Chapter 12: The FRONT PAGE or INDEX.HTML

The FRONT PAGE (index.html) is the most flexible of the Yahoo! Store basic templates. The property PAGE-ELEMENTS determines which ELEMENTS you want to use on your FRONT PAGE, as well as the position they occupy on the page. You may use one ELEMENT or all of them in any order you wish.

The ELEMENTS of the FRONT PAGE are: Intro-Text, Name, Image, Buttons, Message, Specials, Contents, Final-Text, Search, & Address

How to change the PAGE-ELEMENTS field
CONTENTS (Front Page Element)
SPECIALS (Front Page Element)
INTRO-TEXT (Front Page Element)
NAME (Front Page Element)
IMAGE (FRONT PAGE Element)
BUTTONS (Front Page Element)
MESSAGE (Front Page Element)
FINAL-TEXT (Front Page Element)
SEARCH (Front Page Element)

From a design standpoint, I consider two types of front pages when doing Yahoo! Stores.

The first type has your company logo, your tag-line, links to your major sections, search functionality, and should load within 5-10 seconds on a dial-up connection.

The second type has a simple HTML site-map of your major sections and the items contained within using Yahoo! Store settings.

The "Default Yahoo! Store" Front Page
The "Front Door" style Front Page
The "Table of Contents" Style Front Page
"Just HTML" Front Page

SPECIALS-AS-CONTENTS
SPECIALS-AS-THUMBNAILS
Adding, Removing, and Reordering SPECIALS

Basic: Message

Regular: Page-title, page-elements, image, buttons, message, specials-format, contents-elements, contents-format, columns

Advanced: ID, type, template, Page-title, page-elements, image, image-format, buttons, message, specials, specials-format, contents, contents-elements, contents-format, columns, intro-text

New Fields: ID, type, template, image-format, specials, intro-text

Show examples of no content store, no contents/specials only store, specials/search/contents store, add contents to that, show abstracts, show 2-up ELL, show 1-up with abstracts, show 5-up vertical

Use search bar to break up specials and contents.

You can re-sequence nav-bar on front page. Instead of being called NAV-BUTTONS, it’s just called BUTTONS.

HOME-IMAGE doesn’t show up on homepage for some reason.

If you don’t display NAME, then banner text writes out your name.

If it’s in the CONTENTS field on the front page, then it’s in the CONTENTS when you call them in the nav-bar.

Use of LINKS instead of actual section pages in the contents

Don’t use CONTENTS with icon buttons on your front page if you do lots of chopping. Use SPECIALS and display SPECIALS-AS-CONTENTS and format accordingly.

Format your front page differently from interior pages. Eliminate UP and NEXT. It has to re-draw your nav-bar gif anyway, so make a simpler nav-bar that’s more appropriate for the homepage.

Your front page is the most important page on your Yahoo! Store. It needs to load fast, look good, and tell a prospective customer within seconds who you are and what you do.

Get Secrets of Million-dollar Yahoo! Stores... Read what wouldn't fit in the Dummies book MAKE MORE WITH YOUR ONLINE STORE. Learn how I took one Yahoo Store from 150 visitors a day and $15K a year in gross sales to over 4,000 visitors a day (peak) with $5,000,000.00 (5 million+) in sales.
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