On designquote.net, I selected the services I provide to my ecommerce clients and came up with -

Small Company or Freelancer
DesignQuote Budget:
$5,000 – $7,500

Seriously?

Other companies from small to large charge, for example, $2500 for a basic ecommerce site (no graphic design), $3300 for a custom ecommerce site with no extra SEO, $3499 for a 15 page site with no ecommerce. Another site suggests that ecommerce sites should start at $5000 and can go up to $20,000.

Consider that a full ecommerce website client gets all this -

Professional, custom web design with revisions
Full featured website (CMS)/ecommerce system with mals-e integration and set up
Database development
SEO including meta tags and Google Analytics integration
Lifetime support for the CMS/ecommerce system

I do not charge my clients for time spent emailing them.
I do not charge for revisions during the initial design process.
I charge a flat rate which is always to the advantage to the client. This means if your design needs an extra 5 hours to get it perfect, it’s included – you’re not shelling out a few hundred extra bucks (or more!) because you didn’t like the initial draft.
I do not work in an office which means 2 things – I don’t have to pass the cost of running said office onto the client, and I can work as much as I need to. I’m available by email 7 days a week.
I require only a 50% deposit to start.

All this for much less than the lowest prices I could find.

This process is not for WordPress clients.

Log into your site admin and find on the right column, under “Administration”, the link for “Backup”. Click on this link.

You’ll see a screen similar to this (click on image to view full size)-

Make sure all the tables in the list are selected. Leave “Show Data Only” UNchecked (do not check it).

Click on “Backup Database”.

You’ll see this screen -

Right click on the sql link and select “Save target as…” or “Save link as…” and choose a place on your computer that you can find it. Hit save, and you’re done.

Clicking “Delete Old Backup Logs” will remove old logs that were saved to your server/host.

Expanding on this post: http://www.amywilliamsdesign.com/blog/2008/08/28/viewing-your-orders-and-sales/

The orders management system allows you to let your customers know the status of their order – On Order, Shipped, Back Ordered, Completed, Canceled; if you have it enabled for customers to look it up. It also lets you print packing slips – both with and without prices (for gift orders).

When you click on view orders from the Orders Panel:

You’ll see the list of orders your site has received….. you can click on the order # to view details of the order, print a regular printing slip, and a printing label.

When you click on the order #, you’ll see a page like this:

On this page, you can update the order status (don’t bother unless you have order tracking enabled for clients to view their orders!), update details of the order, print a regular or gift packing slip, or print a mailing label.

A gift packing list:

Regular packing list with prices:

Getting your website seen in the manner you want it to takes a little more work then just putting it on the web. The very first, biggest, rule is to write good, and relevant content. The more information you can put on each page, the better. But it has to be good content. Wording that tells what you do, how you do, why you do it. But it’s a delicate balance to being wordy without annoying visitors with a lot of text to go through.

Starting with the Site Settings in the admin panel is where your part of the SEO for your website comes from. I’ve already done my part – starting with making a search engine friendly design with valid coding – now it’s yours – making your page’s content climb your website up the search engine’s ladders.

Here you’ll enter your default Title, Description, and Keywords. What is the title? This is often your business name or other 2-4 word descriptive text that shows up on the first line in search engine results. The description meta tag is for the descriptive text underneath your name/title in some search engines. Also keep this short and to the point. Enter 10-15 meaningful keywords (gasoline would have no use on a bakery website).

For each website page, you need to repeat the process. The more important the page, the more important it is to use quality meaningful descriptions in your meta tags. Each page should have much text content as is reasonable to use. (2.62 and above does not have a character limit)

And the same for each category and product, except the product description is enough (again 2.62 and above doesn’t have character limits)

In the very least, fill out the meta fields in Site Settings. The descriptions listed there will apply to any page that does not have it’s own filled out.

Under the “E-Store” heading, the second link is for the Products section. Here you can add, edit and remove products (including downloadables and other intangibles like services) from your store. Items can be edited individually or in groups.

This is a basic product entry page. The item’s name, description, images, price and other details are entered here and it can be placed in one of the categories you’ve already created. If you forgot to create a category, you can still finish adding and saving this product, then go make the category and return to add the product to it.

After clicking on continue (2.62 has a slightly different process), you have the option to add product options (such as size or color, as well as text fields that the customer can enter personalization information, such as a name or birthday…the possibilities are nearly endless)… this process is made even easier with a attribute wizard.

If you have no options to add, just click on continue. The next page gives you the option to add inventory if you only have a few of any item, and select other items this product might be related to. Clients have the option of showing the “related items” on the product pages to help boost visibility and sales. If neither of these options are needed, just click on continue.

v2.62 also has a one page “quick inventory update” which can come in handy for clients who also sell their products in person and need to modify the available inventory quickly.

Under the “E-Store” heading, the first link is for the Categories section. Here you can add, edit and remove your main product categories. Each category has it’s own main page where you can add images and descriptive text before the product listing. Subcategories will also show on the main page.

You may also view a list of items in each category and edit them from that page.

Under “Web Site” in admin area, you can view and edit your Images, and Pages. Here you can add and remove pages (and edit any existing ones) and they will automatically show up on your website. Pages can be moved up and down and put into groups to show up in specific areas of the website depending on your website’s design/template.

Version 2.5 offers a WYSIWYG html editor for Internet Explorer, while 2.62 offers one for both IE and Firefox, for editing your pages, including adding images, links, and more.

When one of your customers places an order, they are shown their shopping cart which is hosted on the secure Mals-e server and integrated into your store. Here they can choose to edit their order, delete items or move on to the payments section. Credit card and e-check details are collected using an SSL secured server. You can also offer the ability to pay by paper check or money order. The standard free account saves credit card data (encrypted) for you to pick up from Admin and process how you like, it also supports card payments by PayPal.

If you want to have credit cards processed in real time using your own merchant account then you need to use a third-party Payment Gateway. Mals-e supports all the major gateways but you will need a Premium account which costs $8.00 per month. The choice is yours.

Once a customer completes an order you will be notified immediately by e-mail. It is your responsbility to ensure payment has processed/cleared before completing/shipping the order.

The admin area is the same for content management and ecommerce websites, except the ecommerce set up has not been done with content management only websites. A logged in administrator/website owner can add, edit and remove website pages, product categories, and products. All changes made in the administration will show immediately on the website.

Below you can see a sample of what your admin panel might look like. Other features like a FAQ system, Guest Book, Web Links, Wholesale pricing, an Event Calendar, and more, are available if needed. You can view your orders, print packing slips, set up coupons and more.

If you have a newsletter (such as DadaMail), a blog (such as WordPress), forums, or other software, you will have a separate login web address and username/password.