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  #1 (permalink)  
Old 25-08-2008, 09:33 PM
topebaydog topebaydog is offline
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Default Am i wasting my time with BestOpenAdvice.co.uk

I have recently installed wordpress on an unsed domain and created a help site for zen cart although it is not fully up and running i have lots of guides and tips etc ive written by hand and made keyword rich.

Do you think i will get any response from it.

Or shall i change tactics.

Can anyone suggest software thats works in the same way as zen cart and wordpress but just to creae websites with content and a nice look and feel to it?

View my Zen Cart Advice Site Here
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Old 25-08-2008, 09:50 PM
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well why didn't you say it was your site before!!

Whay are you hoping to get out of it?
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Old 25-08-2008, 09:55 PM
topebaydog topebaydog is offline
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well its more to create intrest help newbie zen cart users, see if i can rank it high in google and then i would decide how to make cover my costs which at the moment is virtually nil.

you could say its more of a hobbie because i enjoy learning new things.

so what do you think?

does it get the information thats there through clearly?
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Old 25-08-2008, 09:59 PM
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Advice/tips you are offering re zencart is already available
on main zencart site, either via faq/tutorials or zencart
forum.
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Old 25-08-2008, 10:01 PM
topebaydog topebaydog is offline
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i know but then do they offer a free install.

ive read 100's of posts reporting people requesting £100,200 ,800 then to install zen cart of course your going to get a nice template but there are people out there who will try once and then give up.
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Old 25-08-2008, 10:07 PM
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Quote:
do they offer a free install.
There are numerous zencart forum users, with great experience of the software, who readily offer to help newbies install zencart F.O.C.
Have done it myself several times.
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Old 25-08-2008, 10:10 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by topebaydog View Post
i know but then do they offer a free install.

ive read 100's of posts reporting people requesting £100,200 ,800 then to install zen cart of course your going to get a nice template but there are people out there who will try once and then give up.
ok
Majority of people will look at the zencart forum so need for another one to behonest.Lets face where would you look the official zencart tutorials or a site someone has done on their own. I don't mean to sound harsh.
As to the templates and installs, if you are a complete novice then you use bog standard template and add new header etc.
£100-£200 is more than reasonable I think for a unique template, header and installation.
Have you seen some of the freebies?
If you at all serious about selling online than I am afraid the freebies are no good.
The notes for installing zencart are not that hard and if oyu can't get to grips with that than you are going to have acomplete nightmare runnign an ecommerce site at a later date when it needs upgrading and tweaking etc.
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Old 25-08-2008, 10:13 PM
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so your saying scrap it?

i will be of course offing advice on all matters not just zen cart, seo, templates, wysiwyg editors and so on.

it will be more a place for people to find a whole range of services and information all under one roof.

surly if advertised properly it would create intrest.
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Old 25-08-2008, 10:17 PM
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Quote:
i will be of course offing advice on all matters not just zen cart, seo, templates, wysiwyg editors and so on.
Do you have enough experience so that when you have installed zencart
for newbie, and they make mistakes, you can rectify?
Giving advice and free installs is fine, BUT only if you know enough
when going gets tough.. and believe me, it will eventually.
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Old 25-08-2008, 10:17 PM
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How are you planning to offer advice etc, will it be links to articles or are you contributing yourself?
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Old 26-08-2008, 08:39 AM
topebaydog topebaydog is offline
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it will be a mixture of all 3.

i will write lots of useful guides on zen cart installs, templates, mods and so on.

i will also offer help via email with any problems my clients may have.
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Old 26-08-2008, 08:58 AM
topebaydog topebaydog is offline
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i thought it could be more a place with lots of useful information that has been hand selected rather then having to search for answers
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Old 26-08-2008, 07:25 PM
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Perhaps if you do it more like an idiots guide??
Without using any technical jargon whatsoever? Not sure how you will make any money from it though so I would out your own ecommerce site first.
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Old 26-08-2008, 08:59 PM
topebaydog topebaydog is offline
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yea that was my plan not to help those who aready know there basic stuff.

i was more thinking of making guides to choosing hosting, what hosting is and so on nothing to hi tech and adding links to SEO tools, free zen cart templates and so forth.

and it really is all free no catch nothing
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Old 27-08-2008, 06:55 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by topebaydog View Post
Can anyone suggest software thats works in the same way as zen cart and wordpress but just to creae websites with content and a nice look and feel to it?
Have a look at Joomla.

On the other points, I agree with what the others have said. It's one thing to install Zen on hosting you're familiar with, it's something altogether different doing it on random hosting you're unfamiliar with. There're compatibility issues with some versions of PHP and MySQL, there're also compatibility issues with some of the installed PHP libraries. There's also different server software, Apache, Zeus, Microsoft etc all with their own quirks, and many other potential problems too numerous to mention. Some problems cannot be resolved without reconfiguring the server which isn't always an option.

I don't wish to dampen your enthusiasm, but if you do this you'll soon run into some of these issues.
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Old 29-08-2008, 06:17 PM
topebaydog topebaydog is offline
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ok so anyone got any better suggestions for what i should do with me website?
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Old 29-08-2008, 08:38 PM
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With a name like BestOpenAdvice.co.uk, perhaps you can try a forum for advice on open source software, WordPress, Joomla, Apache etc, though getting it started won't be easy. You'll need to find knowledgeable members who will hang around to answer the inevitable technical questions, but what incentive is there for them to stick around when the forum is empty? To attract active members you need to already have active members, so it's a bit of a catch 22 situation. It isn't easy kick starting a forum unless you can poach disgruntled members from another site.

What subject can you give advice on? If you're knowledgeable on a specific subject and think you can carry a whole site based on that knowledge, then go for a blog, if not, try something like a forum and try to recruit members who know their stuff. It's difficult to create a successful site based on advice unless you can find a niche that not many others are doing. The chances are, you will have to fight for a piece of the pie with other more established sites on the same subject which isn't easy.
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Old 29-08-2008, 11:42 PM
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With that name it could be on anything.
What do you know about? Thats what i would go with to be honest.
Example if you were in your teens make it a site for teens etc. a student a site for all things studenty, a mum a parents site etc.Do you get the idea.
Example I have four kids , two being twins so I would do a site specific to raising twins and then invite retailers of baby things to advertise etc
My daughter is a teen so she would do a site giving frank advice for teens, teens chatting etc and then you could invite banks to advertise student accounts, sites that offer student discounts, colleges etc with lin