Website costs?

Tim_Charles

I can recommend zen.
I paid £20 for .com domain name and then £5 for zen to host my website.
The package comes with website templates, which are really easy to use, so I designed my own website.
I did my own SEO by simply registering my website address on loads of free-ad websites, yell etc.
Currently if you search for 'accountant' in my area I come up about 3rd/4th in the local business results section of google.
Zen are a UK based company which also helps with SEO.
They also have fantastic tech support.

flo123_2

have you thought about wordpress? It's free and has ecommerce plugins so it works like a 'propper' website. You would need to buy the domain name etc.

Curly

OK this is what i do

Go to
hxxp://www.123reg.co.uk
get a domain name such as www.google.co.uk
then go to eBay and get 1 year to lifetime web hosting i got lifetime for 5euro from some Irish mob Hears 1 hear £5 for ever
it comes with cpanel and you should be able to make a basic website with that,

all tho you could always do what martin Lewis did when he made this site get some one from india or somewhere to do it for cheap hear but its worth a fortune over there

blue_monkey_2

qw3rt7 wrote: »

@Blue_monkey: Glad you have something that works for you, out of interest, what kind of traffic are you pulling on that site? The reason i ask is i have been thinking of setting up a similar kind of service (to bluepark, not selling underwear) but am interested in hardware resource allocation.
None of the pay monthly DIY packages i have looked at offer any information about this, so i guess its not something people in the market for this kind of package care about.

As a side note, i would consider removing the 'copyright' javascript. It offeres little to no protection against copying (tools>options>content>allow javascript yes/no) but does annoy anyone with a genuine reason to right click, such as tabbed browsing.

Also hit up customer support about the checkout path. Currently having clicked 'add to basket' on any product, the potential customer is presented with the following options:
Continue shopping
Add to wishlist
Tell a friend.
What the customer probably wants to do (and definitely what you want them to do) most is pay for the product, so you need that option to be available, and the most prominent.

This is not a dig at you or a pre-sell for anything, just advice formed from my own stats and experiences.

Hi Q,

I did say I was not all technical with things - I've got something set up on google for stats but I am not sure how it works tbh. I get about 10% of sales to the number of visitors I get per day I guess so I am quite happy with that.

With BP you get an allowance of people downloading data from your site so if I have the copywrite on it stops people coming and opening all the pics and using my data so they can advertise their stuff on eBay!! The pictures are stock pictures but the time I spend scanning them in why should someone else come in and take them?

I don't know what tabbed browsing is either?

Hardware resource allocation? LOL, haven't a clue what this is either.

I know what you mean about the tabs and this is a new thing they have set up but you pay by going to checkout. IS that option not there? I'll look later. Most of my customers do come and buy more than one item so I do need the continue shopping tab displayed.

It works for me, there is a button you click and it uploads everything into one page that you can put onto Google Shopping too. I get more than enough business from it s I am happy with it.

There is a forums section on BP so all those technical things you need to ask you can do so in there as there are people in there who know what they are talking about. And er, I've not got a clue. It just works for me and is really easy to use which is the important thing for someone like me.

Just also to say that the guy who does the technical stuff is brilliant and if you email you get a reply within an hour or so - he even works evenings and weekends - or you can call them and get advice on the phone.

Savvy_Sue

Tabbed browsing is (I think!) where you click on a link and open it in the same window, but with a different 'tab' at the top of the window which tells you what each 'tab' has on it. So atm I have tabs for gmail, the User CP bit of MSE, and several MSE threads.

I do like clicking on a link and getting it in a new tab, I hate it when multiple windows start opening, and I get very lost.

blue_monkey_2

Ah I see, thanks. I have the IE8 and it has that on it already so if I click a tab it opens another tab not window.

Savvy_Sue

But it sounds as if what q is saying that your site doesn't allow tabbed browsing - I know there are some sites where if I right click on a link to open it in a new tab, I get a blank page with a message about javascript. I have to open it in the window I'm on. That can be frustrating too, if there are several things you want to look at, and you've got to open each one in the same window rather than having several open at once.

Jo_F

I have a MrSite website, got it from Staples as that is cheaper than buying it from MrSite themselves, it costs about £35 per year for hosting renewal and I have just upgraded to the Pro version (which has further SEO tools, stationery options etc)

Can't say as I have ever had a problem (though I know the recent Winter Updates have had a glitch or two, but are now ironed out apparently), and I like the fact that I know nothing at all about website building, but I managed to do it all myself and I have control over updating etc without having to rely on someone else to do that for me.

qw3rt7

Hi, yes what Savvy_Sue says is correct. When using certain sites like forums or shops, where i might want to keep my eye on 2 things (or more) at once, i right click the link and select 'open in new tab' so i can switch between the 2 pages easily, for example on your site if i was comparing 2 different bras (unlikely though!).
At the moment, right clicking anywhere on your site produces a javascript alert box with a copyright message, so i cant do what i normally would without turning javascript off in my browser options (which also allows me to copy as many pictures as i like should i so wish - i wouldn't though!).

When optimizing online stores, alot of the work involved is smoothing out the transaction path, eg making it as easy as possible for a customer to part with their money. With the checkout suggestion, i have always found giving the customer an easy to find option to pay is better than making them search for it - atm the checkout path looks like this:

1> find and click on product
2> select product options (size etc) and click 'add to basket' button
3> find and click small 'view basket' text link under shopping basket section (top right of screen)
4> Choose from and click large 'checkout' button (or continue shopping button).

I would suggest step 3 is redundant. It would be better if the customer was taken straight to step 4, where they can contine shopping if they want, or buy the product without having to search for (and potentially not find and leave) the option under 'view basket'.

With all that said however, if you are achieving a 10% conversion ratio atm the congratulations, you are doing very well indeed.

ps with regards to your technical know how, no problem at all. My biggest problem is working out what general consumers know and care about, i am forever spending my time developing things that i think are invaluable but my clients couldn't give a hoot about!

DSoares

At the end of the day it's like buying a bespoke suit or one from Next.
There's a big difference in a custom-designed site and one from Mr Site.
However, if it does the job that you want, then go for it.

Bear in mind with E-commerce sites you need to pay careful attention to security and how you handle your client's data.
A cheap site is one thing, but if you misuse/lose client data, then the long arm of the law will be after you.