When creating Preferred Supplier Catalogs, you can either select the Suppliers that you would like for their products to display, or you can exclude certain Suppliers whos products that you do not want to display on your site.

Here’s how to do this:
- Go the the Products Menu and select Manage My Catalogs- Select Manage My Catalogs
- Click the Add New Catalog button
- Name your catalog (which can always be changed)
- Change the Catalog Type setting to Preferred Supplier Catalogs
- Check either Include or Exclude Selected Suppliers and choose active and display dates if you like
- Click Save and Add Products
- Select the Suppliers you want to include/exclude. They’re sorted by the first letter of the company name. Click Save after adding Suppliers from each letter group
- Click the Update button, and then click on the Add Catalog to My Website button.

- Here, you can now remove the default All Products Catalog, so that the Preferred Supplier Catalog will be the only catalog on your website
- Click Save
- Go the the Publisher page and the click on Publish New Changes

You can watch a short presentation below for specific instuctions on how to create Preferred Supplier Catalogs.

You can upload your catalogs directly to your account under Products Menu> Upload PDF/Virtual catalogs.

The requirements for a PDF catalog are:

1. File must be a PDF

2. File must be smaller than 100 mb in size for Virtual Catalog use

(Please note that for DC to index your catalog for product searches, you will need to upload a file smaller than 30 mb. Most Suppliers are uploading the complete catalog for Virtual catalog purposes and then also separating their catalog into sections to be indexed in product searches and uploading them as separate files in this same area)

3. File should also be about 72 dpi resolution

Follow these steps to upload and get a link to your catalog that you uploaded:

1. Login to your DC account at www.distributorcentral.com

2. Go to Products Menu> Upload PDF/Virtual Catalogs

3. Click on Add New Virtual Catalog on the right

4. Enter in the Name that you would like to display for the catalog, a start and end date if needed, and click Browse.

5. Find the file on your computer and click Upload. It could take some time to upload depending on file size.

6. Then click on Save.

7. Now you will see that the file is listed on the PDF/Virtual Catalogs page. Under the catalog, click on Direct Link. This will generate the link that you would use to add the virtual catalog to your website. Copy the link in the address bar.

To try this, just do a keyword search in your account. For example, try “magnet.”  You will see 2 new tabs above your product search results, SupplierCatalog and SupplierEmail. 

If you click on either of those tabs, you will see any Supplier Catalogs or Emails that match your search criteria. You can browse through their catalogs page by page or view all their advertised specials in one area.

This would allow you to access even more resources to research products than we could provide you as a distributor before.

Each Supplier has access to upload their PDF catalogs and flyers, so feel free to ask your favorite Suppliers to do so if you don’t see them currently there!

Suppliers-

You can submit your Email flyers by adding upload@supplieremail.com to your email lists or just forward any of your recent email flyers to that address.

You can upload your catalogs by following the below instructions:

1. Log  into your account at www.distributorcentral.com
2. Go to Products Menu and down to Upload PDF Catalogs
3. Browse your computer and select the PDF catalog that you would like to upload
4. Name the catalog
5. Then select Save to upload the file ( it could take a few minutes depending on the file size)

Your catalogs must be less than 30 MB file size for upload, so you may need to split it up.

Let us know if you have any questions!

Here’s how to upload your PDF catalogs in your DC account
- Go to the Products Menu and select Upload PDF Catalogs
- Click on the Add New Catalog link
- Indicate your Catalog Name, Display Start and End Dates, then browse your computer to select the file to upload (see image below)

Important Info In Regards To Uploading Your PDF Catalogs
• The maximum file size that you can upload is 30MB. If your catalog is larger than 30MB, you’ll need to separate it into several parts and upload them individually.

• Be sure that you do not convert the text in your PDF catalog to outlines. If you do this, the keywords for your catalog will not be able to be indexed when searched for in DistributorCentral.

Take a look at this site, http://mugs.dcdistributordemo.com
it’s an example of a niche website with only mugs and tumblers on it. This allows visitors who only want drinkware, the convenience of not having to filter though 1000’s of other products. So if you specialize in a specific area in the promotional products industry, whether it’s mugs, magnets, pens, bags, edibles, etc., create a website for it in your DistributorCentral account!

• First create a Custom Catalog with just the specific products you want to display on your website. Click on the link below to watch a short video below that explains how to create custom catalogs.

  

• Second, design a website in the web editor area of your account to target the specific products. To learn how to create a website, click on the Need Help button at the top of the page in your account, and watch some our website video tutorials.
• Third, remove the All Products catalog that comes standard with your website, and replace it with the Custom Catalog you created
• Fourth, map your domain name if you’ve purchased one, otherwise, just publish your site and you’re finished

You asked and we have listened!
When you conduct a “keyword” search in your DistributorCentral account or on your website, it defaults to search by the product name, number and description.

Depending on what keywords you are searching for, this can bring back many results. For example, using the keyword “bag” will bring back results for any products with the word “bag” in the product description, which can show results that may not be relevant to what you are looking for.
We now have a new search display preference that you can enable in your account to search only by the product name and number by default, as opposed to searching for the description as well. This can help initially narrow down search results.

To set this preference for your DistributorCentral account and website, follow these steps:
1. Go to the Account Menu
2. Select Preferences from the drop-down list
3. Select Account Preferences to change the setting
within your account / Select Website Preferences
to change the setting for your website

4. Select Catalogs on the left side of the page
5. Change the search fields preference to your liking

6. Click on Save
Note: You will have to publish your website if you have changed this setting for your website preferences.

A Special Note To Suppliers:
Be diligent in naming and describing your products in DistributorCentral. Use this product search optimization website to see exactly how your products show up to Distributors in DistributorCentral searches.
www.DistributorCentral.com/websites/pso
Also, please make sure that you only include your products in the Categories and Industry Catalogs that they relate to. This helps Distributors and their customers get accurate and reliable searches everytime.

When using the internal search engine within DistributorCentral look for the “Generate / Send Link to Products” feature.

With just a few pieces of information you can quickly create a link to a custom set of products, whether based on a particular keyword search, a selection of products from your favorite suppliers, or particular theme catalog that you have created, you can add your new link to your website or instantly email it to a client.