The LM folks from GTR have their own forum too

[lcarreau]

http://forums.loadmastervideos.com/forums/

Who woulda thunkit?

-Lonnie

[WalterGA]

I guess the name of that forum is Confederacy of Dunces???:biggrinjester:

[lcarreau]

Maybe there will be a LM pride parade. :)

[MullahElRon]

http://i27.tinypic.com/2uzfkm1.gif








I believe that br'er 'hutt deserves the credit for this.

[Steve Koski]

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee304/SteveKoski/GP%20Pics%20A/van2.jpg

[Shadowdog500]

Darwin set up that site last month with the money that everyone from GTR sent him. It is a small community but growing.

I was wondering how long it would take for a thread like this to appear.

Chris

[webyourbusiness]

trouble with his choice of software (phpBB) - it constantly needs patching (many bulletin board solutions do) - it leads the pack in the number of exploit and therefore patches ... we don't allow it on our servers any more.

and the trouble with vbulletin (as used in this board and many other busy boards) - it's a CPU hog... it begins to demand it's own server quite early on in the growth phase...

WowBB is a VERY good solution though if anyone is thinking of going the route of building their own... and reasonably priced for a commercial offering - $99 I think.

[Shadowdog500]

trouble with his choice of software (phpBB) - it constantly needs patching (many bulletin board solutions do) - it leads the pack in the number of exploit and therefore patches ... we don't allow it on our servers any more.

Just curious,

DId you help set up this board?

Chris

[Steve Koski]

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee304/SteveKoski/GP%20Pics%20A/reloadmonkeykoski.jpg

Remember, if you're ham handed, don't do the LM.

[WalterGA]

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee304/SteveKoski/GP%20Pics%20A/reloadmonkeykoski.jpg

Remember, if you're ham handed, don't do the LM.

Remember, if you're ham-brained, do the LM!:yesnod:

[Anvil]

ElRon, what's why you are the Mullah!

[webyourbusiness]

Just curious,

DId you help set up this board?

Chris

No - Bigslick announced it after it was done and that was the first I knew about it - but we work on some very busy bulletin boards professionally - several of which are seriously busy.

lol - one - subject of "scrapbooking" - is very, busy with 10,000+ members, about 40% are really active - another whose subject of choice is the actor Viggo Mortensen (Strider from Lord of the Rings - , gets the actor himself on it as a guest several times a year - those Viggo fans are some busy little bees, especially when the actor puts out a new film! ;)

Slick did ask about some store software - and that's one thing we as a company do a LOT of - we generally setup 2-3 stores a week (go live) - and help with at least that many do-it-yourself jobs, plus bail out other web developers who get out of their depth on a similar number too... e-commerce is where it's busiest in web dev. work for us.

[HiddenEyes]

What kind of money does it take to set up a storefront online? One that takes CC's?

Just asking for rough numbers.


Mr. HE:cool:

[webyourbusiness]

you can do it yourself really cheaply...

Example:

1. Hosting account - we offer a 500mb hosting account online for: $5.99 / month
2. store software - we recommend osCommerce - which is free from oscommerce.org - but we have a pumped up version which we install - we make a small charge of $30 to install it.
3. you need payment processing options - Freak has a gun friendly processor it seems, but if you are selling something unrelated to guns, you can use paypal or googlecheckout these don't have monthly fees, but charge a slightly higher percentage.
4. optionally - your own SSL (the golden padlock) - we use rapidssl.com - these are $49 - we charge $30 to set it up for you and just take care of it - BUT - you need a dedicated IP address on the site for your own SSL - these are $3 or so per month for the IP address (on top of your hosting cost). We see 10-30% increase in sales on sites with a dedicated IP and their own SSL.


Your own SSL is optional because your payment processor will have one - but having your own will secure the WHOLE checkout phase - people like to see the SSL.

Then you need time to put your stuff into the store.

When we build a store ourselves from scratch, they start at $1k and go up depending on the work involved. Stores are easy to mess up - building one from the ground up yourself is possible - but starting from the wrong tools and you will cripple yourself.

The reason we like oscommerce is that it's php - we can make it do anything. The other benefit is that it has search engine friendly URLs - but you must take the time to put in your keyword phrases in all the right places, that does take a little time, but it pays big dividends over time - it is REALLY worth the time it takes if you want to get any traffic from engines.

We can supply the basics and you can do it yourself PROPERLY in your own time for a minimum spend of about $200 - and you choose one of the templates built into our oscommerce build. The rest is your time. Get a customized look and have us to pretty much all of it and you can spend as much as $3-5k (especially if you have a LOT of products).

I would add that we've been doing this for more than 10 years... not just starting yesterday. We run our own hosting services which you can signup for online here:

http://www.aaabusinesshosting.com

we are also a certified authorize.net developer - part of a small club of developers recognized for their ability to get things configured and setup with the authorize.net payment gateway - there were less than 10 members when we came on board, and we test all their new stuff for them.

[Steve Koski]

Is there anything internet you don't understand WYB?

[lcarreau]

Is there anything internet you don't understand WYB?


Its hard to believe a LM thread could have so much good info. :)

[Steve Koski]

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee304/SteveKoski/GP%20Pics%20A/LoadmasterBroke.jpg

[Steve Koski]

Whoops, need to fix that muzzle to GP.

[GLOCKENNBOOMER]

Man I'm lucky if I can pick my nose and check my email at the same time. Figgering out how to do an avatar yesterday was a MAJOR leap for me.....I'm not smarts like the rest of ya.

[Steve Koski]

Bull! You be smart as de rest. It took my like 6 years to figure out the avatar thing.

[webyourbusiness]

Is there anything internet you don't understand WYB?


I am sure there are a lot of topics relating to internet areas I am not an expert in - but if I knew what they were, I'd probably try and learn them! ;)

We do everything in-house except house our servers (I even built our phone system myself) - we manage our hosting servers remotely from two massive data centers we rent space and buy bandwidth from, one in Chicago, one in Atlanta. I drive the company, and my wife keeps it running!

Our company has two divisions - one is web related, the other computer security solutions (see the betterantivirus.com site in my signature - we sold this to NASA last year - Kennedy Space Center bought some of our software - and one of Google's top engineers just bought from us). We are currently working on an internal project which is very hush-hush... but the plan is to roll that out in October... and I will be very tight-lipped until we have it ready for testing... when it arrives I am sure it will be a big part of our business - it's web based and EVERYONE here and practically everyone you know CAN be a part of it (as long as you eat)..... enough said.... lol

You have to consider I got my first computer at the 12 - a present from my grandad - I'm 40 this year and I've had my own business since I was 23... always worked in computers and don't have a degree. I am self taught and motivated - moved to the USA in 2000 and am in the middle of my citizenship - I should get to vote in 2008!!

[Jerry Snyder]

Remember, if you're ham-brained, do the LM!:yesnod:

Wood balls scare me......:blush2:

JS

[P195]

Koski, you are the KING..You rock...:smilielol5::smilielol5:

[freakshow10mm]

A plug for WYB.

He's my web dude and I couldn't have done it without him. My sales have skyrocketed since the launch of my site in late January.

Very knowledgable, very helpfull, his staff is great. Especially Vivyan. She always helps me out.

I am not Net savvy and they don't make me feel like a fool.

I'm running the osCommerce stuff from WYB on my site. Most of it is fairly easy to manage. Some stuff is a bit tricky as it has to be done in a certain way and sometimes you have to search around where to change what you want to do. Not a lot of PHP code is used in the admin section of the store, but WYB felt sorry for me and helped me out a lot.

[bhawkeye]

No matter what you really think about Lee equipment - you gotta give Darwin props for what he's done (I mean with the website - not his gun handling practices). I think if the Dillon/Hornady/RCBS press users were half a industrious (not just rabid), the reloading community would be much better off.

Go Darwin-t! :thumbsup:

[SlammedDime]

trouble with his choice of software (phpBB) - it constantly needs patching (many bulletin board solutions do) - it leads the pack in the number of exploit and therefore patches ... we don't allow it on our servers any more.

and the trouble with vbulletin (as used in this board and many other busy boards) - it's a CPU hog... it begins to demand it's own server quite early on in the growth phase...

WowBB is a VERY good solution though if anyone is thinking of going the route of building their own... and reasonably priced for a commercial offering - $99 I think.I prefer SMF (Simple Machines Forum). Free with zero known exploits in the current stable release.