The WST Team has been working hard to make the WST Page Designer even easier to use.
We've packed in more features, easier navigation, expanded screen workspace, a better
WYSIWIG experience, and yes! faster speeds.

Take a look at our demo and see how we've changed your website creation experience. And when
you get a chance to test drive the new editor yourself, please take a moment to let
us know how you like it.  Your feedback is what drives the changes we make in the
application, so keep it coming!

Following on from the last article on how to add a map into your project, it’s time to take a look at the type of map that you add and how you can best represent your business or organization.

Since I’m going to be using Google  My Maps feature, you will need to have a Google account. We will be discussing how to add specific content for your business, club or family.

Have a hard to find location?

Strip malls? Stripped of any defining features and often possessing numbering schemes that seem to require that you saved that secret decoder ring from your cereal a couple of decades back. Worse yet, you may have no actual address. For example, you may be trying to give your camp group a map to a tail gating party.

Here’s a way to show people on your website where you are. You can add notes, your contact info, your website, and even a photo of your building into this map. Then you can bring it all into your Website Tonight project using the steps shown in the previous article. As an added bonus, your business now shows up in searches based on your geographical area.

Let’s make a map.

Head to maps.google.com and log in, search for the location, and view the type you wish to use. For this purpose, satellite usually works best (though it depends on the area of the country that you are in). Go to the “My Maps” tab.

Start by clicking “Create new map” and then select the tool that best fits your need. I want to make an area showing our location, so I’ll pick the “Draw a Shape” tool and create a box. Once this is done, you can now add further details to the box. When this is done, OK the changes, click “Done” and then copy the map’s html code using “Link to this page”, for placement within your Website Tonight project.

That’s great for those staying in a fixed location. What about the more mobile endeavors? It’s back to Monterey, Ca for a small charity walk.

Creating a route

Organizing a charity walk Fun run or parade? Maybe a motorcycle run? You can create the route on Google Maps and then place these results within Website Tonight.

For this example, I placed a start and end point and then used a line tool to highlight the route. Now your site visitors can see exactly where you are going and you can include hints, suggestions and things to look out for on the way. You can add the same type of links and content as mentioned in the prior example, as well as way points that provide additional information.

These are only two examples, but hopefully you’ve seen a way you can benefit from the use of Google maps into your WST . I’m always interested in seeing what uses you’ve put this, and other third party services, to within WST. Please let us know of any interesting examples.

GoDaddy.com is not liable for the consequences of any action taken on the basis of information provided.

Greetings,

As you may have seen, I’ve recently added a screen cast to my last post about adding a map into your Website Tonight Project.

First, I’d like to tell you what I’m trying to achieve. While we have a full help system, we’ve not really gone into suggesting avenues of where you can go with your website.

The screen casts hope to show you interesting ways to use the existing feature set within WST to extend your website using the latest services out there. So, during this trial period I’d like you to toss in your 2 cents on anything that you would like to see changed that would make to make the screencasts useful to you. (E.g. Screen size, length, clarity of supporting text, etc.)

The screen casts are produced using a moderately priced webcam, a decent mike, a basic video editor, and the video conversion software within our Blogcast program.

I’m hoping that alongside the specific examples addressed, the creation of your own videos for use with your visitors or customers will be a running theme throughout these screen casts. If you have any questions on how to get started or include these within your WST, ask away.

John

Adding commerce to your Website Tonight account. Part 2.

In part two of this article I suggest some ideas on how you can make the PayPal buttons / site integration more fluid for visitors of your site.

Please realize that this is a superficial look at what this, and other, payment services have to offer when used alongside WST. This is more of a primer on what you can do with WST when used as the basis for an online store, rather than a soup to nuts breakdown on E commerce for small business. (Then again if enough of you would like to see one, it could be fun to write.)

Selling multiple items at once.

In the first example I used a “buy now” button. That's pretty much a one-off and suited to those with only one product to offer or those that are willing to make and encrypt multiple buttons for each product.

If you have multiple products, it's time to look at the “Add to Cart” button. It's basically the same item which is placed the same way apart. When your shoppers add an item, they get the chance to continue shopping. If they don't find anything else that they like, they're going to need a way back. Be sure to add a View cart button too. For best results, place the view cart button so that it's visible throughout your entire site.

Tip 1

Another way to close the circle on the payment process and make it a seamless transition from your WST to PayPal and back again is to create two pages to accommodate PayPal’s button redirect.

These pages will be used for a successful payment and a canceled order screen respectively. You can thank the shopper in the first and maybe add in a survey or feedback form in the latter, in order to see why they wanted to back out of the purchase. There are some conditions on how these pages have to be formatted when using PayPal, so please adhere to their requests if you go this route.

Tip 2

Edit the PayPal shopping cart to match your WST Site. You have to do this within your PayPal account but you can match the look and feel of the cart to your site. If you use an image within this design, it’s recommended that you  link from a photo stored on a service that allows secure (https) images. Such as our Online Photo Filer which you may already have free with your domain.

Without an https link to the image, most browsers that try to display a site with a mix of secure ( https) and insecure ( http) elements will pop up a warning telling people that not everything on the site is secure. It may only be an image, but it’s your image that suffers in the minds of those that don’t understand the mild nature of the warning and they will choose to go elsewhere.

Tip 3

Create a template for your products. Before you even add products, work out all the common items such as Price, shipping, and color, and then copy and paste the code into new content blocks.

Well that’s the basics of starting a store with your Website Tonight program. As I’ve said, this is merely scratching the surface. So, if there’s any question arising from this, let me know and we’ll address them in a future entry.

GoDaddy.com is not liable for the consequences of any action taken on the basis of information provided.

PayPal is a registered trademark of PayPal, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Adding basic E- commerce to your Website Tonight account.

Cash Register tonight?

In this two part article and screen cast, I'll be suggesting ways to add a basic payment / E Commerce feature to your site by adding payment buttons in your WST project. In part two we'll look at more specific suggestions to make the whole experience more fluid for your visitors.

Is this right for you?

I see this as being useful for people that have limited number of items to sell, or groups that want to collect contributions from their membership or the general public. There's no reason you couldn't create a thousand item stores from these methods, but the day to day upkeep would require more time than setting up a dedicated shopping cart. ( Our shopping cart starts at $9.99 a month)

For this example, I'll be using PayPal, but the basics apply to Google Checkout and Revolution Money exchange equally and it's up to you to work out which service best fits you needs.

All of these services have a method that allows you to generate code for a button that you place within your WST project. This button then launches the service’s site, the transaction takes place, and the user is returned (if you've set it up to do so), to a location of your choosing.

You'll need an account with one, or more, of these services but first let's get started with the buttons

Obtaining the Button

Log into your PayPal account and click on “Merchant Services”. As you can see, there's quite a choice of button types, and while they all can be added to WST, the choices they offer is something you should take your time to familiarize yourself with. I'm going to go with a basic “buy now” button, which is a bit of a misnomer since there's really a lot of versatility within the button. I'll address that specifically in part 2. While nearly all of these options are self-explanatory, it's worth bringing up the choice between an encrypted and unencrypted button since this has implications on the type of button you can offer.

With the encrypted button, the code you paste into your WST project can't be edited. If you want to change the name, price, or shipping, you will have to go to PayPal to create a new button every time.

Unencrypted buttons are normal human readable code that you can change the values on.

With unencrypted, you have more options available such as the ability to create drop down selections for size and color, amongst other things. If you are comfortable with HTML, you can even add your own custom form options.

Why could this be an issue?

Well there's nothing stopping other people grabbing the button code, editing the values and then submitting an order with altered values. Obviously if you approve each item prior to shipping, it’s more annoying than anything else. But, if you need options then this may be acceptable to you. Otherwise my suggestion would be to create an encrypted button for each option. What you choose is really up to your business model. I recommend you research the limitations of either method.

Placing the button

We've done the research and have the code for our button. The easy part is placing it into WST. There are two main ways to do this. The basic one is to enter into the content block, click on HTML, and then paste in the code, click html, and then OK. You are done and you can admire your handiwork on the screen.

The alternate method is to add the button as a script object. To do this, click on the content block. Then from the sidebar navigation click Tables and Objects > Insert Object, then Script. Paste in the code, save then save again. You will need to then preview the page if you want to see what the button looks like.

Why two methods?

I prefer using the script method as it doesn't slow down the page designer by showing the buttons / code each time. It's also neater when you have many buttons within a content block. If you add an unencrypted button with options, the edit mode will show you all of the fields that make up the button. If you have many of these, you can see how hard it would be to keep track of multiple buttons within the same content block.

NOTE: Don't try to edit the button's options or values using the WST form tool (located in the forms section). The form wasn't created by this tool and none of the changes you make will take effect.

That's the basics of how to get the button into your WST project. In part two, I’ll be showing you how to create a complete purchase path.

GoDaddy.com is not liable for the consequences of any action taken on the basis of information provided.

PayPal is a registered trademark of PayPal, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Greetings,

How do you feel about the kind of advertising campaign that invites you to reevaluate your perspective by suggesting that what you had yesterday isn’t good enough for today?

If you’ve only seen this once then you’ve not really seen it?

I don’t really care much for that form of marketing myself. I just wanted to get that out of the way prior to getting into this entry.

If you’ve not seen our templates recently; you haven’t really seen them all

Templates

We’ve been releasing new templates on an ongoing basis. If you’ve been a Website Tonight owner for years, and are happy with how it looks, then now would be a good time to catch up on shredding your junk mail.

Otherwise read on.

Our talented team of designers works hard to get these templates looking this good. However, it’s free to look at the new templates. No sales person will call and you may just find that we’ve used one, or more, of your suggestions. From time to time check back to see the latest designs

You can get to this from the Design tab and then select Template and color. Change the category to new and browse to “What’s new.”

Having dispensed kudos in the direction of the design team, I’m obligated to point out that the program developers work hard giving you the ability to modify the templates to your liking.

Advanced Style Options (CSS)

We’ve added the much requested Advanced Style Options feature within Website Tonight.

What is it?

CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet, which is a markup language that defines the look, feel, and style of a webpage. With this you can change fonts, layouts, colors and quite a bit more. It’s a new choice within the design menu that enables site owners to override the template’s design and radically affect the look and layout of the template by providing CSS code of their own.

Why do I want it?

There are many style elements that you may wish to add to your WST site that would require you to open up every content block and locally change the style. For instance, many people have asked for a border around the content blocks.

If you want a template in a color scheme that we don’t offer, you can alter one of ours.

What else should I know?

You have to have the Apply box checked for any changes to be displayed.

You don’t have to copy the entire read only view. Copy only those elements that you wish to change.

What now?

Start creating! I’m really interested to see how our users will use this feature. If you have an interesting layout that you’ve styled using this feature we’d love to see it. I’ll be posting more on how to use this feature over the coming weeks. In the meantime, I suggest this resource to assist you in getting started with CSS.

Coming up.

Getting started with CSS.

Your phone, your car, and your PC probably have a better idea of where they are than do their owners. While I'm not going to even get into the irony of misplacing a gps-enabled device, I would like to share a recent example of just how much you can achieve with today's mapping sites.

I was driving around Phoenix looking to purchase a truck and stopped at so many dealerships that the relative sameness of the inventory, arrangement of giant inflatables, and sincerity really made it hard to tell where I was. The next day, I had decided to take a test drive. I wanted to call ahead to make sure that the truck was still for sale and that it would be ready to test drive. Problem? I couldn't recall which of the myriad of dealers on the strip actually had the car for sale.

Enter geek mode. (aka everything can be solved by silicon)

I called up Google® Maps, selected a hybrid view (that's the type that combines satellite imagery with an overlay showing the street name), located the junction nearest the dealership, and found the building. I clicked to street view and up popped a picture of the building alongside the contact details.

So a happy accident for the dealership, but let's not leave YOUR business or event's location up to chance. In this two part entry, we’ll start out by adding a map to your Website Tonight project and look at ways in which you can make the maps you add even more valuable.

Let's set out to add a basic map.

For this example I'll use Google Maps (maps.google.com). While you don't need an account for the basic embedded maps, you're missing out on quite a bit if you choose not to.

Within Google Maps.

Bring up Google Maps and find your address and view you wish to include within Website Tonight. Next, click on “link to this page.” Now it’s unlikely the default size is going to be suited to your project, so click on “Customize and preview embedded map.” This will allow you to choose from several presets or you can select your own custom size. With those changes made, select the code and copy this into your clipboard. Don’t worry about getting the size exactly right. You can directly change the width and height within the first line of the code. Anything over 320px wide is likely to cause scrollbars to appear in our smallest content block.

Within Website Tonight

You will need a content block to place your map in and from there we are going to do something a little unexpected. Rather than paste the code directly into the HTML section, we’re going to place it within a script object container. Now this removes the real-time preview within the designer but makes the container far more responsive and easy to update edit on an ongoing basis.

You sacrifice a little immediate feedback when seeing how the map looks as you place it within the container. Otherwise the map will try to load every time you edit anything on the page.

Click on the content block and when it’s in edit mode, select the table & objects tab from menu on the left, mouse over insert object and then click on script. Paste over the existing code with the Google Maps code and then click OK. Click OK again to save the content block.

You should be looking at a script tag within the content block. To see how your map looks, go to page options and then preview page.

In the next entry I’ll be suggesting ways in which you can make the maps you add more valuable.

Just a quick note to let you know that we’ve added a user requested feature to Website Tonight. The feature allows you to use your own choice of flash intro with the program. It’s located under add-ons, Flash Intro, and then select the “upload custom flash intro” radio button. Further information on using this feature can be located within our help section.

Don’t know how to obtain or create a flash intro? A quick trip to your favorite search engine with this phrase “free flash intro” will give enough reading for the next few hours. Most of the services will not only give you the flash intro but the surrounding code to enable it to run within your web page. Luckily, we’ve taken care of that part for you within Website Tonight and all you need is the file that ends in .SWF.

Once uploaded, you can match the background, size your file, add metadata, and add sound to your finished intro. If the intro already contains sound, it’s best to leave this off.

Other than that, it’s best to avoid files that are not self contained (e.g they need additional parameters for the text /images used), since we won’t be able to reference those in this context.

Until next time

While I don't want to detract from the joy many of our users gain from tweaking and updating their sites, the less time you spend updating WebSite Tonight, the more time there is to focus on your audience. Over the next couple of entries I'm going to show you how you can add various forms of dynamic content to your web site. This will keep it relevant, with renewable content that provides a reason for people to keep on coming back. I like to think of this content as the type of advertising that people actually want to receive.

First, let's define what a feed is.

A feed is a way for websites to distribute content for consumption by other sites or subscribers. Don't take my word for it. Try some other words over here and here.

Ah, but I want people to come to my site.

It may seem counter intuitive that providing feeds that could remove the need for people to visit your site can actually lead to a greater degree of engagement by your visitors. Obviously there are exceptions, those people whose sole product is the content that is contained within their feed. If you are in the latter position there's no reason you can't talk about the content and then link back to it. Your mileage may vary on how successful the following suggestions are for your specific case.

Ways in which you could use feeds?

There are many ways in which you could use feeds to enhance your small business site, and they nearly all relate back to it being “your” business website. There's no one better placed to discuss your products, service in depth and to promote upcoming items that yourself. It doesn't need to stop with just the one feed either. Your town paper, your suppliers, and any trade associations you belong to may have relevant feeds that your visitors may find of interest. I would suggest that you follow these external feeds just in case information that conflicts with your business reaches a prominent position. It's an interesting problem but one which can be solved by either writing the blog the feeds come from or by using a feed aggregate service such as Google Reader. Briefly, this lets you subscribe to all the feeds you are interested in. The entries you like can then be shared with Website Tonight's feed reader.

I realize this isn't an in depth guide about how to do it. The link for that is below. But, this is more of a start to get you thinking about ways in which your website can attract repeat visitors by using new content.

How do I get it?

http://help.godaddy.com/article/3058 has all the details.

Why do I want it?

I think we established that in the above entry.

Greetings

We've just released WebSite Tonight 4.4 which has many performance improvements, fixes and an extended feature based on feedback received within the program.

Improved Video handling:

We've expanded the options in the video section, per user request, to include additional choices. You can choose the video's behavior to autoplay and loop. Why is this useful? This allows you to have multiple videos on a page without them all trying to play at once. If you want to play them all at once, continually, you can do that too. (If anyone actually comes up with a good use for the latter please let us, and the rest of the web know).

Note:

If the player appears on your Firefox browser without player controls and ignores your settings, you may need the latest version of the WMP plug-in for Firefox which you can obtain here.

http://port25.technet.com/pages/windows-media-player-firefox-plugin-download.aspx

Thank you for all for your feedback via the blog and the link within the application. I assure you we read every one.