Gutted. Mr Site & Payment Gateways etc.

[Salpots]

I've been using mr site to set up my website. Like a fool only thought to ask today how they support different payment gateway providers (well, I am new to this yanno!)

I'm gutted. It's taken me ages to teach myself how to use their services, and now I have to begin again looking for a new ...well, everything.

They offer only paypal to consumers unless they're paying for 'storefront' in which case they can use worldpay. This means I'm limited to worldpay - or paypal, or nothing.

I wanted the freedom of choice and now I'm torn between just going with worldpay and accepting what terms they offer me (as a new business with low turnover) or paypal (even worse) or having to start everything up again from scratch. I know my website looks very basic - and it is, but my skill with webdeveloping is minimal and I had to claw my way around to get that far!

What should I do? Any advice please?

 

[Jeff FV]

Use PayPal - absolutely nothing wrong with it. Customers like it and, as you say, as a new business with a low turnover you might find it more competitive on price than the alternatives - you only pay on sales, no monthly fees etc.

I bet you'll outgrow your Mr Site site before you need a different payment gateway!!

Get your site up and running, get some experience, some sales figures etc. and then you can revisit the question in, say, 6 months.

Jeff

 

[Websitehandyman]

I've been using mr site to set up my website. Like a fool only thought to ask today how they support different payment gateway providers (well, I am new to this yanno!)

I'm gutted. It's taken me ages to teach myself how to use their services, and now I have to begin again looking for a new ...well, everything.

They offer only paypal to consumers unless they're paying for 'storefront' in which case they can use worldpay. This means I'm limited to worldpay - or paypal, or nothing.

I wanted the freedom of choice and now I'm torn between just going with worldpay and accepting what terms they offer me (as a new business with low turnover) or paypal (even worse) or having to start everything up again from scratch. I know my website looks very basic - and it is, but my skill with webdeveloping is minimal and I had to claw my way around to get that far!

What should I do? Any advice please?

I don't use the mr site but have just cancelled Worldpay, not that I would put any of using them, I've recommended them on here before. No, they just adjusted the terms and now expect a monthly fee which just rules me out. Because don't have the volume to make it worthwhile.

I'm going with paypal but I think I'll have to try and find something else. paypal is fine for those who know it but in my experience the are still plenty of people who see it and just don't buy.

 

[Big Pete]

I love paypal, prefer to use it for buying every time.. no flaffing around simple and easy.. every site must have paypal or they are missing out big time..

 

[Big Pete]

Use PayPal - absolutely nothing wrong with it. Customers like it and, as you say, as a new business with a low turnover you might find it more competitive on price than the alternatives - you only pay on sales, no monthly fees etc.

I bet you'll outgrow your Mr Site site before you need a different payment gateway!!

Get your site up and running, get some experience, some sales figures etc. and then you can revisit the question in, say, 6 months.

Jeff

couldn`t have put it better myself ,so just did a shortened version

 

[astutiumRob]

now I'm torn between just going with worldpay and accepting what terms they offer me (as a new business with low turnover) or paypal (even worse)

It wont matter which you pick - no-one will buy anything off a MrS hosted website anyway.

 

[leaving home]

I have a Mr Site website and yes can only usan only

 

[Salpots]

Hi and thank you for your input. Why would noone purchase from a mrsite hosted website?

 

[ScotComp]

I wouldn't purchase a thing from a Mr. Sites website either.

Having a cheap website makes you look cheap and of poor quality.

 

[fisicx]

Nothing wrong with mrsite. Most punters wouldn't know any different.

PayPal is fine.

However as suggested there are a lot of limitations with mrsite and you will no doubt get frustrated. Go get a proper site now before google had indexed and ranked you.

 

[leaving home]

Sorry my previous comment broke, internet problem! I have a Mr Site site and whilst it was great to start with I too have got really frustrated with the limitations it offers. Not ever having a website before and limited knowledge with creating one, thought this was the way to go! Three years on and whilst lots of traffic very little purchasing, and I think only having paypal for payment has contributed to this. I am looking to change to another hosting website, but with limited funds for this project until I know it works, I really don't know where to go. I used to be on page one with Google and remained there for some time, but every time I change large content on site off I go again!

Can anyone therefore recommend to us who are experiencing problems with our small sites on where we could go but with the ability to change material ourselves easily?

 

[fisicx]

Tina,

PayPal isn't your problem. It's the fact that you make is so difficult to actually buy your books!

Wordpress is free and a far better solution than mrsite could ever hope to offer. It takes 5 minutes to set up.

 

[Salpots]

Hiya, well Ive cancelled mrsite but went to 1&1 instead and am now thinking I've made an error there. Have a PayPal account now for business and am negotiating to accept cards over Internet.

Will look at the Wordpress option and maybe make one to run alongside the main website.

My site has already been indexed because I began this process last year before illness and uni (am doing a degree) took over.

Have joined fsb and am thinking about usin their facilities at the reduced rate and seeing how I get on in the first year. Am not totally reliant on Internet sales but will use eBay to make my presence a bit more known, the idea being theres a markup on everything and it being cheaper on my site in the hope I drive a bit more traffic there.

Any opinions gratefully received. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time so far to post, it's all really useful, even the criticism.

 

[fisicx]

Nooooo!

1and1 are worst than mrsite.

If you have your own domain/hosting then install wordpress and take control of your site.

 

[Salpots]

Why are they worse? Why is mrsite so bad?

 

[fisicx]

Because they both use website builders you are limited on what you can do.

Once you start playing with a decent content management system you will discover a hole new world of possibilities.

For example. I'm working on a plugin for wordpress that will allow you to configure the way you make a payment to paypal. You can adjust the words, images, styles and positions. Try to do this with 1and1 and paypal and you will be blocked all over the place.

The other thing to consider is the location of the servers. 1and1 operate out of Germany so if you wanted a UK only site you might have problems ranking.

So it's not the website builders themselves, it's the limitations the impose.

 

[Salpots]

So theoretically if I could work with the restrictions they impose, then they're not so bad?

Got to look at all possibilities because my website building ability is so limited.

 

[fisicx]

In theory yes.

But in 12 months time when you want to add a feature and can't you are going to start cursing.

Best to bite the bullet now and set up a proper site. If you need to pay someone £50 to help you then the investment will be worthwhile.

Consider as well that a properly built website will pay for itself in a month or two but you will be paying 1and1 for evermore.

And 1and1's support is notoriously bad. Do a bit of googling and there are hundreds of horror stories.

 

[leaving home]

If we decide to come away from Mr Site and go to say Wordpress or another. What about all the work achieved on the sites such as blogs, photographs, advertising just about everything achieved over the last two years. Can this material be moved or is it just simply better to start all over again? Sorry to be a numpty here but any advice and suggestions warmly welcome. Not sure I can post my website or I would get you all to take a look for some advice and guidance. Thanks so much

 

[fisicx]

Moving everything across is easy. It's just going to be a bit time consuming. Everything on the current site will be there on the Wordpress site. And I'd put money on you getting an increase in visitors and conversions from the off.

You can't post your URL for review, that's for full members only.

 

[serverhouse]

It's common knowledge that Wordpress sites do well in Google.

As a seasoned web user you can spot a host / design package from 100 meters and it often influences your opinion of the site

However 99% of users wouldn't know Front Page 98 from 1and1.

Many people host with Mr site and 1 and 1 and it meets their needs.

But its VERY easy to build a website, there are wysiwyg editors out there and once you get your head around the concept its quite easy.

You can also build a site off line to see how it looks before spending a penny or choosing a host.

Once you have your site built get working on Google and Bing to bring in your visitors, well worth reading up on how to do this so you don't end up re-designing it 3 times.