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Since xcClassified allows you to maintain and run your own classified ads site from within a browser,
you have the ultimate flexibility in handling your site.
You can administer your site from virtually anywhere that has an Internet connection. You can even
collaborate on your site's administration with someone in a totally different geographic location.
xcClassified provides you with a wide variety of administrative features and benefits, many of
which are explained in more detail below. The hallmark of xcClassified is its flexibility.
You can customize it to use as many or as few of the built-in options as you like.
Experienced web site developers have had a basic xcClassified site up and running within minutes
of starting to set it up. While others may have spent countless hours on digging into the many
options to customize the look, language and functionality of their sites. It is all up to you!
Classifieds Statistics 
As soon as you log into the Classifieds admin area, you will see some statistics about your classifieds
site. This allows you to always have a quick snapshot of how your site is doing.
Front Page Display Options
You can choose to highlight either Featured or Premiere ads on the front page of your site. This allows
you to charge additional for this added visibility for these ad types. You also have a number of
different options for displaying these ads either as a list or in a thumbnail view (requires
an image upload component from another vendor to be installed on your web server. xcClassified
supports a number of different imaging components- see requirements
for complete details).
Item Image Display Options
You can choose from among several possible formats for the images displayed on each ad page.
The first option is the traditional view of the full size images. You can also choose
a view which would display thumbnails which a user can click on to display a pop up box of the
full sized image. The final choice is to display a full size image along with a series of thumbnails;
when a user clicks on a thumbnail, the image displayed full size will be replaced
by the full size version of the thumbnail that was clicked. It's all up to you.
Thumbnails require an image upload component from another vendor to be installed on your
web server. xcClassified supports a number of different imaging components-
see requirements for complete details.
Gallery Options
The Gallery is where users' ads can be viewed in a more visual context, organized into rows of thumbnails.
You can decide to charge extra for ads that are included in the Gallery. Alternately, you
can use the Gallery to showcase all ads with thumbnails. Or, you can disable the
Gallery view altogether.
Thumbnails require an image upload component from another vendor to be
installed on your web server. xcClassified supports a number of different imaging components-
see requirements for complete details.
Category Options
xcClassified contains even more powerful category organizational options. You can decide for yourself
what order you wish for your categories to be displayed in. Also, you can define special
Category Sets which will allow related categories to share the same list of Featured ads.
This is a great option if you are just starting out and you don't want your site to look so bare.
xcClassified allows you to define an unlimited number of nested categories. This allows you to
completely define the hierarchy of your classified ads site. You can decide whether a category can
itself hold posted ads or whether it will instead act as an organizational placeholder for the
subcategories beneath it.
Category Pricing Options
You can choose to override the default base fee for any category. This allows you to create
a specific category for free listings, or a category for premium priced listings. xcClassified gives you
maximum flexibility for how you want to run your site.
Easy Site Configuration
Configuration and classified system settings are controlled via plain text files. This makes it
very simple to make setting changes. You can even make many of these changes using nothing more
than your web browser, in real-time!
No Programming Knowledge is Necessary!
xcClassified does not require you to have a computer science degree to get it working.
In fact, you do not need any programming skills at all to use it on your site. To completely
install xcClassified, you just need to be familiar with transferring files to and from
your web server (typically using FTP). If you have good HTML skills, you will be able to
completely customize the look and feel of xcClassified. If you are going to be using a SQL Server
database, you may need the assistance of your SQL Server administrator (if your site is hosted
at an ISP, most likely the ISP will be able to completely set up your SQL Server database).
If you do not have experience with setting up web sites or web applications and feel you need
assistance, XCENT technicians can be made available to help you get up and running as painlessly
and quickly as possible (at an additional hourly rate - details are available on request).
HTML Templates
xcClassified relies on HTML templates to generate much of its user interface. This is
what makes it simple and fast for you to customize the look and feel of xcClassified on your site. If
you can use an HTML layout tool- or write directly in HTML for you hard-core web site designers-
you can create a new HTML template to give your xcClassified site a distinctive look. This makes it
very quick and easy for you to integrate xcClassified into an existing site. In fact, you can just take any
existing HTML page from your site design, remove the existing content, and your template is ready to go.
Customize Colors, Fonts and More
In addition to allowing you to customize the template that frames its content, xcClassified allows you
to customize the look of the dynamically generated content itself. You can customize the fonts (colors and sizes),
table widths and background colors. For advanced users, xcClassified also supports cascading style sheets
for additional font and link color control.
Multiple E-Mail Component Support
xcClassified, like any ASP based application, must utilize a server side component to send e-mail.
xcClassified supports a wide variety of the most common of these components currently in use on ISP
web servers. The Microsoft SMTP service which is a free component included with
Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) is the default component for which xcClassified is
configured when it ships. Some of the other components xcClassified currently supports are:
Microsoft CDOSYS/CDONTS, ASPEmail, ASPMail, ASPQMail, BambooSMTP, JMail, SmtpMail, and SmartMail.
Customizable Email Messages
One of the most important ways in which xcClassified interacts with your site's users is by sending out
automated email messages for events that include ad posting confirmation and ad expiration. You can
edit the text in these messages to suit your site. This customization allows you to cater the
messages to your specific audience or even to add advertising or other content to the emails
that are sent out.
Mailing List
Through the XUD user management system that is built into xcClassified, you can define multiple E-mail
lists for your web site. Site visitor can sign-up and remove themselves from your classifieds mailing
list themselves without requiring the intervention of the site administrator. Since you can send email to
an entire list at once, it's easy to maintain a newsletter mailing list, or just to send out current news
about your classifieds site.
Language File
xcClassified utilizes a common language file which provides a centralized way for you to edit the
language xcClassified displays to your site visitors and users. You can easily customize
xcClassified for another language, for locale specific words, or for language specific to the
niche or industry that your site serves. You can even just tweak the phrasing here and there
to give the site your own personal touch.
Fees
You have complete control over how much you want to charge your users for various options
that they may choose from on your site. At the time of posting, you can charge a base fee as
well as fees for additional options to showcase the user's ad. You can also set up closing fees for
Purchase Now items; closing fees can be defined as a combination of a flat fee and/or a percentage
of the price. You can also choose to make any or all of these options free. So it is easy to set
your site up to charge the fees you want.
Subscriptions
Through the XUD User Management System, you can define subscriptions that you offer
on your site. You set the price and the time period covered by the subscription.
You can even set your site up so that different subscription options allow for different
user capabilities or for percentage discounts on all of your site's fees.
Billing and User Management System
xcClassified incorporates a built-in user billing and registration system called XUD.
Because this billing and account system is shared with certain other XCENT applications, your ads
can be seamlessly integrated with these applications if you choose. If you want to charge for ads
on your site, xcClassified will automatically post these charges to the registered users' account.
You can then bill them on a periodic (usually monthly) basis. The billing system can define flat
listing fees for users to post an ad on your site. Billing information can be exported to any
merchant processing software, such as the popular ICVerify. Any merchant processing software or
online processors that can accept batch processing jobs in a CSV format will work with xcClassified.
Several credit card gateways are supported for real-time point of sale billing of fees.
PayPal and NOCHEX Integration
It is easier than ever to bill your users through PayPal and NOCHEX. xcClassified can now
be integrated with PayPal's IPN as well as with the NOCHEX APC. Using these types of integration,
users' accounts will be credited automatically when they pay. This minimizes the number of manual steps
you need to take with these services allowing you to automate as much of the payment process as possible.
Online Processing Modules
If you are accepting credit cards, you can process your billing with just a click of a button
using one of the Online Processing Modules that are available. There are currently modules available for:
- AuthorizeNet
- Bank of America eStores
- DirectOne
- Echo/OpenEcho
- eProcessingNetwork
- IonGate
- Linkpoint
- Secpay
- Verisign PayFlowPro
- YourPay
We are always adding new modules, so check our
Online FAQ for the latest information.
Create a Sense of Community
xcClassified comes with xcForum, which is a message board application that integrates seemlessly
with our existing user management system and other web site applications. This is a great way
to build a feeling of community among your site's users. You can choose whether or not you want
to install the xcForum module.
Encourage New Users to Join Your Site
Since xcClassified allows you to bill sellers for posting ads, you can encourage activity by
defining a new user credit. This will allow you to issue a credit to new users so they can feel
free to try your site out without risk. Remember, like most features in xcClassified,
this feature is fully customizable!
Automated System Processing
xcClassified can automatically process closed ads without your intervention, even if
it is hosted on an ISP's web server that does not allow installing executables (EXE, and DLL files).
By taking advantage of the features in Windows Scripting Host and Internet Explorer, you can have
any Internet connected machine command xcClassified to run these automated processes.
By sending out these timely messages and updates, xcClassified makes your site visitors
want to keep coming back for more.
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