[M-Ant]

Hey wuz up everyone? I am new to T-Shirt forums.com & I had a question. I have been browsing this site for a few weeks now & it seems like I see a good amount of people who have designed their own website for thier Tees. Unfortunately, I have very little experience in building a web site. My question is, on average what am I looking to spend to have my website designed so I can set up shop on line? Nothing fancy, nothing out of the ordinary, just a professional looking website of which I can showcase my Tees and I don't exactly have to drill a hole in my pocketbook. If there is anyone(and I'm sure there are) who has stood in my shoes & could offer some advice or some referralls I'd appreciate it. In the meanwhile I'll keep searching the net for what I need, just curious if any of you guys/gals had any good experience with a web design company & you wanted to drop me a line about the company. I think this site is great & I look forward to hearing back from you guys. Thanks, Marcus

 

[buddha]

Welcome to the forum Marcus.

Check your box, I sent you the email to a guy that does great work.
He might be able to do what your looking for.

 

[monkeylantern]

One of your cheapest options is to check your local university or arts college. Contact a professor of a suitable web design/grahics course, or post a sign in the local student union. There's a good chance a highly qualified student would be willing to design you a site at a tiny fraction of the cost of a web design company, and probablty with half the turn-around time (such as $200 as opposed to $2000).

 

[M-Ant]

Thanks Monkey Lantern....I appreciate it.

 

[Rodney]

I would suggest checking the prices at a place like designoutpost.com or rentacoder.com.

I would think that you could pay around $200-$500 for a decent, unique website template.

If you aren't worried about the template being 100% unique, you can buy a website template for your site for like $50 and it works just fine (at a place like templatemonster.com).

Once you have the template, then you would just add your content to the template (which still would require some minor knowledge of HTML so you know where to type your text.

 

[martin]

Another thing to keep in mind when chosing a developer is what type of payment system you are going to be using. If your using PayPal or something like 2CheckOut then almost any developer can do the job.

If your looking to use a full-fledged ecom gateway like authorize.net, you should consider using a professional, or at least someone with experience. If your potential developer can not show you an example of a functioning site he built you should seriously re-consider your choice.

 

[M-Ant]

Another thing to keep in mind when chosing a developer is what type of payment system you are going to be using. If your using PayPal or something like 2CheckOut then almost any developer can do the job.

Is there really a vast difference between using paypal opposed to using any other type of payment processing system? Because I would like to think PayPal is just as good, or for some reason would PayPal seem less professional? Hey, if it works then I am all for PayPal, just curious. My questions may seem elementary, but cut me some slack, I'm new to it all. This site has been more help than I ever thought I would get. Thanks for the advice.

P.S. Rodney I appreciate the advice too man!

 

[DickTees.net]

Is there really a vast difference between using paypal opposed to using any other type of payment processing system?

Some high brow elitists would likely say if you don't have a merchant account you must not be a serious business. Paypal has worked just fine for us so far (coming up on a year in business in March 06). I am interested to hear what Rodney thinks about this since he's been at it for a greater length of time and is himself a Paypal account holder.

 

[M-Ant]

Rodney lend us your wisdom......PayPal, PayPal!!
Thanks Jay!

 

[Rodney]

I think if you are just starting out, PayPal is just fine. More thoughts about PayPal are in this thread:
http://www.t-shirtforums.com/showthread.php?t=1224

I think PayPal is a great service. Used them since they started.

That being said, I am convinced that if you don't have another "non-PayPal" way of accepting credit cards that you are probably losing sales to people that don't want to use PayPal for one reason or another.

Conversly, I think if you have a regulart merchant account and don't have PayPal as an option you are probably missing out on sales from people that DO want to use PayPal for one reason or another. It's almost like its own currency.

There are some low cost merchant account alternatives out there that won't charge you monthly fees (if that's a concern about getting a regular merchant account). I've heard good things about 2checkout.

You should also checkout the services of ProPay.com. They give you just about all the features of a merchant account without the monthly fees.

 

[Logo-Mechanix]

I have also been using paypal going on 1 year and it has worked great.