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

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.

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!

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)

1. Login to the admin area for your site and Go to System -> configuration
2. Click on Shipping Methods under Sales in the left hand Menu
3. 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
• 
4. Click Save Config
5. 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.
6. 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

1. From the Orders Area/Invoice click the order number
2. Click the Ship button in top Row
3. On the page that loads scroll down and select the create Shipping label checkbox
4. Choose the packaging type, as well as any other settings you wish to use and then click the Add products button
5. 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
6. Select the items and click add to package
   
7. You will be able to select ok Once all items are associated with a package
8. Once it is successfully created You will have to go back to the shipments area of the Order/Invoice
9. The following box will now appear
   
10. Click Print shipping label and a printable file will be downloaded and opened on your computer.

TroubleShooting FedEx Setup

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.

There is a lot of buzz lately about microformatting and microtagging, with google reporting new search strategies. What it basically means is you have to update your code to feature new markup. If you sell products online, it is something that is already taking effect with google “Rich Snippet Data”. A good example of this is products featured with ratings from google shopping. A rich snippet usually contains a picture, a review, and a brief description of a product. Another example of rich snippets is movie showtimes which show uhawwp in searches for movie titles.



Google makes finding rich snippets on your site easy with their Rich Snippets Testing Tool. Here you can test to see whether your product is showing up as a rich snippet, and whether there is any microformatting being done on your page. A great place to start is by creating rel=”author” links for your articles. In fact, do a google search for “rel=author tag”, and you will see rich snippets and microtagging in action.

We have decided to start offering authorship tagging and product microformat tagging for prostores. Here is a link to our product:

Mobile Template Install Case Study:

This screenshot graphs the month-to-month mobile transactions between installing our custom mobile templates onto a client’s ProStore. You’ll notice revenue more than doubled and Transactions almost tripled. Not only that, the E-Commerce conversion rate rose considerably- More mobile visitors are making purchases once visiting the site. If you operate a ProStore and have not yet installed our Custom Mobile Templates, we strongly recommend it- it is an investment that pays for itself immediately!

Follow these easy steps to experience a higher level of E-Commerce success: 1. Visit our Mobile Templates Product Page.
2. Buy the Templates
3. Let us know if you’d like any customizations on the install
4. Watch your orders increase!

Check out this infographic that illustrates the current trends in shopping online from mobile devices. http://tag.microsoft.com/libraries/old_blogs/the-intelligent-shopper.sflb.ashx

Shopping habits are changing: 51% of smart phone users are more likely to purchase from retailers with a mobile specific website: however only 4/8% of retailers have a mobile site!

Its a no-brainer! Join the Mobile Commerce Revolution!

This page will go over how to use our support ticketing system. Which is the best way to communicate with us about any work we are doing, or that you want done on your site.

Go to http://support.intuitsolutions.net/

Login with the username and password we provide.

From the main user screen

• Show Open Issues
  1. Click on As submitter (note if you have no open tickets then you should use Submit issue)
  2. Click on the open ticket number/subject that you wish to view
  3. 
  4. Click on the Add note button at the top or bottom of the page, if you need to make any updates or inquire about the current project
  5. 

---

• Submit Issue

  – You should only use this link if you do not have any open tickets. Fill out as much information as possible, describing your request/issues in detail.

• 
• 
• Once you hit submit the ticket will be created and will be assigned to a programmer who will begin the work as soon as they are able to.

---

• Search Issues (useful to reference work that has been completed)

  1. Here you can look up/reference any past issues that are linked to your account.
  2. Fill out any search options you wish to use. Subject, Date opened and date closed are probably the most useful fields to search.
  3. If you leave all fields blank then you will see a list of all tickets you have submitted.
  4. Also you can not reopen past tickets, if you need additional work done on a past ticket then please submit an issue referencing the old ticket number(ie. Issue# 12345 follow up).

  

  5. Click on the appropriate ticket you wish to view
  6. 

• Lookup Issue #

  This is a good option if you know the exact ticket number of the old ticket you wish to view

• Just Type in the number and click submit, if the number is valid the ticket will be displayed.

Instructions for Use of IntuitSolutions Landing Page optimizer for ProStores

The Landing Page Optimizer has been installed onto your ProStores site as a static template page. To access this page to make edits: Log into your ProStores back-end Navigate to Store Design > Page Template Manager, Select the current Store Version from the drop-down menu at the top, and find the ‘Category Description’ template under Other category- towards the bottom.

Here, be sure to copy all of the text from the template and paste it into a Text Editor: such as TextEditor or Sublime Text, NOT Microsoft Word or Works

Back up this file as-is to ensure that nothing gets lost in the edits that you’re about to make.

Category and Subcategory On-Page Information

Level 1 Category

Towards the top of this template, you will see the following lines of code wrapped the SS:WHEN tag:

Change the words ‘Level 1 Category Name’ to the Category you’d like to edit Exactly how it is named: Capitalization and spaces included. In the line beneath you’ll see that this changes the Header (h1) for the page. Fill in what you;d like the header for this category page to be into the double quotes after value=.
Follow the same procedure as above in the value next to the “description” set to add description text under the Category Heading. This text should include key phrases and strong tags for Optimal search engine performance.

To add additional entries for Categories: Copy the block above: From The open SS:WHEN TEST to the closing SS:WHEN. Paste the block beneath for the new entry. We strongly recommend you leave the same indent structure as the entry above, for organization, readability, and usability.

Level 2 categories AKA SubCategories

You will notice a subcategory section of this template directly beneath the Level 1 categories. It functions the same way as the Level 1 Categories described above.
Now, where it says ‘Main Category:Sub Category’, enter Level 1 categories and level 2 categories separated by a : (colon). Again, these must be entered exactly as they were named in the store- Capital letters and spaces included. Follow the instructions above in filling in the SubCategory pages’ on page titles and description text.

Additional entries for Subcategories must be entered the same way- Copy the subcategory block from The open SS:WHEN TEST to the closing SS:WHEN. Paste the block beneath for the new entry. We strongly recommend you leave the same indent structure as the entry above, for organization, readability, and usability.

*Important Note: Any changes or additions to your category structure must be carried over to this template for congruency. This template takes existing category pages by name and assigns information to the top of their pages. If the name is gone or changed, this information has nowhere to go.

Case Study: Sales by Mobile Customers and Mobile conversion rates nearly doubled since installing our Custom ProStores Mobile Templates

Below is a screenshot taken from Analytics of purchases from mobile devices. The Blue line on the graph represents day-to-day transactions made on all mobile devices starting with the day the Mobile Templates were installed. The green line represents transactions made on mobile before the templates were installed.

Though # of visits only rose slightly between the 2 time periods, Revenue and Transactions from mobile visitors nearly doubled. Our Custom Mobile Template Installation on ANY given ProStore pays for itself almost instantly. It’s a no brainer! If you have a ProStore don’t hesitate and go Mobile. Check out our Custom Mobile Templates.

IntuitSolutions Webmail Basics

This page will go over the various options in Plesk Webmail. Most Customers will only ever have to worry about/use the Mail, My Account, and Options Sections.

The interface is very user friendly and simple to use, which is why this article deals only with where to update the settings on your email account. IMPORTANT: Plesk comes with a built in Help Documentation. Just click the Help Icon at the top the screen and all the relevant information about the page you are on will be displayed in a new window.

*How To Empty Your Mailbox*

• -To ensure that your email continues to function, you must select the Purge Deleted option from the menu.
• -Until you do so the deleted mails will remain in your account and contribute to your total disk space. Which could cause your email to stop working if the max limit is reached.
• -You Will also want to do delete, and then purge deleted on any mails stored in your sent items folder

Under Options/Global Options

1. Personal Information – Here you can update the name attached to your email account
2. Display Options – Here you can choose the various webmail settings including which screen to load after you login. (you may wish to change to Mail)



3. Locale and Time – Set the language of the program as well as the time and date settings

Address Book and Calendar

Should you want to use these features you can set the various related settings in these sections

Filters

1. If there are no active filters click Filter Rules
2. Here is where you can create Filters for email.

Mail Options

1. Personal Information

2. This is a more in depth Options area than what is Under Global Options and has more settings that deal with email

3. Message Options

4. You can change any of the settings in this area
5. The only section that you should definitely look at is Deleting and Moving Messages. By default Plesk doesn’t have a trash folder, so any deleted message will appear with a slash through it. In this section you can tell the system to use virtual trash or Create a trash folder.



6. Other Options

7. The Filters section is where you setup how your filters function (if you are using filters), Mailbox and Folder Display Options you may wish to alter as well

Notes, Calendar and Address Book

These are the same standard features most Email programs have and you can use them if you wish.

How to Change your Email Password

1. On the Left Menu, click My account then password
2. Fill out the Fields with your old Password and what you want it changed to and then click Change Password

Need to change the setting for something else that you do not see an option for in Webmail? Then you need to contact your email administrator to make the appropriate change and see if that function is available