Building a website......

[BabyBelles]

Hi all, I hoping some one can help me. Im looking at building a website for my new business! But i havent got a clue how i go about making one.........lol

Has anyone got any tips on how i can go about making one. I dont mind paying a small fee but cannot not afford silly amounts to pay out at the moment

Thanks

Lauren (Baby Belles)

[scotserve]

Hi Lauren

What type of website are lookingto build? - is it purely for information or will it be an e-commerce site selling your products online?
I would suggest you look at Wordpress ( its free ) and there are thousands of templates free or at nominal cost all of which can be tailored to suit your products, Wordpress will allow you to build reasonably sophisticated websites with little knowledge - you dont need to know any programming language - you can also add on an e-commerce package ( free) that will allow you to sell your products online through a good shopping cart system. Easy to update and maintain.

Now all you need is a good website host to help you install it and get you going.

[Andy c]

here is a great site for zencart templates (thanks to laggardlady ) .it all helps in the quest to get going and hopefully will help someone here
really good prices

http://www.zencartwebsite.com/index.php
hope it's OK what I've done

[scotserve]

here is a great site for zencart templates (thanks to laggardlady ) .it all helps in the quest to get going and hopefully will help someone here
really good prices

http://www.zencartwebsite.com/index.php
hope it's OK what I've done

Andy thats a templatemonster.com reseller by the looks of things there are dozens of sites like this and some are pirated - not saying this is 

[Rainee Bows]

for templates that work on the latest version of zencart you might want to try here


http://my-ecommerce-store.co.uk/

fair amount of free ones there now ...


that'll teach me to read all the posts  ..... Andy misled me ,

opensource , as scotty says , wordpress (can add ecommerce to that) , zencart , presta shop, joomla and virtuemart  spring to mind





Rainee x

[samp]

I have been looking into the same thing and came across Weebly. Can you tell me what you think of these?

[Rainee Bows]

Weebly, Wix, all free sites , limited seo capabilities, you would be better off configuring a wordpress if you were going to have a free site anywhere :o) at least you can add to them ....

From personal experience you cannot beat having your own domain on your own hosting package ,  your own domain you bought yourself from a decent registrar, give yourself a decent head start by having access to ALL of the files associated with your site, no-one hanging onto your domain because they registered it wrongly , and the ability to pick your store up and move to a different host should the neeed arise rather than being dependant upon a hosted solution somewhere :o) , there is open source software available to do most things you require , all free to download and install, with free templates .....


Rainee x

[scotserve]

I have been looking into the same thing and came across Weebly. Can you tell me what you think of these?

Its a hosted application - meaning you are fully tied to their services - minefield to get out of if you start to grow your business
Cheap and cheerful is not usually the best way to go - think Bond street compared to back alley Birmingham
If price is so important look at opensource e-commerce applications and some cheaper hosting that can be upgraded as you grow - a wordpress cart of your own or a zencart or indeed any
other opensource cart will be much preferrable to any hosted application out there.

Hosted application = Where the company provides the means and software to operate the cart - meaning you are allways limited to what they supply.

[samp]

That all sounds great if not a lot techy for me!! I definitely want to be able to grow and I dont like the idea of someone else taking control either but I have a limited buget!
where do I find open source software? would this be wordpress?

I am trying to soak this up...but the sponge has got holes in it!!

[scotserve]

That all sounds great if not a lot techy for me!! I definitely want to be able to grow and I dont like the idea of someone else taking control either but I have a limited buget!
where do I find open source software? would this be wordpress?

I am trying to soak this up...but the sponge has got holes in it!!

Opensource basically means free so you dont pay for the software to run your cart
Wordpress is ideal especially for newer starts on a limited budget as there is a huge range of templates readily available for free or little cost, the e-commerce plugin is free for the basic version which does everthing you probably need to get started but can grow as your needs change.
We can provide you with a Wordpress site install FOC on our hosting packages including the template of your choice, same for Zencart again I can install FOC with whatever template you want - however Rainbow Studios do bespoke template install of Zencart if you want to go down that route, ( actually Wordpres bespoke as well )

I ty to let people know that they do not need to spend a fortune to get up and running but they do need to give a little thought to what they want, in this case you budget to get started would simply be hosting costs. 

[FionaJMD]

I have always done my own websites to varying degrees and I have always been able to pick up and move hosts if need be - only actually had to do it once LOL.

I have now moved to Zencart and I wish I had done it years ago - I never thought I would be able to do it myself but I have - with a lot of help from the guys on here.

I appreciate you are on a budget, but if you keep doing what you're doing you will keep getting what you have!

You dont have to spend a huge amount - Zen cart is free - there are loads of free templates you can choose from and there are lots of people on here who are willing to help.

If you dont feel confident with the complete set up then I am sure there are people here who, for a fee, will set your shop up and then you just take it over and add your products etc.  This would be a half way house possibly.

[samp]

Thanks Guys! I will go away, inwardly digest & no doubt be asking more questions!!

[IHeartMrFacey]

Hi Guys,


I was wondering if I could get some help as well,

I have built my website myself with limited html knowledge, I own my own domain through google sites with their get British Businesses Online scheme www.iheartmrfacey.co.uk, I build my website on a 17" laptop, so when I create pages they took good to me, but I've just shown my website at work and it looked terrible, the sizes are all over the place, images over lapping, some content not even showing on the page. The main problem I have researched into with google sites is that they don't accept some html or css codes so only accept table html codes which apparently are rubbish? Which I take it are the reason my website looks as awful as it does. I have just been on to Wordpress.org and to be honest I'm absolutely baffled, I own a domain, so can I use wordpress? and can I download a template to use? Or have I mis-understood?


Thanks very much

Emma xx

[seamus]

best off with your own hosting package and transfering the domain over to that, then you can install any software you want, wordpress, zen cart etc

scotserve has a rather good offer on just now
http://www.e-commerce-forum.co.uk/index.php/topic,1394.msg7183/topicseen.html

[scotserve]

Hi Guys,


I was wondering if I could get some help as well,

I have built my website myself with limited html knowledge, I own my own domain through google sites with their get British Businesses Online scheme www.iheartmrfacey.co.uk, I build my website on a 17" laptop, so when I create pages they took good to me, but I've just shown my website at work and it looked terrible, the sizes are all over the place, images over lapping, some content not even showing on the page. The main problem I have researched into with google sites is that they don't accept some html or css codes so only accept table html codes which apparently are rubbish? Which I take it are the reason my website looks as awful as it does. I have just been on to Wordpress.org and to be honest I'm absolutely baffled, I own a domain, so can I use wordpress? and can I download a template to use? Or have I mis-understood?


Thanks very much

Emma xx

Emma
Give me a shout
Here is an example of what you can get - the price is all inclusive - its all setup for you and ready to add pages and products
http://www.scotserve.co.uk/blogtest/

Its expandable and SEO friendly

Oh yeah and i have a passion for pooches - loved Eddie in Frasier even though that was not his name.