A guide for clients

MAINTAINING YOUR

eCOMMERCE SITE

by

Maki Creative Web Solutions

updated: May 2013

Contents

- What is WordPress®

- What can i do with it

- Login

- Posts

- Comments

- Users

- Orders

- eMail

- Digital Marketing Framework

- Content Marketing

- Blogging for Business

What is WordPress®

The primary assertion made by the GNU

General Public Licence is

that all source code for any GPL-licensed

software must be made openly available for

anybody to use on any basis, including those

with commercial intent. Furthermore, any

modifications made to the GPL-licensed source

code must be made freely available

if that software is to be redistributed in any way.

WordPress® is an open-source content

management system (CMS) licenced under the

GNU General Public Licence.

It is by far the most used platform for creating rich

website on the internet due to its simplicity and

flexibility.

WordPress® core functionality can be extended

for use in creating blogs, information-rich

websites, content marketing and affiliated

marketing websites, light to medium-level

ecommerce, membership site, intranets and

others.

Plugins and themes are available through the

wordpress directory or commecial enterprises to

provide for added funcionality and customization.

A Content Management

System (CMS) is a software that

allows content to be added and managed

easily on a website by identifying it a text,

images, link, menus, user etc. and dealing

with this content in a consistent way. It

comprises of a database for storing content,

PHP code for logic and functionality, HTML

for communication in browser, CSS for

presentation, and others

What can i do with it

• Write posts

• Moderate comments

• Manage users

• Manage orders

• View stats

Proper management of the website aims to

channel traffic on the internet to you online

business.

Combined with social media,It should be used for:

• Public Relations

• Customer Service

• Loyalty building

• Collaboration

• Networking

• Thought-leadership

• and of course, Customer acquisition.

Havin your business online is not enough - your site allows you to engage in full-duplex conversations

with your audience.

Login

Login page

Go to → www.yoursite.co.za/wp-admin

(if site is still under development then go to →

www.yoursite.co.za/wp/wp-admin)

Dashboard

The dashboard is your landing page after

login. This is the backend of your website - the

administrative area - also called the backend of

your site . Menu items on the backend will differ

according to your user type.

This will gives you menu option to create and

manage post, comments, users and orders.

NOTE: It is recommended not to make any other

changes as your web developer will be resposible

for this. Ignoring this warning may cause

inconsistencies on your website.

login page

dashboard

Posts

To post an article

On you backend menu ↘ Posts → Add New Post

The Add New Post page

Enter the title of your article → Use the wordpress

text editor to write you article, and if you need

to include images/videos use →

Upload Files →drag and drop the media you want

to upload onto the drop area and →

your post, and if you are satisfied with

the results, you may click on ☺

NOTE: You eCommerce Products already use your

tags and categories attributes. Therefore you do

not have to worry about other options in the Add

New Post page.

You should however “allow comments”.

new post

add new post page

Comments

Managing comments

From the Comments area in the back end,

administrators can view all comments from one

location; a contextual menu is revealed for each

comment when moused over.

This menu allows administrators to approve or

reject a comment on the fly, reply directly to

a comment for display on the front end of the

website, edit the comment, mark it as spam, or

trash it.

This panel is particularly useful in situations where

all comments on a site are configured to be

moderated by an administrator prior

to publishing, a practice that completely

eliminates comment spam.comments page

Users

Administrator → Has access to all features and

functionality across the site.

Editor → Has significantly less authority than an

Admin, but is able to create, manage, and edit

and approve all posts.

Author → Has the authority to create, edit, and

publish their own posts solely.

Contributor → Has the authority to create and edit

their own posts, but cannot publish them.

Subscriber → Can read posts and add and read

comments, but has no authority to create post

content of any kind. New users are assigned as

subscriber by default.

users

Orders

Managing Orders

On you backend menu ↘ Ready! Ecommerce →

Orders

This will open the orders page where you can view

orders and their state. Click on an order to open

the Order Changes Audit

The Order Changes Audit page will give you

information about the ordered products,

addresses, payment modules and cost

associated with the order.

Remember to change the status of the order after

every change and check “Notify customer“.

Allways to save changes.

Ready!Ecommerce menu

orders page

eMail

Login page

Go to → www.yoursite.co.za/webmail → enter

your credentials. Choose one of the email clients

listed if there is no autoload set.

E-mail notifications

You will always be aware of activity on your site

through e-mail notifications. New orders, post,

comments and user registration will trigger the

website to send you a notifications.

This ensures that you are able to respond to your

users in time.

login page

Digital Marketing Framework

Content Marketing

Content marketing embodies the concept

of contributing constructive, insightful and

honest material that is wothwhile to your

audience as a way to invite attention to your

services.

It fully exercises the marketing concept in

that all efforts are directed at communicating

with the consumer on terms that are set by

the consumer.

Take your time to formulate a clear and

measurable strategy to enjoy the benefits of

content marketing.

Blogging for business allow you to build authority

in an a market by sharing industry information.

Your search engine exposure will increase thus

result in more organic traffic.

Tips

• Keep a log of frequently asked questions.

• In-source content by allowing each of your staff

to write articles.

• Keep a schedule for making regular post.

• Have a fresh set of eyes on a topic, have a

unique experience with a customer, and use

some of your products as examples in your

article.

• Populate your social network channels with your

blog posts - daily - use old posts at times.

• Let your walk-in customers know about your

blog and encourage them to paticipate.

• DO NOT BE AFRAID TO WRITE.

Blogging for Business

website development

graphic design

digital marketing

mobile applications

jabu.hlong@gmail.com

makicws.wordpress.com

linkedin.com/in/makicwd

facebook.com/makicws

twitter.com/makicws

Thank you!Gift Hlongoane is a front-end developer at Maki Creative Web Solutions and also a founding member at Maki Creatives Network.

If he is not looking to ace his exams, you may find him bringing together individuals across various fields encouraging support structures or otherwise helping clients build reliable websites.

Credits

• The talented flickr community that embrace Creative-

Commons licensing. www.flickr.com• @davidgillespie

• @mzkagan, @infiltrators (http://brandinfiltration.com)

• Tamar Weinberg. The New Community Rules. O’Reilly

2009.

• Dr Dave Chaffey. Burberry case study. www.smartinsights.com/presentations. 2009.

• ICrossing. http://www.iCrossing.com/ebooks• Olinik M, Armitage RJ. The WordPress Anthology.

Sitepoint. 2011

I have done my best to attribute each picture to its author, as well as a quote if

I used one. If I have made a mistake please contact me jabu.hlong@gmail.com

and I will correct it. If I have used an image that belongs to you and you would

like me to take it out please feel free to mail me and I will remove it.

© 2013 by Gift Jabu Hlongoane

Copyright holder is licensing this under the Creative Commons License,

Attribution 3.0.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ ©

Please feel free to share this e-book with anyone whom you think may

benefit from using it.