How to setup an online bookstore for free (with little computer knowledge)

(We launched our all-Malaysian online bookstore on the 1st of August. And we have been surprised. In the first month of operation -- and without including bulk sales to universities, libraries and bookshops -- Malaysian books made up over 70% of our retail sales! We hope this is the sign of things to come, and that we are seeing the signs of the blossoming of the Malaysian book industry.)

My only computer knowledge when I first started on the project about two months ago, was how to use word processors and spreadsheets, basic Photoshop, and some Illustrator. I have built and maintained a website for ten years with the help of NVU and Serif Photo Plus, both free downloads from the internet. In other words, I knew how to use a computer, like a lot of regular Joes, but not how to write any code. (The last time I did any of that was in the university over 40 years ago when I learnt Fortran 4 using punch cards.)

Like I said, I did have a website, but since I have always used wyswig HTML editors, my knowledge of even that was minimal. (I new how to do italics, bold, line breaks, paragraphs, tables, that sort of thing, but I didn't even know what

codes were about. But, to paraphrase what they say, I have never been one to let ignorance -- or my age -- stand in my way. (I know, I need to be institutionalised.)

One day, I looked at the number of Malaysian books I had at Silverfish and decided to open an All Malaysian, Only Malaysian bookstore -- possibly the only one of its kind in the world (since no one else were likely to be so foolhardy. So that was the first step -- think of a concept and come up with a catchy title, the catchier the title the more committed you are despite your stupidity. Secret: that's how bosses work, except they expect others to read their minds and understand their stupid concept and implement it for them.

Now, at this point, it is possible to go out and pay plenty of money to a 'professional' to build your online store for you. There are two things I don't like about this. Firstly, the money part -- they would charge you more for the software than it would cost to insert four stents in your heart at an expensive private hospital. Then they will come up with all sorts of excuses why the module is not working, and 'privately' blame your parentage if you get insistent. And thirdly, they will have no idea who you are when you report a problem at a later date.

So, if you want good service, do it yourself. Your 'bestest' friend in all this is Google, and it is free. (Now you will notice that four letter 'f' word cropping up every now and then in this story. Let it become your mantra.Free.) I searched for articles to find out how to set up a store, and learnt that I had to have a shopping cart and a Payment Gateway. Of the latter I had an idea, having used one for a while -- that is, I new how to cut and paste strings provided by them, and send it back to them for processing, modified as required. (I used a shopping facility provided by the gateway, but it is a workable solution only if I have a handful of products. (I am still not sure the proper term for it.)

Then, I started by looking at Payment Gateways. After spending a couple of days I realised that there were not many available locally. Focussing on (yes, you got it right) the word 'free', only one came close. They offered a package with a one time registration fee, no monthly maintenance, but with slightly larger percentage commission on sales, which I decided I could live with.

But more usefully, they had on their webpage a list of shopping carts they supported. Ah, it was getting warmer. Even so, what the hell was a shopping cart in cyberspace, and how did it work? I was quite familiar with those in supermarkets with the wobbly wheels, but how did the ones for e-commerce work? After a week of googling I learned a few things. Again using the 'f' word principle I managed to find out that there were such things as open source shopping carts! I zeroed in on Zencart, because I liked the name and, secondly, the repeated use of the word 'easy' all over their website, though I was not fooled for a moment. (I lie.)

It was not long before I discovered that the Zencart was written in PHP. Panic! I give up, I can't do this! I creid. No way! Then I told myself to relax and breathe. Breathe. Count one, two, three, four, five, six ... I was letting something called 'easy' to defeat me. I gritted my teeth and went on. Soon I was coming across words like Unix, Apache (servers), Perl, Cron jobs, phpMyAdmin, and SQ -- words I had vaguely heard before but had no idea what they were. But strangely, soon, I was on a roll. I began enjoying the buzz. I downloaded the main module, set up a test site, discovered a book add-on, a search sphider add-on, a back-in-notification programme, and a few sundry bits and pieces. I modified the template to look like the rest of my site, tested it and viola! I am a glutton for punishment.

But, the thing is, you do not have to do this entrely on your own. I got help from online forums, my web host and my payment gateway people. Now, here is an important piece of advice. When you speak to any of these techies, do not do it in person. They will know you are bluffing from your body language, and they can smell fear. Sometimes you will have to speak (especially over the phone) like you know what you are talking about (please learn the proper pronunciations for some of these acronyms, or you will be caught out), but sometimes you have to speak to them as if you are really very stupid. Both methods work depending on the cirumstances. The trick is to know when to use which.

You will also come across some who are really kayu. My shipping providers were like that (and they are the ones in the position to make the most money out of e-commerce). I consulted two about a suitable module for my cart. One had no idea what I was talking about. (I might as well have asked them how to fry pisang goreng.) The other one knew what I wanted but was of zero help.

The site is now up, zero cost. (Okay, there is a cost involved in populating the database but that can be done in-house at quite minimal expense.) I think the online shop looks spiffy. Of course, I will say that -- I am biased. But, honestly, it is really not all that bad?

Moral of the story. If you want some programming done, try DIY. Save some money and learn something while you are at it. Does wonders for your ego too, almost like a one night stand. The site is http://www.silverfishbooks.com/buybooks/. Give it a whirl.