Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi!

I`m in the same quandary as rvdebby -- need a website w/ shopping capabilities...I really want to do it myself, but I do not have any experience.  After reading all the responses, I think I can do some learning and then make my decision as to whether to hire a pro or do it myself.  Thanks for all the help.  However, how do I go about finding a good pro (someone who won`t rip you off)!  My small biz is still in start up mode (only been in business for a year) and funds are very scarce!

Thanks

allie

HI RVDEBBY

BULDING YOUR OWN WEBSITE IS FUN.THE FIRST THING YOU NEED IS A DOMAIN NAME. IF YOU DECIDE TO USE YAHOO.COM TO PUBLISH YOUR WEB SITE IN THE INDEX PAGE OF YOUR WEB SITE YOU MUST HAVE HOME.HTML.WHEN SOMEONE GOES TO YOUR WEB SITE IT WILL OPEN UP TO YOUR HOME PAGE.IN THE INDEX PAGE ALL PAGES MUST BE IN LOWER CASE,ALL PAGES MUST END IN .HTML.IF YOU ARE USEING A PUBLISHING ASSISTANT YOU WILL NEED TO INSERT HOST NAME OR ISP ADDRESS.YOU MAY OR MAY NOT NEED USER IDENTIFER.THEN YOU CAN TRANSFER YOUR WEB SITE TO THE REMOTE HOST.IF YOU USE PAY PAL BUTTONS SET UP AN ACCOUNT WITH THEM SO YOU CAN USE THE BUTTONS AS YOU BULD YOUR WEB SITE.MAKE A COPY OF YOUR WEB SITE,FOLDERS AND ANY OTHER ITEMS YOU LIKE ON A CD RE WRITEABLE.

DAN BECKHAM

COWBOYSCOINSCURRENCYLLC.COM

Hi all,

Well, a very good alternative is use some class of portal technology, the best i know is DotNetNuke. With a portal solution, you can organize the content the way you want (flexibility depends on what portal you choose). It is very user friendly even to people without coding skills. If you want to know more, you can go to http://demo.dotnetnuke.com/ where you can experiment yourself with the portal, or go to http://www.dotnetnuke.com/ to know more about the product (it is free).

Im a software developer and find this a very good solution, you can decide to pay for hosting (there are many dotnetnuke hosting services) or you can host the portal in your server.

It is designed to be flexible so you will notice you can customize your portal in many ways, and things like (user feedback, forums, etc etc, are included, there are also shopping cart modules), its very easy to use, and another plus is a great community supporting it.

(there are another portals, like mambo, but DotNetNuke is my fav)

Good luck

Hugo

check out my website - it was easy to do.

I am not an WEBSITE Designer PROFESSIONAL.

But I am going to be the first to admit I dont like my own website.

Why because it was the result of a cookie cutter program that walk me through the step.

Reading HTML/XHTML and CSS isnt hard.

There is a good  author Elizabeth Castro and she is an expert on the matter.

But the thing is - dont be intimidate by the thought of a website. Keep the concept of "KISS" but at the same time plan to involve in a state of the art website that would be on the level of amazon.com .. shoot i even remember when amazon.com first came out it was pretty much a simple website that blew up to a very state of art experience.

If you can surf the net you can pretty much get an idea of what you want.

Matter of fact - if you dont have a site yet - get the name register ASAP! I cant stress that enough!

Plan your site - what is the purpose of the site?

I have 6 websites and I just purchase 5 of them and they are current dormant but pretty soon will be active.

Building a website is like building a new town in the wild wild west. Eventually it will grow into something big. Or it could go bust and turn into a ghost town and you will think tumbleweeds was running across your lawn.

Whatever software website editing tool you are comfortable with you should use it based on your ease of use.

I personally use 1and1 as my register and hosting company and I may use godaddy but I just wish go daddy would bundle it package together and do a better job of pricing more better.

Just make sure you have a SSL for your transaction or you wont look so hot.

PayPal is ok but if you an ebay vet you would want to avoid them like the eloba plauge!

Let me hush cuz it is happy hour time for me lol and I am about to brainstorm over shot of patron with my entourage.

If you plan to remain engaged in creating and maintaining your web site, it would be wise to invest in web authoring software. WORD does have a web design option that can create some very interesting web pages, but if you have MS Office, Front Page and Publisher should already be a part of your package. If you don`t have MS Office, and you want to save money, you can learn alot about web design and have access to online web authoring software by joining Z-D Net, or Bravenet.com.

My feedback to you is the following: think of website as your storefront.Now, imagine people walking through that door every day to buy your product, just think about the impact on your customer of the colors you chose for your store front, the decoration and the design of the shelves where they pick up the pruducts from. So, if you have the skills of a building contractor, the skills of a painter, the skills of an archtect, the skills of a carpenter, and the skills of an electrician, you should go right ahead and build your own storefront.

MS

I agree with GregL. The only thing I`d add is, your house is your house and whether or not people like your taste, it is still yours. No matter how much you put into that house, you are the one who has to live in it. I, for instance, am 6`9" tall, as I built my house I had to make sure things were custom made. Sinks had to be higher, bathtub had to be longer and doors had to be taller.

As for the storefront, you are not building it for yourself, but for customers, they are the ones who have to have a good experience as they go inside.

MS