|
Step One
From the Sign Up page > Create account > Enter your email address > confirm your email address > Enter a password > Confirm your password > Choose your country from the drop down menu > Click the Continue Button
Important:
If your country is not in the list you can’t be in the Directory. Sorry.
Step Two
You will be sent an email containing an account activation link key. You must click on the link to activate your account. This step is necessary so we know that you have entered your email address correctly. Your email address also forms part of your login information.
Once you have activated your account you must login using your email address and password.
Step Three
You have logged into your topsa account.
You are now in the Manage Account area. If you have just created and activated an account you will see a drop down menu which is titled > Profile 1.
Profile 1 is the default name of your first profile.
You should not bother to click on the Preview button below the Profile 1 drop down menu as you have not yet added any content to your profile.
Below the Preview button are three other buttons:
Edit, Remove, Add New
Edit will open the selected profile, Remove will remove the selected Profile and Add New will create a new profile which will be titled Profile 2 by default. You may create up to five profiles. New Profiles will appear in the drop down menu and will be arranged alphabetically.
To proceed with this guide we will edit Profile 1
As it is pre-selected just click the Edit button
Step Four
You are now on the data entry page for Profile 1. I am going to describe each data field starting at the top.
1) Representative Info
The information you should enter here will be the First name and the Last name of the person who will deal with website enquiries. You may also add the individuals Position - Representative, Sales Manager, Partner and so on. This information is displayed in the Profile Page.
Choose the Gender of the Representative and the Age of the Representative. This information is not displayed on your Page Profile – this information provides demographic information regarding our account holders.
2) Company Information
Name: This is very important as whatever name you put here will be displayed throughout the directory and on your Profile Page. This name should be the Company Name. In future when you login to your account you will note that your Profile 1 is now named after the information you enter in this field.
Year Established: This information is not displayed on your Page Profile – this information provides demographic information regarding our account holders.
Number of staff: This information is not displayed on your Page Profile – this information provides demographic information regarding our account holders.
Type of Company: This is an important category in topsa as we distinguish between the options available in the drop down menu.
Company URL: This is your website address (if you have one). You should enter this data in this format: http://www.yourcompany.com
topsa Category: Choose a category that is most appropriate for your product /service. If you feel that your category is not well represented then you can email: customercare@topsa.co.za with your suggested category and we will consider adding it.
Your company will be listed under this category in the topsa directory so be sure you have chosen an appropriate one.
3) Directory Listing Information
Short description of your company: This is a very important data field. The information you put here will be used as your short directory entry in search results. The information will also be incorporated into your Profile Page meta data for improved search engine ranking.
Related Keywords: Also an important data field as these keywords are searched by the topsa database when matching queries. The Keywords are also added to your Profile Page meta data to better describe your page content.
Detailed Description of your company: You may describe your company in detail in this section and can emphasise services and products, achievements, capabilities and capacities.
List your products: A simple list separated by commas
List your services: A simple list separated by commas
Address Details: Add your physical address details here. There is no need to add your company name here the database will automatically insert your company name as entered in section 2.
Telephone: Add your telephone number
Fax: Add your fax number
Country: Your country should be preset from when you created your account. If you did not change the default setting during Sign Up now is the time to correct this. topsa is a regional directory so country information is very important and your Profile Page is also organised by Country.
4) Graphics
They say a picture is worth a thousand words and we agree. On the topsa Profile Page you can upload images directly from your hard drive to our server. When you upload an image it will be automatically optimised for fast downloading and it will also be scaled to fir our standard layout. This means that you do not have to worry about some of the technicalities typically associated with image preparation for the web.
Upload your logo: Simply click the Browse button and then navigate to where you have a copy of your logo. You should prepare this in advance and a white background will be best in terms of the look and feel of the standard Profile Page. Once you have located your logo, click OK and then click on the save button at the top or the bottom of the data entry page to activate the upload process. The time taken for upload will depend on the original file size of the image and the speed of your internet connection.
Upload main image: This involves the same procedure as uploading your logo
Upload additional image: This involves the same procedure as uploading your logo
You may preview your page at any time and this will assist you in getting a professional looking result. Always save your page before previewing.
If you have gone through all the above steps and added all the required data then you are ready to Activate your page.
Step Five
Click on the Activate button in the Status section at the top of the page. If your Status shows Currently Active then your page has already been activated.
Important - Please note: The topsa database processes all text in a Profile Page through a word filter every time you save the page. If you use words in our banned word list your Profile Page will immediately be suspended and you will not be able to activate it. If you add banned words after your page has been activated then when you save the changes the page will also be de-activated.
Should this happen you will receive an email from topsa which will highlight the banned words you have used. Once you have attended to the banned words you must apply via your Account Area for us to review your page. As long as we do not find any objectionable material we will re-instate your page. You will also be advised by email when your page has been re-instated and you may then activate the page.
Suggestion: When updating your Profile Page we recommend that you first de-activate your page because if the page is still active any changes you make and then save will instantly be reflected on your Profile Page in the Directory.
Notes:
Save frequently
Do logout when you are finished working on your page
Your email address cannot be edited without a confirmation email being sent to the new address. This is so we know that we have your contact details and so we can reset your password if required. Your email address is used by default in your Profile Page. We encrypt email addresses in Profile Pages so that spammers do not have easy access to them.
You may change your Email address, change your password and manage your account by clicking in the links in the Logged In box on the left hand side of the data entry page.
A word about categorisation: topsa Profile Pages are organised by Type, by Category and by Country
Images:
We have found that extremely large images may not upload correctly - if your image is bigger than 2000 pixels wide you may have to reduce it before uploading.
Use the GIF file format for graphics such as logos comprising flat colours
Use the JPEG file format for continuous tone images such as photographs and illustrations
|
