The 4-Hour E-Commerce Site

All + All -

HIT RECORD!!!
WEEK 2 - TERMS OF THE TRADE
+ - Fear factors
- Source of inaction and procrastination
- How do you set up an e-commerce system?Addressed last week.
- + - What e-commerce laws apply?
  - You can't possibly know them all.
  - Best to ask solicitor/attorney and/oraccountant, but not immediately necessary
  - Strive to keep a "clean" shop and you should be OK
- + - Keeping books and accounts
  - Get a book or attend a short courseon book-keeping
  - Good free program: GnuCashhttp://gnucash.org/
  - Uses double-entry book-keeping; morecomplex than single-entry book-keeping
  - Commercial solutions: QuickBooks,Sage
- Notify tax authorities about your business;make sure you are familiar with tax law
+ - Legal pages
- This Is Not Legal Advice
- + - The pages Google look for
  - Terms Of Service
  - Privacy Policy
  - About Us
  - + - Contact Us
    - At a minimum, an email address
    - Businesses in the UK must state their physical address
    - + - Help desk service recommended
      - osTicket.com(to be demonstrated)
- + - You may also need the following:
  - E-Commerce and Refund policy
  - Earnings disclaimer
  - Affiliate terms and conditions(not with eShop)
- Recommended templates resource(UK website, content free):http://tinyurl.com/yeh99cg
+ - Points to address
- + - Terms of service
  - Details of who you are
  - The uses to which your content can be put
  - No warranties concerning accuracy of information
  - Use of website at user's own risk
  - Copyright vested in content and rules that apply to reproduction
  - Acknowledgement of all trademarks used
  - Unauthorised use giving rise to potential claimsfor damages and/or prosecution
  - Disclaim responsibility for the content of other websites linked
  - Country of legal jurisdiction
- + - Privacy policy
  - Nature of information collected
    Where the information goes
    The uses to which the information will be put
    Use of cookies
    Website analytics services
    Google Analytics requirements"You must post a privacy policy and that policymust provide notice of your use of a cookiethat collects anonymous traffic data."Ref: http://www.google.com/analytics/tos.html
    Confidentiality of users' information
    How users may stop direct marketing uses
    UK: Data Protection Act may apply
- + - Refund policy
  - Under what circumstances you will provide refunds
    Statutory rights disclaimer
    UK: Distance Selling Regulations and E-Commerce Regulations:http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/legal/distance-selling-regulations/
    Business-to-business or business-to-consumer trading
- + - Earnings disclaimer
  - Products provided "for entertainment purposes only":probably only possible for business-to-consumer transactions
    Specifically disclaim any statements of earnings potential
- + - Affiliate Ts and Cs
  - How and when they get paid
    How much they get paid
    What they can do with their affiliate links(publish on blogs, use with AdWords, add to PDF reports etc)
    They must declare their interest in editorial-stylecontent (product reviews etc)
    No SPAM policy
    Redirection of affiliate links using malware (spyware etc)and other unethical behaviour
    Who assumes the responsibility of payment of taxessuch as income tax and VAT
    Buying through own links
    Not presenting misleading information about the product
    Not deep-linking straight to order forms
    Not using the affiliate programme as a reasonto buy your product (pyramid sales)
    Your right to change prices and terms from time to time
    Must comply with all relevant laws of their own country
    Must comply with all relevant laws of your country
    What happens if the terms are broken(reserve the right to suspend the affiliate)
+ - Sales page copy and testimonials
- FTC regulations: average results shouldbe declared, not exceptional
- "Results not typical" considered insufficient
- Must be able to prove claims
- Regulations apply internationally ifany nexus in the USA exists (e.g. affilialtes)
+ - Customer support
- Email possible (but hard to keep track of and lose threads)
- + - Help desk software: http://osticket.com/Gives better impression, installs quickly
  - Installation instructions:http://osticket.com/wiki/Installation
  - Useful tool for unpacking: 7-Zip
  - 1. Download ZIP file
  - 2. Set up new MySQL database recordingdatabase name, username and password
  - 3. Upload ZIP file to your host
  - 4. Decompress the ZIP file on your hostin a 'temp' directory using the file manager
  - 5. Move the files in osticket_1.6.0\upload\wherever you want your helpdesk service
  - 6. Enter the URL of your helpdesk servicein your browser
  - 7. Follow the prompts to finish the installation
+ - Google Analytics set-up
- Installation guide here:http://bit.ly/78hCda
- Add new website profile
- Generate tracking code and grab website account ID
- Add Ultimate Google Analytics plugin and set up
- + - Create product purchase as a goal
  - Shopping cart funnel when using PayPalfor a downloadable product:/shopping-cart//shopping-cart/checkout//shopping-cart/checkout/?eshopaction=redirect<payment processor>/shopping-cart/thank-you/?eshopaction=success/downloads/
+ - Piwik Analytics set-up
- Available from http://piwik.org/
- Real-time results, you own the data
- + - Installing Piwik
  - Documentation and download:http://piwik.org/docs/installation/
  - Requirements: PHP 5.1.3; MySQL 4.1;PHP extensions pdo and pdo_mysql
  - 1. Download latest.zip
  - 2. Upload latest.zip to your hosting service
  - 3. Unpack the archive and delete the .zip
  - 4. Navigate to URL and follow the prompts
  - 5. Set up MySQL database and recorddatabase name, username and password
  - 6. Follow through the rest of the installation
- + - Either grab code and use it directly in theme
  - 1. Copy Javascript code from Piwik
  - 2. Go to Appearance -> Editor
  - 3. Load footer.php
  - 4. Paste Piwik code before </body>
  - 5. Save the update
- + - Or use Piwik Analytics Wordpress plugin
  - 1. Install Piwik Analytics plugin
  - 2. Configure; use Piwik site id 1
  - 3. Set up to point to Piwik script
- Set up product purchase as a goal:base URL + /shopping-cart/thank-you/
+ - Challenge: Install one analytics service(either Google or Piwik)
- Visit members' areahttp://4hourecommercesite.dojotal.com/members/
- Add comment to 'week 2 challenge' post