Website Creation on a shoestring budget

[aspkin]

Good advice Modee,

I used to use Godaddy.com for a lot of my sites because it's inexpensive and semi-reliable. I'm slowly moving all of my sites to a Virtual Private Server that can handle all the sites I operate (75-ish) at once and give the sites a boost in speed. Most of my websites are for traffic generation for my sales website, themmorpgexchange.com. I used to run and operate the site until business exploded past me and now I have other people doing the day to day stuff of updating prices and filling orders. It's neat.

All I do now is work to increase sales, develop the horde of websites of mine, and work on new projects. It's fun.

[JackNoMore]

Ok I realize this is probably the newbie questions to end all newbie questions, but having never created a website of my own for the purpose of sales explicitly, I have to ask a couple of basic questions.

First, why do you need a domain to create a sales website? In the most basic terms, what is it for, and why is it essential?

Second, having lived off self hosting online users like photobucket, Auctiva, and certain ISP's, what is the importance/advantages of buying a host for content?

Third, is Dreamweaver expensive, are there different levels, and which level do you recommend?

And might as well go for broke...Fourth, if you use Auctiva, which has their own templates, why would you want to purchase templates?

At the moment, I'm on a low budget and just looking for a basic (though professional) looking website to build from, and sell my items as I gradually ween myself from ebay. Nothing too fancy to begin with, I'll just be glad to have a base to call my own rather than floating from ebay account to wherever.

[CPUGEEK]

Originally Posted by Jack

Ok I realize this is probably the newbie questions to end all newbie questions, but having never created a website of my own for the purpose of sales explicitly, I have to ask a couple of basic questions.

First, why do you need a domain to create a sales website? In the most basic terms, what is it for, and why is it essential?

Second, having lived off self hosting online users like photobucket, Auctiva, and certain ISP's, what is the importance/advantages of buying a host for content?

Third, is Dreamweaver expensive, are there different levels, and which level do you recommend?

And might as well go for broke...Fourth, if you use Auctiva, which has their own templates, why would you want to purchase templates?

At the moment, I'm on a low budget and just looking for a basic (though professional) looking website to build from, and sell my items as I gradually ween myself from ebay. Nothing too fancy to begin with, I'll just be glad to have a base to call my own rather than floating from ebay account to wherever.

Jack,

today is your lucky day, For useres like you and me who has little knowledge about building websites I'm going to use one of these sites to build my website. Basically they take care of the programming. You just have to selcet what you want..

Modee/Aspkin what do yaw think????


Infinitylink.net- Niche Websties| Turnkey Websites | Web Templates| Business Opportunities ready for business in 24 hours!
Website Builder - Make Your Own Website or Online Store

[JackNoMore]

Thanks for the links

[CPUGEEK]

What should I look for when choosing a web hosting company? I will need a website builder included with the plan for ecommerce. Anyone??

[aspkin]

Godaddy is good and cheap for beginners. Who can beat $5 a month? Free maybe.. but then you get banner ads on your site, and that's no fun.

First if you're serious about making a website, I would learn HTML. I actually learned HTML from pagetutor.com, it's a very easy to follow step by step process from the beginning. I highly recommend it! I actually started when I was 15. My first website was this site. GoldenEye

It's a very basic website about a game that I loved at that time. Wow.. I started that site Aug 23,1999.. that's crazy. My first site!

Learn basic HTML and move from there. Easy stuff.

[CPUGEEK]

Originally Posted by aspkin

Godaddy is good and cheap for beginners. Who can beat $5 a month? Free maybe.. but then you get banner ads on your site, and that's no fun.

First if you're serious about making a website, I would learn HTML. I actually learned HTML from pagetutor.com, it's a very easy to follow step by step process from the beginning. I highly recommend it! I actually started when I was 15. My first website was this site. GoldenEye

It's a very basic website about a game that I loved at that time. Wow.. I started that site Aug 23,1999.. that's crazy. My first site!

Learn basic HTML and move from there. Easy stuff.

I kniw basic HTML ,plus more because I have a Computer electronics technology degree. But as far as creating websites I dont think I would have the patience to do it straight purely html..

I would rather use a website builder software or an template..So what are the advantages of using a website builder like godaddy offer, from doing it straight from scratch??

I just dont see a use for using HTML purely when there are many website builders out there where all you have to do is basiclly type in the content,..

[aspkin]

Well, it's good to know HTML and other programming lingoes because if you ever want to edit something specifically... you can. The Golden Eye site I made 8 years ago, I did all by hand. Just a notepad and what I learned from Page tutor. It took forever! I now use dreamweiver and CuteFTP with 99% of my websites. Dreamweiver is a great website editor tool, very easy to use. You can split between code and design, or go all design and use their built in tools to create what you want. It's expensive if you buy it straight up, but if you're crafty enough you can find a crack and serial for it. Dreamweiver is definitely a time saver when it comes to editing websites. But it's good to know some code to get you around difficult spots. PHP is a must too if you deal with that, and databases.

And yes it's a great idea to start from a template you like and work from there. That'll save you time and money with the design element. I use a graphics designer to design my custom sites. If you're going the shopping cart route, buy a pre-made shopping cart and if you want, have someone work with the graphics for you and you edit the final touches like products and what not.

Buy a good shopping cart... Have a graphics designer make your site look nice... Then you take over with everything else... That's where I'm at with my brothers site. I'm still tweaking the design, it's almost there.

[CPUGEEK]

Yeah i found dreamweaver from my handy warez site Katz Downloads

I'm going host my site here Website Hosting : Web Hosting : Ecommerce Web Hosting : Affordable Web Hosting Plansand use one of their hosting plans..

And use the website builder tools and templates here...ImHosted.com - Website Builder Tools Package

tell me what you think about this plan, host, and templates please

[aspkin]

That sounds like a great host.

I don't know about the template package thing.. they're usually very limited.

[CPUGEEK]

Does anyone know of any good shopping carts to use on ioffer? I have an authorize.net account now. I'm looking for an shopping cart that is really low price or free? I just want to be able to put an basket on my auction page

[JackNoMore]

I'm hesitant to use any of the crack sites as almost all of them are riddled with spyware and viruses. Although I could sure use a good crack for Dreamweaver!

[Chris Hanson]

I disagree with that. I never ever got a spyware or virus from warez sites

[JackNoMore]

You were lucky then or you found the good ones and I didn't. Or you have a better virus protection on board, which I highly doubt. I'm very careful about that. What sites did you find were safe to use? It's not so much the site itself, it's the download you find there.

[leonid5000]

XCart Shopping Cart Software is no 1 created by russians just like google, ebays security program that suspens us and other good staff. proud to be russian ;-) i use x cart and its easy to use and proffesional looking. Dont iven have to have a template because it comes with one. No programing knolege nedet but if you know programing then you an do some serias sht. Also SEO freandly. and it cost 199$ no montly fees. you can also get one form rapidshare for free if you know where to look. ;-)

[Chris Hanson]

Originally Posted by Jack

You were lucky then or you found the good ones and I didn't. Or you have a better virus protection on board, which I highly doubt. I'm very careful about that. What sites did you find were safe to use? It's not so much the site itself, it's the download you find there.

I use the same site that was mentioned here. and why do you think you have better protection them me?? LOL What kind of antivirus protection do you use and firewall? And please don't say Mcafee

[Chris Hanson]

Originally Posted by leonid5000

XCart Shopping Cart Software is no 1 created by russians just like google, ebays security program that suspens us and other good staff. proud to be russian ;-) i use x cart and its easy to use and proffesional looking. Dont iven have to have a template because it comes with one. No programing knolege nedet but if you know programing then you an do some serias sht. Also SEO freandly. and it cost 199$ no montly fees. you can also get one form rapidshare for free if you know where to look. ;-)

Good Find (wink)

Well let me take that back. Know that i did some research, it was listed as a bad shopping cart on a review site

X-Cart Pro Review 2007

[leonid5000]

Kaspersky Anti-Virus also the best .. made by russians

[JackNoMore]

McAfee. Hah! Norton and McAffee are cut from the same mold, which was broken.

I never said I had "better" but I doubt I have any worse. I have about 10 standbys and 3 really good ones I use all the time. No single one will take care of them all;the secret is bulk.

[leonid5000]

Originally Posted by Chris Hanson

Good Find (wink)

Well let me take that back. Know that i did some research, it was listed as a bad shopping cart on a review site

X-Cart Pro Review 2007

review site you are looking at is site for amatures ... not professionals. also you will pay every month for the service and your shopping cart will look like crap..
you wont see the rewius on that site for
zen cart, oscommerce, they are the best ones but require programing skills. X cart is easy to use and have capability for plugins.
also your review is for X-Cart Pro 4.1.3 for 500$ that is a mall version you dont need that...and this vertion is old.... the new one is here Shopping Cart Software & Ecommerce Solutions: X-Cart. Free shopping cart trial available.

[Chris Hanson]

PM sent leonid

[leonid5000]

X-Cart Gold 4.0.18
the newest one hacked but just as good
Deposit Files

aslo i suggest you to plug in Google analytics it will show you where people coming from exactly ;-) Google Analytics you can use it with this new v of x cart