Discussion
I am thinking (very early stages!) of starting own website to sell handmade crafts as a sideline,
What I want to know is... the things I need to consider to start from scratch and how much they cost
I have been looking at domain names and it seems so cheap, the one I want is £2.59 per year (as are most)
I also need some kind of idiots guide on how to design said website- would have to choose from templates as I know nothing about how to design, have seen some people advertise this for £1.99 a month,
Same company also advertise web hosting- what is this? like rental of space?
How would I go about setting up payment system, would rather not use paypal like some crafty places do.
On another note, how can I purchase goods at wholesale prices? Do I need proof that the goods I will be buying are not for personal use?
TIA
What I want to know is... the things I need to consider to start from scratch and how much they cost
I have been looking at domain names and it seems so cheap, the one I want is £2.59 per year (as are most)
I also need some kind of idiots guide on how to design said website- would have to choose from templates as I know nothing about how to design, have seen some people advertise this for £1.99 a month,
Same company also advertise web hosting- what is this? like rental of space?
How would I go about setting up payment system, would rather not use paypal like some crafty places do.
On another note, how can I purchase goods at wholesale prices? Do I need proof that the goods I will be buying are not for personal use?
TIA
Edited by missdiane on Sunday 29th April 08:24
missdiane said:
I am thinking (very early stages!) of starting own website to sell handmade crafts as a sideline,
What I want to know is... the things I need to consider to start from scratch and how much they cost
I have been looking at domain names and it seems so cheap, the one I want is £2.59 per year (as are most)
I also need some kind of idiots guide on how to design said website- would have to choose from templates as I know nothing about how to design, have seen some people advertise this for £1.99 a month,
Same company also advertise web hosting- what is this? like rental of space?
How would I go about setting up payment system, would rather not use paypal like some crafty places do.
On another note, how can I purchase goods at wholesale prices? Do I need proof that the goods I will be buying are not for personal use?
TIA
What I want to know is... the things I need to consider to start from scratch and how much they cost
I have been looking at domain names and it seems so cheap, the one I want is £2.59 per year (as are most)
I also need some kind of idiots guide on how to design said website- would have to choose from templates as I know nothing about how to design, have seen some people advertise this for £1.99 a month,
Same company also advertise web hosting- what is this? like rental of space?
How would I go about setting up payment system, would rather not use paypal like some crafty places do.
On another note, how can I purchase goods at wholesale prices? Do I need proof that the goods I will be buying are not for personal use?
TIA
Edited by missdiane on Sunday 29th April 08:24
Web hosting is basically renting a bit of space on a server so your website gets online.
We offer a fully intergrated ecommerce (online shop / store) that calculates stock levels, VAT, delivery etc for you. It is linked to a choice of payment gateways like Paypal, nochex, worldpay etc. Once the store is set up its easy to manage from a web based interface ie you dont need any software just an internet connection.
We offer a full website with store from just £299 all in including hosting, setup, design and build. This price is a FROM price depending on how many pages you need for the main website and how many products you need to sell.
Feel free to contact me for some impartial no obligation advice. The Pistonheads email thingy seems a bit unreliable so email me direct through www.geminidigital.co.uk
A basic example of an online store we are working on can be found at www.conachers.co.uk/shop this is under construction at the moment so hence the lack of products.
HI DI did'nt realise it was you!
Edited by jamesuk28 on Sunday 29th April 10:36
If you want to go DIY, I can recomend moonfruit.com for a web based template. Very easy to use and update. You can add a shop or any manor of other bits and pieces and just seems to work. Register1.net is very good for your name.
Let us know how you get on.
ps made this with moonfruit [url]www.eaglesecurity.it/[/url]
Let us know how you get on.
ps made this with moonfruit [url]www.eaglesecurity.it/[/url]
olivero said:
If you want to go DIY, I can recomend moonfruit.com for a web based template. Very easy to use and update. You can add a shop or any manor of other bits and pieces and just seems to work. Register1.net is very good for your name.
Let us know how you get on.
ps made this with moonfruit [url]www.eaglesecurity.it/[/url]
Let us know how you get on.
ps made this with moonfruit [url]www.eaglesecurity.it/[/url]
Not a bad site for a freebie, however the whole thing is done in flash and is not SEO (optimised) you dont show up in google for instance
Thank you everyone, as this is going to be a sideline, I need to keep it cheap (costs) and likely most of my business will be done through Ebay 
I just want a little website to accompany it, would be nice to be found on google, though I would want to keep this business pretty quiet so that I dont get inundated with orders whilst I am working full time
moonfruit rings a bell, think I may have a site with them already (unused)
James, I cant see that website you posted earlier, coming up 'cannot be found'
Do you have any examples of sites you have done that look girly/crafty/funky?
cheers
ETA website working now! Looks cool
I just want a little website to accompany it, would be nice to be found on google, though I would want to keep this business pretty quiet so that I dont get inundated with orders whilst I am working full time
moonfruit rings a bell, think I may have a site with them already (unused)
James, I cant see that website you posted earlier, coming up 'cannot be found'
Do you have any examples of sites you have done that look girly/crafty/funky?
cheers
ETA website working now! Looks cool
Edited by missdiane on Sunday 29th April 15:23
missdiane said:
I am thinking (very early stages!) of starting own website to sell handmade crafts as a sideline,
What I want to know is... the things I need to consider to start from scratch and how much they cost
I have been looking at domain names and it seems so cheap, the one I want is £2.59 per year (as are most)
I also need some kind of idiots guide on how to design said website- would have to choose from templates as I know nothing about how to design, have seen some people advertise this for £1.99 a month,
Same company also advertise web hosting- what is this? like rental of space?
How would I go about setting up payment system, would rather not use paypal like some crafty places do.
On another note, how can I purchase goods at wholesale prices? Do I need proof that the goods I will be buying are not for personal use?
TIA
What I want to know is... the things I need to consider to start from scratch and how much they cost
I have been looking at domain names and it seems so cheap, the one I want is £2.59 per year (as are most)
I also need some kind of idiots guide on how to design said website- would have to choose from templates as I know nothing about how to design, have seen some people advertise this for £1.99 a month,
Same company also advertise web hosting- what is this? like rental of space?
How would I go about setting up payment system, would rather not use paypal like some crafty places do.
On another note, how can I purchase goods at wholesale prices? Do I need proof that the goods I will be buying are not for personal use?
TIA
Edited by missdiane on Sunday 29th April 08:24
Hi,
Few thoughts:
Domain name: if name is non related to product then marketing spend will need to be higher. Search engines do appear to give favour to sites who's product is in the url.
Sign up to Google Adwords and find out how much your key words cost and work a 3% click through from a prime link to guage what margin that leaves you.
See what your competition is on Ebay.
Online shop software will pretty much build your site for you if you buy the right package and will link you to a secure merchant like Paypal or WorldPay. (or build a shop on Ebay itself for real low cost.
To be honest, if you can set it all up for very little cost and you can update and manage it in a small amount of your spare time then definately go for it.
Building a shop on Ebay and promoting on google may be a very cheap way start.
If you know someone who is a bit handy technically then it can be done for next to nothing and to a pretty professional standard.
www.joomla.com and then download the joomla-shop module
Will act as a portal and a shop managing stock levels etc. £60 a year on hosting from Beeston.
All you need to do is decide what you're going to sell online, photograph it and drive custom to your door, which is the tricky bit.
That said eBay Shops are getting slick and a LOT of people buy stuff off eBay so you've got a ready customer base built in.
www.joomla.com and then download the joomla-shop module
Will act as a portal and a shop managing stock levels etc. £60 a year on hosting from Beeston.
All you need to do is decide what you're going to sell online, photograph it and drive custom to your door, which is the tricky bit.
That said eBay Shops are getting slick and a LOT of people buy stuff off eBay so you've got a ready customer base built in.
Mattt said:
My friend offers yearly hosting at £100 with unlimited (subject to reasonable usage) space & traffic, including a domain name (hosted at Telehouse).
If it is a small site, i'm sure he would be able to sort something out too.
If it is a small site, i'm sure he would be able to sort something out too.
£100? we offer unlimited everything, bandwidth, storage, Free Frontpage extensions, databases, email accounts, email forwarders set up plus loads more for £49 per year; chuck in free domain name renewals for life, free updates for life, free transfers and technical back up and it equates to a pretty good deal.
Edited by jamesuk28 on Tuesday 1st May 22:06
jamesuk28 said:
Mattt said:
My friend offers yearly hosting at £100 with unlimited (subject to reasonable usage) space & traffic, including a domain name (hosted at Telehouse).
If it is a small site, i'm sure he would be able to sort something out too.
If it is a small site, i'm sure he would be able to sort something out too.
£100? we offer unlimited everything, bandwidth, storage, Free Frontpage extensions, databases, email accounts, email forwarders set up plus loads more for £49 per year; chuck in free domain name renewals for life, free updates for life, free transfers and technical back up and it equates to a pretty good deal.
Edited by jamesuk28 on Tuesday 1st May 22:06
Me thinks the 'naughty line' on business promotion is approaching here??
Leftie said:
jamesuk28 said:
Mattt said:
My friend offers yearly hosting at £100 with unlimited (subject to reasonable usage) space & traffic, including a domain name (hosted at Telehouse).
If it is a small site, i'm sure he would be able to sort something out too.
If it is a small site, i'm sure he would be able to sort something out too.
£100? we offer unlimited everything, bandwidth, storage, Free Frontpage extensions, databases, email accounts, email forwarders set up plus loads more for £49 per year; chuck in free domain name renewals for life, free updates for life, free transfers and technical back up and it equates to a pretty good deal.
Edited by jamesuk28 on Tuesday 1st May 22:06
Me thinks the 'naughty line' on business promotion is approaching here??
Merely trying to demonstrate that there are plenty of good deals out there, and it pays to shop around.
Edited by jamesuk28 on Thursday 3rd May 13:44
oggs said:
About time you found this thread JB 
been exhibiting at the Internet World show in Earls Court for the last three days, this is my first night off this week! These places that offer 'unlimited' do so at the cost of your freedom to host whatever you like, ie no music, no large movies, no files not related to your website.. but they dont make these restrictions obvious to you at order time.
Just annoys me that, with this industry being unregulated, companies can get away with advertising and claims which would be totally impossible to carry if there were some regulatory body, and as soon as one see's it being done, they assume it's cricket for them to do it.
Anyway
I'm tired J
JamieBeeston said:
oggs said:
About time you found this thread JB
been exhibiting at the Internet World show in Earls Court for the last three days, this is my first night off this week! These places that offer 'unlimited' do so at the cost of your freedom to host whatever you like, ie no music, no large movies, no files not related to your website.. but they dont make these restrictions obvious to you at order time.
Just annoys me that, with this industry being unregulated, companies can get away with advertising and claims which would be totally impossible to carry if there were some regulatory body, and as soon as one see's it being done, they assume it's cricket for them to do it.
Anyway
I'm tired J
See that recently, was testing an 'unlimited' service where we fell foul of a reasonable use clause which was impossible to find but reasonable easy to breach...
D
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