Oh dear, I've downloaded Zen but need help

[sollysmum]

I created my website using Dreamweaver and through my host have now downloaded Zen but have no idea how the two end up linking. Should I have started with Zen before I made my site? I'm really confused. Self-taught and struggling. PLEASE, please can somebody take me by the hand and guide me through.

[schoolboy]

DW and Zen don't link... or at least don't try to link them unless you have a PHD in zencart and a Doctorate in DW, and 45,000 years' experience.

For a ZC novice, the only way you can get your site to look like your shiny new DW layout, is to understand HOW the zencart template structure is configured.

Fundamentally, it consists of:

a HEADER section
a LEFT COLUMN
a CENTRE COLUMN
a RIGHT COLUMN
a FOOTER section

Each of these "areas" is structured to contain quite specific contents, or sets of data.

It should be quite obvious what these are:

HEADER will contain your main logo image, and probably some links to various popular functions / internal "pages"

LEFT and RIGHT column display "boxes" of data that are generally "static" links, or other pertinent data about yiour site, such as a SSL logo, or current special offers, or a summary of the shopping cart.

The CENTER COLUMN is where the bulk of the ACTION takes place... content here is compiled to allow the user to get on with the job of actually doing their shopping, so PRODUCT DATA, ADVICE PAGES, the SHOPPING CART, The CHECKOUT PROCESS... all take place in the centre column.

The FOOTER is similar to the HEADER, in that it contains a few "notices" and possibly links to a few other "pages".

Zencart is quite flexible, and a real "guru" can manipulate these "frames" (columns) to contain data that they would otherwise not contain.

To make you life easier, you should design (probably re-design at this stage) your DW template to enable the graphic elements to be "sliced" to fit the various "frames", and that it also tries to follow the function intent of each area (as I outlined above).

Your focus is surely to get a working, viable and profitable shop up asap... Dont spend 20 years trying to get "the right shade of orange" in the footer...

There many templates available that you could look at. Kuroi (forum user) has set up a template switcher so you can see some of the free ones.

STEER CLEAR of most commercial templates... They spell trouble for a novice.

[RodG]

DW and Zen don't link... or at least don't try to link them unless you have a PHD in zencart and a Doctorate in DW, and 45,000 years' experience

LOL. This is. of course, a slight exaggeration.

My advise to sollysmum (So as to not have completely wasted their time with DW) would be to upload and use their DW site and then create a subdomain for the zencart store and provide a HREF link from DW to ZC (once they have ZC looking similar to thier DW design).

Either way, the work already done needs to be redone for zencart (for a consistant look) but meanwhile thier webpage and domain name could still be getting indexed and generating traffic.

I'm not dissagreeing with your advice, just offering an alternative suggestion.

Cheers
Rod.

[schoolboy]

Problem with a separate HTML site (separated from a zencart site) is the risk of session expiry.

Sure... you can have a "tandem" system of a HTML site that points to a zencart store, but if people are in your zencart store and then navigate out of it to your flat html site, there is a risk that their session will expire.

Typical consequences of this are: A shopper loads up a shopping cart, then gets "distracted" by a link to your html site, where they spend a bit of time browsing round. They then return to the zencart part of the site... and their cart is empty - - - the session has expired.

Will they then RE-FILL the cart? Hopefully... but more likely they will be peed off and go to a competitor...

[sollysmum]

Thank you both for your help. Wow, what a minefield. It seems criminal that I might have wasted such a lot of time making the site look good only to have to pretty much scrap it and start again! That's why kids go to uni to do this stuff I guess! Maybe I should just pay somebody to sort it out and get on with what i do best- selling!!! Hey, thanks again, food for thought.

[schoolboy]

I think the main questions you need to ask is:

1. Am I a competent, skilled, experienced dynamic-content website designer?
2. Am I keen to get a webshop up and running to make some money?

... I would suggest you are tending towards "2".

So, if running a business, then your business plan would (should) specify input and development costs. For most people, this "cost" is mostly their personal time, but the longer you spend trying to fathom out how to "get that lovely shade of orange" into your website's footer area, the less time you are going to have to focus on getting the business operational.

When I meet new prospective clients, I waste no time pointing this out to them... Do you want to be a website manager... or a business owner? If you want to be a website manager, then "thank-you and goodbye, you don't need me". If however, you want to run your business, we will happily be your partner in managing your website.

Now of course most people do not have the "luxury" of limitless resources to employ an army of specialists to assist them. Most people just have one person doing the whole lot... themselves.

So it is then even more important to prioritize, and to devote attention to where it is needed most.

In practical and unemotional terms, you can install a standard zencart shop at 6am in the morning, and by noon you can be using it to trade on the internet. That is a fact, and we have done that on more than one occasion. (It is even possible to get an "acceptable" standard of design customization within this "6-hour" timeframe).

My advice to people is... Get up and running. Focus on FUNCTIONALITY and get the store out there and bringing in the cash. The beauty of websites is that future enhancements and changes can be made on a limitless and on-going basis. Over time, as you learn more of the techniques, you can improve the appearance. Nothing is "cast in stone" with a website.

Focus on the business imperative first...

(Sam Walton - Walmart - Grew up during the Great Depression, and had numerous chores to help make financial ends meet for his family. He milked the family cow, bottled the surplus, and drove it to customers. Afterwards, he would deliver newspapers on a paper route. In addition, he also sold magazine subscriptions.)

[sollysmum]

I've got the big guns coming in to help me out, hooray :)

[OneGreyCell]

Schoolboy I have to say, don't ever offer your services on a crisis helpline

What you like in a bad mood?

As much as I admire your direct approach be gentle with us newbies! After all some of us are female and you might make us cry

[schoolboy]

Schoolboy I have to say, don't ever offer your services on a crisis helpline

What you like in a bad mood?

As much as I admire your direct approach be gentle with us newbies! After all some of us are female and you might make us cry

Yes... I sometimes speak with a degree of "frankness" that can come across as "brutal"... but the business world is just that. Today, eCommerce is so highly competitive and uncompromising that survival is not easy. (About 90% of new, small webshops fail within 18 months).

Having been involved in marketing for over 20 years (focusing on eCommerce for the last 16), we have seen some great successes, and many spectacular failures, we have some experience in seeing what offers the best chance of success - particularly for the small business person, where we tend to focus our services.

One of the most common "errors" we see with small businesses, is that they think that a website will either "become" their business, or somehow magically add that extra margin to their revenues that mean the difference between red and black ink on the balance sheet.

A webshop is nothing more than an extra sales channel, and must be seen to be AUGMENTING a business, rather than BEING the business.

Certainly in its early stages, it plays a small role (relatively) in the context of the more traditional sales channels (selling in your local community, advertising in local newspapers, promoting and selling directly - face-to-face - to customers.)

I hope that what I say encourages people to think a little bit harder about what they are trying to do. I don't believe people download and install zencart because they like "playing with software". People download it becuase they are keen to start (or augment) a business.

Our experience may just help people to focus on key issues, so that in 18 months from now, they are part of the 10% and not the 90%.

[afo]

Schoolboy I have to say, don't ever offer your services on a crisis helpline

What you like in a bad mood?

As much as I admire your direct approach be gentle with us newbies! After all some of us are female and you might make us cry

To paraphrase "A League of Their Own", there's no crying in e-commerce.