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Personnalize your store-blog

By Alexandre Wednesday, January 13 2010 - User's guide

If you want to have your own webdesign, you can create it by using the tools availables from you back-office. There are two ways to create your template : the easy one, and the advanced one.

In this post, we'll see how to make an easy template.

Choose your template from our default list

To select a theme on which to build your own one, you have to go to "Blog Aspect" > "Themes gallery" in your backoffice.

Here, you can choose one of approximately 40 themes to start your webdesign. Just click on the theme you want, and click "Use this theme" (in the right column)

Now, go on your public website (if you want to be fast, simply click "view site" in the top-right of your back-office page). If the theme is what you want, and illustrates what you sell to your satisfaction, you can keep it as it is... But if you want to personnalize the theme a little more, just read the following !

Use you own banner on the top of your website

You can upload an image to use it as a banner for your website. Click on "Banner" (notice we're still in "Blog aspect") to see the upload form :

Here, you have to choose the picture from your computer, which will replace the default banner on the site. If you want to create your own one, click "Get template image" and choose a picture that fits with your theme.

After choosing your image, click on "save", and look at your website to see if the banner is well integrated. If you used the same sizes as the default one, you shouldn't have any problem.

CSS styles customization

If you want to personnalize your blog-store a little more, and without writing any line of html or css code, you can use this great tool :
Customize style of your blog store

With the Styles Customization, you will be able to build your webdesign with a real-time view of what you're doing.

You can change many little things, like the colour of the background parts of your template, or the size of the fonts of your navigation bar, etc..

You just have to select the parts you want to change, and be careful that you are editing the good page.

You can navigate in the frame to change all the elements you want, like the background color of the body of the page, the position of the banner in the top, the color of the name of your site, etc... Once you choose the element you want to edit from the style list, you have to change its properties.

Then, click on "Save" to confirm the changes of your theme, and go on the public side of your website to admirate your improvements !

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Create a good contact page

By Alexandre Monday, November 30 2009 - e-commerce tips

A contact page is a very important section of your store : it is the area where your visitors can interact with you. If we look at several websites, we see that a lot of contact pages are neglected, and this is a very bad mistake. In this post, you'll learn some practical applications to create an efficient contact page.

Be trustworthy

To encourage your users to contact you, you have to create a trustworthy environment. Remind them that you are here to listen to them, and that you'll answer all their questions. If you can't answer quickly, don't hesitate to tell them the reason why you cannot respond immediately.

You should also quickly remind who you are, and why not add a photo of you to humanize the relation between the users and your website.

Dont' forget to add something about privacy policy : as we all don't want to receive spam, or e-mails we don't expect, you have to tell us that our informations will be kept confidential.

Describe the reasons why we should contact you

Remind your users what the goals of your contact page are : to ask you a question about some products ? ask about an order ? Or to give you some advices to improve your website ?
After a little time, make a synopsis of the main questions we ask you, write a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) and add a link to it in your page.

And if you see recurring questions several times, the maybe something on your website needs improving...

Give additionnal informations

Don't forget to add some useful informations on your contact page :

- The postal address of your firm
- Your phone number, and the hours we can contact you
- An additionnal e-mail address
- A fax number if you have one

And now... Answer !

At the start of your website, you should answer to each of the questions, the quicker the better. If you have the same questions in the same day, don't forget to use your blog to make a collective answer, it will take you less time than individual answers.

Some good examples of efficient Contact Pages

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5 good reasons to use a blog for your e-commerce

By Alexandre Wednesday, November 4 2009 - e-commerce tips

blog e-commerce

By definition, a blog is a website where all the entries are classified in non chronological order. The last entry is the first thing you see. It was originally made to create an online "diary", and a lot of people like to use it to tell about their personnal life. But, as we will see in this post, you can make a better use of it for a real online business...

1. Your blog creates a good relationship with your visitors

When you manage a blog, you show to your visitors there is a human being behind the computer. Your website is not just a "stupid script" anymore. With a blog, you can speak directly to your users, and they can answer to you, using the comments.

Take the time to make interesting blog posts, with, for example, some free advice and tips, and you 'll create a tribe around your products. And, for a successful e-commerce, having a tribe of customers is very important and useful. If you want to know more about how to create a tribe, and its benefits on an online business, I invite you to buy and read "Tribes : We Need You To Lead Us", from a very famous marketing Guru, Seth Godin.

» You can buy "Tribes" here

2. Your blog helps your website to be easily seen on search engines

The other main advantage to edit a blog : it will help your site to be seen on search engines. Why ? For 3 main reasons :

- When you add a blog post, you refresh your homepage. And it is important to show to search engines that your website is "alive". Search engines like textual contents, and with the blog, you can feed them every weeks.
- To be well seen, you have to write about your thematics, and add interesting keywords related to what you sell.
- By writing interesting posts, you will probably obtain some links from other blogs who likes your content. And, as we will see in a further post, having a lot of external links is crucial for your SEO.

3. Your blog is a good way to have feedback

With a blog, you can have a real-time feedback of your online activity.
If one of your offers is not clear, or if someone doesn't understand something on your website, you'll be quickly informed about what is confusing with your business - if you have not locked the comment fields, obviously !

4. Your blog is a good sales events tool

As we have already seen ( don't close your store if you go on holidays ) you can, sometimes (not every week !), use your blog to create a "mini sales event". For example, you can propose a promotional code or some free goodies for the first 10 replies of your last post. And if you relay it with many social tools, you can easily make a little buzz, and increase your popularity very quickly.

5. Your blog is reflecting the health of your business

By writing some news about your activity, about your products, or about you, you'll show that your business is in good health. It is important to make frequent updates, for instance if someone wants to buy, he wants to know if your offers are still valid. But you have to be regular, and post at least once a week, because on the contrary people could think that your website is abandonned !

So, now, what should you do ?

In the first instance, you should think about what you want to write exactly in your blog. Define your editorial line, think about 3 or 4 first categories to create, and begin to write some articles in each of them.

For example :

- "News of our business" or "Our news" : in this category, you'll speak about official news of your firm. Did you recruit someone ? Will you sell a new product range ? Will you open an other shop ? Tell us, we want to know !
- "Our products, our passion" : in this category, you'll write about your products, and why you are passionate about them. If you're not passionate about your products, let someone else speak about it, invite your customers to write about it. And if no one is passionate about your products... find an original way to speak about it !
- "Customer testimonials" or "Customers feedback" : in this category, you'll write on what your customers said about you. Don't hesitate to publish a thank-you letter as soon as you receive it, for example...

Obviously, try to find better titles than these examples for your categories : if you can create them with some relevant keywords it will be very good for your Search Engine Optimization.

Next time, we'll see in practical terms how to create posts on your blog and how to write for the web.