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Introduction


Proper introduction to come shortly





eCommerce


E-commerce 101 - articles on e-commerce and on web design. Recommended.


A friend wants with a small business wants a secure on-line presence, what to do ?

First off, look over these online guides...



For now, while I look at various options, I'll list various companies that offer professional web sites, including the option for card transactions. This is absolutely no way endorses any of the following, hmmm...
Virginbiz This is an advert I was emailed, so I wandered over for a look-see. If your an American I'd say it's worth some consideration, for the rest of us, well they need to get global, I reckon. Anyway...

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In today's issue, get all the information you need to start making money. GoEmerchant has exclusive tools and solutions for all your e-commerce needs.

For more information: The Best eCommerce Plan on the 'Net (if you live in America)





eCommerce and site design


In an open question on one of the forums I haunt was a request for help from a small business owner. His products are garage diagnosis tools or similar and he had some programming skills, but in another field. Pretty much, he had a small website which I believe come with the company he took over. (I'm glossing over here). He wasn't happy with the site, and liked the web designer less...

Anyway, after I'd replied I decided that his case was similar to ones faced by thousands of place businesses every single day; indeed I've had similar question posed to me also...
Get at new web designer ? Wipe it and start again ? Do it myself ? What about eCommerce ?

With no further ado, here's my answer. If I remember I'll put a link in to the posting.


Website
First off, the existing [supposedly professionally designed] website. I'm old and grumpy so I don't do "gentle" - I think it's b' awful. I could write a better one in half an hour.

The colours are off, especially that red background, the page isn't centred, nor optimised and it's riddled with browser specific code. (If IE 6 do this, else...) Blah! I won't comment on the flash logo at the start! Then there's the HTML itself... I could go on, but I won't.

Heck, there's only a few pages. Just ask and I'll do it for free, unconditionally so, put that out it's misery!

Back to the questions at hand.


Coding
You are a programmer, learn HTML. You could probably pick it up the basics in a day.
Use a text editor for the coding, I use the shareware Textpad for virtually everything myself, but there's plenty of others.

Then look at validator like CSE HMTLValidator, which has a 30 day trial. It rocks. It is an editor itself, but many members here probably use it to check their code.

Similarly, and as soon as possible, learn about CSS. Again, Bradsoft's TopStyle is extremely highly rated and there is a free 'lite' edition.

Graphics wise, you'll never find anyone fault PaintShopShop at the price. Now part of Corel, but there is still a 30 day trial.

Later on, if you see the worth, by all means look at Macromedia's Dreamweaver MX or the full MX Studio which, in my opinion, is much better value.


Hosting & ECommerce
Can't help with suggesting a specific host as I live on the wrong side of the Atlantic, but you've had good advice on what to look for.

Whether to go with a Windows or Linux at the server is a personal choice, though I prefer the latter. Both have the database support you need. Just make sure your host lets you use it Smiley Smile! Budget ones don't have this basic option. Also, others charge extra for the ASP option.

Ecommerce wise, (beyond the card charge issue), this is a whole new ball court, and not my speciality (yet). Better ISP's will have business class accounts with eCommerce and SSL built in. VeriSign is a good site to look over for more information. You should also talk to your bank/credit card company over this, but there are other online card validation options.

Codewise you can do it yourself in PHP or ASP or use an off-the-shelf ECommerce package; there are many.

The trickier aspect, as Amazon and others will affirm to their cost, is the legal side. Others will know better, but I believe that if you mess up the prices - like missing a nought - they are legally binding. New Ferrari for $4,000 ? I'll order a thousand! Actually is was digital cameras that I recall, but you get the gist.

Related, and always a concern, if you use a less that adequate option and some low-life cracker has it away with all your customers credit card details...   * What can I say, I'm paranoid Smiley Smile! *

Websites of interest include...

Verisign's (pdf) guide to eCommerce

Another point to consider, beyond those mentioned is bandwidth.

What extra's do they have...
CGI bins ? Site submission* ? Spam filters ?


Site Promotion
There's lots of experts on this here.
High Rankings is a brilliant site for this topic too.


My thoughts?
If you build it, they will come. Not a chance! Takes blood, sweat and tears, matey Smiley Smile!
Seriously, you need:

A good product, which you appear to have.
A decent, easily navigatable layout and design.
Tight, appropriate code... This is is from optimised "meta's" and "alt" tag to cross browser compatibility
Updated regularly. For both visitors and search engine spiders.
Regularly submitted to the top search engines (Every six weeks is considered good)

Basically, in my opinion and experience, if a site looks grotty, people won't come back and if you mess up the code side - usually folk trying to be 'clever' - then the search engines avoid you.
SEO is a moving target though, as they happily tell you.


Hope this helps.

(And yes, I meant the offer [to build the site for free] at the top!)



eCommerce Software Development packages

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Actinic - Looking into now

Astrosell - OK, the the low end isn't very configurable
"Astrosell Support must be purchased on a per-incident basis. There is no free support period after initial purchase."
I translate that as meaning our software is reasonably priced, but we'll charge an arm and a leg if you get stuck Smiley Smile!

Commerge-CGI - Free PERL shopping Cart script
"Commerce.cgi is a full shopping cart system complete with a browser based store manager for adding, editing, and deleting products from your inventory. Pages are dynamically created from a flat file database. It also includes support for a wide selection of online credit card processors, or you can choose offline order processing." Playing with at the moment, see how good it is.

EROL's. - One to miss, for me. I couldn't even get the trial to run properly!

IBS eCommerce Templates - Shopping cart software for Dreamweaver, Frontpage and GoLive templates

Miva

Netobjects - Looks interesting

osCommerce
osCommerce, formerly titled The Exchange Project, is a feature packed out-of-the-box online shop ecommerce solution for both PHP3 and PHP4 web servers. Maintenance is made easy with a friendly GUI thats given to the Administration Tool.

phPay
phPay is an e-commerce-, webshop- and catalogsystem for PHP4 & MySQL. Features: no cookies, discounts, usrgroups, easy to admin & design, multiple currencies, stock-tracking; support for dansk, english, french, german, spanish included

Salescart - Hmmm. Looked over the site. Not impressed, myself.


eCommerce card and payment facilitators

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2CheckOut

Barclaycard EPDQ

DataCash

NetBanx

NoChex

Paypal

Protx

Secure Trading

SecPay

Verisign PayPro

WorldPay