In this double episode of PhotoMerchant News we announce the arrival of “Packages” which allows photographers to combine multiple products into a single fixed price combination + there’s a seven minute tutorial for setting it all up. Plus, a new function bar in the Photo Galleries allow you to add tags, move and re-process images more easily.

Announcing “Packages”

Start adding packages to your Self Fulfillment and Direct Fulfillment based Galleries. Watch the video tutorial above or read the step-by-step Setting up Packages tutorial.

Updated Gallery Function Bar

To make things easier we’ve also moved the Gallery Function Bar from the bottom of the screen to the top and combined most of the selectable functions into a single drop down menu. Just tick the thumbnails you want to bulk edit and then choose from:

• Add/remove tags
• Move images between galleries
• Re-process images
• Delete images
• Set Cover Image

1. A new Notification System (which is what you’re looking at right now)
2. Ability to push Low Resolution images to the print lab
3. ICC color profiles are now embedded in preview images (you can re-process your existing images using the “Queue for Reprocessing” function
4. Uploading PNG images as watermarks is now fixed
5. Home template images now correctly link through to any internal or external page, including Category based Portfolios and Galleries

Plus a few more items which you can read on the PhotoMerchant System Release Notes articles in the Helpdesk.

The video is also available on: YouTube.com/PhotoMerchantTV and PhotoMerchant.TV

* I can’t believe I just used the phrase hyperlink! How “Information Superhighway” are we?

The Admin Interface is where you will manage all aspects of your website. Any changes you make here will be automatically published to your website. Your Website is what your customers will see. You can open your website by clicking on the View Site button in the navigation. Throughout the videos and documentation we will refer to your website visitors as “Your Customers” and at other times we will refer to you as “You” or “The Photographer”.

At the top of the interface is the primary navigation. From here you can access all the “Management Tabs” required to administer your website. Beneath it is the secondary navigation which contains context related buttons and actions relating to the area that you are in.

Note: some pages may also have their own navigation elements that are unique to that page, like “drag and drop” in the categories area, changing the order of your Website Navigation and the bulk editing options inside a gallery.

Edit your account information by clicking account. Turn your website visibility on/off by clicking on the store status icon. From time to time you will receive system messages that will appear in the Dashboard and unread message will be highlighted by an opened mail icon.

Next we’ll explore each Management Tab and describe it’s purpose.

Dashboard

The Dashboard provides an overview of the most important activity on your website including:

• Latest PhotoMerchant.TV videos
• Quick links to get the most common areas of the Admin Interface
• Current Orders that require attention
• Comments that require moderation
• Configuration Process wizard to aid in your website setup
• Top 6 Galleries calculated by the number of views
• Popularity Report – a quick snapshot of your most popular photos, track your most successful galleries and get high level overview of your sales.

Photos

Create new Galleries, edit existing Galleries and upload your photos. From here you can also manage:

• Gallery order (as they appear in your Portfolio)
• Gallery security and permissions
• Establish custom Categories to help filter your Galleries
• Edit photo titles, descriptions, tags
• Move photos between Galleries
• Determine the display order inside a Gallery
• Set the cover images for your Galleries and Categories

Business

The Business tab is where you will setup the products and pricing that will go into your website store.

• Orders display all your current and completed orders, and each individual order will allow you to manage the order process with automated process updates.
• Setup your wholesale pricing in the “Paper Sizes”, Paper Type and Shipping Options sections.
• Create multiple Feature Sets and Pricing Options which can be applied individually to your Galleries.
• Coupons and Volume discounts are for creating one-off or multiple use discount codes for redemption through your store.
• The Ledger tracks all the purchases made through your website and allows you to add additional expenses and income

Customers

The Customers tab is the hub for managing your customers and customer groups. Create new customers and groups and then give them access to secure Galleries. Any customer who makes a purchase through your store is automatically added to your customers tab. Use this area to start building ongoing relationships with your customers. There are plans to turn the Customers area into a more comprehensive CRM or Customer Relationship Management area in the future.

Website

The Website tab is where you can adjust the design and layout settings for your website.

• Theme – choose the colour, font and branding options
• Layout – set the design format for your Galleries and Portfolio
• Navigation – add, edit, sort and create new items in your Navigation
• Contact Details – decide which personal or business information you want to display on your website
• Assets – incorporate other media types like PDF’s, ZIP files, Sound and Movie files into your Custom Pages
• Domain Name – administer your existing website domain to work with PhotoMerchant or purchase a new domain for automatic integration
• Settings – contains the majority of important controls for managing your image security, PPI settings, Google Analytics and adding your PayPal ID to activate your store.

Website // Custom Pages

The remaining buttons to the far right represent individual Custom Web Pages.  By default, we have created three web pages that can be edited called “Home”, “About” and “Services”. Clicking on each buttons will give allow you to edit the content and layout for each page.

• Set the page’s layout from one of the pre-built templates
• Add your own text and images using the WYSISWYG editor
• Personalise the page information for improving your Search Engine Optimization.
• Each page has it’s own set of unique features and options – feel free to experiment to get the look you are after.

Note: you can create new Custom Pages in the Navigation section.

Report

At first the Report area will not show any graphs as they are for displaying sales information. When you’ve started generating sales through your store, the Report section will flourish with animated graphs showing the profit and popularity of your photos and Galleries.

Help

Here is where you will find the latest information about changes to PhotoMerchant and links to additional resources for solving problems.

Check out the Help Section on the PhotoMerchant website for the best ways to help yourself. Notably:

1. Keep an eye out for the “About” panels and “Tool Tips” which appear throughout the Application Interface.
2. Click the Feedback Tab which is the fastest way to post Ideas, Question, Problem or Praise to the PhotoMerchant Support Forum.

Summary

The best way to get to know the interface is to explore and see what everything does. If something does not immediately make sense, check the Tool Tips and About panels for more information.

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Note: Some of the contents of this video are out of date since the latest PhotoMerchant release. References made to the location of the “domain settings” are no longer within the “settings” sub navigation, but now has it’s own “domain name” sub navigation item. All information about migrating your previous website domain remain the same.

Was this guide helpful? Vote now:
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Let us know what other tutorials you would like to see on PhotoMerchant.TV

Was this guide helpful? Vote now:
Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

Let us know what other tutorials you would like to see on PhotoMerchant.TV