Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I am looking to build my own website for a small printing company specializing in personal, business notepads - I am wondering what the best webhosting service is - I have been looking at Homestead, yahoo small business, Webstarts (I actually starting building a free site (page acutally) here but it took like 3 hours and looks very bad - I hate to see how long it would take to make a nice website - I am a small business owner/graphic designer - so I know quite a bit about photoshop, Illustrator etc, - Has anyone found a good template based site - I would appreciate any kind of direction - I have researching for several weeks and the more I look the more confused I become - please email me directly if you can at ipi@insightbb.com - thanks for your help.

Don`t skimp on it - just drop $100 and let any one of hundreds of designers get the job done. Free isn`t always better, IMO.

Templates exist for Joomla and Wordpress - those are free. Look into it, if you must. :)

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Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter

If you just need a good-looking site go with a wordpress
template or similar.   You can buy some really nice-looking
templates.

If you absolutely MUST have a custom site design it will
probably cause you pain to do it yourself since you are probably
fussy about graphic design.  The more complex you want it
the more maddening designing it yourself will become.

I use XsitePro a lot.  It`s not perfect but it allows me to mostly
focus on content.

thanks for the comments everyone - the purpose of the site would be to sell the notepads - they can upload their logos, graphics etc - I would like to have an order form in a pdf format - let them print them out and just fax me the actual orders - then I would setup and send them a proof - then by a phone call get their credit card info etc -and finish the order and ship to them - I have owned by printing company for 12 years and I am just wanting to see what if I can get any work off the net - we have always done these notepads for companies and lately we have been doing them for individuals for christmas gifts, shower gifts and wedding notepads - we can put the peoples personal pics etc - reasonably priced unique gift - so i am just wondering if their is a demand for these.

Hi,

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The older we get, the more excuses we make for not chasing after our dreams. But truth is, goals are attainable at any age.

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Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter

I agree with Roland.  The process you described is NOT how people shop online for products and services.  Everything, including the billing, should be available for them to complete online.  If you have 12 years of business working offline, you`re smart to add this to your business development.  But if you`re going to bother, do it right.


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Tammi L. Coles
Archer Targeted Communication
ArcherTC.com
Follow me on Twitter @archertc

I`ve got 0 experience running an online business, but I agree with Roland 100%.  If I`m shopping on line - I want to do everything from my keyboard.  If I was looking for your product and realized I needed to fax you and call wait for a call from you - I would move on to the next site. 

Remember, too that with the internet you are selling to the entire globe - with the calling there could be time zone issues (when to you call the Aussie back, someone in Japan, Europe?). 

Give your customer an on-line form to fill out.  Allow them to upload their image, and use Paypal, or set up a merchant account (all of this is standard fair for websites).  Email your proofs back in a PDF fromat. 

Don`t get me wrong - I think offering you clients the ability to fax information and contact you directly is a very good idea - but I think you will lose sales if you don`t make it possible for your clients to complete the orders via the internet and email.

Good luck -