The whole point of it, is that you don’t need to change the way you’re currently using your website/blog.

It’s as easy as creating a new post, putting some information or images into your post in exactly the same way you normally would, then using a yak shortcode to place an Add to Cart button.

It’s that simplicity that makes it so powerful!

I also want to point out how much help the plugin designer and the community can help if you run into problems.

http://groups.google.com/group/yak-discuss

I am new to web design and have figured out how to make it work exactly the way I wanted/needed it to.

I’ll post a link to the site I created with it when done.

I found YAK to be a nice shopping cart. Nice idea.

I do have to agree with Trone that documentation needs improvement. I did get frustrated to set it up.

I am a software architect and believe me passing out our ideas to other individuals is not easy without handy documentation and examples.

Thanks for your comment. I agree YAK is not that easy to use. That’s why I gave it the review I did. Hopefully since then they’ve improved on it with the newer versions.

it took me 2 hours to add one product.

when i used the short codes [yak_price] and [yak_buy]
i got ($0) and (product out of stock) as the output.

now the plugin is in my recycle bin

YAK Shopping Cart comes with a Sales Report option under the Tools menu. In comparison to other plugins it is definitely a positive with more reporting available to see sales progress….

Thanks for your valued input. I have heard that Jason from YAK has also made lots of changes to his software so that it’s easier to use. Hopefully with the handbook it does help users out there though.

http://shoppingcartforwordpress.com

Not spamming here just offering alternatives that relate to the subject strictly.
Cragar
http://ebaysebooks.com

In regard to “lack of help”, perhaps it’s my misunderstanding of your heading “Documentation And Help Is Hard To Find”. Maybe you were talking about help in terms of docs within the plugin itself, rather than help in terms of support.

I would still argue the point that basic instructions are available from the main project page. I feel there’s enough there to get a user going. But I will look at adding a little more detail on creating products — like you say one person saying something on their blog, is probably the tip of a less vocal iceberg.

Thank you for your comment. I have checked out 52teas.com and it’s a nice site. Though from what you say “someone with no coding experience”, why would you still need to tweak a plugin and touch the code if it was working perfectly and has held up beautifully? No doubt Jason does have good support, though for anyone who is needing to get a shop into WordPress with minimal hassle I understand there are other plugins with simpler installations and usage.

Frank, did you test other open source shopping carts or e-Commerce plugins before using YAK and made the comparisons?

Thanks.

Jason: I do understand that you feel as this review is snide, but my intentions were to give an honest opinion, which is what most bloggers do. I have already tried paid and open source e-Commerce plugins and with most open source plugins they provide documentation for free. Therefore I wouldn’t have to spend my time looking through the forum and sending emails to yourself. Wouldn’t that make sense to have a solution with easy instructions to support the install and usage of a product? Most people don’t have time to wait for responses.

Also, I did not critise for a “lack of help”, nor did I talk about no support from you in my review. I am sure that you offer good support as you have commented on my blog promptly.

My opinion here should be taken as constructive criticism to improve the quality of the plugin and to make necessary adjustments to support users. I am probably not the first one who has tried this plugin and said the same thing, the only difference is, I gave my opinion on my blog.

Market Theme: Thanks. I will be reviewing your plugin shortly as well and you’ll see a post here shortly.

We have been using it exclusively on our website http://www.52teas.com, if you would like to see it in action. We’re starting to get a lot of orders through our site, and YAK has held up beautifully.

When we have had questions or concerns, the developer has been more than helpful and extremely responsive on his website. I have to agree that it seems quite unfair and unfounded for you to say that there is a lack of support.

Speaking from my experience as someone with NO coding experience (I’m a tea blender), I found that once I read through the information on the developer’s website and asked a few questions, I had NO problem getting YAK up and running, and have even been able to go back in and make some minor tweaks of my own here and there (with help from the developer and his forum).

Market is a premium theme for WP with its own built-in shopping cart system. It also comes with a backend product administration plugin for easy product management. It then connects with Paypal for payment processing.

It’s one of the quickest and easiest ways to setup an online store around. Upload the theme to your WP themes folder, upload the Product Manager tool to your plugins folder, and activate both. Then all that’s left is to create a “Products” category, and set the category ID in the functions file.

That’s it. Just a couple of minutes and you’re ready to start entering products.

The feature list isn’t as robust as WP-ecommerce, however the setup is a breeze, and there’s no time spent figuring out how to integrate it into a theme.

Try out the free online demo on our site.
http://www.markettheme.com/

I’m not trying to be snide, but your review mentions a lack of documentation, and there is basic installation documentation on the main project page.

A lot of open source projects make money by selling documentation. It’s pretty much a standard practice. Some users want to pay, some would rather figure it out themselves. That’s flexibility for you. But you don’t have to waste time figuring it out for yourself, because you can buy the handbook — so I find it rather trite for you to suggest that it’s somehow okay to pay for a plugin with documentation, yet it’s not okay to get a free plugin and then pay for the docs.

Yes, YAK is basic. That was one of the initial goals — along with tight integration within WordPress. So no, there isn’t a way to insert product images from YAK. Instead, you insert them in your post — your post is your product. That’s the foundation of YAK: post as product.
YAK originally had its own menu option, but before the new design of WP, I felt it took too much menu real estate and figured users would prefer if it was included within the standard WP menu structure — settings went into WP->Settings. Orders and Products and then Reports went into the Manage menu (which has now become Tools). I haven’t had any complaints or suggestions to change it, so far.
On the “lack of help” front, there is a forum on my site. A responsible reviewer might’ve taken a look there first — and found that, as with many open source projects, the forum is reasonably active, with support requests, and discussions on how to do things, and so on.

YAK might be lacking in user-friendliness (something I’m trying to address over time, but as a single-developer project, it’s slow going), but an accusation of lack of support is, quite frankly, groundless.

In the distant past, I was one of the editors of a (printed) technical journal in the US. Generally if we were reviewing a product, we’d contact the company in advance for review copies (giving them the opportunity to provide additional information if they wanted). In this case, and for any future reviews you decide to write, I believe you’d be better served contacting the developer (or developers) and give them that same opportunity. It is perhaps a better form of journalism not to rubbish a project or product without actually doing a little research in advance…