Modify Your Store (starting with css & html)

[dutchy]

There are a lot of people in this forum who want to know how to edit their stores. Most of the questions are basic html and css questions.
If you want to get an online business you have two choices to start with:
Will you do the design yourself, or do you outsource this so you can concentrate on getting traffic?

If you don't want to learn any html/css/scripting you really should consider using someone from elance.com or some other site. Here you can get someone to  modifie a template for your store.

If you want to edit the templates yourself and create an unique store, there is no option than to learn some basic html and css. Below are a some steps to get started:

[*]First of all stop using internet explorer and install

Firefox. This is a real must! Firefox is used by all designers because it is the only browser that displays all code correctly.
[*]After you have installed FF, go to the add on section and install Firebug. This add on not only lets you look at the sourcecode of a page, but also lets you "inspect" elements of a page (for instance only the sidebar) This way it is easy to find the code that you need to adjust for your needs. After installing it is available by rightclicking. Try it and play with it to get used.
[*]Try to learn some basic html. Good sites to start are:

[*]

W3Schools
[*]Your HTML Source
[*]Sitepoint Forums
[*]These sites are just to get started. Do a search on google and you will find many other good sites.
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[*]Install your first store in an addon domain or some domain that you don't use. (hosting and domains are very cheap! Here you can start for 1 cent. Use the coupon code 404PAGE. Start modifying your templates, but only change one item at once. This way you can keep track of the changes you make.
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I hope this is some help to other users. By using the above it should be not such a big problem anymore to change the font size or something like that.

Once you get a bit familiair with the html and css, lots of things are possible with storestacker:cool:

Here you can see an example of some modifications of storestacker:
Beginners Golf Store

Wishing everybody a great weekend and lets build some fantastic stores!!

[successtrax]

Dutchy:

how did you integrate the NVSB video site to your Storestacker component/

Thanks,

Successtrax

[billy]

Hi Dutchy,
I notice you have some expired items in you eBay listings, have you any idea how to get current listings only?

Thanks,

Ray

[dutchy]

successtrax: pm sent to you.

I'll try and post a "how to" use different templates with storestacker.


Ray: At the moment you need the update the listings manually. I haven't done this in a few days, so there might be some expired items in there.

To update your listings, log in to your store admin. Select the category you want to update and goto grab&push. Select ebay/amazon/clickbank and run these rules again.

You need to update the listings every few days until there will be a script for auto-updating the listings.

[billy]

Thanks Dutchy, I thought that was the case but wondered if there was anything else one could do.

Thanks,

Ray

[kiboko]

Hi Dutchy,

This is a great Site.  Was it an already existing site or did you set it up with SS?

And thanks for your advise about learning basic coding skills - I have ever considered this and you reawakened me to that need.  Boy - I should edit my site.  Check out my first site after lots of struggles.

http://popularsoftwaresite.com

I wish I could edit my header section and some of the fonts.  For now - working on traffic is my major concern.

Is anyone out there using Blogsolution?
How do you apply it here for example with my site?  Help!

Thanks,
Kiboko

[stkeys]

Great post Dutchy, and thanks for the Firefox addon I've just installed it and it looks like it should be very useful once I figure out how best to utilize it.

One thing I'm noticing here is that none of the sites you guy's are showing as examples have a Privacy policy page on the sites yet.

You should be aware that Google made changes to their TOS and any site displaying Google Adsense ads need to have a Privacy page or risk losing your Google account.

It's a pain in the rear for me as I have tons of sites out there all using different scripts so it's not as simple as uploading a new html page and linking it to a site.

On the other hand the SS script seems to be pretty simple to add new pages I'm just not sure how to go about linking a privacy page to the rest of the site. I would like to put it in the footer.

Would be nice if the guy's could add it as an update feature along with a TOS page to go along with the standard home page and contact links.

[CloakAndDagger]

You said at the moment you have to update manually .
Does that mean you believe they are working on a way to make it auto update ?

[Omar]

You said at the moment you have to update manually .
Does that mean you believe they are working on a way to make it auto update ?

Why you ask that, you don't believe we are working on autoupdate?! :cool:

I said it before, the cron support for ebay is already made, we make final inhouse test and get ready for beta test. That is what seems to be missing mostly. When will work ok and be realeased, will make some for other plugins too.

[dutchy]

Kiboko: Thanks for the compliments. You are absolutely right about first focussing on getting traffic. You have taken the right steps: You bought storestacker and actually created a site with it!! The design can be done later. Maybe you can spent 30% of your time each day on the design and the other 70% on getting traffic?

stkeys: There is a privacy policy on my site! It is on the indexpage of the site. (the one that still needs a make-over ) Don't think it is needed to link to it on every page.
If you want to link to a policy in the footer of the page, you can open the home.tpl and put in a hardlink to your file (so create an external html file and link to it from the footer) This way the link will only appear on the indexpage of your store. If needed I will post the code here.

[Lucinda]

In an effort to avoid a duplicate content issue you should create your TOS page and then put a hyperlink to it on EVERY page that displays Google adsense.  If you just put the text in your footer, make it an image with an alt tag that identifies it as your TOS (this is my favorite method).

[dutchy]

Lucinda,
A bit late with a reaction, but it is not needed to link to your privacy statement on every page. The Google TOS states that you need to have privacy statement on your site.