Power Sellers Unite

timming2001 · Joined: 03 Jan 2010 Posts: 19

Hi, I'm very new here. I am looking for a shopping cart and just finished registering here to find out more about the PSU version.....although I must admit that I never made it to the revered Power Seller status on eBay :(

I have an eBay store, but had been turning a blind eye to my ever increasing monthly fees. Upon closer reading, I found that listing all my items in my eBay store is not economical. I have a magazine clippings store, which kind of equals large non-duplicate inventory with comparatively small number of sales. I'm trying to create an archive (ie. lots and lots of items, currently 8000 on eBay) but the monthly eBay fees are taking too large a percentage of my total sales :evil: So I have decided to keep the eBay store, but drastically reduce the number of items listed there and try and get my own web-site.

I have already secured a domain name from godaddy. I am a complete newbie at this, so even registering a domain was a bumbling stop-and-start, complete-the-process-while-looking-at-how-to-manuals-on-10-different-windows effort! :roll:

I have looked at shopping cart reviews, and there are lots of great ones out there for a good price....if you have less than 100 items. No no no no no, that won't work.....

I need something with unlimited items which doesn't cost $150 per month :!: :!: Does the PSU shopping cart sound like what I'm after?

I have been using the Garagesale software on my Mac as an alternative to eBay's Turbolister, does the PSU shopping cart have anything like that to help with listing a large inventory?

I will spend some more time on this site trying to read up on everything, but would really appreciate ANY information from people out there who are using (or have used) this site and this cart.

Thanks in advance,
Tim

DaLizardsLair · Joined: 15 Feb 2009 Posts: 4782

Tim,

You state that you've purchased a domain name at godaddy, but are you having them "host" your website as well?

If not, then you need to find a site to host your website, before looking into shopping carts.

Some hosting services provide templates for your store and may even provide you with a shopping cart as well.

The only sites that I've ever really looked at are the ones at PSU and Bluehost.com. You might wish to see what they have to offer.

timming2001 · Joined: 03 Jan 2010 Posts: 19

That shows how new at this I am.......all I know is that I registered the domain and currently have it "parked" at godaddy......

All those $150per month options are hosted shopping carts, I guess? And the PSU version is not? Which means that I should look into hosting either at godaddy or here at PSU or Bluehost etc?

OK, I'll have a look......

DaLizardsLair · Joined: 15 Feb 2009 Posts: 4782

PSU offers a hosting service for $9.99 per month. I believe that it offers Joomla shopping cart as part of the package. I believe that you can link to the details from the PSU homepage.

Bluehost costs $5.95 per month, but I'm not sure what all they offer.

After you find a place to host your site, then you would have to point your domain name to your hosting site, otherwise nobody would be able to find you.

timming2001 · Joined: 03 Jan 2010 Posts: 19

Thanks for your answers DaLizardsLair. OK, yes, so far I have only registered the domain name with Godaddy, no hosting. I have looked through a lot of the PSU store forum postings, and it seems that there's a lot to learn, but I'm interested in learning it, so I think I will go with the PSU hosting and PSU store.

Which means that the order of action from now is sign-up, then find out how to point my godaddy-registered domain to the store.

I have approx 8000 items to move from eBay, but I'm not relying on them as my main source of income, so I'm thinking of just closing a lot of listings to reduce the basic monthly eBay fees, and see if I can use CSV (also completely new to me) to get them up on the new store.

As I said, lots to learn, but hopefully there are lots of people at ASU as willing to help out as DaLizardsLair. :-)

Aussie Girl · Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 7:23 am Post subject:

Hi Tim,
We have been using www.centrestores.com for some time now and find them very good.
Everything included - hosting, shopping cart, unlimited items etc., all for $10.00 per month.
Admin very quick and helpful.
All the best. Jesusa.

timming2001 · Joined: 03 Jan 2010 Posts: 19

Aussie Girl wrote: › docWrite("quote")
We have been using www.centrestores.com for some time now and find them very good.
Everything included - hosting, shopping cart, unlimited items etc., all for $10.00 per month.
Admin very quick and helpful.

Thanks, I'll check it out! :-)

timming2001 · Joined: 03 Jan 2010 Posts: 19

If I go for the PSU store, does anyone know if I would be able to go for the $9.99 per month payment option for the first couple of months, give it a try, and then change to the $99.90 per year plan once I'm sure i can make a good go of it?

JVS Exclusives · Joined: 02 Mar 2009 Posts: 58

I use PSU as a hosting site. I pay the one time yearly fee. Yes they do have a shopping cart. Now I went through the same process you are describing, I was new to everything.

About the shopping cart. I spent a lot of time browsing through the post here about shopping carts, as I felt I needed a better one than was offered with the joomla program. So as I made sales on my web-site I asked my buyers in a survey what I needed to do a better job at, and if they thought the checkout process was Good, Bad, what was difficult etc You get the idea.

To my surprise I did not get a bad comment as it seemed very easy to flow through the process. With that said I still use Virtuemart shopping cart that came with joomla the PSU Program. It is not fancy but easy to work through. That is the most important thing is can the buyer make it through to payment.

The Joomla program is a bit challenging and you will struggle a bit seeing that you are new to web-site designing as I was. I was able to get up and running within a few weeks about 60 hours time involved in learning some basics. My web-site still needs alot of work and is not the best eye appealing site but I am making sales nearly everyday.

There is support here at PSU for the Hosting end and you should use it, as well as check through the previous post in that forum as many of the starting out questions are addressed here. It sure did save me time asking questions and waiting for a reply.

Good luck and remember to be patient,

JVS Exclusives · Joined: 02 Mar 2009 Posts: 58

Here are some other suggestions

I would create a spreedsheet to upload to googlebase, When My products got on google search I made considerable more sales. If you do not know how to do this. Look up readingpurplegiraffe here at PSU she is a expert at doing this and has affordable rates.

About the bulk upload listing tool again Readingpurplegiraffe can incorporate this into a file for you.

I would also get a secured certificate if you plan to accept Credit Cards. You can get this at GoDaddy as you got your domain there.

DaLizardsLair · Joined: 15 Feb 2009 Posts: 4782

timming2001 wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote")If I go for the PSU store, does anyone know if I would be able to go for the $9.99 per month payment option for the first couple of months, give it a try, and then change to the $99.90 per year plan once I'm sure i can make a good go of it?

The best person to ask these kind of questions would be psunite. This is his website and if you send him a PM (private message), he will get back to you.

timming2001 · Joined: 03 Jan 2010 Posts: 19

THanks JVS Exclusives, I'll check that googlebase (and Reading purplegiraffe) out too....so many things to check out, look up, try out :-)

DaLizardsLair: I went ahead and signed up :-) Going to try and get used to the workings of the store itself now!

thegolfingdolphin · Joined: 13 Jan 2009 Posts: 617

If I can help out, do not hesitate to ask. I know most of the basic stuff using the joomla program here at PSU.

Just remember it is a learning curve thing and you really have to be patient.

I can save you a lot of time if you contact me before you actually add items, as this area took the longest time in getting discount correctly put on items.

DaLizardsLair · Joined: 15 Feb 2009 Posts: 4782

TGD,

He's started a new thread, now that he's signed up for the PSU store.

Seems he's having problems with email.

timming2001 · Joined: 03 Jan 2010 Posts: 19

Hello thegolfingdolphin (TGD), your help will be VERY MUCH APPRECIATED, and I will definitely let you know when I am ready to start getting items up into the store. 8)

Thanks, DaLizardsLair. Yes, I started a new thread seeing as this one seems to be for extra info B4 you sign up for a PSU store......seems that I've been closed out of the new thread though, as it has been restricted to users who have been "granted special access".............I got an email to say that someone had posted to it, but I can't see it :oops: