Archive for September, 2008

Downloading the StoreBuilder Software

September 28th 2008

There’s a feature that few know about. After many hours with customer service, I got it working, so I decided to post this here.

You can download the StoreBuilder software which is the shopping cart guts, so to speak. If you install it on another host, you can run your store from there. Or you can just run it on your local computer (not sure why you would want to).

I played around with this hoping I could generate html pages that I could FTP to a new site. But it doesn’t work that way; the software is the actual server that generates your site, so it has to be installed on a new server.

To download it:
Log into your StoresOnline storebuilder site.
Click on Account
Click on Merchant Services
Click on Other/Misc.
Click on Pro Download

Follow the instructions for downloading and installing.

Now here’s the part that I learned.

In order for it to run properly, you have to ask customer service to send you a license file.
They will email you the file. It will be called StoresOnline.license. When you get it, put it in the config subfolder of where you installed it. If you took the defaults on installation, it will be c:/program files/storesonlinepro/config. Tip: if you don’t remember, you can look at the properties of the shortcut. In Windows, click on Start/All Programs/StoresOnlinePro/ then right-click on Configuration and choose Properties. What it shows under “start in” is the path of the config directory.
Follow the instructions to log in, but, and here’s the important part, use the original password supplied by StoresOnline before you changed it to your own password. It will be listed on your license agreement you got in your welcome set.
The StoreBuilder looks exactly the same as the vanilla version of the one online. You have to rebuild your store (you can probably export products from the online storebuilder and import them into your local storebuilder).
When you click Publish, it creates a .jar file in C:\Program Files\StoresOnlinePro\files\export\9999XXX\(your license #)\publish. Note that 9999 will be the first four digits of your license number.

The jar file is like a zip file. I had hoped that uploading the jar file to a server would let me run the site on another host, but it doesn’t work that way. I assume the software uses the jar file to display your site.

You can follow the instructions to view the published site.

Tip: if you don’t have the instructions anymore, you can still get to them. Go under your start menu/All Programs/StoresOnlinePro/Readme.

I hope this info. is helpful.

Posted by susb8383 under StoresOnline Review | No Comments »

New Store on Zen Cart

September 28th 2008

Even though the StoresOnline thing didn’t work for me, I haven’t given up on the idea of selling things on the internet. On to plan B…

I decided to put up a new store using Zen Cart and sell something totally different.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, Zen Cart is shopping cart software that is open source. This means it is absolutely free. I like free. And it has an enormous support base.

My webhost (A Small Orange) lets me install it with just a couple of clicks, which is what I did.

I must admit that the setup after install took me a couple of months. Some time I’ll post the specific steps I took.

But now my site is up: Critter Wheels. It’s a site that sells exercise wheels for small pets. Since I have pets rats (Priscilla, Hoot, & Annie), these items are near and dear to my heart.

So, I think it’s a nice little site. It loads quickly; I made it red because I read on a post that red is a color that makes people want to buy.

I’m buying traffic using Google Adwords.

So here’s my numbers:
It has been live for 9 days
I’ve had 21 people click on my ad
I’ve 12 or more people get to my site in other ways
I’m competitively priced with other sites

You know how many sales I’ve had?
0.

D’oh!

Why?
No idea.

But I really want to find out. My next step to try to put up an exit survey which I will post about separately.

Posted by susb8383 under My Zen Cart Store | 1 Comment »

RoboForm—Cool Password Manager

September 6th 2008

If you’re like me, you have multiple websites that you log into. We have a few different bank accounts (business, personal savings, personal checking, online personal checking with a higher interest rate, and an old personal checking that I never bothered closing).

I also have multiple affiliate network accounts, credit card accounts, and then random sites like the library catalog, paypal, ebay, my mortgage company, phone, electric, not to mention my webhosts and blog admins.

Wow, I just counted how many links to some kind of login page I have on my home page. There are 53!

In the past, I’m embarrassed to say I’ve used the same password for all of them. I know for security reasons, I should be using a different one for each. But 53 passwords is a lot to remember.

Aha! For Christmas, my dad gave us a subscription to Consumer Reports. A recent issue was all about online security, and through it I found there’s software that will manage all my passwords called RoboForm.

It’s really cool! Every password and username is stored 100% securely in an encrypted file on your computer. And it has a feature called auto login.

You can set up a record for everything you log into, and then with a single click it will automatically go to that webpage and log in you in securely. Yup, your password is kept totally secure though encryption.

And this way you can use their password generator to come up with a random password for each site.

This software has been around for years. And it comes highly recommended:

“Top 25 Products We Can’t Live Without”—PC World “The Best of 2003 — Most Practical Program. I highly recommend it.”—CNET “Best web enhancement.”—SIA People’s Choice Award “RoboForm has long been a leader in the field of password management and form filling software.”—MorningStar Advisor

The list goes on.

They make a free trial version (30 days only, limited number of websites) and a full-blown unlimited version for 29.95.

I started with the free trial.

When you run the software, it puts the RoboForm toolbar on your browser.

What to do then, I’ll admit, isn’t so intuitive. I tried to enter my own login record with url, username, and password but couldn’t find a way to do this. Then I looked at the tutorial. Turns out it’s a lot simplier—just navigate to any website and then log in. A popup comes up asking if you want to add it to your RoboForm records.

I also got a little screwed up from the password generator. The first thing I did was generate a random password, click on Copy to Clipboard, then changed my credit card account password to that. But I found that when I closed the password generator and tried to update my Roboform record with the new password, it was already gone from my clipboard. I guess Roboform cleared my clipboard for security reasons, but now I changed my password in my credit card account to something that I didn’t remember.

So here’s a tip: when you generate a new password, open Notepad or Textedit and paste it before you change it on any account. Don’t save the file; just use it for a temporary holding place until you’ve updated your RoboForm record for that account.

In addition to being a password manager, Roboform is also a web form fill-in program. This is similar to the autofill feature of the Google toolbar, but the difference is that the information RoboForm uses is stored 100% securely using encryption. This means you can feel safe to put your bank account number or credit card number in the data it uses when it does its autofill.

Another cool feature they have: RoboForm lets you save encrypted random notes. So even if you don’t have a website for logging in, you can create a note to yourself with your pin number or library card number, etc.

Oh, and if you’re worried that you won’t be able to log in if you have to use another computer, just use their feature to print out a report of all your passwords and then store it in a safe place away from your computer, like inside a book on a shelf. The latest word on security is that a piece of paper hidden in a safe spot in your home is very secure. After all, how many people break into your home to get your computer passwords? Not many.

I started with the free version, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to upgrade to the paid version soon. I also immediately became an affiliate for them. Ok, so now I have 54 places to log in. Definitely need the full-blow version.

I’m really excited about this product. Can you tell?

Here are a couple of links:
RoboForm free download.
RoboForm Pro.

Addendum: It’s now about two months later and I don’t know how I ever lived without this product. Not only can I easily use different passwords for all of my sites, but it also saves me time logging in. I just click one link and it goes to the page, fills in my username and password, and submits.

I still love it!

Posted by susb8383 under Recommended Products | No Comments »