I’m working on a development project for a relative of a good friend.  It’s really low budget, because he has a lot of family obligations is not in a position to invest in anything right now with this economy,  but I am happy to help him get something started. It’s an online wine store intended to be a “wine convenience store”. It’s like 7-11 in that it’s drive-by, open all the time, and has a simple collection spanning the spectrum of cheap rose through unoffensive table wines, with  one or two “top shelf” wines in the $40 range. The whole idea is one-stop, limited number to pick from, and something to please everyone “common” enough to shop at a 7-11 for wine.

This is a small project with very limited budget.. we’re talking a few hundred bucks to get everything going (and I mean everything!).  I’m thinking Magento shopping cart for easy of implementation and because traffic won’t be huge (so a slow Magento won’t be a problem).  I have been reading up on Magento SEO and my dev cart is working great.

I’ll probably also be given the job of building a blog about the store, so I can skin WordPress to match the Magento store. I’m looking forward to it, even if it’s not a very profitable job given the budget. It’ll be my first wine site.

Update: This project died.

Working with WordPress, I find a great interface but a slow, manual process for configuration. Lots of mouse clicks, small setting; it really is designed for users and not developers. I wish it were easier to pre-set the configuration parameters.

I bet if WordPress pulled out all of the settings and configuration parameters, that would not only make it easier for developers to preset (and diagnose other installations) but it might highlight some existing redundancies and conflicts that exist in the core system.

Updated : lots of improvement, but the Word Press back end still requires submission to “their way” of doing things, lol.

My nameis Alan and I am starting to blog.