We just added Amzed Designs to our list of talented designers you can hire to design your store.  Check out our full list here.

You can now add custom content to the top of your department pages.  Add an image or write some descriptive text to give your pages some personality.

Here’s an example using Hana Bay Coffee (hanabaycoffee.flyingcart.com). I added an image to illustrate the “Hawaii” concept on this page and I wrote a few sentences about the Hawaiian beans.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Log in to your heaquarters and go to the Products > Departments page.

2. Click on the word “Description” next to the department name and an HTML editor will appear.

3. Enter your content into the editor. If you want to insert an image, you can use one of the images you uploaded on your custom CSS page or you can link to an image that you have hosted elsewhere (try <a href=”http://www.flickr.com” target=”new”>Flickr</a>).

4. When you are done, click the blue disk icon next to the department to save your changes.

5. Go to your store and check out the department page. How does it look?

Robeco Clarete of Pinoy Culture (www.pinoyculture.ca) came up with a way to use his own website to sell the products from his Flying Cart store.  That’s right - his own site hosted on his own server! He gets the flexibility of using his own site design, but also has all the benefits of using Flying Cart to manage his sales and market his products.

PinoyCulture.ca PreSchool department

PinoyCulture.ca Shopping Cart

Really?

The design at the top and the sidebar are Robert’s own. The middle section of the screen contains the content of his Flying Cart store.

How does this work?

Robert’s solution is very clever and requires some technical knowledge to implement.  In a nutshell, he used the Flying Cart custom CSS feature to hide all the page elements other than the products. Then, he made a department navigation menu on his own site and linked to each department page in his Flying Cart store using the javascript “loadintoiFrame()” command. These links are targeted into an iframe in the center section of his site. This creates a seamless interface and most customers won’t have a clue that the ecommerce comes from a hosted solution.

The Flying Cart team is entirely impressed with this creative way to use the software.

We love designers. Designers make us look better.  They make things look beautiful.

We are looking to feature designers right off our homepage.  This is a great place for our new customers to learn about your design services.

If you are a designer and want to be featured please send us an email.

If you are using a banner logo in your store, it looks best when the banner fills up the whole top section of the page. This is especially true when the background color of your banner is a different color than the background color of the body. To make your logo fill the top part of the page, all you have to do is:

Upload a logo image that is 800 pixels wide

Our stores Aylio and El Esqueleto are doing this already.  If you need an image editor, I recommend Adobe Photoshop or Pixlr which is online and free. This small change will make a huge difference in the professional look of your store.

Kristen Cast of Organic Faith Photography asked me how she can add an animoto widget to her homepage.  I get this question a lot so I though it was time to do a blog post.

You can use this guide to add a widget from slide, animoto, photobucket, myspace, etc.

1. Copy the embed code from the site with widget (it will look like a bunch of code)

2. Login to the Flying Cart headquarters navigate to Store -> Homepage

3. Scroll down the click on the HTML button in the “Welcome Text” section (The HTML button is located in all sections where you can add text, not just the Welcome Text section… so feel free to embed widgets on your about us page as well)

4. Paste the embed code you copied in step #1 and click on the “update”

5. Click the “Update Homepage” button on the Flying Cart Homepage Setting.

6. Enjoy the widget on your site

Follow these detailed instructions for embeding a YouTube Video.

Nothing says awesome store like an awesome logo.  It creates a strong brand identity.  Below are a few things you can do to get one.

FREE OPTIONS

• Logo Maker
• Web 2.0 Logo Generator
• Download free fonts and use Paintbrush/Photoshop to create your own logo

PAID OPTIONS

For both options it really helps if you are very specific in your post on what you are looking for.

• Start a logo contest on 99 Designs or Crowd Spring
• Hire a designer off Craigslist under Jobs in the Art/Media/Design section in your city.  Set your own budget for this.

Check out The Dieline for great ideas on how to package your product.  They show off some of the best packaging designs I have ever seen!

My favorite part of the blog is the before and after section where they show you ways companies have improved their package design.  It really makes you think of ways to improve your design.

If you have new innovative packaging.  Show your stuff off by submitting it to them.

Checkout Pixlr.  If you want to simply retouch your images but don’t want to buy Photoshop.  In minutes you can upload your picture and modify.

Here are somethings I would use it for:

- Adding text to images (like your website name)

- Reducing the image size

- Cropping out the background

If you need a new logo checkout 99 Designs.  You simply post up what your company is about and post up a prize amount.  Then designers from all around the world submit their designs to win your prize money.

It seems like a good prize amount to attract top designers is between $100-$250.  To get an idea of how cool this is check out some in process design competitions.

99 DESIGN COMPETITION EXAMPLES

- Competition for Environmental Safe Solutions

- Africa Freak

- Logo for Michael Jackson Tribute band

MORE LOGO DESIGN OPTIONS

- Make your own using a different font.  1000’s of cool free fonts listed here

- Post an Ad on Craigslist under Jobs in the Art/Media/Design section in your city