Tonight was another informative meeting of the Chicagoland Webmasters. The topic was Shopping Carts skillfully led by Patrick Elward the group’s fearless and knowledgeable leader. Focus was on Zen Cart as a popular open source solution. Patrick aptly noted that understanding your needs or the needs of your client are an important prerequisite to identifying the best solution. In the area of shopping carts one size does not necessarily fit all. Check out Wikipedia for a nice comparison of various solutions to narrow the field before choosing. If you anticipate your online annual sales to be under $50,000 you might want to look at one of the many online total solution providers including amazon, paypal and others before you consider customizing software and trying to absorb the costs associated with credit card processing, gateways, customer service, maintenance and updates.

 There was a nice turnout with a number of people I have not met before but I did not have a chance to hang around and chat as long as usual. I did however meet a friendly freelance web designer who goes by the name “Tommy Gun” online. You can find his work at http://www.printrevolver.com and he also happens to be skilled at yoyo tricks which he gracious agreed to allow me to video. Watch the video to be thoroughly entertained. Thanks “Tommy Gun” you are the 48^th new person I have me in the last 29 days toward my challenge of meeting 100 new people in 50 days.