These are the formatting and diagnostic features that were added in February of 1996 to give merchants more control over their store's appearance and functionality. Here is the announcement of the advanced features that was emailed to all merchants after its introduction:
In the Storefront section, clicking on the advanced options box at the bottom of the page will take you to a new page, where you can choose which of our new features you would like to utilize in your storefront. Keep in mind that these design and layout options will only be for your main page. If you would like to alter the presentation of your aisles, you will do it separately. That way you can have either variety or consistency.
You can choose to not display the store title if you wish to integrate your title into your logo. You can choose a background/text color scheme, a background image, or change the order that your items and aisles will appear in. (By the way, you can now have products and aisles intermixed on any of your pages) And you can decide which side of the window you would like your images to appear on.
In the Aisles section, when you choose to edit an aisle the first thing you will notice is the Aisle Tree, where the hierarchy of your aisle and sub-aisle structure is outlined graphically. Yes, sub-aisles are now possible. The aisle that you are currently editing will appear with a "----" mark next to it. All the rest of the aisles will be marked with a button. If you would like to move the aisle you're editing, simply mark the aisle (or the main page) you would like it to fall under. The Advanced Options button will allow you to make the same design changes you can make on your main page. If you un-check the "open this aisle" box, the aisle will not appear in your store at all.
Each product can be displayed without the name (if you would like the name to appear in the graphic) or without an order button (if on-line ordering is not an option). Also, if you would like to offer a volume discount, you can enable variable pricing, which will lower (or even raise, I suppose) the price depending on the quantity ordered. On the product page, you will see all of your aisles so that you can choose where to place your products and sub-aisles will be indented.
The new shipping options have been going for a week or so already. They were a pre-release of our advanced options. I outlined the options in an email message sent on the 21st of February. If anyone would like those instructions re-sent, please contact us.
The back office page has also been re-worked, besides its obvious new look. The title bar, which will remain constant wherever you go, will allow you to skip from any page to any of the main pages (aisles, products, images, orders, or shipping, or to your store or to ShopSite) without working your way back.
Advertising:
ShopSite merchants have chosen to advertise their stores in many different ways. Of course, ICentral advertises the ShopSite itself, which brings
traffic through, and larger stores advertise extensively, resulting in residual traffic, but the only way to ensure that your target clientele visits
your site is to do advertising yourself. You can pay for advertising on popular sites. Advertising on well-travelled sites like yahoo and infoseek
are very expensive, but a better way to approach the problem would be to determine which sites are most popular with your target clientele and
advertise there. See also:
swapping links
search engines
internet directories.
Aisles:
A ShopSite aisle is a separate web page wherein products and links to other aisles can be displayed. An aisle can have its own logo or image and the store's footer will appear at the bottom. Each aisle is a separate HTML document on ShopSite's server.
Aisle Text:
There are several separate sections of text you can specify for each aisle:
- The Small Name is the name of the aisle that will act as the link to the aisle.
- The Small Text is the text that does not appear on the aisle page, but on the link to that aisle page. If the contents of the aisle are obvious, you should need only the name of the aisle for the link, and you can leave the small text field blank.
- The Big Name is the name that will appear at the top of the aisle page.
- The Big Text is the text that appears at the top of the aisle page, which can be used to introduce the products, which will appear beneath, or, if there are no products, the big text can contain whatever information or HTML you would like to appear in your store.
- The Aisle Footer is text that will appear underneath the products in your aisle page. This field can contain text or html.
- The Store Footer appears on every page of your store, underneath all the aisle text.
All Caps:
Writing in all capital letters is generally considered bad Netiquette, that is, on the internet, it is rude. On the internet, people write in all
caps when they are shouting, when they are angry. So, unless you are angry, don't write in all caps. A preferable way to emphasize something is to
write it using bold type. The HTML code for bold is to place a <b> before the text you want in bold and a </b> after. Bad nettiquette
aside, all caps is generally quite unattractive.
America Online:
Through extensive marketing and staggering disk giveaways, AOL has
captured America's imagination and credit card numbers. Though the system is easy to use and there is a wide variety of in-house
services, AOL's connection to the internet is sometimes tenuous. Many people find that they can get superior internet service and much lower prices through a local internet provider unless they spend less than four hours a week on-line.
Back Button:
The most well-used option on most people's web browsers. This allows the user to leave the present page and go
back to the one before. Many web sites have built-in back buttons or "home" buttons (which is a good idea if you think someone might link to your
pages from somewhere else in the internet) but it is generally faster to use the browser's back button because your browser will usually not have to
re-access the information, but simply pull it out of the disk cache.
Back office:
This is the section that ShopSite merchants enter when they click on the "employees only" link in their stores. The first Page of the back office,
the main administration page, contains a menu of all the back office functions. The back office main menu, as
explained in the next entry, appears at the top of every page in the back office and can be used as a launching place to edit your store quickly and
easily.
Back office main menu:
This menu is a clickable imagemap which has hotlinks to the shopsite main
page, your particular store (so you can see changes), The main menu (so you can return to the main menu no matter how many pages you have gotten
yourself down into the back office), this manual that you're reading right now, and the pages for editing your aisles, products, images, and
shipping, and to see your orders.
This menu will appear at the top of every page in the back office. It allows quick access to the primary pages without having to click on the "back" button multiple times or use the "go back" function on your browser.
Billing Policy:
The up-front fees will be charged immediately upon ordering a ShopSite storefront, according to the payment method you select on the Order Page.
Monthly usage fees (plus 5% of on line sales if you choose the Joint Venture Plan) are billed at the first of each month. Usage fees are charged for the previous month's use of the system and memory.
Notification: Because the billing will be automatic and you probably would like to know what you have been charged, ICentral provides a notification of the amount charged to your card, or account as the case may be. This notification includes a line item description of your bill and total which is emailed to you within a day of when you are charged.
Payment Terms and Conditions: In the event that payment is rejected from the source you have submitted for such monthly payments (either credit card or check routing), you will also be notified by ICentral's receiving office and asked to remedy by providing an alternative source. Your account will be considered late and past due at 14 days after your notification. At this point your store will be deactivated. The content of your store, any orders, or other information will, however, remain intact until 60 days from original notification, when the store and its entire content will be erased from the system. We understand that "things happen" which may make some of your payments late and we hope the above policy is sufficiently accommodating.
Refund Policy: During the Grace Period (first 10 days), you may cancel at any time and receive a full refund of the Up-front fee and a partial refund of your prorated first monthly installment payment, if any. Usage fees are never refunded as they are billed for past use.
Blinking text:
This is a Web feature that is used by many and hated fiercely by many more. Though the text is supposed to blink, many people actually see a box
that blinks, intermittently obscuring the text. Regardless of what blinks, it is a highly distracting feature that serves mostly to draw people's
attention away from the rest of the text and make it almost impossible to read what's on the page without getting a headache. Please don't use
blinking text except in the most dire of circumstances.
Button Bar
This is the graphic that acts as a directory for other pages in the system. There is a Shopsite button bar, which appears at the bottom of the ShopSite main page and at the top of each store's front page, which provides links to "search", categories, all stores, specials, and open a store.
The back office button bar provides links to the most often used back office pages (aisles, products, orders) from any page in the back office. YOu can make a button bar of your own by making links to selected pages and putting them in the footer of your store.
Clickable images:
Just as text can be selected to act as a link to another document or section, an image can be a link. Sometimes the image will have a colored border
around it, more often it will not (it's an option that the HTML author can choose). You will always know when an item is a link because with most
browsers, the pointer will change. With Netscape, the arrow becomes a hand, with a finger pointing at the link. A clickable imagemap is a single image that contains multiple links.
Clickable imagemap:
See imagemap
Closing your store.
If you are going to be off-line for a significant period of time, like on vacation, or are going to do some major changes to your store's content,
you should close the store. You an do this by un-checking the "open the store"
box in the Store Listing section of the back office. Closing your store makes your store's name appear in the listings, but as text only, not as a
link. People who enter your store's URL manually or who have the store in their bookmarks will still be able to access it, so if you are not going
to be taking orders for a certain period, be sure to leave a clear message on your store's main page explaining when you will be processing orders
again.
COD:
Cash on Delivery orders are an option in ShopSite's on-line order system. You will need to arrange for COD service with you regular delivery
service. Since you will be charged a surcharge, you can pass the charge along to the customer if you desire. See the "shipping options" section of
the back office.
Credit Cards:
The ShopSite system allows for credit card orders. Each merchant is responsible, however, for arranging to do credit card orders through their bank
or other credit card processing company. If you do not have credit card service, Card Service international is offering a discount to ShopSite
merchants. Call 1-800-409-6307 and mention ShopSite.
Competitive upgrade:
Here at ShopSite we know that we have the best system around, and we're willing to prove it. For merchants who currently have sites in other on-line
malls we are offering a competitive upgrade. For very little money up-front they can open a ShopSite store to complement or replace the store they
have somewhere else. For more information and approval of the upgrade price, call or email ICentral.
Custom Design:
ICentral offers custom graphic and site design at $45 per hour. Nothing will improve your site as much as professional graphics. We can make custom
logos, edit and improve any logos or photographs, and integrate these graphics into your ShopSite store. We also have a freelance designer who will
design an entire site or whatever you need. Call or email for more information.
Employees Only:
This link at the bottom of each store's main page allows merchants to enter the Back Office, where thy can
edit their store.
Exchanging Links:
This is the least expensive way of advertising your ShopSite store. Though traffic through ShopSite has increased tremendously, I'm sure all of
us would like to see more people come in and buy things in our stores. There is an easy and absolutely free way to bring people into our stores, and
people that are already interested in what we have to sell. All it takes is a little research and a few friendly email messages.
Using the various search engines, find sites out there on the net that are related to the products you are selling and ask the site administrator to make a link to your store and give him or her the URL. In most cases, they will put you right up, because the more networked a site is with related sites, the more credible it is. If they are reluctant to give you "free advertising," you could even sweeten the deal by offering to make a link to their site from your store or even give them a discount on your products.
Of course, high traffic sites are the best, but even small sites will generally attract a specific audience, many of which will be interested in your store.
Fill-in forms:
These are the boxes, buttons, menus and assorted places to enter information on-line. ShopSite is full of them. Some browsers, old ones mostly, do not support fill-in forms correctly. They should not be used. We recommend Netscape. It may be bulky, but it's full-featured.
Footer:
Text that appears at the bottom of every page in your store. You can edit footer information in the "storefront" section of the back office. Good things to put in the footer are an active email link, phone number, and links to frequently used pages in your store. See the QuickStart Guide for more info.
gif format:
Graphics Interchange Format was invented by Compuserve and is the standard for images on the world wide web. Gif images can be identified by the
.gif suffix. Jpeg, a compressed image format, is also accepted by all but the most antiquated web browsers. Gif
files can be made transparent, so that the background shows through, or interlaces, so the images appears fuzzy and becomes sharper. See the resource page for more information.
Grace Period:
During the Grace Period (first 10 days), you may cancel at any time and receive a full refund of the Up-front fee and a partial refund of your
prorated first monthly installment payment, if any. Usage fees are never refunded as they are billed for past use.
Graphics Library:
This is where the images that you upload to ShopSite are kept. You can edit and view these images from the back office. When editing your aisles
and products, all the images in your graphics library will appear in a pull-down menu so that you can choose one.
If you're using Netscape 2.0 or newer, you can upload images directly using the uploader in the images section of the back office.
Hotlink:
This is a word or image within the text of a web site that links to another document, another section of the same document, or another web site. It
will usually be a different color from the body text, and, depending on the browser, the cursor will change shape. In Netscape, the default colors are blue for a link and red for a link that has been followed and the cursor turns
into a hand with a pointing finger.
HTML:
Hypertext Markup Language. This is the code that World Wide Web documents are written in. A web browser interprets this code to decide where and
how to display images and links in a web document and how to lay out the text. Web browsers are not, standard, however, and some support certain HTML
tags in different ways, or don't support them at all.
If you view the source of a web document (this should be an option for your browser) you can see what an HTML document looks like. All HTML code is enclosed in the "<" and the ">" characters. For example, the HTML code to make this link to the ShopSite main page looks like: <a href="http://www.shopsite.com">ShopSite main page&let;/a>.
There are several on-line guides to help you learn basic and advanced HTML. Some of them are listed in our Online Help Page.
Imagemap:
This is an image on a web page that contains several different links to other web documents. The ShopSite main
page contains a clickable imagemap. If you click on the name of one of our featured stores, it will take you to that store. Creating a
clickable imagemap is not incredibly difficult, but your server's administrator generally will have to help you do it.
Images:
Images are what makes the World wide web different from other methods of presenting data on the internet. Most web
browsers are capable of reading only two image formats: gif and jpeg. As a rule
of thumb, gif format is better for drawings and logos and jpeg is better for photographs. On the web, an image can be made into a link so that clicking on the image is the same as clicking on highlighted text.
Internet:
The internet is the world wide network of computers. Thousands of separate computers are connected to each other via high speed phone lines and are
constantly exchanging information. Millions of people are then connected to these larger computers, called "servers," and are able to participate in this exchange of information. Commonly, people connect their personal
computers to the servers with a modem. Some of the information that passes between these servers is email, Web documents, downloadable software, and
on-line databases.
Occasionally, one of the servers on the internet will not be functioning correctly. The internet at large will never notice, but if you are personally connected through the server that is down, or the information that you want is stored on that server, then you will have to wait until it is working again. Technology is such that we still have periodic problems like this. Experienced internet users have grown accustomed to it.
Internet Directory:
There are many large directories that catalog and classify internet sites. Many of these sites, like Yahoo and Infoseek, also contain search engines. If you are looking for a specific type of site, the catalogs are a good place to begin. ShopSite
merchants should register their stores with the directories. Submit it is an easy way to take care of this.
IP Address:
When you use the telephone system, you enter in numbers that determine where you call. On the internet, you use combinations of letters, numbers, and punctuation. That makes it easier to remember and keep track of. However, the letters in a domain name (such as "shopsite.com") actually stand for an IP address, which is like an internet phone number. shopsite.com stands for 192.41.3.2. You can type those numbers into your web browser and ShopSite will come up. Try it, it's fun!
Internet Presence Provider:
This is an individual or company that provides not only server space for people to set up web sites, but designs
and usually maintains the site as well. Their fees range from a hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars for their services, depending
on the size and complexity of the site.
Internet Service Provider:
This is a company that maintains an internet server and rents space on this server and apportions server use to
individuals or companies that want access to the internet or wish to develop their own internet resources. An ISP will generally help their
customers with basic operation and internet information, but if you want someone to set up a web site for you, you need to speak with and Internet Presence Provider. Some service providers are also presence providers. To find an ISP in your area, check out
thelist.com.
Joint Venture:
Sometimes people have the desire to set up an on-line store but are not certain if it is going to be successful. Setting aside time and money in
order to break into a new market and a new medium is risky, and the Joint Venture program allows ICentral to share the risk with the merchant. For a
lower startup fee, merchants can set up a ShopSite store, but agree to a slightly higher per-visit use fee and to pay 5% of on-line sales. This way,
ICentral shares in the risk, but can also share in the profit if the store is successful.
After a store is successful enough that it is no longer economical to pay the 5% of sales, merchants can buy up to the regular plan by paying the full startup fee for the new plan. However, if you are planning on being successful, it is more economical in the long run to go with the Regular Plan.
Jpeg format:
In the early days of the Web, browsers supported only gif format images, but
later on, jpeg format, a format that compresses the image file so that it takes up less disk space, was introduced. Jpeg allows images to be
displayed in millions of colors, while gif supposrs only 256. However, most image special effects, like transparency and animation, are only
supported by gif format. In general, jpeg is better for photographs and gif is better for drawings and logos.
Layout:
Layout is, at the same time, one of the most important elements of Web design, and one of the most difficult. HTML,
the code that web documents are written in, was designed to present images and text in a spartan, no nonsense manner. Preparing web documents that
lay out text and images effectively, usually takes extensive knowledge of HTML and almost endless tinkering. The ShopSite system makes layout easy.
Some merchants might want to do some simple or advanced HTML to spruce up their ShopSite
store.
Logo:
A logo containing the name of a company or store has a tremendous effect on a site's overall look. Paying for a graphic designer to make a
professional looking logo is well worth the money. On the Web, logos should generally be saved in gif format, unless
they contain photos, in which case they should be saved as a jpeg. If you would like to have a logo made for your
store, ICentral does custom design.
Mailto link:
This is a special kind of hotlink that, rather than bring up another web page, brings up a window in your browser
that allows you to send an email message to someone. Most web sites have a hotlink to the site's creator. All commercial sites should have at least
one mailto link so that customers can contact the company via email. Making a mailto link is easy. Insert the following HTML into your store:
<a href="mailto:your.email.address">your.name.or.other.highlighted.text</a>.
Main Administration Page:
This is the back office's main menu page. From here you can access all the utilities you will need to create, edit, and manage your ShopSite store.
Also, you may notice that at the top of each of the pages in the back office is banner that contains links to the most commonly used back office
utilities.
Marketing:
Good marketing will make or break a ShopSite store. Just like a retail location or mail order catalog, publicity, presentation of the product,
advertising, and competitive pricing will determine a store's success. See the Merchant's Resource for more marketing information.
Merchant's Manual:
You are reading it. This glossary, along with a simple step-by-step guide make up the merchant's manual. Part of it is sent to each merchant after
sign up. The rest is available on-line through the back office.
Merchant's Resource Page:
This is a set of web pages all available from here that contain on-line help for laying out web pages, writing HTML, preparing graphics, marketing, and much more.
Microsoft:
Visit the Microsnot home page.
Mosaic:
It's a type of web browser. Their new version seems to work pretty well, but most people use Netscape.
Netscape:
The leading Web browser. Some people hate Netscape because everyone uses it but them and some people hate the fact that Netscape has made its own
additions to HTML code that its own browsers support and others don't. This means that many Web
developers, freed up by Netscape to do more advanced layout, made web sites that looked great on Netscape but absolutely awful on other browsers.
The truth is that people who insist on using less-than-full-featured browsers should probably make some changes in their lives or should stop
complaining. ShopSite, by the way, looks fine on most browsers, though we recommend Netscape. If you don't have Netscape, download it at http://home.netscape.com.
Netscape Security:
Information flows freely on the internet and it's relatively easy for someone to tap into some of that flow and retrieve information. Your email can
be read without you knowing it and the information that you submit and retrieve from web sites is similarly vulnerable--unless you're using security.
Netscape browsers allow for information coming into and going out of your computer over the internet to be encrypted so that if it is intercepted it
will be illegible. That way, confidential information like credit card numbers can be transmitted securely. A secure web page has a blue stripe
across the top and a key button at the bottom right hand corner that looks like this: 
If you
don't have Netscape, download it at http://home.netscape.com.
On-line Service:
Since the early days of modems, there have been companies that link up people from around the country is virtual communities. The ones that charge a
fee for the services are known as on-line services. Compuserve, America Online, and Prodigy are the best known, though Microsoft has recently
entered the fray and there are others out there. With the proliferation of the internet, these companies began offering access to the members of
their internal networks. That internet access has grown steadily, though it is still far slower and more limited than what is available from local
internet service providers. Considering the outrageous hourly fees that these companies charge for access, unless
you regularly use the services specific to the service that are not available on the internet at large or you intend to be on-line less than a few
hours a week, it is foolish to access the internet through an on-line service. Internet connections on America
Online are painfully slow, email has been reported to be mysteriously lost, and the web browser they provide does not support forms that are
necessary for editing a ShopSite store. If you are on an on-line service, we highly recommend calling a local internet
service provider.
Opening Your Store:
There is a feature available in the store listing section of the back office that allows you to close and open your store. A closed store's name
appears in the ShopSite listings, but the name is not a link. Only by typing out the URL manually (or following a link form somewhere else) can someone enter your store. This is a convenience feature
primarily for brand new stores so that people won't go snooping around uncompleted stores before the merchant is prepared to take orders. However,
if you do need to do some renovation or go on vacation, closing your store and including a message in the welcome text announcing when you will be up
and running again should do the job.
Options Box:
This feature allows you to include an options box for customers to specify additional information about the products they are ordering. They can
specify size and color or just about anything you ask them to specify. You have the option of including text which will appear above the box. This
is helpful for telling the shoppers the choices which are available or presenting special instructions.
Orders:
This section of the back office records the complete information regarding orders for your shopsite store, including credit card information. This page is secure, whereas the email notification of the order you receive is not. If you cannot view your orders, your store may need to be verified.
Paragraph Break:
This is an HTML code that ends a line of text then ships the next line. It is commonly used in web layout to separate paragraphs. Its symbol is
"<p>". If you would like to end a line of text and skip to the next line without skipping, like a carriage return, use the "<br>" code.
Password:
All ShopSite pages containing information to your specific store are password protected. You chose your own password when you set up your store. That
password can be changed in the "Personal" section of the back office. If you forget your password, contact us and we can issue you a new one. There is necessarily some delay
in doing this so we can properly verify the requestor's identity.
PPP Connection:
This is the most common way for home internet users to access the internet. This allows your computer to connect with an internet server, and, using
various specialized applications, use email, browse the web, ftp, gopher, telnet, and other internet functions.
Pricing:
More info on pricing.
Products:
Individual items for sale. They do not necessarily have to be offered for sale, if a merchant would prefer to make a list of items that they would
like to display, turning off the order buttons is an advanced option.
Publicity:
"If you build, it, they will come" is not an accurate slogan for on-line commerce. If you just build it, the only people who will come are those
people you tell about it. See the Merchant's Resource - Marketing section for more marketing and publicity information.
Purchase Orders:
If some or all of your customers have credit accounts with you, purchase orders is a payment option that ShopSite offers.
Redi Check:
This is a company that allows you to accept checks on-line. By entering the check number and the routing number, customers can pay by check without
sending the actual check. More information about Redi Check and an on-line order form is
available.
Refund Policy:
See Grace Period.
Scanning:
Scanning is conversion of images from a hard copy to a digital format readable on a computer.
More on Scanning.
Search Engine:
A search engine is a piece of software that performs a search of a specific set of data. The ShopSite system has its own search engine that allows
customers to find the specific item they are looking for among the different ShopSite stores. There are many search engines, like, Yahoo, Infoseek,
and Alta Vista, which allow people to search the entire internet.
ShopSite merchants should register their stores with the various search engines so that it is more likely that their stores will appear when people are looking for their products. An easy way to register with several search engines and internet directories is Submit it.
Shareware:
This is software that is available to be freely distributed, by friends or associates or for on-line download. Many programs are only available for
free use during a trial period. If you decide to use it often and keep it, you are expected to pay a shareware fee. Information about registering
and paying fees should be distributed with the software.
Shipping:
Many shipping options are available so that ShopSite merchants can either more accurately pass shipping costs along to the customers, or simplify
shipping charges, depending on their marketing strategy.
ShopSite:
ShopSite is an extensive computer program developed and maintained by ICentral, Inc, and sold by Secure Solutions Inc.. It allows business owners
to set up an maintain a commercial web site with a minimum of web expertise at far below the cost of other on-line malls.
ShopSite support:
If you are having problems with your ShopSite experience or have any questions, contact ShopSite support.
If your request is made during the business day, you'll usually receive an answer the same day.
Slip connection.
Neither as good nor as popular as a PPP connection, SLIP is a way to connect your personal computer to the internet
via phone lines.
Statistics:
This section of the back office is a merchant's source for information regarding their store's traffic, the source of the traffic, which aisles each visitor saw, and what was ordered. This information is absolutely essential to the successful management of an on-line store.
Store ID:
This is the word or numbers that identifies your store in the ShopSite database. Not only do you enter this ID to access the back office, it is the
name of your directory in the ShopSite server. If your
store is called Paula's Pies, a good ID would be "paulas" or "Paulas". Your, password, which you choose at the same time you choose your store id,
should be something completely unrelated to your store, so that people can't guess it.
Storefront
The front page of your Shopsite store. Also can be a term referring to your Shopsite store in its entirety.
Submit it:
This is a web site that help you submit the URL for your store or any web site to various search engines and
internet directories. It is available at http://www.submit-it.com/
T1:
This is a high speed connection to the internet that is available for several hundred dollars per month through your phone company. Most internet servers are connected by a T1 or faster connection.
TCP software:
TCP is the language that personal internet software uses to communicate with other internet software. Web browsers, email programs, FTP software,
news readers, telnet applications, and other internet-specific programs are all TCP software.
Thumbnails:
A thumbnail is a small graphic in a web site that a reader can click on and then see a larger version of the same graphic. This option is not
available in the current ShopSite system, but should be included in the next version.
URL:
Uniform Resource Locator:
This is the code that identifies the location of an Internet resource. All World Wide Web resources' URLs begin with http:. The URL for ShopSite is
http://www.shopsite.com. Most web browsers will display other internet resources, besides web resources. For
example FTP (URLs beginning in ftp:), gopher, (gopher:) and newsgroups (news:).
Visitor:
Each person who visits your store will be logged in your statistics. For more information on how we calculate your site's traffic, see Hits vs. Visitors.
Web Browser:
A Web Browser is software that translates HTML files into documents that integrate text and images. The way the
world wide web works is that files are kept or servers all over the world and organized into directories.
Combinations of letters, numbers, and characters called a URL will guide your web browser to retrieve these files and
display them. Most Web files also contain links to other web documents, either on the same server or elsewhere.
There are many different web browsers available, but it is generally a good idea to use Netscape, since it has become somewhat of an internet standard. Older or less-than-full-featured browsers will not be able to read new HTML files correctly.
World Wide Web:
The Web is the connection of hundreds of thousands of different pools of data around the internet that can be accessed with a Web browser. Your browser, reading a code that either you or another site provides, called a URL, retrieves information from remote locations and displays it on your monitor.
Under Construction
Name of Store: This is the name of your store that will appear both in the ShopSite listings and at the top of your store's main page. If you would prefer to integrate your store's name into a logo graphic, you can use the advanced options to make the store name not appear on the main page.
Graphic: This image will appear, centered, on the top of your store's main page. If the store name appears on the page, it will appear underneath this image.
Keywords: The words you enter here will help our ShopSite search engine find your store when customers are looking for your products. Enter as many words as you need to, but please keep them closely related to your products or services.
Footer: This text will appear at the bottom of every page. If you expect some customers to want to call or write, here would be a perfect place for your address. If you have any important policies like "Canadian orders by phone only" or "Some products shipped overnight only" you might want to mention them here.
Advanced Options--Storefront
Main Page Formatting:
Display this store: There is a box which, if un-checked, will make your store name not appear at the top of your main page, if you would like to use
a graphical logo instead.
Color scheme: We have several different background and text color schemes to choose from. The color you choose will only appear on the main page.
