WhiteOakBooks BookSite Forums / Customer Support / Knowledge Base

Catagories~ Help me understand

farnersbooks — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 13:33:24 GMT

Some of my items are automatically sorted but the vast majority are not. Why is this and is the only option to individually sort them? I realize this is a nebie question but I have looked everywhere for an explanation and can't find it. Thank you, Melissa

VPS1 - Setting Up an AOB Custom Venue for your VPS website

AndyLL — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:28:58 GMT

After you have completed the sign-up page for the VPS service we will setup your hosting account on our servers. This can take up to 3 days.

Once that is complete you will receive an email letting you know that you can setup AOB to start transferring inventory.

If you have forgotten your login name/password you can send us a private message on our forums requesting it. You must sign up to the forums with the same email you used to sign up with our service.

1. Go to 'Settings - Venue Settings' on AOB

2. On your 1st available Custom Venue set the following values:

Venue 1 FTP Display Name – Whatever you want to name it.

Custom Venue 1 FTP Host – 173.0.131.127

Custom Venue 1 FTP Username – Login name you signed up with.

Password – 'Password' you signed up with.

Format – AOB Tab-Delimited

Custom Venue 1 FTP Directory – httpdocs\Inventory

Check the ‘Pull Orders’ checkbox.

Check the ‘Active’ checkbox.

Click the 'Save All Changes' at the bottom of the page.

Setting up your website logo

AndyLL — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 17:24:00 GMT

Uploading and Displaying you Logo on the Website

Getting your logo onto your website is a 3 stage process.

1) Uploading the logo image to your website.

2) Telling the website where to display the logo.

3) Publishing your changes to the live website.

Uploading the logo

There are several different ways to get your logo image onto the website.

1) Upload it using the 'Website Tools' off the main admin menu and choosing 'Upload Files and Images to your website'. The webpage allows you to pick a file off your local computer and upload it to various places on the website. In this case choose: 'Main Images Directory'

2) Many places in the Look & Feel setup web pages have a 'upload image' button that does the same as above. This only uploads the image to the website... it does not display the logo.

3) FTPing the images up to the website. If you have a large number of images to upload this could be quicker. The directory to FTP images into is '/httpdocs/images'

Displaying the logo

While you can display images just about anywhere on the website there are 2 places dedicated to logos:

1) At the top of every page. This is generally for logos that are wide lengthwise but short height wise. You enter the image name in 'General Settings' => 'General Book Store Look & Feel' => 'Edit Page Header' You also have a choice on how the logo is aligned on the page. Long logos look best centered while shorting logos tend to look better aligned to the left or right.

2) Above the categories. Square, rectangle, or round logos can be put in the left column at the top. The max width is around 200px. To add this logo go to 'General Settings' => 'General Book Store Look & Feel' => 'Edit Left Column'. You can also add a URL to which the image will go to when clicked.

You are allowed to have logos in both places if you wish.

Publishing Your changes to the live website

As with all changes you make in the website editor clicking the 'Copy All Changes to Live Website' will make all changes live.

Warning - Uploaded images are always live. If you already have a logo change logo.jpg on your website and you upload another image called logo.jpg it will automatically replace the original.

VPS2 - Setting Up an Fillz Custom Venue for your VPS website

AndyLL — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 20:16:54 GMT

After you have completed the sign-up page for the VPS service we will setup your hosting account on our servers. This can take up to 3 days.

Once that is complete you will receive an email letting you know that you can setup Fillz to start transferring inventory.

If you have forgotten your FTP login name/password you can send us a private message on our forums requesting it. You must sign up to the forums with the same email you used to sign up with our service.

1. Go to Settings – Marketplaces on Fillz

2. Click the 1^st available Custom Configuration and set the following values:

3. FTP Hostname – 173.0.130.102/httpdocs/Inventory

4. Your FTP User you created your account with

5. FTP Password – The password you created your account with.

6. Order Retrieval Path: – Orders ( remove the ../ )

7. File format – UIEE

Do not set any other values

VPS2 - Setting Up an AOB Custom Venue for your VPS website

AndyLL — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 20:13:32 GMT

After you have completed the sign-up page for the VPS service we will setup your hosting account on our servers. This can take up to 3 days.

VPS2 - Pointing your Domain To Your New VPS Website

AndyLL — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 20:10:17 GMT

Once your domain is registered (you can confirm this by doing a whois search at http://www.whois.sc) you can change the nameservers listed in your domain registration. Typically you would be required to contact your domain registrar. Below are instructions on how to update the DNS information for a domain originally registered through Tucows, Register.com, Go Daddy, BulkRegister, Dotster, and Network Solutions, Enom, Inc., Domain Discover, DomainBank, and Namesecure.com:

Go Daddy
1. Browse to: http://www.godaddy.com
2. Click on: My Account
3. Login using your Login Name or Customer Name and Password. If you have forgotten your username/password, use the password retrieval link on this page (Look for the "Forgot your password? Click here." link).
4. Click on Domain Names and select the domain name you are transferring
5. In the Name Server information section click on the "Click Here to Modify" link
6. Enter WOBBookSite's primary server name as listed below, using only the name server (i.e., ns1.wobbooksitensb.com) names NOT the IP address:

ns1.wobbooksitensb.com
ns2.wobbooksitensb.com

7. Click Save
8. You will be redirected to the main page and there should be a, "Name server modifications are pending," notice under the name server information for your domain name.

Tucows
1. Browse to https://manage.opensrs.net and enter the following information:

Domain Name:
User Name:
Password:

2. Scroll down and click on Manage Name Servers
3. Edit the Primary and Secondary Server Hostname by entering WOBBookSite DNS information as listed below:

ns1.wobbooksitensb.com
ns2.wobbooksitensb.com

4. Click on Save/Submit and when the screen refreshes you will see the numerical server IP addresses.
5. In addition, using the menu at the top of the screen, you can select any of the domain name registration information that you wish to update, such as the Administrative Contact.

Register.com
1. Go to: http://www.register.com
2. Click on Login
3. At the Login prompt, enter your assigned User Name and Password from Register.com. If you do not remember your username/password, there is password retrieval link on this page (Look for the "Forget Your User Name or Password?" link).
4. Click on Modify DNS
5. At Modify DNS: Use the checkboxes to delete the existing name servers
6.Enter WOBBookSite's DNS information as follows:

ns1.wobbooksitensb.com
ns2.wobbooksitensb.com

7. Confirm the email address to receive the confirmation of your domain changes
8. Click the Submit button
9. Confirm the changes and then click the Confirm button
10. A confirmation email will be sent to your email address. Click on URL in the email to confirm changes.

Bulkregister
1. Browse to: http:/www.bulkregister.com
2. In the Member Login section, login to your BulkRegister account. If you do not remember your username and password, use the password retrieval link on this page (Look for the "Forgot your password?" link).
3. Click on "list domains"
4. Click on the domain name you wish to modify
5. Select "to modify name servers use this form"
6. Enter WOBBookSite's DNS information as follows:

ns1.wobbooksitensb.com

ns2.wobbooksitensb.com

7. Check the boxes marked "click if modify"
8. Click on "submit" and "apply"
The system will automatically add the name server's IP addresses. Please note that it will take 24 - 48 hours before the modification will completely take effect.

Network Solutions
A. Make sure that your contact information is current:
1. Browse to: http://www.netsol.com
2. Click WhoIs
3. Search for your Domain Name.
4. Verify the Administrative Contact email address and make sure that this email address is current and that you have access to the email account. (For security authentication, Network Solution typically requires an email handshake).

B. If you can still retrieve email at the Administrative Contact email address, skip to step C. If you cannot retrieve email from the Administrative Contact email address:
1. If you have your Network Solutions password, then you can use the same steps above but use the CRYPT-PWD as your authorization method.
2. If you do not have a Network Solutions password, you will have to perform a fax authorization to change your contact information. Go to: http://www.netsol.com/en_US/makechanges/fax/ for instructions.
C. To change the DNS for your Domain Name, follow the steps below.
1. Go to: http://www.netsol.com
2. Click the Account Manager Login from any page within the site.
3. Enter your Account Number/User Name and Password in the text boxes
4. Choose the domain name you wish to transfer
4. Click the Enter Contracts/Manage DNS link
5. Enter your current, working email address, confirm the domain name. The email address needs to match the Administrative Email address from (A) above.
6. Under the Authentication Information heading, choose your Guardian method from the drop down list. MAIL-FROM should be used, unless you have a password. If you have a password, use CRYPT-PW.
7. Under the Name Server section, enter WOBBookSite's DNS information as follows:

ns1.wobbooksitensb.com
ns2.wobbooksitensb.com

8. Click Continue. Click Continue on the next page
9. Check your Administrative email account, and forward your Service Agreement modification request to hostmaster@networksolutions.com.

Note to AOL users: AOL software prevents you from simply replying to Network Solution's message. Highlight the message you received, copy it into the body of a new email message, type hostmaster@networksolutions.com in the To: field, then hit the Send button.

Dotster
1. Browse to: http://www.dotster.com
2. Click My Account and log into your Dotster account by entering your Account Name or Domain Name and your password. If you do not remember your username/password, just click on the "login" button. The following error page will contain a password retrieval link (Look for the "Forgot your Password?" link)
3. Click "Manage your domains"
4. In the drop down box, choose the domain name that you are transferring.
5. Click the button "Manage..."
6. On the left side of the screen you will see some links, click the one that says "Name Servers."
7. At the bottom of the page it will list your current name servers. "Remove" the old ones in turn.
8. "Add" the new name servers in turn. Enter WOBBookSite's DNS information as listed below, using only the name server (i.e., Ns2.wobbooksitensb.com) names NOT the IP address:

ns1.wobbooksitensb.com
ns2.wobbooksitensb.com

9. Click update.
10. Now wait up to 72 hours for the change to take place.

Enom, Inc.

1. Browse to http://www.enom.com
2. Click Login located on the left side of the screen
3. Enter the Login ID and Password information provided to you by Enom upon the initial registration of your domain name.

NOTE: If you cannot locate this information, go to “If you have lost your password, click here” link.

4. Once you have logged on, select the ‘my domains’ tab on the member menu.
5. You will then be provided a list of domains you currently have with Enom. Click the domain to which you need to make changes.
6. This next screen allows you to choose from a variety of services from Enom Inc. Go to the “DNS Server “ option and click Change.
7. If you are still using Enom’s DNS servers, you will then need to select the radio button next to the line that reads “User - This option will allow you to use user-specified name servers, including none.”
8. Click Make changes.
9. Replace any existing name server information with WOBBookSite’s DNS information:

ns1.wobbooksitensb.com
ns2.wobbooksitensb.com

10. Click Save changes.
11. You will now be presented with the “DNS server” screen with your completed changes, verifying that your update was successful.

Domain Discover

1. Browse to: http://www.domaindiscover.com

2. Log on to the system via the ‘existing customers’ area by entering your domain name and your password.

NOTE: If you cannot locate your user information, click the "Forgot your password?" link.

3. Once you have logged on, find the area labeled ‘Make Changes’ and click Change nameservers.

4. You will then be provided with the current DNS information for your domain, as well as fields in which you may make changes.
5. Replace any existing name server information with WOBBookSite's DNS information:

ns1.wobbooksitensb.com
ns2.wobbooksitensb.com

6. Once finished, click Preview changes. You will now be presented with the new information for your domain. If it is correct, click Confirm changes to save your updated information.

How to modify DNS information with the registrar DomainBank

DomainBank, Inc.

1. Browse to: http://www.domainbank.com
2. At the top of the screen, click Account Manager.
3. Enter the Login ID and Password information provided to you by DomainBank upon the initial registration of your domain name.

NOTE: If you cannot locate this information, click the ‘Forgot Your Password?’ option below the logon area.

4. Once you have logged on, click Domain Manager.
5. Click Modify DNS record at the top of the page.
6. Click the domain for which you want to modify name server information.
7. Replace any existing name server information with WOBBookSite's DNS information below:

ns1.wobbooksitensb.com
ns2.wobbooksitensb.com

8. Once you have updated this information you must still confirm the changes via email. Click Send.
9. You will now be provided with the changes you are making. If the information is correct, click Yes to confirm.
10. An email will then be sent to the email address they have on file. Follow the instructions in this email to authorize the changes you have just made. (You usually need to simply click a URL in the email to confirm the changes.)

Namesecure.com
1. Browse to: http://www.namesecure.com
2. Click My Account, located on the left side of the screen.
3. Enter the User Name and Password information provided to you by Namesecure upon the initial registration of your domain name.

NOTE: If you cannot locate this information, click the ‘Click here’ option below the logon area

4. Once you have logged on you will be provided with the information regarding your account. This will include a list of the domains you have registered with Namesecure. Locate the domain to which you wish to make changes, and click the link next to it labeled ‘View/Modify/Renew.’
5. Click the “Registration Information“ tab.
6. Once on the Registration Information menu, click Modify Domain Name Servers.
7. Replace any existing name server information with WOBBookSite’s DNS information:

ns1.wobbooksitensb.com
ns2.wobbooksitensb.com

Names4ever
1. Browse to: http://www.names4ever.com
2. Click Manage My Domain
3. Click the Update Domain link
4. To login, enter your domain name and password. Then click the Edit button
5. Delete any existing name servesr listed using the Delete button
6. Then add the WOBBookSite's DNS information:

ns1.wobbooksitensb.com
ns2.wobbooksitensb.com

7. Click the Update button

International Domain Names
Please browse to http://www.allwhois.com to find your domain registrar. You will then be required to contact them to find out the procedure of updating DNS Information. When prompted, provide WOBBookSite's DNS information as listed below:

ns1.wobbooksitensb.com
ns2.wobbooksitensb.com

Setting Up Monsoon To Work With Your Website

AndyLL — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 23:22:21 GMT

The Monsoon utilities are in Testing right now. No users should be using them without contacting us first...

Setting Up Monsoon To Work With Your Website

Introduction

Monsoon is an inventory management program. The goal of this document is to explain the process of transferring your inventory and order data from Monsoon to your WOBBookSite website.

Two types of data needs to be synced to your website. :

1) Inventory Data - This is a one way data transfer. Adds/Edits/Deletes will be transferred from your Monsoon database to your website.

2) Order Data - Your website will provide order data to Monsoon and Monsoon will update your website the resolution of the orders.

Data moves between Monsoon and the website in two separate processes.

1) Data Exchange - The Monsoon inventory program provides a method of data import/export from their database using a tool called 'Data Exchange'. The data exchange process will automatically write out files of inventory changes to your hard disk. It will also automatically import order files and write out order resolution files.

2) Website FTP Transfer - Monsoon's Data Exchange process will write out the data files to specific locations on your hard drive. These data files must be transferred to your website. It is possible to manually upload these file to your website using a standard FTP transfer program or from the Inventory Menu of your website. To make this task easier we have created a program that can be installed on your computer that will automatically transfer the files back and forth between your website and your hard drive. These program can be run manually when you want to process your files or scheduled to run at selected times through your windows task scheduler.

Setting up Monsoon's Data Exchange to create website data files

Run your Monsoon Inventory Program.
Click the 'Settings' Tab.
Expand the 'Markets' section on the left menu and click on 'Data Exchange'
Click 'Add Data Exchange'
Enter a name.
Enter the four required directories for data exchange. We recommend:

c:\WOB\Inventory\Import
c:\WOB\Inventory\Export
c:\WOB\Orders\Import
c:\WOB\Orders\Export

'Export Orders from all Data Exchanges' should NOT be checked.
'Disable confirmation emails for orders from this Data Exchange' likely should not be checked.

Installing the WOBBookSites Monsoon to Website

Open your web browser and go to: http://www.whiteoakbooks.com/monsoon.aspx
Click the 'Download Monsoon Inventory Utility' link.
You should be given the choice to run or save the file. Choose 'save' and allow the file to be downloaded. Remember the directory the file is downloaded too.
Once the file is downloaded... from the Start Menu open up your 'Computer' or Explorer and browse to the directory you downloaded the file too.
Click on 'WOBMonsoonSetup.msi' (unless you downloaded it to a different name)
You will now be running a typical installation program. It is safe to take all the default choices.
The installation program will add a folder to your start menu and on your desktop titled: WOBMonsoon
In the folder will be 2 programs and a readme.txt. The 2 executable programs will be 'WOBMonsoon Settings' and ' WOBMonsoon Transfer'. The readme.txt will contain copyright notices and a link to this article.

Setting up the WOB Monsoon transfer program

From either the Start Menu or the Desktop folder run the program: 'WOBMonsoon Settings'
A program will run allowing you to enter setup information:

FTP Host, User, Password - This information was sent to you when you signed up for our service. The password is encrypted.
Export Inventory Folder, Export Order Folder, Import Order Folder - These must match exactly the directories you entered in the Monsoon Data Exchange setup.
Domain - You domain name without the http or www. i.e. WhiteOakBooks.com. This setting is not required if you are running on the new servers.

Once these settings are entered click the 'Save & Exit' button.

Running a transfer for the 1st time

When you setup your Monsoon Data Exchange the Monsoon system should have exporting inventory files to the directories you specified. Use 'My Computer' or an Explore folder to verify there are files in your 'Inventory Export Folder'.
Log into your Website Control panel in a browser and go to 'View Inventory Information' under the 'Inventory' menu. 'Files to Process' should be empty.
From the Start Menu or the Desktop folder run the program: WOBMonsoon Transfer
A command window should open and you will see a log of the file transfers as they happen.
After the command window closes return to your browser and refresh the 'View Inventory Information' webpage. The files that were on your computer should now be there. If you look in the 'Inventory Export Folder' on your local computer the directory should be empty. If both cases are true then the WOBMonsoon transfer was successful.
After verifying the 1st transfer worked you are now ready to run the transfer program anytime you need to.

Scheduling Automatic Transfers

Windows allows programs to be scheduled to run. It is possible you will need more options then the windows scheduler provides. There are many scheduler programs available. The following directions are for Vista. Other windows operating systems likely will have slightly different methods to get into the scheduler.

Go to the Start Menu => Control Panel
Go to 'System and Maintenance' . ( Administrative Tools under XP)
Under Administrative Tools click 'Schedule Tasks'
Click 'Create Task'
Enter the Name
Under Triggers Click 'Add'
Configure the times you want to process your files. In general you want to do it daily. If you are a high volume seller you can schedule it to run more often.
Click 'New' under Actions
By the 'Program/Script' textbox click 'Browse' and browse to the directory you installed the WOBMonsoon files in and choose 'WOBMonsoon.exe' and click 'OK'
Click OK to save the scheduled task.

Creating Email accounts on your VPS account.

AndyLL — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 20:08:47 GMT

https://youdomain.com:8443 (if your domain is active or https://67.215.161.119:8443 if not)

Creating Mailboxes

Ø To create a mailbox:

1 Go to Domains > domain name > Create Mail Account.

2 The domain name is shown to the right of @ sign, so you only need to specify the desired name for the mailbox.

This can be, for example, user‘s first name and last name separated by a dot, a department name, or any other text in Latin symbols. The name should be short enough to remember. It can comprise alphanumeric, dash dot and underscore symbols.

3 Specify a password that mailbox owner will use for accessing his or her mailbox.

4 Specify the settings related to the appearance of user's control panel, if desired: interface language, theme (skin), the limit on number of characters that can appear on custom buttons placed into the control panel by the mailbox owner.

5 Leave the Allow multiple sessions check box selected to allow the mailbox owner to have several simultaneous sessions in the control panel.

6 Leave the Prevent users from working with the control panel until interface screens are completely loaded check box selected.

This will forbid users from submitting data or performing operations until the control panel is ready to accept them.

7 Make sure that a check mark is present in the Mailbox check box. If required, limit the amount of disk space that this mailbox and it's autoresponder attachment files can use. To do this, under Mailbox quota select the Enter size option and type the desired value in kilobytes. Click OK.

8 To allow the mailbox owner to log in to control panel for managing his or her mail account, click Permissions, click the Select all shortcut and click OK.

Setting Up Your E-mail Program for Retrieving Mail from Your Mailbox

Ø To set up Microsoft Outlook Express:

1 Open Microsoft Outlook Express.

2 Go to Tools > Accounts.

3 Click the Mail tab to open a list of your mail accounts.

4 Click the Add > button and select the Mail … item.

5 Enter your name as you want it to appear in any messages you send, and click Next >.

6 Type your e-mail address that you created through Parallels Plesk Panel (for example, your.name@your-domain.com), and click Next >.

7 Select the protocol of your incoming mail server.

8 Specify the mail domain name as the incoming and outgoing mail server (for example: mail.your-domain.com), and click Next >.

9 Type your e-mail address in the Account name box (for example: your.name@your-domain.com).

10 Type your password. This should be the password that you specified during creation of the mailbox through Parallels Plesk Panel.

11 Leave the Remember password box checked, if you do not wish to be prompted to enter password each time your e-mail program connects to the mail server to check for new mail, and click Next >.

12 To complete setting up your e-mail program, click Finish.

Ø To set up Mozilla Thunderbird:

1 Open Mozilla Thunderbird.

2 Go to Tools > Account Settings…

3 Click Add Account. The Account Wizard will open.

4 Leave the Email account option selected, and click Next >.

5 Enter your name as you want it to appear in any messages you send.

6 Type your e-mail address that you created through Parallels Plesk Panel.

For example, your.name@your-domain.com. Click Next >.

7 Select the protocol of your incoming mail server.

8 Specify the mail domain name as the incoming and outgoing mail server (for example: mail.your-domain.com), and click Next >.

Using E-mail Services 133

9 In the Incoming User Name box, specify your full e-mail address (for example, your.name@your-domain.com), and click Next >.

10 Enter the name by which you would like to refer to this account (for example, Work Account) and click Next >.

11 Verify that the information you entered is correct, and click Finish.

12 Click OK to close the Account Settings

Accessing Your Mail From a Web Browser

You can read your mail and compose new messages even if you are far from your home or office computer. To do this, you first need to allow access to the webmail interface that is integrated with your control panel. Then you can work with your mail from any computer with Internet connection and Web browser installed, or a WAP-enabled cellular phone or a handheld computer (PDA).

Ø To allow access to the Webmail interface:

1 Go to Domains > domain name > Mail group title menu > Mail Settings.

2 From the Webmail menu, select the webmail program that you want to use.

3 Click OK.

Note: Activation and deactivation of webmail for your domain involves modifications in DNS zone, therefore, there is actually a certain delay present when activating and deactivating webmail due to the speed of DNS registration mechanisms.

Ø To access your mailbox through webmail:

1 Open a Web browser (or a WAP browser, if you are using a handheld device), and type the URL: http://webmail.your-domain.com, where your-domain.com is the name of your domain. Press ENTER. The webmail login screen will open.

2 Type the user name and password that you specified during creation of your mailbox and click Log in.

VPS1 - Setting Up an Fillz Custom Venue for your VPS website

AndyLL — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 20:22:50 GMT

After you have completed the sign-up page for the VPS service we will setup your hosting account on our servers. This can take up to 3 days.

1. Go to Settings – Marketplaces on Fillz

2. Click the 1^st available Custom Configuration and set the following values:

3. FTP Hostname – 173.0.131.127/httpdocs/Inventory

4. Your FTP User you created your account with

5. FTP Password – The password you created your account with.

6. Order Retrieval Path: – Orders ( remove the ../ )

7. File format – UIEE

Do not set any other values

De-Linking your website from Amazon

AndyLL — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 14:17:53 GMT

De-linking your website provides the benefit of no longer have to offer Amazon Payments and Amazon’s TOS no longer applies to the website.. The trade off is that you no longer have access to Amazon product information. There are 3 areas of information.

1) For general product information this is not a big deal… most inventory programs provide basic product information and WOBBookSite websites will fill in missing product information by the end of 2010.

2) Lack of images is typically the biggest issue. The website supports a link to images, images uploaded to the website, and OpenLibrary.org images. You can use any combination of these methods.

3) The last piece of Amazon you will lose is reviews.

It is very easy to de-link your website from Amazon. Under shopping cart settings is a check box to de-link.

After delinking you most likely will want to go to ‘General Settings’ | ‘Default Image Display Settings’ and turn on OpenLibrary.org

You can move back and forth between linking to Amazon and not linking to Amazon has much as you wish.

WARNING… for website owners that have me pull inventory directly off of Amazon… de-linking is not possible because Amazon does not provide enough product information.

Generating a search engine sitemap

AndyLL — Tue, 18 May 2010 23:01:03 GMT

Sitemaps help search engines find all your web pages. Instead of search engines slowly over time finding your web pages by following links a sitemap gives it all the pages at once. This does not force search engines to put your pages in their engines but experienced webmasters believe it helps get your pages in the search engines quicker.

To create a sitemap:

Log into your website control panel and click on 'Create Google Sitemap'

Click the 'Start Sitemap Generation' button.

When that button is re-enabled the sitemap is ready.

A link the sitemap is placed in 'robots.txt' which is a file on your website that the search engines all access.

It's also a good idea to give Google the link to your sitemap in Webmaster tools which gives better information on if there were any problems accessing it.

(Using webmaster tools: http://mb.whiteoakbooks.com/Topic728-15-1.aspx )

User Defined Categories

AndyLL — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 02:52:50 GMT

User Category Wizard

The featured items functionality is pretty flexible but does have some limitations. It is designed to display items in a single area… such as on the home page or in the right column.

Therefore the number of items is limited to 10 because any more on a single page will affect performance.

There have been several requests for the website owner to be able to define a specific criteria to select items out of the database and to display them on the website like the product category pages… meaning there will be Prev/Next links at the bottom to scroll through the results if there are more then 10.

This is basically defining your own categories other then by subject.

Two independent pieces of functionality were

1) User Pages Menus – When you create a new user page you now have the ability to show the link to that page on the top, bottom, side menus and underneath the Add To Cart Button.

The website can now allow display the User Page link at the top or the bottom of the category list.

2) Category Wizard – There is now a wizard to create the code needed to define your own category.

The Wizard name ‘Create User Category Pages’ under the Website Tools heading in your Website Control Panel.

The items you can define search criteria on are:

· SKU

· ISBN/ASIN

· Date Added/Edited

· Keywords (the keywords field contains isbn, title, author)

· Price

· Category

Any of these items can be combined.

The power of this wizard is the ability to use the ‘Like’ keyword to define wildcards.

Here are the Like wildcard options:

Wildcard character	Description	Example
%	Any string of zero or more characters.	WHERE title LIKE '%computer%' finds all book titles with the word 'computer' anywhere in the book title.
_ (underscore)	Any single character.	WHERE au_fname LIKE '_ean' finds all four-letter first names that end with ean (Dean, Sean, and so on).
[ ]	Any single character within the specified range ([a-f]) or set ([abcdef]).	WHERE au_lname LIKE '[C-P]arsen' finds author last names ending with arsen and beginning with any single character between C and P, for example Carsen, Larsen, Karsen, and so on.
[^]	Any single character not within the specified range ([^a-f]) or set ([^abcdef]).	WHERE au_lname LIKE 'de[^l]%' all author last names beginning with de and where the following letter is not l.

Here are some examples:

Author search – Keywords Like %Janet Daily% (matches all “Janet Daily” in the keywords field

SKU search – SKU Like 20___ ( matches all skus from 20000-20999 in my inventory)

Category search – Category Like Books:Childrens Books% ( matches all subcategories of Childrens books)

Hardbacks – Kewords Like %[Hardback]% (Amazon puts [hardback] in many but not all titles if it is a hardback)

You of course can mix and match different searches.

For example if you want a clearance category on Video Games only.

Category search – Category Like Video Games%

and also

Price LessThen 1.00

We understand that is might be challenging to setup these criteria yourself. If you get unexpected results then post the generated code in the forums and I’ll help debug it.

I’d prefer you do it this way so others can see common problems with solutions.

To use this functionality you must be on version 1.70. (visible at the bottom of the page)

Let me know if you need to be upgraded.

Andy

Steps for setting up a website

AndyLL — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:22:07 GMT

These settings are only for those websites that were created after 7/1/2010.

What are the procedures for setting up a website?

1. Sign up for the service (http://wobbooksellers.com/Signup.aspx)

o You enter you contact information here.
o You setup your paypal subscription here. ( with a 30 day trail )

2. If you do not already have a domain name you must purchase one. www.GoDaddy.com is one of the most popular ones. They cost around $8/year.
o When purchasing a domain you should setup your nameservers (this tells the internet where to find your website) Enter:
ns1.wobbooksitensa.com
ns2.wobbooksitensa.com

3. If you already have a Domain name you can point it to our servers. Change your nameservers to:
ns1.wobbooksitensa.com
ns2.wobbooksitensa.com

WARNING – If you current get your email through this domain then read this article first: http://mb.wobbooksite.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16

It is not a requirement for your domain to point to your website right away. You can configure your website first.

4. Once you have signed up your account will be created. We will contact you through email letting you know the expected time it will take to create your website.

5. We will create your hosting account. Once completed you will receive an email with login in information.

6. At that time you can setup your email accounts.

7. The website will also be ready to receive inventory files:
• AOB setup information

8. Once the above steps are done I will verify I can read your information off of Amazon and if you use AOB or Fillz, that I am receiving files from them.

9. Once the above steps are done I will verify I can read your information off of Amazon and if you use AOB or Fillz, that I am receiving files from them.

10. I will then build your website. Website building almost always happen the evening you signup. If I have problems reading your data or if it is a weekend or if multiple orders come through on the same day then it might take an additional day or two.

11. I will keep you informed of my progress during this time.

IMPORTANT – Sometimes the content of the emails you are sent cause email SPAM filters to flag our email as spam emails and the emails do not go through.

Add the following 2 emails to your Email SPAM filter whitelist: Info@WOBBookSites.com and AndyLL@Mho.com

12. After I build your website I will send you a link to your website look & feel control panel.

13. The 1st time you try to access this link you will be prompted to enter a Login Name/Password.

14. You are then free to setup your website. The 1st link on your Website Admin control panel is a checklist listing every item you need to setup before your website goes live.

15. I like to let new users try to setup their website themselves. I believe the basic setting up of site is fairly easy. But I am always available to help setup the website. If something is not working let me know.

16. After the basic website is configured do not burn yourself out working on the site. Remember this is a long term project.

VPS1 - Pointing your Domain To Your New VPS Website

AndyLL — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:30:05 GMT

Go Daddy
1. Browse to: http://www.godaddy.com
2. Click on: My Account
3. Login using your Login Name or Customer Name and Password. If you have forgotten your username/password, use the password retrieval link on this page (Look for the "Forgot your password? Click here." link).
4. Click on Domain Names and select the domain name you are transferring
5. In the Name Server information section click on the "Click Here to Modify" link
6. Enter WOBBookSite's primary server name as listed below, using only the name server (i.e., ns1.wobbooksitensa.com) names NOT the IP address:

ns1.wobbooksitensa.com
ns2.wobbooksitensa.com

7. Click Save
8. You will be redirected to the main page and there should be a, "Name server modifications are pending," notice under the name server information for your domain name.

Tucows
1. Browse to https://manage.opensrs.net and enter the following information:

Domain Name:
User Name:
Password:

2. Scroll down and click on Manage Name Servers
3. Edit the Primary and Secondary Server Hostname by entering WOBBookSite DNS information as listed below:

ns1.wobbooksitensa.com
ns2.wobbooksitensa.com

4. Click on Save/Submit and when the screen refreshes you will see the numerical server IP addresses.
5. In addition, using the menu at the top of the screen, you can select any of the domain name registration information that you wish to update, such as the Administrative Contact.

Register.com
1. Go to: http://www.register.com
2. Click on Login
3. At the Login prompt, enter your assigned User Name and Password from Register.com. If you do not remember your username/password, there is password retrieval link on this page (Look for the "Forget Your User Name or Password?" link).
4. Click on Modify DNS
5. At Modify DNS: Use the checkboxes to delete the existing name servers
6.Enter WOBBookSite's DNS information as follows:

ns1.wobbooksitensa.com
ns2.wobbooksitensa.com

7. Confirm the email address to receive the confirmation of your domain changes
8. Click the Submit button
9. Confirm the changes and then click the Confirm button
10. A confirmation email will be sent to your email address. Click on URL in the email to confirm changes.

Bulkregister
1. Browse to: http:/www.bulkregister.com
2. In the Member Login section, login to your BulkRegister account. If you do not remember your username and password, use the password retrieval link on this page (Look for the "Forgot your password?" link).
3. Click on "list domains"
4. Click on the domain name you wish to modify
5. Select "to modify name servers use this form"
6. Enter WOBBookSite's DNS information as follows:

ns1.wobbooksitensa.com

ns2.wobbooksitensa.com

7. Check the boxes marked "click if modify"
8. Click on "submit" and "apply"
The system will automatically add the name server's IP addresses. Please note that it will take 24 - 48 hours before the modification will completely take effect.

Network Solutions
A. Make sure that your contact information is current:
1. Browse to: http://www.netsol.com
2. Click WhoIs
3. Search for your Domain Name.
4. Verify the Administrative Contact email address and make sure that this email address is current and that you have access to the email account. (For security authentication, Network Solution typically requires an email handshake).

B. If you can still retrieve email at the Administrative Contact email address, skip to step C. If you cannot retrieve email from the Administrative Contact email address:
1. If you have your Network Solutions password, then you can use the same steps above but use the CRYPT-PWD as your authorization method.
2. If you do not have a Network Solutions password, you will have to perform a fax authorization to change your contact information. Go to: http://www.netsol.com/en_US/makechanges/fax/ for instructions.
C. To change the DNS for your Domain Name, follow the steps below.
1. Go to: http://www.netsol.com
2. Click the Account Manager Login from any page within the site.
3. Enter your Account Number/User Name and Password in the text boxes
4. Choose the domain name you wish to transfer
4. Click the Enter Contracts/Manage DNS link
5. Enter your current, working email address, confirm the domain name. The email address needs to match the Administrative Email address from (A) above.
6. Under the Authentication Information heading, choose your Guardian method from the drop down list. MAIL-FROM should be used, unless you have a password. If you have a password, use CRYPT-PW.
7. Under the Name Server section, enter WOBBookSite's DNS information as follows:

ns1.wobbooksitensa.com
ns2.wobbooksitensa.com

8. Click Continue. Click Continue on the next page
9. Check your Administrative email account, and forward your Service Agreement modification request to hostmaster@networksolutions.com.

Note to AOL users: AOL software prevents you from simply replying to Network Solution's message. Highlight the message you received, copy it into the body of a new email message, type hostmaster@networksolutions.com in the To: field, then hit the Send button.

Dotster
1. Browse to: http://www.dotster.com
2. Click My Account and log into your Dotster account by entering your Account Name or Domain Name and your password. If you do not remember your username/password, just click on the "login" button. The following error page will contain a password retrieval link (Look for the "Forgot your Password?" link)
3. Click "Manage your domains"
4. In the drop down box, choose the domain name that you are transferring.
5. Click the button "Manage..."
6. On the left side of the screen you will see some links, click the one that says "Name Servers."
7. At the bottom of the page it will list your current name servers. "Remove" the old ones in turn.
8. "Add" the new name servers in turn. Enter WOBBookSite's DNS information as listed below, using only the name server (i.e., Ns2.wobbooksitensa.com) names NOT the IP address:

ns1.wobbooksitensa.com
ns2.wobbooksitensa.com

9. Click update.
10. Now wait up to 72 hours for the change to take place.

Enom, Inc.

1. Browse to http://www.enom.com
2. Click Login located on the left side of the screen
3. Enter the Login ID and Password information provided to you by Enom upon the initial registration of your domain name.

NOTE: If you cannot locate this information, go to “If you have lost your password, click here” link.

4. Once you have logged on, select the ‘my domains’ tab on the member menu.
5. You will then be provided a list of domains you currently have with Enom. Click the domain to which you need to make changes.
6. This next screen allows you to choose from a variety of services from Enom Inc. Go to the “DNS Server “ option and click Change.
7. If you are still using Enom’s DNS servers, you will then need to select the radio button next to the line that reads “User - This option will allow you to use user-specified name servers, including none.”
8. Click Make changes.
9. Replace any existing name server information with WOBBookSite’s DNS information:

ns1.wobbooksitensa.com
ns2.wobbooksitensa.com

10. Click Save changes.
11. You will now be presented with the “DNS server” screen with your completed changes, verifying that your update was successful.

Domain Discover

1. Browse to: http://www.domaindiscover.com

4. You will then be provided with the current DNS information for your domain, as well as fields in which you may make changes.
5. Replace any existing name server information with WOBBookSite's DNS information:

ns1.wobbooksitensa.com
ns2.wobbooksitensa.com

6. Once finished, click Preview changes. You will now be presented with the new information for your domain. If it is correct, click Confirm changes to save your updated information.

How to modify DNS information with the registrar DomainBank

DomainBank, Inc.

1. Browse to: http://www.domainbank.com
2. At the top of the screen, click Account Manager.
3. Enter the Login ID and Password information provided to you by DomainBank upon the initial registration of your domain name.

NOTE: If you cannot locate this information, click the ‘Forgot Your Password?’ option below the logon area.

4. Once you have logged on, click Domain Manager.
5. Click Modify DNS record at the top of the page.
6. Click the domain for which you want to modify name server information.
7. Replace any existing name server information with WOBBookSite's DNS information below:

ns1.wobbooksitensa.com
ns2.wobbooksitensa.com

8. Once you have updated this information you must still confirm the changes via email. Click Send.
9. You will now be provided with the changes you are making. If the information is correct, click Yes to confirm.
10. An email will then be sent to the email address they have on file. Follow the instructions in this email to authorize the changes you have just made. (You usually need to simply click a URL in the email to confirm the changes.)

Namesecure.com
1. Browse to: http://www.namesecure.com
2. Click My Account, located on the left side of the screen.
3. Enter the User Name and Password information provided to you by Namesecure upon the initial registration of your domain name.

NOTE: If you cannot locate this information, click the ‘Click here’ option below the logon area

4. Once you have logged on you will be provided with the information regarding your account. This will include a list of the domains you have registered with Namesecure. Locate the domain to which you wish to make changes, and click the link next to it labeled ‘View/Modify/Renew.’
5. Click the “Registration Information“ tab.
6. Once on the Registration Information menu, click Modify Domain Name Servers.
7. Replace any existing name server information with WOBBookSite’s DNS information:

ns1.wobbooksitensa.com
ns2.wobbooksitensa.com

Names4ever
1. Browse to: http://www.names4ever.com
2. Click Manage My Domain
3. Click the Update Domain link
4. To login, enter your domain name and password. Then click the Edit button
5. Delete any existing name servesr listed using the Delete button
6. Then add the WOBBookSite's DNS information:

ns1.wobbooksitensa.com
ns2.wobbooksitensa.com

7. Click the Update button

International Domain Names
Please browse to http://www.allwhois.com to find your domain registrar. You will then be required to contact them to find out the procedure of updating DNS Information. When prompted, provide WOBBookSite's DNS information as listed below:

ns1.wobbooksitensa.com
ns2.wobbooksitensa.com

Configuring the Look & Feel of your Category Column

AndyLL — Wed, 19 May 2010 04:19:52 GMT

(Many of these features apply to version 3.62.2 which will be pushed out to all websites the week of May 17th, 2010. )

The Left Column ( categories ) consists of 5 sections:

1) A Logo (optional)

2) Search Box

3) Side Navigational Menu (optional)

4) Categories

5) User Under Categories

Brief description of each:

1) Logo - If you have a squarish type logo around 300 pixels or less then it can go here.

2) Search Box - Standard Search

3) Side Navigational Menu - Every page can be configured to appear on the top/bottom/side menu. The side menu can replace the top menu completely if you want or be used for special pages.

4) Categories - Category list that can be drilled down into. The category list consist of media headers, categories and sub-categories.

5) User Under Categories. Configured separately. A spot were you can put ads or other text you want to appear on multiple pages. This section is not covered in this article.

The look and feel for the left column consists of background(s), borders, text colors, text size, and link styles.

Backgrounds:

There is a background that extends down the whole left column. An background image can be used instead of a solid color.

There can be a colored border around the whole left column.

The Search Box, Category Box and Side menu can have their own backgrounds and borders. The headers of each of these sections can have their own backgrounds and text colors.

While it can be complicated it allows for a lot of flexibility. The default look is a solid left column background with headers just being larger text.

Making the entire left background the same color as the center and just having the headers in a different background makes the site look a lot like Chrislands.

You can add borders and section backgrounds to fancy up the individual sections if you want.

Browse Category Advanced Choices

In general the category section is treated as one section. By clicking the: ' Border around each Product Group' each media group ( books, dvd, cd, ect. ) will be treated as a separate section with borders or background colors individual for each group.

Rounded Corners

You now have the ability to make your sections look a little more prettier by rounding the corners of each section. This option uses javascript which means any customer that has javascript turned off will see square sections. This option has been tested on Internet Explorer 7 & 8 and Firefox.

Setting this option is more complicated. Each section needs to have a background color set different from the 'Left Navigation Background' (the background for the entire left column). You can set header backgrounds but that color does not fill the entire top of the section.

If you are rounding all the left column sections it is likely you would want to also round the header over the main content to make it look the same. Under 'Edit Items Header' that is now possible.

The shift left column down and the line after xxx are there to space out the sections when you are rounding corners or using separate backgrounds per section. Otherwise the sections would 'touch' each other.

The demo website now has rounded corners:

http://demostore.whiteoakbooks.com/Default.aspx

Other Options in the Left Column Section Edit

If you have a left column logo you can add a link so if they click on the logo it goes to a page.

If your home page is not the normal bookstore main page you can set what page to go to when the user click the 'all categories' link when browsing through the categories.

You can use images instead of text for your Browse Category Headers. In the left column editing page there is a help link that explains the naming convention for this feature.

Adding your website items to Google Product Base ( Froogle )

AndyLL — Fri, 14 May 2010 17:19:08 GMT

Only US and UK stores a allowed in Google Base.

You should use a payment method other then Amazon Paymentsl

You must have a Google Account. If you have Gmail or adsense you already do.

Go to http://www.google.com/services/

Product Base is accessed by clicking the 'Merchant Center' link.

From here you can create a Google Merchant Account.

You add your domain to your Merchant Account. You must Verify and Claim your domain. To verify your domain follow these instructions:

http://mb.whiteoakbooks.com/Topic728-15-1.aspx

Then claim your domain.

Adding a Datafeed

Click the Datafeed link from your dashboard.

Click 'New Datafeed'

The Datafeed type is 'googlebase' and the name should be 'Froogle.txt'

Save Changes

Creating and uploading a datafeed

Log into your Website Control Panel

Click on 'Create Froogle Listing'

Click the 'Start Froogle Datafeed Creation' button.

Once the button is enabled again the datafeed is ready for downloading.

Right Click on the 'Froogle Datafeed File' link at the bottom of the page.

Choose 'Save Target As' and save the froggle.txt file to your computer. ( remember where you saved it)

Back in the Merchant account click the 'Manual Upload'

Browse to the 'Froogle.txt' you just saved.

Click the 'Upload and Process' button.

It takes some time to process. The 1st time you upload they will have to approve the datafeed.

Approval is easier if you turn off the 'Do Not Use Amazon' in Shopping Cart Settings ( you can turn it back on after the datafeed is approved)

Google does not allow Amazon affiliate datafeeds and sometimes they think Amazon Buy buttons mean the website is an affiliate store.

Please contact me if you have any problems

Signing Up For Webmaster Central ( Webmaster Tools )

AndyLL — Wed, 12 May 2010 13:55:41 GMT

Webmaster Tools has a host of information that is useful for website owners and is required for Google Base ( Google Products, Froogle) uploads.

Using Google Webmaster Tools you can view:

What search queries people are using to find your website.
Who/what links to your website.
What keywords (topic areas) that google sees on your Website.
Sitemaps.
Any errors Google sees on the Website.

Gaining access to the Webmaster Tools is easy. You must have a Google Account. If you have Gmail or adsense you already do.

Go to http://www.google.com/services/

Webmaster tools is accessed by clicking the 'Webmaster Central' link.

Once you are logged into Webmaster Tools you can 'add a site' .

When you add a new website you are taken to a 'Verify Ownership' screen.

You will want to verify your website using the 'Meta Tag' method.

Copy the meta tag they give you... it will look like this:

and go to your website control panel - General Store Settings...

and enter it in the following field:

Additional Head Tags (Home Page Only):

Save and close the 'General Store Settings' and 'Copy All Settings To Website'

Once that is done you can click the 'Verify' button in Google Webmaster Tools.

Please contact me if you have any problems verifying your website.

Setting up an AOB custem venu for the website (pre 7/2010 websites)

AndyLL — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:14:00 GMT

These settings are only for those websites that were created before 7/1/2010.
(that have not upgrade to the VPS servers)

Once you have completed the sign-up page for my service you will receive several form emails containing information about your hosting. One of them will contain the hosting control panel and FTP login information.

It will be the 2nd email with the subject:
"New Account: Net V1 - 5001-10000"

In the email will be this information:

To access your account by FTP, use:
Host Name: winXX.wobbooksite.com
Login: XXXXXXX
Password: XXXXXX

With that information available you are ready to setup AOB:

1. Go to 'Settings - Venue Setting' on AOB

2. On your 1st available Custom Venue set the following values:

Venue 1 FTP Display Name – Whatever you want to name it.

Custom Venue 1 FTP Host – ‘Host Name’ from the email you received.

Custom Venue 1 FTP Username – ‘Login’ from the email you received..

Password – 'Password' from the email you received.

Format – AOB Tab-Delimited

Custom Venue 3 FTP Directory – YourDomainName/Inventory
( example: whiteoakbooks.com/Inventory )

Check the ‘Pull Orders’ checkbox.

Check the ‘Active’ checkbox.

Click the 'Save All Changes' at the bottom of the page.

3. Let me know that these steps have been completed so I can finish building the website.

Andy
WOBBookSite

Setting up a Fillz Custom Venue for the website (pre 7/2010 websites)

AndyLL — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:27:37 GMT

These settings are only for those websites that were created before 7/1/2010.
(that have not upgrade to the VPS servers)

If you use Fillz you need to setup a custom Venue:

Go to Settings – Marketplaces on Fillz
Click the 1^st available Custom Configuration and set the following values:

(the following two values can be found in the email you receive or by signing into your hosting control panel and clicking the ‘FTP Manager’)

FTP Hostname – FTPhost/domain/inventory where FTPhost = ‘Host Name’ in the control panel or email and domain = your domain minus the www.
( example: win31.wobbooksite.com/whiteoakbooks.com/Inventory )
Your FTP User ID at Custom #1 – ‘Login’ in the control panel or email. The login you created.
FTP Password – The password you created your account with.
Order Retrieval Path: – orders ( remove the ../ )
File format – UIEE
Do not set any other values

Adding non-Amazon items to the website

AndyLL — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:07:08 GMT

It is possible to upload any items up to the website that are not listed on Amazon.com as long as you have a non-Amazon Payment method enabled such as paypal or Mals.

You will need to create an upload file that is either TAB delimited or comma delimited.

There are 3 required fields and several recommended fields.

The required fields are: sku, price, and quantity

The recommended fields are: author, title, book condition, notes

If you include ISBN or ASIN then the website will pull book information from Amazon including image and category.

If you don't include ISBN ( or if Amazon does not have a category) you should include the field category

quantity should be 0 when you no longer own the item.

category should be in the format: MainCat:SubCat1:SubCat2 ( for example Books:Childrens Books:Educational

The file should contain the column names in the 1st line with the data following. An example of a tab-delimited file would be:

sku, price,quantity, author,title,book condition,notes category

123,12.99,1, Jackie Vivelo, Beagle In Trouble, Very Good, Bumped Edges, Books:Childrens Books

You can upload and process your file from the main page of the website control panel using the 'Upload & Process Inventory Files'

Mal's Shopping Cart Setup

AndyLL — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 02:45:36 GMT

Mals Setup

http://www.mals-e.com/

You must sign up for mals service. There is no reason to sign up for anything but the free service until you have significant sales through them.

Mal's with the website works much like paypal. Add to Cart will add the item to your website shopping cart. When the customer click the check out (with Mal's choosen) the cart will be transfered to Mal's site for payment information.

Cart set-up

Other Messages and General Settings

‘Ask for shipping address’ - Has to be checked

‘Remember repeat customers’ - Recommended to be checked

Required Fields

Your choice be it is highly recommended to require email with validation.

Return Link

You must enter ‘Your website's address’

If you want them to return to the thank-you page you defined in the Cart Setup then enter:

www.YOURDOMAIN/CheckedOut.aspx?Source=&M

Replace YOURDOMIN with your domain. For example mine is set to:

www.WhiteOakBooks.com/CheckedOut.aspx?Source=&M

If you just want them to return to your home page put:

www.YOURDOMAIN

For example mine would be set to:

www.WhiteOakBooks.com

Text for the link.

This is your choice

“A hyperlink (the default). GET request” should be checked

Shipping

Choose Option 8: Posting your own total

Your website will set the shipping.

Discounts

Discount Vouchers

We recommend you use the website functionality for coupons.

Order Notifications

It is your choice if you wish additional notifications sent.

Email Customer Receipts

You should set this up so your customers are notified of orders.

Secure Pages

WEB PAGE TITLE – Enter your website name

Use secure pages for name and address – We recommend you do not check this.

Button Styles and Behavior

Do not modify the top section.

Image Buttons - For advanced users that have the ability to create buttons

Link Verification

Should be turned off

Payments

You need to setup your payment options.

DO not setup Mal’s to use Paypal. Your website order report will not be updated properly if you do. Use the paypal option on your website.

Remote Calls

VERY IMPORTANT.

This needs to be setup to update your orders report on your website. The URL should be:

www.YOURDOMAIN/MECRemoteCall.aspx

For example on my website is would be:

www.whiteoakbooks.com/MECRemoteCall.aspx

‘The method used to call your script’ should be set to POST

Pulling Orders from the Website to AOB (pre 07/2010 websites)

AndyLL — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:50:54 GMT

These settings are only for those websites that were created before 7/1/2010.
(that have not upgrade to the VPS servers)

Go to Settings – Venue Setting on AOB
On your Website Custom venue change the following values:

Custom Venue FTP Directory: YourDomain/Inventory (i.e. whiteoakbooks.com/inventory )
Check the ‘Pull Orders’ checkbox.

Logon to your website control panel
Click 'Shopping Cart Settings'
Click the checkbox 'Send Completed Orders to AOB'
Save the page and copy the settings to your website

Always let me know that you have done this so I can verify your website software version is high enough to support this functionality and to change where I read your inventory files from.

Andy

Completing your website's checklist when you 1st buy our service

AndyLL — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:42:13 GMT

Before reading this article you might want to review this article (General Website Control Panel Editing Help ) which goes over several of the standard editing functions of the control panel.

Also please remember…. You cannot permanently break your website. Be encouraged to experiment with look and feel.

If you want to make big changes to the website and want a backup of your current look and feel contact use and we can back it up.

Your website has a checklist of common tasks that should be completed when you 1^st configure your website.

This article is a in-depth explanation of those checklist items.

Step 1 - General Store Settings Completed

Click on the ‘General Store Settings’ under the General Settings header.

You have to fill in the ‘Store Name’ and the ‘Store Email’ fields. If you want to receive commissions from your Amazon sales you have to fill in the ‘Associate ID’ field.

The rest of the fields are optional and not required for the website to function. It is a good idea to review them and the help file about them sometime in the future.

When you have completed filling in the fields click the ‘Save and Close Page’ green button at the bottom of the screen and you will be returned to the main website control panel.

Step 2 - General Store Look & Feel Setup

This is one of the tougher steps to complete satisfactory. Your website is the face of your store to the general public.

Getting your store to look correct my seem overwhelming but remember it can be done over time.

There are 2 main starting points: Logo and Main Colors.

If you already have a Logo then the main step is to choose several main colors to match it.

Here are some websites that can help you with colors:

(to save off color choices you want the Hex value which is always in the form: #BDD684 with/without the ‘#’)

http://www.degraeve.com/color-palette/ - This website takes an image and gives you a list of all the colors contained in the image.

http://www.wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html - This website allows you to pick one base color and gives you related colors.

http://kuler.adobe.com/ - Give you themed groups of colors. When you find a theme you like you click on the icon that has 3 little slider bars. (it will say: ‘Make Changes To this theme and view color values’ when you hover your mouse over it) This will give you the color values.

If you do not have a logo the 1^st step is to create (or have one created) one.

Once again you need starting colors… use the above links to help pick them.

There are many places that will create logos. Dave at ForeStelves books ( http://forestelves.com/graphicarts.html ) will create logos and related WOBBookSite images for a reasonable price.

Here are some websites where you can create your own:

http://cooltext.com – Create logos and buttons

http://grsites.com – Logos, buttons, backgrounds.

http://designedtoat.com – Clip Art

http://www.coolarchive.com - Logos, buttons, backgrounds, clip art

Once you have your logo and base colors it is time to add them to your website.

Click the ‘General Book Store Look & Feel’ link under the ‘General Settings’ heading. All the settings defined here will apply on all pages on your website unless you override them on specific pages.

The websites are divided into 4 main sections: Header, Left Category Column, Center Content Section, and the Footer.

A Top Bar and Bottom Bar separate the Header and Footer from the center. The Top Bar also contains links to other major sections of your website.

The Center Content Section is where your inventory and other content appears. It has its own header section. Typically the Category Name or Item Title will go there on inventory pages while you define what goes there on other pages.

The Left Column is usually the list of Categories. There is an optional section below the left where you can add content that will always appear under the categories.

There is also a right column that does not appear by default.

Every section on this page has a Green button you click to edit that section.

We will go down the list and setup what is necessary for your website:

Edit Page Header

This controls the look and feel of the top of every page. These are the fields that need to be edited:

‘Logo’ – The name of your logo file you have uploaded.

‘Logo Alignment’ – Whether you want the logo to be centered or justified to the left or right.

‘Page Header Background Color’ – Pick or Enter the background color of the page header.

Click the ‘Save & Close Page’ green button when done.

Edit Top Bar

This controls the color of the Top Bar.

Top Bar Background Color – This is the color of the bar.

Top Bar Text Color – This is not the links… this usually is only the | between them.

Top Bar Font / Top Bar Font Size – How the text/links look.

Top Bar Links – How the links themselves look

Click the ‘Save & Close Page’ green button when done.

Edit Item Header

This configures how the center page header looks. The Text should be reasonably large. All values except the background image color should be filled in.

Click the ‘Save & Close Page’ green button when done.

Edit Center Display

There seems like there are a lot of fields to enter here but it is pretty straight forward.

You are defining how your inventory looks including the buy box text and colors.

On some pages you can display your inventory in either a large or small size so both can be edited.

In general we recommend that you display inventory on white ( or near white ) colors with black ( or other dark ) text.

When setting up a website you can leave all the defaults. Later you can experiment with different shades of colors here.

Edit Left Column

Once again there seems to be a lot of fields to edit here but in most cases only a few items need to be changed.

The Logo spots are only for those users that have square type logos that look better on the color instead of on top.

The ‘Navigation Width’ should be set so your largest category fits without wrapping. 200 is usually fine for most websites.

The ‘Left Navigation Background Color’ is the color for the whole left column.

The Left Navigation Text, and Fonts only need to be changed if you add your own text under the categories.

The Search/Browse Header control the large text that appears over the search box and categories.

The ‘Browse Categories Link’ control the size/look and color of the category links.

The rest of the fields are for advanced uses and do not need to be modified.

Click the ‘Save & Close Page’ green button when done.

Edit Bottom Bar Color

Your only choice here is to edit the color of the bar.

Edit Page Footer

A lot of fields here but you can leave all the defaults.

When you have completed all the look and feel setup click the ‘Admin Home’ in the upper right column.

Congratulations… if you made it though here you’ve made it through the most complicated part of the setup.

Step 3 - Shopping Cart Settings Completed

Click ‘Shopping Cart Settings’ under the ‘Payments and Shipping Settings’ header.

There are two very important settings here that need to be reviewed/set. Paypal Email and Enable Paypal Standard Payments . If you plan to take paypal payments you must set those fields.

The rest of the fields are just general look and feel type fields. The help pages have detailed descriptions on them.

If you wish to have AOB pull website orders then please read the Knowledge Base article on the forums.

If you have changed any fields click the ‘Save and Close Page’ green button at the bottom of the screen and you will be returned to the main website control panel.

Step 4 - Shipping Settings Review

Click ‘Shipping Settings’ under the ‘Payments and Shipping Settings’ header.

This is where you configure what to change users for shipping when they pay through paypal.

If you have changed any fields click the ‘Save and Close Page’ green button at the bottom of the screen and you will be returned to the main website control panel.

Step 5 - Inventory Item Display Reviewed

Click on the ‘Inventory Items Display Settings’ under the General Settings header.

This area allows you to define what data shows up about an item on various pages. In general you can keep the defaults but you should review them.

If you have changed any fields click the ‘Save and Close Page’ green button at the bottom of the screen and you will be returned to the main website control panel.

Step 6 – Standard Pages & Menu Setup Completed

This allows you to add some standard pages to your website like an About page or Store Policies page. These are not required.

To add/modify standard pages click the ‘Add & Configure User Pages’ link under the ‘User Pages and Menu Setup’ heading.

Find a page you would like to add to your website. (Ignore the Home Page for now)

For example… click the ‘Edit’ button by the ‘About’ to create an about page.

To the right you will see the current About page. There are 5 sections you can edit.

Edit General Page Settings

Two items have to be set here.

1. This Page Enabled – If this is not check the page will not appear.

2. Link Text – This is the text that shows up on the menu.

The Browser Title Bar text and Meta keywords/description help guide search engines about what is on this page.

You have a choice on what menus the page appears… the defaults are fine.

Click the ‘Save and Close Page’ green button at the bottom of the screen to return to the section list.

Edit Left Column

Click the ‘Left Column Enabled ’ if you want the normal category list to show on this page. If so you can also configure what other items can appear.

Click the ‘Save and Close Page’ green button at the bottom of the screen to return to the section list.

Edit Page Header

This is the text that appears at the top of your Page below the top bar. It should be a short title/description of the page.

Edit Center

This is your main page text.

Edit Right Column

If you have a standard right column (or want one for this page) this is where you enable it.

Do the above steps for each standard page you want to appear on your website.

The Home page is a special case. The main page text has its own editor. But you want to setup the Browser Bar Text here

Step 7 – Home Page Setup

This is one of the most important setups but also when of the most complicated.

Do not expect to understand/master all the options here. The editor is designed so you can make your home page look however you want.

But there are a couple of things that really need to be changed from the beginning:

Click the ‘Home Page’ link under the ‘Inventory Pages’ header.

The area you have to edit is the ‘Edit Home Page Header’ section.

Click that Green button.

This text is the text that appears on your Home page right under your top bar and above your featured items. It is the introduction to your webstore.

You can have color and text specific to these spot.

Click the ‘Save and Close Page’ green button at the bottom of the screen to return to the section list.

The ‘Edit Home Center Display’ is the other important section. These contains all the text/featured items for your home page.

By default the website displays 3 random featured items from your inventory.

The options here are endless and there is help on the editor directly.

General Website Control Panel Editing Help

AndyLL — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:38:18 GMT

There are several common features through out the WOBBooksite Control Panel. This topic describes how to use them.

Colors and the Color Picker

You can either enter the color Hex number yourself or pick the color from the color picker.

Where you can enter colors the control is a square with the current color followed by an editable box with the color hex number in it.

To use the color picker just click on the square with the current color in it then click the color your want.

To directly enter a color enter the 6 digit Hex number along with the # symbol. (i.e. #CCCCFF )

Uploading Images

Images really enhance the look of a website. The most common of course is your logo but you can also add background images to most of your website along with images added throughout your context.

To upload an image ( or any other item) to your website click the ‘Upload Files and Images to your website’ link under the ‘Website Tools’ heading from your main website control panel.

This page is pretty simple.

You have a typical Browse button that lets you browse through your computer for the image you want to upload.

There is 4 choices of where on your website to upload the image/file to. Uploading to the main image directory is the default.

Click the ‘Upload’ button to actually upload the image.

In the various editors you can see a link to the right of image fields with text similar to ‘Upload Background Image’ . This is a short cut link to the above file/image uploader.

This shortcut JUST uploads the image… it doesn’t fill in the name of the image you just uploaded to the editor. ( i.e. if you click the ‘Upload Logo’ link and upload your logo you still have to put in the logo file name in the ‘Logo: ‘ field)

Text Editors

Thoughout the website control panel you enter text for the website through the text editors.

This is a Word like editor and is pretty easy to use.

To a certain extent avoid using a lot of the color/font/size settings in the editor because that will override any other settings you set on that page.

An HTML mode is provided for advanced users. Never put in HTML you do not understand.

Uploading An Open Listings Report to your Website

AndyLL — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 03:18:56 GMT

Providing WOBBooksite with your open listings report

Occasionally it is necessary to upload an open listings report to WhiteOakBooks if your website is populated directly from Amazon. The common reasons are:

Large sellers ( > 5000 ) need to upload the file the first time the website is populated.
Large seller should occasionally upload the file monthly/quarterly to ensure your inventory is completely up to date.
FBA sellers and some Marketplace 2.0 users need to upload the report to have their product descriptions populated until Amazon fixes the description bug.

Phase 1 – Generating the report from Amazon

Go to your seller account.
Click on ‘Inventory Reports’ under the ‘Manage Your Inventory’ heading.
‘Open Listings Report’ should be the default selected report.
Click the ‘Request Report’ button.
It takes some time to generate the report… it’s best to just leave the browser window open and click the ‘Refresh’ button every 10 minutes or so.
When the ‘Report Status’ says ready click the ‘Download’ button.
Your browser should bring up the normal ‘Open’ ‘Save’ ‘Cancel’ dialog… click the ‘Save’ button.
You have to save the report to a location on your computer where you remember it. If you are not an experienced windows explorer user you can just type in: c:\openlistingsDATE.txt under filename.

Phase 2 – Uploading the report to your website

Login to your website control panel. ( www.yourdomain/admin/default.aspx )
Under the ‘Website Tools’ heading click on the ‘Upload Files & Images to your website’ link
Click the ‘Browse’ button and select the file you saved in the above section.
Click the open circle by the ‘Inventory File Directory’
Click the ‘Upload’ button and let the file upload. Large files can take some time… if unsure just leave the browser window open for a while.
Let WhiteOakBooks know you have uploaded the file… preferably through these forums.

Adding pages to your website

AndyLL — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:14:11 GMT

Adding pages to your website

One of the great advantages to a WOBBookSite is the ability to easily create your own pages on your website that by default include the look and feel of the rest of your website.

This article will go into detail on how to create your own user pages that follow the look & feel of your website. 4 areas will be covered: Creating a basic page, making the page available to your users, adding content to the page, and special page types.

I – Creating a Basic Page

1. Log into your Website Control Panel.

2. Click the ‘Add & Configure User Pages’ link under the User Pages & Menu Setup header.

3. You will see a list of standard non-inventory pages you can enable and any already created user pages.

4. On the lower left side of the list of pages there will be a box you can enter text into and a button next to it that says: ‘Add New Page’

5. To create a new user page and the page text into that box and click the button. This name cannot contain spaces and will be the name that shows up in the URL. i.e. www.whiteoakbooks.com/TestUserPage.aspx (bolded is the name)

6. Once you click the ‘Add New Page’ button (or click the ‘Edit’ button next to the name you will see the page on the right hand side of the screen. We will now go through the 5 major parts of the page that you edit:

a. Edit General Page Settings

i. This Page Enabled – until checked the page will not show up on any menus.

ii. Link Text – If this page is to show up on the standard menus this is the Text that will display.

iii. Link Image – If you are using images on your top menu instead of text you would put the image file name here.

iv. Browser Title Bar Text – This should be filled in. It will show up on the top of the users browser, in the task manager and will be supplied to the search engines.

v. Meta keywords – Keywords for the page… these are not very important anymore to search engines.

vi. Meta Description – A longer description of what this page is about to search engines. In many cases this is what shows up in Search Engine results.

vii. Show on various menus – The standard menus are: Top Bar, Under the Bottom Bar, Side Menu (shows up above categories), above/below the category list, and under the ‘Add to Cart’ button. In all cases you can check whether this page shows up on these menus.

viii. Sort on various menus – By default the pages are added to the various menus in the same order they were created. You can sort the menu items. You might have to sort all your menu pages to get them to look like you want them.

ix. The rest of the options will be discussed under the ‘Special Page Types’

x. Click ‘Save & Close Page’ to save your choices.

b. Edit Left Column

i. Left Column Enabled – A left column will not show on this page if this is not checked.

ii. Search Box, Side Menu, Print Normal Categories – Pretty self explanatory. Checking all these options make the page look like all the standard pages of the website.

iii. User Menu Name – This will be addressed in the next section of the article (making the page available to your users)

iv. Use Default Left Column – If checked the left column defined in the General Look & Feel area will be used.

v. Font, Font Size, Text – if iv above is not checked this is what will be displayed.

c. Edit Right Column

i. Right Column Enabled – A right column will not show on this page if this is not checked.

ii. Use Default Right Column – If checked the right column defined in the General Look & Feel area will be used.

iii. All other options – if ii above is not checked this is what will be displayed.

d. Edit Page Header

i. This is the area that shows up right below the top menu.

e. Edit Center

i. This is where all the page information (content) goes.

ii. Text, inventory items and searches, Amazon items all can go here. More detail will be given in the 3^rd part of this article: adding content to the page.

7. Your page is now created and available to the general public once you ‘Copy All Changes To Live Website’

II - Making the page available to your users

Once your user page is created how do you make it available to the public. There are 4 ways.

Don’t – At least not from the website itself. The new page is always available as a direct link: www.YourDomain.com/PageName.aspx. You can post that link in other places. For example one of my customers created a page that had all the USPS shipping rates. It really did not apply to anyone browsing the website and the link was only posted on Bookseller forums.
On the Standard Menus – When you created the user page you had (in the general settings area) the option of having a link to that page show up on the Top/Bottom/Side menu along with several special options such as right above/below the inventory category list and under the ‘Add To Cart’ button.
Manually link to the Page from other pages on the website – There are cases where you do not want to link to the new page from every page on the website which is the case if you add it to one of the standard menus. You might only want to link to the user page from your home page or from the right menu or most likely from other user pages. This is similar to 1. above. You are just adding a standard HTML link to the page. To create a link to the new page:

In any of the page/section editors in the control panel type the text of the link…
Highlight the text…
Click the ‘Create Link’ icon of the editor. (that is the globe image with a chain underneath it)…
Add the URL in these format: http://www.YourDomain.com/PageName.aspx (always add the http:// to links)
The title shows up in a tool tip and the Target tells the browser if it should open the new page in a new window.

Group similar pages together in a menu – This option allows you to create any number of side menus which is useful in creating sections of your website. An example of why you would want to do this: Say you have reviewed 10 Rex Stout books. From any Rex Stout review you would like to have a side menu that allows the users to see a list of all 10 of those reviews. In this case you would create a custom user menu with links to all 10 of the reviews. How to create and use a custom menu:

Click the ‘Add & Configure User Menus’ from your website control panel.
On the left side of the page is a list of any currently defined menus. To create a new one enter a name in the Menu Name box and click the ‘Add New Menu’ button.
After adding a new menu (or clicking ‘Edit’) you will see the menu options listed to the right.
To add an item –

i. Enter the link – If the link is to a web page you created in your website control panel you just enter the internal name. You can add links to other pages… both in your domain or anywhere on the web. In this case enter the full URL (including the http)

ii. Enter the link text – This is the text that the user sees.

Once the link (and other links) are added you see a list of all the links at under the add link area where you can order, edit and delete the menu links.

Once you have created a user menu… you can add that menu to any other user pages you have created. Back under the ‘Edit Left Column’ button under the ‘Edit & Configure User Pages’ link there was a text box titled: ‘User Menu Name’. Enter your user menu internal name here and that page will now display that menu.

An example

As you can see it is very easy to create a simple user page that shows up on the standard menus. For example you have your own B&M store and you want to have a page that describes it and has a map to its location. You would just create a user page and add it to the top/bottom menus.

But it gets a little more complicated if you want to create an entire new section for your website.

For example… perhaps you want to create a Featured Author review every month.

Creating the individual monthly article page is easy. You create a new user page named for the author… add all the bio and review text to the page… maybe add a search of your inventory by that author (see next section)… and save it.

But how do your users get to it?

You could add it to the top menu but after a few months the menu will have so many items that it will start to wrap around to multiple lines.

The standard side menu is an option but after about 10 featured authors that menu starts getting too big. And if you also have other sections such as book reviews it is overwhelming to add all those pages to the side menu.

What you want to do is break up your website into sections and use Custom User menus to help organize your website.

So let us say you have about 10 book reviews written and 10 featured author reviews written. You want a section for each group of reviews.

For each of those 20 pages you have created a Custom User page.

Here is how you would create 2 new sections for these user pages:

1. Create 2 user menus… 1 for the book reviews and 1 for the featured author reviews.

2. On all the 10 book review pages you would add the book review menu and on all of the 10 featured author reviews you would add the featured author menu.

3. Now each of the reviews link to each other…. You still need a way for your users to initially get into the new sections:

a. On your home page you could have a little blub about your reviews and a link to the latest one.

b. You could create a ‘lead in page’ for each section. Consider all your book reviews their own mini-website and this page will act like a home page to that section explaining to the user what the section is. Then you could add a link to the menus (or home page) to the home page for each section.

c. You could do both a & b

III - Adding content to the page

The most important and visible part of a new custom user page. There are very few limitations on what can go on a page.

1. Text – Obviously you can enter any text you want into the editor.

2. Images – In the editor click the little mountain picture icon.

a. Image Source – This is the URL of the image. If you uploaded the image to your website (Upload Files & Images to your website from your control panel) the format would be: http://www.YourDomain.com/images/imagename . Always include the http.

b. Alternate Text – This is what shows up one a user puts the mouse over the image. It is also used by the search engines to help understand what the image is.

c. Alignment – This tells the browser how text will flow around the image. In general left or right alignment will allow the text to wrap around the image.

d. Border Thickness – Exactly what it says. Enter a 0 for no border.

e. Spacing – Spaces items around the image.

f. Dimensions – The size of the image you want displayed. It is best to size the image before you upload it and leave these blank otherwise you are trusting the browsers to re-size the image properly.

3. Items from your Inventory – The Featured Item Builder helps generate the code needed to display up to 10 items from your inventory. When items are displayed through this code images and all item detail are automatically shown without you having to do it your self.

4. Product Links to your Inventory – This also allows access to your inventory. The difference between this and Featured Items is these create just links… the actual product detail is not shown.

a. Individual Product – This creates a link to the products detail page.

b. Inventory Search – This create a link that does a keyword search. i.e. If you do an article on Rex Stout you could create a search link that automatically searches your inventory for Rex Stout.

c. Individual Amazon Product – You can review books/authors that you do not have in your inventory and provide an Amazon Affiliate link to that item.

These links are html and you must enter them into your editor in the html mode.

5. Almost Any Affiliate code or widget – Since you have access to the HTML mode of your editor most can just be copied and pasted.

IV - Special page types

There are some special page types you can add to your website. Here I will cover some of them.

1. Any HTML, PHP, ASP pages. Your service includes a true hosting account and your have FTP access to your website. This means you can upload any webpage to your server. The only restriction is that you cannot upload any ASP.Net pages.

2. Special categories set in the User Page General Settings:

a. Popup Window - This uses JavaScript to create a popup window when the page link is clicked. Only the center text is displayed. You must specify the popup window Width/Height. A use for this would be if you wanted to create a Purchase Instructions help popup that has a link next to the Add To Cart buttons.

b. AStore – You can embed your AStore within your website. We do not recommend this. To do so enter your AStore code and set the Width/Height.

c. Non WOB WebPage – If you want a link in one of your menus to go to a webpage not on your website ( or 1. above on your website) enter the FULL url here. None of the other settings will apply.

d. Link is Email – This will popup the standard users email send message window. By default the email address will be your standard email. If you want to special email address put it in the Non WOB WebPage text box.

e. HTML Only – Very rarely used. This allows you to define HTML in the Center Text and only that HTML will be loaded into another page using the [** Include - FileName:(filename); **] code.

Adding Images to items when Amazon does not have any

AndyLL — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 17:31:30 GMT

Adding Images to items when Amazon does not have any

All item images must be *jpg files.
You must decide up front if your images are going to be named by SKU or ISBN. (i.e. 038594809.jpg or SLF01ROW2.jpg)

Telling your website you have uploaded images:

Log into your Website Control Panel
Click on ‘Default Image Display Settings’
At the bottom of the page check the ‘Check For User Images ’ checkbox.
Choose either isbn or sku in the box below.
Click the ‘Save and Close Page’ button

Uploading images to your website:

Log into your Website Control Panel
Click ‘Upload Files & Images to your Website’
Choose the ‘Book Images Directory ’ radio button
Click the ‘Browse’ button and file the image file on your computer.
Click the ‘Upload’ button.

If you wish to use a FTP program to transfer a lot of images at once then the directory you should place them in is: YourDomain/BookImages

Transferring Your Domain Without Email Disruption

AndyLL — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 02:06:02 GMT

If you currently have a domain and receive email through it you must follow several steps in the correct order to prevent the loss of email.

When you sign up for the WOBBookSite server and enter your domain name you have not transferred your domain… you have just told my servers that an account and disk space is assigned to that domain name.

To transfer your domain to actually point to your website on my server you change your domains name servers.

A domain name server (DNS) allows your browser to take a domain name and translate it into the IP address of my server. It is like a big phone book.

When you change your domain name to point to my server (ns4.wobbooksite.com & ns3.wobbooksite.com) your domain name becomes paired with my servers IP address.

(It is, of course, much more complicated then that. Here is a more detailed explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System)

There is not one single computer that holds the DNS of your domain…. It is spread out across multiple servers.

So when you change your domains nameservers to point to my server… the change slowly makes its way across the internet.

So for a short time some browsers will see your domain pointing to my servers and some browsers will see your domain pointing to your old server.

To make matters worst, some IPS cache up the DNS and only update it at scheduled times.

So for a short time your email can go to your old server or to my server depending on the path it takes through the internet.

So to prevent loss of email you must plan on being able to receive email on both servers.

Here is the correct order of steps to take

1) Sign up for my service.

(http://www.whiteoakbooks.com/WOBSellers/Signup.asp - Step 3) This creates an account on my server and allows you to pay for the service. This process generates a lot of emails. One of the emails will give you information on how to log onto your hosting account and one will give you information on how to transfer your domain. Do not do that yet.

2) Once you get the transfer email log onto your account.

3) Click on the email account Go down to the ‘E-mail Setup Functions’ and click ‘New E-mail’

4) Enter the email address, (should be the same as your current one) Click the ‘Mailbox’ checkbox, enter your password, and at the bottom of the page click the ‘Submit’ button

I am always happy to create email accounts for you. Just send me the account names and passwords you want.

DO NOT Transfer your domain until you do Steps 1-4 or you will lose email

If you only use webmail and not an email client such as Outlook Express then you are all set.. you can transfer your domain. You will have to check both your old webmail and your new webmail for a few days.

It is not a bad idea to continue to use your email client (outlook ect.) for your old email server and use webmail for the new server until the change is fully complete

If you use Outlook Express:

1)Do not delete or modify your current email account on Outlook Express.

2)In Outlook Express go to Tools | Accounts and click the Add Button.

3)Enter your Display Name (make it different then your current one for right now)

4)‘Next’ and enter your email address.

5)‘Next’ and enter your servers… they will both be mail.yourdomain.com

6)‘Next’ and add your account and password. The account it the emailname@yourdomain.com and the password is what you entered in the control panel.

7)Click Finish and you are ready to go.

Your Outlook Express will now receive email from both your old and new server until the entire internet has updated their DNS servers to point to the new servers.

If you use Eudora
http://www.eudora.com/techsupport/kb/2363hq.html

For most of the internet the update of the DNS servers only takes 1-4 hours. Unfortunately some ISPs still take up to 48 hours. If email is real critical I’d leave the old account active for a week.

Once you are sure all email is going to your new account then you can delete the old account from Outlook Express.

Setting Up Email (pre 7/2010 websites)

AndyLL — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 02:03:13 GMT

These settings are only for those websites that were created before 7/1/2010.
(that have not upgrade to the VPS servers)

You setup email through your hosting control panel. You log into that account:

cp.wobbooksite.com

Use the name/password you initially signed up with.

Help document on your email functionality:
http://www.jodohost.com/hsphere/html/mail_overview.html

Setting up new email is under this link:

"Mail Resources
Your hosting plan may provide the following mail resources:
mailbox to send, receive, read and store e-mails "

Setting Up your Email Client

Configuring Outlook Express
http://www.jodohost.com/hsphere/html/outlook.html

Configuring Eudora E-mail Client
http://www.jodohost.com/hsphere/html/eudora.html

How do I change the nameservers listed in my domain registration to point to WOBBookSite nameservers?

AndyLL — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 20:35:33 GMT

These settings are only for those websites that were created before 7/1/2010.
(that have not upgrade to the VPS servers)

Once your domain is registered (you can confirm this by doing a whois search at http://www.whois.sc) you can change the nameservers listed in your domain registration. Typically you would be required to contact your domain registrar. Below are instructions on how to update the DNS information for a domain originally registered through WOBBookSite, Tucows, Register.com, Go Daddy, BulkRegister, Dotster, and Network Solutions, Enom, Inc., Domain Discover, DomainBank, and Namesecure.com:

WOBBookSite

If you have just registered your domain with WOBBookSite, then your domain will automatically point to the WOBBookSite nameservers (ns4.WOBBookSite.com and ns3.WOBBookSite.com). If you need to check this:

1. Browse to http:www.WOBBookSite.com/members and enter the membername and password for your hosting account
2.Click Domains
3. For the domain you wish to change nameservers, click Admin

4. Click DNS Admin

For .com, .org, .info, .biz, and .net domains:

IMPORTANT: In order to modify nameservers for your domain, your domain must be in UNLOCK status first.

Follow the Admin/Technical/Billing/Nameserver or DNS Settings sections to modify each accordingly.

Reminder: 24 - 72 hours after you submit a request for an additional name server, it will be in the rotation for authoritative lookups. But if it is not setup correctly, your site may take a longer time to resolve when visitors try to find you.

Tucows
1. Browse to https://manage.opensrs.net and enter the following information:

Domain Name:
User Name:
Password:

2. Scroll down and click on Manage Name Servers
3. Edit the Primary and Secondary Server Hostname by entering WOBBookSite DNS information as listed below:

ns4.WOBBookSite.com
ns3.WOBBookSite.com

4. Click on Save/Submit and when the screen refreshes you will see the numerical server IP addresses.
5. In addition, using the menu at the top of the screen, you can select any of the domain name registration information that you wish to update, such as the Administrative Contact.

Register.com
1. Go to: http://www.register.com
2. Click on Login
3. At the Login prompt, enter your assigned User Name and Password from Register.com. If you do not remember your username/password, there is password retrieval link on this page (Look for the "Forget Your User Name or Password?" link).
4. Click on Modify DNS
5. At Modify DNS: Use the checkboxes to delete the existing name servers
6.Enter WOBBookSite's DNS information as follows:

ns4.WOBBookSite.com
ns3.WOBBookSite.com

7. Confirm the email address to receive the confirmation of your domain changes
8. Click the Submit button
9. Confirm the changes and then click the Confirm button
10. A confirmation email will be sent to your email address. Click on URL in the email to confirm changes.

Go Daddy
1. Browse to: http://www.godaddy.com
2. Click on: My Account
3. Login using your Login Name or Customer Name and Password. If you have forgotten your username/password, use the password retrieval link on this page (Look for the "Forgot your password? Click here." link).
4. Click on Domain Names and select the domain name you are transferring
5. In the Name Server information section click on the "Click Here to Modify" link
6. Enter WOBBookSite's primary server name as listed below, using only the name server (i.e., ns4.WOBBookSite.com) names NOT the IP address:

ns4.WOBBookSite.com
ns3.WOBBookSite.com

7. Click Save
8. You will be redirected to the main page and there should be a, "Name server modifications are pending," notice under the name server information for your domain name.

Bulkregister
1. Browse to: http:/www.bulkregister.com
2. In the Member Login section, login to your BulkRegister account. If you do not remember your username and password, use the password retrieval link on this page (Look for the "Forgot your password?" link).
3. Click on "list domains"
4. Click on the domain name you wish to modify
5. Select "to modify name servers use this form"
6. Enter WOBBookSite's DNS information as follows:

ns4.WOBBookSite.com

ns3.WOBBookSite.com

7. Check the boxes marked "click if modify"
8. Click on "submit" and "apply"
The system will automatically add the name server's IP addresses. Please note that it will take 24 - 48 hours before the modification will completely take effect.

Network Solutions
A. Make sure that your contact information is current:
1. Browse to: http://www.netsol.com
2. Click WhoIs
3. Search for your Domain Name.
4. Verify the Administrative Contact email address and make sure that this email address is current and that you have access to the email account. (For security authentication, Network Solution typically requires an email handshake).

B. If you can still retrieve email at the Administrative Contact email address, skip to step C. If you cannot retrieve email from the Administrative Contact email address:
1. If you have your Network Solutions password, then you can use the same steps above but use the CRYPT-PWD as your authorization method.
2. If you do not have a Network Solutions password, you will have to perform a fax authorization to change your contact information. Go to: http://www.netsol.com/en_US/makechanges/fax/ for instructions.
C. To change the DNS for your Domain Name, follow the steps below.
1. Go to: http://www.netsol.com
2. Click the Account Manager Login from any page within the site.
3. Enter your Account Number/User Name and Password in the text boxes
4. Choose the domain name you wish to transfer
4. Click the Enter Contracts/Manage DNS link
5. Enter your current, working email address, confirm the domain name. The email address needs to match the Administrative Email address from (A) above.
6. Under the Authentication Information heading, choose your Guardian method from the drop down list. MAIL-FROM should be used, unless you have a password. If you have a password, use CRYPT-PW.
7. Under the Name Server section, enter WOBBookSite's DNS information as follows:

ns4.WOBBookSite.com
ns3.WOBBookSite.com

8. Click Continue. Click Continue on the next page
9. Check your Administrative email account, and forward your Service Agreement modification request to hostmaster@networksolutions.com.

Note to AOL users: AOL software prevents you from simply replying to Network Solution's message. Highlight the message you received, copy it into the body of a new email message, type hostmaster@networksolutions.com in the To: field, then hit the Send button.

Dotster
1. Browse to: http://www.dotster.com
2. Click My Account and log into your Dotster account by entering your Account Name or Domain Name and your password. If you do not remember your username/password, just click on the "login" button. The following error page will contain a password retrieval link (Look for the "Forgot your Password?" link)
3. Click "Manage your domains"
4. In the drop down box, choose the domain name that you are transferring.
5. Click the button "Manage..."
6. On the left side of the screen you will see some links, click the one that says "Name Servers."
7. At the bottom of the page it will list your current name servers. "Remove" the old ones in turn.
8. "Add" the new name servers in turn. Enter WOBBookSite's DNS information as listed below, using only the name server (i.e., NS3.WOBBookSite.com) names NOT the IP address:

ns4.WOBBookSite.com
ns3.WOBBookSite.com

9. Click update.
10. Now wait up to 72 hours for the change to take place.

Enom, Inc.

1. Browse to http://www.enom.com
2. Click Login located on the left side of the screen
3. Enter the Login ID and Password information provided to you by Enom upon the initial registration of your domain name.

NOTE: If you cannot locate this information, go to “If you have lost your password, click here” link.

4. Once you have logged on, select the ‘my domains’ tab on the member menu.
5. You will then be provided a list of domains you currently have with Enom. Click the domain to which you need to make changes.
6. This next screen allows you to choose from a variety of services from Enom Inc. Go to the “DNS Server “ option and click Change.
7. If you are still using Enom’s DNS servers, you will then need to select the radio button next to the line that reads “User - This option will allow you to use user-specified name servers, including none.”
8. Click Make changes.
9. Replace any existing name server information with WOBBookSite’s DNS information:

ns4.WOBBookSite.com
ns3.WOBBookSite.com

10. Click Save changes.
11. You will now be presented with the “DNS server” screen with your completed changes, verifying that your update was successful.

Domain Discover

1. Browse to: http://www.domaindiscover.com

4. You will then be provided with the current DNS information for your domain, as well as fields in which you may make changes.
5. Replace any existing name server information with WOBBookSite's DNS information:

ns4.WOBBookSite.com
ns3.WOBBookSite.com

6. Once finished, click Preview changes. You will now be presented with the new information for your domain. If it is correct, click Confirm changes to save your updated information.

How to modify DNS information with the registrar DomainBank

DomainBank, Inc.

1. Browse to: http://www.domainbank.com
2. At the top of the screen, click Account Manager.
3. Enter the Login ID and Password information provided to you by DomainBank upon the initial registration of your domain name.

NOTE: If you cannot locate this information, click the ‘Forgot Your Password?’ option below the logon area.

4. Once you have logged on, click Domain Manager.
5. Click Modify DNS record at the top of the page.
6. Click the domain for which you want to modify name server information.
7. Replace any existing name server information with WOBBookSite's DNS information below:

ns4.WOBBookSite.com
ns3.WOBBookSite.com

8. Once you have updated this information you must still confirm the changes via email. Click Send.
9. You will now be provided with the changes you are making. If the information is correct, click Yes to confirm.
10. An email will then be sent to the email address they have on file. Follow the instructions in this email to authorize the changes you have just made. (You usually need to simply click a URL in the email to confirm the changes.)

Namesecure.com
1. Browse to: http://www.namesecure.com
2. Click My Account, located on the left side of the screen.
3. Enter the User Name and Password information provided to you by Namesecure upon the initial registration of your domain name.

NOTE: If you cannot locate this information, click the ‘Click here’ option below the logon area

4. Once you have logged on you will be provided with the information regarding your account. This will include a list of the domains you have registered with Namesecure. Locate the domain to which you wish to make changes, and click the link next to it labeled ‘View/Modify/Renew.’
5. Click the “Registration Information“ tab.
6. Once on the Registration Information menu, click Modify Domain Name Servers.
7. Replace any existing name server information with WOBBookSite’s DNS information:

ns4.WOBBookSite.com
ns3.WOBBookSite.com

Names4ever
1. Browse to: http://www.names4ever.com
2. Click Manage My Domain
3. Click the Update Domain link
4. To login, enter your domain name and password. Then click the Edit button
5. Delete any existing name servesr listed using the Delete button
6. Then add the WOBBookSite's DNS information:

ns4.WOBBookSite.com
ns3.WOBBookSite.com

7. Click the Update button

International Domain Names
Please browse to http://www.allwhois.com to find your domain registrar. You will then be required to contact them to find out the procedure of updating DNS Information. When prompted, provide WOBBookSite's DNS information as listed below:

ns4.WOBBookSite.com
ns3.WOBBookSite.com

Steps for setting up a website (pre 7/2010 websites)

AndyLL — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 15:14:10 GMT

These settings are only for those websites that were created before 7/1/2010.
(that have not upgrade to the VPS servers)

What are the procedures for setting up a website?

Sign up for the service (http://www.whiteoakbooks.com/WOBSellers/Signup.asp)
When you signup through these links you are actually signing up for a hosting account on my servers.
You enter you contact information here.
You pay for your service here.
You can setup your email here.
You can access the Web Traffic statistic packages here.

If you do not already have a domain name you must purchase one. www.GoDaddy.com is one of the most popular ones. They cost around $8/year.
When purchasing a domain you should setup your nameservers (this tells the internet where to find your website) Enter:
ns3.wobbooksite.com
ns4.wobbooksite.com

If you already have a Domain name you can point it to our servers. Change your nameservers to:
ns3.wobbooksite.com
ns4.wobbooksite.com
WARNING – If you current get your email through this domain then read this article first: http://mb.wobbooksite.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16

It is not a requirement for your domain to point to your website right away. You can configure your website 1^st.

Fill out the form at the bottom of the webpage you signed up on. (http://www.whiteoakbooks.com/WOBSellers/Signup.asp)
This give us the basic information we need to setup your website. At a minimum we need you SellerID (or link to your storefront) and we need to know if you use AOB or Fillz.

Once you have paid your account will be created. This will generate several emails to you. They contain account information. Save them off somewhere.

Once you receive these emails you can setup your email accounts if you wish to.
· If you use AOB you need to setup a custom Venue:
Go to Settings – Venue Setting on AOB
(The FTP Host is in the email you receive or by signing into your hosting control panel and clicking the ‘FTP Manager’)

Custom Venue 1 FTP Display Name – Whatever you want to name it.
Custom Venue 1 FTP Host – ‘Host Name’ in the control panel or email.
Custom Venue 1 FTP Username – ‘Login’ in the control panel or email.
Password – The password you created your account with.
Format – AOB Tab-Delimited
Custom Venue 3 FTP Directory – YourDomainName/Inventory ( example: whiteoakbooks.com/Inventory )
Check the ‘Pull Orders’ checkbox.
Check the ‘Active’ checkbox.

· If you use Fillz you need to setup a custom Venue:
Go to Settings – Marketplaces on Fillz
Click the 1^st available Custom Configuration and set the following values:
(the following two values can be found in the email you receive or by signing into your hosting control panel and clicking the ‘FTP Manager’)
FTP Hostname – FTPhost/domain/inventory where FTPhost = ‘Host Name’ in the control panel or email and domain = your domain minus the www. ( example: win31.wobbooksite.com/whiteoakbooks.com/Inventory )
Your FTP User ID at Custom #1 – ‘Login’ in the control panel or email. The login you created.
FTP Password – The password you created your account with.
Order Retrieval Path: – orders ( remove the ../ )
File format – UIEE
Do not set any other values
· If you use Amazon to list your inventory and have under 5000 items you do not need to do anything for me to read your inventory.
· If you use Amazon to list your inventory and have over 5000 items you will need to send me an open listings report the 1^st time I create your website.

Once the above steps are done I will verify I can read your information off of Amazon and if you use AOB or Fillz, that I am receiving files from them.

I will then build your website. Website building almost always happen the evening you signup. If I have problems reading your data or if it is a weekend or if multiple orders come through on the same day then it might take an additional day or two.

I will keep you informed of my progress during this time.

IMPORTANT – Sometimes the content of the emails you are sent cause email SPAM filters to flag our email as spam emails and the emails do not go through.

Add the following 2 emails to your Email SPAM filter whitelist: Info@WOBBookSites.com and AndyLL@Mho.com

After I build your website I will send you a link to your website look & feel control panel.

The 1^st time you try to access this link you will be prompted to enter a Login Name/Password.

You are then free to setup your website. The 1^st link on your Website Admin control panel is a checklist listing every item you need to setup before your website goes live.

I like to let new users try to setup their website themselves. I believe the basic setting up of site is fairly easy. But I am always available to help setup the website. If something is not working let me know.

After the basic website is configured do not burn yourself out working on the site. Remember this is a long term project.