Topics on this page:
Variations on web strategies
Your basic Shutterbug Storefront web site address
Linking to your Shutterbug Storefront site
Domain mapping strategies
These steps represent the different, overall strategies possible in putting your Shutterbug Storefront gallery site online while combining it with other features available elsewhere. It can be from a simple, stand-alone strategy, up through integration with a content website. It can also include fully integrating the site with a domain presence using the concept of Domain Mapping.
1) Basic Shutterbug Storefront site only:
This is where you access your basic Shutterbug Storefront site like this:
(your Shutterbug Storefront ID).shutterbugstorefront.com
2) Basic Shutterbug Storefront site only, with domain mapping:
This is where you get a domain name registered through an outside domain management company. Then, you DOMAIN MAP that web address to your Shutterbug Storefront site. (Note... this is NOT simple domain "forwarding"!) So, if you have a domain called "www.davephotos.com" it would directly map to your Shutterbug Storefront site. Customers would see "www.davephotos.com" in the URL browser window when they were there.
3) Basic Shutterbug Storefront site with some content pages:
If you want some plain content pages, but only a small number of them, there is a "workaround" where you can use our custom Header/Footer layouts to create your own internal Shutterbug Storefront content pages without any gallery (image) content. This only requires the Shutterbug Storefront website and not any outside hosted sites.
4) Basic Shutterbug Storefront site integrated with content website:
You would get your own domain name and have a hosting company host your content website. This would be all about you, your studio, your background, pricing, etc.... whatever you wanted to include. Then, you would link to your basic Shutterbug Storefront site (under #1, above) to direct people to your galleries. You could use the customization features to make both sites look very similar, if not almost identical in look and feel.
5) Domain mapped Shutterbug Storefront site integrated with content website:
This is where you could create your own content site (as in #4, above,) and then domain map your Shutterbug Storefront site (as in #2, above) for the ultimate of integration. You would create a sub-domain. For example gallery.davephotos.com.... and THIS is what you would domain map to your Shutterbug Storefront site.
What about your gallery web address with "Shutterbug Storefront"
As an Shutterbug Storefront user, your standard URL - your web address - looks like this:
http://(your ID name).shutterbugstorefront.com
So, if the user ID "greatphotos" wanted to send someone to his Shutterbug Storefront gallery site, he would send them to:
"greatphotos.shutterbugstorefront.com"
The customer would see "http://greatphotos.shutterbugstorefront.com" as the web address showing in the browser window.
As described above, to send someone to your site, you would use the address:
http://(your ID name).shutterbugstorefront.com
If you have your own website, (or if you know a website that could link to your Shutterbug Storefront site) you probably want to create a hyperlink.
If you want your hyperlink to say: "Click here to see my photo gallery" the HTML would look like this:
<a href="http://(your_ID_name).shutterbugstorefront.com">Click here to see my photo gallery </a>
For a more generic discussion of basic HTML topics that can be helpful for non-coders, click here
Simple "domain forwarding" is where you have your domain management company "forward" the user to your Shutterbug Storefront web gallery when they enter your registered domain name.
If you had registered "www.mygreatphotos.com" a traditional way of handling this might be to do "domain forwarding" to your Shutterbug Storefront site. When the user typed in "www.mygreatphotos.com" they would be automatically directed to the URL web address of "http://greatphotos.shutterbugstorefront.com"
PLEASE NOTE! We DO NOT recommend this type of traditional domain forwarding!
We strongly suggest you do not do this, because some of the domain forwarding techniques used can actually disable the shopping cart security built into your Shutterbug Storefront site. Your customers would then complain that they could not see the secure "https" indicators in the web address or would not see the little graphical "lock" in the browser that would make them feel safe in ordering online.
Some users find that if they simply link to their default Shutterbug Storefront web
address, that this is sufficient.
However, some users want to "mask"
the Shutterbug Storefront identity in their URL, and incorporate a more
advanced "web strategy." See options #2 and #5 above - then click on "Domain Mapping" to see how you can incorporate that concept.
