WMCoop Wiki: ProducerInfo ...

Becoming a Producer

Becoming a Producer in our system is a step-by-step process. It is documented here so that all the parties involved know what the next step is, and where to go to get to the next step.

Potential Producers are introduced to the co-op in several ways; at events, simply by searching Google or other web sites. However you get introduced to the Co-op, here are the steps to get started selling:

1. Create a member account with us. From the Co-op home page, beneath the Login boxes, is a link called “New User?” – start there, and create your login. (Make sure you put your phone number and correct email address in your membership information – that's how we'll contact you if we have questions.)
2. Once you've created your login, and you are logged into the site, you can fill out a Producer application. Click the link under the Main Menu that says, “Sign up to be a producer” (or you can get there by clicking on this link).

You are not required to pay the membership fee before you apply to become a producer. If the fee is not paid, it will simply be deducted automatically from your first month's sales. The Producer pays exactly the same membership fee as any other Member or User of the co-op.

From here, our CEO and Producer Committee will take over. Upon receipt, they will review your application, and contact you if they have any questions. In some cases, they may need to tour your facilities. In any case, they will contact you if there are any issues with your application.

If they approve you, you will receive an email letting you know that you are approved and ready to sell. You'll then be able to log into the site, and you'll have many new options under the main menu to add and manage your product.

If your application is denied, you will receive a phone call to clarify any issues that the Co-op has with your situation. Common reasons for a denied application are:

• You're outside of our range (the nine counties surrounding and including Kent county), and you offer a product already provided by somebody inside our range.
• Your product is already saturated in our current market, and adding it would significantly impact existing approved producers. This is often a temporary situation – once we've grown our membership base, we will revisit and potentially approve your application.
• You are local, but you are a reseller of product that is made or grown outside of our range, that could be produced within our range.

Even if you feel one or more of the above may apply, please do submit your application. Denials are rare, and in many cases we can work with you to establish your presence on the Co-op. If we can work with you to resolve an issue, we will do so in order to help you get started with us. Thanks for your interest!

Adding your Product

Once you have been approved as a Producer, log in to your account.

Click 'Manage Products' from the menu.

Underneath your name, choose 'Add a Product'

From there, you can add the Product Name, Notes about the product, the Category it belongs in, whether it is a shelf, refridgerated, or frozen product, and the quantity available.

Most importantly, follow the Product Pricing guidelines to set your price, and choose the Add New Product button to add the item to the next shopping cycle.

Adding Pictures to Products

We now have a way to add pictures for your products. We are using the service flickr to host the pictures themselves. This takes a significant bandwidth and storage requirement off of the Co-op's server – storing all of your pictures and serving them would significantly slow things down, as well as take a good chunk of storage space out of the server. Flickr is an ideal solution, here, because they host the files and serve them for free.

To see an example of how the pics look on the site, go to the Media Rare Product page, and click “order” for any of the items there. You'll see the pics below the main order box. If you click them, you get a larger view of the image.

To make this happen for your product, there are a few steps.

1. Create a Flickr account (if you already use Yahoo mail, this process is quite quick, because Flickr is owned by Yahoo). Make sure that the email address you use to register the Flickr account is the same as the email address you receive our Co-op mails at – that's how we connect your account on the Co-op to your account on Flickr.
2. Upload your product photos to Flickr. Make sure they are public – the Co-op server won't be able to find them if they are “private.”
3. On the Co-op page, look at your product management page. The number in parentheses after your product name is key here. Print out your product management page, especially if you have many products to add pictures to.
4. Back on Flickr, find one of the photos you'd like to have show up with a product. “Tag” that photo with the number that coincides with that product. Know that with Flickr, you can tag photos with as many tags as you wish – just separate the tags with a space. That way, you could have a single photo appear on many product pages. You don't need the parentheses in the tag – just the number.
5. It may take an hour or so for Flickr to connect all the dots. If your picture doesn't appear on the order page for that product right away, give it some time and come back. If it's more than a few hours, then something did go wrong. Email me!

You only need to do this once – next cycle the pictures will still be there, until you remove the product from the Co-op, or you remove the picutre from Flickr.

This is certainly a technical process. If you have any questions or issues, be sure to email paul@westmichigancoop.com.

Know also that using Flickr is NOT a requirement for being a producer with us. It IS a requirement at the moment for showing pictures of your products. If you would rather not participate with Flickr, that is absolutely your right and we will not limit you in any way, but your products will not be able to have pictures shown with them at this time. As with any web service, read Flickr's terms of service and decide for yourself whether you wish to participate on their service.

We may also make your Flickr photos available at some point on your “About Us” page. That would be a great opportunity to show pictures of your facilities and farm! Look for that update here in the near future.