Although Volusion is decent software, there are a few complaints I hear from customers, and one is the cost. Volusion's pricing is based on number of individual product codes in a store's database, (see chart below).

In addition to the monthly fees, there is an initial setup fee... and then you have the typical merchant account fees you'd pay no matter which ecommerce software you use, (even if you use "free" software, you still pay transaction fees, discount rate and statement fees when you make a sale -- that is a "given" cost of online sales).

The pricing is all explained, and there are no hidden costs -- but on large sites that have a lot of image files, videos, or other media that uses a lot of bandwidth, you can get a surprise bill from Volusion for excess bandwidth, (yes, they tell you about it when you sign up, but most people never do the math or consider how much bandwidth modern websites actually use).

A month or two of these bills, and you start thinking of ways to cut down on costs. While some stores can either reduce the number of images, or make them physically smaller, (in pixels), or apply greater .JPG compression to reduce the file sizes, at some point you start thinking there has to be a better way.

There is...

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Somewhere between a full blown community portal and blogging is a small niche -- multi-user blogging.

The idea is that you run a site and allow each member to have their own blog, and it's all connected under one content management system.

If this sounds interesting, and you're looking for software to do it, you might want to check out WordPress MU, (the MU stands for Multi User).

If you're looking to have more features and want everything controlled under a single unified login / user management model, take a look at "BuddyPress", (still in BETA, but looks promising).

BuddyPress is an extension for WordPress MU that adds most of the common social media functionality -- "friending", media galleries, user-to-user messaging, chat, forums, user activity streams and more.

If the software is anything like WordPress in reagrds to being easy to install, easy to configure, and attracts even some of the legions of plug-in, widget and theme developers that make WordPress better than most other blogging software, then BuddyPress is sure to be a hit.

While Volusion 5 is a powerful ecommerce platform, and has many features that other shopping carts aspire to, the latest version upgrade has, in-fact, removed some of the flexibility that was available in previous versions.

In version 4 or lower, there were a set of .ASP files that a store owner could modify to customize the appearance and functionality of their Volusion. In Volusion 5 the .ASP files are all but gone -- replaced by a single template file, some CSS stylesheets and more options you can set to customize your store.

While some of the new features are nice, the awkward generated code marked up in deeply nested tables is still there -- and it makes it very difficult to modify the appearance of certain pages or sections of your store.

So, what do you do when you want to, or NEED TO add some functionality or design elements, (or remove some) ?

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Maybe the best thing since WordPress itself is the Lighter Menus plugin which instantly converts the default Admin menu interface of WordPress into one-click drop-down menus.

For instance, instead of having to click Design, then click Themes, then click Theme Editor to make a small change to the appearance of your WordPress blog, simply hover over the Design tab, move down to Theme Editor and click --- once! In addition to the ease of use, the plug-in conserves space at the top of the screen making it less likely you'll need to scroll down to perform some operations.

To get the plug-in go to the WordPress site, click Extend, then click Plugins and search for "lighter menus".

The plugin is available in a number of languages and with over 20,000 downloads, and an (almost) 5 star rating, I believe it's a stable WP plug-in that you can depend on to save you time and make blogging faster and easier.

The Lighter Menus plugin is written by corpodibacco, you can find out more about it and other plugins from the author on the www.italyisfalling.com blog, (along with writings, poetry and other blogged stuff)...

The Payment screen in the Admin section of Volusion V.5 has changed from earlier versions and is not very well documented. Follow the directions below if you're not using Volusion's own SkipJack payment processing.

Make sure you sign up with a Merchant Account / Payment Gateway service that is compatible with Volusion. The majority of third party merchant account providers resell Authorize.net accounts.  These instructions assume you're using an Authorize.net account.

Once your merchant account is approved you'll need certain info to setup on the Volusion payments screen, (specifically the API ID and TRANSACTION KEY). If you're all set, follow these easy steps:

Go to: Admin > Settings > Payment

In the section Payment Gateways, select "United States", (if you're in the U.S.), then select "Other" from the two pull downs.

You will see four text input fields (below the pull-downs).

• 1st field: enter: AUTHORIZENET (all capital letters, all one word)
• 2nd field: enter: the API ID (from gateway provider / Authorize.net)
• 3rd field: (leave blank)
• 4th field: enter the TRANSACTION KEY (from gateway provider / Authorize.net)

Once you've setup the payment gateway info, you will want to test. I suggest creating a PRODUCT with the code "TEST-1" and price it at $1.00 with no shipping charge. You will then want to purchase the item, check the ORDERS section of Volusion, and if you are satisfied that it's working correctly, try issuing a credit for the order to test that capability.

If you don't know where to start or are having trouble getting approved for a merchant account -- I highly recommend checking out  www.e-onlinedata.com They have been very patient with new customers, explaining the details.  They offer a solid package and won't gouge you for setup fees and statement fees.  Their discount rate and transaction fees are competitive with other merchant account providers.

If you need any help with Volusion, feel free to contact me.