Introducing – The Aquarists Online Store
September 16, 2008 · Print This Article
As John always says when he comes around to visit Aquarists Online is what he calls an ‘A – Z’ website. What he means by that is we attempt to cater for everything that aquarists need. Be this information, reviews, guidelines etc.
A short while ago we introduced the Aquarists Online Marketplace which allows you to search various online merchants for prices and reviews to attempt to get the best deal on the internet.
The introduction of the marketplace appears to have been a success especially when you look at the website statistics and see how many hits it gets!
What we have identified however is that this caters only for new products – it does not cater for used or nearly new products.
And the best place for used or nearly new products in our opinion is EBay.
I investigated this to see if I could somehow tap into EBay and add these items to the marketplace. However with EBay’s products revolving as it is an auction this proved to be hard to accomplish. Therefore I looked at doing it another way by creating a new section purely dedicated to EBay. The rest they say is history and the Aquarists Online Store was born.
Probably not the best name for it I know but I honestly could not think of anything better!
If anyone has and ideas let us know.
So what does it do?
Basically it is a very simple concept. It allows us to tap into the relevant categories that matter to us on EBay and display the items which are listed in the relvant categories in what I believe to be an easy format.
If you see an item you like you simply click on it and you are taken directly to the items page on EBay where you can bid, buy it now, ask a question or simply watch it – it’s up to you.
There is also a search function directly on this area of the site which allows you to search the categories we are polling if you are looking for something in particular.
I think that with the marketplace and now the store we have covered both new items and second hand/used items. Both John and I hope that you find it both beneficial and useful.
Speaking of the marketplace well this will also be changing soon into what we hope to be a better more intuitive system where not only can you locate products from various merchants but you will have the ability to compare them, leave reviews, perform price comparison and much more. The new system hopefully will allow us to load more merchants into the system as the current one is a little bit limiting.
Anyway more on that one soon. It’s nearly ready – just a bit more programming to do, then some testing and I will let you know.
There is also another area I have started working on which again I will not go into at this time but hopefully it will assist you with your care and maintenance!
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Oh, come on Peter. You took the time to write about it, now you have to talk about it
I will cover a little bit of it as it is still in design mode!
As we all know there are a few software programs out there which assist you with recording parameters, equipment etc of the aquarium. There are some good ones and there are some bad ones. The majority of these need to be downloaded to your PC and run from there which is not a bad thing however there are not many online variants.
A lot of people record their water parameters in a log book and over time have a running track of parameters and hopefully should spot problems before they occur. People also record lighting changes etc in the same logbook however at times these are forgotten.
The software I am looking at now that Aqua Compare is complete is basically and online care, maintenance and management area.
It will be a multi user application however people who use it can have their data private or public – it is up to them.
They will be able to record all parameters, equipment change dates, equipment purchases, livestock, webcam utility etc etc.
Basically what I am hoping to create is an area which covers all areas under one hood. Parameters will be able to be graphed over time and email alerts sent out when issues are found, items are to be changed, maintenance to be performed etc.
A widget will also be designed which will allow members to be able to display various stats of their aquarium on their own websites.
This will be a free service to all members. There may be some slight advertising allowed to assist with paying hosting fees but members will not pay.
There is also loads more functionality I am looking into but as said it is still in the design stage.
Personally I think that this is something which is lacking at the moment in this hobby but perhaps that is just me!