26 replies to this topic

[LOGO emPower]

Although you may not subscribe to one of the listed website providers, please enter your choice of who provides the "Best Looking" websites.

Also please share with all of us your personal #1 Distributor Website based on "Best Appearance".

[Chris Miller]

How about editing the poll and including a link to an "out of the box" example of each one? I'm not a big fan of cookie cutter stuff - no matter how good the graphics are. If it looks like 10 of my competitors sites, it's not for me.

Just my $0.02 ;)

[LOGO emPower]

Chris, I considered adding "Other" to the Poll. But that most likely is going to be for those with Custom websites. My intentinon with the Poll was to have DT members provide their reviews on "off-the-shelf" packages which most Distributors purchase.

Posting a poll for Best appearance with a "Custom" website does not provide help to Distributors interested in website design. You can't see the website design in question form the poll.

Therefore, I included a request for everyone to post their favorite example of a Distributor website - custom or packaged... This way DT members can click on each example directly and see what can be done to websites and start the creative juices flowing for their own websites...

[LOGO emPower]

I do hope that everyone who votes in the Poll also adds their example of a great website design for others to see and consider for themselves...

[LOGO emPower]

I am going to start this off with a website that is NOT one of mine - but I like the layout and professional appearance...

Great Job to them...

www.QualityLogoProducts.com

[Chris Miller]

Here is a DC site I am working on:

http://www.promopunch.com

[LOGO emPower]

Here are some examples from The Logo Network:

www.EJPPG.com
www.HeppnerFriday.com
www.GoPromoter.com
www.BingPromo.com
www.FYIPromotions.com
www.Ammadis.com
www.AthenaExpressions.com

[tmertz]

Check out this DistributorCentral site http://totallyweddingmagnets.com

[royster13]

More in the same family:
www.totallymagnets.com
www.totallybabymagnets.com
www.totallysportsbottles.com

These folks have been busy......

[Chris Miller]

Do you have to be related to the owne of DC to make your site look that good? :D

[royster13]

You will have to ask Thomas Casad.......

[tmertz]

Chris Miller said:

Do you have to be related to the owne of DC to make your site look that good? :D

Just because the owners of two companies have the same first name doesn't mean they are related. Mr. Casad switched his websites from other service providers in the industry. Anyone with html experience and creativity can create similar sites using the DistributorCentral web editor and DC hosting.

[Chris Miller]

My apologies, Tom. I mixed these guys up with the "other" wedding magnet people. They are very good looking sites.... :)

[tmertz]

What Chris is referring to is my step-daughter and daughter-in-law's site www.FreshImpressions.us which the girls created with DistributorCentral's web editing tools with NO HTML experience. The only outside functionality that they paid to have programming done was the sub menus in the menu bar.

The sub menus in the menu bar is on the list of enhancements we will be adding to DC but is probably out 12 months or so.

Most of the products are displayed using the "featured Product" block in the web editor.

I am proud to say that they are very successful both financially and business wise and probably more importantly have given us the enjoyment of four grandchildren.

[royster13]

Must be a bunch of folks working on their DC sites this morning as updates are slow publishing.....

[royster13]

I spent some time with the Tech Support folks at Distributor Central yesterday......DC has amazing potential for those that learn it's inner workings.....It will take me some work to get close to some of the more impressive sites we have seen but you can get there....

I have been working on www.MagnetKing.biz

[royster13]

I found another one in Thomas Casad's empire......This one is really decked out.....
www.TotallyWeddingMagnets.com

[Chris Miller]

royster13 said:

I found another one in Thomas Casad's empire......This one is really decked out.....
www.TotallyWeddingMagnets.com

We started down the path of creating niche sites with DC too but soon gave up. Suppliers get removed, products change, etc and all of those custom pages you build fall apart. That's just a byproduct of a system run by suppliers I guess. I still want to build more niche sites, but I can't see dumping 40+ hours into something that might change while i'm asleep, without me knowing.

[tmertz]

Chris Miller said:

We started down the path of creating niche sites with DC too but soon gave up. Suppliers get removed, products change, etc and all of those custom pages you build fall apart. That's just a byproduct of a system run by suppliers I guess. I still want to build more niche sites, but I can't see dumping 40+ hours into something that might change while i'm asleep, without me knowing.

Most of the Distributors with niche sites work with their Suppliers. The Suppliers are aware of what is being developed and promoted. DistributorCentral offers a "Private Catalog" option where once Suppliers put copies of their products in the Distributor's private catalog the Distributor can then edit and maintain the product information.

This feature is not turned on for all Distributor accounts. It is key that the Distributor communicates with Suppliers and has a working relationship with them in regard to this feature. A Supplier must make copies of their products in using this tool. If a Supplier just puts their main product in these catalogs then they open themselves up to a Distributor changing their product information on all websites in the industry. This is a very powerful tool that we have tested in limited release but are cautious in how we make it available to the entire industry. Again it is critical that Suppliers make copies of their products for these private catalogs.

Once a Supplier puts one copy of a product in the private catalog the Distributor can use the "Add Similar" function to create additional copies of the product.

If a Distributor is interested in using this feature they should first approach Suppliers that they wish to feature their products and discuss with the Supplier whether they will work with them or not. The first steps are for Distributors to set up Private Catalogs and invite Suppliers to put products in them. Make sure to have the Supplier put copies of their products. Once this is accomplished the tool can be turned on.

Communication with the Supplier is key. What we are seeing is different quantity breaks and dummied down product information. As these sites are successful it is helping Suppliers better understand best practices in what they need to do in their product information.

The Supplier's product information includes information they need for inventory requirements. It is key when Distributors are editing parts of the product information or making additional copies of the product that they do not impact the information the Supplier needs for inventory. This is why in this model the Distributor must work with the Supplier.

Because over 10,000 Distributors are using DC for their website obviously Suppliers are not going to make 10,000 copies of every product for every Distributor. It is key that Distributors that approach Suppliers with this feature have a strong concept of what they are going to do and what efforts they are going to take to market the site.

This tool combined with an online design tool which DC will be introducing in the first quarter will really allow development of company stores which allow the buyer to design the product themselves and move orders seamlessly from buyer to Distributor to Supplier. The online design tool will provide Suppliers with press ready files that the Buyer has created.

Distributors that wish to create their own products can also do so by setting up a "Fulfillment Account". These products are not related to a particular Supplier however and don't lend themselves to going into a Supplier's production stream as seamlessly.

[biggerfish]

The order management hassle using DC to run multiple sites/stores must give Mr Casad a huge headache, or else he's gotta have a huge staff to manage each one.

I've yet to figure out an easy way to make the INVOICE and ORDER and PURCHASE ORDER all reflect the info from the site the order originated from.

It would be very confusing for customers that order from "BigPromoNicheSiteXXX.com" and then get invoiced by my regular "BigPromotions.net"

I did find a hard way - create "Child Accounts" - then each order/invoice/po placed through that Child's site reflects the info for the Child at the top. I tested this with one site, and the orders there don't appear in my main account. Me or my staff have to log out of DC, log back into the Child to do whatever tasks are necessary, and the log out and log back in to get back to the rest of the work.

Overall a crummy way to have to work. Add to this the fact that we do direct mail to customers - having to worry about what customers get what piece of branded direct mail would be way too much to handle for our little company.

Casad can have that. I'll worry about building my one brand.

OH and PS - do you guys really thing the TotallyWhatever.com sites look good? I think they're a huge mess, and impossible to navigate. I'm sure they're fine for adwords, where the visitor goes straight to a product page. But overall they're just UGLY to me.