Latest From Blogigs

How To Start An Online Store With WordPress

Posted: 13 May 2010 10:02 PM PDT

Previously, I showed how you can integrate the 7 Dollar Script into your Wordpress blog so you can sell your own items through your blog. This method is cheap and simple. Anyone who has some knowledge of basic html should be able to set it up without much outside help. However, using this method does have it’s limit if you plan to have a full fledged online store selling a wide variety of items. If you plan to do so, there is another method which you can use using WordPress and a eCommerce plugin. The beauty of this method is, it’s free.

I received a request from one Mr. Amit Sharma of Packt Publishing to review a book. Packt Publishing is a book publisher located in Birmingham, United Kingdom. Unlike other publishing houses Packt Publishing only deals with Technical and IT Books and their inventory is comprehensive, offering a wide variety of technical topics, catering for beginners to advanced levels.

WordPress 2.9 E-Commerce

WordPress 2.9 E-Commerce

In line with what I blog about here, Mr. Sharma requested me to review the book titled WordPress 2.9 E-Commerce. by Brian Bondari. Though I requested for a printed copy, it was unfortunate that Packt Publishing only ships to the US, UK, Europe and selected Asian countries. Mine is not on the list, so I had to make do with the eBook Version.

Personally, I hate reading eBooks simply because it does not give me the pleasure of licking my forefinger while flipping over the pages. Nevertheless, I found the book very well written with loads of information which provides those who wants to start a online business or an eStore an easy to to follow, step by step breakdown of what they must do to get their stores running smoothly.

Be reminded that this book is an instructional book. It takes you through the process of starting your Online Store from scrtach. It is meant for WordPress users only and if you are using another platform, you will not find anything useful.

Of course then, even if you have never used WordPress before, this book will explain and guide you on how to start a WordPress blog, get the proper WordPress Themes and the proper WordPress plugins. All the scripts needed are open source and so it’s free. The only probable investments you have to make is buying the domain and of course getting a good web host. Those who already has both can start immediately, following the detailed instructions given in WordPress 2.9 E-Commerce.

Skipping the lengthy Preface and the Index pages, there are 11 solid chapters and 2 Appendix Chapters that takes you through the whole process of starting your Online Business. Chapters includes:

Preface
Chapter 1: Getting Started with WordPress and e-Commerce
Chapter 2: Getting Ready to Sell
Chapter 3: Configure Your e-Commerce Settings
Chapter 4: Managing Your Product Catalog
Chapter 5: User Accounts: Customers and Staff
Chapter 6: Checkout and Payment Setup
Chapter 7: Shipping, Taxes, and Processing Orders
Chapter 8: Themes and Design Elements
Chapter 9: Deploy, Secure, and Maintain Your Shop
Chapter 10: Alternative e-Commerce Plugins
Chapter 11: Marketing Your Shop
Appendix A: Gold Cart Module Extendability
Appendix B: Setting Up a WAMP Testing Platform
Index

A bulleted summary of each chapter cam be read at the WordPress 2.9 E-Commerce Table Of Contents Page, so I will skip this part. The actual chapters are very detailed with screenshots to emphasize and have you understand better of what has been taught.

My Opinions.

Except for the very lengthy preface which most eBooks tend to have and which I always skip, I really liked the book. It is how all Books should be written and presented. Every detail have been dealt with and it does not leave the reader hanging in mid-air with unanswered questions. Like I said, this is a technical walk-through and show-how. Nowhere in the book will you find any claims of magic or secret formulas that will make you millions from doing E-Commerce after reading the book.

Also, since this is a ‘real’ book which you must buy with your hard earned cash, there are not even one hyperlink inserted in the whole book trying to recommend another product to you. It is very professional of them and it is something that Internet marketers should adhere to when selling their own eBooks.

The feeling I got after finishing the books is one of satisfaction. I sense that the writer have given his best and have taken full consideration of his readers. He wants those who bought the book to feel that it is money well spent. He has succeeded.

——————————————————————————————————–

Just for the record, Packt Publishing supports Open Source. Their proclamation at the end of the book states:

Packt Open Source Project Royalties

When we sell a book written on an Open Source project, we pay a royalty directly to that project. Therefore by purchasing WordPress 2.9 e-Commerce, Packt will have given some of the money received to the WordPress project.

In the long term, we see ourselves and you—customers and readers of our books—as part of the Open Source ecosystem, providing sustainable revenue for the projects we publish on. Our aim at Packt is to establish publishing royalties as an essential part of the service and support a business model that sustains Open Source.

If you’re working with an Open Source project that you would like us to publish on, and subsequently pay royalties to, please get in touch with us.

Disclaimer: Other than the complimentary copy of the eBook, this writer is not compensated in any what way for this review. Though some links are affiliated, links pointing to Packt Publishing are not affiliate links. All opinions stated in this review are strictly personal.

Add your opinions and comments for How To Start An Online Store With WordPress

Make Money Online Away From Home I stopped writing about making money online quite sometime ago. Reason being, I discovered that to really make money online, there are certain things that, if revealed publicly, like in this blog for instance, can earn the wrath of big Daddy G. However, if the truth is not revealed,...
Start An Adword Campaign Took advantage of the $100 Google Analytics Adwords Bonus that was given out recently to all Analytics user to start an Adword Campaign. I have never ran an Adword campaign before and thus had no idea how to run a successful campaign. Even though it was a free $100,...
Doing Business Online. Just the mention of the words Doing Business Online turns off lots of bloggers and it is kind of surprising as there are so many of them who wants to make money online. I was also one of the skeptical ones until recently. Of course I read lots of...
How To Make More Money With Your Online Business For those who have been following my series of posts on how to sell your own products with your WordPress blog, we come to this concluding post where we will see how we can link our products “BUY” button to the templates that we have uploaded. In the last post...
Blogging Straight To The Point. There are blogs and then there are blogs. Some blogs give me the information I want from the first sentence. Some blogs, I fail to get their message even till the last word. Read more on Blogging Straight To The Point…. Save This Digg Tis Recommend on Facebook Buzz it...