Oh In ALL The WAYS I Love Word Press - The Shopping Cart Plugin Is The ICING On The Cake!!
You’ve come to know about me that I’m A WP junkie - having spent the last almost year of my life converting all my sites into Word Press Platforms and designing them OVER and OVER Again. Well for one - re-designing myself has re-defined myself over and over again. I live for the possibility that those of you who have been to my blogs and know of the changes are WOW-ed every time. That is one of the most important things that a designer must do for you is give you that WOW factor. If I can’t do it on mine, how can you be confident I can do it on yours? That’s an honest question. So that’s been one reason why I keep re-designing/defining - I can’t keep up with everything!!
Well one thing that I have struggled with is setting up on-site payments. I knew there were plug-ins for SH WP Blogs (self-hosted Word Press Blogs - blogs which are hosted on your domain - not on word press) . I’ve researched several and never (until now) found one that I have liked. Things that are important to me is the ability to provide instant downloads on pre-made products which I will be adding to the site soon.
Another thing that is important to me when ordering custom made designs (and I swear by this because it does dramatically reduce product delivery time on custom products) is the ability for you to add custom instructions to me - in other words, form input while you’re in the process of ordering your custom products to me. Why this is important is because as the client ordering a custom product, I don’t have your ready made product, but I need to know the details of what you are ordering from my site and how you want it. This new ability I have will enable this feature to be available to you - that is going to save us both time, heartache & trouble. Timeliness is important to me because I firmly believe that time is money. I have people that are blown away at how incredibly quick I am - I know how it is to be in your shoes! As a consumer, I know I want my product right away, as soon as possible and I don’t want to wait for a designer/installer/tech to do it on their time - I want it on mine. You want the same. So with this new ability - this is absolutely possible - HALELUJAH!!!!
Another thing you may wonder is why do I specialize & swear my designer life by the Self Hosted Word Press Platform? Because I do test the installations in my cpanel, the fantastico autoinstaller. Blown away by what that is? If you don’t know, then you don’t have cpanel hosting - in such case - fire your host/designer. It is a must have for any professional who is sincere about making an honest living online. I have tested other platforms and on so many levels I go back to SHWP Blogs. For one thing - there is a template out there for just about everything you blog about and if there isn’t and you want one custom designed, well I have done enough work with it that it is my specialty, my preference & my favorite thing to do.
Also, because it is compatible with so many plugins, it is an all around content management solution. In my line of work, I deal mainly with other work at home moms - moms who run online stores. While there is nothing wrong with these stores, that’s not my implication, I do see a link for a blog as an addition to the site. Many moms have the blog and don’t even use it and that is a waste of space for one, or they use the blog more than the store - again, more of a waste of space. Many people use blogger which, while its popular - just as popular, does not give you full domain control - again, a MUST have when you’re running a business online. Yes with blogger, through aname and cname set up you can use blogger for your top level domain - but again, I stand firm, it is still not full domain control in which I must insist upon.
I just prefer the WP Platform as an all around content management solution - there are amazing adaptations out there on the word press site for self-hosted for everything your heart (and blog) desire. You can’t get that with most of the installations in fantastico - but you do with Word Press - it is the most noted, trusted and beloved for top level professionals. If you do need help with these, do contact me to ask for help and I would be happy to help you find anything you may need for your Self-Hosted WP Blog whether it is on your main domain or as a separate site. If you don’t have this and are interested in this, contact me and I can help you determine whether this may be a great solution for you, or not - but chances are it is - less hassle - one site to manage. The “One Ring To Rule Them All” Lord Of The Rings Philosophy.
And if you don’t want your main blog as your main site, you want to display your new catalog hosted on your WP blog as your home page, that can be done to. This will be the solution for me when I get the catalog set up.
Have a great week -
Shanni





















