Cruzio/The Internet Store Newsletter - Number 31, February 22, 2000
1) At last. A shopping cart that's inexpensive and easy, for Cruzio customers
2) Brown bag event coming up: "ShopSite, a new E-commerce Solution"
3) March: still cold and rainy, why not take some evening classes?
4) Cruzio bills getting better
5) Tomorrow's Tech Fair (Feb 23, 2000)
6) DSL now available in Watsonville, Capitola
7) Cruzio Classroom Hosts The Humanities
8) About This Newsletter
9) How to Reach Cruzio (dial-in or tech support)
1) At last. A shopping cart that's inexpensive and easy, for Cruzio customers
Cruzio searched and searched for an easy-to-use shopping cart that would
allow our customers to put up an e-store in minutes. We found a great
program called ShopSite which allows you to add e-commerce functionality
to your current pages, or to build a site from scratch. It's infinitely
customizable, so your site doesn't have to look like one of a million
identical ones.
ShopSite has all the features you want (that we could think of,
anyway): secure transactions, database imports, all the quirky things
like sales tax and shipping. The Manager and Pro versions have real-time
credit card processing and unlimited items -- one of our sites is
successfully selling thousands of items.
Pricing of E-stores:
We're selling ShopSite in three sizes: Lite, Manager and Pro. Each store
has a license fee, to create a working store assigned just to you, and
ongoing monthly fees. Currently, you must have a Cruzio Internet Office
account to use ShopSite. For more information, and a feature list, please
go to
http://www.cruzio.com/support/shopsite/
Startup prices:
List Cruzio Regular Special till 3/31/00
---- -------------- --------------------
Lite $25.00 FREE license FREE license
Manager $495.00 $349.00 $250.00
Pro $1195.00 $895.00 $795.00
Ongoing Fees: Lite $5.00/mo; Manager $25.00/mo; Pro $40.00/mo
If you get Lite before March 31st, the first 3 months' fees are waived.
When you purchase ShopSite, you'll be charged the license fee plus three
months of service. If you research competing e-commerce sites, you'll find
that Cruzio's prices are extremely low. Most other sites charge more than
$100.00 per month and hefty startup fees for e-commerce solutions. Cruzio
feels that the low prices we're offering are much more realistic for a
small-to-medium size business.
As usual, we're offering classes and workshops to explain the
how's and why's of using ShopSite. See the schedules, below.
We tested ShopSite and trained our staff by getting stores for each
of our employees to try. These stores are very popular with
staff, their families, and friends, who are clamoring for permanent
versions.
2) Brown bag event coming up: "ShopSite, a new E-commerce Solution"
Thursday, March 16th, 2000 12:30-2pm at Cruzio
ShopSite offers everything you need to set up an online store to sell
products and services. It's fast, easy, inexpensive, secure, and you
can set up your store in minutes! Join Cruzio Senior Staff to learn more
about using ShopSite to put your store online.
3) March: still cold and rainy, why not take some evening classes?
March. Just the month to set aside some early evenings to improve your
Internet knowledge. Cruzio has fine teachers and classes that are A) not
too long (2.5 hours per class, the whole series completed in one month)
B) conveniently scheduled, 6:30-9 pm on weekdays, and C) conveniently
located in downtown Santa Cruz, so you have the choice of a dozen latte
places to go afterward.
In March, Cruzio is offering:
Tuesdays, 6:30-9pm: "Using the Internet", packed with tips and
tricks for wiser Internet usage. Taught by Amy.
Wednesdays, 6:30-9pm: "Publishing on the Internet I", Terrific
instructors John, and Kathy guide students through
the process of creating Web sites for family, hobbies
or businesses. Our most popular series.
Thursdays, 6:30-9pm: "E-commerce", Three of our top-rated instructors
explain how e-commerce works in a practical, real-world
way, followed by an in-depth look at ShopSite, Cruzio's
shopping cart solution, and plenty of hands-on practice.
Every student creates a working shopping cart before
the end of the series. Taught by Mark, Kathy, and John.
Coming up in April:
Tuesdays and Wednesdays, same as March.
Thursdays, 6:30-9pm: "Publishing on the Internet II", A
continuation of the first "Publishing" series, where
Mark and John present more sophisticated and effective
methods of creating web pages.
4) Cruzio bills getting better
Thanks for your patience with Cruzio's new billing system. We do
believe that bills going out now are both readable and correct.
Let us know when that's not the case!
We are still working out the late note system, and it's not sending
late notes regularly yet. That's coming soon.
Thanks to all the great Cruzio users for their thoughtful and helpful
input.
5) Tomorrow's Tech Fair (Wednesday, Feb 23, 2000)
Last year, when Cruzio had an Internet Business Fair, response was
excellent and the Chamber of Commerce said, "Next time, let's do this
together." So this year, Cruzio is one of four founding sponsors of the
Chamber of Commerce/SCTA event called the Santa Cruz Technology Exhibition
and Symposium. It will be held tomorrow, February 23, 2000, from 10 am
to 8 pm. Tickets are $7.00, but free entrance is given to job-seekers
who put their names in an on-line database. The site is the new
University Town Center at 1101 Pacific Avenue (corner of Cathcart).
Cruzio will be demonstrating ShopSite, our new e-commerce software.
Many local technology companies will be showing off their wares.
We're hoping that, like our own Business Fair, the Exhibition will
be a great place for local techies to meet each other and see what's
going on. We've been going to meetings and whatnot to help set up
the Exhibition, and frankly we've learned about all sorts of tech
companies in the area that we never knew existed. Some really nice
people, too.
Beyond the meeting and the greeting, the Exhibition is a job fair.
So if you're a technical person, you can come in and check out the
job listings, meet with local companies who are hiring, and perhaps
avoid that commute over the hill.
There's a Symposium at the Exhibition, too. Cruzio's CEO will be
giving a talk on different ways of connecting to the Internet and
how they really work, and Cruzio's President and CFO will talk about
how to use the Internet to run a business. Both are excellent speakers
(they are regulars on GeekSpeak, the KUSP radio show on Mondays 6:30-7 pm)
and the presentations will be informative and fun.
6) DSL now available in Watsonville, Capitola
Our DSL services are selling like hotcakes, and we have several hundred
people connected now. We are adding another, extra-large Internet pipe
to handle the increasing traffic. If you've been waiting for Internet
access to get to your neighborhood, you'll be happy to hear that
Watsonville and Capitola can now get Cruzio's excellent DSL service.
For more information, check out
http://www.cruzio.com/support/dsl.html
7) Cruzio Classroom Hosts The Humanities
Starting March 6, the Cruzio classroom will be the scene of
an unusual series of lectures by visiting scholars.
Former UCSC professor Paul Lee starts with a 6 lecture series titled:
'The Core and the Canon of the Humanities: From Homer to Plato'
March 6, 13,20, 27 and April 3, 10 -- $60.00 for the series
Chaos Math pioneer and current UCSC professor Ralph Abraham presents
2 series of 5 lectures each titled:
'Math Musings I: Chaos and Divination',
April 17, 24 and May 1, 8, 15 - $50.00 for the series
and
'Math Musings II: Chaos and the Environment',
June 12, 19, 26 and July 10, 17 -- $50.00 for the series
(Neither class requires any "math" prerequisite. Ralph excels in explaining
with words.)
For more information about these series, please visit the web site at:
http://www.invisiblecollege.com
8) Cruzio wins Goldies again -- Thanks!
For the 5th year in a row, Cruzio has won Metro Santa Cruz' "Goldies"
awards for Best Internet Service Provider and Best Web Site (www.cruzio.com).
Awww gee! Thanks! We know a lot of our customers voted for us and we're
glad. Thank you.
9) About This Newsletter
Cruzio doesn't like to waste bandwidth with extra email, but we sometimes
have events and announcements that users need to know about. This seems
like the most efficient way to let people know what's happening. Hope
it's helpful. Please email support@cruzio.com with any comments or questions.
By the way, we would love to have a regular, predictable schedule
for this newsletter...but we simply do not send it unless there is real
news enclosed. Thus the haphazard datelines.
10) How to Reach Cruzio (dial-in or tech support)
To reach the Cruzio Information Center, for online technical and
sales information:
http://www.cruzio.com/support
To dial in to Cruzio, set your software to dial one of the numbers
below (note: we've expanded and joined modem pools, so you may be
using another number. If so, don't worry, it still works just fine).
DSL: no need to dial in, it's always on
56k: 459-9408
33.6 kbps and under: 459-6230
To call Cruzio:
459-6301............Use this number to check Cruzio's system status,
pay your Cruzio bill, find out more about our hours and location,
or to reach someone in customer service and technical support.
To send email to Cruzio, use one of these addresses:
support@cruzio.com.......for technical support
office@cruzio.com........for billing and ordering information
webmaster@cruzio.com.....for questions about Cruzio's World Wide
Web service
Thanks very much from Cruzio:
Chris, Peggy, John, Julianne, Patton, Kathy, Mark, Martin,
Georgette, Jay, Tapati, Hilary, Jessica, Amy, Temoc,
Brittany, Will, Alec, Rachael, Barbara, Raelani, Priya
and Melanie (the grownups); Jake, Annika and Carly (the kids)
I was playing with 2 year old Carly. She put her hands over my face.
"Stop that," I told her. "I can't breathe." "Mommy," she admonished me,
"YOU stop BREATHING!"
