FAQ

How does the integrated eCommerce feature work?
Catalog Manager is the eCommerce feature you can optionally turn on for a user. Catalog Manager makes it easy for a novice user to build a product catalog of unlimited items to sell from their site, and to include pictures, descriptions and prices for each. Tight integration with PayPal makes it simple for the user to have an automatically generated shopping cart, buy now buttons and credit card check out.

Since PayPal is free to join, has NO hidden or flat fees (like merchant accounts do) plus a competitve 2.9% discount rate it's the perfect solution for most small business users. The user simply puts in their PayPal account email and Catalog Manager automatically creates all the correct links with no intervention from the user. Whenever a product is updated the links are automatically updated too, so the right price is always charged. Users also have the option of having the order emailed instead of using the PayPal integration.
Where is the user's site hosted?
The end users Web site is hosted on your hosting servers. The SiteBuilder Service will publish back to your servers via ftp information you've entered into the SBSmanager system.
What Web servers are supported?
Any Web server on any platform. The SiteBuilder Service simply FTP's the user's site into the user's Web space, there are no special requirements and no changes to your servers.
I'm a reseller of a Hosting company. Can this work for me?
Absolutely! The SiteBuilder Service is completely independent of the hosting infrastructure so you could even have some of your customers with one host and the others with a second host. And if you ever want to switch customers from one host to another you can as well.
Can my customers see Topline?
No. Our systems are invisible to the user, your Brand name is all that they see and they login from your Web site. If users dug into DNS records etc, they could find us and Trellix, but neither are visible in normal use.
Can I Trial the SiteBuilder Service?
You can try our demo to see exactly what your customers will see (although without your branding), but we don't offer a Trial that you could implement on your site. We are looking at this as a future capability.
How soon can I offer SiteBuilder to my customers?
Most of our customers are offering SiteBuilder the day after signing up. Express Service customers only need to place one line of HTML onto their Web site to be fully operational. PRO customers must complete the integration with the SBS API which may add a week of programming and a week of testing prior to going live. The Custom Service however is a full implementation of Trellix and you should allow at least 90 days to complete.
How does the Trial System work?
As soon as you've placed the link on your site, visitors can register for a Free 30 day Trial and get instant access to SiteBuilder. They are instantly enterd into SBSmanager and receive a Welcome Email that you can customize. Your sales team also receives their registered info by email to follow-up the lead. The Trial users can log back in at any time to continue work on their site and get access to the full application except they can't publish to your servers until you convert their status in SBSmanager and they can only publish to you. There is no charge to you for Trial users.
How do the users login to the SiteBuilder?
Your users will always login through the link on your web site, whether they are Trial or paying customers. With the PRO and Custom Services you can also have them login through your Control Panel or other system.
Do my users need to enter FTP info?
No. You enter their FTP info into TOP directly, your users never need to even know their FTP details. They simply login from your Web site, edit their site and click on "Publish", and the service FTP's it to their site without ever asking for any FTP info. This can also reduce your support load, since the user can't FTP into their space and "break" anything.
Can you change the look of a site after its published?
Yes. A user can select a new look for their site at any time and as often as they wish. There are hundreds of designs to choose from and more added on every release.
Can my customers edit their current Web site in SiteBuilder?
The SiteBuilder Service is designed for new hosting customers can only be used to modify sites originally created in the SiteBuilder Service. If your customers have a site created in another application (even another Trellix environment) they can not modify it with SiteBuilder. They can however, start a new site in SiteBuilder and cut and paste over content.
Once the site is created, can it be modified in another program?
Possible but not recommended. SiteBuilder sites are standard HTML so they could be modified externally however any changes made to existing pages will be overwritten during the next SiteBuilder session. It would be better to upload externally created pages to the user's space and then link to them from within SiteBuilder.
Can I modify my customer's site for them?
Yes, it's easy to login to any of your customer's sites and make edits in SiteBuilder for them. You have full functionality and can even publish the site. All of your users are listed in SBSmanager and you can log in as anyone with one click. You can even be in SiteBuilder at the same time as your users is to give them an online walk-through.
What is included in the Setup fee?
The setup fee is a one-time charge to configure you into our systems. This is not an annaul fee, you only pay it once. The setup covers all configuration and setup so that you can immediately offer SiteBuilder to your customers. You get the QuickStart Guide to step you through the process and answer most questions. Most of our customers are live in one day.
How are the monthly fees calculated?
Any user that you have set to "Active" in SBSmanager can use SiteBuilder to publish their site. So each month we add up the number of users that have been set to Active at any time in the month and multiple this by the monthly rate for the plan the user is on to find your total fees for the month. This is billed to you at the end of each month. Topline will never bill your customers directly. Users have unlimited access to edit and publish their sites.
Is SiteBuilder charged per server?
No. There is a one-time setup fee no matter how many servers you are running. Then just a monthly fee for each user no matter what server they are on.
What are the upgrade fees for new versions of Trellix?
All new versions of Trellix are included in your monthly fees, so there are no "upgrade" fees. There is typically a major release every 12 months and minor releases more frequently and you receive all of them automatically as soon as they are ready. Some additional optional modules may also be offered that may have separate charges.
What does "Minimum Monthly Fee" mean?
Each month you are billed for at least the minimum fee listed for the level of Service you sign up for. This fee covers your technical support and all product upgrades even if your volumes are low when you first start out. Once your monthly user fees exceed the minimum you will just be charged the user fees. For example: at Express Service you will pay $100/month until your total usage fees exceed $100. We believe this is a better system than a $100/mo flat rate support fee you'd have to pay even when your volumes grow.
What is an "Additional Brand"?
Each customer gets to add one Brand to our systems (your company name) and each additional brand is an extra fee. Extra brands are great for your resellers that can then offer their own SiteBuilder on their web sites. Also some companies want to offer SiteBuilder from 2 or more sites that they run and want customers to be treated separately.
What is a Web Gem?
Web Gems are web services that are integrated right into SiteBuilder. Web Gems allow your customers to add special content and make their site more compelling without having to leave the SiteBuilder environment. Content including video, audio, maps, weather, email list management, and eCommerce can easily be added to a site.
What is SBSmanager?
SBSmanager (short for SiteBuilderService Manager) is the control panel that lets you directly manage your users access to SiteBuilder. Each user has a separate record in SBSmanager that contains their login and publishing information (FTP Address, FTP loginID, FTP password, and FTP webroot directory). Many usage stats are also collected and can be reported from SBSmanager, such as last login, last publish and publish frequency. You'll need a 128bit session of IE 5.0 or higher to access SBSmanager.
How do I include my own custom templates?
You can create new site templates to meet your customer's needs and reflect your style. New templates are created in a normal SiteBuilder editing session, then Topline can capture, QA, integrate and upload them as part of the core service. There is a $200/template charge and the templates will be visible by all of Topline's users (not just by your customers). Other methods of sharing site templates are under investigation.
How does the SBS API help me automate?
The SBS API gives you programatic control over your SiteBuilder user's records. If you have invested in an automated provisioning system that allows your new users to be instantly setup on your servers, you can extend your scripts to include the SiteBuilder setup too using the API. The API provides access to all processes including adding, modifying and deleting customer and reseller records. Available with PRO and Custom Services.
What languages are supported?
Currently English is the only language supported. It is possible to provide other language on a customized basis.
What if I want to stop using the SiteBuilder Service for my customers?
If you cancel your contract, your users' sites will still be live on your servers, but the users won't have access the SiteBuilder Service to update them. The HTML in their sites can be downloaded and modified in any leading HTML editor.