While the internet seems like a giant mysterious animal it’s actually quite logical once you understand a little how it works.

Many websites fail because of a lack of traffic. No visitors equals no sales. The frustrated website owner who invested all their time into setting up their website blames the site and declares the internet a waste of time.

Well, the owner is usually wrong in both cases.

First of all, it’s usually not the sites fault. Sure, the content could be bad, and the site could look horrible, but that’s the owners fault and not the site!

And secondly, the internet is not a waste of time. You just need to know how to use it.

In most cases the lack of visitors is simply down to the fact that no one knows the site even exists.

I call it the ‘build it and they will come’ syndrome. The internet is not magical. Google does not possess magic powers to randomly find websites. If you build a website people won’t just come.

Google usually finds sites through two different ways – Links and you telling Google your website exists.

The importance of links

Links are really important for two reasons.

1. It helps Google and other search engines find your site, and:
2. It tells Google and other search engines how good your website is.

The first is easy to explain. Take this image below. It is a section of the internet with a few existing websites in blue. Your new website is in orange and it sitting out there alone:

Kind of looks like a spider web right? Hmm… world wide w….

Some of these websites link to other websites, as indicated in red. Google sits in the middle and as people search for keywords it shows results of websites it knows. These red links are very important for Google. First of all, the Google website crawler which travels the internet looking for websites and content to add to its database travels from link to link between sites. Like a spider does crawling over a web between two tress. When it finds a new website it looks for all the links on this site and travels from that link to another site. In some cases this can take Google to a new website and this site will now be added to Google’s database.

At the same time Google records the number of sites that link to each other. If a website has a high number of other sites linking to it then Google assumes this website must be good, otherwise why else would the owner of the other site link to it? Therefore, it will rank this website higher in a search result and this is gold for a website owner.

So links are import for two reasons:

1. They help Google (and others) find your site
2. Most important of all, it tells Google your website is good. So good that others link to your website and its content. Again, pure gold for a website owner.

If your website is all alone, with no links from anyway (websites, Facebook, Twitter, etc) and you’ve never told Google you exist then Google probably won’t find you. Certainly your customers (or potential customers) won’t. You might be lucky and someone may mention your website on their own site, or talk about it on Twitter or a blog. But that may never happen and you will not benefit from the wonderful Google juice that will flow through links to your website.

As a website strategy you should be looking for as many websites to link to you as possible. Ask customer who are happy with your service to recommend you by linking to your website from their site. If your suppliers have a reseller directory then list your website on this. Links are very important so take them when you can.

However, the Google juice or love that flows between links is only really useful if a website links to you, but you don’t like to them. In other words, Google realise that a bunch of websites can all agree to link to each other in order to fool Google into believing your website is loved. So to prevent this Google won’t increase the search result ranking of two websites that link to each other. When it comes to Google love it’s really a one way street!

Tell Google you exist through Google Webmaster Tools

Besides finding you through links Google has a tool that lets you submit your website address to their service for consideration. It’s called Google Webmaster Tools and here is a quick introduction video from Google:

Google Webmaster Tools have several great services for website owners such as reporting crawler errors (problems Google found with your site), identifying search queries people are using to find your site, and how many of your websites URLs or pages Google knows.

But most important of all Google Webmaster Tools lets you submit you website directly to Google.

Add and verify a site:

• Sign into Google Webmaster Tools with your Google Account.
• Click the Add a site button, and type the URL of the site you want to add. Make sure you type the entire URL, such as http://www.example.com/
• Click Continue. The Site verification page opens.
• Under the ‘Alternate methods’ tab select ‘HTML tag’
• Select and copy the “<meta name=”google-site-verification”…” tag.
• Log into you DecoNetwork website
• Browse to Manage Store > Appearance > Customize Template HTML
• Select the Create custom layout tab and check Override Default Layout.
• Paste the “<meta name…” tag you copied above before before the </head> tag in your customer HTML. i.e.<meta name=”google-site-verification” content=”yourcodewillbehere” />
  </head>
• Click Update to save your changes.
• Return to your Google Webmaster Central tab and click the  red ‘Verify’ button to verify your HTML tag.

We had a great response to our previous video Creating a dynamic product view template in DecoNetwork which shows how you can make a single color dynamic product template.

Therefore we’re recorded a new video showing how you can make a multi-color product template such as a long sleeve t-shirt with a contrast sleeve.

Enjoy!

When a customer on your DecoNetwork website views a blank product they can select one of the decoration process links to launch the designer and decorate your product.

By default these are standard links:

But with a little CSS styling you can make these links more attractive and increase the chance a customer will select them to decorate a blank product.

Below is some CSS you can copy and add to your DecoNetwork website to style your launch designer buttons.

Adding the CSS to your DecoNetwork website

First let’s sort out the important part – how to add the custom CSS to your DecoNetwork website.

1. Log into your DecoNetwork website.
2. Browse to Manage Store > Appearance > Customize Template CSS.
3. Select the Create Custom CSS tab and paste your CSS changes into the window.
4. Click Save CSS to save your changes.

Example button styles and colors

• Blue button with “Customize with” text
• Blue button
• Silver button
• Orange button
• Charcoal button
• Green button
• Steel Blue button
• Purple button
• Red button
• plus… Create a round button

Here are some sample CSS you can copy to style your product’s launch designer links:

Blue with “Customize with” text:

Copy the following CSS into DecoNetwork:

/* Blue "Customize with" start*/
.personalize .meta.categories h5 {
 margin-bottom: 20px;
 margin-left: 5px;
 margin-top: 10px;
}
.personalize .meta.categories h5 a {
 background-color: #1682E2;
 background-image: url("/uploads/10343058/File/customize_1.png");
 background-position: 4px 2px;
 background-repeat: no-repeat;
 border-radius: 3px 3px 3px 3px;
 color: #FFFFFF;
 padding: 5px 5px 5px 100px;
 text-decoration: none;
}
.personalize .meta.categories h5 a:hover {
 background-color: #005DC1;
}
/* Blue "Customize with" end */

You may want to modify the “Customize with” text which is actually an image referenced in “background-image: url(“/uploads/10343058/File/customize_1.png”);”. Create your own small image no more than 20 pixels high as a PNG with transparent background and upload it to your DecoNetwork website.

1. Log into your DecoNetwork website.
2. Browse to Manage Store > Appearance > Customize Template CSS.
3. Select the Create Custom CSS tab and upload your file using the Select File/Image button.
4. Copy the image URL which will look similar to /uploads/10343058/File/customize_1.png and replace the value of the “background-image” property.

Blue button

Copy the following CSS into DecoNetwork:

/* Blue start */
.personalize .meta.categories h5 {
 margin-bottom: 20px;
 margin-left: 5px;
 margin-top: 10px;
}
.personalize .meta.categories h5 a {
 background: #499bea; /* Old browsers */
 background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #499bea 0%, #1a5fbf 100%); /* FF3.6+ */
 background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,#499bea), color-stop(100%,#1a5fbf)); /* Chrome,Safari4+ */
 background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #499bea 0%,#1a5fbf 100%); /* Chrome10+,Safari5.1+ */
 background: -o-linear-gradient(top, #499bea 0%,#1a5fbf 100%); /* Opera 11.10+ */
 background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #499bea 0%,#1a5fbf 100%); /* IE10+ */
 background: linear-gradient(top, #499bea 0%,#1a5fbf 100%); /* W3C */
 filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#499bea', endColorstr='#1a5fbf',GradientType=0 ); /* IE6-9 */
 border: 1px solid #1a5fbf;
 border-radius: 1px 1px 1px 1px;
 box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
 height: 28px;
 line-height: 28px;
 padding: 7px 10px;
 text-align: center;
 color: #FFFFFF;
 font-size: 12px; 
 font-weight:bold;
 text-decoration:none;
}
.personalize .meta.categories h5 a:hover {
box-shadow: 0 -10px 20px -10px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4) inset, 0 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);
}
/* Blue end */

Silver button

Copy the following CSS into DecoNetwork:

/* Silver button start */
.personalize .meta.categories h5 {
 margin-bottom: 20px;
 margin-left: 5px;
 margin-top: 10px;
}
.personalize .meta.categories h5 a {
 background: #ffffff; /* Old browsers */
 background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #ffffff 0%, #e1ebec 100%); /* FF3.6+ */
 background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,#ffffff), color-stop(100%,#e1ebec)); /* Chrome,Safari4+ */
 background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #ffffff 0%,#e1ebec 100%); /* Chrome10+,Safari5.1+ */
 background: -o-linear-gradient(top, #ffffff 0%,#e1ebec 100%); /* Opera 11.10+ */
 background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #ffffff 0%,#e1ebec 100%); /* IE10+ */
 background: linear-gradient(top, #ffffff 0%,#e1ebec 100%); /* W3C */
 filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#ffffff', endColorstr='#e1ebec',GradientType=0 ); /* IE6-9 */
 border: 1px solid #DCE1E1;
 border-radius: 1px 1px 1px 1px;
 box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
 height: 28px;
 line-height: 28px;
 padding: 7px 10px;
 text-align: center;
 color: #404040;
 font-size: 12px; 
 font-weight:bold;
 text-decoration:none;
}
.personalize .meta.categories h5 a:hover {
box-shadow: 0 -10px 20px -10px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) inset, 0 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
}
/* Silver button end */

Orange button

Copy the following CSS into DecoNetwork:

/* Orange button */
.personalize .meta.categories h5 {
 margin-bottom: 20px;
 margin-left: 5px;
 margin-top: 10px;
}
.personalize .meta.categories h5 a {
 background: #fff45e; /* Old browsers */
 background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #fff45e 0%, #febf04 100%); /* FF3.6+ */
 background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,#fff45e), color-stop(100%,#febf04)); /* Chrome,Safari4+ */
 background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #fff45e 0%,#febf04 100%); /* Chrome10+,Safari5.1+ */
 background: -o-linear-gradient(top, #fff45e 0%,#febf04 100%); /* Opera 11.10+ */
 background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #fff45e 0%,#febf04 100%); /* IE10+ */
 background: linear-gradient(top, #fff45e 0%,#febf04 100%); /* W3C */
 filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#fff45e', endColorstr='#febf04',GradientType=0 ); /* IE6-9 */
 border: 1px solid #FFE605;
 border-radius: 1px 1px 1px 1px;
 box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
 height: 28px;
 line-height: 28px;
 padding: 7px 10px;
 text-align: center;
 color: #404040;
 font-size: 12px; 
 font-weight:bold;
 text-decoration:none;
}
.personalize .meta.categories h5 a:hover {
box-shadow: 0 -10px 20px -10px rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.2) inset, 0 1px 3px rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.2);
}
/* Orange button end */

Charcoal button

Copy the following CSS into DecoNetwork:

/* Charcoal button start */
.personalize .meta.categories h5 {
 margin-bottom: 20px;
 margin-left: 5px;
 margin-top: 10px;
}
.personalize .meta.categories h5 a {
 background: #505459; /* Old browsers */
 background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #505459 0%, #000000 100%); /* FF3.6+ */
 background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,#505459), color-stop(100%,#000000)); /* Chrome,Safari4+ */
 background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #505459 0%,#000000 100%); /* Chrome10+,Safari5.1+ */
 background: -o-linear-gradient(top, #505459 0%,#000000 100%); /* Opera 11.10+ */
 background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #505459 0%,#000000 100%); /* IE10+ */
 background: linear-gradient(top, #505459 0%,#000000 100%); /* W3C */
 filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#505459', endColorstr='#000000',GradientType=0 ); /* IE6-9 */
 border: 1px solid #444444;
 border-radius: 1px 1px 1px 1px;
 box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
 height: 28px;
 line-height: 28px;
 padding: 7px 10px;
 text-align: center;
 color: #F0F0F0;
 font-size: 12px; 
 font-weight:bold;
 text-decoration:none;
}
.personalize .meta.categories h5 a:hover {
box-shadow: 0 -10px 20px -10px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.6) inset, 0 1px 3px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.6);
}
/* Charcoal button end */

Steel blue button

Copy the following CSS into DecoNetwork:

/* Steel blue button start */
.personalize .meta.categories h5 {
 margin-bottom: 20px;
 margin-left: 5px;
 margin-top: 10px;
}
.personalize .meta.categories h5 a {
 background: #a7cfdf; /* Old browsers */
 background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #a7cfdf 0%, #23538a 100%); /* FF3.6+ */
 background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,#a7cfdf), color-stop(100%,#23538a)); /* Chrome,Safari4+ */
 background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #a7cfdf 0%,#23538a 100%); /* Chrome10+,Safari5.1+ */
 background: -o-linear-gradient(top, #a7cfdf 0%,#23538a 100%); /* Opera 11.10+ */
 background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #a7cfdf 0%,#23538a 100%); /* IE10+ */
 background: linear-gradient(top, #a7cfdf 0%,#23538a 100%); /* W3C */
 filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#a7cfdf', endColorstr='#23538a',GradientType=0 ); /* IE6-9 */
 border: 1px solid #444444;
 border-radius: 1px 1px 1px 1px;
 box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
 height: 28px;
 line-height: 28px;
 padding: 7px 10px;
 text-align: center;
 color: #F0F0F0;
 font-size: 12px; 
 font-weight:bold;
 text-decoration:none;
}
.personalize .meta.categories h5 a:hover {
box-shadow: 0 -10px 20px -10px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) inset, 0 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
}
/* Steel blue button end */

Green button

Copy the following CSS into DecoNetwork:

/* Green button start */
.personalize .meta.categories h5 {
 margin-bottom: 20px;
 margin-left: 5px;
 margin-top: 10px;
}
.personalize .meta.categories h5 a {
 background: #b6e026; /* Old browsers */
 background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #b6e026 0%, #89bf24 100%); /* FF3.6+ */
 background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,#b6e026), color-stop(100%,#89bf24)); /* Chrome,Safari4+ */
 background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #b6e026 0%,#89bf24 100%); /* Chrome10+,Safari5.1+ */
 background: -o-linear-gradient(top, #b6e026 0%,#89bf24 100%); /* Opera 11.10+ */
 background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #b6e026 0%,#89bf24 100%); /* IE10+ */
 background: linear-gradient(top, #b6e026 0%,#89bf24 100%); /* W3C */
 filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#b6e026', endColorstr='#89bf24',GradientType=0 ); /* IE6-9 */
 border: 1px solid #89bf24;
 border-radius: 1px 1px 1px 1px;
 box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
 height: 28px;
 line-height: 28px;
 padding: 7px 10px;
 text-align: center;
 color: #FFFFFF;
 font-size: 12px; 
 font-weight:bold;
 text-decoration:none;
}
.personalize .meta.categories h5 a:hover {
box-shadow: 0 -10px 20px -10px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) inset, 0 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
}
/* Green button end */

Purple button

Copy the following CSS into DecoNetwork:

/* Purple button start */
.personalize .meta.categories h5 {
 margin-bottom: 20px;
 margin-left: 5px;
 margin-top: 10px;
}
.personalize .meta.categories h5 a {
 background: #e570e7; /* Old browsers */
 background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #e570e7 0%, #c85ec7 47%, #a849a3 100%); /* FF3.6+ */
 background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,#e570e7), color-stop(47%,#c85ec7), color-stop 
(100%,#a849a3)); /* Chrome,Safari4+ */
 background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #e570e7 0%,#c85ec7 47%,#a849a3 100%); /* Chrome10+,Safari5.1+ */
 background: -o-linear-gradient(top, #e570e7 0%,#c85ec7 47%,#a849a3 100%); /* Opera 11.10+ */
 background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #e570e7 0%,#c85ec7 47%,#a849a3 100%); /* IE10+ */
 background: linear-gradient(top, #e570e7 0%,#c85ec7 47%,#a849a3 100%); /* W3C */
 filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#e570e7', endColorstr='#a849a3',GradientType=0 ); /* IE6-9 */
 border: 1px solid #a849a3;
 border-radius: 1px 1px 1px 1px;
 box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
 height: 28px;
 line-height: 28px;
 padding: 7px 10px;
 text-align: center;
 color: #FFFFFF;
 font-size: 12px; 
 font-weight:bold;
 text-decoration:none;
}
.personalize .meta.categories h5 a:hover {
box-shadow: 0 -10px 20px -10px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) inset, 0 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
}
/* Purple button end */

Red button

Copy the following CSS into DecoNetwork:

/* Red button start */
.personalize .meta.categories h5 {
 margin-bottom: 20px;
 margin-left: 5px;
 margin-top: 10px;
}
.personalize .meta.categories h5 a {
 background: #ff3019; /* Old browsers */
 background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #ff3019 0%, #cf0404 100%); /* FF3.6+ */
 background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,#ff3019), color-stop(100%,#cf0404)); /* Chrome,Safari4+ */
 background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #ff3019 0%,#cf0404 100%); /* Chrome10+,Safari5.1+ */
 background: -o-linear-gradient(top, #ff3019 0%,#cf0404 100%); /* Opera 11.10+ */
 background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #ff3019 0%,#cf0404 100%); /* IE10+ */
 background: linear-gradient(top, #ff3019 0%,#cf0404 100%); /* W3C */
 filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#ff3019', endColorstr='#cf0404',GradientType=0 ); /* IE6-9 */
 border: 1px solid #a849a3;
 border-radius: 1px 1px 1px 1px;
 box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
 height: 28px;
 line-height: 28px;
 padding: 7px 10px;
 text-align: center;
 color: #FFFFFF;
 font-size: 12px; 
 font-weight:bold;
 text-decoration:none;
}
.personalize .meta.categories h5 a:hover {
box-shadow: 0 -10px 20px -10px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) inset, 0 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
}
/* Red button end */

Creating a round button

Sometimes you want something not so square, and round button is perfect for that! To turn your square button into a round button simple add the following property and value to the “.personalize .meta.categories h5 a” selector:

border-radius:99px;

Ensure this goes after the { and before the } on a new line in .personalize .meta.categories h5 a.

One of the great benefits of DecoNetwork is the ability to modify your sites look and feel. Otherwise known as skinning your site.

Before we jump into the details I’d like to explain a little about a web server, the HTML and CSS.

To best describe each of these and how they relate in DecoNetwork I’d like you to imagine your DecoNetwork website as a house. A house consists of the land (the webserver), the building frame (the HTML), and the bricks, tiles and paint that decorates the building (the CSS, or Casecade Styling Sheet).

In the case of DecoNetwork your subscriptions provides you with your block of land plus an initial house complete with frame and decorations that you can customize as your own.

Start with a template

When skinning your DecoNetwork website it’s usually best and easier to start with one of the predefined 28 store templates in DecoNetwork.

• Browse to Manage Store > Appearance > Select Store Template
• Select the template and color variation of the template you want and select Select Theme.

Paint first, build later

If you’re fairly new to the world of customizing a website we recommend you focus more on the colors (CSS) than layout (HTML) of your site. In other words, paint your house as a first project before building a complete new house from scratch.

There are two ways to modify some colors of your site.

1. Use the Edit store appearance icon in the front-page of your website
2. Modify your sites CSS

Edit Store Appearance

Edit Store Appearance is a simple tool to modify the colors of your website. Browse to the front-page of your website and select the paintbrush edit store appearance icon in the top-right corner:

Mouse over the item you want to modify and select it. A popup will appear allowing you to change some of the item’s colors.

When you are finished select the paintbrush icon again to close the Edit store appearance mode.

Modify your sites CSS

If you like to get into the nitty gritty of CSS then you’d want to customise the template CSS.

• Browse to Manage Store > Appearance > Customize Template CSS
• Select the Create Custom CSS tab
• Paste in your custom CSS
• Press Save CSS to save your changes

When pasting your custom CSS ensure you only include what you’ve changed. For example, the following CSS specifies the size, color and font of a H1 heading:

H1 {
 size: 18px;
 color: #000000;
 font-family: Arial;
 }

If you want to change your heading color from blank (#000000) to a red (#CC0000) then you would include the following in your Create custom CSS tab:

H1 {
 color: #CC0000;
 }

As the size and font will not change these are excluded.

My personal tip is to use FireFox and a browser plug-in called FireBug (http://getfirebug.com). This awesome little tool allows you to inspect your websites CSS and make live changes to preview the result right in the browser. With the changes made and preview looking correct, you can paste your changes directly into you DecoNetwork custom CSS tab. Check out the “Introduction to Firebug” video on their site.

Modify your sites HTML

While you can always return to the default DecoNetwork HTML, modifying the HTML of your DecoNetwork website should be avoided unless you have HTML knowledge.

To modify the HTML:

• Browse to Manage Store > Appearance > Customer Template HTML
• Select the Custom Layout tab
• Check the Override default layout check box
• Modify your HTML
• Press Update to save your changes

Need a helping hand?

DecoNetwork provides an additional service called DecoCoach which can design, setup and skin your DecoNetwork website for you. To find out more contact our DecoNetwork team: www.deconetwork.com/contact

Up-coming webinar

We have an up-coming webinar that walks you through the process of modifying your DecoNetwork’s CSS and HTML plus our DecoCoach service. To register for this free event visit:

Missed our webinar “Introduction to skinning your DecoNetwork website“? Don’t worry! Here is a recording!

Don’t forget to register for future webinars at www.deconetwork.com/webinars

You may not be aware of the wealth of options you have to customise and tweak options for your DecoNetwork store. These are really useful options that can allow you website visitors to search for your products, more easily navigate around you site, or socially interact with comments, voting or sharing in social networks like Pinterest an Facebook.

This post highlights where to find these options and exactly what they are.

Accessing the Store Options

To access your store options browse to Manage Store > Store Settings and select the Options tab:

Explanation of the options:

1. Hide fulfillment center contact details:

This will display or hide the Fulfillment Center contact details under the Contact page.

2. Display dropdown menu:

This will display or hide a dropdown menu for menu items such as Products, Create and Designs.

3. Display shopping cart:

This will display or hide the “Cart” link at the top of supported templates (Excluding the Hub template).

4. Display recently viewed items:

This will display or hide the “Recent items” link at the top of supported templates (Excluding the Hub template). This option allows website visitors to see a list of recent items they have viewed on your site.

5. Display currency chooser:

This will display or hide the “Currency” selector at the top of each page. This options allows website visitors can change the display currency of prices in your site.

6. Display search box:

This will display or hide the search box in the navigation bar or on the top of each page. Website users can search for blank products, decorated products or designs on your site.

7. Display breadcrumbs:

This will display or hide the breadcrumb navigation beneath the menu on your site. The breadcrumb navigation allows users to find their way back to previous pages they visited. And yes, ‘breadcrumb’ is in reference to Hansel and Gretel!

8. Allow comments:

This will display or hide the comments field for decorated products and designs. This option allows visitors to your website make comments against decorated products or designs.

9. Allow voting:

This will display or hide the voting capability for decorated products and designs. This option allows visitors to your website to post a vote out of 5 stars against decorated products or designs.

10. Allow sharing:

This will display or hide the sharing capability for decorated products and designs. This option allows visitors to your website share your products by email, Pinterest or Facebook.

11. Allow online designer:

This will display or hide the online designer.

12. Allow gift certificates:

This will display or hide Gift Certificates for sale on your website.

13. Display ‘Create Store’ link:

This will display or hide the ‘Create your own online store!” option on your site. This option allows visitors to your website create their own affiliate store to sell their designs on your products.

14. Display phone number:

This will display or hide your phone number on your website. You can also choose to display the phone number in the footer, header or both of your website.

15. Designer Layout:

This option allows you to select the designer type for your website. The options are the traditional Inline designer or the new Popup designer:

Customers love a bargain and a common and effective way to give your customers a bargain and increase your average order value is to offer a free shipping threshold.

Shipping is a cost so you don’t want to offer free shipping on all orders, but free shipping is a very attractive incentive to a consumer which is why it is used (and use effectively!) by major online retailers.

To solve the problem of eating into your margins by giving away shipping, and the boast the average order value, set-up a free shipping coupon code that can only be used when the order value reaches a certain threshold. i.e. for orders of $50 or more.

Step 1: Create the coupon code

Coupon codes are a great way to track the use of this free shipping incentive. Through the available options with coupon codes you can track the number of uses, limit the offer to the first 100 buyers for example, and turn it off at any time without having to set-up any special shipping methods or products.

1. Log into your DecoNetwork website.
2. Browse to Manage Fulfillment Center > Configure Coupons
3. Select New Coupon.
4. In the General tab complete the coupon code details.:

   Coupon code: Enter the code people will use to apply this offer. i.e. FREESHIP
   Coupon name: Enter a name for your own reference to track this coupon code.
   Discount amount: Enter 100% to apply a full discount.
   Expiry date: Enter a date if you want this to a “limited time only!” type offer.
   Minimum purchase: Enter the amount or order value threshold a buyer must reach to use this coupon. i.e. $50.
   Enabled: Check this box to enable the coupon.
   Number of users: Enter a number if the coupon is for the first 100 buyers for example.

5. Select the “Available Products” tab.
6. Un-check all options accept “Shipping”

7. Click Create and your coupon is now ready for use.

Step 2: Promote the coupon code on you website

There are various ways to promote this coupon one you website but. As the coupon code is designed to encourage people to buy and buy more on your website you want to make sure it is visible clearly while people are browsing around your site.

For this I recommend a small promotional bar that will sit at the top of each page of your site:

1. Log into your DecoNetwork website

2. Browse to Manage Store > Appearance > Customize Template HTML.

3. Select the Custom Layout tab and check the Override default layout check box.

4. After the <body> tab paste in the following HTML, remember to change the coupon code and value to match your coupon:

<body>
<div id="couponcodebar">
Enter coupon code <span>FREESHIP</span> to get free shipping for any orders over $50!
</div>

5. Select Update to save your change.

6. Browse to Manage Store > Appearance > Customize Template CSS

7. Select the Create custom CSS tab and paste in the following CSS:

#couponcodebar {
background: none repeat scroll 0 0 #000000;
color: #FFFFFF;
font-size: 14px;
padding: 5px;
text-align: center;
}
#couponcodebar span {
font-weight: bold;
color: #FF0000;
font-size: 16px;
}

8. Select Save CSS to save you changes.

Bingo! You’re done and your website will now contain a small bar at the top of the screen promoting your coupon promotion to all users on every page of your site.

Should a potential customer  attempt to use the coupon for an order value lesser than the amount you specified the customer will be notified:

Have fun and happy Deco’ing!

Crickets are cute but they lack the financial resources to buy from you so if your website has crickets (no visitors) then you won’t sell much at all! The best way to kick-start  sales on your website is to import your existing customers directly into you DecoNetwork website.

Two things will happen:

1. DecoNetwork will create the customer a user account on your website.
2. DecoNetwork will automatically send your customers a welcome email (which you can customize!)

Here’s how you do it:

1. Browse to you DecoNetwork website and login
2. Browse to Manage Fulfillment Center > Customers > Import Customers
3. Select the green link “Download Samples CSV file”

Open this CSV file in Excel. This file is your template to populate with your customers details. It contains various columns such as email, salutation, first name, last name, phone number, address, city, State and others. Don’t worry – you don’t need to complete all the information but you should include their name and email address as a minimum.

Populate the CSV template and save it back to a .CSV file. When you are ready to import your customer return to Manage Fulfillment Center > Customers > Import Customers.

There are several options you can use when importing customers:

Create website account: When checked this will create a username and password automatically for your customer. A great convenience!

Send welcome email: When checked this will send a welcome email containing the username and password (if you selected that option) directly to the customers you import.

Customizing the welcome email

As with most options in DecoNetwork you can customize the welcome email that is sent to your customers.

To do this:

1. Browse to Manage Fulfillment Center > Customers > Correspondence Settings
2. Select the Email templates tab
3. Locate the “Account-welcome email” and click Configure
4. Select the Customize template tab and check the Override default template checkbox
5. Make any changes you like using HTML

Send a welcome coupon code to you customers

A great tip to encourage your imported customers to visit your new website and purchase is to send them a coupon code along with the welcome email.

Coupon codes can be generated by:

1. Browse to Manage Fulfillment Center > Fulfillment Settings > Configure Coupons
2. Click New Coupon
3. Complete the coupon code form and copy the “Coupon Code” you generated into your welcome email template

From time to time a fulfilment center asks how they can allow one of their affiliate stores to sell a product on the affiliate website that is not a product normally carried by the fulfilment center. For example, a charity affiliate store may sell printed t-shirts created by the fulfilment center, but may also want to sell pre-made buttons as an additional fund raiser. These buttons are already owned by the affiliate and not created by the fulfilment center.

As the fullment center they will collect payment of the item, but all funds need to go to the affiliate store.

So how do we do this in DecoNetwork?

Step 1: Create a Product Type

I first recommend you create a unique product type for this item. The product type will enable products in this type to be decorated or non-decorated. This makes the product type flexible to handle both. In my example I will be making a button product so let’s call it “Buttons” for now.

1. Browse to Manage Fulfillment Center > Products > Manage Product Types
2. Select ‘Add Product Type’.
3. Give the product type a name. In my example “Buttons”
4. Ensure “Item can be decorated” is checked on the General tab. Again this is to make the product type flexible for both decorated or non-decorated products.
5. Select the ‘Pricing’ tab.
6. This is where you make a decision if you, as the fulfilment center, want to collect any funds for selling this button. For example, you might want to collect $1 for your time and effort to handle that button. This is between you and your affiliate store to agree upon. If you don’t want to collect any funds for handling this button then enter $0.00. This is the wholesale price for the product.
7. Select the ‘Decoration Pricing’ tab. Even though you won’t be decorating the product, you need to following this step.
8. Uncheck all the decoration processes except one, such as DTG.
9. Uncheck ‘Use default decoration prices’ and change the pricing method to ‘Single price’.
10. Change the price to 0.00.
11. Click ‘Save’ to save these changes.

Now it’s time to make the button product!

Step 2: Create the blank product

1. Browse to Fulfillment Center > Products > Manage Product
2. Select ‘Add custom product’
3. Select the product type you created above (in my case “Buttons”) and give your product a name and product code. Click continue.
4. In the Product Views popup select to upload your own image for the product. If the product is a single color (like a red button) then select “Upload single Image for all colors”. If the product is available in different colors (like red, yellow and green) select “Upload separate Images for each Color”. Click Next.
5. In the ‘Configure Product View’ popup give your product a ‘Product View Name’ like front. As you won’t be decorating the product you can basically ignore the actual ‘Printable Surface’. Click continue when done.
6. In the next window you need to select a color for the product. Select a color and click OK.
7. Now you are free to complete the details of the product. Fill in all the details in the General tab like name, description, etc.
8. Next you want to ensure this product is ONLY available in the one affiliate store. Therefore select the ‘Availability’ tab and ‘Store availability > All stores’ check ‘Deny’. Then under ‘Store permissions exclusions’ click ‘Add store’ and select the one affiliate store that you want to exclude from the ‘Deny’ rule you configured above.
9. When done on the ‘General’ tab check ‘Configured’ and ‘Active’ and click “Save” to save the product.
10. If you set the product price to 0.00 you will be warned. Accept this and continue.

The blank product is now complete and ready to be added to the affiliate store.

In order for this product to be available in a store and to allow the store to set a price for the product, you need to add the product as a decorated product.

Step 3: Create decorated product

Even though this product is not decorated we actually need to add it as a decorated product in order for the store to add a mark-up to the product. We also need to ensure the product cannot be purchased blank otherwise the customer could purchase a $0.00 value product! So let’s get to it

1. Log into the affiliate store that you want to add the product to.
2. Select Manage Store > Products > Select Product Types.
3. Uncheck the product type you created above. In my case ‘Buttons’. This will prevent the blank product being sold in the store. Click Update to save the changes.
4. Next browse to Manage Store >  Products > Manage Decorated Products.
5. From the drop-down list to the right select the product type you created above. In my case ‘Buttons’. Click ‘Create Decorated Products’.
6. The product will appear in the designer to decorate. As this product has no decoration just click ‘Save’.
7. Enter a Name, Description and select a category of the product.
8. Under ‘Customize’ select “Don’t allow users to customize”.
9. Click “Save” to save the changes.
10. Click “Continue” once the product is created.
11. In the ‘Manage Decorated Products’ screen select ‘Configure’ for the decorated product you just created.
12. You will see that the product is $0.00. This needs to change to the price the affiliate wants to sell the product for.
13. Uncheck “Use store mark-up” and in the retail field enter the retail price for the product. i.e. $2.00.

As the product has a $0.00 whole sale price for the product, the entire $2.00 will be sent to affiliate as part of their standard monthly commission payment.

Most general sales tax holidays take place during August to help parents save money on their kids’ back-to-school shopping needs. In DecoNetwork you can also set your products to be tax exempt.

In order to do this, please go to:

1) Manage Fulfillment Center > Products > Manage Product Types

2) Click “configure” next to the  product type you want to set as “Tax exempt.”

3) Select “Tax exempt” checkbox and save the changes.

4) Start promoting your tax free weekend

Please note that tax free events tend to take place at different times throughout the year based on the state you are located.

It is a common question we are getting: can I sell other products than T-shirts in DecoNetwork? The answer is absolutely yes! In fact, you can sell pretty much anything you want whether it is a custom hat,  decorated mug, customizable banner, or…  custom iPhone cover.

Yes, that is right… you can sell iPhone covers through DecoNetwork, and in this tutorial I will try to explain how this can be done step by step, so please stay with me.  Also, for the purpose of this tutorial I will use V5 version just to tease you a little bit, as the official release will have place on September, 12th

1.    First, we should probably start with the category in which we will keep our iPhone covers.  This can be done in Manage Fulfillment > Products > and under Categories on the left side click “Add.”

2.  Once you have the product type(category), we can start with the process of creating custom product: iPhone cover. To do it please click  on “Add Custom Product”

3.    Now, you need to choose Product Type (the one you created), provide the name of your product, and choose the number of colors on the product (one).  Please see an image below:

4.    Next, it will ask to select Product View Method. For iPhone, select “Upload separate images for each color.”

5.    I would assume that you have an iPhone image and this is the page where you can upload it. If you don’t have the image, please feel free to download it from here: click to download The preferred format for that image is a .jpg or .png file in size 400px by 400px, but this is not the strict rule (you can upload an image in any size you want, but then you will need to adjust it in the designer area to be displayed correctly).

6.    In the next step, you can Manage Your Product View:
a) You can change the product view name (i.e. Front View)
b) You can add additional areas where you will be able to add designs
c) You can modify location size
d) You can choose decoration types which will apply to the certain design areas
e) You can upload your own shape

7.    For printable area, you have a selection of three basic shapes but for iPhone you need to create a custom one. That kind of shape can be done in any type of graphic software such as Corel. Basically the custom shape is a mask where the solid  color represents the custom design area and transparency is masking anything else. You can also download the mask I used for the purpose of this tutorial from here: click here to download
8.    Now you can upload this shape in the product view:

Please note: The design area in the designer is scalable which means that the same size can either represent 2×3 or 20×30. You just need to lock the sizes first to adjust it to your template.
9.    Once you are happy with the output click “continue.” On the next page it will ask you for the color of the phone. In my case, I select “white” even though an actual color will be designed by the customer (but let’s say it is a starting point).

10.    You can also add additional product views (i.e. the back of the iPhone) by repeating the same steps as above, except you don’t have to create a new product, but just the new product view.

11.    Your product will also need to have prices and some general information provided, but this process is not any different to other products which you already have in the system.

Once you are happy with those settings, please save the changes.
12.    The product should be now ready for customization in your store. Lets take a quick look on our iPhone in the designer:

You can also play with the sample iPhone product created on our demo site here: iPhone demo product

I hope this helps. Also, if there is a product in your mind such as banner, football table (yep, why not?), or… just please let me know in the comments area, and I will do my best to make it happen

One of the popular features in version 5 is the new product price breakdown.

You can now define a price table based on the quantity purchased whereas in the past you had to use a discount table to provide a discount based on volume:

Then on your front end site your customers will see exactly what it will coast for each product breakdown:

This short videos shows you how to use the new product price breakdown features:

DecoNetwork is proud to announce the availability of the first Designious licensed design collection in DecoNetwork.

This ‘Grunge‘ collection is a first of many more to come and available for you to activate in your DecoNetwork website today.

Activating the Designious collection

1. Log into your DecoNetwork website.
2. Browse to Manage Fulfillment > Stock Designs.
3. Select Add DecoNetwork design collections from the right Page Actions panel.
4. Check the Designious Grunge Collection and click Save.

The designs are available on a per-use-fee basis which means it costs you nothing to add to your website! Only when a customer selects a design does a small per-use design fee as low as $0.35 apply to the product being purchased. This fee is paid by the customer during checkout.

Have you ever wondered how to set an individual price for each design area on your product? Perhaps you have an item you want to sell which doesn’t really fit in any of your default pricing settings in your system? In DecoNetwork you can override all of the default settings for each individual product, and make the prices different to what other products are offering. You may find today’s example not to be very realistic. But for the purpose of this tutorial it will work well, and it should give you an idea of what you can do in your store in regards to the prices. In this tutorial I will show you how to create a t-shirt with 5 different design areas on the front and each one of them will have a different price.

The prices will be as shown below and only for printing (which means that the price doesn’t include the base price of the garment):

Again, this will require customizing prices on the product level, but I still should start with the defaults, and in fact this is actually a good occasion to go through the hierarchy of prices in Deco Network.
1. In this scenario I will setup the price for Printing, so first I need to go to Manage Fulfillment > Settings > and click on Printing

2. Click on Decoration Pricing Methods

3. You will find three options there:

• White/light/dark – this is for product where you charge differently for printing on white garments versus dark garment
• Single – this one is used when the color of the garment doesn’t matter
• Table – you can select this one when there is a dependency in the price whether you print front only, back only, or front and back

For printing on garments you will most likely choose option one or three. In this scenario however I decided to choose option two just to keep it simple (remember this scenario was created for the presentational purpose only)

4. Save the changes
5. Now, still being on the printing page, please click on “Default Decoration Pricing.” This will let you to set the default price per design area.

In this place you may have a question what should I do if I want to use price tables for hats products, but single price for blankets, or apparel. The answer is that this is just the default pricing method. You can override that selection for each product type in Products > Product Type > Configure Defaults. OK, but what if I want to change price for each design area on individual product under the product type “Apparel.”  The answer is, this is what we are going to do next

6. To set individual prices for each design area, I will first create those design areas as shown in step 1 in Manage Fulfillment > Products > “configure” for one of the existing products (or you can also create a new product) > views&colors

7. Next, click on “pricing” tab and then “edit” for the decoration prices.

8. By default you are not going to see many options on the pop up window. In order to see them, select “override default decoration pricing for this product” then select “Use Advanced Pricing” This will now show you all of the locations on your product. Make sure to untick all of the checkboxes next to area names in order to override those prices.

9. Save the changes

This tutorial should give you a good understanding of how you can modify prices on each level of  pricing structure in fulfillment center. There is one more level where those prices can be affected on the store level (by changing the markup) but this is beyond the scope of this tutorial. That said, I am happy to address any questions you may have. Also, if you feel that another tutorial is needed to cover store markup, please let me know in your comments.

Just to summarize and revise everything what we have done, think about the pricing hierarchy in DecoNetwork as shown below:

Sometimes you want to limit the display and access to buy products on a DecoNetwork. A common example is a uniform website, where only staff with special access can see the site and the products on it.

This short video walks you through step-by-step limiting products on a site then limiting access to the site itself.

Sometimes you need to export your orders and sales figures from DecoNetwork to import into your offline accounting system or simply to give to the tax man! It’s easy to do so here are some extra tips to help you along the way.

Exporting orders from DecoNetwork

1. Log into your DecoNetwork website and browse to Sales > Export Orders
2. There are several export options:
   - Export Customer Details: This exports a report of all sales at an order level.
   - Export Latest Data: This exports the sales your had since you last did an export. This is ideal for importing into your accounting software as it will not export previously exported orders and eliminate the risk of duplicating records.
   - Export Between Date Range: This allows you export sales between a specified date range.
3. Select Export Latest Data. This will create a new entry in your Previously exported list:
   
4. There are two options to view the exported order details:
   - View order summary: This shows orders at an order level
   - View order items: This shows the order details at a line item level
5. Select View order items.
6. On this screen you have an option to select what columns you want to export. Select the Select Columns options and tick the columns you want to export.
7. When you are ready to export select CSV Export to create a CSV file of your order information.

1.    Sort Products

You can sort your products on your home page in Manage Fulfillment > Products > click listing tab > use sort option to change the order of products.

2.    Sales Images

You can upload your own sales images for each product in Manage Fulfillment > Products > then click configure for a product you want to manage > Images

3.    Default Thumbnail Image

In DecoNetwork you can choose the default picture on the front page between an actual product template or a  sales image (as per tip number 2)
This can be done in: Manage Fulfillment > Products > Configure Blank Product Behavior

4.    Decorated Products

You can decorate your products in Manage Fulfillment > Website > Decorated Products, and sell them as the decorated items. Please see this video for more info: Decorated Product Wizard

5.    Display Type: Regular Mode vs Catalog Mode

The display of your products is controlled in Manage Fulfillment > Website > Website Pages. You can then click configure next to the blank products widget and change the display mode to regular mode or catalog mode.

6.    Product List Display On The Site

You can also change the position where your products are located on your site by simply dragging (blank products) widget in Website pages.

7.    Decorated product display image.

Similar as for blank products, you can  upload a separate display image for the decorated item. This can be done in Manage Fulfillment > Website > Manage Decorated Products > then click configure above the decorated item you want to modify:

Next, click on Listing Image tab and browse for the image you want to use as a thumbnail for your decorated item

I hope this helps, and as always if you have any comments or questions please let me know, and I will do my best to help

Whether you are using your affiliate network to create stores for schools, fundraiser organizations, or local artists you may want to filter your incoming orders on the production page by store name.  In DecoNetwork version 5 that functionality is available to you and is called “batch production.”  You can apply this option to each one of your stores by following these steps:

1. Log into your DecoNetwork website and browse to Websites > Manage
   
   
2. On the next page select tab General Settings & Permissions
   
   
3. On the left navigation bar click Options and then under “Production Options” select checkbox This site does batch production
   
   
4. Save the changes.
5. Once this is done you can go to Manage Fulfillment > Production and click on advance search tab  This will let you to filter your incoming orders by store which has batch production functionality enabled (as per steps 1 to 4).
   

1. Enable Affiliate Network

You can enable functionality to create affiliate stores in your Premium DecoNetwork plan in Manage Fulfillment > Settings > Affiliate Network

2. Cloning Store

In DecoNetwork you can clone one of the existing stores into a new one. This can be done in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage (next to the store you want to clone)

On the next page select tab General Settings & Permissions

Click on Clone store

3. Save existing store as a store template

You can also save your store as a store template which you can choose while creating a new affiliate site.
This can be done in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage > General Settings & Permissions > Clone Store Settings

Next, you can enable this option in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Store Options

On the next page select Allow store sign up templates option (you can also force new signups to select one of your templates).

In this example, the name of the newly created template is “School Template” which you can now see during the process of creating a new affiliate store as shown below

4. Default Commission

In DecoNetwork all of the prices that you define in Fulfillment Center are Recommended Retail Prices. When you enable Affiliate Network functionality, you may also want to setup the default commission that your affiliate stores will receive from each transaction. This will automatically make you a wholesale seller to those affiliate stores as you will pay them the predefined percentage from each transaction. Here is the graphic that visualizes this process:

You can define default commission in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Default Store Commission

5. Custom Commission per Store

You can have a special affiliate site, where the commission level is higher or lower than the default one. In DecoNetwork you can override the default commission per store in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage > General Settings & Permissions > Commissions > and then uncheck an option Keep default commission rate

6. Referral Commission Rate

In Tip 3 and 5 you have probably noticed an option called Referral Commission Rate. Referral Commission is paid to the middle store if a new affiliate store was created not directly through your primary site but through one of your existing affiliate stores. In that way you can “thank” that affiliate site owner that they spread the word about you. The referral commission rate is taken out of your wholesale price.
The default Referral commission rate is defined in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Store Options

You can also override this setting per store in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage > General Settings & Permissions > Commissions

7. Set Privacy

In DecoNetwork you can protect your stores with the password. You can also limit your products per store. Please see this video for more info: http://blog.deconetwork.com/2012/10/08/limiting-products-and-access-to-a-deconetwork-website/

8. Batch Production

You can filter your incoming orders per store in Manage Fulfillment > Production > Advance Search > Batch Site

You will find step by step instruction on how this can be done in this article: http://blog.deconetwork.com/2012/12/04/batch-production-functionality-filter-your-incoming-orders-on-the-production-page-by-store-name/

9. Store Markup

You can adjust the markup on top of your wholesale prices in each store. This can be done in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage > Price Settings

On the next page you can increase or decrease the markup set globally for all of your blank items. This can be done either by percentage or fixed amount.

10 Decorated Products

Decorated items can be created for each store in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage Decorated Products > Create Decorated Products

Please see this video which explains that process in details: http://blog.deconetwork.com/2012/08/23/version-5-preview-new-decorated-product-wizard/

11. Custom Markup for Decorated Products

You can override default store markup for each decorated item in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage Decorated Products
On that page click configure above the product you want to modify

This will open a new page where you can turn off the default markup and define custom retail price just for that one item (Note: Retail price can not be lower than the wholesale price that is determined based on the commission level as explained in Tip 4).

Caching is a great way to speed up a website. By caching a site, the server takes a snap-shot of the website HTML, image and other contents from the site and stores it locally. When the next person visits your website the cached copy of your site is viewed which is faster then reloading the website all over again.

However sometimes when making changes to a site it may take a while for the cache to refresh with a new copy of your site. Therefore to speed this process along we’ve created a quick way for your to flush the cache of you website and reload a new version.

1. Log into your DecoNetwork website
2. Browse to Websites and Manage the site you want to flush
3. Browse to Appearance and select ‘Force Flush Site Cache‘ under Related Pages

A few seconds later your site’s cache will be removed and a fresh copy of your site loaded!