’re on the subject of boosting your business through small changes, here’s another tip: Make sure your email signature is worth reading. It should include a link to your webpage, your email address, and your basic contact info. Why? Again – to boost your brand.

This has the side effect of making you look more professional and more businesslike.

But what do you do if you just can’t let go of gmail/yahoo/hotmail/etc.?

I have one client who just loves using Gmail – so we set his Gmail account to fetch lal of the mail from the biz account so that he receives all of his mail in one spot. Yet people are emailing him at HIS domain, so this still reinforces the brand.

So start using your domain to the fullest! You paid for it!

…and if your hosting account doesn’t have sufficient email options to suit you, check out the packages over at MidGaHosting.com – [it's another MaconMacGuy.com production!]

Some observations:

1. OScommerce has been around a long while, and has a tremendous community built up around it. My impression is that the look is dated, and debugging/configuring  the install will take quite a while.
2. Xcart is something I’ve had some peripheral experience with through a former client. It is commercial software, and is quite capable. I’ve decided for budget reasons to not go commercial, however.
3. OSCommRes is an option available in my MidGaHosting.com host account. There is little info on the web about it, though, and I really do not want to start up a new online store with dead software.
4. Zencart looked interesting – it looks like a more modern version of OScommerce. Several posters commented that it was a better choice than OScommerce, but it would still require significant tweaking.
5. Magento also looked promising. It is an opensource/commercial hybrid – the so called “freemium” model. Unfortunately for me the “Community” edition was missing some features that I need in this store.
6. PrestaShop is what I decided to try. It looks like it will do what I need it to do, and the setup seems to be fairly straightforward. I am still in the midst of configuing the backend, and then will start loading product into the store. At that point I’ll make the shop active.

The short list of my requirements:

1. mysql/php based
2. Easily add downloadable products
3. Some carts can do “multiple stores” inside one install. That might be useful later should this store branch out into shippable products.
4. Backup capability inside the admin panel
5. multiple admin users – I’m going to need some help later!
6. Ability to add free products to the mix.
7. Builtin RSS feed
8. Multiple currency capable
9. Builtin hooks to Paypal and Google Checkout

More later as I continue this journey!

This is a new organization, and their website needed to be clean, easy to navigate, and yet allow for conference registration…. and not cost a lot to develop.

I created several tie-ins with Paypal in the site, working with the groups treasurer. For a new organization cost containment is obviously a critical issue, and we found that Paypal’s pricing for handling the credit card payments was significantly lower than the SCNSE’s bank.

I also added a feedburner tie-in so that anyone can be notified when news is added to the site.

Behind the scenes I am working with the organization’s board to create a communications structure, including email addresses, contact information, and training a “PR” person on adding news to the site.

“Being online” means more than just having a website. It has to integrate into the business (or in this case, the organization) – and that means having a communications process setup to answer questions and comments, add material to the site, etc.

There is a lot of additional activities and features that could be added to the site, but for now what is there is enough to get a new national organization started.

Check it out for yourself:

Society of Clinical Nursing Specialist Educators

Domains

A Domain in just a name given to a particular computer/IP address. [IP address = a numeric address that every box connected to the internet has to have]. MaconMacGuy.com, for example, actually behind the scenes gets pointed to a particular IP address and a particular areas of that particular machine.

When you “purchase” a domain you are essentially “renting” that domain so you can use it. That’s why you have to re-up your subscription every so often, and why it’s a per-year charge.

Hosting

Hosting, on the other hand, is renting space on a webserver where your website live – i.e. where the files that make up your site are stashed. The computer is accessible via the Web, so anyone looking for your site can see it on the web.

DNS

The DNS system is essentially a big phone directory that ties the domain and the IP addresses together – MaconMacGuy.com and 66.40.34.135, for example. This way you can type in the easily remembered MaconMacGuy.com instead of 66.40.34.135.

The Domain purchase and the Hosting purchase are really two separate transactions – which means you can purchase the domain from one place and the webhosting from another. I have had several clients go ahead and purchase a domain – so they already “own” it – before they know what they will do with it. Later, they’ll purchase hosting from MidGaHosting.com, and we’ll have to do a bit of extra work to get the two tied together.

It’s usually easier – and better – to go ahead and purchase the domain and the hosting at the same time, from the same company. You’ll have ONE company to deal with, ONE account, ONE place to go and renew your website or domain, ONE user interface, etc.

I – for biased reasons, mind you! – recommend my company MidGaHosting.com for both. The prices are competitive, and the Control panel is easy to navigate through. It really doesn’t take long to figure out how to get something done [as opposed to the one in GoDaddy, which I find incredibly arcane and annoying to navigate. I frankly don't have that kind of time to waste!]

Here’s why you really should have your own domain:

1) Less cheesy email address.
2) Email address / website that reinforces your brand
3) A spot to sell your stuff, perhaps.
4) Search engine visibility

To get started, swing over to
http://www.midgahosting.com
Click the order button. To get started you really only need the cheapest plan.

The form has an option to find a domain – you can do .com or .biz – maybe even .pro.
(BTW – domains are case-INsensitive, so you can type them either way).

Select the US-based data center. There’s also an option to go ahead and install wordpress or any of a few dozen other packages.

BTW – one cool feature is that you can host 3 domains within the same hosting account…so you could then add mikeknapp.com to the same account for the price of a domain, install wordpress, and use THAT one to sell your art.

http://www.maconmacguy.com/compare-hosting/#explain
for a quick explanation.

But now we offer hosting options with a semi-dedicated server, virtual private server, and a dedicated server.

“Regular” hosting has dozens if not hundreds of website being served on ONE computer. This is generally not a problem – and is MUCH cheaper for the client. However, if the website has some heavy traffic, or some serious database stuff going on, an upgrade may be in order.

In practical terms the additional options mean that your site will be sharing the hardware with either far fewer sites (in the case of the semi-dedicated and virtual private server options) or with NO ONE else (in the case of the dedicated server).

As usual, our pricing is VERY competitive. Click the links for more info:

Hosting with a Dedicated Server

Hosting with a semi-dedicated server

Hosting with a Virtual Private Server [VPS]

In the interest of helping him out I sent the following email – which has been edited to suit my purposes here.

Another of the things I do is web hosting (at http://www.midgahosting.com ) and design and online presences and such for some of my clients – and I noticed you’re using a cs email account. Just wanted to mention that you’d really get some brand boost if you had your own domain, and use that as your email “base of operations”.

I’ve got a couple of real estate people who are doing that – they’ve bought their domain and hosting (under $4/month) and they’ve never done anything with the hosting part.

In your case I’d suggest getting the domain, and then setting up a wordpress blog (which is EASY using midgahosting) – use a couple of “pages” for company info, but use your posts for the releases you send out. This would amplify the search engine affect for each release.

[What they look like depends on the template chosen for the blog, but often pages show up as tabs at the top of the blog, and posts are the main part. Over at http://www.maconmacguy.com, for instance, pages are the tabs at the tops, but posts are the entries on the right under "news".]

Just thought I’d throw this idea into your bucket! I feel strongly that receiving emails from whatever@mycompany.com is stronger than getting it from whatever@cs.com.

–

The process:  head over to http://www.midgahosting.com.
Click on the “sign up” link, at the top.
Fill out the form. Decisions to make:

1. what username you want – for logging into your control panel area
2. Which data center (I suggest California, but there isn’t much speed difference between California and London from Georgia)
3. Which plan – for your purposes I suggest the cheapest! Easily upgradeable later if needed.
4. Pre-installed script – Select wordpress here. No charge – this just saves you a step later.
5. Your desired domain…. then the usual contact and payment info

==============================================
Tom Rule
The MaconMacGuy
Computer help, training, Websites, Processes

http://www.MaconMacGuy.com

Web Hosting under $4 a month

http://www.MidGaHosting.com

==============================================

Plans start at less than $5 a month (US). This includes a whole slew of features – plenty of email accounts, alias email accounts, file storage, bandwidth, stats, and auto-install of many different open source packages (like WordPress, Movable Type for blogs, classified ads, guestbooks, photo albums, etc). These are all accessible via an easy to use control panel – you just login and click to select what you want to do!

>More details can be had at MidGaHosting.com

So when would you need something more powerful?

A lot of the cheaper hosting systems woudl have you believe they can handle anything. Short answer: NOPE!

That’s why I offer a second option for my clients. It is more expensive – around $120 a year – but is hosted on a more powerful server, in a datacenter with a closer tie to the internet’s backbone.

(In laymans’ terms, those servers are a few layers closer to the absolute fastest segments of the whole internet – well, except for Internet2, which isn’t publicly available.)

I generally suggest my clients host on the more powerful options when they will have a LOT of traffic, are going to do heavy ecommerce, need industrial strength Spam filtering, would like to share calendars/address books/etc via Outlook AND Webmail company-wide, or will want to upgrade to a VPS or hosted server in the future.

I have an article HERE that looks at the differences between the hosting plans I offer. Take a look – and feel free to contact me for more info, or an opinion on what you should do!