Website's, how much and who?

[morphe]

I will be looking to set up my own website in the new year, Im on a low budget.
I need someone to do it for me, the basics at least.
It needs to have images, stock qty remaining, out of stock, paypal and credit card payments.
I will want it to link to ebay if possible.

Im new to all this so be gentle with me

ps my website is called, I have purchased the domain

kidsbecrafty
com

 

[RCSEPoS]

I'd recommend a WordPress website with Woocommerce installed. That way you can manage the website yourself and add new products as and when you need to. You'd be looking at £400 bare minimum I recon but it would be a very pretty and functional website.

 

[TimS]

I'd agree with the above, WordPress is a good solution for your venture. Here are some examples of themes (the look) that you could use http://collectionwordpressthemes.com/10-best-children-and-kids-wordpress-themes/.

By the way, I have no affiliation or anything with that website, just did a quick Google search!

I also think that Nate above is about right for a bare minimum price.
Hope this helps

 

[sb65]

Woocommerce/Wordpress is certainly one to look at, although from your description it sounds like a dedicated eCommerce platform would be worth a look as well, depending on the size of your store. I'd have a look at Opencart (there's a separate forum here for Opencart support) and Prestashop.

In both cases you'd still be able to update stock listings yourself.

 

[RCSEPoS]

Agreed Tim, you can't beat WordPress

I quite like the look of the Happy Kids theme on the link you posted. Though ThemeForest is quickly becoming the bane of my WordPress development. I love it and hate it at the same time. Or rather I hate some of the "frameworks" the developers decide to use.

 

[davehayes]

Hi,

I'd have to agree with the others in here, wordpress is by far the best option, however make sure its .org not .com. Dot org gives you far and away more options and controlability with it.

While you are looking to set up the site, its important that the following factors are taken into consideration. Content and SEO. Now I understand that you are on a budget ,which is fine, but they are points that you need to take into consideration.

On the subject of content, I'd be happy to quote you for writing some copy ( having specialised in this area since 1998!!) and if you so wish, I have a book, I can send you the link for, which explains how to build a business on a budget.

I hope this answer has helped you.

Dave

 

[Uzair Kharawala]

If you're on a budget, goto Themeforest.net There are 000s of themes to choose from.

You would need professionally written copy and you can pick up Royalty Free images from somewhere like 123RF.com at very low cost. About $1/per for small web sized images.

You can get a Wordpress theme from $40 and then go to oDesk or Elance and get someone to put it together for you. It shouldn't cost more than $150 for someone to put up a Wordpress site (without eComm) as long as it is fairly straightforward.

Good Luck.

 

[morphe]

Thanks for the advice and offers on here and pm's, will keep things open for the minute.
I'm off for 10 days over xmas so will have plenty of time.
Wordpress seems popular so far, keeping my mind open.

 

[Alex - A2 Hosting]

Do you have a budget in mind? WordPress has been recommended enough in this thread so I thought I'd point out one alternative: OpenCart.

A large number of our customers are using OpenCart and it is proving to be very reliable and flexible. And of course it comes with pretty much everything you have described above as a requirement.

 

[zigojacko]

Need way more information before being to make recommendations for you.

So it's an ecommerce store...

What specifically is your budget?

How many products / what are the products?
Do you hold the stock or is it dropshipping / relying on another inventory system?
What integrations are needed?
Do your products require filterable attributes or configurable options?

What do you mean you want to link it to eBay? You want to auto-sync your product catalogue with your EBay store?

Have you considered:-

Web hosting?
Support?
Maintenance?
Design?
Branding?

etc etc

 

[Ash2012]

Wordpress is good for many things including ecommerce (when used with woocommerce) but it's far from the best, although to be fair - it is one of the cheapest solutions, and there are plenty of options for look / feel using themes.
I don't know why it was suggested to avoid .com and go for .org - that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, apart from your preferred domain name may only be available as a .org (in which case - is the .com a competitor?)(i.e. will there be any confusion as to which site is which?)

 

[RCSEPoS]

I don't know why it was suggested to avoid .com and go for .org - that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, apart from your preferred domain name may only be available as a .org

Hi Ash2012,

The recommendation for .org over .com is in relation to WordPress not his own domain name. The TLD's for WordPress are used to differentiate the two versions.

.com is for hosted WordPress by Automattic (the guys who make WordPress)
.org is for the Self-hosted WordPress

Hope that clears it up,

 

[Ash2012]

Ah - beg your pardon I misunderstood. Yes - if you are talking about WP hosting then this is entirely correct. Most standard web hosting solutions offer cpanel with installer scripts (not that I'm a big fan of cpanel!) which can give you a complete WP site in seconds. I find this is far less limiting in many ways (eg. being able to edit htaccess etc.) but I somehow doubt this is going to be required in this instance.

 

[Paul Norman]

I have a message for the opening poster.

The discussion that you wish to have about a website is involved, and complex. Answers like 'You can't beat Wordpress' are, in fact, based on anecdote and lack of serious, indepth experience, of the world of websites.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with Wordpress. But there are other choices. But the choices are not simply about the technology, they are about designing exactly the site that fits both your budget and business aspirations - accepting, of course, that there may be some compromise in there.

If you wish to talk at length about websites, I, and others, I am sure, would be happy to enter into correspondance with you. But I am not going to pretend, in one sentence slogans, that a particular solution is right for you.

If you need someone to get you started, many website companies will be happy to do that, and to agree a budget and a specification of how far you wish them to get.

 

[RCSEPoS]

Ah - beg your pardon I misunderstood. Yes - if you are talking about WP hosting then this is entirely correct.

No worries Ash2012, we all do it from time to time

If you wish to talk at length about websites, I, and others, I am sure, would be happy to enter into correspondance with you. But I am not going to pretend, in one sentence slogans, that a particular solution is right for you.

Paul, Why not correspond here? It is a forum after all

 

[safiira]

If you want to build an affordable website, just go to themeforest and you can find anything you want accordance with your need. And for hosting, just try hostgator since they offer $0.01 for the 1st month

 

[Faevilangel]

WordPress is awesome as a content management system (CMS) but it's not an ecommerce platform, it's just been modified by developers to look like one.

Get a dedicated ecommerce system, it will take longer to setup / get used to but in the long run it will be much better solution than WordPress.

I build WP sites day in, day out and would only recommend WP as an ecommerce platform to those who have <50 products with very basic needs. Anything more and WP just doesn't match up to the dedicated applications out there.

 

[10032012]

Go wordpress! But its not a platform you can install and sit back without making sure its always up to date... otherwise someone will hack the site before you know it. All platforms have security issues from time to time so its not exclusive to wordpress but just something to look out for. (Its usually the wordpress plugins that can be most dangerous)

 

[Paul Norman]

No worries Ash2012, we all do it from time to time



Paul, Why not correspond here? It is a forum after all

Indeed. Very happy to do so.

What I need from the opening poster, is a full description of their brief, and I shall attempt to advise on the pro's and con's of potential offerings. I shall not be just offering a blanket 'system x is best', though, because that is just plain bad counsel.

 

[Paul Norman]

Obviously, the dialogue will be potentially extended - I don't have the forums open all day. But I shall endeavour to get back to respond.

 

[Deleted member 99939]

Why not have an initial chat with a couple of local website designers? That way, at least you can discuss exactly what you need and they can then suggest the best platform for you?

 

[RedEvo]

Why not look at a turn key solution such as Shopify. Zero geekyness needed, not expensive, no software to update, used by many successful businesses.

d

 

[morphe]

must admit shopify looks good, having a play around at the minute. its a bit slow loading though, perhaps its my connection. 14 day trial

 

[morphe]

out of curiosity how is names.co.uk rank, they are the people who i purchased my domain name with

 

[theseomarky]

go for a local one otherwise you could end up getting some right scammer web designers who just outsource.

 

[Alex - A2 Hosting]

must admit shopify looks good, having a play around at the minute. its a bit slow loading though, perhaps its my connection. 14 day trial

What is your connection? Not used them in a long while but you can get something preset like Shopify but then you would have rather limited flexibility. If they did perform poorly and you wanted to move to another provider this would be very hard with Shopify and involve a manual migration.

Just thinking ahead here .

out of curiosity how is names.co.uk rank, they are the people who i purchased my domain name with

Names.co.uk is part of a parent group which owns several companies in web hosting & domain names, quite reputable but rather on the expensive side for most generic TLDs.

go for a local one otherwise you could end up getting some right scammer web designers who just outsource.

Or online whilst doing a good amount of research. The benefit of doing things online is you are not limited to your local area so you can really find some exceptional people / companies.

 

[StevePoster]

@morphe after the set up of the wordpress website you need to plan for the optimization of the site by using SEO, PPC, and SMO and this will be a long way to go for your site.

 

[davehayes]

Wow.. There is some interesting and thought provoking discussion on here about WP. Sorry for any confusion with the .com/.org thing.I use both platforms, but for different reasons. I prefer the .org of the two of them, but I have domain hosting with them.

Others have given some interesting options, for platforms, but as has been suggested, I guess it centres around what you want it to perfom in the main. However, as has also been pointed out & I would have to agree with it, is no matter which platform you use, it is important to have somebody write you some professional copy, which will entice your potential customers in so they buy.

All to often, websites get put up, that have poor, or non existent copy and perhaps even worse than that, are not SEO optimised!. Now while SEO is not my main bag, putting a website up, without any is like trying to drive a car without an engine.

Hope this is of some help and use.

 

[ryedale]

We always use Joomla and either Mijoshop or K2 Store for any E-Commerce site that we make, generally find that is a lot more flexible for any custom coding /styling that the client may request and also they find it straightforward to start working with

 

[iboxsecurity]

Best thing to do is ask others you know with a web site or meet with local companies. Get a rough idea of what you want and take it from there.
Wordpress is a good solution - shopify is not too bad but the speed is something I've seen people frustrated with in the past. If your looking for ecommerce thats going to be more than a handful of products I'd look at Magento.

 

[Trish_Mundus]

If choose WP - it is the way for crackers, problems with seo optimisation, ect. As i understood correctly, you need the internet-shop. You must know - if you want a good site with a professional design, secutity protection, support and make money, the advices about WP and freelancers help by low cost didn't bring you all these servises.

 

[faradaykeynes]

go for prestashop or zencart, proper e-commerce platforms

 

[mit74]

A blogging platform for an e-commerce site? Come on people stop giving bad advice. If it's an ecommerce store you need then it's an E-Commerce solution you need not a blogging CMS with a plugin.
Look at Pretashop, Magento or Opencart and buy a ready made template from monstertemplate or similar. You can have a fully functioning site in a few hours (minus products) if you hire someone experienced.

 

[Scotty71]

We've just redeveloped our site, a very comprehensive and quite detailed site based on Wordpress and Woocommerce - a partnership made in heaven. We had an agency design our site, however if starting out I wouldn't hesitate to use Wordpress, and spend a few quid on a nice, customisable theme. Wordpress is easy to use for the uninitiated and you learn as you go along. There are also a wealth of plug ins as you gain in confidence, including a couple of good SEO ones that will help you set off.

 

[Alan]

I'm on a low budget.

How low? And why? Is this just a side project that you don't expect a return on investment on?

I need someone to do it for me, the basics at least.

you will be spoiled for choice

It needs to have images, stock qty remaining, out of stock, paypal

standard in every solution

and credit card payments.

Now what do you mean, there is taking credit card payments through someone like PayPal and taking credit card payments via your own merchant account. If its integrated into your site (i.e. they put card details in) then your low budget aspirations have been blown

I will want it to link to ebay if possible.

possible but not standard, Linworks is the leader here, under 200 products you can get it free, over 200 = £80/month

Im new to all this so be gentle with me

What you spend on getting a site built will pale into insignificance compared to the cost of marketing it.

I wrote a blog post for people thinking about e-commerce, I hope it helps
http://llocally.com/blog/2013/08/30/how-to-start-an-online-shop/

p.s. we only build e-commerce with WordPress / Woocommerce now. We did a few with OpenCart but actually found it was too daunting for the small traders that make up our client base.