im trying to get my business going and im thinking that im definately going to need a website. so any advice on how i should go about getting one up the cheapest way, and yeah i want it to look really creative and proffessional... help?
The better you want your website to look and work the more money you will probably have to spend. You can google web designers or something like web site creation.
There are many companies that take the sites they create and resell them to customers with their brand so it can be done for less.
Or you can sell your product through other sites like CafePress. I don't use them and have nothing to do with them just so you know.
Google 'oscommerce*template' there are ton to choose from and you just stick them on a hosting service like godaddy. Oscommerse is an open source store engine that gives you a shopping cart, product management and payment hooks.
This does need a little tech knowhow and some fiddling to help customize the template but agreat start that is way cheaper than a designer
Welcome to the forum & good luck w/your business! I've been using wix.com, that someone recommended a few days ago. It's much easier than the other stuff I'd been trying to use. Good luck to you. If all else fails...I will have to hire someone. I also like yahoo. My girlfriend has her online store up through them. She did tell me that adding photos/products, etc. is rather difficult and they charge a fee p/transaction.
Welcome to the forum & good luck w/your business! I've been using wix.com, that someone recommended a few days ago. It's much easier than the other stuff I'd been trying to use. Good luck to you. If all else fails...I will have to hire someone. I also like yahoo. My girlfriend has her online store up through them. She did tell me that adding photos/products, etc. is rather difficult and they charge a fee p/transaction.
Checked out wix.com and at first glance it looks pretty cool. Have you had it long enough to tell how well the search engines appear to be indexing your products, or if they are at all?
If you're looking for an economical site, you might also want to check out the site builders at godaddy.com, or do a google search for the term "site builder" to find other companies that have a wizzard style approach to setting up a site.
Do you want to make money with your website or do you just want a website? OK, a big duh from over there. I am a webmaster and have been for over 12 years. There are many options out there that are low cost, but the search engines don't like them. If you go low cost, you will get very few visitors (equals very few sales).
To get good search engine rankings (equals lots of visitors) for your website, you need a webmaster. Please note I’m not talking about a web designer but a webmaster. The extra cost for someone who can get the better search engine rankings is priceless. OK not priceless but worth a lot.
To find a good webmaster, call all the local web companies you can. Ask for examples of sites they have built. Ask about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Ask what terms they optimized each site for and check to see how those sites rank at Google. Of course ask about price and timeframe to completion. I expect you will get a very wide range of answers but do your homework and you will be better able to find a webmaster that can build a good site that’s gets traffic at a fair price. Remember, that “Build it and they will come” thing? IT DOES NOT APPLY TO WEBSITES!
Do you want to make money with your website or do you just want a website? OK, a big duh from over there. I am a webmaster and have been for over 12 years. There are many options out there that are low cost, but the search engines don't like them. If you go low cost, you will get very few visitors (equals very few sales).
To get good search engine rankings (equals lots of visitors) for your website, you need a webmaster. Please note I’m not talking about a web designer but a webmaster. The extra cost for someone who can get the better search engine rankings is priceless. OK not priceless but worth a lot.
To find a good webmaster, call all the local web companies you can. Ask for examples of sites they have built. Ask about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Ask what terms they optimized each site for and check to see how those sites rank at Google. Of course ask about price and timeframe to completion. I expect you will get a very wide range of answers but do your homework and you will be better able to find a webmaster that can build a good site that’s gets traffic at a fair price. Remember, that “Build it and they will come” thing? IT DOES NOT APPLY TO WEBSITES!
ok, disregard my last post about wix.com. i've been working w/it for over a week now. i think i HATE it! it's just not going the way i want it to go. everyday there's a new issue. plus, i don't like the defaults up in the corner. & i can't figure out how to remove 'em.
hey, wayne...just read your post. yeah, i hear ya' man! thanks for the tip!
Hey wayne do you know anything about the website service ebay offers called pro stores? whats your advice on them. Thanks for the tip. i will check that out tomorrow.
Wayne is right on target. I've also been in web development for the past 14 years and while it can be expensive to hire a company to build a GOOD ecommerce site for you, the long-term returns are much better. As the old saying goes...it takes money to make money.
That said, the reality is that not everybody is going to have the kind of money to do that. We'd all like to start out with the best equipment, best web site and best everything else, but you've got to start somewhere. First, you need to establish how much you can afford. Next, if it isn't that much (maybe a couple thousand?) you're going to have to settle for something less than ideal and do your best to promote your site on your own instead of relying only on search engines.
Keep in mind that even though your site is accessible to the entire world, if you're just starting out then simply having a nice looking professional site to promote yourself locally and give customers a place to see your work and get pricing can be a good starting point. If the economical way is where you need to go, make sure everything you give out has your site address on it - business cards, flyers, sample shirts, etc. It's a good place to start and in time you can move up as you grow your business.
As an added bonus I'll also give you this tip. Most sites can be broken down into two separate components - layout & design AND logical programming to make the site functional. Since being artistic and logical are on opposite ends of the spectrum, very few people are experts at both and most larger companies split these two tasks into two separate departments. Sometimes you can hire two different people to do the individual pieces cheaper than finding the one guy that's awesome at both. Check your local community college for kids in the graphics design programs for site design & layout and then look to the Information Systems department to find a college student with programming skills and some experience putting together ecommerce sites.
Hey wayne do you know anything about the website service ebay offers called pro stores? whats your advice on them. Thanks for the tip. i will check that out tomorrow.
The ebay stores can be great for some people but watch the fees. Also, ebay is great for getting traffic but you only get ebay traffic. Not many ebay ads get traffic from search engines.
If you want to do this yourself, you should check out volusion.com. They have a turn-key solution that includes templates and a very strong back end that does inventory control, cart, merchant services, customer tracking, reporting, automated emails when someone orders, and when the order ships, etc.
how do i go about getting a website started 
