DecoNetwork now supports UPS live shipping methods on V6 beta. You can request to become a beta tester here: http://www.deconetwork.com/beta

1. In order to use UPS live shipping methods in DecoNetwork you need to have an account with UPS. If you don’t have it, you can register here: https://www.ups.com/myups/login
   
2.  Once you are logged in, you need to request an access key for your account. This can be done on this page: https://www.ups.com/upsdeveloperkit/requestaccesskey
   
3. At this point, you should receive an email with “access key” which you can add in Manage Fulfillment > Settings > Shipping Methods > Add Live Shipping Method along with username and password as shown below:
   
4. Test your credentials and choose the UPS shipping methods you want to offer.
   
5. Save the changes.

Google Analytics is a free tool that generates detail statistics about your visitors. It is a great marketing tool which will help you to better understand who is visiting your site, and with what result.

You can register for Google Analytics here:  http://www.google.com/analytics/

DecoNetwork is already integrated with the Google Analytics code, so you don’t need to add this code on every single page in the system. Instead you can add UA number in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage (next to the store you want to modify) > SEO and Google Analytics

On the next page click on Google Analytics and provide UA number as shown below:

Save the changes. These changes can take up to 48 to take effect.

2. Use Conversion Tracking.

Conversion Tracking is a tool that shows you what happens after the customer clicks on your ads or link online. It will show you the conversion rate between number of visits versus number of actual purchases. The most popular and free conversion tracking is offered when you are using Google Adwords (pay per click ads).

DecoNetwork is already integrated with Google conversion tracking code and you just need to add “conversion tracking ID” in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage (next to the store you want to modify) > SEO and Google Analytics > Conversion Tracking

3. Content is king when it comes to SEO

From the SEO standpoint it is very important that you will have a lot of useful content added to your site. This content should include keywords but be also informative, so your customers can find information they are looking for.

In DecoNetwork, you can add your own content to each page in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage > Website Pages

On the next page, you can click “configure” next to the body content for each page which will let you to add your own content

Save the changes.

Please see this article which explains that process in more details: http://blog.deconetwork.com/2012/05/23/content-is-king-when-it-comes-to-seo/

4. Submitting your websites sitemap in Google Webmaster Tools

An important part of ensuring a search engine like Google knows your website is to submit your sitemap to the search engine.

Please see this article which explains that process in more details: http://blog.deconetwork.com/2013/03/04/submitting-your-websites-sitemap-in-google-webmaster-tools/

5. Add “301 redirection” to your primary domain.

In DecoNetwork you can add “301 redirection” to your primary domain, so the Google ranking will not get split between the multiple domains which points to your site.  This can be done in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage > Domain Settings

On the next page select an option “Redirect to Primary Domain”

Dan Howe, our in house web developer specialist, recommends also checking that your website loads without www at front.

Please see this article which explains that process in more details: http://blog.deconetwork.com/2013/01/01/ensuring-your-website-loads-without-www/

6. Create a 301 permanent redirect in DecoNetwork

If you have ever used your domain with another site in the past, you may want to add 301 redirects from your old pages to newly created pages in DecoNetwork.  This can be done in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage > URL Redirects.

Please see this article which explains that process in more details: http://blog.deconetwork.com/2013/02/13/create-a-301-permanent-redirect-in-deconetwork/

7. External links

It is a fact that the more websites are linking to your site the higher rank you will get in search results. In other words, the more links you will get the better chance that your customers will find your website. Obviously not all of the links are equal to each other. If you will get a link from the highly popular site which has the good ranking that link will have more power than the link added to your site from the newly created blog. That said, having any type of link is better than not having a link at all.

One of the recommended ways to build your links is by adding your site to local directories such as:

google.com/places
local.yahoo.com
bing.com/businessportal
ubl.org
dmoz.org

8. Press releases

Another way to promote your business online is by creating press releases. To create an efficient press release which can help you with promoting your site online you need to:

- Write it (In general, it should be something interesting and no more than 500 words)

- Find the place online to distribute it (such as prweb.com, prbuzz.com, ereleases.com, emailwire.com, prleap.com, vocus.com)

- Make sure to include keywords and links in your article (You can add keywords and links which are referring to your site in the submitted article)

9. Use relevant data for your online campaigns to be successful.

At the end it is not the most important how many clicks you will get from your online presence (external links, search results etc…). The most important is if your visitors found what they were looking for when they clicked on that link. In e-commerce there is a very simple way to estimate the success ratio and it is a number of purchases that have been made by your visitors. Overall, if your conversion rate is 2% or higher, you can say that your online campaign really works. If your conversion rate is less than 1% then the problem is not necessarily with getting visitors, but that those visitors didn’t find what they were looking for. SEO is not any different than the traditional marketing in this case. Some of the reasons that your conversion rate is low can be:

- Your offer is not competitive (i.e. prices too high)

It is not enough to be number one in search results. If your visitors will notice that the site right below you is offering better prices or/and products they will not buy from you but choose your competitor instead.

- The SEO campaign was misleading.
For example, you could promote a phrase “We are using best DTG printers” in your online campaign. This could potentially get you high in ranks for anyone who is looking for a phrase: “best DTG printers.” In that way instead of getting potential customers who would buy a custom product, many of your visitors would actually have no interest in your products but were looking to buy a DTG machine from you (thinking that you are selling them). As soon as they find out that you are not selling DTG printers they will just abandon your site without the purchase. It is a wasted click which potentially cost you a lot of effort. This is just an example, but it shows the concept, and that you will need to put your marketing effort into SEO, and continuously analyze your data you are receiving. This is not new to you, as you are already doing this for your onside business. The only difference are the tools you are using.

- Online presence.
Take a look at your site, then look at your competitors site, then take a look at your site again. What do you see? This is the same what your customers will see. If you are not happy with your online presence, take into consideration our DecoCoach service where one of our in house web designers can customize the look of your site for you. You can see the showcase of customized DecoNetwork stores here: http://www.deconetwork.com/showcase You can request DecoCoach services here: http://www.deconetwork.com/decocoach

- Anything else
Think about your business and what are your strengths and weaknesses. What your existing customers like the most about you? Whether it is quality, customer service, low prices, or all of it make sure to add your own character to your site. Online customers are not much different than those who walk in to you retail store. They are looking for the same things and they can get happy or upset for the same reasons.

What is a sitemap?

First let’s explain how a search engine finds pages. Search engines find pages through links. It looks at a page and identifies all links on the page. Then it travels to that link which takes it to a new page. It then looks for links on the new page and once again travels down those links. This goes on and on and all the links are added to search engines directory.

Sometimes you may not link to all pages from your site so if a link to this page does not exist then a search engine like Google may not find it.

This is where a sitemap is handy!

A sitemap is a list of links or pages you have on your website. A search engine reads this sitemap and adds this URLs to their search directory.

In the case of DecoNetwork we provide an XML sitemap and you access this by adding /sitemap.xml at the end of your wesbite. i.e. http://www.yoursite.com/sitemap.xml

Adding your sitemap to Google

1. Log into Google webmaster tools: www.google.com/webmasters/tools. If you don’t have a Google account then make one – it’s free! Don’t forget your gmail account is a Google account also.
2. Log in to access your Webmaster Tools dashboard.
3. Click the red “ADD A SITE“.
4. Enter your websites URL such as http://www.yoursite.com
   Google will require you to verify your account. Select the “Alternate methods” to validate your account and select “HTML tag“
5. Copy the <meta name… … … /> tag.
6. Log into your DecoNetwork website and browse to Websites and select Manage for the site’s sitemap you wish to add to Google. Select Appearance and then Customize Template HTML.
7. Select the Custom layout option from the left menu and then check “Override default layout“.
8. You should past the <meta name… … … /> tag you copied above between the <head> and </head> tags in your website.
9. Click Save when done.
10. Return to Google Webmaster Tools and click the Verify button. If the tag was saved correctly your site should now be verified.
11. Now you need to add your DecoNetwork sitemap. In Google Webmaster Tools browse to the left menu Optimization and select Sitemaps
12. Select ADD/TEST SITEMAP.
13. enter sitemap.xml at the end of your Add/Test Sitemap field and click Submit Sitemap.
14. The sitemap may take a short while to submit and will remain in the Pending status until it is submitted. Once submitted it will give you a report of how many URLs (pages) were submitted and how URLs (pages) Google has indexed to its search engine.

Overtime you should see your indexed pages start to reach closer to you submitted pages as Google adds more of your pages to its search index.

In order to make it right you want to make sure that:

- The customer will receive a separate order/shipped confirmation email with all the details about the location from where the order can be picked up.

- In-store pickup shipping method is free.

- In-store pickup shipping method is available to customers only within the same state you are located.

1. First, you can add an email template specifically for this shipping method in Manage Fulfillment > Customers > Email Template

Next click on Email Templates > “Create” next to the order template

2. Then click on Customize Template:

a) This will let you to change the name of that template (i.e. Order confirmation – In-store pickup)

b) Replace the the default text related to the shipping method as shown below (You may want to change this content to something what refers to in-store pickup instead ).

c) Please also do the same for the text version

d) Save the changes

Tip: It is NOT required to have any HTML/CSS knowledge to make those changes. If you are not familiar with the HTML there is a simple rule which can help you. In short, feel free to make any changes to content which is written in black (this is the regular text), but don’t make any changes to the colorized section of that content (this is the code responsible for display).

3. Now, you need to add another custom template but this time for Order-shipped email. Please repeat steps from point 2 to customize this email template with your own content.

4. Next, you need to create an actual shipping method named In-store pickup. To do it go to Manage Fulfillment > Settings > Shipping Methods > Add Custom Shipping Method.

5. On the next page, define the name, and choose the newly created email templates as shown on the picture below:

6. At this point, your customers will receive your custom shipping emails. Now, you need to make this method free for them. You can do it by clicking on Price breakdowns, and put 0 in charge.

7. You can also limit the visibility of that shipping method to certain state only (in this case, it is Georgia). This can be done on Shipping locations page and then make sure to uncheck “delivers to all states.”

Tip: If you are having multiple affiliate stores in your system, but want this shipping method to be available in specific store only, you can limit the availability by denying this shipping method to all of your stores, except the one you will select from the list.

8. Save the changes.

Check out this overview video here:

This function is available in beta on V5.1.1. To apply for beta of Customers Manage in Business Hub visit www.deconetwork.com/beta/apply.

But you have some old page addresses and URLs that are nicely ranked in Google and you’re worried you’ll lose them if you move to a new solution…

Well don’t worry! With DecoNetwork you can create your own 301 permanent redirect which will save your wonderful Google ranking.

What’s a 301 permanent redirect?

Let’s say you had an old website that had your designs on a page www.mysite.com/content/designs. When you move to DecoNetwork your designs page will be www.mysite.com/designs.

If you don’t tell Google and other search engines that your website page has moved correctly, the ranking that old page had may be lost and you’ll be starting again with the ranking of your new page.

That’s where a 301 redirect comes it. It is a server-side redirect which essentially tells Google and other search engines “this page has permanently moved so please update your URL database to point to the new URL”. The page is maintained in Google, but Google updates its database when it next visits your site.

How do you create a 301 redirect in DecoNetwork?

Super simple! Log into your DecoNetwork website and go to the Settings page for the website you want to manage (Websites > Manage > Settings).

Select URL Redirects and add a new redirect.

In the “URL” field enter your website path for your old folder or page excluding the actual URK. i.e. /content/designs/

In the “Redirect To” field enter the DecoNetwork page it should now point to, again excluding the actual URL. i.e. /designs

For example:

Then Save!

Pretty cool huh? Or as Andrew would say…

We will be presenting a live theatre demonstration every hour or you can grab a member of our team for a one-on-one demonstration.

Visitor and registration information can be found at http://printwearandpromotion.co.uk/news/categoryfront.php/id/413/Visiting.html.

See you at the show!

First an example with a simple div:

The HTML:

<div id="example1">
Text here
</div>

The CSS:

#example1 {
padding: 15px;
background:url("image1.png");
}

If image1.png was a red texture image my div area will be red with some text when there is no mouse cursor hovering over it. If I want to make the background blue then I could make a blue texture image and using :hover can force the display of the blue image. This can be done by adding some more CSS i.e.

The CSS:

#example1:hover {
background:url("image2.png");
}

Notice the :hover directly after #example? That tells the browser when you hover your mouse over the object with the ID “example1″ do the following. In this case, padding doesn’t change so I removed that kept the background and changes the image to image2.png

BUT, as stated above there will be a slight delay in the mouse over. Here is how you fix this.

Fixing the annoying d… d… delay

In your HTML (I prefer WAY down the bottom just before the </body> area load your image using a standard image tag however add a class “preloadimg”. i.e.

<img src="image1.png" class="preloadimg">
<img src="image1.png" class="preloadimg">

Then add the following to your CSS

.preloadimg {
display:none;
}

This will load your images at the bottom of your page (therefore making them loaded in the browsers cache) but then hide them from display (display:none;) so they are NOT displayed at the bottom of your page. However, as they are loaded in your brower’s cache they will appear immediately by time your visitor mouses over the object on your page.

So in summary, the full HTML and CSS for this example

The full HTML:

<div id="example1">
Text here
</div>

<img src="image1.png" class="preloadimg">
<img src="image2.png" class="preloadimg">

The full CSS:

#example1 {
padding: 15px;
background:url("image1.png");
}
#example1:hover {
background:url("image2.png");
}
.preloadimg {
display:none;
}

Simple, but it works.

Also, you can raise Deco Network support ticket here: Click here

I hope this helps

• Color / Sizes
• Description
• Sizing
• Shipping

They appear as a single tab each and a consumer on your site will need to click each tab to see the details.

Some people prefer this information to be all on one tab, and this is easily achieved with a little CSS. Add the following CSS to your DecoNetwork website under Websites > Manage a site > Appearance > Customize Template CSS:

#tab_button_details, #tab_product_details, #tab_button_sizing, #tab_button_shipping {
display:none;
}

#tab_product_details, #tab_product_description, #tab_product_sizing, #tab_product_shipping {
display:block!important;
}

Essentially the CSS hides all other tab links except “Description” and forces the display of all tab content areas. You can play around with the CSS to force or hide display of different tabs and tab links yourself. For example, you may not want the sizing chart to be displayed in the main tab therefore your CSS would look like:

#tab_button_details, #tab_product_details, #tab_button_shipping {
display:none;
}

#tab_product_details, #tab_product_description, #tab_product_shipping {
display:block!important;
}

Play around and display the tabs as you want!

http://www.deconetwork.com/genie

However, many DecoNetwork users offer promotional products such as phone cases, mouse pads, signs, and stickers.

The main difference between setting up apparel products and promotional products within DecoNetwork is the product colors.

DecoNetwork automatically assumes that you have a limited amount of colors for any given product.  For example, this T-Shirt comes in tan, blue, red, and gray:

But what if I want to offer a promotional product that can be sold in any color? Let’s use a mousepad as an example.  What if I want to allow my customer to choose any color as the background of this mousepad? Well, DecoNetwork can help.

First, let’s upload this mousepad as a custom product:

1. Log into your manage fulfillment center and click on the products tab.
2. Click on “Add Custom Product”
3. Select “Upload a single image for all colors” and click “next”.
4. Upload the image of the mousepad and click “next”.
5. Now, we must set the printable area. Use the “upload shape” feature and upload the same shape of the mousepad. Then select “can set background color.” Your screen should look like this:



6. Click continue. DecoNetwork will ask you to define the color of the product we have just created. So let’s choose white, as this is the default color of our mousepads. Click “OK”
7. Feel free to configure the rest of the settings for this product, such as description, pricing, categories, and dimensions/weight. Then tick “active” and click “save”.

Now, we have a mousepad added to our store. Your customers can change the background color of this mousepad because we ticked “can set background color” in step #5. Your customers can select the color from a pallete, or click on “slider” to choose from any color in the world!

The only problem? It’s not very clear for your customers that this feature exists! It is displayed as small text near the bottom of the designer!

Luckily, we can easily fix this issue, because DecoNetwork offers you full access to the HTML and CSS of your webstore!

Navigate to the custom Template CSS page:

Websites > Appearance > Customize Template CSS > Create Custom CSS

And copy and paste the following code into the field.

#canvas_bg_color {

font-size: 20px;

padding-bottom: 20px;

padding-top: 20px;

text-align: center;

width: 100%;

}

Now, the “Select background color” feature is displayed much more prominently in the online designer!

We’ve learned how to allow our customers to change the background color of a product, and we’ve also learned how to make this feature more visually prominent to our customers. Now, let’s delve deeper.

The “edit color” section in the online designer may still confuse my customers. If I’m selling apparel products in my store, than this feature is necessary and must stay.

However, if my store only sells promotional products which all use the “select background color” feature, then we should get rid of the “edit color” section entirely!

s tailor-made for apparel decoration.

To do this, simply copy and paste the following code into the CSS:

#des_opt_color {

display: none;

}

Now, the “Edit Color” section of the online designer has disappeared!

First of all, what is the Instagram effect? Instagram is famous for its image filters that talk a new photo and make it look old! It adds a classic vintage look which people love and can actually make a fairly standard photo look beautiful.

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to make apply an Instagram effect to a photo using Corel PHOTO-PAINT.

1. Start with a photo

Pick a photo you want to ‘Instagram’. I’ve picked one of my daughter with her pre-school sweetheart.

Square it off!

A part of the vintage look of photos is their shape. All the old pics your folks have in their albums are square! So step one is to make your image square.

In Corel-PHOTO PAINT use the Crop Tool (D shortcut) and holding down the CTRL key draw the square around your image and this will create a preview of the area that will be cropped. When done double-click you square crop shape and the image will be cropped.

Adjust your image tones

Now for the images color. We achieve the Instagram effect by adjusting the images color tones for the RGB, R, G and B tone curves. To do this:

In Corel PHOTO-PAINT go to Adjust > Tone Curve

Reset your Tone Curve dialog and ensure you have Curve set as your Curve option:

Next you need to adjust each channel one at a time. Starting with the “RGB” channel then adjusting separately the “R” (red), “G” (green) and “B” (blue).

You will need to do this by eye so as best as possible reproduce the same curves I have created below. To help understand the adjustment I have included the original line in my images below so you can see each adjustment and how it compares to the original.

You may need to adjust your curve slightly but if you follow this general guide you’ll get the color effect you want for the Instagram effect which is an exaggeration of colors in the channel. I typically find if your photo contains a lot of green and blue these are highlighted. If it contains a lot of yellow and red then these are highlighted.

Vignette it!

A vignette is a darkening of the edges of an image. Again, common in old photos!

I prefer to make this on a copy of the current photo so open your Objects docker (Window > Dockers > Objects (Ctrl+F7).

Select the photo in Object list and right click and select Duplicate Selected. This will make a copy of the photo. With the copy selected to go Effects > Creative > Vignette…

Use:

• Color: Black
• Shape: Circle
• Adjust Offset: Maximum it allows
• Adjust Fade: Maximum it allows

I find the result to be a little too dark than I like, and this is why I create it on a duplicate layer. I then select that duplicate layer and using the Object Transparency tool I apply a Flat transparency of 50%:

Blurring the edges

The final step is blur the edges of the photo. I find the easiest way to do this in Corel PHOTO-PAINT is to duplicate the image and apply a Gaussian Blur (Effects > Blur > Gaussian Blur) to the image. This will blue the entire image which of course we don’t want! With the duplicated blurred layer only selected use the Transparency Tool  (as above) however instead of using Flat change it to Radial.

Make sure you set the center transparency color to white making it 100% transparent and the outer transparency color to be a dark grey or black, depending how blurry you want your image edge to be. You should also adjust your mid-point slider to be closer to the grey or black end of the transparency as this will give a clearer center of the image and a blurry edge.

Have some fun making your own Instagram effect images!

HTML:

<div class=”stitched”>
CSS Stitched Effect
</div>

CSS:

.stitched {
     padding: 7px 20px;
      margin: 10px;
      background: #F8F8FF;
      color: #000000;
      font-size: 21px;
      font-weight: bold;
      border: 2px dashed #D3D3D3;
      border-top-left-radius: 3px;
      -moz-border-radius-topleft: 3px;
      -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 3px;
      border-bottom-left-radius: 3px;
      -moz-border-radius-bottomleft: 3px;
      -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 3px;
      border-bottom-right-radius: 3px;
      -moz-border-radius-bottomright: 3px;
      -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 3px;
      border-top-right-radius: 3px;
      -moz-border-radius-topright: 3px;
      -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 3px;
      -moz-box-shadow: 0 0 0 4px #F8F8FF, 2px 1px 4px 4px rgba(10,10,0,.5);
      -webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 0 4px #F8F8FF, 2px 1px 4px 4px rgba(10,10,0,.5);
      box-shadow: 0 0 0 4px #F8F8FF, 2px 1px 6px 4px rgba(10,10,0,.5);
      text-shadow: 1px 1px 2px #F8F8FF;
      font-weight: normal;
      float:left;
}

Hiding decoration processes in the designer

When the designer loads and the user clicks Add Text or Add Design they are prompted to select what decoration process to use. DTG, Embroidery, Sublimation or Screen Printing.

You can hide the buttons you don’t want using CSS.

Each button for Add Text and Add Design for each decoration process has a unique CSS select ID. They are:

For text:

• DTG = #add_text_type_1
• Sublimation = #add_text_type_2
• Embroidery = #add_text_type_3
• Screen Printing = #add_text_type_8

For designs:

• DTG = #add_image_type_1
• Sublimation = #add_image_type_2
• Embroidery = #add_image_type_3
• Screen Printing = #add_image_type_8

Using CSS you hide these buttons. The CSS is:

#add_text_type_1, #add_image_type_1 {
display:none;
}

This is hide the ‘Add DTG printing Text’ and ‘Add DTG Printing Design’ buttons.

You can add additional buttons to this same CSS by separating each ID with a comma. i.e.

#add_text_type_1, #add_image_type_1, #add_text_type_3, #add_image_type_3 {
display:none;
}

This hides both DTG (1) and embroidery (3).

Add this CSS in your Websites > Manage which store you want to change > Appearance and Customize Template CSS.

Hiding decoration processes from the product list on the website

This solution is not elegant but works. You need to change your product price display to only show blank product price. Again, not elegant but might get you what you are after.

To do this:

1. Browse to Manage Fulfillment > Products and select Blank Product Behavior from the left side menu
2. Under Product Behavior section check “Stores can customize” under Black product pricing display.
   
   If you don’t check this and change the setting here then all stores will adopt this change. Click Save to save the changes.
3. Once done browse Websites and select Manage for the web store you wish to modify.
4. Select the Website Pages tile.
5. First on the Home page scroll down to the Body Settings panel and click Configure next to Blank products.
6. Change Show prices for to ‘No Decoration’ price:
   
7. Click Save to save your changes.
8. You will also need to do this on you Create page under Body Settings and Create listing.

This will replace any previous mention of ‘Printing from…’, ‘Embroidery front…’ etc with ‘Decorate from’and the above CSS will hide the decoration buttons from the designer.

When a decoration process is disabled it appears with a red “Disabled” icon when Add Text or Add Design is selected:

Some people prefer not to have the decoration process listed at all when it is not available for that area. For example:

To achieve this simply add the following CSS in Websites > Select website > Appearance > Customize Template CSS.

.no_items .disabled {
display: none;
}

This will hide the display of disabled decoration processes when adding text or design items.

A simple but neat trick!

You can check out some ISS Long Beach pics at our Facebook page album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151159331281324.436710.372925011323&type=3

Version 5.1 of DecoNetwork has a great new feature which allows you to have Facebook and Instagram in your online designer. The benefit to this is your consumers can browse their Facebook or Instagram photos and use them to decorate your products.

To enable Facebook and Instagram on your site:

1. Browse to Websites and select the website you wish to enable the Facebook and Instagram integration on
2. Select Configure Online Designer from the right-hand menu
3. Browse down to Design Options and select Show designs from social networking platform
4. Check Instagram and / or Facebook
5. Click Save to save you changes

Take it tour by visiting our demo store and designing with our online designer.

1. First, you have to start with creating the custom field named “Child’s Name” It is entirely up to you how you will call it, so “Player’s Name” or any other string of words is fine as well. This can be done in Manage Fulfillment > Customers > Customer Register Fields

2. On the next page click on Add Custom Field.

This will add a new field on the bottom of the page where you can:

a) Choose the Title (Child’s Name)
b) Choose the Type (Text Field)
c) Choose the Stores where this newly created field will be revealed (You can narrow the selection to certain stores only)

3. Save the changes.

4. Now that you have the custom field created, you need to decide where you want this field to be displayed, and if this is required or just visible (If it is visible, your customers can leave this field blank and still be able to proceed to the next page.). You can do that by going to Define Field Usage

5. On that page you can define which field is displayed and on which page. Some fields, such as name or address, are required. Please make sure to select check-box for visible and required for the newly created field under: Checkout: billing details

6. Close the window and Save the changes.

7. Once this is done, you should be able to see this field during the checkout as shown below:

You still need to include this field on your print sheet, otherwise you are not going to see Child’s Name to be included anywhere in the production files.

8. To include custom registration field on your print sheet you need to use the variable which will display it and add it to the worksheet and order template in your store.

The variable is {{customer.custom_fields.xxx }}
Where XXX is the name of the field in lowercase, with all non alphanumeric fields changed to _
i.e: “Test Field” = “test_field”

Note: Non alphanumeric character is anything what is not A-Z or 0-9.

In this case your variable is {{customer.custom_fields.child_s_name}}  (Note: if you used different name, such as Player’s Name, then you will need to replace child_s_name with player_s_name)

9. Now, you have to add this variable to the Order and Worksheet template in Manage Fulfillment > Customers > Email Templates

10. On the next page click on Order templates and then Configure next to Worksheet.

11. Then click on Customize template and select the check-box Customize default template

12. Now, here is the tricky part where some basic HTML understanding would help, but is not required. Basically you need to decide where you want to display that field on your worksheet. First, it is a good idea to click on Test (right upper corner) so you can see the default template. In this tutorial I will show you how to add custom field right below the email address under billing details as shown below:

13. Next, you need to find this spot in the code. The easiest way to do it is by using Find option in your browser. For example in Mozilla you can click Ctrl+F and the Find option will appear on the bottom of the page. Then you can type in “email” because you want this code to be added right below it, and it should take you to that place in the code.

14. Once you find the code, you just need to add the variable along with the description right below the email. For example you can add this:

<br/>Child’s Name: {{customer.custom_fields.child_s_name}}

as shown below:

Where <br/> is the code which will break the line (display your Child’s Name in the next line on the worksheet).

Child’s Name is the title for the content which comes next.

{{customer.custom_fields.child_s_name}} displays the information provided by the customer during the checkout.

15. Click Update.

16. Please repeat steps 9-15 for Order Template.

Here are some tips to guide you along the way.

Keep text as text

When you make a template DecoNetwork detects any text objects and makes these text objects available for the consumer to edit. It is important the text objects are not grouped with any other object. A grouped object will not be editable in the online designer.

Group objects to create selectable groups

You can control which objects are available on their own as selectable objects or grouped together with object objects by simply grouping them in CorelDRAW.

See the template at: http://demo.deconetwork.com/designs/product/81538?d=330704203&ma=5

As you can see it has 1 text object and 6 colored rectangle objects.

The text object is editable on the website:

In the original .CDR file I’ve grouped the last two objects (the orange and magenta object) and as a result DecoNetwork has represented those two objects as a group on the website:

The remaining 4 objects which were NOT grouped in CorelDRAW have come in grouped in DecoNetwork:

This is automatically don’t to protect the website from a CorelDRAW file that may contain hundreds or thousands of separate objects. This would be unmanageable in online designer environment and not very user-friendly for the consumer.

Effects in CorelDRAW like fountain fill, contour, distort, drop shadow, envelop, transparency and others can be used on objects in CorelDRAW and are maintained when uploaded to DecoNetwork.

Just make sure when you upload your CorelDRAW file that you check “Split into template” to ensure it is saved in a way that allows your customers to edit the template on your website.

I’ve got a quick tip that you should implement TODAY as the first and best thing you can do to help your website in 2013.

In today’s web-savvy world more and more of us browse to a website excluding the ‘www’. i.e. just deconetwork.com instead of www.deconetwork.com.

However I have seen many cases where a website owner has not configured their website to load without the ‘www’ resulting in a ‘Page Not Found’ error. In many cases the site visitor may assume your website is down and browse off to your competitor. So it is CRITICAL you configure your website to work with and without the ‘www’.

Test your site

Load a browser and enter your website address without the ‘www’. If it fails to load contact your domain host and update your domain IP address or forwarding to ensure it works with and without the ‘www’.

Dan Howe, one of our ultra smart developers here at DecoNetwork (and soon to be blogger!) suggests using a redirect from your non-www to your www. This will yield the best results from an SEO perspective as opposed to having two domain names pointed to the same IP address. Many domain registrars/DNS hosts will allow this functionality (often referred to as domain aliasing).

Trust me. Your website and sales will thank you for it

In 2013 the DecoNetwork team and I will be bring a series of webinars and workshops to help you take your business to the next level for it to become the success that you desire.

We were looking at how we could introduce myself to you and start to get you thinking about what you would like to change in your business and how we can help you achieve the changes.

Christmas is less than a week away, when I have been having conversations with people, the common theme is that they have been planning for Christmas:

• Where are you going to go too?
• Who will you be with and when will you get together with them?
• Planning how it will all come together?
• What you will be eating and drinking?
• What activities and fun you will have?

Why is it when you plan you can design and create great things to happen.

What about your business, what is the plan for 2013?

We now are aware that we can design, plan and create great things to happen away from work. What is your plan for 2013?

When planning for business, a lot of people say, create a business plan. The next question is where will I start and what will I include, when will I start and the more people think about it, it becomes something that is put off.

My goal is to show you tools and frameworks to simplify what your business looks like to create a plan to focus on the right areas at the right time and take your business to where you want to take it. In our webinars and workshops in 2013, I will share with you frameworks to create a picture of your business and structure so you will be able to create a Contextual business plan so you can plan the next steps for your business. You will be offered the opportunity to choose how you would like to participate in this opportunity, the choices to participate will include in group workshops and/or one on one coaching and mentoring over the internet so you will not have to travel and you will be able to use your time most effectively.

If you want to make 2013 to take your business forward, here is your opportunity, the DecoNetwork team and I want to assist you with your business, so you can make it be the success that you want it to be.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas

Brett Heasman

Part two: Focus your website to your target

So last time we talked about determining who your actual customers are BEFORE you begin to design your website and tailoring it to their needs and wants. In this article I want to talk about how to focus your website. One of the biggest issues I see when people start their website is that there is no focus, no call to action, nothing to move the consumer to open their wallet or purse. Your website has to be a representation of your business in a self-serving way. In other words in retail store environment you can direct people to parts of the store you want them to see and products you want them to buy. You have to format your website with the same frame of mind. So let’s look at how we map out a successful website using this idea.

Make it look good

I can’t stress this enough: you have to have your site look good if you want to have people spend time on your site. If your customer base is conservative stay away from loud colors and college humor, if they are corporate keep the skulls and crossbones designs in the closet; if they teens put away the teddy bear logos and turn on the skulls and crossbones. Know your audience and make the products, artwork, backgrounds, text and images speak to them. There is no way you can be all these to all people. It is ok to cast a wide net but even a wide net has boundaries.

Whatever it is that you want to say you better say it fast

It is estimated that you have between 5-10 seconds to capture your visitor’s attention. This is a stark contrast to a retail store where if someone walks into your store chances are they will browse around or talk to an employee. They do this because they had to invest something to get to your store, their time and gas. So they very likely to spend at least a few minutes in your store. Your webstore is very different, with search engines like Google they can very quickly find what they are looking for so their investment is marginal. That is why you have to capture their attention quickly and give them reason to stay on your site.

Keep it above the Fold

The question then becomes “If I only have 5-10 seconds to capture my audience’s attention how do I best do that?” Great question! From my experience the most successful sites have good content above the fold that capture the audience’s attention and drive them to want to see more. The “fold” is considered the top portion of the website that the user sees before he or she has to scroll down. This is a great location to have a banner or promotion code or a saying that sparks the users interest and makes them want to scroll down to see more. In most cases a visitor to a website decides to hang around purely based on what they see on the first page they visit and above the fold. When a user leaves on this first page it’s called a bounce and can be reported in your Google Analytics as the “Bounce rate”.”

Leave gimmicks to the used car salesmen

Stay away from the gimmicky animations or the huge SALE! SALE! SALE! buttons, they are gimmicky and only distract the user. Keep your message sharp and focused, don’t overwhelm them with 50 products above the fold, keep it simple. I suggest using images that are high quality and possibly a coupon code for say Free Shipping on order over $25 (very easy to do in DecoNetwork).

Give your site a custom look

While there is no silver bullet in having a successful store there are several things you can do to attract potential clients and reduce your bounce rate. One of the most important in my opinion is have your site look unique. It has been my experience that those people that use cookie cutter templates from some of those other web hosting companies have marginal if any success with their site. The reason can be summed up in the following question “If your site looks exactly like a hundred other sites why would I buy from you?” As you know with DecoNetwork you have access to the CSS and HTML, use it! Create a masterpiece, something you are proud of, something that you will have a tear in your eye each time you talk about (it should give you the same feeling you had when you first laid eyes on your firstborn). Make it look special but above all make it unique and designed to appeal to your target market. If you are saying to yourself I like that idea but I don’t know where to begin doing this, not a problem we can help www.deconetwork.com/decocoach.

What can I expect in the weeks to come?

Stay tuned, I’ve got some very interesting topics I want to cover such as “I get a lot of visits to my site but not a lot of conversions. Why?” and “How do I drive better quality traffic to my site?”

Part one: Who is your customer?

Too often people THINK they know who their customer is and will build their site around that type of customer only to realize later that this type of customer really isn’t a customer at all. Let me explain, most businesses have four types of customers:

(1) Loyal customer - The loyal customer is someone that buys mostly from you and if presented a different option will talk with you to see if you can work with them accomplish their goal.

(2) Fickle customer - The Fickle customer is someone that normally price shops and will call around for the best deal.

(3) Renewing customer - The renewing customer is the customer that used to be a loyal customer but reduced or stopped all together purchasing from you.

(4) New customer - The new customer is well… a new customer.

These four types of customers have different needs and different trigger points. You cannot be all things to all people, but you can do things to attract a larger segment of these four types. To do this take out a piece of paper and create five columns:

Customer: The customer’s name or company.

What do they buy from me: i.e. t-shirts, caps, bags.

Average order size: How many units would they buy from you on average per order?

Strength of Connection: How close of a relationship do you have with this client?:

• Strong – you have a strong connection with this customer. They are very likely to use your services often and work well with you. You most often meet their needs with your products and prices. You speak with this customer 2-4 times a month.
• Moderate – You often meet their needs and you have many of the products that they need/want. You speak with this client 1-2 times a month.
• Weak – The client is constantly asking for products that you may have a limited supply of or always have to order just for them. There are often issues with their order(s) and it often take a considerable amount of time to resolve the issues. You speak with this customer only when they need something.

How likely they are to purchase on my website: 1-5, with 1 being unlikely and 5 being most likely) and consider the other four columns when rating them.

Take a sampling of say 25 randomly selected customers and fill in each column next to the customer. For example:

From the above examples we would see that while I have strong connections with Clamy’s restaurant they would not be an ideal fit for my webstore. Also Washington Elementary seems to be a great prospect but due to their high order size they too may not be a good fit to buy on my webstore and more than likely will require a quote from Business Hub before purchasing. They could, however be great candidates for an affiliate store to encourage their students and teachers to self-serve.

So now I am left with either a sports themed website or a trendy bag and apparel website. Here is where you look at the rest of your list and see which of these groups have the move number of potential clients. If you have much more sports clients then consider building your primary site to appeal to the sport enthusiast. Does that mean you cannot sell to the Sassy Cassie type client? Of course not, sell to them but sell to them using an affiliate store that is trendy and marketed for that audience, do not try to lump sports and trendy together. Trust me those two do not go well together. The great thing about DecoNetwork is that you have the ability to create an unlimited amount of affiliate store to target certain marketplaces. Oh and by the way it is free and unlimited.

I uninstalled and reinstalled the fonts and frustratingly nothing worked.

Letting my fingers to the walking I marched on over to the CorelDRAW.com forums and reached out to the masses of CorelDRAW fanatics and experts that reside in this great resource and with jubilee my plea for help was answered!

As it turns out I can’t blame the fonts, or CorelDRAW – I need to blame Microsoft!

Windows update KB2753842 will kill some on your fonts and the problem extends to most software applications from CorelDRAW to Adobe, Microsoft office products and more.

The solution

At present the only solution is to uninstall the update KB2753842. This security update was issued to protect against malicious fonts so uninstalling it does have it’s risks. However if you are on a deadline and need to use some of those fonts you may not have a choice

To uninstall:

1. Select Start > Control Panel
2. Select Programs and Features
3. From the left panel select ‘View installed updates‘
4. Locate ‘Security update for Windows 7 (KB2753842). It will be located in the ‘Microsoft Windows’ section though you may find it easier to locate by typing the update number KB2753842 in the top-right search field.
5. Right-click this update and select Uninstall
6. The update will uninstall and your computer will be prompted to restart.

The update may install again when you shut down your PC do be conscious of this if the problem seems to return again.

I recently read an article on TechCrunch about the explosion of online sales this holiday season.   I wanted to share this with you because if you are not out there promoting your business and taking advantage of the fact that so many people are happy to spend their hard earned cash this time of year you are doing yourself a disservice.  Check out this excerpt.

We’ve been wowed by the record breaking Black Friday and Cyber Monday spending data, but it looks like consumers are continuing to spend online for holiday shopping. comScore says that retail e-commerce spending for the first 30 days of the November–December 2012 holiday season amounts to $20.4 billion, which is a 15 percent increase versus the corresponding days last year.

The most recent week, which included Cyber Monday, saw three individual days surpass $1 billion in spending, led by Cyber Monday, which became the heaviest online spending day on record at $1.46 billion. Tuesday, November 27 reached $1.26 billion, while Wednesday, November 28 reached $1.1 billion. Monday and Tuesday of this past week currently rank as the two heaviest online spending days in history, with the Tuesday total slightly outpacing that of Cyber Monday 2011.

comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni says that growth rates actually decreased following the “peak demand” of the Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotional period. Interestingly, comScore says that the warmer weather throughout some parts of the country could be pushing people towards in-store shopping vs. online.

Despite these conditions, clearly people are still spending online. In fact, more than half of e-commerce transactions during each of the past three weeks of the holiday season have included free shipping, with a peak of 57 percent during the week ending Sunday, November 25. During the first five weeks of the holiday season, consumers spent an average of 42 percent more on free shipping transactions than on paid shipping transactions, including a 51-percent higher average order value during the week ending November 25. Free shipping is a good incentive for retailers, says comScore, because consumers tend to spend more on free shipping transactions.

The great news is that consumers are continuing to spend online.   We hear from our clients everyday how many of them are having a hard time managing all their orders and I congratulate them on this “problem”.   If you are not getting your share of the online buying frenzy I would strongly encourage you to review some of my last newsletter articles on how to build a better online business.   In the coming weeks I will add those articles to the blog so that you can find them here.  

In this awesome webinar we talk about the power of affiliate stores and how they can really help your business grow. Zach Dewhurst of PrintPhase.com was great enough to share some of his secrets and how affiliate stores have made a difference to his business.

Check out the full recording at http://www.deconetwork.com/webinars/previous/grow-your-business-with-affiliate-stores and previous DecoNetwork webinar’s at http://www.deconetwork.com/webinars/previous.

However sometimes when making changes to a site it may take a while for the cache to refresh with a new copy of your site. Therefore to speed this process along we’ve created a quick way for your to flush the cache of you website and reload a new version.

1. Log into your DecoNetwork website
2. Browse to Websites and Manage the site you want to flush
3. Browse to Appearance and select ‘Force Flush Site Cache‘ under Related Pages

A few seconds later your site’s cache will be removed and a fresh copy of your site loaded!

How can I use affiliate stores to grow my business you ask?  You can create affiliate stores for key accounts, such as the restaurant down the street or the bakery on the corner.   There is no limit to who or what can be an affiliate store.   The affiliate store can be for use by the clients employees only to order say uniforms or it can be used to market to their clients.   Let’s say you work with a photographer, you can set up an affiliate store for that photographer with their images on your products such as mugs and tee shirts.   The photographer would promote “their” site so his clients would go and purchase products from his site but the order would go to you, you would process it and send it to the consumer.   So the Photographer never has to print a single mug or t-shirt.   But they can log into their affiliate site and check the status of the order.   One hidden gem to doing this is that you can offer to pay a commission for any orders that come through his affiliate site.   So not only does he get a professionally created website that is targeted to his audience but he can make money off that site.

Speaking of commission, you can use the affiliate network to do fundraising.   Think about the opportunity if you use it for fundraising.   You could go to the elementary school down the street, say Washington Elementary and tell them: “I am going to build you an online store for us to sell spirit wear and school uniforms, don’t worry about anything I will manage it and collect the money.   No need to do any work just promote it”.  What school would say no?  Schools LOVE fundraising but it is a big drain on their resources, they have to send out order forms, collect the order forms, collect the money, consolidate the orders, once they receive the orders they have separate the orders and hand them over to the parents.   This is so exhausting.  With the affiliate network, you turn the tables and completely automate this, the orders come to you, you process the orders, you ship the orders, and you pay the commission.   While this sounds like a lot of work you now it really isn’t because of the tools that are built into DecoNetwork.   To maximize the sales opportunity I encourage you to create postcards that can be sent home with the kids telling the parents to support their school and buy their spirit wear online along with the web address.  We created a sample postcard below.   I encourage you to create a postcard similar to this.  Not only schools, but nonprofit organizations will want to do this.

Here’s another idea for using affiliate stores to grow your business, right now in this tough economy there are millions of people looking to supplement their income.   Why not put them to work by offering them an affiliate site?  Again, they need no money to start, there is no risk, no equipment to buy, no capital investment.   All they need to do is promote it.   Tell their friends on Facebook, their family, their neighbors and anybody that will listen to check out their site.   If the site is nicely laid out and has good pricing then they will make sales.   No risk for them and no risk for you because you only pay them a commission when they sell something.   What a great way to help people earn some extra income.   We have a great customer that has made this his business model.   Zach has really grown this idea into a sustainable business model.   I asked Zach if he could share some of his thoughts and ideas on the affiliate model and why it should be a huge part of your business.   He has graciously agreed to do an informative webinar on December 13 at 2:00 PM EST, I would like all of you to attend this informative webinar.   We will be sharing more ideas and how to’s during this webinar.   Hey, if nothing else come for the free virtual doughnuts and coffee. Here is the link to register for the free webinar.

Oh! did I mention that the affiliate stores are free and unlimited in the Premium package?   That’s right, having 1 or 1,001 stores is FREE, free for you and free for your client!   So it really is a no brainer.

You can enable functionality to create affiliate stores in your Premium DecoNetwork plan in Manage Fulfillment > Settings > Affiliate Network

2. Cloning Store

In DecoNetwork you can clone one of the existing stores into a new one. This can be done in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage (next to the store you want to clone)

On the next page select tab General Settings & Permissions

Click on Clone store

3. Save existing store as a store template

You can also save your store as a store template which you can choose while creating a new affiliate site.
This can be done in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage > General Settings & Permissions > Clone Store Settings

Next, you can enable this option in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Store Options

On the next page select Allow store sign up templates option (you can also force new signups to select one of your templates).

In this example, the name of the newly created template is “School Template” which you can now see during the process of creating a new affiliate store as shown below

4. Default Commission

In DecoNetwork all of the prices that you define in Fulfillment Center are Recommended Retail Prices. When you enable Affiliate Network functionality, you may also want to setup the default commission that your affiliate stores will receive from each transaction. This will automatically make you a wholesale seller to those affiliate stores as you will pay them the predefined percentage from each transaction. Here is the graphic that visualizes this process:

You can define default commission in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Default Store Commission

5. Custom Commission per Store

You can have a special affiliate site, where the commission level is higher or lower than the default one. In DecoNetwork you can override the default commission per store in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage > General Settings & Permissions > Commissions > and then uncheck an option Keep default commission rate

6. Referral Commission Rate

In Tip 3 and 5 you have probably noticed an option called Referral Commission Rate. Referral Commission is paid to the middle store if a new affiliate store was created not directly through your primary site but through one of your existing affiliate stores. In that way you can “thank” that affiliate site owner that they spread the word about you. The referral commission rate is taken out of your wholesale price.
The default Referral commission rate is defined in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Store Options

You can also override this setting per store in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage > General Settings & Permissions > Commissions

7. Set Privacy

In DecoNetwork you can protect your stores with the password. You can also limit your products per store. Please see this video for more info: http://blog.deconetwork.com/2012/10/08/limiting-products-and-access-to-a-deconetwork-website/

8. Batch Production

You can filter your incoming orders per store in Manage Fulfillment > Production > Advance Search > Batch Site

You will find step by step instruction on how this can be done in this article: http://blog.deconetwork.com/2012/12/04/batch-production-functionality-filter-your-incoming-orders-on-the-production-page-by-store-name/

9. Store Markup

You can adjust the markup on top of your wholesale prices in each store. This can be done in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage > Price Settings

On the next page you can increase or decrease the markup set globally for all of your blank items. This can be done either by percentage or fixed amount.

10 Decorated Products

Decorated items can be created for each store in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage Decorated Products > Create Decorated Products

Please see this video which explains that process in details: http://blog.deconetwork.com/2012/08/23/version-5-preview-new-decorated-product-wizard/

11. Custom Markup for Decorated Products

You can override default store markup for each decorated item in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage Decorated Products
On that page click configure above the product you want to modify

This will open a new page where you can turn off the default markup and define custom retail price just for that one item (Note: Retail price can not be lower than the wholesale price that is determined based on the commission level as explained in Tip 4).

1. Log into your DecoNetwork website and browse to Websites > Manage
   
   
2. On the next page select tab General Settings & Permissions
   
   
3. On the left navigation bar click Options and then under “Production Options” select checkbox This site does batch production
   
   
4. Save the changes.
5. Once this is done you can go to Manage Fulfillment > Production and click on advance search tab  This will let you to filter your incoming orders by store which has batch production functionality enabled (as per steps 1 to 4).
   

Cyber Monday is the Monday immediately following Black Friday, the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States and has become a mega sale day for online retailers. This year it is November 26.

Shop.org/BizRate claim that 77% of retailers experience substantially increased sales of up to 30% on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

So how and should you get involved? Well you can sure that buyers will be looking for a deal so if you don’t have a Cyber Monday special then your buyer may go else where.

And to get involved is simple! I recommend you create a coupon code promoting Cyber Monday and display that clearly on your website for your potential customers to see. However, don’t forget to also promote this special to your existing customers. Send an email blast promoting you special and encourage them to come visit you on Cyber Monday. You may also want to consider running a Google AdWord or two to drive additional traffic. Remember, crickets don’t buy so a steady flow of traffic to you site is critical for any online success.

Consider that most people who are out cyber shopping on Monday are gift shopping for Christmas. Therefore focus on custom gift ideas to maximize the potential of a sale.

Good luck and Happy Cyber Monday!

You can sort your products on your home page in Manage Fulfillment > Products > click listing tab > use sort option to change the order of products.

2.    Sales Images

You can upload your own sales images for each product in Manage Fulfillment > Products > then click configure for a product you want to manage > Images

3.    Default Thumbnail Image

In DecoNetwork you can choose the default picture on the front page between an actual product template or a  sales image (as per tip number 2)
This can be done in: Manage Fulfillment > Products > Configure Blank Product Behavior

4.    Decorated Products

You can decorate your products in Manage Fulfillment > Website > Decorated Products, and sell them as the decorated items. Please see this video for more info: Decorated Product Wizard

5.    Display Type: Regular Mode vs Catalog Mode

The display of your products is controlled in Manage Fulfillment > Website > Website Pages. You can then click configure next to the blank products widget and change the display mode to regular mode or catalog mode.

6.    Product List Display On The Site

You can also change the position where your products are located on your site by simply dragging (blank products) widget in Website pages.

7.    Decorated product display image.

Similar as for blank products, you can  upload a separate display image for the decorated item. This can be done in Manage Fulfillment > Website > Manage Decorated Products > then click configure above the decorated item you want to modify:

Next, click on Listing Image tab and browse for the image you want to use as a thumbnail for your decorated item

I hope this helps, and as always if you have any comments or questions please let me know, and I will do my best to help

Exporting orders from DecoNetwork

1. Log into your DecoNetwork website and browse to Sales > Export Orders
2. There are several export options:
   - Export Customer Details: This exports a report of all sales at an order level.
   - Export Latest Data: This exports the sales your had since you last did an export. This is ideal for importing into your accounting software as it will not export previously exported orders and eliminate the risk of duplicating records.
   - Export Between Date Range: This allows you export sales between a specified date range.
3. Select Export Latest Data. This will create a new entry in your Previously exported list:
   
4. There are two options to view the exported order details:
   - View order summary: This shows orders at an order level
   - View order items: This shows the order details at a line item level
5. Select View order items.
6. On this screen you have an option to select what columns you want to export. Select the Select Columns options and tick the columns you want to export.
7. When you are ready to export select CSV Export to create a CSV file of your order information.

It’s quite easy to accommodate for this in DecoNetwork to ensure your production file includes a bleed area and that the consumer using the designer knows there is a bleed and can design ensuring they don’t have any nasty little white bits.

The trick is in the custom mask that you upload for your decoration area. The normal mask is a .PNG file that contains a black shape that represents your mask. i.e.:

When a consumer uploads their image they may stretch or align to image to just touch the boundary of the product.

Visually to your consumer it looks great!

But if in the printing production process the print could shift only 1-2mm and cause a nasty little white bit to appear:

The only way to prevent this is to include a bleed and make your consumer aware of it. i.e.:

So how do you create a bleed in DecoNetwork?

The trick is in the mask. In CoreDRAW make the mask the exact shape and size of your printable area. Make it 100% black (RGB 0,0,0) i.e.:

If there are holes makes sure they are all combined so it makes just one object that includes the holes.

Now create the bleed by using the Contour tool of the offset or bleed size that you want. i.e. 1-2mm. i.e.:

This will create an additional object in the background that is the exact bleed size you want.

Separate this object from the main object by using Arrange > Break Contour Group Apart.

Now select that new object and also make it 100% black (RGB 0,0,0) but also apply transparency using the CorelDRAW Transparency tool. Set the transparency to Uniform and 50%. i.e.:

The 50% transparency will be used within the designer. Where the solid 100% black is the image will be bright and vibrant indicating the main or real shape of the product. The bleed area which is 50% transparent will show a duller “50% transparent” print indicating to the consumer this is reserve print area to compensate for the bleed. i.e.:

This is your new mask for your product. You should also make a new product image that assists the consumer to know what is the product and what is the mask. i.e.:

The production file will not come out semi transparent. It will be the full size of the whole mask (100% back part PLUS the bleed) and will be 100% solid. Perfect to print and compensate for your bleed.

You can see a working demo of this bleed product here: https://decodemo.secure-decoration.com/designer/customize/956283?bc%5Bc%5D=32448&bt=3&dp=2

This short video walks you through step-by-step limiting products on a site then limiting access to the site itself.

The prices will be as shown below and only for printing (which means that the price doesn’t include the base price of the garment):

Again, this will require customizing prices on the product level, but I still should start with the defaults, and in fact this is actually a good occasion to go through the hierarchy of prices in Deco Network.
1. In this scenario I will setup the price for Printing, so first I need to go to Manage Fulfillment > Settings > and click on Printing

2. Click on Decoration Pricing Methods

3. You will find three options there:

• White/light/dark – this is for product where you charge differently for printing on white garments versus dark garment
• Single – this one is used when the color of the garment doesn’t matter
• Table – you can select this one when there is a dependency in the price whether you print front only, back only, or front and back

For printing on garments you will most likely choose option one or three. In this scenario however I decided to choose option two just to keep it simple (remember this scenario was created for the presentational purpose only)

4. Save the changes
5. Now, still being on the printing page, please click on “Default Decoration Pricing.” This will let you to set the default price per design area.

In this place you may have a question what should I do if I want to use price tables for hats products, but single price for blankets, or apparel. The answer is that this is just the default pricing method. You can override that selection for each product type in Products > Product Type > Configure Defaults. OK, but what if I want to change price for each design area on individual product under the product type “Apparel.”  The answer is, this is what we are going to do next

6. To set individual prices for each design area, I will first create those design areas as shown in step 1 in Manage Fulfillment > Products > “configure” for one of the existing products (or you can also create a new product) > views&colors

7. Next, click on “pricing” tab and then “edit” for the decoration prices.

8. By default you are not going to see many options on the pop up window. In order to see them, select “override default decoration pricing for this product” then select “Use Advanced Pricing” This will now show you all of the locations on your product. Make sure to untick all of the checkboxes next to area names in order to override those prices.

9. Save the changes

This tutorial should give you a good understanding of how you can modify prices on each level of  pricing structure in fulfillment center. There is one more level where those prices can be affected on the store level (by changing the markup) but this is beyond the scope of this tutorial. That said, I am happy to address any questions you may have. Also, if you feel that another tutorial is needed to cover store markup, please let me know in your comments.

Just to summarize and revise everything what we have done, think about the pricing hierarchy in DecoNetwork as shown below:

If you’ve never tried FireBug I strongly recommend you do. It’s a great plug-in for FireFox and Chrome to help you preview and test your CSS changes your website without affecting how your site looks like to other browsers.

Essentially it lets you edit the HTML and CSS on your site while it is live but only you on your local PC will see these changes. When you are happy with the changes you can copy the CSS code out and paste it into your real site and the changes will then be live for everyone to see.

You can download FireBug at http://getfirebug.com/. The intro video is a little dry and covers lots of stuff that may not be relevant for you, so check out this great intro video on editing CSS in FireBug:

Microsoft have warned of a recently discovered security flaw in their Internet Explorer browser that can potentially affect hundreds of millions of users.

According to Microsoft the bug can allow attackers to take control of the PC after visiting a malicious website. Being ‘zero-day’ the exploit takes advantage of a security vulnerability on the same day that the vulnerability becomes generally known, meaning zero days between discovery and the first attack.

Microsoft have released a temporary patch call ‘The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit‘ until a full patch can be released.

The German government has taken the unprecedented step of urging all its citizens to not use Internet Explorer. For speed and performance purposes we at DecoNetwork recommend other browsers such as Google Chrome or FireFox. Not only will your web browsing speed increase but you’ll also be able to enjoy visually rich websites as they were designed to be enjoyed as both Google Chrome and FireFox have better support for web standards and the ever emerging HTML5 and CSS3.

DecoNetwork is proud to announce the availability of the first Designious licensed design collection in DecoNetwork.

This ‘Grunge‘ collection is a first of many more to come and available for you to activate in your DecoNetwork website today.

Activating the Designious collection

1. Log into your DecoNetwork website.
2. Browse to Manage Fulfillment > Stock Designs.
3. Select Add DecoNetwork design collections from the right Page Actions panel.
4. Check the Designious Grunge Collection and click Save.

The designs are available on a per-use-fee basis which means it costs you nothing to add to your website! Only when a customer selects a design does a small per-use design fee as low as $0.35 apply to the product being purchased. This fee is paid by the customer during checkout.

You can now define a price table based on the quantity purchased whereas in the past you had to use a discount table to provide a discount based on volume:

Then on your front end site your customers will see exactly what it will coast for each product breakdown:

This short videos shows you how to use the new product price breakdown features:

The team at DecoNetwork are pleased to announce the release of DecoNetwork version 5.

This exciting release is packed with improvements and new features crafted from valuable feedback from amazing DecoNetwork users. Here’s what some of our beta testers have to say about version 5:

“After using it only for a few days I can only say WOW!” – Derek

“I upgraded to version 5 this afternoon and have to say well done, from what I’ve seen so far the changes are massive improvements” – Sarah

“V5 looking great and is an excellent work from your team.” – Stefan

“I just have to say the new UI is brilliant. Very intuitive and mighty handsome. I am also thrilled about vector text, affiliate management and product category flexibility. These just to name a few. Excellent job! Your Fan, Tommy” – Tommy

For a list of what’s available in version 5 please visit www.deconetwork.com/version5.

How do I update to version 5?

Simple! Log into your DecoNetwork website and select the “DecoNetwork version 5 is now available. Update now!” button on your dashboard.

Are there any charges or costs to the update?

None, zippo, nada! As a subscriber your update to DecoNetwork version 5 is 100% free.

Are the changes quite significant?

Thanks to your feedback we’ve made some amazing changes to the back-end user interface to make DecoNetwork more user friendly and intuitive than ever before. To help with these changes we’re prepared a short guided tour of DecoNetwork version 5 which you can see when you first log in to you new version 5 or access from you dashboard.

We’d like to thank the hundreds of DecoNetwork users who participated in our beta testing for version 5 and an extended thank you to each and every DecoNetwork site owner for helping us shape DecoNetwork version 5 to be our best release yet.

From the entire DecoNetwork team – Thank you!

For example, did you know that FedEx logo contains a hidden arrow symbolizing a speedy and accurate delivery?

And that Amazon supply everything  you from ‘A’ to ‘Z’?

Check out the full article here for an interesting read.

Fitting considering Monroe predicted exactly this over 50 years ago…

“I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful but because I had never belonged to anything or anyone else.”

Turquoise Marilyn, 1964 by Andy Warhol

Yes, that is right… you can sell iPhone covers through DecoNetwork, and in this tutorial I will try to explain how this can be done step by step, so please stay with me.  Also, for the purpose of this tutorial I will use V5 version just to tease you a little bit, as the official release will have place on September, 12th

1.    First, we should probably start with the category in which we will keep our iPhone covers.  This can be done in Manage Fulfillment > Products > and under Categories on the left side click “Add.”

2.  Once you have the product type(category), we can start with the process of creating custom product: iPhone cover. To do it please click  on “Add Custom Product”

3.    Now, you need to choose Product Type (the one you created), provide the name of your product, and choose the number of colors on the product (one).  Please see an image below:

4.    Next, it will ask to select Product View Method. For iPhone, select “Upload separate images for each color.”

5.    I would assume that you have an iPhone image and this is the page where you can upload it. If you don’t have the image, please feel free to download it from here: click to download The preferred format for that image is a .jpg or .png file in size 400px by 400px, but this is not the strict rule (you can upload an image in any size you want, but then you will need to adjust it in the designer area to be displayed correctly).

6.    In the next step, you can Manage Your Product View:
a) You can change the product view name (i.e. Front View)
b) You can add additional areas where you will be able to add designs
c) You can modify location size
d) You can choose decoration types which will apply to the certain design areas
e) You can upload your own shape

7.    For printable area, you have a selection of three basic shapes but for iPhone you need to create a custom one. That kind of shape can be done in any type of graphic software such as Corel. Basically the custom shape is a mask where the solid  color represents the custom design area and transparency is masking anything else. You can also download the mask I used for the purpose of this tutorial from here: click here to download
8.    Now you can upload this shape in the product view:

Please note: The design area in the designer is scalable which means that the same size can either represent 2×3 or 20×30. You just need to lock the sizes first to adjust it to your template.
9.    Once you are happy with the output click “continue.” On the next page it will ask you for the color of the phone. In my case, I select “white” even though an actual color will be designed by the customer (but let’s say it is a starting point).

10.    You can also add additional product views (i.e. the back of the iPhone) by repeating the same steps as above, except you don’t have to create a new product, but just the new product view.

11.    Your product will also need to have prices and some general information provided, but this process is not any different to other products which you already have in the system.

Once you are happy with those settings, please save the changes.
12.    The product should be now ready for customization in your store. Lets take a quick look on our iPhone in the designer:

You can also play with the sample iPhone product created on our demo site here: iPhone demo product

I hope this helps. Also, if there is a product in your mind such as banner, football table (yep, why not?), or… just please let me know in the comments area, and I will do my best to make it happen