Friday, March 30, 2007

How to test your email newsletter before you send it (BV2004)

I'm not sure about you, but before I send an email to several thousand people, I'm a little nervous. So, I always double and triple check. Here is a quick way to test it out.

Overview
We are going to create a test email list and send an email.

Creating a new list
  • Log in to the administrator
  • Click on the People tab
  • Click on Mailing Lists in the left hand navigation
  • Here you will see the page with all of your email campaigns.
  • At the top you can add new lists. In the bottom section, you can click to edit or send your existing emails.
  • Since we are creating a testing account, let's set up a new account.
  • In the top box labeled "List Name" type in the name of your list. Example: Testing
  • Place a check in the box labeled "Private". This will make sure all of your customers will not see your testing area.
  • Click on the New button. This will save the list and refresh the page. You will now see your new email mailing list below with an asterisk beside it. The asterisk notes that it's private.
  • Click on the Edit button next to your list.
  • In the right hand section of the page, look for the section titled "Select Users to Add"
  • Make sure the drop down says email.
  • Type in your email address in the box to the right and click on the "Find" button.
  • When your email address shows, put a check in the box next to it.
  • Just to the right, click on the "add">
  • Click on the "Save Changes" button towards the top.
  • Next we'll see how to test.

Sending the Email

  • You should be on the Mailing list page now
  • Find your testing email list
  • Click on the yellow "Email" button. This will take you to a new page.
  • If you are sending an HTML email, click on the radio button titled "HTML"
  • Type in your from address
  • Type in your subject
  • Now, simply copy in your text or HTML.
  • Now, click on the Email button to send the email. You should receive an email within a minute or two.
  • After testing several times, follow these same steps to send your email to your entire mailing list of customers.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

How to view your orders

One of the most common tasks is viewing your orders. There are 2 general ways to view your orders. You can see your latest orders on your dashboard OR, you can go to the orders page to view all other orders.

Dashboard:
This is my favorite. To view your dashboard, please do the following:
  • Login as the administrator
  • The first page that shows up is your Dashboard
  • You will see the Unpaid orders in the middle of the page. To view any order, simply click on the order number.

Note: BVCommerce allows you to configure your dashboard easily. The default view allows you to see all unpaid orders. If you would like to see the most recent orders, please follow these steps:

  • Login as the administrator
  • While on the Dashboard, look below your "Unpaid Orders" section
  • Click on the "Edit" button
  • You will now be taken to the screen where you can edit what shows in the middle column of your dashboard.
  • In the drop down box, choose "Order Activity". Then click on the "New" button
  • The page will refresh. The new section is at the bottom. You will see it in yellow, with the text "Please configure control" underneath.
  • Click on the "Edit" button in the yellow section
  • Make the following settings:
  • Select a new status: Payment (keep this, it's the default)
  • Browse the radio buttons for "Paid" click on the circle to choose "Paid"
  • Keep everything else the same. Click "Ok" This will take you back to the page to add blocks like this.
  • Click "Ok" again to save your changes.
  • You will be taken to the Content Columns page.
  • To see your changes, click on the "Dashboard" tab on the top left.
  • If you want to change the display, feel free to follow these steps again to edit the display.

Order Manager:

To see more detailed reports and information, please follow these instructions:

  • Login as administrator
  • Click on the tab at the top labeled "Orders"
  • To view the details of any order, click on the order number to take you to the details.

Monday, March 19, 2007

How to add a downloadable file to your product

Let's say you want to sell something that a customer can download, follow these instructions. Examples of downloadable things to sell would be pdf books, software executables, graphics, etc.

Here's how to do it:
  1. Log into the administrative section of your website
  2. Click on the main tab "Catalog"
  3. Browse for your product and click the "Edit" button.
  4. On the left hand navigation, click on "File Downloads"
  5. Upload a new file to the site: If you are uploading a file, click on the "Browse" button to select your file. Once selected, it will show up in the window.
  6. Use a file that has already been uploaded: If you have just uploaded a file, make sure it says "File Above". But, if you are selecting a file that's already uploaded, use the drop down box to select your file.
  7. Short description: This puts a user friendly name with the file.
  8. Available for (leave blank for unlimited): Use this if you want to limit how long this file is available.
  9. Number of times file can be downloaded: Use this if they can only download it a fixed number of times. Otherwise, leave it blank so the customer can download it as much as they want.

Showing your pdf's to everyone

Within BV Commerce, you have the ability to add documents to your products. Typically, this is used for selling items like online books that you can download. Some clients will never do this, but would like to have the ability to show clients their pdfs. Well, now you can.

We have put together some custom code to allow you to do this. If you are in need of this service, please feel free to call 866.630.9876

Friday, March 16, 2007

How do I add a link to a custom page in my product description

Ok, let's say you are in a situation where you want to show more detail about your products, but don't want to clutter up your page too much. For example, if your product has a warranty, you many not want to put the entire text of the warranty on your product page. Our suggestion is to make a custom page. It's a little tricky, but you'll get the hang of it pretty quick.

This set of instructions will guide you through adding a custom page, getting the link to the custom page, then updating your product description.

IMPORTANT:
The standard WYWIWYG looks like this:















We can change your editor to look like this:
















The current settings for the FreeTextBox editor do not allow you to create links. If you want to change it, please do the following:

  1. Open the file BVModules\Editors\Free Text Box\editor.ascx
  2. Remove the line that states ToolBarLayout
  3. Click Save
  4. Contact us at 866.630.9876 if this sounds like Greek to you.

Adding a custom page

Login to the admin

  1. Click on the Content tab
  2. Click on the Custom pages sub navigation
  3. This new screen will show you all of your custom pages. We are going to add a page, so click on the new button over on the right.
  4. Type in a page name. This could be Warranty Information
  5. Type in a name for the Name in Menu. We will use this temporarily.
  6. Check the box "Show in bottom menu"
  7. Type in all of your text.
  8. Click Save changes.
Getting the link to your new page
  1. Go to your website.
  2. Look in the bottom menu. You will now see your new page. Click on your new page.
  3. Look in your browser address window and copy the url to your new page. Ex: http://www.bluecreekweb.com/ecommerce/bvcommerce/
  4. Now you have your link.
Placing the link into your custom description

  1. Log in to the admin
  2. Click on the Catalog tab
  3. Find your product and click on the Edit button to take you to your product details.
  4. Now, paste your link into your product description. If you are using the FreeTextEditor, this will automatically change into a link.

Make a user friendly link (optional)


  1. As of right now, the link will show to your clients. If you want to make it more user friendly, follow these steps.
  2. While still on the product detail page, look to the bottom of your description. You will see two tabs, one for Design, the other for HTML.
  3. Click on the HTML tab.
  4. Find your link in the code. This is the link you just pasted in.
  5. The code will follow the format of destinationlink
  6. You will see two references to your link. The first one defines where the link will go. It will be in a tab like this . Leave this one alone.
  7. Find the next one. It will come right after the first and will show up before the tag.
  8. Type over your link to make the friendly text appear.
  9. Click on the Update button.

Clean Up (optional)


  1. Follow this set of instructions if you want to remove the link in the footer.
  2. Login to the admin
  3. Click on the Content tab
  4. Click on the Custom pages sub navigation
  5. This new screen will show you all of your custom pages.
  6. Find your new custom page and click on the edit button.
  7. Uncheck the box "Show in bottom menu"
  8. Click Save changes.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

How can I put my change the order of my products

Yes, you can change the display order of products.

Let's say you are selling DVD Publishers like NobleHouseCD.com. They have a category already set up for DVD Publishers. Their bestseller may be the GX-1 and they don't want it to be down the list in alphabetical order. They want it to be number 1.

Here's how to do it.
  • Log in as the administrator
  • Click on the "Category" tab
  • Click on the sub navigation item "Categories"
  • Find the category with your product
  • Click on the "Edit" button. This will bring up the category detail page
  • Look on the right hand side. You will see the area titled "Product Selection." Click on the "Select" button in this area.
  • Now, you should see a page with all of the products in that category showing on the left.
  • To change the display order, simply click on the up or down arrow buttons to move your product.
  • That's it!

For more information on BV Commerce, please feel free to contact us at 866.630.9876.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

All inclusive BV Commerce package

Ok, I hate to advertise but, here goes.

This month, we are offering a BV Commerce 5 package that includes the following:
  • BV Commerce license (standard)
  • Installation
  • Training
  • Design
  • All for only $4,750

If you are interested, please call 866.630.9876!

Thursday, March 8, 2007

How do you add special instructions for payment options?

This question comes up in about 50% of projects. Some example situations may and include instructions for purchase orders, faxing orders, and snail mail orders. When entering instructions, you can not enter HTML tags. This will cause the page to crash. So, if you want special instructions to show up on the payment screen please do the following:

  1. Log into the administrator.
  2. Click on the green tab at the top labeled options.
  3. In the left hand column, click on the payment link.
  4. From here, you'll see a listing of all the different payment options. Click the edit button next to the payment option you would like to edit.
  5. In this example, we will use the purchase orders option.
  6. So, click on the edit button next to purchase orders.
  7. On the screen, you'll see two different text boxes.
  8. In the top text box, you'll see purchase orders . Change this if necessary.
  9. The second box called description, is a great place to put any special comments. place any special comments here, Then click The green save changes button.
  10. That's it.

Please note, this option is only available for the following purchase options. All other changes will require custom code.

  • Purchase order
  • Check
  • Telephone
  • COD

If you would like to change the text for the other options, you will have to do a little coding. In order to do so, please edit the payment.ascx found in BVModules\Controls\

Sunday, March 4, 2007

BV Commerce 5 Hosting

So, how much do you pay for BV Commerce 5 hosting? We charge our clients $65 per month which includes a leased SSL Certificate through GeoTrust. If you're paying more than this, you may want to think again. Of course, we would always want you to host with us.

Also, we still host BV Commerce 2004. So, if you need hosting for BV Commerce 2004 we can still help you.

Sorry for the ad. We have heard lately that some BV Commerce clients are paying up to $200 a month for hosting.

Saturday, March 3, 2007

How to automatically add buyers to your mailing list

Nick from theSmartFarmer.com recently asked us the simple question. "How come someone checks out, they aren't added to my mailing list?" Well, we're not sure why, so we went to figure it out.

After some digging we have developed custom code to allow this to happen. If you are interested in adding this functionality to your BV Commerce 5 website, feel free to contact us.