Can't Find a Website Search I Like!

Eden Plush Baby Peter Rabbit Animals

I've tried bunch of free to try software packages that provide a website search, but so far nothing does what I want. I've about decided to pay a programmer to do it for me. We're also considering pulling all our toys off eBay and just using that for our vintage collectibles. There are lots of pros and cons on that one, so we're in no hurry to decide.

I did pay the $100 to try the Business Version of Google's Custom Search. But the directions were basically no less confusing than the regular Custom Search. Looks like all you are really paying for is not having their ads on the page. I canceled it the same day I bought it, and did not have any problem getting my money back.

So I continue to take photos and add to our catalog, making do with the Catalog Search I have for now that is the Google Base search page.

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We hope you will find the lovey you are looking for in our DIRTY BUTTER Plush Animals and Soft Dolls CATALOG. But we have many more toys in stock than we have listed, so please Contact Us if you don't see what you are looking for. If we don't have it in stock, we will search the Internet for it. If we still can't find it, we will post your request on our Plush Memories Lost Toy Search Service.

Problems with Quantity Orders

Eden WIMZIE'S HOUSE Children's Television Character Dolls

We have had several orders from out Catalog lately where buyers are paying for more than one of an item. It is rather unusual for us to have more than one of a particular lovie in stock at any given time, although there are a few, such as Rumples, that we do have lots of, as we buy them every time we can find them. There just does not seem to be any way to stop this multiple ordering from happening. I started by putting a disclaimer on each catalog page cautioning readers that most of our toys were only a quantity of one and to contact us if they were interested in buying more than one. When that didn't turn out to be enough, I went through all 300 items and added a Quantity Available number to each listing, right by the link to buy it. We are still getting orders for more than we can fill.

Mal's cart just doesn't have any way of preventing someone from ordering more than we have on hand. At least I haven't found any way of preventing it. I am going to ask a question about this on the Mal's Cart forum to see if anyone can help. Until then, I will just have to refund payments and email buyers, explaining we can only sell them 1.

Other than that problem, everything else is going quite well. Our Auction Sage program we have used for years with eBay auctions has come out with a new version that makes adding in website sales a whole lot easier, so that will be a big help. I think they were seeing the handwriting on the wall. eBay is in trouble. They have finally pushed the sellers to the point that those little guys like us are leaving in droves. I know we are not listing much for auctions any more, although we do have a respectable size inventory in our Store. It's just too expensive to do business there any more.

Even though we are selling from our own site, eBay still gets a piece of the action because they own PayPal. That means they get a fee from us every time we make a sale. We do have one pending sale waiting on a Money Order, but all the others have been immediate pay through PayPal.

Of course, if we opened a merchant account with a credit card company, they would take a percentage of the sale, too. But it would not be helping eBay. That's almost enough reason to open a merchant account. Well, almost. We are just too small potatoes to do that right now.

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We hope you will find the lovey you are looking for in our DIRTY BUTTER Plush Animals and Soft Dolls CATALOG. But we have many more toys in stock than we have listed, so please Contact Us if you don't see what you are looking for. If we don't have it in stock, we will search the Internet for it. If we still can't find it, we will post your request on our Plush Memories Lost Toy Search Service.

Haven't Found a Website Search Form I Like Yet

Plush Baby Dolls

I seem to be stuck on finding exactly what I want for the Search on our Catalog. What I am using now is a refined Google Base Search, but that is on a separate Google page, and not part of our own website. It also, since it is a Google page, has links to other sellers. That's not a good idea, but will have to do until I can find better.

Something else I have realized I need to do is to put a bookmark link to each of the photos on a given catalog page, so when someone does click on the search item it will take them straight to that item, not just the page it is on. Again, a website designer would have already done that to begin with, but I am learning all this the hard way, by trial and error. More error - it seems like! LOL!!

But, we are making sales from the Catalog, so for that I am grateful.

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We hope you will find the lovey you are looking for in our DIRTY BUTTER Plush Animals and Soft Dolls CATALOG. But we have many more toys in stock than we have listed, so please Contact Us if you don't see what you are looking for. If we don't have it in stock, we will search the Internet for it. If we still can't find it, we will post your request on our Plush Memories Lost Toy Search Service.

Continuing to Add to Catalog

Carter's Plush Baby Dolls

The SingleFeed spreadsheet continues to work well, so I can update Google Base each day. I decided on Mal's Shopping Cart, and I am pleased with the ease of use for a free program. There were a few mistakes I made in the Cart setup, but it only took the first few customers to find what needed to be fixed. They do provide an easy way to see and test the cart while you are working on it.

I don't have to send any information to Mal's, because the code goes in each item listing in the Catalog, and even lets me tell the Shopping Cart where to send the buyer when they finish.

The only real flaw I have found with it is I cannot LIMIT the quantity available. I ended up putting a large warning sign on each page of the catalog, telling people that we only had one of each item in most cases. This flaw showed up when someone ordered 4 of an item. It's free, and even paid software usually has a few parts that don't fit someone's particular situation, so I am satisfied with its performance.

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We hope you will find the lovey you are looking for in our DIRTY BUTTER Plush Animals and Soft Dolls CATALOG. But we have many more toys in stock than we have listed, so please Contact Us if you don't see what you are looking for. If we don't have it in stock, we will search the Internet for it. If we still can't find it, we will post your request on our Plush Memories Lost Toy Search Service.

Are All the Catalog Links Accurate?

Carter's Plush Baby Animals

I've changed my mind several times about what the URL of our catalog should be, because I was having problems getting the Google Base Product Search to ignore all the posts on our Lost Toy Search Service blog. So, in the process of creating the links one way, then changing them to something else, and then making a final decision for try number three, I'm having to correct lots of wrong links. I found one today that was caused by using Find/Replace All, when I did not think through what I needed to type in the blanks. So, now I am searching through all our site URL's to change plushplush to just plush!

At least I learned a long time ago how to make custom 404 Not Found pages that would allow the reader to find what they wanted. Hopefully, the links on those error pages are correct. Guess I'd better go be sure of that!

This is a perfect example of learning from my mistakes, but it's still aggravating. Of course, people who make websites for a living would have long ago figured out the best navigation configuration for a product catalog. And I think I have a good arrangement now, but who knows?????

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We hope you will find the lovey you are looking for in our DIRTY BUTTER Plush Animals and Soft Dolls CATALOG. But we have many more toys in stock than we have listed, so please Contact Us if you don't see what you are looking for. If we don't have it in stock, we will search the Internet for it. If we still can't find it, we will post your request on our Plush Memories Lost Toy Search Service.

Starting Our Online CATALOG of Plush Toys

Carter's Plush Baby Dolls

We have been selling online now for almost six years, mostly on our Dirty Butter Store on eBay, although we did try the original Wagglepop until it disappeared. Every once in awhile we would make a direct sale to someone who wrote us wanting help.

But we really didn't start selling much from our own site until we started our Plush Memories Lost Toy Search Service.

We quickly reached the point, partly thanks to the MSNBC article we were featured in, that people were emailing us wanting to know where they could look at our toys online. So, back in February, I started taking photos of our Baby Animals and Baby Dolls and putting them in our Online Catalog.

I have always envisioned a fun place to look at lots of adorable toys, almost like window shopping, with an easy way to buy them. Hopefully, I have succeeded in making buying from us an easy and enjoyable experience for you. If you see any problems on our site, please let me know. I am still learning, and I'm sure I have made mistakes and some poor design choices.

I have learned a lot while starting the catalog, but there is still a lot more to be learned. This blog will give me a place to share not only what we sell, but also what is involved in the process of selling directly from our own website.

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We hope you will find the lovey you are looking for in our DIRTY BUTTER Plush Animals and Soft Dolls CATALOG. But we have many more toys in stock than we have listed, so please Contact Us if you don't see what you are looking for. If we don't have it in stock, we will search the Internet for it. If we still can't find it, we will post your request on our Plush Memories Lost Toy Search Service.