I often hear "I don't want a template" or "Template web sites suck!". While many templated based web site products do, in fact, "suck".. The quality has nothing to do with the fact the site uses a "Template".

Think about this for a second. Do you think Amazon.com maintains millions of web pages manually? Do you visualize a team of programmers editing every single page one-by-one? No, not only would this be nearly impossible.. But people make mistakes!

Let me explain.. Large web sites like Amazon.com and many other sites are largely template based. This usually means the header, buttons, and footer is somewhat fixed. Also there are generally different layout types for an "editor" to choose from. This way the person maintaining the web site ONLY has to worry about the content itself. They don't worry about layout, browser compatibility, broken images, and more!

These sites use a template driven system to reduce cost, improve reliability, and provide fresh content on an as-needed basis without hiring a team of full time developers. The development is during the design process. They established what page types they would use.. NOT what would specifically be on each page. Once the developers created the framework AND the templates.. Standard every day people maintain the web sites.

Why are people so down on templates? Because there are so many super cheap web site builders that provide poor templates with flat ugly design and only a few features. There are reasons they are not very flexible or attractive. First, these companies save money hoping you don't call for support. E-mail based support is much cheaper than phone support. If they keep the product simple, then you shouldn't have too many questions. Second, if they don't charge much money then the company can not spend much in upgrades or improvements.

What a GOOD template based system can provide

Ok, I am certainly promoting our Website Forge product in this paragraph. I have to. It's the ONLY system out there that provides the ability to apply HIGH QUALITY designs to a very powerful template based system that can be use for true commercial web site applications. It is also easily upgraded when needed. The concept is to reduce the cost on the most commonly used functions of most web sites and save our customers money. Then you, the customer can pay for custom programming ONLY when necessary. This saves you money and reduces testing and debugging. Remember, we have hundreds of customers using the Website Forge system. This means it is solid, and tested. It makes no sense to have shopping carts re-written custom over and voer again. It will always result in debugging and constant modifications. Instead we constantly add new features to the Website Forge system and provide these tested features for FREE.

Here are some of the features that make the Website Forge system a good fit for nearly any business:
- You can apply a custom graphic design to the Website Forge system. Unique looking designs. CLICK FOR SAMPLES
- The E-commerce system is very flexible and adaptive. It will handle anything including online payments, subscription features, downloadable products, clothing, hardware, software, or all of the products combined.
- You can benefit from the newsletter option, coupons, gift certificates, wishlists, and more. New features are added each month
- You can and an unlimited number of text, images, products and links.
- You can have image based modifiers to products. Show the shirt in all 4 colors... Display fabric patterns.. Etc.
- You can attach multimedia like videos and flash presentations attached to your pages.
- You can have drop-down cascading menus.. NOT just simple buttons. Our designs don't look like templates. They look like professional web sites.
- We have real-time credit card processing, pay-pal and more. The security certificate is included. This saves you nearly $400.00.
- You can create flexible navigation with drop downs within your pages as well as links to/from any product.
- We provide real-time shipping calculations and taxing.
- I can go on and on.

Here are a few sites that are based on the Website Forge system:

www.vitadeals.com	www.newperspective.us
www.outfitterconnection.com	www.balloonex.com

You get what you pay for when it comes to template based systems
Just keep in mind. Website Forge spent hundred of thousands of dollars perfecting this system. Dozens of upgrades happen each month free of charge. We listen to the people that matter... Our customer base.. And we continue to improve every day. So don't let the term "Template" scare you. Without them many large web based businesses could not exist.

Shane Merem
www.websiteforge.com
www.magnusoft.com
shane.merem@magnusoft.com

You may have noticed the word {Spam?} as a prefix to many of your e-mail subjects. This is due to our latest e-mail upgrade. Serious enhancements to our anti-virus and anti-spam system have enabled us to identify spam with 98% accuracy and stop ALL viruses (so far).

Why don't we delete spam mail?
We choose to tag but not delete spam because there is always the possiblity that good mail could be incorrectly identified as spam and cause an important e-mail to be stopped. So we identify the mail as suspicious and allow you to take action.

How can I remove the messaged marked as {Spam?}?
To sort out the suspect e-mail configure your e-mail client (outlook express, outlook, Eudora, etc..) to move any e-mail with the word {Spam?} in the subject to another folder marked "Spam". This way you will only see the good mail in your inbox. Yet you can occasionally browse your spam folder and check for good mail.

*** Watch this video to configure your Outlook Express to filter your spam mail ***
CLICK TO VIEW VIDEO

We will continue to work hard to eliminate spam and viruses to protect our customers.

Shane Merem
www.websiteforge.com
www.magnusoft.com
shane.merem@magnusoft.com

Recently we were asked if we could allow a visitor to customize a bracelet on-the-fly. This meant allowing a visitor to type in text, choose clors and see the finished bracelet instantly. We were able to achieve this with the use of PHP and some image manipulation libraries available on Linux. This is one of the reasons we find Linux to be the best choice for application development. We charged a fraction of the cost that an equivalent Microsoft product would cost. Most of the programming tools were free or open source, saving thousands of dollars.

******* Here is a sample of the application *******
Click here to test the bracelet builder
*****************************************

Shane Merem
shane.merem@magnusoft.com
www.websiteforge.com
www.magnusoft.com

Nearly every company developing web sites offer some sort of search engine submission usually included with the purchase of the web site. What does this mean and is it really of any value?

First, what this means is after your web site is completed you may be asked to name several keywords that you think people will type into Yahoo! or Google to find your web site (example for bookstore: books, childrens books, cooking books). Then these keywords are included in your web site HTML code (some hidden and some visible). Finally somebody has to visit Yahoo!, Google and any other search engines and ask them to consider your web site in their search engine.

Here are some of the fundamental flaws with this process. First, it may take weeks or even months to find out if you were accepted. Second, guessing at keywords will likely get you listed in the search engine so buried at the bottom of the list you will never make a sale. Third, there are many pey-per-click programs available that put paying customers ahead of you.

To make a long story short. If you are told you will be "submitted" in a search engine.. You can not assume this will result in ANY sales whatsoever. Todays search engine process requires focused effort and professional advice. This advice and effort usually costs money and WILL yield sales.

Our approach here at the Website Forge includes a free consultation with a SE expert, Kevin Gannon. Kevin will discuss your business and get online and research other businesses that you perceive to be your competition and show you what you NEED to do to compete and get your piece of the marketshare. In many ways it is similar to what any marketing company would do with traditional advertising. You will receive free advice that you can use yourself. OR you can opt to hire Kevin to work on the marketing for you.

Remember, when discussing search engine submissions. Ask the question... "How am I assured people will visit my web site?". Guaranteed submission does not guarantee customers.

Shane Merem
Website Forge
www.websiteforge.com
www.magnusoft.com
shane.merem@magnusoft.com

To respond to the common request to provide maps, directions and other information we have created a "Locations" page type for the Website Forge system. This page type allows you to easily list physical store locations or locations where your products may be available.

To pay "hosting" is to rent space on the worldwide web to make your web site available to anyone around the world. Hosting usually includes e-mail service, disk space, database services and something called "bandwith". Bandwith is the amount of traffic or visitors allowed to view your web site each month. Most hosting companies host your web site on one server shared by many other customers. Also many hosting companies have one or two "backbone" (large) connections to the internet.

One disadvantage of shared hosting is poor performance. This poor performance is often an indication of "oversold" servers or perhaps one particular web site is using too much of the server's resources. More often this happens with hosting services priced under $35.00. Hopefully the web developer you choose should provide a reliable host. Be ware of anyone who uses "low cost" hosting as a selling point. You get what you pay for.

I have worked with commercial web site customers for over 10 years. Over the years we learned from our customers what it takes to assure their web site is always available and as fast as possible. Every web site we provide runs on at least 3 servers. This means that even if 2 servers fail, your web site will still be available to your customers. And our consists of five HUGE OC-12 connections provided by AT&T, UUNET, Qwest, Time Warner, and Sprint. Our network has been up 100% of the time for the last 2 years.

Not only do we provide the best quality "hosting" available. But the monthly fee you pay for a Website Forge site includes Virus protection, spam protection, unlimited bandwith, unlimited space, no page limit, no product limits, unlimited e-mail and call back phone support and more. That's STILL not all. You also receive FREE upgrades for your monthly fee. Let me give you an example. Just recently every credit card has a 3 or 4 digit security code on the back. ALL of our Website Forge customers received FREE upgrades to their shopping carts. This means that you shouldn't have to pay any more for addtional pages, or upgrades we provide..... EVER. Your monthly fee is all you need to pay.

Shane Merem
Website Forge
shane.merem@magnusoft.com

I am asked almost daily what is the best method to accept credit cards. Nearly everyone knows of Pay-Pal and there is always a 50/50 split when it comes to popularity.

Paypal became popular when E-bay attracted millions of individuals that wanted to buy and sell to each other. Since there really was not a good way to transfer funds without mailing checks Paypal provided a way that individuals could move some money into a "virtual account" and then exchange money for goods. Funding this account with credit cards was just ONE method you could fund your Paypal account. You could draft money directly from your checking account if you desired. My point is that Paypal was not originally intended to become a credit card merchant. Does Paypal try to make it easy to quickly create an account and use your credit card to make a payment? Sure they do... In fact they are now starting to compete with real credit card merchants by lowering their 4% transaction fee based on volume.

What is a "Merchant Account" ? A merchant account is what I would consider a business banking service of a sort.. You would contact a merchant (we like www.posprocessing.com) and fill out an application. Once approved you will receive something called a "Virtual Terminal". A virtual terminal is a web site that provides all the functionality of that little black box that you see on the counter of many stores. The only difference is you type in the credit card number instead of swipe the card.

True merchant accounts charge less per transaction.. Closer to 2.6% (don't quote me on that) but do have some charges that Paypal does not. For instance you may pay monthly fees to keep the account much like a bank account. You usually also pay a setup fee anywhere from $99.00 on up depending on what type of business you have.

My personal opinion is that a merchant account is the way to go. The biggest reason is that it requires less time from your customers. If a customer wants to buy your product and doesn't have a Paypal account then they will be forced to create one. This can be annoying. Most true merchant accounts can be integrated so that your customer never leaves your web site. This is also more comfortable for the customer.

Are there good points of Paypal? Yes, to be fair.. Most web sites can easily integrate Paypal to your web site and you can be running in a day or two. Also you don't have to pay setup fees or monthly fees to use Paypal.

Shane Merem
www.websiteforge.com
www.magnusoft.com
shane.merem@magnusoft.com

I wanted to create this Blog as a way to communicate useful information about web site design, e-commerce systems, and marketing techniques.

Enjoy.
Shane Merem
www.websiteforge.com
www.magnusoft.com
shane.merem@magnusoft.com