Wanting to set up a website to sell my paintings

Mr_Blueskies

Dinah, unless you paid a lot, I'd seriously recommend transferring the domain you purchased across to BlueHost.com. Like PasturesNew had already said, they are pretty much just AWESOME.

$6.96 PER MONTH and you will have unlimited web space, bandwidth and more email addresses and '1-click' free software than you can shake a poop stick at. :} Example install; tutorials.bluehost.com/wordpress/

I also use 123Reg (SLOW support, can only call them between 9 to 5 on WEEKDAYS (HA!)) and FastHosts.co.uk, who are just, well, not Bluehost! Those hosting companies, you have to fiddle with Wordpress config files, set up a database etc. In Bluehost, it really is as simple as pie and takes all the hassle away.

Oh and their support is awesome too. I should know, I test them often enough.

Sorry to sound like a Bluehost salesmen, but I've been around so many hosting companies in my time and I've not been with this company for just under a year and well, I've been hitting myself ever since for why I didn't come across these guys earlier. I'd of saved a fortune and not to mention keep hold of some more hair, instead of holding chunks in my hands due to stress!

Just found this blog ref installing WP on one.com stepheno.net/2006/12/05/installing-wordpress/

Dinah93

I don't actually pay for the first year with one.com, then it's 90p a month. I paid £9 to set up which is a one off cost. That said for £4 a month, if I'd actually be able to set it up, I think I could justify the cost!

Mr_Blueskies

Mmhmmm, sounds like a decision has been made. :]

Let us all know how you got on, or if any further problems, give us a shout. Looks like there is more than 1 avid fan of Bluehost & Wordpress in here, heh.

Dinah93

Oh I'm sure I'll be posting again, completely lost, again! Hoping to get some more work done on attempting to create the site next weekend.

faevilangel

dinahm was you given a login to one.com where you can upload files ?

i just looked on one.com and you do get mysql & php with the account so will be simple to install wordpress on their

look at my 2 "test" blogs i have done https://www.garethgillman.co.uk/blog, and https://www.garethgillman.co.uk/wordpress

i will set up wordpress, and install the module e-commerce so you can have a play with it so you can see if wordpress will do what you want

other options would be get an e-commerce platform like oscommerce, zencart, prestashop

i do recommend wordpress though as its so nimble and easy to use

inflatedcow

If you're up for a bit of a challenge and don't mind putting a bit of time and effort into it, you could create your website from scratch once you get a few of the basics down. You're going to need to get to grips with basic HTML/CSS/SQL stuff but its generally pretty straightforward and doesn't require a great deal of effort to get the fundamentals down to create a fully functional website.

You would also need to do some reading into a server side scripting language to tie it all together, there are many to choose from but the most commonly used are PHP/ASP.NET - what you choose here depends on what hosting provider you've gone with and what type of server/service you are using. Most Windows based servers tend to use ASP.NET while most Linux based servers tend to go for PHP, although you could have them run either but again that depends on your hosting provider and if they would allow it.

Most of the things you require have already been done to death and you should be able to find freely available snippets/tutorials/examples on the things you need (just keep to the authors wishes/license agreements) and how to go about using them.

I guess the only difficult bit would be the online payment system but if you're willing to let someone else handle that, you should have no problems at all. There are many companies on the net that can do this for you, all you do is forward the customer to their payment site and they handle the rest. This keeps it secure and safe and makes the payment company liable if anything went a bit iffy as you're only sending back and forth transaction ids and references.

Think that will do, don't want to overload ya

Edit: If you're stuck on anything I'm happy to help!

buglawton

As I said further up, there exists Gallery software (Jalbum) than can upload galleries/slideshows to your own server or to the hosted for free on company's site, that seems to have Paypal picture Purchase system built in. I've tried the Gallery and like it a lot, but did not yet try switching on Paypal. This would be a quick & dirty method to get you on the road with no programming of complicated configuration whatsoever.

Dinah93

Bit of an update. I've now started trying to alter the website template I started with to get something I like. I had a look at Bluehost, but it seems insanely complicated for a dunce like me, and I couldn't find any of their website templates to see if there was something I could work with. That said, I want to put my own banner up on the site, which is where I am falling down at the moment.

One.com's web page template is fine, not great but okay, except I can't work out how to get rid of the big goldfish banner across the top of the page. All the other images are replaceable, but I can't fathom how to change this banner! If it can't be changed I'm back to square one.

I intend to investigate Jalbum fully once I have worked out if there is any point in me continuing down the route with the current site.

Thank you very much for your pm MR Blueskies, I'm keeping an eye on your site as that may well be the way I go, however at present it still seems to just be a template without actual info on it? I may need to look at examples of wordpress sites as I don't need the blogging space, my site is almost entirely graphical, so I'm just looking for the best and most professional way to present those images. To be honest I don't think that is my current site, as it is hard to imagine having enough written content to fill it.

buglawton

Just beware of the freelancing sites like Guru/Rentacoder/Getafreelancer. It is really difficult to pick the scammers out, they seem to find it easy to manipulate the feedback scores and the website owners do no real policing. I know this out of hard experience.

Dinah93

In an ideal world I don't want to have to pay and would rather do it myself, but right now all I've done is hidden the goldfish banner and accidentally created some sort of semi back ground.... so progress is not really being made....