From the Desk of Asif Nawaz

Hundreds of webmasters and webdesigners choose to use ZenCart of OSCart to set up their or their clients’ stores on the web.  I myself have setup quite a few shopping stores, and I’m here to tell you that using OS Cart or Zencart just because they are free is not always the best decision.

My personal item of choice is eCommerce Templates.  It’s not free, but it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg, and it will get you everything you need for a shopping store, in probably half the time as OSCart & ZenCart will. 

I’ve recently spent some time trying to play with and configure both ZenCart and OSCart, and they’re both quite a mess.  The support is sketchy for both of them, as is the pattern in which support is provided.  They don’t necessarily come ‘built-in’ with any payment providers, and you have to use add-ons to get them to work with different payment providers and different shipping providers, and finding and installing the right add on can be quite a hassle because, well, they’re written by the creators of zencart or oscart, but by other independent developers.

Please note that my goal here is not to undermine the pros of open-source, as I am a big fan of open source, despite being a microsoft partner.  But read on, and I shall tell you why I think you shouldn’t waste too much time troubling yourself with either ZenCart or OS Cart, when you can be up and running with eCommerce Templates in a few hours.

The Pricing & Income Factor

Okay, so OS Cart and ZenCart (I’ll be calling them OSC and ZC from now on) are free.  eCommerce templates may run you round about $ 150.00.  My experience?  On average I can have a shopping store up and running on eCommerce Templates to MY design in less one, inefficient working day.  With OSC and ZC, it was a painful operation, and it took me a few days to wrap my arms around the template.  In addition, I think the coding model for both OSC & AC is rather sketchy, especially when compared with eCommerce Templates.

Now, let’s do the math.  A client hires you to put together a shopping store.  You choose one of the free solutions to make an extra $150.00.  It takes you three days to make the store, and you’ve fixed a price of, say, $ 1,850 with your client.  Three working days means 24 hours, which would be mean that you made an average of $77 per hour, which really isn’t that bad.  Now, let’s say you used eCommerce Templates, you can have the same store ready in 8 hours, and if it is your very first store, it really shouldn’t take you more than 12 hours, or you shouldn’t do this for a living.  Now, let’s do the math here.  You pay $ 150 for an eCommerce Template, and spend 12 hours designing the store.  That means you made a whopping $ 142 per hour, which is practically DOUBLE of what you would make if you used OSCart or ZenCart.  If that isn’t incentive to sway away from these two packages, I don’t know what else is.

Avoid Tedious Coding, anyone?

There are many of us out there who don’t mind spending time digging into the code, because for some of us it’s actually productive.  But i really don’t like to do that when I could be using my time more efficiently, i.e., completing the work that I’m actually getting paid for.  With eCommerce Templates, you have one big plus that you don’t with the others.  You do not have to be familiar with PHP or ASP templating in any way, shape or form, because their templates come built in for the piece of software that you want to use to do your design, be it Dreamweaver, GoLive, Frontpage, and if you’re not faint of heart, purely CSS  & XHTML compliant templates too.  That makes it much easier for those who like to stick to familiar territory to “edit” the design.

In addition, if you like to use photoshop to do your design work, you can continue to do that with eCommerce Templates, and simply integrate the “ecommerce” portion of their template/design into yours.  You can choose their simple template design for this, and when you’re done slicing up your own design in photoshop, open the files up in your editor of choice, and paste the no more than 3-5 lines of code to get the shopping cart functionality on your pages.  It really is that easy.  The store at Asif Nawaz Consulting, on http://www.asifnawaz.net/consulting/shopping_store/ is a prime example of something like this, and although it’s not the most flashy of designs, it is a perfect example fo the functionality you can get with eCommerce Templates.

Adding a payment provider

Well, let’s say you’ve been using authorize.net for a long time, and now you want to add google checkout functionality.  Well, with OSC or ZC, you’ll have to look for the add on, download it, upload it via FTP (and this isn’t that simple, because you have to replace like 5 files over 15 folders), and then, maybe, if all goes as planned, you’ll have the google checkout functionality.  With eCommerce Templates, it is much simpler.  You sign up with google, log on to the administrator panel at your online store created with ecommerce templates, and simply enter your google API and Account #, and you’re done.  It is actually just that simple.

Shipping Options

This is my biggest difficulty with OSC and ZC.  With eCommerce Templates (eCT), you can use UPS, FEdEx or USPS.  I haven’t seen Royal mail here yet for UK, but I hope to see that addition soon enough.  You can also use weight based or flat rate shipping, depending on what you sell.  I’m not sure if you’ve ever made the effort to integrate FedEx or UPS into a web site yourself, but I’m doing it now with DesignerPottery.com, and I can tell you, it’s note a whole lot of fun.  Using eCT, you can sign up from inside your admin panel and have UPS shipping up and running in a few minutes.  BEWARE, though, if you are hosting through GoDaddy or a Wild West affiliate.  You will need to add a couple of variables to your includes file for it to work. 

Documentation

The benefit here is that the manual and documentation is detailed and orderly.  With OSC and ZC, that was one of my biggest problems.  Help online is very sketchy, and nobody wants to spend time weeding through a massive PDF manual to see how something works.  The HTML manual and help is easy to use, and you have access to a forum, which discusses almost all of the issues with the product.

Forum Support & Updates

This may be the only downside.  eCT periodically releases updates to fix bugs and add functionality, and the updaters cost about $ 25, and they include a 6 month membership on the support forum, where you can directly communicate with their team and other members/users to get your questons resolved.  Even if you don’t pay the support fee, you can view everything on the forum.  You just can’t ask for help directly.  If you don’t want the updaters, you can buy a support subscription, which costs slightly less than the updater, but it’s worth it, because when you’re adding functionality to your client’s store, you will be charging him/her too.

International Compatiblity

Okay, eCT stores are compatible in the US & UK, and I believe elsewhere too, but you do need to check this before you purchase it.  In my experience, it works okay for UK based stores too, and it is the only solution that has worked for a UK based store for me without causing me too much heartburn.  I’d recommend it to others.

In Conclusion

One thing you must keep in mind is that I have now been using eCT for 5 years, so i am very comfortable with it.  Of course, as a new user, there will be a bit of a learning curve, but what I can tell you is that that learning curve will be, at worst, half of what it may be with OSC or ZC.  There are solutions out there like CubeCart and XCart, which are free to a point and then they charge you per your requirements, but I don’t have much experience with them.

I’ll be very honest with you:  I haven’t tried another solution since I switched to eCT, and that’s because it’s simplicity and scalability attracted me.  I highly recommend the product to anyone else.

If you have any questions about the solution, please feel free to ask and clarify them before you buy it, and if you do and it is not too much of a hassel, kindly use the window below to order:

Also, please share with everyone what software you use.

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Okay folks, as those of you who’ve been regular visitors know I’m hosting with InnoDomains (http://www.innodomains.com), this is just a quick update to let you know that I’ve upgraded hosting to a premium package, that, well, COSTS me twice as much.  So, what does this mean for you?

- Downloads shouldn’t time out as much.  I’ve had multiple complaints from people complaining about downloads timing out.  This should help that.  How, I’ll explain here shortly.
- Fewer 503 Server down errors.  I wasn’t using up all of the bandwidth, just about 200 GB a month max.  But the consecutive number of users connecting to download QP direct along with other visitors (exceeding 450 uniques a day with over 1500 hits/pageviews) meant that if at any time there were simultaneous connections in excess of 25, well, you’d get that error.
- Now, that is also one of the reasons the downloads could be timing out.  So, please try and let me know what the results are.
- If you have been able to download and install quickplay, please consider donating.  I’m only asking for USD 2.00 per successful download & installation as a donation.

Lastly, InnoDomains service has been good.  With the Premium Package, I’m getting much better server and database response time, and I haven’t had any server maintenance or overload errors, which I was getting before.

If you’re looking to host a web site that doesn’t require a dedicated server, I would definitely suggest InnoDomains.  It’s good.  It’s not Rackspace, but then you pay for what you get.  As long as the service stays consistent, I think @ USD 20.00 per month, the Premium Hosting package is actually worth.

Check it out.

Picking a mobile phone carrier in London has been difficult.  None of them have good reviews, and apparently, all of them provide the same service.

I finally decided last week that I was going to make the move to O2.  I had seen their simplicity package advertised, where you could simply buy a SIM for free, and pay GBP 30 per month for 1200 anytime minutes, 500 or 1000 texts (if ordered instore or online), and a free additonal bolt on, which in my case, is the Unlimited Web Bolt On.  I decided to go for this because I do not want a new phone.  I’m happy with Sony Ericsson p990; the firmware upgrade has made the phone much more stable, and it almost every feature you’ll need:  Web, GPRS, 3G, WiFi, Browser, Email Client, Media, etc. etc.

O2s mobile phone service has been good.  I don’t get any unusual signal outage, and the internet speed on the phone is also pretty good.  But their Customer Service is nothing short of horrid!

Since the day I got my SIM from O2, I cannot view my bill or allowance online.  Over the last week, I’ve had luck with viewing my billing/allowance only once on the web site.  I have exchanged about 5 emails with customer service, and oh my, they are as incompetent as they come.  I thought HP (hewlett packard) had everyone beat when it came to bad customer service, but O2 is quickly surpassing HP to new, unknown levels of incompetence and customer dissatisfaction.

When I try to view my bill, I get an EBPP_1102 error.  When I try to view my allowance, I get the same EBPP error code with a different number.  Now I’m not sure what kind of a programming glitch their web development team has made, but their customer service has absolutely no idea about what’s going on.  They’ve come up with the wildest suggestions, like deleting my temporary internet files, having a corrupt cookie, having an old browser that doesn’t support 128-bit SSL encryption, or having an ISP that needs to be contacted because the problem is at their end.  They should really try telling that to Virgin & BT, and I’d want to see how either of them reacted to that.  I’d want to see the size of the hole in O2s tushi when BT is done responding to that (not that BT is a blessing in any way either).

First rule of thumb, train your god damn customer service representatives, and please, train them to be honest.  If they don’t know what’s going on or have NO idea about what the problem is, they DO NOT need to make incorrect suggestions or accusations about our PCs, cookies, or ISPs.  They should say that they don’t know what’s wrong, and that they will try to find out.

Second, why the fuck does every person who responds to my email an Indian, who has no fucking idea about how O2 works, secure socket layers or web browsers work, or how ISPs work?  I’m going to assume that O2 is being cheap over here, and they’re outsourcing customer service to India.  I’m sorry, is there any shortages of Indians in the UK?  There are lots of competent ones here, please hire them.  They’re educated (in real, for the most part, not by University of Kerala which prints PHDs only), and they’re less prone to lying and giving ludacris suggestions.

And your web development team?  Are you outsourcing this to Pakistan or India too?  And exactly how much money is O2 saving on it is unfathomable.  The website is pathetic.  They’ve tried to use AJAX without getting the basic functionality right.  Does O2 really think I’m impressed with AJAX when I get an error every time I try to access my billing or allowance?  Here’s a hot tip for O2:  NO!  I want it work, and I DO NOT want to speak to low IQ, incompetent, customer service who doesn’t the difference between a client side and server side error and tries to talk IT.

Here’s a little tip for O2 Tech Support:  The error is server side.  You’re running a script that’s trying to access my bill & related details from a database (I hope & not a text file), but it fails to do so, either because it cannot connect to your server or because their’s a coding error.  Either way, I CANNOT fix it at my end.  You need to do it.  Browse the internet and see how many other people have the same problem.  What are you, stupid? 

If you can’t get the service right, don’t offer it.

To top it all off, I get a call from O2 Customer Service today saying they don’t have the right billing address?  Well now, who in the hell changed it.  Not only was the woman who called UNABLE to communicate properly in English, but she told ME to call customer service and get my address updated because she could NOT take down the address.  I mean what the fuck is this, a fish market?  And how in the hell did my address get changed on the web site?  Why does customer service fidget with our account information when they don’t need to?  And, WHY the hell does the update my details feature NOT work on the web site?!

I’m this close to writing to the head office and asking them if they need help with their web site and customer service training, because clearly, a monkey could do a better job than O2 is doing right now!

Is it just me, or is Marks and Spencer trying very hard to be green?  I’m all about being green, but I’m not one for supporting pathetic, horrible business ideas, and Marks & Spencer have really done it with this one.

Apparently, they’ve conducted research which concluded that the average life of a plastic bag was short-lived, and that it was bound to hit the trash can shortly after the goods were purchased and handed to the customer in the bag.  So, instead of learning from better business in the United States, they’ve now decided to charge every customer 5 pence per plastic bag, like that’s going to make any sense.  So far, this applies to Marks & Spencer Food only; the flashy plastic bag image must stay with the clothing or what?

Look, I think it’s simply a stupid idea to ‘help the planet’ by charging people for bags.  Do they really think that someone who’s spending £50 in a department store will mind paying 5p for a bag in a country where the sales tax / VAT is 17.5%?  No!  Not only that, the best solution to a problem is not to penalize the end, but to tackle it at the root.

Why doesn’t Marks & Spencer switch to paper bags?  There are environmental hazards with paper too.  But come on now, it’s a step in the right direction.  This attempt at winning the ‘green supermarkets war’ is a bad one; all Marks & Spencer will do is turn off customers.  Anyone with even a little common sense can see that there is a problem with this model to help the planet.  Just charging customers is a pathetic publicity stunt, one at which I hope Marks & Spencer fails, because it is an extremely superficial attempt to justify their savings and profits above and beyond a rather noble cause.

Help the UK and the environment by switching to paper bags that can decay, Marks & Spencer, not by passing on your cost to the customer.  A fine should be imposed on all stores that supply customers with plastic bags.  Then we’ll see who charges 50 pence and who switches to paper bags.

On another note, why isn’t the UK switching to paper bags?

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I recently wrote a small, not so comprehensive post about how my blog went from receiving 34 hits a month to over 5,000 unique hits a month in under a year.  I also mentioned that your primary goal, when making money, is NOT to get people to visit your blog and click on your pay per click ads like Adsense and make you money, but it is to provide genuinely relacant and good content with an ultimate goal to drive traffic.  Once you get some of that with good relevant content, well, there are much more efficient ways than PPC advertisements to monetize your blog.

What if you got paid to blog rather than get paid if someone clicks on your PPC ads?  Sounds more attractive doesn’t it.  It should, because maybe, MAYBE 1% of your visitors will click on your PPC advertisements.  If you were actually getting paid to blog, you would have two benefits that you wouldn’t with pay per click advertising:

1.  You’re blogging on a topic or content someone wants you to blog, which means there is a market for that particular product out there, and that actually means that you’re putting useful content on your blog, thereby inviting more traffic to your blog.

2.  Your making money from your blog is NOT solely dependent on pay per click advertising, which can be a nice alternative to you logging in to your adsense account 5 times a day to see whether you’ve actually made any money.

In addition to the above two benefits, your visitors will NOT be bothered by obstructive pay per click advertising banners all over the place, which will make for a more pleasant experience, possibly attracting more traffic to your blog.

I know you’re dying to know what this way of blogging for money is.  The good news is you CAN make money from your blog, but the bad news is you CANNOT do it with bad content.  You have to be willing to blog, and NOT just to make money.  Here’s how to actually make money with your blog, or what can actually being coined as ‘blogged advertising.’ 

Use Smorty, a blog advertising service.

Smorty is a service connecting advertisers with bloggers. Advertisers can pay bloggers to write opinion posts with links back to the advertisers site. Smorty can tell you who’s willing to pay what.  This is something you could attempt as an individual too, but unless you’re someone who gets over 20,000 unique valid and relevant hits on your blog, chances are an advertiser will turn you down.  With Smorty, you don’t have to worry about that.  Once your blog is approved for writing, you can make money with articles you write on your blog! 

This may sound too good to be true to some of you, but it isn’t.  And, quite frankly, if you’ve been relying on PPC networks to make you some extra money from your blog, this will sound like quite the pay rate!  Check it out for yourself!

Okay, so it is just me or the truly worst ever deodrant and shower gel for men is FCUK.  I mean, come on French Connection, in London, in temperature that gone over 8 degrees celsius all bloody fecking Winter, FCUK deodrant doesn’t last me even 4 hours.  Mind you, I am clean!  The shower gel sucks ass too; it hardly makes any lather.

What in the hell are these people trying to do!  Any supermarket or pharmacy you go to in London will have FCUK on sale; you’d think they’re trying to get rid of all these shower gels and deodrants.  Try any of them!  Sainsbury’s, Boots, ASDA, they’re all trying to rid themselves of FCUK stuff.  It’s horrible.  Don’t use it!  Warn others not to use it!  I have an extra deodrant stick I bought; brand spanking new!  Anyone interested?  I’ll pay for the shipping & handling too!

 With Denim or Tabac, you could easily make do all day with the scorching 44 degrees celsius plus heat and 80%+ humidity of Dubai or Karachi.  Use FCUK there, and you’ll pass out with your own body odour!

Since Denim or Tabac isn’t available in the UK, stick to Lynx / Axe.  I think it’s probably the best.  My second choice where Tabac or Denim is available, but it works pretty well.

Shame on FCUK.  It’s not worth a FUCK!