Ya, that bothers me too....
No real FTP access, no control over anything.
Also, since all of our products and info is in their system, if we ever wanted to move to a different service, it would be very difficult.
But overall I like them.

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Michael
Roller Skates
Inline Speed Skates

Since MC is being discussed, I figured I would come in and say hello. You are right, Ado is a great guy

I am happy to answer any questions for you all or give you examples of sites ranking well. I know many of you are dead set on PHP but I hope you will at least take a look at our software.

I am happy to be a part of the forum and will try to bring some good info along with me!

Regards,
Steph
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Stephanie Leffler
CEO
MonsterCommerce.com

I've been heavily researching ecommerce setups on various boards like Sitepoint.com, Webmasterworld.com, and Webhosttalk.com. Here are a few notes I've compiled.


1. MonsterCommerce....while it takes less setup time, the general concensus is that it's expensive for what they offer. I came across a number of MC customers who felt they were being nickel and dimed to death. I don't recall any hardcore haters though.

2. OS Commerce...the general favorites of folks who can deal with ongoing mod tweaks. Not really recommended if you want a quick easy setup. Lots of hosts offer it through the Fantastico installer, but apparently you can't do the appropriate edits to make it seo friendly this way [no access to the files?].

3. Zen-cart...based off OSC with a less complex setup. I personally couldn't get a straight up answer on being able to tweak it for seo.

4. X-cart and Lite Commerce...look good in my opinoin [and affordable], although I'm a bit wary about all the 'add-on' modules that you have to pay extra for. They do get good mentions a lot on the boards. SEO friendly.

5. Mals-e ...probably one of easiest solutions and totally free [or super cheap]. Easy to optimize because you just plug your 'buy button' into whatever page you create. Not what I'd recommend for a power user though, it doesn't have enough automation features.

6. Ecommercetemplates.com...This is a template/cart setup. Very cheap and easy to deal with, more powerful than other cheap carts, and totally seo friendly. Their templates are very basic, but you can build your own from scratch, plug in a few code lines, and then install the whole deal onto whatever host you feel like using. They offer both asp and php options, plus easy online tutorials and a forums board. They got good tech support reviews on WHT.


If I was on a tight budget I'd go with EcommerceTemplates or Lite Commerce. If I had more deneros I'd probably go with X-cart. I'll make the general disclaimer that you're on your own in choosing something. I'm just posting input I've received on other boards, and my own personal thoughts.

For more details I recommend spending some time on Webhosttalk.com. You can search by product/company name. Lots of reviews and input there. Be sure to post what you end up using, or if you find anything new.


I'm pretty sure this has turned my brain to mush!!!

MonsterCEO thank you for stopping by, we welcome you with open arms. Dreamshop thank you for the breakdown EXTREMELY helpful! Perhaps MC would like to discuss some SEO friendly mods to add to new modules, I am not an ASP guy PHP all the way lol but! I can still make some killer suggestions as to how to make the package HELLA more attractive to the end use. The Isapi rules are almost identicle to mod_rewrite rules sothe translation is very easy. Let me know it you want to start a thread on it Im sure tons of other members would offer suggestions as well

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Vote for your favorite SEO site and tell your visitors about this great place, please link to us http://www.seo-guy.com with the anchor text SEO and let them know how you feel

I use OSCommerce for my store, and Dreamshop is right, its not too easy to get a store running out of the box. But you have full control over everything, files and output. I'm still tweaking and have to re-write some functions, but the community support is great, their forum is about 35K members and still going. New users do get frustrated at the steep learning curve. But the full control is great and people are always adding on new things everyday. I'm a big fan because its open source that works.

Just my opinion though, and <plug> My team does custom work. </plug>

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Diamond Jewelry: NABCOM Diamonds
Freelance Web Development: Dev OSC

Hey Dreamshop-
Trying to get to WebHostTalk and it isn't coming up. Is www.webhosttalk.com the right URL?

Also- Sounds like you have a pretty good command of all these programs. Any chance of you taking a closer look at MonsterCommerce to see what you think more in detail?

Let me know!
Steph
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Stephanie Leffler
CEO
MonsterCommerce.com

I am trying to use DigitalPoint's Coop Ad Network's ASP version but MonsterCommerce won't let me upload my own ASP files or add includes to my own ASP file in my site.
It's pretty upsetting. That's the only real downfall that I can see is that you have very little control over your site... you can't change the titles of specific pages (big deal for SEO), you can't add new meta tags, you don't have real FTP access (only a limited functionality file manager), and you can't upload your own server side scripts.
Other than that it's a good store, but the checkout needs to be worked on... it's too long (5 pages).
The MonsterCommerce SEO department seems alright... I'm not sure how much benefit they've given me... a couple of the pages they've made have come up in Google, but when you go to that page it's nonsense pictures and text... I know if I saw it when searching I'd click back really quickly... so that's a problem.
Most of our good SERPS are from the work I've done I think.
I don't know of any mods or upgrades that can be done to it... are there?
Overall I'm satisfied with their cart.

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Michael
Roller Skates
Inline Speed Skates

We am using oscommerce for our e-comm website and it is great. We are soon planning to go for a mod_rewrite.

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Eat Drink little and be Merry
Chicken Recipes Gifts to india

Hey Guys-
I would love to hear your suggestions on SEO related items you would like to see in the MonsterCommerce software.

Hey Lowpricedskates...i understand your concerns overy FTP, but allowing people to upload their own code caused our servers great reliability issues (people introducing inefficient code with memory leaks and so forth) so we had to block this for the good of all clients.

Our custom programming department can take a look at your ASP code or integrate anything you need done if you would like this.

Thanks for your warm welcome. I look forward to participating.

Steph

Hi Steph,

When I have an afternoon to breath I'll do a more in-depth MC review.

Here's the right link to Web Host Talk... http://www.webhostingtalk.com


My impression was that you could set category page titles and tags, but not for each individual product pages. Is this correct?

I would say this is a key feature I'd look for in an ecommerce setup.


Also...there's a TON of up and coming cart programs that are a lot cheaper in the long run. You might do some R&D and take a look at what's be offered in the market. It's fairly easy to find hosting and cart sofware for around $30 per month.

Anyway, those are just some general thoughts.


~Kat

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