Utilize Facebook Social Plugins To Enhance DistributorCentral Website

January 24, 2012

Facebook Social plugins allow you to easily integrate you company fan page with your website.

 Here’s how to get started:

- First, login your Facebook account, and then access your company fan page and click on the Edit Page button (see example below).

 

Next, click on the Resources menu, and then on the Use social plugins link (see example below)

 

From here you can select the Facebook plugin that you’d like to use on your site (see example below)

 

You can then fill in any variable to get a desired appearance and then click on the Get Code button (see example below)

 

Once the code displays, you’ll want to copy both sections (see example below)…

 

…then you’ll want to paste the code into a Written Content area on your DC site where you want to the plugin to display, make sure that the Web Editor Preference for the Written Content area is set to Basic HTML (see example below)

 

There you have it…your Facebook plugin should be displaying on your DC website, make sure to Publish your changes to have the plugin display on your live site. Click here for more Facebook tips for your DC website.

Comments Off | Marketing, Tips, Websites - Advanced, Websites - General | Permalink
Posted by distributorcentral

Compare Pricing On Products Copied From Suppliers

January 24, 2012

Attention Fulfillment Account users…

We have added a quick compare page for products that you have added into your Fulfillment Account using the “Add Similar From Supplier Product”  link. This will make it easy for you to compare the pricing of your Fulfillment products to the Supplier’s current pricing in DistributorCentral, where you can then update the price if necessary.

To access this tool, login to your Fulfillment Account, and then go to the Products menu >> Advanced Features >> Compare pricing On Products Copied From Suppliers. See image below. Click here to learn more about our Fulfillment Account feature.

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Posted by distributorcentral

Organic SEO Tips For Your DistributorCentral Website

September 2, 2011

Hello DistributorCentral website users! As you are aware, you can create a website within your DistributorCentral account to market to your customers. While DistributorCentral does not provide assistance with SEO, here a few tips that can help you optimize your website in DistributorCentral so that it can be properly indexed by search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.

Website Title – This is located in the Sidewide Settings area of the web editor. It’s somewhat of a mystery regarding how many characters Google and other search engines actually index, but it’s probably around 70 – 150 characters. The website title is one of the first things that the search engines will index for your site. It also displays as the link in the search engine results (see example image below).

 

Page Names – This is located in the Page Editor area for each of your pages on your site. The Page Names would be considered as an extension to your Website Title. What this means is that if you use a long Website Title, your Page Names might only partially get indexed by the search engines. To compensate, you may want to have a shorter Website Title, maybe something that you feel is relevant to be on every page, and then put the bulk of the information in the individual Page Names on your site. You can also opt to leave the Website Title completely blank, and just add information into each of the Page Names on your site. Each of your pages should have unique Page Names, and they should not be exactly the same on multiple pages (see example image below).

 

 

Image Descriptions (ALT Tags) – Whenever you upload images to your website, you can give them descriptions. This is also known as an ALT Tag, which generally means the alternative tag. ALT Tags are the HTML tag that tells search engines about the images since search engines cannot read text in actual images. To add Image Descriptions to your current images on your site, go the Content Manger, and then click on the Edit link for an image, and then add the text in the Image Description field.

Meta Tags – Meta Tags help search engines find out important information about your website. For example, related keywords or a description of a specific website page. You should add unique Meta Tags to each of your individual website pages. This is contrary to our previous advice to add Meta Tags to the Footer of your site so that the same Meta Tag information would display on all the pages of your site, which has been found out that Search Engines actually do not like repetitive Meta Tag information on multiple pages of the same site.

- Description Meta Tag – This should be an actual description of what is on your particular website page. It’s a short pitch where you can put strong keywords to entice viewers to click on your site in the search results. Again, it is a mystery here as to how many characters that the search engines will index for your Description Meta Tag, but it should be fairly short (around two sentences) and should be somewhat readable like a sentence, as opposed to just random keywords (see example image below).

- Keyword Meta Tag – This can be random keywords that can help the search engines determine what’s on your site. It’s a rumor that Google’s crawlers may totally bypass the Keyword Mata Tags, since oftentimes, website owners would just load this area up with 100’s or even 1000’s of keywords. Whether that’s true or not, the idea for keywords would be relativity versus quantity. They can just be random keywords that are separated by a comma (i.e. custom apparel, imprinted apparel, screen printed shirts)

Here’s how to add Meta Tags to your site:

- Go to the Websites menu and select Add/Edit Websites
- Click on the Edit link for your website
- Click the Add/Edit Web Pages tab
- Edit a page for your site (i.e. the Home page)
- Add a Block to your page
- For the content type for the block, select Meta Tags
- Follow the on-screen instructions to set up your meta tag block

 

Additional Tips

- Heading Tags - The <h1> to <h6> Heading tags are used to define HTML headings. <h1> defines the most important heading, and <h6> would define the least important heading. Heading Tags are important for on-page SEO purposes. Furthermore, H1 tags should be used only once per page. The opening heading should be an H1 tag that describes the whole theme of the page. Any sub information or more specific topics should go under separate headings in the form of H2 Tags, filtering down appropriately.

Here’s how to add Heading Tags to your site:

- Go to the Websites menu and select Add/Edit Websites
- Click on the Edit link for your website
- Click the Add/Edit Web Pages tab
- Edit a page for your site (i.e. the Home page)
- When adding text to your site in the Written Content area, you can highlight the text that you want to make a heading, and then select a heading from the Format drop-down menu (see example image below)

 

- Add actual text to your site – Search engines will index the text on your site, so be sure to add descriptive text along with strong keywords to the individual pages of your site.

- Create a WordPress blog – And then blog like crazy about particular promotional products, and all the different ways about how they can be used. You can then feed that blog into your website using our RSS News Feed tool (see example image below).

Here’s how to feed you blog into to your site:

- Go to the Websites menu and select Add/Edit Websites
- Click on the Edit link for your website
- Click the Add/Edit Webpages tab
- Edit a page for your site that you’d like to have the blog display (i.e. the Home page)
- Add a Block to that page, and then select RSS News Feed from the content drop-down menu.
- Next, enter in the blog feed URL (you can also adjust how many records to display and length of the descriptions)

- Create Product Specific Websites – It’s been proven that if you create a website in your DistributorCentral account that caters to a narrow niche in the Promotional Product Industry, that those sites get organically indexed far better than sites with 1000’s of products or our standard All Products Catalog. When you think about it, this makes perfect sense. For example, if you create a site that just has Eco Friendly Tote Bags, when someone searches in Google for those particular products (which they will), your site (if you follow the techniques above), will have a more likely probability of displaying higher in the search engine results. Your DistributorCentral account makes it easy for you to create custom catalogs with specific products that you can add to a site that you’ve created. Click here for information on how to create a catalog with specific products for a site. You can even customize the website to have your own products using our Fulfillment Account feature. Click here for more information on Fulfillment Accounts.

 - Have your domain name include keywords – When you purchase a domain name for your site, it’s good idea to have keywords related to your site in the actual domain. For example, if you are going to create a site in your DistributorCentral account that focuses on Eco Friendly Tote Bags, it’d be logical for you to purchase a domain name such as EcoFriendlyToteBags.com, or Eco-Friendly-Tote-Bags.com, or EcoFriendlyTotes.com, etc.

DistributorCentral does not provide assistance with Search Engine Optimization, but following the steps above to apply unique and relevant content to your site will most definitely improve your organic search results in Google and the other major search engines. If you don’t have time to do the research for unique content to add on your site, you can hire a SEO specialist, but be prepared to spend a considerable amount of money. Also, be cautious of hiring a SEO specialist since there are literally 1000’s of sites that claim to know how to get your site organically ranked in the search engines, but they may not provide you with the results that you want, since variables that affect SEO can be relative to different Search Engines (i.e. techniques that might help you in Google, may not help in Yahoo or Bing). Furthermore, the rules (by the search engines) are constantly changing and virtually impossible to keep up with…so what gets you organic results today, may not tomorrow. If you feel that you’ve developed a great site, don’t be afraid to try Google AdWords.

Comments Off | Guides, Helpful Articles, Tips, Websites - Extras, Websites - General | Permalink
Posted by distributorcentral

Cool Feature! Send Quick Reorder Reminder Emails

April 14, 2011

DistributorCentral has a feature that allows you to quickly send your customers “reorder reminder notices” for orders that they have placed from your website.

To take advantage of this feature:
- You can set a reminder date from summary page of each order

ReorderReminder-5

- Or, you can set a reminder date for all of your orders at once, by clicking on the number link in the Customer Reorder Reminders area on the home page in your account

ReorderReminder

- Next, you can customize a message that will be emailed to your customers regarding the reorder reminder, and send it to your customer(s)

ReorderReminder-2

- The email that you customer will receive will look similar to the image below. They’ll be able to click on the Place Your Order Today! link which will send then directly the the order confirmation page for that product. Note, if you test this feature, you’ll want to log out of your DistributorCentral account prior to clicking on the Place Your Order Today! link.

ReorderReminder-3

You can also setup preferences in your account for your reorder reminders. To do this, go to the Account Menu >> Preferences >> Account Preferences, then click on the Orders tab.

You can put in the amount of days to control how often orders display on your reorder reminder list. For example, if you would like orders reminders to show up once a year for each order, put 365 in the reorder reminder date field (see image below).

You can also create a default message that will automatically display for your reorder reminder emails (see image below).

ReorderReminder-4

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An Efficient Way to Use PayPal with DistributorCentral

February 23, 2011

Here’s a tip on how to you to use your PayPal account to collect payment from Customers for orders that you create within your DistributorCentral account, and furthermore, pay Suppliers. This would be an ideal solution for smaller Distributors who do not have a merchant account.

The website that you have created in DistributorCentral account, or the link that you use for the product catalog on your outside website; both have a built-in shopping cart that allows your website visitors to place orders to you. You also have the ability to create your own Customer Orders and Supplier Purchase Orders from within your account as well. Below is one recommendation on how to use DistributorCentral and your PayPal account together to invoice your Customers, and even pay Suppliers.

First, for the shopping cart on your DistributorCentral website, you can indicate the payment method(s) that you would like to have available for your customers.
To do this:
- Go to the Account menu
- Select Payment and then Payment Setup
- Next, you can select PayPal – Collect info only and any other payment types that you would like to have available and then click on Save (see example below)

This is what your customer will see on the payment page on your website when placing an order (see example below).

Now that you’ve indicated how you would like to receive payment from your customers, next you can setup the invoice feature in your account so that payments will link with your PayPal account.
To do this:
- Go to the Account menu
- Select Preferences and then Account Preferences
- Click on the Invoices menu on the left side of the page
- From here, select Yes – PayPal Payment Page for the Display Pay Online link on invoices preference and then click on Save (see example below)

Now you need to make sure that your Billing contact email address in your DistributorCentral account is the same as the email address you have setup for your PayPal account.
To do this:
- Go to the Account menu
- Then select Account Maintenance
- Click on the Contacts tab
- Next, if you don’t have a Billing contact setup, click on Add Similar or on the Add New Contact button and setup a Billing contact making sure the use the same email address that you have setup with your PayPal account.

Testing your payment process
Once you have this setup up, you can try placing a test order to yourself from your website, or enter in a test order for a fake customer from within your DistributorCentral account. Note: When placing test orders, make sure you are on your “live” website (not in preview mode) while signed out of your DistributorCentral account.

After an order is placed from your website, you should receive an email confirmation, and the order should be saved in your DistributorCentral account. From this point, locate the order, and access the Summary page, where you can then review the order. You can make any changes to the Customer Order at this point, such as adding/removing charges, adding tax and freight, etc. Once you are ready, you can click on the Create Customer Invoice button (A) to create an invoice for your Customer. Then you can send the invoice to your Customer, by clicking on the Send button. This will allow you to email the invoice to your customer, where they can click on the Pay online now link (B) in the email, which will then prompt them to either login to their PayPal account or pay as a guest if you have a Business PayPal account (C), where they can pay the amount that is due on the invoice (see examples below). Once paid, the funds will be transferred to your PayPal account.

If you really want to streamline this process, you can get a PayPal MasterCard, and use that to pay your Suppliers. Then in your PayPal account, you can just move some of the funds that you received from your customer, and use it to pay the balance on your MasterCard all from within your PayPal account.

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How to Provide Discounts for the Shopping Cart on your Website

December 8, 2010

DistributorCentral makes it easier than ever for you to apply discounts for your customers through the shopping cart on your website.

You can use our discount feature to setup and offer discounts in a variety of ways, here are just a few:
- Offer percentage discounts if the product or order total is more than a set amount
- Offer flat rate discounts if the product or order total is more than a set amount
- Offer discounts on freight by percentage or a flat rate
- Offer a coupon code that can be entered to receive a percentage or flat rate discount

This feature is incredibly easy to use, just watch the short video below to learn all about this feature and how to apply it to your website.

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Posted by distributorcentral

Make Sharing Your Website Easy Using “AddThis”

November 4, 2010

www.AddThis.com provides you a tool that you can put onto your website, which allows your visitors to easily share your site through networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, as well as many other applications.

See below for a reference, or click here to see it on an actual website.

To add the “AddThis” tool to your website:
- Go to www.AddThis.com
- Select your style or any other preferences and then click on “Get Your Button”
- Copy the coding that they provide
- Edit your website in your DistributorCentral account, and paste the coding into a Written Content area…You must set the Written Content area to be “Basic HTML/Text” (see image below)
- Preview your site to see the changes, and then Publish your site to make the changes live

That’s it…now when customers are on that page of your site, they can for example, click on the Facebook icon, and easily post your website in their status.

Note: The product detail pages on your website will automatically have a sharing application built in, see image below for reference.

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Posted by distributorcentral

New Website Feature – Product Tags

October 14, 2010

We’ve added a website feature that allows you to tag products from the product details page while you are viewing your website in preview mode.

To add tags to products:
- Preview your website and go to the details page for a specific product
- Next, towards the bottom of the page, enter in the tags that you would like to assign to the product (see image below)
- Repeat this process for any other products that you would like to add tags to on your website
- Then Publish Your Website

Once you have added tags to products, and published your website, a list of those tags will display under the corresponding product images on the product details page, so that your customers can easily find other similar products that you have tagged (see image below).

Furthermore, you can add a Product Tag List to any page on your website, which will display the various product tags that you have created.

To add a product tag list to your website:
- Edit your website, and then go to the Add/Edit Web Pages area
- Edit the page that you would like to add the list to
- Add a Block to the page and then select Product Tag List from the Content dropdown menu
- Next, name your tag list and assign any other attributes, and then click on Save (see image below)
- Publish your website

When the Product Tag List displays on your website, customers will be able to click on the tags you have created, and it will take them to the related products that you have added tags to (see image below).

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How To Create a “Customized Featured Product” Website

October 8, 2010

There have been many requests for customized product websites recently. So we thought that we would offer a “How To” guide for creating your very own Featured Product Website in DC.

We recently added more features to make it even easier for you to customize products for your website.

There are many advantages in creating a site that is featuring only one or only a few customized products:

  • Search Engine Optimization is easier
  • No searching required for your customers
  • No confusion over the order process
  • Marketing is easier
  • and more!

So here it is:

1. Pick out a product or type of product to feature on your site.

a. To get started, decide the who, what, where, and how of your future site. This could also be considered the logistics of the site. This is usually the boring part where you lay out your plans.

  

2. Now you will need to create a fulfillment account in your main DC account:

a. Log in to your DC account at www.distributorcentral.com

b. Go to Products Menu > My Products (Fulfillment Account)

c. Once in the account Fulfillment Account, go to Products Menu > Add / Edit Products

d. Click on “Add Similar from Supplier Product” link on the bottom right

e. Pick the Supplier and the product that you are going to feature on your website

f. Now change the Product name and number and Save the product at the bottom.

g. You can now customize this product by changing the pricing, the description, the image and so on to match your needs.

Click here to view detailed information regarding  how Fulfillment Accounts work, and how to setup up your own products. 

 

3. Create your website

a. Log into your MAIN DC account and go to Websites Menu> Add/Edit Websites

b. Scroll down to the Pre-Made Templates and select the template titled “Customized Featured Product” Template by selecting “Use” to the right

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

c. Name the template and Create the website

d. Now Click on Product Catalogs and Click “Add/Remove Catalog” at the top right. Find your Fulfillment account catalog from the box on the left and move it to the right and Save. Now hit “Save Changes” again at the bottom of the next page.

 e. Now continue customizing the website by uploading your logo and switching out the product on the home page with your product.

1. Go to  Add/Edit Pages and click on “Edit” next to the Home page. Change the Supplier field to the default selection with no Supplier name selected and enter in your exact item number in the Product field. Then hit “Search” and “Save” at the bottom.

Learn more about editing your website here:

http://www.distributorcentral.com/resources/education/dc_tips.cfm

f. Now Publish your Changes under the Publisher section

g. Now you can purchase a domain name and map it to your new site to market to your customers. See this guide to learn about adding a domain name:

http://www.distributorcentral.com/resources/education/guides/domainname.pdf

You can repeat these steps to create other websites as well or you can add more “Featured Product” blocks to the website to feature more products too.

Good Luck!

DC Team

Comments Off | General, Tips, Website Templates, Websites - General | Permalink
Posted by distributorcentral

Market Your Products on Your FaceBook Fan Page!

September 8, 2010

DistributorCentral has created a FaceBook application that allows you to advertise products directly from your company’s FaceBook Fan Page.

Here’s how:

1 – Create a Fan Page for your Company in FaceBook
- Skip these steps below if you have already created a Fan Page in FaceBook
- Login to your FaceBook account, and then click on the Ads and Pages tab
- Next, select the Create Page link
- From this point, setup and customize your FaceBook fan page to your liking
- Click here for further information on creating FaceBook fan pages

2 – Add the Application to your FaceBook Fan Page
- Next, while logged in to both your FaceBook account and your DistributorCentral account, click or go to the URL below
http://apps.facebook.com/distributorcentral
- Then click on the Click here to add this to your Facebook page link
- On the next page, click on the Add to my Page tab (see image below)
- Then click on the Add to Page button in the pop-up window

3 – Add the Application to your FaceBook Fan Page.
- While still logged in to both your DistributorCentral and FaceBook Account, go your fan page for your business, and click on the Edit Page button in the upper right portion of the page (see image below)

- Click on the Apps tab on  the left side of the page
- Scroll down the page until you see the DistributorCentral application, and then click on the Go to App link (see image below)

- Next, click on the dropdown menu on the following page which will show all of the available website pages that you have created in you DistributorCentral account (If it does not show this, then make sure you are logged in to our DistributorCentral account while in this are in your FB account)
- Select the page that you would like to display, and then click on Save (We suggest that you select a website page that you are featuring products on, see image below)

You will now have a Products tab on your FaceBook Fan Page that will display the content on the website page that you have chosen to advertise (see example below).

 

 

Here’s instructions on how we suggest to setup a page on your DistributorCentral website to use the FaceBook application:
- Go to your Websites menu and select Add/Edit Websites
- Edit your website, and go the Add/Edit Pages area
- Select to add a Custom Page to your website
- Name the page, and select to not have the page link display on the website (see image below)

- Next, setup blocks to use the Feature Products tool
- We suggest using the 4 across block layout and using the featured product tool in the first three sections, leaving the fourth section blank (see image below)

- When using the Featured Product tool, select “Small” for the image size and indicate to have the Width set to 20% (see image below)
- Repeat this process to add as many featured products as you like

- Finally, publish your website, and then follow the steps at the beginning of this blog entry to add this page to your FaceBook Fan Page. The products page on your FaceBook Fan page should then look similar to the example below.

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Posted by distributorcentral

Traffic Statistics for Your DistributorCentral Website

August 11, 2010

Google Analytics is a free service offered by Google that you can integrate with your DistributorCentral website, which can generate detailed statistics about the visitors to your site. Google Analytics shows you how people found your site, how they explored it, and how you can enhance their visitor experience (see example below).

How to set this up:

- Go to the Website menu and select Add/Edit Websites
- Next, click on the Edit link for your site
- Then click on the Website Traffic Tool

From here, follow the steps to setup your free Google Analytics account. Once setup, they will provide you with a “tracking code” that you can paste in to this section of your account (see example below). After you publish your website, Google Analytics will start providing tracking information within 24 hours.

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View Supplier Product Emails

August 10, 2010

Hello Distributors…DistributorCentral is making it easier for you to research Supplier products by sourcing their email blasts right into your account! 

Here’s how to view them: 

1. Click on the Browse link in the Email Blast section located in the lower left portion of the Home page in your account (see example below).

2. Once you have conducted a product search within your account, click on the Email Blasts tab. This will then display the Supplier email blasts that pertain to the search criteria that you have entered (see example below).

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Posted by distributorcentral

Have you signed up for a live class?

August 4, 2010

Have you taken advantage of the DistributorCentral live webinars yet? Why not?

This is a free service that we provide you as a DistributorCentral user to learn more about your DistributorCentral account.

We offer a wide variety of classes to you including these below for Distributors:

  • Features Overview
  • Website Editor
  • Product Search and Presentations

There are also many Supplier classes available including these:

  • Features Overview
  • Product Setup
  • Website Editor
  • Customer Service Overview
  • Order Management
  • and more!

You can sign up for any of these classes by going to this page below at www.distributorcentral.com:

http://www.distributorcentral.com/websites/DistributorCentral/webinars.cfm

Once you choose the class and time, you can register your information to request to attend the class.

You are welcome to attend as many classes as you would like and DistributorCentral does not charge you to attend these classes.

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New Website Feature…Reorder Link For Your Customers

June 7, 2010

We’ve added a reorder link for your customers that will be available when they login to your website. The link will display alongside each of their orders, and once clicked on, will allow them to simply create a reorder from their previous purchase.

See example below

After a customer clicks on the Reorder link, they will be sent to a confirmation page where they can review and adjust the order if necessary, such as quantity, colors, shipping address, etc. Once the order is confirmed they simply click on the Finish button to submit the order.

You will need to make sure that you have the My Account page enabled for your website to provide this feature to your customers. Click here to learn more about the My Account page.

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Website Freight Preferences for Distributors

June 3, 2010

As a Distributor, you can determine how freight is calculated on your websites in the shopping cart.

Previously Distributors depended solely on Suppliers to enter in data for freight so that the correct amount is added to the shopping cart on an order. Now, each Distributor can make that decision for themselves.

There are 9 different options that each Distributor can choose between to have freight calculated to suit the needs of their sites.

A distributor can do many things starting with adding a percentage to calculate in cases where the Supplier doesn’t offer freight or even turning off the freight calculation completely.

Below is a quick list of the preferences offered:

  • Use the Supplier-provided freight data
  • Set a flat shipping rate per item
  • Set a flat shipping rate per order
  • Add a flat fee to existing freight
  • Add a percentage markup to existing freight
  • Use the Supplier freight if available, if not available, use a flat fee
  • Use percent of order total only (total of products)
  • Use Supplier freight if available, if not available, use a percentage of product total
  • No Freight – do not include freight on orders

To get to this preference:

  1. Go to Account Menu > Preferences> Website Preferences
  2. Click on Preferences to the right of the DC Site that you would like to modify the settings
  3. Click on Shipping in the left box
  4. Scroll down to the question titled, “How should shipping be calculated on orders?”
  5. Select the option that you would like to use (see the guide below for an explanation of each option) and if needed enter your % in the field provided
  6. Save your changes

See this guide to get instructions and a more detailed explanation of each option.

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Posted by distributorcentral

The Most Valuable Part of Your Website!

June 3, 2010

If you compare your website to real estate, then the top portion of your home page is the most valuable “land” on your website. Based on the first few inches at the top of your home page, it’s important to make sure that you get your visitors attention, and let them know exactly what your website has to offer.

Important information to have near the top of the home page is:

- Who you are (company name and tagline)
- Contact information
- What you do (be very brief)
- Product ideas (nice clean graphics)
- Product search area
- Featured products or specials that change periodically
- If you accept credit cards, have an image of the card types that you accept

Click on the image below to see an example.

What not to do at the top of the Home Page:

- Blank space (utilize every inch of your valuable website real estate)
- Pixelated or low quality graphics
- A long text introduction (keep it short and simple…add an About Us page if you want to go into details about your company)

The DistributorCentral Web Editor makes it easy for you to customize your website, such as adding tools so that you can promote products, as well as allow your visitors to easily search and order promotional products.

Click here to view our Image Resource Site that you can use to download various promotional product images to use on your website.

Comments Off | Tips, Websites - General | Permalink
Posted by distributorcentral

How to create private pages for a website

May 6, 2010

You can configure a website in your DistributorCentral account to have certain pages designated “private”. Anyone would be able to get to the site, however, to get access the other pages on the site (i.e. the product catalog page), they would have to login.

Below is an example of a website that has this functionality. If you go to the site, you can see that the Product Catalog page is not available.
http://private.dcdistributordemo.com

You can login in with:
Username = privatedemo
Password = privatedemo

Once you login, you can then see that the Product Catalog page would be available for your customers to search products and order them.

To make a page private for a website in your DistributorCentral account:
- Edit the website
- Go to the Add/Edit Pages portion of your website editor
- Edit the page(s) that you would like to make private (i.e. the Product Catalog page)
- Click on the Show Advanced Options link in the upper right section
- Change the Page Access area to be Private (see image below)
- Repeat this for any other pages that you would like to make private.

DistributorCentral How To Create Private Website Pages

 

Note: When creating private pages on your websites, make sure that you have enabled the “My Account” page for the website. Click here to learn more about the My Account page.

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Make your domain work harder for you by creating subdomains

May 5, 2010

What is a subdomain?
A subdomain is a web address that has text in place of “www” for the beginning part of a main domain. This allows you to create divisions of your main domain name to direct your visitors to additional websites or pages. For example:

mugs.dcdistributordemo.com

dcdistributordemo.com is the main domain name, and mugs.dcdistributordemo.com is the subdomain where “mugs” takes the place of “www” and directs visitors to the specific website.

Take note, that “www” is not needed for subdomain names. To direct visitors to a website that has a subdomain name, just use “http://” then the subdomain (i.e. http://mugs.dcdistributordemo.com).

Why use subdomains?
If you are already using a domain name for a website you have created in your DistributorCentral account, but also want to create another website, a subdomain is an easy way to create an additional web address for the website without have to purchase another domain name.

For example, I have created a website in DistributorCentral and have the domain name, www.dcdistributordemo.com assigned to it. I have then created another website in my DistributorCentral account that is targeted towards Environmentally Friendly products. Instead of purchasing another domain name, I have used the subdomain of “green” so that the website URL is green.dcdistributordemo.com.

You can even do this for company store websites in your DistributorCentral account. For example, I created a company store website for Marriam Heights Hotels, and used the subdomain of “marriamheights” so that the website URL is marriamheights.dcdistributordemo.com.

Click here for more information on how to create company store websites in your DistributorCentral account.

How do I create a subdomain for a website in my DistributorCentral account?
- First we must be hosting a domain name that you have purchased
- Next, Edit the website that you would like to create a subdomain for
- Go to the Website Publisher page for the website
- In the Domain Name Mapping section of the page, enter in the subdomain that you would like to use for the website in the field (see image below)
- Then click on the Save, Map Domain Names To This Website button

Subdomains in DistributorCentral

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Product Research Part 4 – NEW! Searching catalogs, emails and websites

April 6, 2010

Product Research Part 4 – Now when you do a search in your DistributorCentral account, you are also searching archived Virtual Supplier Catalogs, Supplier Email Blasts AND Supplier Websites – all while doing 1 search in DC!

To do this, just do a normal search in your account:

  1. Log in at www.distributorcentral.com
  2. On the Home page, do a keyword search
  3. Hit Go

Here you will see the search results page, but you will see other tabs as well across the top of the search results.

The Products tab is our traditional search that searches the Products in DistributorCentral set up by our Suppliers. These have a shopping cart  and include all charges.

The Categories tab is a full list of every Category that a product is associated with in this search.

The Suppliers Tab lists all the Suppliers that have products that matched this search. This also includes a map to see the location of each Supplier.

Virtual catalogs tab allows you to research all of the virtual catalogs loaded in our system from any Supplier in the industry that match your search criteria.

Email Blasts tab works also allows you to research the indexed email blasts uploaded by any Supplier in the industry to our system.

The Supplier Websites tab gives you Supplier websites that match your search to help aid in product research.

The addition of these new search features was done as an aid to help with product research.

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Posted by distributorcentral

Create Product Presentations for Your Customers

March 26, 2010

DistributorCentral makes it easy for you to create presentations with multiple products for your customers.

Watch the short video to learn how to do this, or click here to download the Product Presentation Guide.

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Posted by distributorcentral

Product Research Part 3 – Filtering unwanted items from Keyword Search

March 15, 2010

Product Research Part 3 -  When doing product searches, sometimes you will get products that don’t match what you are looking for because when you do a keyword search, the system defaults to search the product name, number, and description.

Sometimes the description of unrelated products will have the keyword you are searching in the description.

For instance, in a keyword search for “bottle” you might get backpacks or bags that have bottle holders included because DC found that keyword in the product description.

You can filter out these results by unchecking the description field under the keyword field and selecting search again.

For most common searches, you are going to want to leave “Product Number” and “Product Name” selected when searching with a keyword.

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Posted by distributorcentral

Product Research Part 2 – Sorting Your Search Results

March 15, 2010

Product Research Part 2 – Resort your product search results for more customized results.

Once you have done a keyword search in DistributorCentral, you can sort those products by any of these fields below:

  1. Item Number
  2. Item Name
  3. Price
  4. Minimum Quantity
  5. Supplier

The Sort option is on the right side at the top of the search results page. Once you select one of the options, the page will reload with the products reordered based on the option you selected.

This sorting option would be especially helpful when you wanted to see the least expensive products first, if you sort by “Price $-$$”, it will resort the listings with the lowest priced products on the first pages.

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"I received my first order from my website…what do I do next?"

January 27, 2010

This is a popular question from Distributors, here are a few tips to get you on your way:

•  Once an order is submitted from your website, you’ll receive an email noting that there has been an order placed. Go to the Account Maintenance area in the Account menu to verify your email address. A notice will also display on the Home page in your DistributorCentral account (see figure below).  

 

•  Once you have located the order within your DistributorCentral account, you will be able to see who your customer is on the Order Summary page. You’ll also see  when they placed the order and any payment information they have provided (see figure below). 

 

DistributorCentral does not process any payments for you. Also, payments between you and your customer, and you and the supplier are separate. The payment information that your customer provides would need to be processed by you. You would then need to also provide your payment information separately to the supplier.
To access the payment setup area in your DistributorCentral account, Go to the Account Menu >> Payment >> Payment Setup.

•  On the Order Summary page, you’ll also be able to see who the supplier is for that product as well. Orders are never automatically sent to the supplier, and you will have control over when/if you would like the order to be sent to the supplier. (see figure below). 

 

•  Once you verify the order, you have the ability to create and send the PO to the supplier through the DistributorCentral system. If you prefer, you can also print out the order and fax it to the supplier, or you can save the order as a PDF and email it to the supplier with your standard email client (see figure below).  If it the first time placing an order with a supplier, you will need to contact them to setup an account and business relationship.

Watch the short video learn how handle orders from your DistributorCentral website. 

Click on the links below to access brief guides that can help you get your account setup and ready for business.

Checklist
Order Management Guide

We also recommend that you place a few test orders from your live website to see exactly how the system works. Make sure to log out of your DistributorCentral account when doing this.

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Posted by distributorcentral

Easily Search For Orders Across All Your Child Accounts

December 3, 2009

If you have Child Accounts setup, you can search and access orders that are in those accounts from within your main DistributorCentral account.

To do this:
- Go to the Orders Menu
- Select Orders
- Then either Orders From Customers or Orders To Suppliers
- Enter in the search criteria for your order and select the Yes radio button in the Search Child Accounts area (see image below).

Comments Off | Order Management, Tips | Permalink
Posted by distributorcentral

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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Posted by distributorcentral

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

Reorder Types

Reorders can be created for any orders in your DistributorCentral account. However, it is only considered a Reorder if the order is for the same Customer. If the order is for a different customer, then you should always enter the order as New Order as opposed to a Reorder.

An exact reorder – This indicates that there are no changes needed to the artwork/printing of the original order. Even if the quantity, shipping information, etc. will vary on the new order, it’s still considered an exact reorder if the artwork/printing remains the same.

A reorder with changes – This indicates that you will need revisions made to the artwork/printing of the original order. For example, if there needs to be a change in the imprint color(s), a change in the imprint, etc.

Rework of previous order – This indicates that there was a discrepancy or mistake with the original either on the Supplier end or on the Distributor end. For example, if the Supplier printed the wrong artwork, the Distributor indicated the wrong shipping address, etc. Oftentimes, the Supplier and Distributor parties involved will agree to a reduced price for Rework orders.

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Posted by distributorcentral

Website Design Tips – Part 6 (IFrames)

July 2, 2009

How to use an Iframe to put your DistributorCentral product catalog onto your outside website…

An <iframe> tag defines an inline frame that contains another document or web page. Iframe’s allow you to display content (i.e. the DistributorCentral catalog) on a site in a window, which eliminates the need for a pop-up window.

Click here for an example of a demo site that is outside of DistributorCentral that has the DistributorCentral catalog in an Iframe.

You’ll notice that the catalog looks seamless with the outside website.

Here is the HTML that is typically used to put an iframe on a site.

<iframe src=”YOUR DC CATALOG LINK HERE” frameborder=”0″ height=”600″ width=”100%”>
</iframe>

You can find your DistributorCentral catalog information in your DistributorCentral account in the Website Publisher area.

Click here to visit a site that explains more info about Iframes.

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Posted by distributorcentral

Website Design Tips – Part 5

July 2, 2009

Customize the Product Catalog Page on your Website…

By default, the All Products catalog displays on your DistributorCentral website which has products from all of your suppliers on DistributorCentral. However, you can create Custom and Preferred Supplier catalogs to give your website a more personal touch.

Click on the links below to see the difference:
Default Catalog Page
Custom Catalog Page

On the example above, the catalog page consists of the default All Products catalog and 14 Custom Catalogs which have been created in the account and assigned to the website. There also are custom images uploaded to represent each catalog.

Click on the image below for reference of how the Product Catalog page above was created.

Watch the short video below to learn how to create Custom Catalogs for your website.

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Posted by distributorcentral

Website Design Tips – Part 4

June 24, 2009

Add Featured Products to your website…

The DistributorCentral web editor tool in your account makes it easy feature products on your website. Using this function on your website can help you advertise and promote products to your customers. This feature also automatically links the products to a details page where your visitors can learn more about the product and order it as well.

Click here or on the image below for an example.

On the example above, you’ll notice that the site is not only using the Featured Products tool, but also has an image uploaded to help enhance the area, which is also hyperlinked to a page on the site that has a more Featured Products.

To add Featured Products on your website, Edit the page you want to put the search area on and select Featured Product for the content type for that block. Click on the image below for reference.

Watch the short presentation below to learn how to feature products on your DistributorCentral website.

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Posted by distributorcentral

Website Design Tips – Part 3

June 23, 2009

How to add a Category Search area…

The DistributorCentral web editor tool in your account also makes it easy add a product category list area to any page of your website. Inserting this function on your home page of your website can make it more convenient for your customers to search for products.

Click here or on the image below for an example.

On the example above, you’ll notice that the site not only has the Category List area, but also has an image uploaded to help enhance the area, and it is also hyperlinked to a page on the site that has a Full Category List.

To add a Category List area on your website, Edit the page you want to put the search area on and select Product Category List for the content type for that block.

Click on the image below for reference.

Watch the short presentation below to learn how to feature products on your DistributorCentral website.

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Posted by distributorcentral

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