Website, paypal, how to???

[Dario]

I tried tinkering with SiteKreator this weekend and got amazed how easy it is! [:0] Nothing fancy but it was up in a couple of hours, populated with pics that I posted and re-harvested from IAP (LOL)...for experiment use only of course.

I haven't done the paypal part yet but looks straight forward...and I have a few questions before I move forward.

How do you automatically mark an item "sold" (at least put on hold) when they put it in their shopping cart?

Is there an easy way to do it? Also how do you make sure that it will only be marked "sold" when it is actually paid for?

If it is awefully complicated, I might just go with the "contact us" route but it might turn off potential customer(s).

EDIT: Here is the site AOTurnings , I just purchased the domain name but it is not hooked up yet

Again the content is just a cornocopia of stuff. Thanks to Tom (OldGriz for sharing the pen care contents). He told me that most of it was shared by others to him too.

Thank you for any input.

 

[its_virgil]

So Dario, when can we see it? I'm in the process of giving mine a new look. What do you think? http://www.RedRiverPens.com
Do a good turn daily!
Don

Originally posted by Dario
<br />I tried tinkering with SiteKreator this weekend and got amazed how easy it is! [:0] Nothing fancy but it was up in a couple of hours, populated with pics that I posted and re-harvested from IAP (LOL)...for experiment use only of course.

I haven't done the paypal part yet but looks straight forward...and I have a few questions before I move forward.

How do you automatically mark an item "sold" (at least put on hold) when they put it in their shopping cart?

Is there an easy way to do it? Also how do you make sure that it will only be marked "sold" when it is actually paid for?

If it is awefully complicated, I might just go with the "contact us" route but it might turn off potential customer(s).

Thank you for any input.

 

[gerryr]

Don,
Your site looks good, but I did notice a couple of typos on the home page. Grand father should be one word, not two and "form" should be "from." Also, on the "Q&A" page, instead of the top button being labeled "Home," it's labeled "Up." All the other pages say "Home."

 

[Mudder]

Don,

I would also suggest that you edit the code to put in Red River Pens so it shows up in the title of the browser.

Here is what you have (from the view sorce in Firefox)

&lt;title&gt;Home Page&lt;/title&gt;

If you put your site name in there then when the site is bookmarked it has some visual cue to the person who bookmarked it.

 

[JimGo]

Dario,
You site looks pretty good! I haven't used sitekreator, so I don't know all of its bells and whistles. However, my understaning is that it is a relatively simple web site designer. If that's the case, I don't think you can do what you want. The only real way that I know of to get inventory removed from a web site is to generate the inventory-based pages (e.g., an overview page with thumbnails of the pens, or each pen's individual page) from a database, and to use the "completed" page from PayPal to trigger a script on your server that marks the pen as sold. The database then knows that next time the inventory-based pages are to be generated, the "sold" pens are not to be displayed.

Hope this helps!

 

[Johnathan]

Glad to see you're working on a website Dario! It's looking good.

 

[punkinn]

Very nicely done, Dario! Elegant, straightforward and easy to navigate. Bravo!

Nancy, who also has put up a site recently at:

www.pens.nansaidh.us

 

[its_virgil]

Thanks Scott! done
Don

Originally posted by Mudder
<br />Don,

I would also suggest that you edit the code to put in Red River Pens so it shows up in the title of the browser.

Here is what you have (from the view sorce in Firefox)

&lt;title&gt;Home Page&lt;/title&gt;

If you put your site name in there then when the site is bookmarked it has some visual cue to the person who bookmarked it.

 

[Ron in Drums PA]

Looks Good Dario

 

[DocStram]

Dario,
I took a look at your website and was impressed with what you have so far. If you don't mind, I took the liberty of doing some editing of your opening paragraph. I enjoy writing and sometimes can't stop myself from offering suggestions. Please don't feel obligated to use any of my suggestions. I was just trying to make your opening introduction a little more "powerful".
Here it is:

Welcome to AO Turnings!

In search of a classic handcrafted writing instrument that is certain to be treasured? Our unique writing instruments are meticulously crafted and of the highest quality. We select only the choicest woods of native and exotic origins. Each selection of wood is hand picked for its beauty and character. Only the most select of grained wood and highly figured burl caps are used. Our pen mechanisms are of the highest quality and made of the most durable platings available. The platinum and titanium gold mechanisms are especially desirable. Customized pens are available for the more discriminating buyer. If you so desire, we can also use your own material which may be special to you or have sentimental value.

Please take a moment to reflect upon our selection. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

 

[Scott]

Dario!

I am truly amazed by the way that site looks! When you said you were just messing around for a couple of hours, I thought I'd see some rough site. But that is a nice, polished, professional looking site! I may have to check out this software you used!

Scott.

 

[Dario]

Thank you guys!

Al, thank you for polishing my intro. I will surely use some of it []

Jim, I will check if I can utilize what you just described (with SiteKreator)...if not, I will just have the potential customers contact me.

I was looking at other sites and I liked the style where they have drop down box choices for custom pens. I might try whipping out some html codes for those and see what I'll come out with.

 

[Daniel]

Dario,
Nice looking site. It will be a never ending project so the little changes here and the corrections there will always be happening.
I use pay pal but have no idea how to get what you are looking for. kep in mind once a customer clicks on your pay button, they leave your web site and go to pay pals payment pages. if you want the transaction to change something on a page, it has to be on pay pals web site not yours. hope that is not to confusing. I simply change my site as soon as I see the pen sold. of course most of my stuff is order it before it is even made now. I didn't like the idea at first. but it has increased my sales buy a huge margin.

 

[Stevej72]

Hey Dario, Your site is looking great! Especially just starting it like that. I used Front Page to make mine and it took me quite a bit of time, and it still needs a lot of polishing.

I haven't figured out how to make an item marked as sold yet. I'm not sure if you can do it with "PayPal Website Payments Standard". I think you have to have the shopping cart that comes with "PayPal Website Payments Pro.

www.RimrockWoodworks.com

 

[OKLAHOMAN]

Dario, site looks great, I'v been thinking of a website and have been selling on Ebay in my Ebay store www.handmadepensbyroy with some success but would really like to do a professional site and your sure looks like one (insert here jealous).LOL..

 

[Tea Clipper]

As JimGo explained, it would require some programming to remove sold pens from your website. My website, for example, is just what he is talking about. I wrote it in PHP with a MySQL database. If this is greek to you, then a non-programming solution is also possible using paypals' cart and just manually updating your website just like Daniel does. Using the paypal merchant tools, there is page that will create the 'add to cart' buttons for you - just copy and paste into your page.

 

[alamocdc]

Very impressive first attempt, Dario! I was an actual web master for about a year before I could create something that nice. BTW, that was prior to good HTML editors using text editors and code. Much trial and error and reading every HTML book I could get my hands on. Sorry, but I don't have an answer for you on the Paypal thing.