New to WahmShoppes - Now What?

You just received your site setup email from Tony and now you need to know what to do. Here is a quick little tutorial on what steps to take and to help explain in terms that WAHM`s can understand.

FIRST - Print our your email and file it in a safe place. It has all your login information. Do not rely on it to stay in your computer, computers crash!

Decide if you will use a FTP client to upload pages, publish from a website design program, or if you will use basic html to work on your site directly in the featured cart.

Now you are probably sitting there and saying "What the heck is she talking about?"

Don't worry I did the same thing, lets take a step back and explain a few things.

What Does Everything in the Setup Email Mean?

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol - A way of transferring files over the Internet from one computer to another.

Some popular FTP clients are cuteFTP or WS_FTP, you can download cuteFTP direct from cuteFTP.com at http://www.cuteftp.com/cuteftp/

The download has a free trial and costs $39.99 after the first 30 days.
WS_FTP can be downloaded from IPSwitch at http://www.ipswitch.com/products/ws_ftp/home/index.html

The download has a free trial and costs $34.95 without the service agreement.

Website Design Programs - Such as Microsoft's Front Page or Dreamweaver. Both of these can be obtained easily on the web but cost quite a bit of money and have a HUGE learning curve.
You will really only need this as an option if you plan on designing this site yourself and using mode 4.

If you will be using modes 1, 2, or 3 then you will not need either the FTP client or a Website Publisher.
You will be able to work on your site directly in the featured cart (the control panel for the store).

Important Links and URL's

Save these important website url's into your favorites. You can easily get into them all through your host contoller but I have found it much easier to have them all in my favorites and only have to log into each one depending on what I am working on.

Here is a quick explanation of what you have access to:

Cut and paste the following urls replacing the text in red with your website name less any spaces. Example if your website is Gidgets R Us but your website url is www.gidgetsrus.com then just replace the red text with gidgetsrus.

http://www.your website name goes here.com/admin/
This is what I refer to as your Host Controller - Says Control Panel Login.
This is your main login for your website, like I said everything can be reached from here but requires you to login to the host controller then into each individual feature.

http://www.your website name goes here.com/store/setup.asp
This is your feature cart setup and maintenance for your eStore

http://mail.your website name goes here.com:32000/accounts
This is the Merak Mail Server email administrator. This is where you can create additional email names. The login for this is in your setup email under initial email Address. Do not ever delete this initial email address as that is the only way to login, if you delete it you will not be able to get back in.

http://mail.your website name goes here.com:32000/mail/
This is your Icewarp web mail program. Here is where you can read and reply to your email, you can not do that in the merak mail administrator. I HIGHLY suggest that you setup your email to go through outlook professional or outlook express because web mail is not stable and is stored out in cyber space. Email read and replied to through outlook or outlook express can be stored on your computer and thus can be backed up. You can also organize your mail into folders, and set up auto responders, and filters. You can have all of your websites email alias' come to the same box so you only have one place to check email, and choose which email you use as the reply to in one easy click.

Now that you have an idea of what everything is, you are ready to get started.

Installing your Estore

If you want to install the eStore you will need to install it first. Go to your host controller and login. Click on eStore in the left hand navigation panel and then click on install.

Note: You have two seperate things with wahm shoppes. You have a website page that will open into your eStore. Some people like to bypass the main web page and open straight in the eStore. This can be accomplished by clicking on the redirect option under configuration > website home page.

What do the different modes mean?

Now let's decide what mode you are going to work in.

Mode 1 - If you have never done anything in regards to building a website, and do not have the knowledge to make your own banner, buttons or backgrounds then this is the mode for you. This will let you select a theme, customize it with your website name and category names, and does not require any html knowledge at all. Great for the beginner.

Mode 2 - If you have a banner, buttons or backgrounds or have the know how on doing this, then this is the mode for you.

Mode 3 - This is very similar to mode two except you need to have some basic html knowledge to do the top banner template and main splash template.

Mode 4 - If you have extensive html knowledge and a full website template this would be the mode you would work in. Caution, this is NOT for beginners. It is best to start in mode 1 and work your way up. It took me a whole year to move to mode 4. You will need to include the appropriate %TAGS% for the database driven portion of the store.  

WahmPro can help you create a unique one of a kind Mode 4 template, see our Web design Services.

If you are in doubt of your knowledge and what mode to start in, then I HIGHLY suggest you start in mode 1.

This will enable you to get the basic info in, setup your payments, shipping, and add your pictures and products. You can worry about the design aspect later, and easily switch to any other mode without losing all that information.

Building Your E-Store

Now you can start building your store.
Log into the featured cart manager and click on configuration. You will see three things there:

1. website homepage

2. master store mode

3. miscellaneous box

Website homepage - is the website main page I referred to above, that is your home page that will open up into your store. For now lets go there and set up the basic info. This is where you can select your page background, font color, and company logo. You will need to click on the "upload logos, banners, and background" link first to upload the graphics so that they show up in the dropdown.
You can leave the html markup section empty, or use that section for additional text.  The html markup section can also be used as a method of adding a full html home page (an advanced feature that requires extensive html knowledge).

Master Store Mode - Now to add information into the eStore section click on configuration again, and now this time go to the master store mode section. For example I am going to work off of mode 1 because this is the easiest for beginners, and most of these items are also in the other modes.
You will see that mode 1 is pre-set and the Frames - Themes is highlighted in red. That confirms you are in mode 1.

Now in the master settings section you can choose your font styles, colors, and what links show in your left hand bar. Go ahead and choose the "use text" selection unless you have buttons already made, and uploaded for them. Slowly go through the list and make your choices to customize your store.

Miscellaneous Section - Under configuration if you go into the miscellaneous section this is where you will see:

• general configurations

• customize store messages

• customize store terminology

• your auctions (is not active right now)

• wish world gift registry (also not active)

• postcard admin

• forum (use the forum available in your host controller)

• site submitter

• edit page hit counter

The only ones you really need to worry about to get started are the first three.

Other basic things to set up to get your paqe started, without having to worry about design just yet, is to click on payments and select if you will be using the internal payment setup (the easiest for beginners) or mals. FYI - I use internal and have no reason to use Mals.

You will also want to set up your categories, sub categories, and then add products. The site is designed to not show the category button unless there is a product stocked there.

I hope that is enough information to get you started and feel free to contact me at any time with questions.

My last tip of advice is to click on every link in the featured cart and become familiar with what it is and what it does, it is the only way to fully grasp the setup.

Good luck and happy website building.

Kristi

www.wahmpro.com