Best way to list and manage a large volume of products
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Hi,
This question relates to my test blog: http://indulicape.wordpress.com/
Before I start, I know that there are “e-shop” plugins available for for self-hosted WP blogs, but I am definitely looking for a solution which applies to the WP.com hosted blogs.The purpose of this particular blog is to market products – in this case wholesale trees. There are over 300 products – i.e. different tree types.
– Each tree has both a common name (friendly) and an industry name (scientific)
– Each tree could fall into multiple categories. E.g. Indigenous, non-indigenous, big, medium, small, suitable for windy conditions, suitable for areas with little water..etc.My concerns are the initial effort required as well as ongoing maintenance of the blog: I am lookling for the most practical and efficient method of hosting the product information and I am not sure which features to use, since I am fairly new to WP features such as posts, categories and tags.
This is my curren plan of action:
1) Create all possible categories first. (Including alphbatical one’s…A, B, C…etc)
2) Create a single post for each and every product (tree). Post will provide a photo and some details >> associate every post with with relevant categories.
3) Use category widget so that visitors can quickly locate trees based on certain categories, or alphabetica, assumine they know the names. (I would also include seearch widget).My only concern is that I will need to create over 300 posts and upload over 300 images, which might prove to be time consuming.
With above in mind, can anyone suggest if I am on the right path with how I plan to publish and manage the data?
Many thanksJulian
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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The purpose of this particular blog is to market products – in this case wholesale trees. There are over 300 products – i.e. different tree types.
Hello there,
Have you read these support documentation entries?
Types of blogs allowed and not allowed st wordpress.com >
http://wordpress.com/types-of-blogs/
No blogger initiated advertising >
http://en.support.wordpress.com/advertising/
wordpress.COM versus wordpress.ORG -
Oops….ok I think I may have misundestood WP blog can and can be used for…will read through it now. Thanks
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I dont understand. I’ve read though the 3 links above. Unless I have missed something, I don’t see anything wrong (at least according to WP advertising policy) with what I am using this blog for.
I am not running ads (e.g. AdSense, etc). I am not using it to generate obscene amounts of traffic to another site. (This is my site!)
I am simply creating a Blog relating to a business. The link relating to “types of blogs” states the following:
“Business: Professionals ranging from realtors to lawyers and stock brokers are using WordPress to share their expertise, and companies have discovered the power of blogs to personally engage with their customers. “
So what am I doing wrong here?
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I did not suggest you were doing anything wrong. As your are new I felt it was important for you to read those sections. In addition to those restrictions please be aware that wordpress.COM blogs cannot be equipped for ecommerce and there are code restrictions. You can only use a contact form and/or a PayPal dontaion button.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/tag/code/
http://en.support.wordpress.com/paypal/
http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact-form/ -
1) Create all possible categories first. (Including alphbatical one’s…A, B, C…etc)
2) Create a single post for each and every product (tree). Post will provide a photo and some details >> associate every post with with relevant categories.
3) Use category widget so that visitors can quickly locate trees based on certain categories, or alphabetica, assumine they know the names. (I would also include seearch widget).All wordpress.com blogs are equipped with search widgets. The reults they produce are drawn from post content.
You can create as many Categories as you wish here > Dashboard > Categories. You can also create a hierarchical structure of sub-categories under Categories. However, do be aware that widgets do not display null data. Until those Categories you created on the page indicated are actually assigned to a published post they will not appear on your blog.
All Categories and sub-categories are displayed in alphabetical order and the only way you cane change that aplhabetical order is by inserting numbers into Category and sub-category titles.
Example:
Apples
Bananas
Cherries
can be reordered by doing this:
1 Bananas
2 Cherries
3 Apples
http://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/categories-widget/My only concern is that I will need to create over 300 posts and upload over 300 images, which might prove to be time consuming.
You can upload image into the Media Library in bulk. However, they remain l be “unattached” until you insert them into posts you create and publish.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/media/unattached-files/
Hope this helps. :) -
Hi Timethief,
I understand that you guys see a lot of posts from people who have clearly not read through any of the documentation, so thanks for the heads up. :)
Also – thank you for tips re categories, etc,…will play around with it and see what I come up with.
Julian
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@julianfaasen I recommend contacting staff directly to see if they will have a problem with the use of your blog/website in the way stated above. It’s best to be safe then sorry in the long run because your website could be deleted if they don’t allow that type of usage here @ WP.com → http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/
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Honestly, I love WP.com but I really don’t think it’s suited for ecommerce at all. You would be far better off with independently-hosted WordPress from WordPress.org, as then you can use secure ecommerce plugins that will allow your shop much more flexibility and make your customers much happier in the long run.
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I agree completely with what Raincoaster says. There are a number of very good e-commerce plugins for self-hosted blogs, and trying to do anything near that on a .COM blog is nearly impossible. This service just isn’t set up for that stuff, and probably won’t be for the foreseeable future.
For a self-hosted wordpress blog, figure an average total monthly cost (including hosting and the domain registration) of about $10 to $25 depending on the host and how much storage space and bandwidth you need. There is a link at .ORG to recommended hosting companies that work well with wordpress.
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Hi,
I spoke with Anthony from WP support who confirmed there are no problems with how I plan to use this blog. Perhaps my original post was a little vague. Let me rephrase.
This blog will be used to disseminate information relating to the trees that “Induli” grows and sells. This would include all the different types of trees, what conditions they are suitable for and a photo. The target market for this blog is mainly existing clients, so that they can easily view the information online as opposed to receiving sizey e-mails, etc.
This blog is not aimed at driving or generating direct sales via the blog itself. It’s basically a company profile. It so happens there is a lot of information and I am looking for the best method of structuring the data.
Thanks for everyone’s input.
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