Feb/100
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!
Feb/100
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!
Jan/102
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.
Jan/100
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.
Jan/105
Top Ten Myths About Miva Merchant
Miva Merchant was created in the 90’s, so it’s been around the block. From version 1 to the current version 5.5, there have been company buyouts, complete redesigns, management changes and other history that has left a trail of myths regarding Miva Merchant. Today, Miva Merchant has become one of the leading shopping cart platforms available, with tens of thousands of sites and a solid management company providing superior support. So let’s go over some of these myths and bust ‘em one at a time!
Myth 1: Miva Merchant is limited in how your store can look.
Busted: Take a look at these Miva Merchant sites and you’ll see that Miva Merchant 5.5 is so flexible, you can do anything you want with the look and feel. You’re not stuck with old HTML, either, as CSS templates are available to use as the foundation for your design.
Myth 2: You can’t set up a Miva Merchant site unless you’re a programmer.
Busted: Most Miva Merchant sites operational right now were set up and are maintained by non-programmers. You can even easily set up a very professional layout using a Miva Merchant skin. Of course, you could have a more unique design by hiring a professional designers and/or coder, just like anything else, but it’s certainly not necessary.
Myth 3: Updates are difficult and expensive.
Busted: Updates are simple. In the admin, just click the update button and it streams the update on its own. There’s no cost for upgrades since Miva Merchant is Software As A Service (SaaS) and updates are included.
Myth 4: Miva Merchant links are not search engine friendly.
Busted: The major search engines spider Miva Merchant URLs just fine. However, Miva Merchant 5.5 includes link redirects to shorten and simplify links both for search engines and for customers to remember easily.
Myth 5: Miva Merchant is expensive – like a thousand bucks!
Busted: Sure, you can buy a Miva Merchant license for $995 if you want to use it on your own server. But most users simply “lease” a Miva Merchant license as part of their hosting. There are many excellent hosts who specialize in Miva Merchant hosting, or you can host your store with the company itself. The vast majority of Miva Merchant sites pay $60 per month or less – including the Miva Merchant license!
Myth 6: You have to buy expensive add-ons to add functionality.
Busted: Miva Merchant is truly modular, meaning third parties can develop add-ons called modules to add functionality to your store. You can see at Miva Merchant’s module store here that modules are very inexpensive, usually between $20 and $90. Compare that to having customization done for your “free” open source shopping cart. Also, with competition amongst module developers, you get the best functionality at the most affordable price. Modules are also one-time purchases, so adding functionality does not build up your monthly fees.
Myth 7: Miva Merchant has limited payment methods available.
Busted: By default, Miva Merchant comes with Innovative Gateway, Authorize.Net, Check Payment, COD, Google Checkout, First Data Global Gateway, Credit Card Payment with Simple Validation, Payflow Link, Payflow Pro, PayPal Website Payments Standard, PayPal Website Payments Pro, Amazon Simple Pay, and Checkout by Amazon. Other payment methods are available with inexpensive add-on modules.
Myth 8: Miva Merchant has limited shipping methods available.
Busted: By default, Miva Merchant comes with Base + Weight Shipping, Flat Rate Shipping, Minimum or Weight Shipping, FedEx(R) Shipping Cost Estimate, U.S.P.S. Online Rate Calculation (Domestic & International), Price Table Based Shipping, Quantity Based Shipping, UPS Domestic Shipping Calculator, Weight Table Based Shipping. Many other shipping configurations are available with inexpensive add-on modules.
Myth 9: Support is terrible or outsourced to India.
Busted: Company support is world class and based at company headquarters in San Diego, California. But the real value is in the Miva Merchant user and developer community. There is a user forum where users and developers gladly help each other. I’ve been involved with Miva Merchant for over 10 years and I can tell you no other shopping cart has such a close-knit community that is so happy to help each other. If you do need to hire someone, you’re not stuck with a Google search and a gamble, you can find developers and designers in the forums, and get recommendations (or warnings) before you hire anyone. For those who have lost thousands of dollars to over-promising developers, this is a huge benefit.
Myth 10: There’s little or no Miva Merchant documentation.
Busted: Here is the official documentation page for Miva Merchant. Additionally, there are many sites that have extra helpful information. This includes my video tutorials – many are free, and subscriptions for more advanced tutorials are highly affordable. You can find more Helpful Links here, and I’m going to be doing a “Miva Merchant Sites to Bookmark” blog post here in the next few days.
I hope this has helped alleviate some concerns for people who have not gotten the latest information about Miva Merchant. I endorse the shopping cart and the company wholeheartedly.
If you have heard any other myths, please comment here and we’ll see if I can bust them, too!
Thanks for input from @GlendaleDesigns, @markatmiva, and @Miva_Merchant!
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