I picked up some extra domain names. They all have Power Skating in the name which is the most common search term in our market segment. Our web site is laurastamm.net - Laura Stamm being the most respected name in our market segment. So we need to keep that.

As soon as DotNetbb 3.0 comes out we want to set up a Power Skating Forum. Our forum intent would be to allow a place for our customers and others interested in Power Skating to ask questions and trade information somewhat like this forum. In other words, we would like to encourage a much broader base than just our customers.

By Fall we expect to expand into Canada (we are currently US). This will involve getting one work Visa which will involve setting a new company there. No matter what, we want all the proceeds from Canada Sales to be deposited into a Canadian Bank (we don't want to commingle the funds).

We would like to keep the existing front end of our site for both US and Canada and just change the check out. We also would also like everyone signing into any one of the 3 areas (US, Canada and the Forum) to have access to the other areas without having to set up another account. I'm thinking to meet these wants, it would require using the same database.

I'm pretty sure splitting the checkouts (US, Canada) can be done by modifying the software. I think signing into one area and have it allow access to the others can be done with sub-domains. Our budget is meager but it will allow the purchase and hosting of another copy of BV5 and the DotNetBB 3.0. But if the software modification stretches into the $20k area it would be totally out of reach (too many zeros).

HELP!! What would you do if you were us and what is the best way to capitalize on the additional domain names? We got power-skating.net, powerskating.us, lspowerskating.net, power-hockey.com, laurastammpowerskating.com and laurastammpowerskating.net.

What are our options and which one would you choose?

Thank you for your input.

Bob Noble

Hi Bob,

All of what your trying to can be done in a few different ways depending on exactly you currently process orders and how you would like to process orders with the future expansions.

You could, if you wanted have all the domains you own all point to the same web site. You could also be thinking of making one of the domains a non-bvc based site and use it for the forum and providing more a community information type of sites that links over into your other domains. The customibility of dotnetbb and bvc5 (since source is available for both pieces of software) really make anything you want possible.

info [at] caplinkbdc [dot] com if you would like to discuss possible customizations with some more detail on exactly how you envision the combined site functioning.

Cornelieu,

I see your working on developing a plug-in for using multiple domains, this would be great for my business. I came across a webstore that I believe uses multiple domains, it's called Allied Trade Group, their site layout is quite simple. To acheive this I thought the structure would be one database, multiple store licenses, but what you've indicated is that the plug-in would allow me to use one database, one store license for my companies different domains. Given what your working on do you think I will be able to have several domains using one cart?

Another example of a company with different domains/product lines is the VT Teddy Bear Company that has one store for teddy bears, one for pajama grams, one for specialty food etc. I believe they may use a hosted solution through Demandware, to achieve this structure.

What's the most cost effective means to be able to have multiple domains using one database? What integration or development is needed?

Hi Corneliu,

I think what ACL was asking and I'm now curious as well is whether the product catalog of the "multiple sites" will be identical. From what I understood from your first post, your plug-in basically allows you to have the "same" site on multiple domains with different skins for each domain. What ACL is looking for is basically what most people on this forum has referred to a "mall". Where each domain has an entirely different product catalog as well as a different theme. Is this possible with your plug-in?

A more complete concept of a "mall" would be to have one domain with each category pointing to a different skin, each skin would display a different part of the database. Add to that a function so each individual supplier of products has access to only their part of the database.


Each supplier could maintain a domain that would point to his store within the mall. The advantage for small companies is shared advertizing, shared development costs, turn-key database/page setup...etc.

Like the GAP at Mall of America... common hallways, shared advertising, lockable doors. You can access The Gap from the parking lot, or the common hallway.

The mall admin would act as overall site owner, traffic cop and run shared advertizing. Each 'store' within the mall would maintain only thier store's 'category'.

This isn't far from ebay's database model.

I supply goods via drop-shipping to a web-store that isn't a cart site, merely show-and-tell / call on the phone. He's got 130+ suppiers and 6,000+ products - all hard coded html pages... no database. IT'S A MESS. If he could set up a mall, I and other suppliers could fill his store for him in a few months. As it stands now, he'll never set up a 'real' web-store - too much work.

Any ideas???

bvuser,

This does deserve another thread... this one's been hijacked.

Q: "You have a mall and several stores. I am a supplier for one of your stores. You give me permission to the catalog of one of your stores and I update your database? I don't see why I would do that as a supplier."

Some small suppliers depend on re-sellers for 100% of their sales, not big enough for a stand-alone website.

If I want a website owner to sell my products... but he isn't inclined to or doesn't have the time to add my products to his database, I should be able to load his web-store with my products for him. We both make out... My products get to a wider market faster, he doesn't have to spend time loading products that may not ultimately be worth his time (limited audience). He handles the money end, keeps his discount, and forwards orders (and later, payments) to be filled (via drop-ship).

I have to think that Haines, Amana, Sony upload product info to Sears' website on a regular basis. (I'm sure nobody at Sears is editing pictures and text about Sony TVs) Small companies (such as mine) should jump at the chance to load products onto a website. Reluctance on the part of the site's owner to let someone into the admin side of the catalog is understandable, unless it's limited to only that company's section (category) - hense, the "mall" model.

Go to - www.crafthome.com - Everybody in the Mission, Arts and Crafts market is represented at this site--- My goods have been on his site for 11 years. Don't you think he should make a mall type website? In some categories, you can make three or more selections before seeing a picture - it's all text - that's NUTS in 2007! BUT.. he hasn't the time to load a new database with 6,000 products, new pictures, thumbs,... but his suppliers can. He'd be up and running in less than a year and I'd be able to keep my part of his database current for him. Better for both of us.

This model is ONE URL, one payment gateway, many categories "owned" by individual suppliers.

Sorry this got a little long.

I'm not worried about the BV licensing issues. I can always con ... err ... talk Marcus into giving us a discount on the one additional we would need. Besides I think they do have a multiple domain/store purchase option for anyone that wants to set up a mall.

I know Corneliu is working on this, and the key words for me were

I saw several options for our situation and I just wanted to get some feed back on what you think would be the best way to proceed. Here is what I think I have learned so far:

1. I can have 2 different web sites that share information, like login ID. One being the DotNetbb 3.0. I agree, using a different Domain Name for the forum software to promote a larger user base would be the best alternative.
2. I can split our shopping cart into 2 pieces on our main site, putting money into 2 different checking accounts in 2 different banks. I think this would be the best option for our BV5 site as it should result in higher use with more pointers going to it and subsequently higher search position.
3. Have the extra domain names point to one of the other two sites.

Now my question is: What is the best way to point the new Domain Names? Should they have meta data attached to them or not? How do the search engines see them? Is it important that they do? I don't think I want to set up a referral page with "click here to go the X site and Click here to go to Y site even though we could use it for differentiating us from our counter parts on the East Coast laurastamm.com. I don't want to add any unnecessary buttons to push just to get to our home page.

I thank you for your comments and it seems others may have benefited from this discussion (which is good) as well. I do see the Mall Concept as a logical extension of our proposed use and the licensing issues associated with our situation should consider the mall concept as well. I think we all want to see Marcus and Company be successful. After all, they are helping us become successful.

Bob Noble

Thank you for your kind offer and your help, but I think Corneliu has most of the work done already.

The first time I went to www.bestchess.com.au it looked like Corneliu had the landing page issue solved as well. The home page was bestchess and subsequent nav page were all bestgames. We have 3 or 4 different rotators on our home page so when the search engines land, the content will be different no matter how they got there. So I'm guessing they will index everything.

Bob Noble

Yes. I noticed that. However the first time I checked about a month ago, it only worked for the home page. Any subsequent page displayed as bestgames. Its been developed a bit since then. I'm not sure it makes any difference but I'm guessing if the related pages display as laurastamm.net, our primary domain name, after landing using one of the new ones, those individual pages may place a bit higher on the search results. Probably not enough to measure though.

I think Corneliu is setting it up so you can run a different theme on the bestchess domain name. That could be kind of cool too. You could have two different websites with the exact same content, without duplicating any of the content.

I don't know. I still find this industry/field completely amazing. But then I've come from the era BC (Before Computers).

Bob Noble

Would those attending this forum topic be interested in having a conference call as I feel there is too much to address in a forum format. We could then share our findings or possible solutions on the forum.

There's a lot being discussed pertaining to a solution I've been trying to construct for some time with no luck. I have a bit to contribute in terms of market examples of the concepts being discussed and the market momentum for demand of such website configurations/structures. I'm a business person, not a web developer so while I know what I want to achieve, it's the technical/development aspects I'm struggling with, however it seems we have a group of people with the right resources to perhaps troubleshoot our way around some of these issues.

I believe a conference call is warranted, perhaps others may want to join, maybe BVcommerce representatives could join ar help us organize the call.

Any interest? I can be reached at 808-930-4634 (Hawaii, 6hrs behind EST), I'd particularly be interested in speaking immediately with "Mitch" as my business concept is similar to what he's discussed, however I'm the admin. trying to allow suppliers access to my catalogue(s) or mall.