Comments for Small Business Arena http://www.smallbusinessarena.com Small Business and Entrepreneur Journal Sat, 17 May 2008 02:20:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 Comment on Turning a Wordpress Blog into a CMS by Drupal « IT: Iyaz-Tech http://www.smallbusinessarena.com/2007/08/24/turning-a-wordpress-blog-into-a-cms/#comment-31351 Drupal « IT: Iyaz-Tech Tue, 13 May 2008 19:56:43 +0000 http://www.smallbusinessarena.com/2007/08/24/turning-a-wordpress-blog-into-a-cms/#comment-31351 [...] Alternatives to Drupal Other CMS’s available are Joomla and Mambo. I know very little about these alternatives other than they are free. Joomla is based on Mambo. As I’ve mentioned before, WordPress can be used as a CMS with some work. You can see an article about that here. [...] […] Alternatives to Drupal Other CMS’s available are Joomla and Mambo. I know very little about these alternatives other than they are free. Joomla is based on Mambo. As I’ve mentioned before, WordPress can be used as a CMS with some work. You can see an article about that here. […]

]]> Comment on Volusion Shopping Cart Review by David http://www.smallbusinessarena.com/2007/09/02/volusion-shopping-cart-review/#comment-30955 David Tue, 06 May 2008 05:50:29 +0000 http://www.smallbusinessarena.com/2007/09/02/volusion-shopping-cart-review/#comment-30955 After having so much problem, I started to checkout complains about Volusion on the web using Google. I was surprised that there are many others who have the same problems as I do. Currently, I have been with Volusion for almost 4 years and thinking and researching very very very hard for another alternative. The best time that I had with Volusion was only the 1st year. Afterward, my experience was going from bad to worst to hell. Overall, I agree with all Volusion customers out there... the Support is rude and arrogant. Most of the time, they cannot solve your problem. Their response is wait and just create a ticket. If any of you there who are planning to go with Volusion, you may not want to look at my support tickets that contains all my bad experience from email problems, server not processing order, bugs, and, best of all, the bad support. Right now I have couple of tickets opened and furious at how long it take them to response and also the response they gave. In my opinion, Volusion is not for serious business. It is for recreational business. For serious business you need support. They have very little... worst.... they will help you rudely and arrogantly. After having so much problem, I started to checkout complains about Volusion on the web using Google. I was surprised that there are many others who have the same problems as I do.

Currently, I have been with Volusion for almost 4 years and thinking and researching very very very hard for another alternative. The best time that I had with Volusion was only the 1st year. Afterward, my experience was going from bad to worst to hell.

Overall, I agree with all Volusion customers out there… the Support is rude and arrogant. Most of the time, they cannot solve your problem. Their response is wait and just create a ticket. If any of you there who are planning to go with Volusion, you may not want to look at my support tickets that contains all my bad experience from email problems, server not processing order, bugs, and, best of all, the bad support.

Right now I have couple of tickets opened and furious at how long it take them to response and also the response they gave.

In my opinion, Volusion is not for serious business. It is for recreational business. For serious business you need support. They have very little… worst…. they will help you rudely and arrogantly.

]]> Comment on Volusion Shopping Cart Review by Parag http://www.smallbusinessarena.com/2007/09/02/volusion-shopping-cart-review/#comment-30863 Parag Sun, 04 May 2008 03:38:03 +0000 http://www.smallbusinessarena.com/2007/09/02/volusion-shopping-cart-review/#comment-30863 This is indeed an awesome post with great reviews for Volusion. On April 14, I signed up with Yahoo stores and today after reading all the reviews, I am happy I made the right decision not to get bogged down by bandwidth costs and then hearing excuses from customer service. Excuses are not way to Customer Satisfaction. Solving customer issues and keeping Customers FIRST should be the priority. No Customers! No Business! No revenue! Simple! If anyone had come come across a good comparison between Yahoo and Volusion, please post it. Thanks. I would suggest IMHO for Volusion team to take customers very seriously or the longevity of growth will fade. I was considering switching to Volusion after reading initial review, but I am happy with yahoo and will choose best practices form Volusion and implement in my store. This is indeed an awesome post with great reviews for Volusion. On April 14, I signed up with Yahoo stores and today after reading all the reviews, I am happy I made the right decision not to get bogged down by bandwidth costs and then hearing excuses from customer service. Excuses are not way to Customer Satisfaction. Solving customer issues and keeping Customers FIRST should be the priority.

No Customers! No Business! No revenue! Simple!

If anyone had come come across a good comparison between Yahoo and Volusion, please post it. Thanks.

I would suggest IMHO for Volusion team to take customers very seriously or the longevity of growth will fade.
I was considering switching to Volusion after reading initial review, but I am happy with yahoo and will choose best practices form Volusion and implement in my store.

]]> Comment on Volusion Shopping Cart Review by Michael Stein http://www.smallbusinessarena.com/2007/09/02/volusion-shopping-cart-review/#comment-30859 Michael Stein Sat, 03 May 2008 19:55:25 +0000 http://www.smallbusinessarena.com/2007/09/02/volusion-shopping-cart-review/#comment-30859 We would like to move our websites to volusion but we use Ordermotion: OM enables you to have same products on multiple websites (we have 5 websites and adding more) and keeps you inventory live with many websites. There are also a few other options that OM does that we wish Volusion would have - and Stone Edge is not an option. It's just not as good - but we are so siked on going to Volusion. Any suggestions? We would like to move our websites to volusion but we use Ordermotion: OM enables you to have same products on multiple websites (we have 5 websites and adding more) and keeps you inventory live with many websites. There are also a few other options that OM does that we wish Volusion would have - and Stone Edge is not an option. It’s just not as good - but we are so siked on going to Volusion. Any suggestions?

]]> Comment on Volusion Shopping Cart Review by Kris http://www.smallbusinessarena.com/2007/09/02/volusion-shopping-cart-review/#comment-30746 Kris Thu, 01 May 2008 18:14:53 +0000 http://www.smallbusinessarena.com/2007/09/02/volusion-shopping-cart-review/#comment-30746 Hello all, this is Kris with CoreCommerce. Yes we are an up and coming solution, but we treat our customers with class and respect. Our system DOES NOT count product options towards your product limit, and the fees we charge for bandwidth overages are 30% less than Volusion. We have a 30 day, 100% free trial with NO SETUP FEE that you can sign up for, just to see how our system works. Our #1 goal is to provide the BEST shopping cart experience on the web for a low monthly fee and as many bells and whistles as possible. We also have a FREE SSL you can use IF you decide not to use your own. We also offer much more generous amounts of bandwidth and hard drive space, email accounts and products. Updates are made on the fly and when you signup, your store is created within 5 SECONDS. Anyone who has any questions about CoreCommerce, please feel free to contact me directly at 800-747-4270 ext 25. Have a great day! Hello all, this is Kris with CoreCommerce. Yes we are an up and coming solution, but we treat our customers with class and respect. Our system DOES NOT count product options towards your product limit, and the fees we charge for bandwidth overages are 30% less than Volusion. We have a 30 day, 100% free trial with NO SETUP FEE that you can sign up for, just to see how our system works. Our #1 goal is to provide the BEST shopping cart experience on the web for a low monthly fee and as many bells and whistles as possible. We also have a FREE SSL you can use IF you decide not to use your own. We also offer much more generous amounts of bandwidth and hard drive space, email accounts and products. Updates are made on the fly and when you signup, your store is created within 5 SECONDS. Anyone who has any questions about CoreCommerce, please feel free to contact me directly at 800-747-4270 ext 25.

Have a great day!

]]> Comment on Volusion Shopping Cart Review by Bradley http://www.smallbusinessarena.com/2007/09/02/volusion-shopping-cart-review/#comment-30303 Bradley Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:55:51 +0000 http://www.smallbusinessarena.com/2007/09/02/volusion-shopping-cart-review/#comment-30303 Support was not receptive with me when I told them this was a bug and should have never been designed this way to begin with. Bradley Support was not receptive with me when I told them this was a bug and should have never been designed this way to begin with.

Bradley

]]> Comment on Volusion Shopping Cart Review by Bradley http://www.smallbusinessarena.com/2007/09/02/volusion-shopping-cart-review/#comment-30302 Bradley Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:55:02 +0000 http://www.smallbusinessarena.com/2007/09/02/volusion-shopping-cart-review/#comment-30302 I've noticed something with Volusions drop-ship feature. When you drop-ship items they actually allow the system to go into negative inventory because "our system doesn't receive inventory when using a drop-ship PO because you aren't actually receiving any inventory". Actually we are. If you are going to reduce inventory for a sale, then a drop-ship PO should increase the inventory by the same amount. Here is a link to Volusions KB article that actually says at the bottom that an inventory item going negative is fine. I can't believe my eyes: http://manual.volusion.com/Vendors-Drop-Shipping/11.htm Bradley I’ve noticed something with Volusions drop-ship feature. When you drop-ship items they actually allow the system to go into negative inventory because “our system doesn’t receive inventory when using a drop-ship PO because you aren’t actually receiving any inventory”. Actually we are. If you are going to reduce inventory for a sale, then a drop-ship PO should increase the inventory by the same amount. Here is a link to Volusions KB article that actually says at the bottom that an inventory item going negative is fine. I can’t believe my eyes:

http://manual.volusion.com/Vendors-Drop-Shipping/11.htm

Bradley

]]> Comment on Volusion Shopping Cart Review by Andy Beard http://www.smallbusinessarena.com/2007/09/02/volusion-shopping-cart-review/#comment-30132 Andy Beard Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:28:27 +0000 http://www.smallbusinessarena.com/2007/09/02/volusion-shopping-cart-review/#comment-30132 In addition I should point out that I don't as a rule contact anyone I am requested to write a review for to clear up concerns when writing the reviews. Sometimes I have contact before hand. Time restraints, location and timezone often preclude direct contact, plus I feel it would have some baring on the integrity, which already comes under question with sponsored reviews. To remain in good faith with my readers I do have to invest far more time than the potential financial rewards justify. As an affiliate, I do get to see the backend of lots of different solutions. At the time I wrote my review, I even applied for the affiliate program of one store owner, but for some reason they never got back to me. In addition I should point out that I don’t as a rule contact anyone I am requested to write a review for to clear up concerns when writing the reviews.
Sometimes I have contact before hand.

Time restraints, location and timezone often preclude direct contact, plus I feel it would have some baring on the integrity, which already comes under question with sponsored reviews.

To remain in good faith with my readers I do have to invest far more time than the potential financial rewards justify.

As an affiliate, I do get to see the backend of lots of different solutions.

At the time I wrote my review, I even applied for the affiliate program of one store owner, but for some reason they never got back to me.

]]> Comment on Volusion Shopping Cart Review by Andy Beard http://www.smallbusinessarena.com/2007/09/02/volusion-shopping-cart-review/#comment-30131 Andy Beard Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:17:58 +0000 http://www.smallbusinessarena.com/2007/09/02/volusion-shopping-cart-review/#comment-30131 Michelle you are quite correct in that I don't currently run any online "hard goods" stores, and even when I was the international sales director at Techland.pl who also run http://www.msw.pl/ I stayed clear of web development from 1998 - 2002. Note:- that site isn't a good example of SEO but I am not involved with them. I also run affiliate stores built from datafeeds, some of them built on Wordpress, some built on other platforms. I now avoid anything which might involve physical products that I might have to handle, but that doesn't preclude that I might in the future. When I wrote my review, I did a fair amount of research, not only on the Volusion site, but elsewhere. All the reviews I found were little more than a press release based list of features. Maybe I wasn't suitable and you weren't looking for feedback at that time. That being said, my blog this month has so far used 140GB of transfer - I know it is an issue you will be looking into and look forward to updating, just like I wrote a fresh update as soon as you added support for Aweber. Generally search engine spiders index websites more frequently than they have in the past. Sometimes Google picks up posts within 10 minutes. Each time a shop updates one item, that could change on multipe pages with links to related items, category pages etc. If you change special offers which create changes across the whole site, that again is going to add to bandwidth use. A search spider when it arrives at a page checks the headers to see when a page was last modified. That isn't a huge bandwidth use. If it finds a change, it is going to index the whole page. For some items it might be advisable to include them using javascript if they are the same on every page, and are not part of the information architecture of the site. As an example for WordPress, if you want to display recent comments on every page, that is something that could be javascript based. You also have to allow for scrapers, competitors using tools such as Xenu Link Sleuth etc. One aspect that is of concern is how long it is taking to address public concerns Michelle you are quite correct in that I don’t currently run any online “hard goods” stores, and even when I was the international sales director at Techland.pl who also run http://www.msw.pl/ I stayed clear of web development from 1998 - 2002.
Note:- that site isn’t a good example of SEO but I am not involved with them.

I also run affiliate stores built from datafeeds, some of them built on Wordpress, some built on other platforms.

I now avoid anything which might involve physical products that I might have to handle, but that doesn’t preclude that I might in the future.

When I wrote my review, I did a fair amount of research, not only on the Volusion site, but elsewhere.
All the reviews I found were little more than a press release based list of features.

Maybe I wasn’t suitable and you weren’t looking for feedback at that time.

That being said, my blog this month has so far used 140GB of transfer - I know it is an issue you will be looking into and look forward to updating, just like I wrote a fresh update as soon as you added support for Aweber.

Generally search engine spiders index websites more frequently than they have in the past. Sometimes Google picks up posts within 10 minutes.

Each time a shop updates one item, that could change on multipe pages with links to related items, category pages etc.

If you change special offers which create changes across the whole site, that again is going to add to bandwidth use.

A search spider when it arrives at a page checks the headers to see when a page was last modified. That isn’t a huge bandwidth use. If it finds a change, it is going to index the whole page.
For some items it might be advisable to include them using javascript if they are the same on every page, and are not part of the information architecture of the site.

As an example for WordPress, if you want to display recent comments on every page, that is something that could be javascript based.

You also have to allow for scrapers, competitors using tools such as Xenu Link Sleuth etc.

One aspect that is of concern is how long it is taking to address public concerns

]]> Comment on Importance of Attending Trade Shows by Marketing Articles http://www.smallbusinessarena.com/2006/02/20/importance-of-attending-trade-shows/#comment-30023 Marketing Articles Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:06:07 +0000 http://www.smallbusinessarena.com/2006/02/20/importance-of-attending-trade-shows/#comment-30023 What is you business like Angie? Don't you have employees to attend you business and you attend trade shows? I think it's part of the business we lost some and win some. We spend money in order to make more money. Attending trade shows is a plus to a business professionals (like us).:-) This will expose us to new ideas, innovation and to greater opportunities await there somewhere. -Jan What is you business like Angie? Don’t you have employees to attend you business and you attend trade shows? I think it’s part of the business we lost some and win some. We spend money in order to make more money. Attending trade shows is a plus to a business professionals (like us).:-) This will expose us to new ideas, innovation and to greater opportunities await there somewhere.

-Jan

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