Thread: Multiple Pages in website

I am trying to set up a website that sells a lot of products, if i have a directory page which includes all the webpages with all the products under different categories do i need a separate page for the description or information on each of these products. Does it mean you could end up with hundreds of pages covering each description?

thanks

This is up to you. But its best to break your products in seperate categories, helps keep things organized.

As ***** said, it's totally up to you - but look at other sales sites and find what you like and what you want to do. Not all products need the same type of pages.

Shrink,

Alot of builders make a page for you when you add the product, its done dynamically, all you do is enter the product and description etc etc. They will also do category pages the same way, you just say what products go on the category, and they are dynamically generated as well. Some builders allow you to make static pages easily while others its a bit trickier, and there are carts that you make your own pages and add their code. So you have a variety of choices out there. Soho that comes with Voda is a good choice, as is OScommerce and zencart, cube cart.. and there are others out there as well so you can even install your own.

Karen

Originally Posted by Karen Mac

Shrink,

Alot of builders make a page for you when you add the product, its done dynamically, all you do is enter the product and description etc etc. They will also do category pages the same way, you just say what products go on the category, and they are dynamically generated as well. Some builders allow you to make static pages easily while others its a bit trickier, and there are carts that you make your own pages and add their code. So you have a variety of choices out there. Soho that comes with Voda is a good choice, as is OScommerce and zencart, cube cart.. and there are others out there as well so you can even install your own.

Karen

Thank you for that, looking at your website Granny's Country Nook, if I click on Country Christmas, I come to another page which shows 27 items with a short description on each item and when I click on the more information on one of those items, I go to a more detailed description of that Item, so does that mean that under the initial Country christmas there are another 28 sub pages from that one and therefore under each of the main headings that you have down the left hand side there are a similar number of pages? Hope that makes sense

Topshrink

Topshrink,
Karen's site that you mentioned is built in Soho - that makes dynamic pages that do as you said, she didn't have to "design" each of those pages individually. It's catalog driven and the pages display according to her filling out the catalog correctly.

Now, knowing Karen as well as I do, I'm sure she also customized things in every which way she can.

As to your question about the sub-pages down the side, yes, all the products she has do the same thing. But again, she didn't sit and make each individual page - that's what a catalog driven e-commerce template will do for you.

Now, if you want to design in BV like I do - you would have to make all those pages :)

Originally Posted by Bethers

Topshrink,
Karen's site that you mentioned is built in Soho - that makes dynamic pages that do as you said, she didn't have to "design" each of those pages individually. It's catalog driven and the pages display according to her filling out the catalog correctly.

Now, knowing Karen as well as I do, I'm sure she also customized things in every which way she can.

As to your question about the sub-pages down the side, yes, all the products she has do the same thing. But again, she didn't sit and make each individual page - that's what a catalog driven e-commerce template will do for you.

Now, if you want to design in BV like I do - you would have to make all those pages :)

is there a place that you can have your webpages looked over by someone to see if they are correct before getting too involved or do you just have to go with it and wait until it is all finished, I am at the point I dont know whether to plough on with what I am doing in the hope it is correct but dont want to get to a point that I find it is all wrong and I have to start all over again.

Thanks

It depends on where/how you're making your pages. What builder are you using? Are you building on or off-line?

Technically, those 27 pages are PRODUCTS, that display as their own page when clicked on. And the store builder generates them yes. I didnt have to do the layout, although I guess you could if you really knew what you were doing in the files.

You dont have to do those outer pages. Alot of people just do SHOPPING or PRODUCTS, but I do the static type pages to get spidered better, because if they find the products and keywords on the static pages, they can then click into the cart. SE also like the static pages better, so yah its a lil work to do those categories and sub categories, but it will pay off.

Karen

Originally Posted by Karen Mac

Technically, those 27 pages are PRODUCTS, that display as their own page when clicked on. And the store builder generates them yes. I didnt have to do the layout, although I guess you could if you really knew what you were doing in the files.

You dont have to do those outer pages. Alot of people just do SHOPPING or PRODUCTS, but I do the static type pages to get spidered better, because if they find the products and keywords on the static pages, they can then click into the cart. SE also like the static pages better, so yah its a lil work to do those categories and sub categories, but it will pay off.

Karen

Karen, dont know if I am being completely stupid but if you could bear with me and let me know what I am doing wrong. The website I am trying to create is to sell essential aromatherapy oils as well as other things that go with it, ie books, candles, creams etc etc. To start with I just want to start it off very small and then add items as I go along. I am still just practising with the web-builder, I have not bought anything from bluevoda, although I will but thought it better to see if I could do it myself before giving in and buying a template. I have followed the tutorials to add navigation buttons on the top of the page, I have 4 which say Home, About Us, Aromatherapy Guide, My Account. I have done exactly the same at the bottom of the page with Contact Us, Directory, Important Information, On line Shop. I then wanted that if someone clicked onto the Information button they would go to pages with helpful information etc etc. I have made a template with all these buttons on it, but when I try to click onto one of the buttons, nothing happens with mouse over and all I get is the edit button. Likewise when I tried to do the drop down menus, after entering a couple of drop down buttons when I went back to see if it worked, it was in edit mode and I couldnt get it to work. What am I doing wrong please.

All those buttons will only work when clicked on LIVE - as you are giving them the online path. Since the site isn't live, the buttons cannot work. As each page is published, if you've given the buttons the correct path, they will work.

Now, before you keep building - if you want a store, you need to re-think where you are building. BV does not have the capabilities of doing what you were asking Karen about in her store. She built that in Soho. You can build a store in BV, but then you will be building each product page individually and you'll need a different type of shopping cart.

As Vasili always says - plan your work and work your plan.

Shrink..

As Beth says, It has to be ON a server or published if you are working in SOHO or BV. Soho is actually done on the server, not your hard drive. Depending how you want to accept payments, via merchant account or paypal, and how many products you actually want to run you may want to look at using BV and Beths Cartmanager, or Mal's ecart or roman cart or paypal cart, where you just paste the BUY NOW buttons.

Karen

Originally Posted by Karen Mac

Shrink..

As Beth says, It has to be ON a server or published if you are working in SOHO or BV. Soho is actually done on the server, not your hard drive. Depending how you want to accept payments, via merchant account or paypal, and how many products you actually want to run you may want to look at using BV and Beths Cartmanager, or Mal's ecart or roman cart or paypal cart, where you just paste the BUY NOW buttons.

Karen

I do have a paypal account that I used for purchasing items from Ebay etc, so do I stick with that. I am only looking to start off small but would hope that it does grow in size, so dont know whether I go for Soho or not. I dont want to start something off and then find out I have done the wrong thing because there is not enough capacity or ability with it and therefore have to go right back and start at the beginning again, so what would you suggest. Where do I find things like Beths Cartmanager, or Mal's ecart or roman cart.

Thanks again

We can't tell you which cart would be best for you. And, as you grow, you might decide to change no matter which one you go with. That's not completely uncommon. Websites get redisigned, changed, carts changed, etc. But I agree you should look at various methods and find one you think you CAN grow with.

You can look at lots of these places by checking out their websites - google them and look at what they offer -

I'll give you some links:
Mals - http://www.mals-e.com/
roman cart: http://www.romancart.com/
CM: www.moxie-enter-prises.com/cartmanager.html
Zen Cart: http://www.zen-cart.com/

And there are many, many more choices out there.

Originally Posted by Bethers

We can't tell you which cart would be best for you. And, as you grow, you might decide to change no matter which one you go with. That's not completely uncommon. Websites get redisigned, changed, carts changed, etc. But I agree you should look at various methods and find one you think you CAN grow with.

You can look at lots of these places by checking out their websites - google them and look at what they offer -

I'll give you some links:
Mals - http://www.mals-e.com/
roman cart: http://www.romancart.com/
CM: www.moxie-enter-prises.com/cartmanager.html
Zen Cart: http://www.zen-cart.com/



And there are many, many more choices out there.

Beth,

I am now totally confused, tell me what you think is the best way to start off as a complete beginner.

thanks

Building in Soho or BV would be easiest for a complete beginner as they both are easy to build in. Soho has been making improvements but still has some limitations. But I do believe it's an excellent choice for a total newcomer to web-building for an e-commerce site.

That said, BV is also very easy to use - but then you will be adding products yourself and making all your own pages. For a beginner, this might seem more daunting. However, it depends on how many products you have.

It also will depend on how you intend to charge people. Are you going to use paypal or get a merchant account. You need to make this decision first, then look at the building options.