Hello there, thanks for coming and reading this -- hope it helps you out. I am going over the basics of shop etiquette (or how they work), along with the responsibilities of owning a shop.
--Table of Contents--
1. Pointers for making a better shop
1B. URL Tags - how they work (brief tutorial)
2. About Moderating your shop
3. Views and Posts
4. Deleting and Recycling Topics (MUST READ)
5. Questions? Comments?
1. Pointers for making a better shop- Separate your shop topics into different rank groups, such as Rank 0-1, 2-3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.
NOTE: Doing so will increase organization as well as make it easier for both you and your customers to find the items they need.
- Look at the prices of items in other shops. You don't want your items to be more expensive than all of the other shops; you want business? Keep your prices in the middle.
NOTE: This is not required, but is definitely worth it. If you don't want to make a certain item cheap, you don't have to. Do it at the risk of your own shop or for you, depending on your current situation.
- ALWAYS use good grammar. Keep your topics neat and organized; this also helps both the seller and the customers find what they want and understand what you are saying.
- Make sure you have an Order Log, where you keep track of who bought what, when they bought it, how much they paid, and their name. Here's an example:
Item - Quantity (how many) - Amt Paid (how much they paid) - Username
Apple - 5 - 2 Clicks - Toshiro_Komoto (<-- example username, one of my accounts)
So those are a few pointers for your shop, mostly things for looks, and a few strategies for selling. Advertising helps; put a banner in your signature; visit another shop that does graphics and request a banner for your signature advertising your shop, including a link embedded, using URL tags. Since I mentioned them, and some people don't know how they work, I guess I'll include a small guide briefly explaining how to use URL tags.
1B. URL Tags - how they work (brief tutorial)URL Tags are used to link to certain URLs, or web addreses, such as the MLN website.
If you click
here, you will be led to the MLN website by use of URL tags. Here is what these tags look like when you write them out for your signature:
[url=PUT_THE_URL_HERE]PUT_YOUR_SHOP_NAME_HERE[/url]
2. About Moderating your shopEvery user who applies for a shop and has one is the moderator of their shop. This means they can sticky, lock, and delete posts and topics in their shop.
This is handy because, say, you don't want someone posting in your Order Log except for you. To do this, simply click the image to the right of the topic with a lock on it, and click OK on the pop-up window, and voila, your topic is locked. Now you want it to stay at the top of the page, so click on the blue pin, click OK on the pop-up window, and there you go; your topic is pinned to the top of the board. Any other questions about Moderating can be directed to me (Ab§olute_Z3R0), Rahkshi8000, or NeoBlademanSeedCross.
3. Views and PostsWhen someone looks at your topic(s), they may be looking at your prices, or what you have for sale.
Pretty much all to say about that.
4. Deleting and Recycling Topics - MUST READWhen getting rid of a topic, click the 'Move' button. Your page should load a new one, and it should give you some options. Here are some things to remember to do when moving a topic:
- Turn OFF the shadow post which directs a link to where the topic was moved to; this is not necessary
- DO NOT delete the topic.
- DO NOT change anything else except for turning off the shadow post and choosing the forum to move it to.
- The forum ALL shop topics are moved to is called "Order History" -- this is where ALL old Shop topics go to. Any found elsewhere will simply be moved, nothing else will happen.
When you delete a topic, the posts in it are lost forever. We don't want that, and neither do you.
5. Questions? Comments?Hope this guide helps you out!
All questions go to me (Ab§olute_Z3R0), Rahkshi8000, or NeoBlademanSeedCross.
All comments about this topic go to me (Ab§olute_Z3R0) via PMs.
Regards, and happy selling,
~Ab§olute_Z3R0
