In a few minutes Iíll leave this hotel room and head to the Music City Center in Nashville for the 2014 Summer NAMM show. Before the deluge of pictures and videos from that show begins, allow me to take a minute and explain what happened, whatís been happening, whatís about to happen, and what happens after that at TXBA.
What Happened?
Several weeks ago I was excitedly preparing to publish a T-shirt pre-order form. Except I couldnít. I wonít bore you with the nerdy details but the basic idea is this.
Before I launched TXBA, StevieSnacks was divided into two websites:
- The StevieSnacks Site
- The StevieSnacks Store
Why? Because website systems donít do store stuff well, and store systems donít do website stuff well. At least not well enough for me.
My intent for TXBA was to eliminate this divide, integrating the store functionality into the primary website. Except I ran out of time. So I devised a clever shortcut that allowed me to continue using the old store system with the new TXBA site.
This shortcut worked perfectly for selling lessons. But like most shortcuts, it came with a price. To my dismay, I realized my clever shortcut prevented me from displaying products with different options (like size and color).
Suddenly I had to choose between doing further development on my clever shortcut, or doing the work to fully integrate the store into the TXBA site.
Whatís Been Happening?
I chose the ìfull integrationî path. For the past few weeks Iíve been working non-stop to integrate all store and download functionality into the TXBA site.
This kind of work is complicated and tedious, but I am **super** happy with the results. I hope you will be too.
Whatís About To Happen?
Sometime next week the new ìintegratedî store will replace the ìclever shortcutî Iím using now. When that happens youíll notice a couple changes:
- Customer Accounts
When you checkout using the new system, youíll be prompted to create a new TXBA customer account. Why? Keep reading... - Better Downloads
Immediately after checking out, youíll see your downloads listed on the order receipt page. No more waiting for an email with a special link. - Even Better Downloads
If your computer crashes, if you accidentally delete your videos, there will be no need to request a new download link because all your orders will be saved in your customer account. You can view the receipt and access the downloads for any order whenever you need to.
This will make your life easier, and eliminate an entire category of customer support requests for me and Kevin (the TXBA Support Ninja). You can see a sneak peek of the new system below.
Whatís Happening After That?
Immediately after flipping the switch on the new system, I will probably take a nap. But after that nap, Iíll return to production mode. Fresh videos will emerge from the TXBA production oven soon after that.
Also, youíll finally be able to order TXBA Mugs and Shirts :-)
