Chris Samios

Erica Schmerbeck helped me put a new face on LaptopMod.com last week, and I’ve also rebuilt Ausgeek.com ready for a new look to come in the future. I have high hopes for these sites as I think the concepts are solid, but we’ll see if they actually do anything.

LaptopMod is showing more potential than any other sites in my portfolio, though I think a lot of the registrations so far are spambots. That can be a good thing though, as it means there’s something there they think is relatively valuable or ranking well for a term they see value in. Good stuff.

Chaos Tamed was recently contracted again by Tasman Engineering up in Gladstone to work on new functionality for their online store. The Firewheel store previously built was done in around 2004 so it was time for a change. The graphic design didn’t change much but that was the only thing that stayed even close to what it used to be, with a complete overhaul of the shop logic (to cater for multiple products, discounting logic, shipping logic) in the works.

Now, out the other end, I’m very happy with the results. The store is smarter than most online stores in that it will actually calculate your shipping costs before you even get to the checkout, and it will do it in a way to get you the best price. The product prices are dynamic, showing you exactly how much more you will have to pay to get an item to you, instead of just an arbitrary number with hidden extra shipping costs.

Have a look at the NEW store here; www.firewheel.com.au