Phoogoo Home

WebPhoo. Providing the latest news, events, resources, and more!

Big Cartel – a solution for the small eTailer

Big Cartel ScreenshotI came across this nice little eCommerce solution yesterday right after I met with a friend to help her set up a store to sell custom headbands and accessories. It seems like a great solution for the small online store with a few products.Big Cartel is easy to set up, connects with your paypal account, can track inventory and apply discount codes.

Big Cartel has a free package for stores with up to 5 products. From there it costs $9.99 a month for up to 25 products and $19.99 a month for up to 100. They do not charge any transaction fees. Big Cartel boasts some nice example stores which make it clear that the customization ability is robust enough that it will work anyone. It’s great to add another eComm option to the arsenal.

Example Stores:

Boompa – http://shop.boompa.ca/
Hype Machine – http://merch.hypem.com/
Backseat Vintage – http://backseatvintage.bigcartel.com/

 

Three sites to find well-designed, standards-friendly web site examples

The Best Designs, Best Web Gallery & CSS BeautyWhen consulting with a new client I almost always ask if they can provide me with one or two sites that they like. It helps me get into their head about what kind of design they’re looking for. The problem is that many clients just haven’t looked at a lot of what the web has to offer beyond their circle of web sites they use frequently or their competition. In some industries the competition offers little help and no good web site examples.  Also, clients sometimes reference sites that are not standards-friendly forcing me to have a long chat about SEO, usability, maintenance etc.

These three web sites have consistently, well designed, user friendly and standards friendly web examples. They do not sacrifice look and feel either. Almost every listing is great to look at.

Best Web Gallery
http://bestwebgallery.com/

The Best Designs
http://www.thebestdesigns.com/

CSS Beauty
http://cssbeauty.com/

Cool Premium Wordpress Themes

Premium Wordpress themesThere are thousands of free Wordpress themes out there. But, what if you want a premium theme and are willing to pay a little extra for it. A client pointed me to Templatic, a site with some really nice Wordpress themes. Templatic has CMS Themes, Portfolio Themes, E-commerce Themes, Magazine Themes, Multimedia Themes, Free Themes

The costs are pretty reasonable:

 

Single use license
$65.00 for lifetime subscription on an individual theme
Multiple use license
$99.00 for lifetime subscription on an individual theme for multiple sites
$279 for the first year. Then $179.00 for each year
Full access to all themes

 

 

WellArts: The Power of Story Telling, The Art of Healing

WellArts Screenshot

Well Arts Institute

Every year The Well Arts Institute reaches out to people struggling with life-threatening illnesses and chronic conditions like AIDS,  Alcoholism, Cancer, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Multiple Sclerosis, Juvenile Diabetes, and the list keeps growing. Phoogoo was proud to assist WellArts with a pro-bono web site built on the Wordpress CMS. | View Web site

Baseroot’s “Radio Golf” garners outstanding reviews

Baseroots Theater Company received glowing reviews from The Oregonian, Willamette Week and Portland Mercury on its second ever show, Radio Golf (View Play details), a play by August Wilson.

“Portland Playhouse’s current production of Radio Golf, the 10th and final play in August Wilson’s Pittsburgh cycle, is easily their most polished show to date.”

Portland Mercury- April 8th, 2010
The Unexpectedly Timely Radio Golf

Radio Golf,directed by co-founder Brian Weaver and co-produced with Baseroots Theatre Company, is the young company’s strongest production yet, a moving, infuriating enterprise, well acted, directed and designed

Willamette Week – April 7th, 2010
Radio Golf (Portland Playhouse and Baseroots Theatre Company)

Best of all, with the aid of director Brian Weaver they’ve found ways to really show the nuances of all the unfolding relationships: Sterling’s innate distrust of Roosevelt, Mame’s devotion to and frustration with Harmond, both the lasting camaraderie and the widening gulf between  Harmond and Roosevelt, and so on. There’s great humor throughout, yet moments of profound connection or bitter division land with clarity and force. They bring the battlefield to life.

OregonLive – April 4th, 2010 
Portland Playhouse scores with clear, powerful production of ‘Radio Golf’

OregonLive – April 1st, 2010
Bridging a gulf in Albina district with August Wilson’s ‘Radio Golf’

BaseRoots adds a new perspective to Portland’s theater scene

Baseroots Theatre Screenshot

Baseroots Theatre Company

A group of professional theater artists organized to build bridges between communities by presenting classical and contemporary theatre that showcases the unique African-American experience. Phoogoo assisted Baseroots build it’s web presence and promote its two debut shows, Rocket Man and Radio Golf on a pro-bono basis. | View Web Site

Levé: 7 Years of giving back to the community

Levé Screenshot

Levé

Levé is a group of 15 young professional women who have devoted significant amounts of time, expertise and resources into raising money and awareness for a number of non-profit organizations that are active in the Portland, Oregon community. Each year, Levé chooses a local non-profit to benefit through a large end-of-the-year charity ball. Past partners include p;ear, Mercy Corps International, the YWCA of Greater Portland, Friends of the Children-Portland and Schoolhouse Supplies. Last year Levé selected Growing Gardens their partner.

Phoogoo offered to help boost Levé with a pro-bono web site, blog, and other marketing services. | View Website

Setting up your POP account in Mac Mail

Mac Mail LogoYour Email Settings

After signing up for a web hosting account, Phoogoo will send you email settings for each of the email addresses you requested.  The email settings will look like this. You need these settings to use your POP Mail account in your favorite mail client such as Outlook or Mac Mail.
Email Address: you@yourdomain.com (this is the email account you will use)
Username: you+yourdomain.com (the user name is always formetted the same as your email with a ‘+’ instead of ‘@’)
Password: Aa12Cc34Dd56 (Passwords are always 12 character alpha numeric for security)
POP Server: mail.yourdomain.com (POP server controls receiving mail)
SMTP Server: mail.yourdomain.com (SMTP server controls sending mail)

Mac OS X 10.4 or later

  1. From Mail’s File menu, choose Add Account.
  2. Fill out the information in the Account assistant.
  3. Optionally, go to Accounts preferences in Mail and change some of the settings that weren’t set up by the assistant.
  4. Repeat these steps for any other accounts you want to set up.

Mac OS X 10.3.9 or earlier

  1. Open Mail.
  2. Choose Preferences from the Mail menu.
  3. If you have not yet set up any accounts, the Mail Setup window appears, and you can skip to Step 7.
  4. Click the Accounts icon in the Mail Preferences window.
  5. Click Create Account.
  6. Choose the POP type from the Account Type drop down menu.
  7. In the Description field, type any name you would like to use to identify the account. This is the name that will appear in your list of accounts.
  8. Enter the Incoming Mail Server (POP) username and password you received. Click Continue.
  9. For Incoming Mail Security uncheck Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Click Continue.
  10. Enter the Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) server you received. Leave Description blank and uncheck Use Authentication. Make sure outgoing mail server port is set to 26. Click Continue.
  11. For Outgoing Mail Security uncheck Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Click Continue.
  12. Click Create when you are finished.

For more help visit:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1508

    Setting up email in Outlook 2007

    Microsoft Outlook LogoYour Email Settings

    After signing up for a web hosting account, Phoogoo will send you email settings for each of the email addresses you requested.  The email settings will look like this. You need these settings to use your POP Mail account in your favorite mail client such as Outlook or Mac Mail.
    Email Address: you@yourdomain.com (this is the email account you will use)
    Username: you+yourdomain.com (the user name is always formetted the same as your email with a ‘+’ instead of ‘@’)
    Password: Aa12Cc34Dd56 (Passwords are always 12 character alpha numeric for security)
    POP Server: mail.yourdomain.com (POP server controls receiving mail)
    SMTP Server: mail.yourdomain.com (SMTP server controls sending mail)

    Setting Up POP Mail in Outlook 2007

    1. Start Microsoft Outlook 2007. When the Startup Wizard displays, click Next.
      NOTE: If the Startup Wizard doesn’t automatically display, from the Tools menu, select Account Settings, and then click New. In the Add New E-mail Account dialog box, select POP3, then click Next.
    2. On the Account Configuration page, select Yes to indicate you want to configure an email account, and then click Next.
    3. On the Auto Account Setup page, enter the following:
      1. Your Name
      2. E-mail Address
      3. Password
      4. Retype Password
    4. At the bottom of the page, select Manually configure server settings or additional server types, and then click Next.
    5. On the Choose E-mail Service page, select Internet E-mail, and then click Next.
    6. On the Internet E-mail Settings page, enter your email account information as follows:
      1. Your Name
      2. E-mail Address
      3. Account Type: POP3.
      4. Incoming mail server: mail.YOURDOMAIN.com
      5. Outgoing mail server: mail.YOURDOMAIN.com (make sure you use port 26)
      6. User Name
      7. Password
    7. Select the Remember Password checkbox, and then click More Settings.
    8. In the Internet E-mail Settings window, go to the Outgoing Server tab. Uncheck “My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication.”
    9. The incoming mail server port should be 110 and the outgoing mail server port should be 26.
    10. Click Test Account Settings. Microsoft will send itself a message to test your incoming and outgoing capabilities. Once this is complete, click Next.
    11. Click Finish.

     

    Accessing Phoogoo’s Web Mail

    Horde Web mailWebMail Instructions

    Phoogoo web hosting offers three types of webmail: Horde, SquirrelMail, and RoundCube. The following instructions are for Horde, but the other two mail programs work in a similar fashion. Webmail is convenient for customers who do not have a mail client like Mac Mail or Outlook, who are using a computer other than their primary workstation, are traveling or at an internet cafe.

    1. Go to: http://www.YOURDOMAIN.com/webmail
    2. Enter username and password (consult the “Email & Hosting info” document you received when your account was set up)
    3. Choose “Horde”
    4. Under the language selection drop down keep it as “English” and click “login”
    5. To access mail click the “+” sign next to “mail” on the left bar and click “inbox”

    Notes:

    • If using a computer other than your own to access webmail make sure you logout after using
    • If you use a mail client in addition to web mail, the mail client will download mail off the server unless you have turned off the advanced setting that specifies to leave a copy of the message on the server.
    • Be sure to regularly clean out old messages or large files if you are storing them on the server.