creating my own website on the cheap.

jw00081

i have an idea for a small scale internet shop and want to design it myself on the cheap and start it up, can anyone give me any advice??

UKPrincess

Hi there,
I use homestead.com-easy to use and they have a shopping cart if you want to make a store front.

Hope that helps x

jessicamb

the techie board might have some more more ideas for you so I'll move your thread over there.

Nomee

A shopping cart requires users to signup at least to put items in their own basket so if you are serious about it then go for a website which support a data base either ASP or PHP. You can find scripts for shopping carts in both however if you want to program your own it will be good to have a free host.
When you say design...do you mean it as
web designing with web technologies in mind
or
as a shop designer with sales in mind

jw00081

i want to sell stuff at uni to uni students but i think if i do it through a website it will look alot better, not planning to make a fortune just a little extra income.

def sales in mind.

i think learning to use dreamweaver or something would be usefull if not for this but for in the future.

PhilCo_2

If you need a free Dreamweaver alternative try NVU

mrsyardbroom

How about starting up an Amazon store or an ebay store? You won't need to have your own site for that.

Blacksheep1979

If you're asking on here for help (no offence meant to any of the guys here) then you need to pay for professional help. If you do this yourself and the site looks cheap and amateurish, which it will if you don't really have a clue, then nobody will trust it, will think it's a scam and will probably be a flop. Best off spending a few quid to up your reputation - am sure that some of the computer science students will help for a reasonable fee, just get them to sign a non disclosure agreement.

Davesnave

I'm no expert, but this comes highly recommended from Which? and other reviewers. I guess it's for the less technically minded:

http://www.mrsite.com/

rob_musicalads

The company I used to work for create 3 page websites for £199. FRIDAY-AD are the company by the way, they are a classified website...google them if your not sure. They are pretty good to deal with, you can speak to them and discuss your requirements before paying for anything. 0808 156 2302 is the number you need.

TechTerry

The OP is only wanted the site for low usage sales, hes also limited the type of people he wants to aim at in which i think he would be more than happy to use a open source cart, of course, he would need to brand the shop and mabey make some minor changes, but i wouldent say he needs to make it 100% custom, after all, its for a little income and nothing major.

Just to let you know if you are looking at 1and1 for hosting you can not go on the basic plan as it does not give you any databases in which a shopping cart system will need.

You will also need a few e-mails so you can have departments such as:

cencelations, billing, sales, etc. Of course this can all be setup to point to you main e-mail address but will give your company the 'pro' look and not limited to just one e-mail.

As long as the OP provides a reliable, friendly service he should be ok. I'm not sure if the site is aimed at local students of for the whole of the UK/World but defo if its only local he would be more than capable using a open source system.

Just my 2cents.