Virgina Tech Fans UNITE

We recently completed a really fun website design for Volsuion e-commerce - called Gobbler Gear!

If you're a Virginia Tech fan, look no further than Gobbler Gear for Virginia Tech branded apparel, Virginia Tech Hokie Gifts, VT Flags and Banners, and Hokie Collectibles!

These guys are serious about Virginia Tech - as a web designer, I am so thankful they came to us with hexidecimal color codes for the proper Hokie color scheme, information on what we could and couldn't use with regard to the VT Mascot and logo - we were able to get to their design much faster with the information they provided us. Thanks to all at Gobbler Gear for a great website design experience - may you have many customers and sales with your new online store!

AND - We just heard - Gobbler Gear will also have a physical storefront near the Virginia Tech campus! Congrats on all your growth!

Learn more on their website at www.gobblergear.com.

Expanding Services - New E-Commerce Design Platforms Availalb

Well, I'm pretty proud of myself over here - I taught myself how to customize 2 new carts this week. How's that for expanding horizons? :)

I really love it when we take time to figure out how something works - and help someone out - and such was the case in all three of these instances.

While I already had some experience with Core Commerce - (One website - Camo Supply - online boutique carrying hunting, fishing gear and more) and have an opportunity to work on another one right now. This one's cool - it's CANADIAN - and you know how I love those Canadians -( the guys at Attribune )- they helped me with that horrible virus last year. And - this new Core Commerce site sells a really cool product.
Also, helped a colleague with a Channel Advisor store - which once it's live - is going to be GORGEOUS. Can't wait to post a link to it.

Also, customized a very cool E-Bay Company Pro-Stores site. I'll post a link as soon as it's live - but it looks great so far!

I will be adding these services to my schedule of services - likely at the same price as Volusion customization. I haven't completely decided yet, because the features and flexibility of each are so different - it might take doing a few before I really know how much time it will take.

Holidays BLEW by!

I'm sorry I haven't written much lately - the holidays just BLEW BY - and now we're into 2009 already! I've got some great stuff to share about SEO, so I'll have to organize it and post it ASAP for you. Also - some great new sites are now live!

So, look for me to post again this week on some things about natural & organic SEO and the new sites Kari & Co. was working on over the 2008 Holiday!

So far for 2009, I've got a few Volusion customers that I'm working with to help them get their site BE-AU-TI-FIED!

Hope everyone is great, had a GREAT holiday season - and we're looking forward to a successful 2009!!

Beautysak LAUNCHED

A new site (on Volusion e-commerce) launched last week - and I am proud to say I am behind the template, created to mirror the original beautysak.com website. Check it out here: www.beautysak.com. If you need any sort of makeup, skin care products, hair care products or nail polishes - beautysak.com has what you need.

New Sites Launched

Well, we've been working hard over here... and we've launched some new sites.

Just Launched!

Barrett Bronze:
www.barrettbronze.com
Jamie Barrett, of Barrett Studios (a Division of Barrett Bronze, Inc.) creates custom casted replicas, awards, POP displays, 3-D Signage, Liquor Displays, and much more. He's got my dream job! He gets to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC often, as he creates museum quality replicas. They do much more though, check them out!

Diva:
www.divakids.net
Miriam is a distributor of designer kid's clothing. Carrying high-end kid's fashions like Simonetta, Juicy Couture and many others - she's got a physical store in New York, and now has a presence on the web for orders out of the area. Although her website is not an e-commerce site, it is on a CMS (Joomla) that supports a shopping cart, and allows the user to place an 'order' - from which Miriam and her team will work to fill the order, accept payment and arrange shipping. We're still in the process of adding all her great stuff, but that could take some time - as she's got SOOOO much cool stuff!

Casa Irie:
www.casairiecollections.com
Annette owns a consignment boutique in New Jersey - and carries quality consignment items, as well as Rockers It's Dangerous (New Clothing) and her own unique line of hand-painted vases. Now, she's got a manageable CMS (Joomla) with a shopping cart feature - where you can purchase her items online. We're still populating her items too, but she's up and running - and getting her business online!

And last but not least!

Posh Puppy Boutique
www.poshpuppyboutique.com
This is one of my VIP clients for sure - Jen is a master of e-commerce. This is a customized Volusion template, and she carries designer and unique doggy doo-dads. Check it out, and get your pup some posh prizes!


Coming Soon:

• Charla Glass Interiors
• Barrett Environmental

Open Source CMS, is it right for you?

Coming Soon! OPEN SOURCE CMS: Is that what you need?

E-Commerce Solutions

Need to sell your stuff online? There's so many options available, I thought I'd share some of my experience.

Depending on:
1/How many products you have to sell
2/Your budget
3/Your hosting arrangements (do you already have a website hosted?)
4/Your reporting and management needs

I have several systems that I've worked with now, that I can categorize to best make a suggestion to how you should choose.

If you are looking for great reporting and support, as well as a hosted solution (that is, you don't have a dedicated host for your website), I highly recommend Volusion, a hosted e-commerce solution that is fully customizable, with GREAT support, and GREAT reporting. With Volusion, you'll pay for hosting, and (maybe) your domain, and you can also sign up for a SSL certificate (Secure Socket Layer) and a merchant account + gateway (to accept credit card payments) all in one swoop. With this solution, you'll choose different packages depending on how many products you sell.

If you already have a hosting account, and you're on a tighter budget, you can always opt for an Open Source (Free, under the GPL License) product like Zen Cart, or OS Commerce. Another option, is to go with a CMS (Content Management System) like Joomla, and install a shopping cart component to go with it, like Virtue Mart. All of these options are 'free', but since they are so, the support is more of a 'community' of people who work with these applications. While they all work great, once installed and configured, they do require a little more learning on your part, as the end user. They are also customizable with template structure, and can be managed by you.

There are thousands of other applications and programs out there, but these, so far - have proven the most efficient for managing and selling products. If you can afford to go Volusion - I do recommend it highly because of their awesome support staff.

Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns - we'll be happy to be candid with our experiences in this arena.

Happy Selling!