They are usually a cluster of small icons (called sharing links or social bookmarks) found at the bottom of an article or web page that the web site’s proprietor will be happy to share.

Clicking anyone of these links allows visitors to the site to easily share a link to a web site, web page or blog article with their friends and associates, whether it is via direct email or cross-posting to Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, Google, Windows Live, MySpace or any other networking sites. (See example below)

These days, with so many online community and sharing services being used by so many people, you have to seriously wonder about the potential business opportunities you could be missing out on by not including several of these links on your site.
 
There are a number of public sharing services available that make the addition of these links to a web site a pretty straightforward task. Plus these links can be programmed to link back to your site’s home page, a specific interior page, blog article, or even product promotion, which could prove to be a good revenue stream.
 
Most of these services also provide stats, will allow you to see and assess the activity the Sharing Links are generating.

If you are interested in discussing a link program for your web site, please feel free to contact me at any time to discuss. (simon@stwdesign.com)

Administrators can be given access to everything, access to only certain pages or sections, access to only certain functionality; even the left menu can be trimmed down to display only the controls that they require.

The site used in the demonstration is that of wellspring.ca.  This is quite a large site, with 3000+ pages and multiple administrators.  Each site administrator has access to only their particular portion of the website: for example the Toronto administrators can only see and update the Toronto pages, calendars, events, etc; the London administrators can only see and update their section of the site, etc.

The tutorial is at:  http://www.thedemo.ca/demonstrations/different-administrator-access-levels.html

The tutorial is at:  http://www.thedemo.ca/tutorials/how-to-link-upload-and-link-to-pdf-files.html.

1. How many different types of membership will be available (ie bronze, silver, gold; annual, monthly, etc.)?
2. Are multi-accounts possible?  For instance, can a corporation sign up and have X number of users.  If so, how is this managed?
3. Is different content available to different types of members?
4. How frequently will pricing change?
5. Are there discounts available?
6. How is the payment being processed (ie. live on the site as a member signs up, or manually in the office)?
7. Can members upgrade, downgrade, or terminate their own accounts on the site?  If so, how is site access and billing information updated?
8. Can members change their billing information on the site?
9. Do accounts expire?  If so, are expiry notification emails required?
10. Can accounts be renewed?  If so how (automatic, manual, link through email, etc.)?

These 10 questions will get you headed in the right direction.  If you’re looking for a partner in your site development who has done it before, please contact us to discuss the details in confidence.

Design

• Will your current web design be used for the ecommerce site?
• Will the ecommerce site be integrated with your current website – will the two be one, or will there be a separate “shop” site with a consistent look & feel to your non-shop site?

Products

• Estimated number of products
• Are products separated by category?
  • estimated number of categories
  • can a product exist in multiple categories
  • Do you have images to be assigned to the categories?
• Will products have images?
• Will products have multiple images?
• How will the images for products be displayed/organized?
• Will products have options (colour, size, etc.)?
  • Will options be selectable within a product (ie the “widget” product will have a dropdown for colour), or will each option exist as a separate product (ie one product that is red widgets, one product that is blue widgets
    • This can have inventory implications if inventory tracking is being done within the ecommerce system. See below.
  • If a visitor changes a product option from a dropdown, does anything about the page change (ie looking at widgets, select blue from the dropdown, and the picture of the product updates)
• Will product inventory be tracked?
  • will products cease to display if their inventory level reaches 0
  • can products with 0 inventory be ordered (back orders)?
  • Does inventory for each product option need to be tracked individually (ie different inventory tracking for each of 10 red widgets and 10 blue widgets)
• Are all products physical items, or are some electronic/downloadable items?

Pricing

• Same pricing for all shoppers?
  • Different pricing for different groups of shoppers?
  • If yes, please describe those differences.
• Is “special” pricing required (ie Christmas special pricing) per product?
• Are special discounts or coupons to be offered?

Shipping

• What couriers do you use?
  • Canada Post, UPS, FedEx, Purolator, others?
  • Are there certain couriers used for different types of orders?
    • If yes, please explain how the courier used is decided.
  • What is the weight range of the products to be sold?
• How will shipping rates be determined?
  • Live rates lookup
  • table of rates
  • rate per $ value
  • other

Payment

• what forms of payment will be accepted
  • credit card
  • paypal
  • cheque
  • bill me
  • other
• are credit card transactions to be performed at the time of checkout
• Are credit card transaction only put through once the order are shipped?
• Do you already have a Internet Merchant Account?
  • If yes, who is it with?
• Do you already have a Payment Gateway account?
  • If yes, who is it with?

Taxes

• will taxes be charged?
• Will taxes be: Ontario GST & PST, Canada GST, outside Canada none?
• Can some products be tax exempt?
• Are there any other tax implications that will have to be dealt with?

Currencies

• In what currency will the store operate?
  • If more than one is to be used, how is that determination determined?
• will the option to see rates in alternate currencies be offered?

Integration

• do products/inventory need to be imported into the ecommerce site from another system?
• do orders need to be exported from the ecommerce site to another system?
  • Customer contact info?
  • Shipments?
  • Other?
• is the site to be integrated with a shipping company (ie Purolator, UPS) for live shipping rates lookups?
  • If your current courier does not provide a viable online integration solution would you consider using a different courier for your web site shipments?
• is the site to be integrated with a payment processor for live credit card transactions?
  • if so, which one?
  • Do you already have an account with a credit card processor?
• Will the ecommerce site be integrated with your current website?
  • Will the two be one, or will there be a separate “shop” site with a consistent look & feel to your non-shop site?

Functionality for shoppers

• wish lists?
• tell a friend?
• recently viewed product?
• recently order products?
• Re-order?
• review previous orders?
• Check status/look up shipping?
• Others?

Attracting Shoppers

• how will shoppers come to the site?
• is the online store a compliment to a bricks and mortar store?
• will you be doing a search engine campaign (seo/sem) in conjunction with the launch of the store?
• Will code be required on the site to track goals tied to web analytics?

Other

• are there other requirements that you have that we haven’t considered here?

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• providing an additional method for clients to make payments,
• providing service 24/7; allowing customers to make payment by credit card whether someone is in the office or not (it’s nice checking your email in the morning and finding several payment receipts!)
• like offline credit card transactions, once the payment is made, its made.  It’s not a check that can be “in the mail”, or worse, bounce.

To discuss how we can get this up and running on your site, please contact us.

Here’s a video that demonstrates the process in action.

How does it work?

We do this on our own site at seethroughweb.com, providing a page where a client enters an invoice number and amount, confirms, and then is transferred to the “hosted payment page” of InternetSecure (our “payment gateway”).  Once on this secure page, the client then enters their full credit details and makes the actual transaction (demonstration video below).

Most payment gateways offer hosted payment pages (all that we’ve worked with); the real advantage of this method is that the gateway handles the technical and security requirements to perform the transaction, greatly reducing the cost and effort that might otherwise be required to set up online payments.

When the payment is complete, the customer receives a receipt by email, and we receive a “successful transaction” email that is very similar to their receipt.  They are then transferred back to a “thank you” page on our website (or a “there was a problem” page if the transaction didn’t go through).

Payment processors we’ve worked with include: InternetSecure, Moneris, Beanstream, PSiGate, and Desjardins; and we can likely connect with most others as well.  Paypal can also be used and is actually quite flexible, allowing customers the option of paying with their credit card or with their Paypal account if they have one.

Paypal is also a pretty good solution for a small business about to start taking payment online in that they have accounts with no setup charges, no monthly fees, and they become active right away.

Demonstration

Below are a few examples of maps we’ve added to websites.  The first three examples are maps that update themselves automatically, in fact the administrators don’t have to do anything with these maps, they generate themselves, positioning and displaying map markers based on database information, whether it is tax sale records, location records, or event records.  All of the sites listed below were developed in they TYPO3 content management system.

Ontario Tax Sales: Upcoming Tax Sales Map

OntarioTaxSales.ca works with municipalities in Ontario to list all of the upcoming tax sales. While text-based listings are available, a map is also provided that shows a thumbtack in every municipality that has properties coming up for sale. Hovering over a thumbtack displays a summary of whats going on in that municipality, and clicking on it takes one to the listings pages with full details.  The thumbtacks are placed according to the information in the database, and so are always up to date with the most recent upcoming tax sales in the system.

In the coming weeks this site will also be adding a map for Tax Sale Results.  You can visit the map at http://www.ontariotaxsales.ca/search-by-map.html

My Auto Cafe:  Businesses Location & Related Businesses

MyAutoCafe.com is a site that provides a database of auto-related businesses in Canada.  One can use it to find mechanics, paint shops, or other auto-related businesses near one’s postal code or city.

Each business is presented with a location map, and below the map are a series of check boxes for different categories, allowing one to also display other business-types on the map.  Handy if for instance you might want a mechanic, tire shop, and towing company.

Visit the site at www.myautocafe.com.

Galeria Arte Hispano:  Event Locations

GaleriaArteHispano.com is a site that provides an online gallery for Hispanic Visual Artists.  Also listed are subject-relevant news and events. Many of the events provide location maps, so that people attending can look up the location and get directions as well.  This is an integration of the Google Maps interface (as is the auto-cafe site above).

Visit the site at www.galeriaartehispano.com.

Wellspring Location Map

Wellspring is a network of cancer support centres with locations across Canada.  Locations are indicated on the map by a green bullet, which if one hovers their mouse over will display the location name, and if clicked will take one to that page of the website.

To be able to display the full country, and to also clearly indicate the numerous locations in Southern Ontario, a zoom-able section was created and indicated around this area.  As ones mouse hovers over this area, the entire section expands.

Visit the site at wellspring.ca/locations.html.

The first and last example above are maps that are created with Flash technology, the first one dynamically updating the flash from the data that is in the tax sales database.  The middle two examples are both integrations of the Google mapping interface.  Of course, we’ve also done sites that have static pictures of maps placed on them as well.

[Update: TYPO3 4.3.0 was released on Monday November 30, 2009. Please contact us if you'd like to discuss upgrading your site to the new version]