WordPress 2.9 e-commerce

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1 WordPress 2.9 e-commerce Build a proficient online store to sell and services products Brian Bondari

2 Table of Contents Preface 1 Chapter 1: Getting Started with WordPress and e-commerce 7 Why WordPress 8 WordPress is free (as in money) 8 WordPress is free (as in speech) 8 WordPress is widely used 9 WordPress is flexible and extensible 9 About the WP e-commerce plugin 9 Site and business possibilities 10 Photography shop 10 Music shop with digital downloads 11 Clothing shop 12 Accessory shop 14 WP e-commerce feature overview 15 Organization and layout 16 Products and merchandising 17 Checkout and payments 18 Marketing tools 20 Test platform 20 Summary 21 Chapter 2: Getting Ready to Sell 23 Installing the WP e-commerce plugin 23 Installing from the WordPress Dashboard 24 Manual installation 25 Plugin activation 26 Installing third-party themes 26 Installing themes through the WordPress Dashboard 27 Uploading themes via FTP 28

3 Activating third-party themes Enabling and disabling comments Disabling comments globally Disabling comments on individual posts and pages Removing comment traces from your theme Setting up a static front page Using widgets Creating text widgets Complementary plugins Akismet All in One SEO Pack Google XML Sitemaps WP-DB-Backup WP-Polls Adding a contact form WordPress SpamFree contact form Contact Form 7 cforms II Adding a business blog Summary Chapter 3: Configure Your e-commerce Settings General Settings 50 Base Country/Region, Tax Settings, and Language 50 Default language 51 Currency Settings 52 Presentation Settings 52 Button Settings 53 Product Settings 54 Product Page Settings 56 Shopping Cart Settings 60 Cart Location 61 Use Sliding Cart 62 Display "+ Postage & Tax" 62 Product Group Settings 63 Show Product Group Description 63 Show Product Group Thumbnails 64 Show Product Count per Product Group 64 Thumbnail Settings 64 Pagination settings 65 Comment Settings 66 Admin Settings 66 Digital downloads

4 Purchases 68 settings 70 URL Settings 72 Checkout settings 72 Summary 73 Chapter 4: Managing Your Product Catalog 75 Creating new products 76 Creating a new physical product 76 Creating a new digital product 79 Groups, categories, and tags 80 Groups and categories 81 Deleting categories and groups 85 Product Categories widget 86 Tags 87 Price and Stock Control 88 Variations 89 Advanced Options 92 Custom Meta 93 Merchant Notes 93 Personalisation Options 93 Summary 94 Chapter 5: User Accounts: Customers and Staff 95 Enabling user registrations 96 Understanding WordPress roles 97 Administrator 97 Editor 97 Author 98 Contributor 98 Subscriber 98 Staff accounts 98 Creating staff users 99 Manual registration 99 Self-registration Customer accounts 101 Creating a test customer account 103 Dealing with the WordPress Dashboard 104 with 'Peter's Login Redirect' 104 Redirect customer logins Dominate logins with 'Theme My Login' 106 Purchase history 109 Summary

5 Chapter 6: Checkout and Payment Setup 113 Planning the checkout process 114 Payment gateway versus merchant account 114 Integration and checkout seamlessness 115 Available payment gateways 116 Chronopay 117 Google Checkout 118 Manual Payment / Test Gateway 119 PayPal Payments PayPal Express Checkout 121 PayPal Payments Pro 121 Standard 120 Authorize.net 121 Setting up PayPal Standard 122 Playing in the sandbox 123 WP e-commerce Payment settings 124 Setting up IPN 125 Set up Auto Return 127 The test transaction 128 Setting up Google Checkout 129 Playing in Google's sandbox 131 WP e-commerce Payment settings 133 Google integration settings 134 The test transaction 135 Summary 137 Chapter 7: Shipping, Taxes, and Processing Orders 139 Locations and tax setup 140 Shipping Options and Calculators 141 General Shipping Settings 142 Shipping Modules 143 Flat Rate 144 Table Rate 146 Weight Rate 147 Using an external Shipping Calculator 149 UPS Calculator 149 USPS Calculator 150 Processing a test order 152 s sent to the customer 154 s sent to you 155 Sales log 156 Summary 157

6 Chapter 8: Themes and Design Elements 159 WP e-commerce included widgets 159 Latest Products widget 160 Price Range widget 161 Product Donations widget 161 Product Tags widget 162 Product Categories widget 163 Product Specials widget 164 Shopping Cart widget 164 Shortcode and PHP tags 164 Display default products 165 Display shopping cart 165 List categories 166 Display products from a specific group 166 Add to Cart / Buy Now 166 WP e-commerce theme engine 168 Creating a new e-commerce theme 169 Tweaking your WordPress theme 170 CSS basics 171 CSS selectors 172 Class and ID selectors 174 CSS properties Changing the header image 177 Replacing the theme fonts 179 Changing the theme colors 181 and values 175 Additional CSS tutorials 182 Additional WP e-commerce themes 182 WP e-commerce tips 182 Change the appearance of the shopping cart widget 183 Use a custom Add to Cart image 184 Remove the sidebar Google Checkout button 186 Summary 187 Chapter 9: Deploy, Secure, and Maintain Your Shop 189 Getting ready to deploy 189 Necessary WordPress adjustments 190 Your WordPress database 191 Database export via phpmyadmin 191 Database export via command line 194 Hosting and domain names 194

7 Uploading your shop 196 Setting up a new database 196 Importing your WordPress database 197 Uploading your WordPress files 198 Editing your WordPress config file 199 Man the hatches essential site security 200 User passwords 200 Rename or replace the admin user 201 WordPress and plugin updates 203 SSL for Dashboard login 203 Eliminate directory browsing 204 Backups preparing for disasters 205 Database backup and restoration 205 Server data backup and restoration 206 Summary 208 Chapter 10: Alternative e-commerce Plugins 209 YAK (Yet Another Kart) 210 What YAK offers 210 Basic YAK setup and usage 210 Adding a new product with YAK 212 eshop 214 What eshop offers 214 Basic eshop setup and usage 215 Adding a new product with eshop 216 Shopp 218 What Shopp offers 218 WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart 218 What WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart offers 219 Basic WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart setup and usage 219 Adding a new product with WPSPSC 221 Market Theme 222 What the Market Theme offers 223 Summary 223 Chapter 11: Marketing Your Shop 225 Coupons and discounts 226 Cross sales 230 "Share This' plugin 231 Purchasing advertising 232 Google AdWords 232 Microsoft adcenter 234

8 , newsletters, and blogging 23i5 /newsletters 235 Option 1: Spreadsheet only 23^ Option 2: Find a plugin for WordPress 237 Option 3: A third-party service 237 Business blogging 238 Summary 238 Appendix A; Gold Cart Module Extendibility 241 Purchasing and installing the Gold Cart module 242 Installing the Gold Cart files 243 Grid View 246 Multiple image upload 246 Product search option 24^ Additional payment gateways 248 DropShop and other modules 248 Summary 24^ Appendix B: Setting Up a WAMP Testing Platform 251 Download and install WampServer 252 Overview and configuration 254 Enable the rewrite module 254 Running a test server 255 Install WordPress 256 Summary 257 Index 25J.