Website Resources

November 30, 2009

General Website Info:

When you get your Distributor DistributorCentral account, you also get a free website creation software. There is no limit to how many pages or websites you can have or what you can put on your site. We have online video tutorials, training seminars and templates that provide support to help you build your site, but the design work is up to you and your imagination.

DistributorCentral will also host your domain name(s) and your e-mail at no charge. With the customer-friendly version of the DistributorCentral product catalog, your customers can search for products and place orders on your website. If you already have a website of your own, we can provide you with a link for the product catalog and shopping cart that you can put onto your existing site.

DistributorCentral Example Websites:

The DistributorCentral website software is extremely versatile and will accommodate the needs of users with no website design experience and those with years of HTML and website experience. See the list below to see sites within DistributorCentral ranging from simple to advanced.

Simple – simple.dcdistributordemo.com – Basic website design with no HTML/CSS used

Intermediate – www.dcdistributordemo.com – Moderate website design used with high use of graphics and no HTML/CSS used

Advanced – advanced.dcdistributordemo.com – Complex website design with high use of graphics and HTML/CSS

Niche/Target – green.dcdistributordemo.com – Moderate website design with a customized catalog and low use of HTML/CSS

Resource Site

Image Resource Website www.distributorcentral.com/websites/imagesforyourwebsite

Helpful Reference Sites

www.distributorcentral.com/websites/distributor (reference & educational site)

Here is a good site for general website design http://websitehelpers.com/design.

Check out this site to help create images and buttons: http://www.cooltext.com

You have the following options for creating a website in your DistributorCentral account:

1 – You can use our web editor that is included in your DistributorCentral account to design a site. There is no cost involved, however you will need to dedicate time learning our system by watching our website video tutorials.

2 – We have a 99$ website feature where we can design a website for you based off our templates. In your DC account is a  list of templates that you can use for our $99.00 website special (one time setup fee, no monthly or reoccurring charges).

3 – If you want a more advanced website, DistributorCentral has partnered with the following people to provide website design using the DistributorCentral software. Each designer works independently and will have his or her own price structure.Contact the designers to inquire about estimated time of completion, the style of your site and other details.

Click here to view their contact information

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Banner Advertising On DC Home Page

November 23, 2009

You might notice a new look on your Distributor DC home page. On either side, there are now small Supplier ads. These ads include specials and new products that these Suppliers are offering.

Suppliers pay to provide a system to distributors free of charge and part of that support is through the opportunity to display pertinent ads about specials, new products, and other information to distributors.

If it is found that Distributors feel strongly about this new feature, there may be an “ad-free” version of the DC home page available in the future.

Suppliers: Contact your Account Representative today to display your ad! Call 888-516-7401.

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New Feature! Supplier Ratings

November 23, 2009

We have added new features that allow you to rate your experience with Suppliers on DistributorCentral.

1. You can rate the overall experience with Suppliers by clicking on the Rate Your Suppliers link on the home page of your DC account.
RateSupplier

2. You can also rate your experience with Suppliers on individual orders as well from the summary page of each order.
RateSupplier#1

3. Finally, you can rate quality of supplier product information at the bottom of the details page for each product in DistributorCentral.

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Suppliers…Make Sure to Optimize Your Products

November 23, 2009

ATTENTION SUPPLIERS:
When entering your products into your DistributorCentral account, make sure to include plenty of relevant keywords in your product description. Strong product descriptions will make it easier for Distributors to find your products from within their accounts, and will make it easier for them to sell your products on their websites.

Look at these to examples below:

This product has a weak description and virtually no keywords which would make it very difficult to find in the product catalog unless the customer knew the exact product name or number. You should not expect products with descriptions like this to have much success in DistributorCentral.

The Eastwood Series with Metallic Accents
# WAMA-150
The Eastwood Series with Metallic Accents

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This product on the other hand has a great product description with lots of keywords which makes it easy to find with keyword searches and will help the Distributors sell the product on their websites since end customers will know more about the product and feel more comfortable purchasing it.

Chubs Widebody Ballpoint Pen w/ Rubber Grip
# 5003 Widebody Ballpoint Pen w/ Grip
As the name denotes, this pen is a bit thick (or Chubbier, if you will). Great for your advertising message to stand out with its translucent barrel. Choose a black imprint on the yellow or a silver or white on the other colors to. Black rubber grip with chrome colored accents. This is a wide body, retractable, grip, click, ball point pen.
• This is one of our many great looking ink pens
• This pen is a great writing instrument for advertisements
such as bank accessories, real estate, office supplies, health care or many other business.
• Med. Point Black Ink
• Comes in 5 different colors

 

Products with strong descriptions like the example above, not only improve the integrity of the product catalog on DistributorCentral, but also help Distributors increase your sales. Take pride in your products, it may take a little more time to add strong descriptions, but it will be well worth the effort.

Visit this site to get ideas for keywords to add to your products in DistributorCentral,
http://www.google.com/sktool/#

Visit this site to learn more about optimizing your products and about Preferred Product Placement,
www.distributorcentral.com/websites/pso

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Distributors: be vocal to your Suppliers

November 18, 2009

Distributors, are you letting your Suppliers know where you find their products? You should.

When you tell your Suppliers how you found them and their data, you are benefiting yourself and the Supplier. A Supplier usually budgets a certain amount of money each year for advertising and marketing. If they don’t find a benefit in advertising a certain way, they will stop.

This benefits you as the Distributor because you are insuring that you will continue to be able to find this Suppliers products and this Supplier will continue to provide you these free services. Also by “Getting the word out”, you will be helping to bring more quality Suppliers to our database of products.

This benefits the Supplier because they know where they are getting the greatest benefit and Return on Investment.

So, the next time that you call a Supplier, make sure to mention “I found your products on DistributorCentral.”

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New Easy Website Editing Option Available!

November 13, 2009

There is a new feature offered that would allow you to edit your website while in “Preview” mode rather than going directly into the website editor.

You can try this by following these steps below:

  1. Log into your DistributorCentral account
  2. Go to Website Menu> Add/Edit Websites
  3. Click on Edit to the Right of your website
  4. Here at the top right you will see a new Preview link. It will say “Edit/Preview“

preview-edit2

preview-edit

When your Preview window opens, you can hover your mouse over your content and it will turn yellow. If you click on any of that content, the system will open up the website editor to the area where you can make that change.

When you save that change, the editor window will close and the preview will refresh automatically.

preview-edit3

Remember to Publish Your Changes.

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Supplier Pricing Updates

November 11, 2009

It is that time of year again!

Suppliers, remember to update your products and pricing on DistributorCentral.

There are a couple of ways to accomplish this. . .

1. For Pricing updates, you can export the Pricing spreadsheet from your account under Products>Add/Edit Products.

This will allow you to update all of your product pricing including product setup charges.Then you just send it back to info@distributorcentral.com and we will update the system.

2. For product additions, you can add those directly to the system from inside your DistributorCentral account OR you can contact DistributorCentral for details and timelines if you would like us to add your new products.

If you would like to do this yourselves, there are many resources we offer if you need any help.

You can view our Product Setup Tutorial, use our Product Setup Manual , and you can give us a call or email if you have any questions.

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How to Place a Reorder

November 5, 2009

DistributorCentral makes it easy for you to place a reorder for orders that you currently have in your account.

To do this:

- First, on the home page in your account, go the the Order Search section
- Then key in the Order Number that you would like to place the reorder for (you can also search by PO Number, Cutomer Name or Phone Number – see step 1 below)

Reorder Step 1

Reorder Step 1

- Next Click on the Reorder button at the top right portion of the page (see step 2 below)

Reorder Step 2

Reorder Step 2

- You will then be prompted to specify which type of reorder it is, such as An Exact Reorder (same product and no changes in imprint or artwork), A Reorder With Changes (same product, but has changes in artwork or other options) or Rework Of Previous Order (generally used if there was an error on the previous order)
- Then review your order and Save or Send it

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