Merchant Tutorials Blog
26Feb/10

Inspired by Miva Merchant Conference

I have so many To Dos now even before the second day ends of the Miva Merchant conference, I'm not sure where to start. More than any previous MM conference, this one has been practical, useful, and fun. There's still one more breakout session, then tomorrow, and I'm ready for next year!

As far as Merchant Tutorials is concerned, here is what is on my list for the next few weeks:

Wombat Tutorials: I'm creating a store from scratch again with Wombat, so look for dozens and dozens of new tutorials on the new stuff.

WordPress (blog software) Tutorials: Okay, there are tons of these online, but I think adding these to the Advanced tutorial area would be helpful. I know the stuff - might as well give you something you can use.

Social Media Tutorials: One thing that keeps coming up in this conference is social media. Whether it's using it for direct customer engagements, or to enhance your SEO efforts, it's something that you MUST take part in these days, or be left behind. So I'll do some tutorials about Facebook, Twitter, Twitter tools, LinkedIn and more.

"How to shop on this site" Videos: Seeing some sites at the conference, I realized that some sites are more complicated than others. Have a site that has accounts, gift certificates, order status, etc., and know your customers are not utilizing it like they should? I'm going to add a service to create videos that can be opened from a Help link or something similar on your site, that shows people how to use your site. Contact me to get more info.

Also on the list - contact the many people whom I've gotten to know a bit here at the conference, integrate the many ideas I've learned here into my site/business, and write more blog posts to share what I've learned. So come back!

15Feb/10

Miva Merchant Conference 2010 Resources #mmconf

If you're going to the Miva Merchant Conference in San Diego at the end of February, keep a link to this post as I'll update it with links to useful information both before, during and after the conference.

Twitter Feed: The hashtag for the conference is #mmconf. I created this feed page where you can watch Tweets updated every minute.

Pics: Leslie Kirk has been taking photos at the conferences for so many years that she's pretty much the official conference photographer. You can see past conference photos, and she'll be posting new photos throughout the conference.

Class Schedule (PDF): The official schedulemay change around a little as most of these types of events do. Here is the current agenda.

Facebook Event Page: Official event page on Facebook.

If you have any suggested resources/links, please let me know in the comments here. And come back often to see updates. I hope to see you in San Diego!

24Jan/10

Miva Merchant People to Follow on Twitter

If you're using Twitter, you can follow people who often post about Miva Merchant, including the company itself! I've compiled a list of Tweeple who are in some way related to Miva Merchant - developers, designers, hosts, users, etc. and put them in a Twitter List:

http://twitter.com/MerchantTuts/miva-merchant

Bookmark the list because I'm going to add to it as I find new Miva-Tweeple. If you are not on the list, let me know at @MerchantTuts and I'll add you.

Thank you to Sabine Sharp (@GlendaleDesigns) for help in compiling this list.

15Jan/10

Beautiful Miva Merchant Sites

After my last post about Miva Merchant myths, NetBlazon posted "10 Beautiful Examples of Miva Merchant Sites" at their DoublePlus blog. Check it out - fantastic examples of how Miva Merchant can be made to look however you want.