We have used a random ballyhoodemo.co.uk email address as an example in each step but you should substitute this email address, or any other items, with the details we have supplied you with where appropriate.

Getting Started

Open Outlook 2007 on your PC or laptop.

Go to the Tools tab in the top menu and select Options. This will open a new window.

Options

In the Options window, go to the Mail Setup tab.

On this page, click on E-Mail Accounts.

E-Mail Accounts

Under the Email tab in this window there is a button called New, click on this.

Add New E-Mail Account

Auto Account Setup

In this window the first thing you need to do is complete the Your Name, E-mail Address and Password fields.

Your name will be displayed to anyone who receives an email from you. You should enter the email address and password that we have given you for your account.

Ensure that you tick the Manually configure server settings or additional server types box.

Click Next.

Internet E-mail Settings

On this screen you’ll need to enter some more information about your account. Some of the fields will be pre-populated with information you added in the first step.

Ensure that the Account Type is set to POP3.

Your Incoming mail server will be pop.yourdomain.co.uk and the Outgoing mail server will be mail.yourdomain.co.uk.

Ensure Remember Password is ticked.

When these fields are complete, click on More Settings, located in the bottom-right corner of the window.

More Settings

General

In the General tab you can change the name of your account, add your organisation name and specify a reply e-mail address if required.

Outgoing Server

In this tab make sure you click My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication.

Advanced

In the Advanced tab you need to change the Outgoing server port number to 587.

Click OK to take you back to the Add New Account Internet E-mail Settings window.

Click Next.

Congratulations

You have now successfully configured your e-mail account to use Outlook 2007. Click Finish on this screen.

And Finally…

To start receiving emails you simply need to click on the Tools tab in the top toolbar and click Send/Receive.

Alternatively, you can press Ctrl+M on your keyboard.

If you need any assistance please call 0121 286 9390 or email us at support@ballyhoo.ltd.uk.

Visit this website: eurofyre.co.uk

“We have used Ballyhoo for many years and have always found them to be responsive, imaginative, and they have always delivered the project on time and on budget. Our latest project with them necessitated a complete rebuild of our site in order to bring us back in line with today’s trends and requirements, and this is exactly what was delivered; a good job well done.” Jon Redfearn.

Brief

Eurofyre Ltd, who specialise in fire detection products, have been Ballyhoo customers for many years. In 2011 they came to us to redevelop their existing website which was starting to look a bit dated.

There were two aspects to this project; Eurofyre wanted us to bring their design up to date to reflect current trends and look at improving their content management system to make the website easier to manage.

Design

Our graphic designer, who originally created the Eurofyre logo and site design several years ago, created a new design concept for this website that looked fresh without losing the familiarity of the existing Eurofyre brand.

Eurofyre have some outstanding images of their products so making these stand out was a priority.

A few years ago many of the graphic effects that we use today just weren’t possible. A range of techniques and new skills our designer has acquired over the years have been adopted in this design to to add an extra dimension and a higher level of interest –  this is something we have also been able to do with the development of the site.

Development

It was decided early on that Eurofyre would not continue using Joomla as the foundation for their website. Instead they would use our new(ish) content management system Ballyhoo Refresh (which wasn’t even a concept when Eurofyre had their first website developed). Refresh is not only much easier to use than Joomla but, as it is our own system, we can adapt it to suit our clients’ needs on a project by project basis.

Eurofyre had a very specific structure in mind for their website and provided us with documentation to help us achieve their vision. The content management system as it stood was not capable of all of the processes needed to make the site work but we were able to customise sections and, where necessary, build new features into the system to make our software perfectly suit this website.

As previously mentioned in the design section, we have been able to introduce new development techniques to this website that were unavailable when we built the first Eurofyre website.

The web development world is constantly evolving and we are becoming capable of creating ever more impressive and useful features. Examples in this site include a JQuery slideshow on the homepage and tabbed product descriptions on deeper pages of the site.

We usually recommend that our clients include a Google Map integration of their location on their contact page. This allows prospective customers to pinpoint offices or shops if they are considering making a visit or purchase.

If you would like to know more about this project or would like to find out how we can help improve your own website, feel free to call us on 0121 286 9390 or email us at info@ballyhoo.ltd.uk.

Visit this website: toysforall.co.uk

Brief

The Captain’s Cabin, a successful beach-front shop in the heart of South Wales’ Mumbles area, approached us to create an e-commerce website so they could start selling their range of toys and beach accessories online.

Design

The design of this site has a maritime feel, with nautical touches like an illustrated anchor and compass. The site is essentially quite basic in layout and design to accommodate the vast number of products that have been added to this website.

Development

This site was built on our e-commerce system Ballyhoo Commerce. Ballyhoo Commerce is a versatile e-commerce system that is intuitive and easy to use – an ideal system for businesses who are new to selling online but still want all the power and features of advanced e-commerce software.

Post-launch, as part of our ongoing support of The Captain’s Cabin, we have integrated social networking links into the site so customers can like the site on Facebook, follow The Captain’s Cabin on Twitter and share the site using Google +1.

For a no-obligation quote for your e-commerce project or to find out more about Ballyhoo and our easy-to-use e-commerce and content management systems, call us on 0121 286 9390 or email us at info@ballyhoo.ltd.uk.

Payment Gateways

In this version we have improved the role payment gateways have in your online business as a whole, with attention paid to maximising robustness, increasing the control you have over payment methods and presenting you with key information.

Whenever we add new features to our ecommerce system we take care to ensure that the core part of the system we’re working on is operating optimally. In this version we spent a lot of time developing the payment gateway components of the system so we took time out to review how this works and make improvements where required.

Statistics

For website owners using a number of payment gateways on their Ballyhoo Commerce e-commerce website we’ve developed a new reporting system. Whether you are using a combination of PayPal, SagePay and Google Checkout, it’s important that you know how well each is performing for you and which is the payment gateway of choice for your customers.

In the Payment Gateway section of your admin area, under General Settings, you’ll now see statistics next to each payment gateway in use in your online shop. We’ve reworked the system to record which payment gateway is used for each order and the value of orders. You’ll be able to monitor the most popular payment gateway and we hope this will help you make important decisions about your business.

Min/Max Order Value

As part of giving you more control over payment gateways, and in a bid to help you reduce transaction fees from the likes of PayPal, we’ve added minimum/maximum order values to the payment gateway installation process.

When a customer goes through the checkout process they will only be given the option to use payment gateways that have been set in your system to accept orders of a certain value.

For example, you have set PayPal to accept orders between £0 and £100 and SagePay to accept orders between £50 and £500.

• If a customer is placing an order with a value of £20 they will have to use PayPal.
• If the order value is £70 they will be able to choose between PayPal and SagePay.
• If the order value is £120 they will have to use SagePay.

SagePay Server Integration Improvements

SagePay’s server integration for payments is proving very popular with our clients and customers alike. This payment gateway allows the customer making a payment to stay on your website at all times throughout the transaction process and they will not be directed to a third party site at any point.

We’ve improved the SagePay Server payment form to make the integration of SagePay and your website seamless. We’ve redeveloped the way this form takes shape so that the form used in the transaction will be identical in style to any other form on your website, creating a feeling of consistency for your customers.

Making this improvement to the way SagePay server integration pages are generated has also streamlined the payment processor installation process as we will not need to take extra time to style this page for each client.

SEO

Search engine optimisation continues to be an important factor in the way Ballyhoo Commerce evolves.

Traffic to your website drives your business and today more and more people are relying on Google search engine results to lead them to sites that will fulfil their needs. While for most sites a concentrated SEO effort is required, there is a lot we can do at the core of your website to make sure it is as search engine friendly as possible and a solid foundation for any SEO strategy.

Custom Meta Tag Controls

Meta data is essentially a way of quickly telling search engines like Yahoo and Google what information your web pages contain. Depending on your SEO requirements the attention paid to this area of your website varies.

Previously, Ballyhoo Commerce automatically generated meta data from the content on the page in question. This has consistently worked well and has been a key part in the success of our most thriving e-commerce websites.

As the internet evolves and more effort is required to shine light on websites and products it may be advantageous to tailor this meta information, especially if you have a focused SEO strategy.

In this version we can now enable custom meta tag controls for advanced users. When adding a product, a content page or a category you’ll have the ability to enter information into the following fields:

• Page Title: a title for the page that has appropriate keywords. On a product page this does not have to be the same as the Product Title.
• Meta Keywords: a range of search terms that you would like your website or product to be found under in search engines. These aren’t thought to be as important as the description.
• Meta Description: a short description of your page or product containing appropriate keywords. This actually appears under your listing in search engines.

General SEO Improvements

Again, as we were working on this area of the system we took some time to ensure that our code was optimised and that everything was working as it should.

We also made a few other improvements to the system such as ensuring that pages with no relevant content aren’t indexed (picked up by the search engines).

It is important that your clout in the search engines is focused in key areas on your website and isn’t diluted through a number of pages which contain no relevant content (like the Email To A Friend page under Other Options on product pages). In this case the page has no relevance other than being a useful tool for your customers so it is not beneficial for search engines like Google to know about it.

To upgrade your version of Ballyhoo Commerce or to arrange to speak to us about your e-commerce project, please call 0121 286 9390 or email us at info@ballyhoo.ltd.uk.

The majority of systems that we build websites on use the TinyMCE Text Editor, such systems include the Joomla CMS and our own systems Ballyhoo Commerce and Ballyhoo Refresh. Other content management systems like WordPress use the same tools albeit in a slightly different order and layout.

Capital Letters

Firstly, do not use all capitals for article titles. Use the following format: ‘This Is An Example Article Title’.

Do not use all uppercase sentences anywhere in your pages. If you are trying to make something stand out from the rest of your text make the sentence bold. If you are trying to denote a new section of the page use a Heading 2.

Copying & Pasting Text

If you are adding text to your site from another source do not simply copy and paste the text into the text box. Other websites and applications like Word have a lot of hidden code that is carried across and can affect your website.

If there is a Paste as Plain Text button (a clipboard with a T) in the text editor, click on this to paste text into your page. An alternative would be to click on the HTML button (at the end of the second row of tools in TinyMCE) and paste the article text into the box that appears and click Update. If editing an article paste the text at the end of the text block in the HTML view.

Adding text in this way will strip out any code or poor formatting from the source allowing you to format the text correctly for your website.

Formatting Text

Use only the formats that are available in the text editor, the style of your headings and paragraphs have been specially styled to fit the design of your website.

The TinyMCE text editor works similarly to other word processors, just highlight the text you want to change and select the appropriate format from the drop-down menu on the first row of tools.

Please do not add coloured text to the page, this will invariably make the page look dated and amateur.

If you are making lists be sure to make use of bullets and numbers – the icons for these tools are fairly obvious.

Adding Images

If adding an image to an article, make sure that it is of high-quality and that it is the correct size for the page you are adding it to. Poor images will reflect badly on you even if they have been provided to you by an organisation.

Adding Links

This doesn’t strictly affect the look of your page but it is an important point to note:

If adding a link to an article ensure that you add a title for the link and set the target as ‘Open link in new window’ (in modern browsers the link will open in a new tab). The same rule applies when adding items like PDFs.

This ensures that the user doesn’t lose their place in your site and can continue their browsing experience when they have finished looking at the other web page/PDF.

Proof Reading

Always proof read and check the spelling of the content you are about to add to your website. Some mistakes are instantly noticeable (lack of full stops for example) and others are found through reading the page.

Poorly constructed sentences and incorrect grammar or punctuation are the sign of a poor site and may confuse the reader, or in some cases offend them, making them leave the website.

It has also been reported that Google’s latest search algorithm takes into account well written content so, for the sake of your search engine rankings, make sure your website content is the best it can possibly be. Hire a copywriter if you are not confident in your writing abilities.

Summary

In conclusion, remembering the following points will help you make inviting and attractive text pages every time:

• Do not add anything in ALL CAPITALS.
• Paste text as plain text to strip unwanted code.
• Use the text formats provided.
• Do not add coloured text.
• Only add high-quality images.
• Set links to open in a  new window.
• Proof read and spell check text.

Help

If you are in any doubt when adding or editing an article, email us at support@ballyhoo.ltd.uk and we will be happy to assist you.

In some cases it may be more expedient to ask us to add the item in question for you, we are fully trained and experienced at adding items to websites and formatting them correctly so what may take you half an hour may only take us 5 minutes. Any updates we carry out for you are charged at our usual hourly rate of £40 and updates are timed to the minute (e.g. a 15 minute job will cost only £10).

Visit this website: discountfiresupplies.co.uk/blog

As part of the recent redevelopment of Discount Fire Supplies we created a new custom template for their WordPress blog.

Blogs are a fantastic addition to any website. While they are a good way to provide interest for your customers and create a community around your business, they also have many search engine optimisation benefits such as the regular introduction of fresh content and the inclusion of more keywords on your site.

We would recommend that anybody selling online includes a regular blog on their website.

Discount Fire Supplies have a very active blog and they usually post at least two items a week. They have been using WordPress ever since they decided to introduce a blog to the website. With such a large volume of posts WordPress has worked well for them and provided control and flexibility through a feature-rich control panel.

As part of the main website redevelopment the blog needed to be brought up to date to match the new website design too.

This new WordPress template matches the new DFS website design in appearance and also includes dynamic content such as the shopping basket summary and category navigation meaning customers can switch seamlessly between the main website and the blog.

Ballyhoo Commerce has a number of essential blog features that can give the average online shop owner the ability to have their own blog on their website. If, however, you are planning to be very proactive with your blog we would recommend using WordPress or a similar system to give you the features you need.

Some online sellers might be tempted to have a WordPress site for their main website and simply use an extension or plugin to give them e-commerce functionality. We would not recommend this however as if you are selling online you need a robust and secure platform for your shop.

Essentially having two sites with matching templates gives you the flexibility and control needed to manage a successful e-commerce venture.

If you would like to introduce a blog on your website and you’d like to discuss your options please get in touch on 0121 286 9390 or email us at info@ballyhoo.ltd.uk.

Visit this website: jamesanduzzell.co.uk

Brief

James & Uzzell are chartered certified accountants providing services to mainly small to medium businesses in the Swansea area of South Wales. They wanted to modernise their existing website (a project that Ballyhoo worked on many years ago) and introduce content management so that their team could keep the site up to date in-house. The content on the website would largely remain the same.

Design

Ballyhoo produced a new custom design for the website that reflected James & Uzzell’s professional image. The new design is very clear and allows the user to easily find the pages they are looking for. James & Uzzell contributed to the design by supplying an artist’s watercolour of their head office, this was used as the background of the site to add visual interest.

The right-hand column of the website contains the most frequently sought information on the website, this column is therefore fixed and remains on screen throughout the whole website.

Development

The content management aspect of the website was supplied through our own CMS, Ballyhoo Refresh. An entirely new website was built for the client in a temporary online environment, allowing their existing website to stay online while this project was in development. This way, the disruption to customers looking for James & Uzzell’s services was greatly minimised.

Refresh is a web-based system that allows the administrator to log in to the site and make changes through a web browser. As the admin area is really just an extension of the website itself (once logged in to the site hidden functions become visible to the administrator) it’s very intuitive, easy to use and requires very little training to master.

Features

On the homepage the main area of interest is the Important Dates feature outlining upcoming tax and accounting events. This feature was custom developed for the client to allow them to add/edit and remove dates as necessary. The Important Dates feature automatically outputs relevant dates based on the current month.

A drop down menu was utilised to allow speedy navigation to all areas of the website and we also integrated for James & Uzzell’s customers was a Google Map of the location of their office.

Other website features include an online enquiry form on the Contact page for quick and easy communication with the James & Uzzell team.

Content Population

As previously mentioned, the content of the site would remain the same. As part of our service we transferred all of James & Uzzell’s existing website content and added it to the new website.

We ensured all of the content was formatted correctly and before launch the site was thoroughly tested in all of the major website browsers to ensure the site’s appearance and functions would be consistent no matter who was using it.

If you are interested in learning more about our simple content management system, our design services or any aspects of this project, feel free to call 0121 286 9390 or email info@ballyhoo.ltd.uk.

Visit this website: discountfiresupplies.co.uk

Discount Fire Supplies are one of the UK’s premier retailers of fire safety products and accessories. Their extensive catalogue includes fire alarm systems, emergency lighting, fire extinguishers and gas detectors.

DFS have been a client of Ballyhoo’s for many years now and are comfortably one of our most successful e-commerce websites. When the time came to re-design their website the owners wanted to continue using our e-commerce system, Ballyhoo Commerce, and asked us to build a new template for their website based on a design they had produced.

The new Discount Fire Supplies website design is clearly a step up from their old design yet it retains their branding and many items will be familiar to existing customers.

Notably, the new design takes the concept of colour-coding the many product categories on the website to a new level. This theme had been tentatively explored in the previous design but has now been fully utilised. Customers using the site will soon identify red with fire detection products and green with emergency lighting for example.

The home page is understandably the most important page on the website as this is where a potential customer will either decide to stay on the site or look elsewhere. An eye-catching slideshow on the homepage instantly attracts the customers attention and conveys a number of tempting messages – Same Day Dispatch, Free Support, Secure Online Ordering and Free Delivery – designed to instill confidence in their purchase.

Customers are also encouraged to join the Discount Fire Supplies community and visit the DFS blog, follow DFS on Twitter and take the opportunity to sign up for the free DFS newsletter.

The sheer number of fire safety products on this website means that users need to be able to find what they are looking for quickly and easily. The new design makes use of a drop-down category menu allowing customers to browse the majority of product categories without leaving the page.

Clicking on a main product category, like Fire Alarms for example, directs the customer to a clear and defined page outlining the sub-categories. Each sub-category has an image thumbnail to make identification that bit quicker and these pages are a real pleasure to browse.

Product pages have been given a makeover too and are designed to be a clear as possible. Large product images, highlighted prices and pronounced add to basket buttons combine to make the page inviting and straightforward.

Product descriptions have been condensed into tabs too. When adding a product to the site Discount Fire Supplies have the ability to split the full description into as many tabs as required, including Summary, Specification and FAQs. This layout means that users don’t have to scroll down a huge page and allows them to quickly find the information they need.

At the foot of the website on every page users are reminded of the value Discount Fire Supplies bring to their purchase, whether through the assurance of secure online payments through SagePay or the promise of swift dispatch. Users can also find links to information about the company and their contact details are always on hand if they need assistance.

We’re really proud of this website and the team at Discount Fire Supplies are delighted with their new modern website. To accommodate a number of the design features we had to add develop Ballyhoo Commerce further and re-work existing parts of the system, something we are happy to do when we feel the requested changes will benefit the system as a whole.

In fact, this is one of the major advantages of using our e-commerce system, we are able to quickly and effectively build in new features and functionality to suit our customers and often we will do this free of charge or at a subsidised rate.

To talk to us about your e-commerce project or if you would like further information, please call 0121 286 9390 or email us at info@ballyhoo.ltd.uk.

As well as introducing improvements to the blog features, registration process and category decriptions, this version has allowed us to set foundations behind the scenes for further releases of the system.

Blog Improvements

Every online shop these days seems to have a blog. This is a place where the owners can share important news, funny stories and tips on how to make the most of their products.

It is widely recognised that adding regular, fresh content to your website helps you get noticed by search engines and can have many benefits for your search engine strategy, namely the inclusion of more relevant content and keywords on your website. Blogs also have the power to create a community around your website and keep customers coming back for more – many sites thrive on the repeat custom of avid blog readers.

Ballyhoo Commerce has gradually been introducing blog features that will help make this an easy process for our customers. In this version the layout of blog pages has been reworked and we’ve enhanced the blog posts to include the date of the post and the name of the author.

We recommend that you include a blog on your e-commerce website and frequently produce articles that your customers will find informative and enjoyable.

Terms & Conditions Acceptance

Selling online is different in many ways to selling face-to-face and there are specific rules governing the sale of products over the internet. Every e-commerce website should have a Terms and Conditions page to inform customers of your legal details and the terms of sale that are unique to your business. Ts & Cs are designed to protect both you and your customers’ interests.

In reality you only need to have your terms and conditions present somewhere on your website to comply with regulations, preferably linked from somewhere prominent on your website, and it’s up to the customer to be aware of your terms before they make a purchase.

For additional peace of mind we have now added terms and conditions acceptance to the customer registration process. When a new user signs up to make a purchase or become a registered user of your website we can now specify whether they will have to accept your Ts & Cs before they complete registration.

A link to your Terms and Conditions page is provided for the user to review your information and all they have to do is click on a simple check-box to record their acceptance.

Hide Category Descriptions

In the Ballyhoo Commerce e-commerce system you have the ability to add text to your product category pages, we call these category descriptions. Today we are seeing longer descriptions as our customers come to realise that, for search engine optimisation purposes, a lengthy and informative description with lots of keywords will help their search engine rankings.

However, your descriptions could end up taking up much of the page and detract from your products. Naturally your end goal is to display your product range and many customers may know exactly what they are looking to purchase and so won’t want to read any of your content.

We’ve found a way to keep everyone happy and have introduced a ‘Read More’ feature to product category descriptions. You’ll still be able to add as much content as you want but only the first few lines will show on the page (the number of lines is adjustable). Customers who want to read the whole description can simply click on the ‘Read More’ button to reveal the rest of the text. There’s even a ‘Close’ button to hide the description again.

Your products will be prominent in the main area of the website and search engines won’t know the difference.

To arrange an upgrade to this version of the system or to discuss your e-commerce project please give us a call on 0121 286 9390 or email us at info@ballyhoo.ltd.uk.

Ballyhoo is a small business and aims to make the very best of being a small business; we are able to respond quickly to changes in a fast moving industry and we can adapt to make use of new technologies as they emerge. Our size also allows us to maintain close contact with our customers to provide a personal service.

However, we are aware that there can be down-sides to being a small company. In an effort to demonstrate our commitment to providing lasting business relationships, and perhaps allay any fears larger organisations may have when trading with us, we have produced this business continuity document to detail many of the steps we take to protect your interests.

You’ll find this document under our About Us page along with our other business policies.

The Continuity Plan outlines in detail our practices when it comes to a variety of situations, including:

• Technologies
  The various technologies we use to build websites and databases and provide email services, for example PHP, JQuery, MySQL and POP.
• Hosting & Backup
  We’ve outlined the specification of our server, our backup process at both the remote server location and in-house and how we protect your data.
• Insurance
  Details of our business insurance policy and our limits of indemnity for Employer’s Liability, Public Liability and Professional Indemnity.

If we have missed any information you think necessary or you would like more information on any of the points in the document, please let us know.