Learn How to Use ZenCart, WordPress & osCommerce - Tutorials, Books, Themes

ZenCart ebook downloads and permissions

Gerae Lindsey — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:31:26 +0000

I had a client email me about an order placed from her ZenCart store for an ebook. The ebook information showed correctly on the order confirmation page, along with the instructions on how to download the ebook. The problem? No link was provided to actually make the download.

This is *usually* caused by one of two problems:

The file has not be uploaded to your /download/ folder
The permissions for the file are not correct

I checked her settings the permissions were not set. After changing the permissions to 777, we placed a test order and the dowbload link appeared.

I realize now that I left this step out of my tutorial on how to setup ebooks in ZenCart.

To edit the permissions, you can either use your FTP program or most hosting control panels allow you to edit permissions as well. For cPanel users, here is a quick overview.

First, login to your cpanel. Click on the File Manager icon in the Files box.

A little box will pop up asking which files you want to work. Choose the domain where your ZenCart files are located.

Find and open the folder “download”

Check the box next to the file you wish to edit permissions for. Now click on “Change Permissions” up top.

A small box will open. Check all of the little boxes utntil 777 is diplayed. Click to save the new permissions.

That’s it!

If you run into any troubles, please let me know below.

WordPress SEO Guide

Gerae Lindsey — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:32:50 +0000

Here’s how to get indexed faster, rank higher and drive more traffic to your blog!

This 21-Video series by Gobala Krishnan features the following information:

The Importance of SEO – Before you start applying SEO to your WordPress blog, you need to understand why it is so important.
The Power of Keyword Research – If you aren’t creating posts that are focused on specific keywords, you are literally taking a stab in the dark at achieving natural search engine rankings. Let me show you how to perform effective keyword research.
What Plugins You Need to Make Optimization a Cakewalk – There are a ton of free plugins out there that make SEO a breeze. I will show you the best one’s that you’ll need, and how they operate.
How to Create an “Optimized Post” – I will take you step-by-step through creating an optimized post from the ground up.
How to Deal with URL Canonization – I will show you how to fix a fatal flaw in WordPress that can actually dilute your natural search engine rankings if you don’t take action now.
How to Setup an Effective Navigation Structure – Learn how to structure your blog to make it easy for the search engines to understand exactly what you are offering.
How to Encourage Visitor Interaction - Engaging your blog audience is very important. I will show you (along with the help of some excellent plugins) how to do this effectively.
How to Harness the Power of Social Networks – Social networks are becoming increasingly important. Learn how to use them to propel your blog to new heights.

By making a few changes taught to you in this video series, you will have an advantage over 90% of other Wordpress blog owners who do not optimize their blogs.

This isn’t “Black Hat SEO” – all the tactics revealed by Gobala in the videos are 100% legal and ethical. Google will not ban your blog – instead it will love it and rewards you for a job well done with truckloads of traffic for free!

WordPress SEO Secrets are professionally recorded videos to easily guide you to top search engine rankings . Learn everything you need to know about optimizing your WordPress blog for the search engines.

No matter what niche market you’re in SEO is vital for your long terms survival. You simply cannot buy or borrow traffic forever. Secure your copy of WordPress SEO Secrets today and learn a foolproof formula you can apply to your WordPress blogs to get FREE search engine traffic.

How to sell ebooks using ZenCart

Gerae Lindsey — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 23:01:30 +0000

This tutorial will show you to sell ebooks (or other download-able goods) using ZenCart.

Before we begin, I am assuming you have already added an ebook as a regular product. If you have not yet done so, do this first. Just create a new product as normal.

You first need to login to the admin area for your ZenCart shopping cart.

Click on Catalog -> Option Name Manager

Type in “Download” into the Option Name box and choose “Download” as the Option Type. (see below)

Click on the button “insert” to add.

Next, click on Catalog -> Option Value Manager

Select “Download” as the Option Name. In the Option Value box, you will need to type in your desired file format. For example: PDF, Zip, MS Word, etc. Once entered, click on the “insert” button to add. (see below)

NOTE: If you will be offering your ebooks in multiple formats, you will need to insert them individually before continuing. (Example: PDF, Word, ZIP)

Now we need to add the above options to the ebook you have already added to the cart.

Click on Catalog -> Attributes Controller.

You should see a drop down menu containing all product categories. Select the category that contains your ebook.

Directly under “Select a Product to View and Press Display …” you should see your ebook titled listed. Click on it one time, until highlighted in blue, and then click on the “display” button to the right. (see below)

After you hit the “display” button, scroll down to the large tan colored box titled “Adding New Atrributes”

First, select “Download” from the Option Name box
Second, select the file format you entered previously – example: PDF

Now scroll down a little farther until you see:

In the box labeled “Filename” enter the URL to your file.

For example, if this is a PDF file, the URL would be something like www.yourdomain.com/downloads/yourfile.pdf

NOTE: All download files MUST be uploaded to the /downloads/ folder located in your ZenCart folder.

In the box labeled “Expiry days” enter the number of days you would like to make the ebook available to download after purchased. For example, you can enter the number 4 to allow a customer 4 days to download the file before having to re-purchase the ebook. Alternatively, you can enter 0 to allow customers unlimited time to download the file.

In the box labeled “Maximum download count” enter the maximum number of times a customer may download the file after purchasing it.

Once completed, click on the “insert” button to add the download file to the actual ebook product listing.

To verify the file has been added, check the actual product page for your ebook. You should now see the “Download” option added to the page.

I hope that helps!

If you run into any troubles, let me know below

Learn WordPress – Easy 3 hour orientation

Gerae Lindsey — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:45:17 +0000

Are you struggling learning how to use WordPress? Wordpress Orientation is a three hour group session with Kelly McCausey of Work at Home Moms Talk Radio. The “class” is held in an online web conference room where you will be able to log in and be able to follow along as Kelly shows you every area of Wordpress. You can ask questions – and get answers right away!

In three hours with Kelly you will:

Get a complete tour of the Wordpress Dashboard.
Learn the difference between posts and pages.
Learn How To Use the Visual Editor to create great looking blog posts.
Learn about categories and tags and how to use them!
Learn about Plugins
Learn about Widgets
Learn about Themes
Learn about Exporting/Importing and Backups.
Get Answers to All Of Your Questions!

Ask all the questions you want until you feel like you’ve got what you need to move forward!

Upcoming Sessions:

Wednesday, September 30th, 8:00 – 11:00pm Eastern
Cost: $19 – Sign up information here

How to edit the checkout success page in ZenCart

Gerae Lindsey — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 06:05:33 +0000

Once your customer completes the order in ZenCart, they are directed to a page that thanks them for their order, and provides them with an order number.

By default, this page looks like this:

Editing this page is a two-step process.

The first part can be edited in the admin area:

Now select define_checkout_success.php from the drop down menu:

When the box loads, edit the text to your own liking.

Click on the “save” button to apply your changes.

The other text must be edited using either FTP or by using the File Manager in your web hosting control panel.

Scroll down until you see the “Files” box, Click on “File Manager” in the “Files” box:

A small box will open in your screen:

Click the button next to “Document Root for:”
Make sure your domain name is selected in the drop down box
Click on the “Go” button

Locate your ZenCart folder on the page (if you named the folder something else like store, shop, etc – look for that folder):

Click on the folder name to open it.

Locate the “includes” folder on the list.

Click on it to open it.

Now find the folder “languages” and click on it to open it.

The last folder to open is “english” so click on it to open it.

Find the file named checkout_success.php on the page:

Check the box next to checkout_success.php
Click on the “Edit” icon up top

A small box will open asking you if you want to edit the file. Click on the button “Edit” to proceed.

The following will load onto your screen:

Make changes as desired.

IMPORTANT: Be VERY careful when making edits. Be sure to leave the ‘ ‘ characters shown before and after text in place. Deleting these will create errors in your cart.

Once you have made your changes, click on the “Save Changes” button in the top right corner:

That’s it!

Your changes will now appear on your website.

To test it out, type in the following URL:

http://www.yourdomain.com/zencartfolder/index.php?main_page=checkout_success

Be sure to edit “yourdomain” and “zencartfolder” with your own details.

Backing up your WordPress database in cPanel

Gerae Lindsey — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:05:11 +0000

I just added a new tutorial on making a backup of your MSQL database in cPanel.

Though titled Backing up your ZenCart database in phpMyAdmin, the instructions will work the exact same for WordPress database files.

See Backing up your ZenCart database in phpMyAdmin

Backing up your WordPress files in cPanel

Gerae Lindsey — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:05:46 +0000

I just added a new tutorial on making a backup of your files in cPanel. Though titled Backing up your ZenCart files in cPanel, the instructions will work the exact same for WordPress backups.

See Backing up your ZenCart files in cPanel

Backing up your osCommerce database in cPanel

Gerae Lindsey — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 06:05:31 +0000

I just added a new tutorial on making a backup of your store database in cPanel.

Though titled Backing up your ZenCart database in phpMyAdmin, the instructions will work the exact same for osCommerce MySQL database files.

See Backing up your ZenCart database in phpMyAdmin

Backing up your osCommerce files in cPanel

Gerae Lindsey — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:05:30 +0000

I just added a new tutorial on making a backup of your store files in cPanel. Though titled Backing up your ZenCart files in cPanel, the instructions will work the exact same for osCommerce.

See Backing up your ZenCart files in cPanel

Backing up your ZenCart database in cPanel

Gerae Lindsey — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 06:05:50 +0000

NOTE: I prefer to use phpMyAdmin to backup my database files. You can opt to use the Backup Wizard to backup both you files and database.

Click on phpMyAdmin in the Databases box.

The following screen will appear:

In the top left side, you will see your database name. Click on it.

The following will now appear in the right screen:

Click on the Export tab.

Once the page loads, you will see:

Click on “Select All”
Check the box next to “Save as file”
Check the radio button before “zipped”
Click on “Go”

Once clicked, a small box will open:

Choose “Save File” and then click on OK.

Your database has now been saved to your computer.

If you run into any troubles, just let me know.