Add an attribute to a product in Magento

For this example I want to make certain products "Top Rated"

This will allow a user to view a category of all "Top Rated" products.

I'm using the magento sample data in this tutorial, but it should translate pretty well to your current set up.

1. Navigate to "Manage Attributes"



2. Click "Add new Attribute"




3. Enter your information of simply copy the info I have entered here to see how it works.



-Click on Manage Label/Options and enter the following.



4. Click Save and navigate to Manage attribute sets.



As far as I can tell, only one attribute set can be applied to a product. However an attribute set can have as many individual attributes in it as you want. So for our example that means that we need to add the "Top Rated" attribute to a set that already exists.
I want to make a few of my shoes "Top Rated" so...

5. Click on the set called "Shoes"



Here we see our newly created attribute on the right under the column "Unassigned Attributes"



6. Simply click and drag the "toprated" attribute to the shoe attributes category of the groups column and click save.



7. Next navigate to Catalog -> Manage Products



8. Locate a product labeled that has an "Attrib. Set Name" of Shoes, and click edit.



9. Click on "Shoe Attributes"



10. Change the Top Rated attribute to "Top Rated Item" Click save.



11. Now navigate to your live store and click "Apparel" You will see a new category called "Top Rated" in the left column. I have added 3 items to my top rated category (2 shirts in addition to the sandals).



Clicking on the Top Rated category will now allow the user to view all items which have been assigned the top rated attribute.