Thor appliances

[prim]

After long hours I am ready to post my first oscommerce shopping cart :D

You can check it out at :

http://www.thorappliances.com/store/

I would like to give oscommerce develompent team a big "Thank you" for the amaizing product.

I also would like to thank Steven for his help through all my misserable hours :)

Comments are welcome and much appreciated.

for the people outside US it still might not be visable, since I just moved it to this server yesterday.

[pete3005]

I'm in the UK and see it fine.

I like the site. Its abvious you have done some heavy customisation here, its not obvious its an oscommerce based site. I often see 'off the shelf' carts looking identical, nice to see you made this your own.

There is nothing obviously wrong or anything that needs changing on it. Only negative comments are that when I was on some of the Apex pages I didnt know how to get back to the store page.

Its a nice site, great work. How long did it take you to do from start to finish?

All the best with it (if it is yours) or if its is a clients site, I am sure they are very pleased indeed.

Pete :)

[Steven]

Prim,
As I told you before, that has to be one of the best site integrations that I have ever seen. The site doesn't even look like an OScommerce site as Pete pointed out, you wouldn't be able to tell. It is by far the best Oscommerce integration that I have seen. Your client better be thrilled, or else!

-Steven

[pete3005]

Can I be nosey and ask how much you are charging your client?

Pete :)

[prim]

First of all thanks for the great responces. It was a site that i first redesigned and integrated in a system called WebCatalog, but the system was really buggy and the host who was also doing the "support" ruined my whole work and organization at one point by moving everything arround. Enough venting :).

So then my client contacted me agian and asked me if I would be able to integrate new shopping cart and here was Steven with this great suggestion :D

anyway it took me some time to get familiar with the system. It took me probably 5-6 weeks , and bare in mind that I have a job :) so its in the spare time. As far as how much I charged my client ... well I can say I charged him probably much less then I should have , but I learned a lot of new stuff.

Well thatt was a lot of useless info I just gave ah ...;)

oh and pete , I would be interested in your oppinion how much I should have charged him :)

[pete3005]

Pricing a site is a difficult question, I know many web developers charge as much as they can. If the client is making $5000 a week from online sales then he will have a bigger budget than someone who only earns $500 a week from online sales. Its like programming, some folks charge $110 an hour, while others charge $10 an hour. It depends who your client is and their budget.

I make ecommerce sites from scratch, I don't start with a pre made cart and I charge around £1500 ($2250). At the end of the day though, your client obviously has a unique looking, feature rich cart, and just because you started with a foundation of oscommerce, it doesn't or shouldn't IMHO detract from the price.

You should have got at least $12 to $15 per hour, including any time spent planning, learning and bug fixing. At $1000 it would have been cheap, $1500 would be a fairer price. Other companies charge less but most charge more, again it depends on many parameters.

A web design agency I worked for charges $1750 for a 5 page non Flash, no dynamic standard site, the type I sell for $200. There is no difference in quality, infact my sites are better coded and also include a contact form, go figure! But I don't have an office with 4 staff and high rent so I don't need to charge much.

Anyway, whatever you got, lets hope your work was appreciated.

My prices may be off for the US though, generally in the UK our wages are lower, our taxes higher, our standard of living lower and our purchases are higher, almost $7 for a gallon of gas, $6.50 for 20 cigs, $3.50 for a pint of beer... the list goes on....lol.

Pete :)

[prim]

That was agood explanation pete :)

I am still confused when it comes to pricing for my freelance jobs, since most of the time I am working with my other job, but I've been trying to get more into freelancing:) I love my freedom to set my working hours and so on...

I actually asked the client for less money and they offered me more , which i didnt want to ask from them beccause they are not that big of a bussines. I agree that probably here in US the prices are different and probably a little higher, although right now with all this .com layoffs its more competitive.

So I will get paid arround 2k for my work.

And at least your beer is cheeper in UK :D

I came here from a country that I got paid 100$ /month as a graphic designer and video editor, now the sittuation is a little better. and there the gas prices are higher then here , i think the last time i went back it was like 1$ per leter

[pete3005]

Good to see you got a fair price, which is sometimes hard in this day when everyone wants everything on the cheap and for nothing. I use to work for a web design agency and was paid $180 a week, the train fares cost me $70 a week and it ended up as 12 hour days. I also ended up learning nothing new and teaching them lots... that position didnt last too long.... lol. I threw a chair at my boss and left in the end!

I've done everything from floor sweeping to doorman at night clubs to forklift truck driver. Now I am just freelance full time, I like being my own boss and working when I want. I am just hoping I can keep a consistent supply of work coming in, the challenge for all freelancers :)

Pete

[Aaron]

Hey Pete, What software do you code with and where did you learn?

[pete3005]

Hi Aaron,

I don't use any software to code with, I do have DW MX but use it mainly as a code editor. I do however use it sometimes to generate my javascript, mainly because I'm not that good at JavaScript yet and getting JS to work in NN4, Opera, NN7 and IE is a tedious task, DW comes to my aid there.

As for PHP, I learn through books and I also read online tutorials, mainly www.devshed.com and www.devarticles.com, however I do prefer books as I absorb more away from the PC, but everyone is different, I know many people just use online tutorials and never buy books.

I also find the PHP manual to be an excellent resource, I downloaded the new version with the user notes and that is really helpful when I get stuck with something.

I know also know a fair bit of CSS which I have picked up from places like www.bluerobot.com www.glish.com and www.meyerweb.com.

For Flash I just use books, all of which are from www.friendsofed.com, I have found them to be excellent.

Why did you want to know?

Pete :wave

[prim]

hay pete,

you should check : OOP with actionscript , by Brendan Hall and something Wan . I just got it and its really good. I dont know how advanced you are in flash, but I found this book most usefull for me by now.

:)

[pete3005]

Thanks for the tip :)

I'm kind of intermediate with Flash. I recently got Foundation ActionScript from FriendsOfED, just to learn the new AS syntax for MX, its a little different to F5 but easier :). Your book recommendation maybe too advanced for me right now actually. I'm only use to OOP in PHP.

I'm currently playing with PHP and Flash, I highly reccommend Foundation PHP for Flash and I just recently got Advanced PHP for Flash. I've been real busy lately on paid work so I haven't had as much time as I hoped to spend in Flash. I am hoping to start putting a set amount of minimum hours aside each week for learning Flash MX in depth. I really want to feel as comfortable in AS as I do in PHP.

Pete :happyface

[prim]

well I havent got too much into PHP ... I ve been meaning to , but never seemed to have time. I can do some stuff in PHP but not a lot. Plus I have much more fun in Flash. As an artist with interest in programing its much more interesting to program something in Flash then on a normal web page.

If you are familiar with OOP though you shouldnt have problem with OOP in flash. I just need to get my mind arround OOp because I have dificulties deciding which would be the best way of structuring something.
:rolleyes:

[Aaron]

Pete -

Why did you want to know?

I was just curious mostly. Sounded like you knew what you were talking about with the pricing and all and freelancing is something I might be interested in looking into once I'm a little better at design. I'm always interested to know what other people use, what they know and where they learned it. I've been going back and forth and whether or not I should buy DMX. I have Dreamweaver 3, which I've never used, so all I would have to do is buy the upgrade.

Currently I'm using TopStyle 3 (http://www.regnow.com/softsell/visitor.cgi?affiliate=18014&action=site&vendor=6598) and do all my coding with it. If you've never used it, you should check it out. It was designed by the same guy, Nick Bradbury, who designed Homesite. It started out as just a CSS editor but has since become an xhtml editor to. It's very slick.

[pete3005]

Aaron,

I do have TopStyle 2 but never use it, I usually do my CSS in notepad. I usually have similar CSS for all sites, all I do is change attributes, so its kind of quicker for me. I didn't realise v3 was also an XHTML editor.

That sounds pretty neat so I may take a look. DW MX is great but I am using it like a glorified version of notepad really. It does have some basic point and click features for ASP,CF,PHP and .NET, but anything more than basic and you have to hand code. DW MX is good for the other bits like having all your code snippets, files and stuff accessible from one window.

I have Homesite + but never use that either, l just stick to what I am comfortable with as I can't be bothered learning new software when I have other stuff to learn. I have heard some great reviews about Homesite though. I guess we are spoilt for choice.

Prim,

I see your point about Flash if you are an artist. I am not very artistic, so I'm looking at Flash from an 'application' point of view. I always think those who can program and who have an artistic flair will always have one up on those who are somewhat graphically challenged. Flash really is very powerful though, and you usually get more $$$ for Flash work because the learning curve is steeper and less people are good at it. :D

[Mental Stamina]

looks good
i've never seen oscommerce
so i'm not familiar with how much customatizing you had to do

the site accomplishes it's goals
looking thru it made me want to buy a washer/dryer
lol...so you've made the products look very inticing
i think it's the color scheme
works well with the silver appliances

the curvacious header and side menu are a nice touch too