SEO Tips, ProStores Troubleshooting, E-Commerce Advice

Magento GO Custom Themes

Posted on May 18, 2012 by itsadmin

Creating Themes in Magento GO

Trying to create a custom theme for your Magento GO site? It is not an easy process and is slightly harder to do than on most other platforms. This article will briefly go over what needs to be done to create a custom theme on Magento GO.

First off, there is no blank theme for Magento GO, or options to upload custom files (html, phtml, php). Creating a custom theme requires taking another premade theme and bending it to your will. Magento GO currently offers 11 default themes for you to choose from, or you can buy a different theme from the Add-on Menu. These additional themes usually range around $100 and can have additional services fees which are optional. You should try to choose a theme that most closely resembles what you want the end result to look like.

You can make alot of theme customizations from the Design Menu

If you are just looking for a simple color change you can do that completely from the Theme Editor.

Using the Themes Text Editor,

you can update the text on certain buttons, links and alt text for images. Some things that are dynamically generated cannot be altered.

The Layout Editor allows you to move the blocks on the page from one area to another.

Some things to note are that the blocks you can add are restricted to the default blocks Magento installed for your site, sorry no ability to add custom made blocks via the editor. Also certain page layouts do not allow blocks. Also moving the blocks via the editor is a little inaccurate and they can only be moved to the next open space in the left or right column.

So how do you create a truly original custom Magento GO Theme? In addition to using the features included in Magento Go, you just need to create your own custom CSS code and override the default theme. This is done under the Theme Editor, and clicking the customize link under your theme. You can also upload custom javascript files in this area. However, this is only the beginning of the battle as you may have to manually go through each section of your site and make changes. How hard this will be depends on the complexity of the theme or what extra function you want the site to have.

Things to Consider with Creating a Custom Theme on Magento GO

All Magento default themes like to use all the page layouts on the site, that means if you want a uniform site (aka a left hand navigation menu present at all times) it will be a lot of work.
i.e. Home page – 3 columns, About Us – none, Category – 2 columns with a right side navigation, etc..
Unless you want to only slightly modify a theme, or basically do a color change, it will be alot of hard work.
There is no ability to easily do a site wide update aside from basic CSS changes and you only have access to change your one custom css file.

* Also certain parts of the site that you cannot access from the admin area (Checkout pages, etc), can only be affected by CSS in a limited way.

If you are not comfortable with CSS, javascript, or web design then the best option would be to hire a web developer with Magento experience to make your theme. If you want your Magento GO theme to have advanced functionality then you will need to hire someone with Magento experience to see if it is possible. Magento GO might be easier to use with a more user friendly back end and some nice GUIs, but in return it is a lot harder to customize.

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Finally, ProStores-Groupon Compatibility

Posted on April 20, 2012 by kevinr

We recently had a client ask us how to allow Groupon promotion codes to work on their ProStore. Since ProStores has a limit of 10 characters for promo codes we had to come up with a work-around so we can allow for the longer Groupon codes to function. Manually adding each Groupon code into the ProStores office was simply not viable. As a result, we’ve developed a better system which allows you to quickly add or even generate random promotional codes compatible with Groupon and other promotional sites just like it!

How does it work? We’ve created a panel which requires only two fields: PromoCode and ProStoresPromoCode. The Promo Code is what the customer enters, the ProStoresPromoCode is the code that’s submitted to ProStores in the background. This means you can have hundreds of unique codes for a single promotions but only need one real ProStores promo code that associates all of them. The ProStores promo code is hidden from the customer on the invoice which keep people from sharing it, avoiding abuse of ProStore’s multiple-use promotions. Our way, each unique promo code can only be used once!

ProStores Groupon Compatibility Product

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Link Building with Social Media

Posted on April 17, 2012 by itsadmin

Do you feel guilty about all that time you’re spending on Facebook and Twitter? If so, I’ve got good news for you. Social media doesn’t have to be a waste of time! If you know what to look for, you can turn your social media sessions into a chance to build some good quality incoming links – and you still get to chat with friends too.
Try these tips for making the most of your time on social networking sites:
1. Watch What People Say About Your Competitors
Set up some search filters in your favourite Twitter client so that you can see who is talking about your competitors, and what they’re saying. This will give you an idea of what sort of promotions your competitors are running, and will help you to find people who are interested in your products. You could turn those people into strong brand advocates.
2. Connect With Journalists
Journalists spend a lot of time on social media, trying to find news, and also looking for case studies, and for subject matter experts. Make friends with journalists on Facebook and Twitter, and build up a good relationship with them. The extra publicity opportunities that this can earn you will be very beneficial.
3. Be Helpful
Lots of people use Twitter to ask for advice and to gather opinions. If you want to establish yourself as a subject matter expert, make an effort to look for those questions and answer them. Set up a Twitter search to find people who are asking questions related to your keywords. Filter out links to avoid getting too many results that are simply promoting their own articles. Spend a few minutes a day answering questions, and you’ll generate a lot of goodwill.
4. Be a Community Member
Join groups on Facebook and LinkedIn, and talk to people. Try to have a presence on other social media sites such as Pinterest, and Quora, and check in periodically. It’s best to pick one or two sites to focus on, so that you don’t spread yourself too thin, but you should still at least have a presence on other sites so that people can connect with you easily. 5. Be Genuine Many big brands make the mistake of using social media as a form of free advertisement, and don’t bother to connect with their fans or followers at all. As a small business owner, or a person trying to build up a strong reputation for themselves, you cannot afford to do this. Some self promotion is OK, but if the only thing you do on social focused sites is advertise, people will get sick of you pretty quickly. To succeed on Facebook and Twitter, try to act naturally. It’s a good idea to avoid touchy subjects such as politics and religion, but it’s still worth joining in with off-topic conversations. Talk about the weather, your favourite TV shows, or your favourite foods. Wish people a happy birthday, answer questions, and tell the occasional joke. That way, when you do come to promote something, people will be more likely to listen to what you have to say, because they feel like they know you.
This post was written by James Harper for social media agency Boom Online Marketing. Click here to find out about their other services.

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Build your Page’s rank with Guest Blog Posts

Posted on April 9, 2012 by itsadmin

As we know, content is king; and will Google’s latest major algorithm revision, nothing will do more for a site’s ranking than a good amount of quality content.

There are several communities popping up all around the internet with the purpose of connecting various Blogs with various Authors (or Bloggers). Usually these exchanges work as follows: you’d request a post for your site and what kind of article you’d like to have written and an author will contact you with the opportunity. What do they get out of it? More content on the internet written by them- indexed by a meta author tag. Author tags are something that is really starting to get rolling with the help of GooglePlus, a way in which an author’s work around the web can be cataloged and shared.

Often times these authors will request that there be a link back to their website on the blog posting, on which the article will appear with a link back to the site it was written for. Reciprocal Linking has never been easier! Going forward, Google is starting to make rich snippets (for example blog articles) a part of Search Result listings. The latest or most relevant posting can appear right under the large link to the Site’s title. This just goes to show how much relevance is getting placed on quality blog articles.

Don’t have a blog? We’d be happy to seamlessly integrate a Word Press blog into your website’s framework, no matter what the platform. Visit our WordPress Plug-in page and get the benefits of a fully integrated blog on your web site!

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Setting Up Fedex Shipping In Magento

Posted on March 28, 2012 by itsadmin

This article goes over Setting Up Fedex Shipping In Magento (Verified Version 1.6.0 CE)

First you will need to contact FedEx and get your account set up, once you do they should provide you with

Account Number
Authentication Key
Meter Number
Password

They may provide you with 2 set of credentials labeled testing and production. Next you will need to go through the Certification process in order to completely use Fedex and print shipping labels. Note: Until you finish the certification process, which involves printing test labels and sending them into Fedex you will be using the Testing Account credentials. Your site Will still receive accurate rates during the certification process but will not be able to print valid shipping labels. Reference FedEx requirements for Web based shipping.

If you have any difficulties or get errors feel free to reference the trouble shooting section below.

Setting Up Fedex in the Magento backend using the Default Options(not using Plugins)

Login to the admin area for your site and Go to System -> configuration
Click on Shipping Methods under Sales in the left hand Menu
In the Fedex area

Set Enabled For Checkout to Yes
Input the account credentials (Use the testing Account information until the certification Process is complete)
Account Id, Meter Number, Password, Key
Set Sandbox Mode to yes
All the other settings in the FedEx area will be specific to your site/business

Click Save Config
Now you should be able to receive Fedex rates from your site. If you do not get rates, then please check your login Credentials and make sure everything is spelled right. If there are still issues getting rates you should contact Fedex to check the information they gave you. Once that is checked have your Magento Programmer/admin look at the site code for possible errors.
Once you are Ceritfied go back to the FedEx Settings and change the information to the Production Account information and Set Sandbox Mode to No

Creating Shipping Labels

From the Orders Area/Invoice click the order number
Click the Ship button in top Row
On the page that loads scroll down and select the create Shipping label checkbox
Choose the packaging type, as well as any other settings you wish to use and then click the Add products button
NOTE: You must put all items in the order into a package in order to create a shipping label, Use the add package button to seperate items into different shipments
Select the items and click add to package
You will be able to select ok Once all items are associated with a package
Once it is successfully created You will have to go back to the shipments area of the Order/Invoice
The following box will now appear
Click Print shipping label and a printable file will be downloaded and opened on your computer.

TroubleShooting FedEx Setup

Common Errors
- The Server the site lives on is not properly configured
- A Dedicated SSL needs to be installed for your site in order for Fedex to function Properly.
- SOAP is not installed or properly configured on the server.
- Fix: Contact your server Administrator and they can perform these updates.
- Please reference this blog article Fedex Shipping in Magento 1.6 for more in depth information.

Errors when Trying to create shipping labels
- Invalid State or Postal Mismatch/Recipient State-Postal mismatch
- Fix: Try clearing the cache in your store, or running the compiliation process. If that doesn’t work then you will most likely need to alter the Magento code in Fedex.php (app/code/core/mage/usa/model/shipping/carrier/fedex.php).
- Suggested Code Additions: add the following code to Fedex.php on line 496
  Mage::log($responseBody); Mage::log($request);
  
  Adding this code and turning on Enable Logging from the back end will help you troubleshoot what the problem is, by sending output to the log.
- This page goes over possible code alterations to fix the Postal code error.

Cache or plugins could be causing the errors, so refreshing the cache or running the recompilation process could fix the issue. If you make changes to the Fedex file, please keep a backup copy of the original.