Forum

Time to move on - building a website
 

Think it is time to stop resting on my laurels and to begin taking the step to build my own website(s)

Now, I am internet savvy, and have taken steps in the past, however my goals were not realistic with the site and what i wanted from it.

However my knowledge is not great specially seo etc.

I have a better idea now of what i want, and want to take the steps to building and maintaining my own place on the web.

If there are any experienced people out there who can help advise and give some general guidance , web hosts etc. then it would be very much appreciated.

I am looking to build my shop using Presta, so anyone with experience using presta shop you advice would be invaluable.

Heres to taking steps to get out the fear of ebay and all its complications.

Wish me well :)

Hope the admins do not mind if i use this thread as a kind of blog, to see where I am , where I want to be, and how i get there, if i do, or I look back and think what i wanted, however never materialised for me.

As well as just brain storming, even if it is for myself , my own thoughts of what I want and need to do , things which pop up in my head that i can come back to.

My next steps :

Find a secure web host and url (website name for my site)

Thought: running two parallel sites, both the same, however the names will be different, as one will be specific to current times we are facing, one will be more general so it will apply to all times good and bad

Book to read: Outsmarting Google: SEO Secrets to Winning New Business (Que Biz-Tech) [Paperback]
Evan Bailyn (Author), Bradley Bailyn (Author)

Have you any wb design experience? I've used PrestaCart before and it's quite challenging to work on. For a newbie it'd be nigh on impossible.

is £2.49 for a domain and hosting a good price? (1and1)

I find from past experience with Presta that the backdoor? is easy to use, changing descriptions, adding photos, changing layouts, etc...

Plus there forum is great, had plenty of help from there last time, and very quick to help too.

What i do not know, i would like to think I am intelligent enough to learn, I am educated, so learning is not something which is adverse to me. It is more about application and dedication. I am going to begin to focus more on the transition now, where as in the past I have lacked the conviction.

Thanks for showing an interest, what went wrong with your presta shop, or is it running?

Am happy to help you in anyway I can, if I can, and if you want.

Mayhaps you would like to jump on the bandwagon again.

Ultimately, one of the biggest things I want on my site, is a feedback page ( obviously i will have total control over it, but something really worth having )

Presta, also offer a service which prestabox, where everything is done for you, in terms of ready-to-go so all you need to do is get your merchandise listed and your good to sell. They take 2% for this service, which is nothing compared to the 18% i currently pay to ebay and PP , which is another option if i can not figure it out for myself

I'm a web developer so I have experience with these things. I've used PrestaCart for a client in the past, and it was a bit of a learning curve I can tell you. Not as much as Magento mind you!

Have you considered ZenCart, it's a pretty versatile bit of software and is fairly easy to use.

1&1 are cheap for a reason, the shared servers are very slow and one of our clients experiences regular dropouts. It may be okay to start off with, but if you're looking at getting decent volume you'll want a more robust host.

Stay away from 1&1 internet - absolute charlatans, Read about them here;

Avoid 1&1 Internet

and then do some more googling you will find plenty of horror stories.

Charlatan is the word of the day.

Is there anyone you would recommend?

Well then I look forward to picking your brain, and I hope you will stay active on my thread. You are the very reason for starting the thread, to connect and hopefully network with like minded people. I hope you will allow me to tap into the wealth of experience you have

Thanks for that. It was just a suggestion as i am browsing hosts.

I think i was with them before, and lost my username and password, but stopped paying them as well,anyway.

So will need a another host.

.falcoda.co.uk/

I am hosted with these guys. Cheap as chips and they are pretty mellow as to the content they let you put on.

Very British sounding word!

I would recommend zencart.

Easy to use and also has a good forum if you get stuck

Also has a lot of addons that are easy to integrate.

That's what I've recommended if you're a beginner. Very good bit of software, although the standard template is hideous. :shocked:

Have they upgraded to 2.0 yet I have not been back there for a while but that sounded like an interesting change?

Currently on 1.39, with 1.5 due to come out soon.

2.0 is the development term for the next advancement for development of websites and programs. Not sure what its full title is but most tend to just break it down to 2.0

They were talking about switching the script to 2.0 when I was last on and all those that had written scripts were moaning, as they were going to have to remake them.

Hi,i would recommend PrestaShop simple and easy to set up.My shop example
pandoraqueen

Have used big commerce for now, and have got someone to do the dirty work for me for $250 all in , doing everything for me.

Hopefully will be up and running soon, will not accept paypal, have a no checks account, and will use google too.

We'll have a web christening party for you!

Nice swan. Best of luck :cheer:

Godaddy.com is great

Good luck with your website.

Thanks, ill upload a screenshot when its done :)

bluehost.com is great!

maybe my next project :)

I am thinking of making a proposal to this guy i got working for me, and giving him 5% of the profit i make, if the 3000 odd emails I have to do yeild anything.

Still better then giving e/b p/p 20% :)

this website will fail in 5...4...3...2...1...

My website is up and running now.

I have done minimal SEO work to it thus far. However am reading and learning about it very very slowly.

Funny thing is , I made a sale even before I had done ANY SEO on it whatsoever, god knows how they found the site.

Have made two more sales since. Even though I have not been able to process them, Due to merchant problems. I am reluctantly going to add paypal , i have a business account from 2009 which is still active so will make the most of it.

Site is still a work in progress and am making , all be it small, sales, which is a good sign at such an early stage in development.

Is a great incentive to see a sale being made to work that little bit harder on SEO and adding more products, better descriptions etc.

Hope this update helps

Just read through all the posts, nice to see the steps which you have taken and your overall progression overtime, great work! :thumb:

Hey tanxful, thanks for the support. Were many twists and turns along the way, and still a few unexpected dips here and there.
Still a work in progress, but getting there slowly but surely.

Problem is , when you are on a budget, and relying on help from others, which has been promised, those promises rarely come to fruition

What merchant problems did you have?

I'm in the process of designing and completing my prestashop now. I can also design and install them for others, so if you get problems with your current person give me a shout.

I used nochex, and they closed my account after one transaction. A transaction I was unaware of, the buyer got their money back, however nochex made no contact with me, and just closed my account. Didnt even tell me they were going to do it. Didnt ask for my side of what went wrong or happened. And they will not reinstate their gateway for me after speaking with them.

How much do you charge for your completed shop ?

Do you have a preview ?

Paypal website payment pro now in place on site at £20 a month .

Now just working on generating traffic to my site.

Hard as hell learning SEO , there is too much bollox out there, not enough concrete instructions, why do idiots have to be long winded. Annoys the f*** out of me.

Well at least the no-chex saga is behind me, and no thanks to them I am back up and running, and sales can be taken.

I made two sales , however due to the no chex debacle , neither was processed.

Today I made my first sale, which has been paid for and is being processed . The item sold has nothing to do with what I sell on Feebay, so that is a plus too.

Nice to know, even though its not regular, people are finding my site.

This always a plus, as it can be quite consuming and quite repetitive working on it with no reward. Making a sale, makes me want to work that much more harder in getting the website out there and accessible easier.

ive got 2 sites about 3 year old running on zencart

do about 10 sales a day each give or take

not as search engine friendly though because of the URL structure

nice and easy to use and play with and make a decent looking site if youve got a bit of creative flair

is there a particular reason your using PP payments pro ? £20 a month if your not doing sales is alot

try express

Express , is that with paypal too ?

yes it is indeed, easier too

Just happy to have a payment processor for now :) Am sure it can easily be changed. But you are definitely right.