MaconMacGuy.com:

Putting the tech pieces together
for Macon & Middle Georgia
for "a good while now"

I’ve been using Prestashop for MacMusicGuy.com for several months, and though I’d jot down some views. I was looking for an ecommerce solution that easily allowed downloadable products – this particular shop doesn’t sell physical products – at least for the forseeable future!.

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!

If you need more advanced hosting for a heavy duty website, MidGaHosting. also offers Virtual Private Servers as well a fully Dedicated Hosting. Watch the video to see an overview, then click for VPS or DEDICATED SERVERS options and pricing.

Here’s a short video that gives a quick overview on why you should host with MidGaHosting.com [a division of MaconMacGuy.com!]

I have a friend with a graphics arts business who is still using ###@mail.mgacoxmail.com as his primary online contact address. I was hassling him about it (he knows he should update, but hasn’t really had a compelling reason to do it). Below are the reasons I gave him for going ahead and setting up his own website:
—————————

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.