Help needed with website/hosting

hayley11

Can somebody help me please?

I'm setting up a greeting cards website so i'm going to need to be able to give people the option of registering, checking out etc. This website is going to be aimed at partially sighted/blind users so it's got to be very user friendly.

Is there a hosting package I can get that will have templates for these things? Can anybody recommend a decent, reasonably priced hosting package?

Do you think i'd be better off hiring a proper web designer?

Thanks in advance

Hayley x

sunshine54

hi
you can get cheap cpanel hosting and install your choice of joomla templates with the following add on http://extensions.joomla.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,4119/Itemid,35/
this will convert the text to mp3 and play it back to the visitor. joomla also has the ability to only allow register users access to certain content

hayley11

sunshine54 wrote: »

hi
you can get cheap cpanel hosting and install your choice of joomla templates with the following add on http://extensions.joomla.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,4119/Itemid,35/
this will convert the text to mp3 and play it back to the visitor. joomla also has the ability to only allow register users access to certain content

Thanks for this but i'm aiming it at users with Jaws - it's a speech package designed for use with the internet. My mum uses it and it is a very good package.

I was thinking more of the layout, not too many images, flash etc.

With regards to registering, I don't mind people viewing the whole site but I want customers to be able to register and have their own accounts. So they can come back to order again and again...hopefully

I've looked at an e-commerce hosting package with 1and1, it's £9.99 a month, is that good? I've compared it to 123reg and daily.co.uk and it seems better than both but i've read bad things about 1and1's customer service.

vale46_2

not used many myself there are free ones that are forum based a bit like the layout on here create sections for numerous ideas topics etc ipbfree.com
a example here

hayley11

vale46 wrote: »

not used many myself there are free ones that are forum based a bit like the layout on here create sections for numerous ideas topics etc ipbfree.com
a example here

Thanks for your reply but I need a shop not a forum

robt_2

How many products will there be, and how do you envisage taking payment etc?

simont_2

If you're after a shop, you can't go too far wrong with the Open Source oscommerce. It's a free bit of sofware that allows you basically run an online store. It's open source which means there's a great community and it also supports plugins and extensions, so I'm sure you can find something to up the accessibility level if the standard isn't sufficient.

As for hosting, I'd recommend Media Temple, they have this nifty way of only allocating resources to you as required, meaning you can keep the costs down (it's only $20 a month - cheaper if you can find one of the many discount codes) while also coping with surges in traffic (e.g. Christmas). I've been with them for a number of years and pretty much can't fault them. If you go with Media Temple, you can automatically install Zen Cart, which is an alternative to oscommerce. It's pretty much the same as it's free and open source and also has a great community (including free templates/plugins). You can't go wrong with either, it just comes down to personal preference.

hayley11

robt wrote: »

How many products will there be, and how do you envisage taking payment etc?

I'd say max of 50 products initially, maybe less. I think to start with i'd set up the paypal check out thingy so that I don't have access to anybody's card details.

robt_2

Are you familiar with websites, how to make them, upload them etc, or are you after a ready made shop?

hayley11

robt wrote: »

Are you familiar with websites, how to make them, upload them etc, or are you after a ready made shop?

I can write basic HTML and I know how to upload websites. I've had loads of websites in the past but never had a shop.

I was just going to do the website myself and then have the paypal buy it now buttons but I want a "proper" shop.

Or do you think that me doing (I use dreamweaver) would be okay? I want it look really professional and very easy to use.

robt_2

Well if you want to do it yourself (with PayPal), or if you want to try oscommerce ( http://www.oscommerce.com/ ) I would be happy to host it for free for you. You would need your own domain though (£10 max).