Website advice please

Fritha_2

Hello,

I already have a couple of websites up and running that my friend coded for me. But I'd like to do another, this time a shop. I need to do this myself as my friend is just about to become a Daddy and hasn't the time to help me. Also as it's a shop I'll need to be able to edit it easily.

The trouble is dreamweaver and opensource confuse the heck out of me! I need some easy software so I design a wesbite while still knowing what I'm doing! The Mr Site software looks ideal! Does anyone have any experience of it? Are there better ones out there?


Thanks

powerbase

Mr Site is very basic hence the price. Ideal I suppose if you want to dip your toes in and don't have many products and don't want to take much of a risk.

How many products would you have? I would consider getting a designer in to do a full ecommerce site for you that has content management (means you can update it yourself) if you are really serious and think the idea is a winner. Prices vary widely, and so does quality (get feedback from people who have used the designer before). I know some local business agencies provide ecommerce site designing services at a reduced rate. Maybe check out there.

Consider doing it yourself with something like oscommerce or mals eccomerce.

richt71

Fritha wrote:

Hello,

I already have a couple of websites up and running that my friend coded for me. But I'd like to do another, this time a shop. I need to do this myself as my friend is just about to become a Daddy and hasn't the time to help me. Also as it's a shop I'll need to be able to edit it easily.

The trouble is dreamweaver and opensource confuse the heck out of me! I need some easy software so I design a wesbite while still knowing what I'm doing! The Mr Site software looks ideal! Does anyone have any experience of it? Are there better ones out there?


Thanks

You've got 2 good options for me - use a host that offers a ready made shopping cart that you can link into your website easy but will cost you an extra £20+ a month. The 2nd option is to put your project on elance.com. Here web designers will bid on your project. You can set a maximum fee. It's like ebay - the bidders will have feedback ratings for you to check and many will give you samples. You usually pay 50% upfront via paypal.

competitionscafe

There is a discussion about this here which may be of interest:
http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=27308

Also if you search the above forum for "mr site" and mrsite you will find threads about it with comments by people who have used it and suggestions for possible alternatives.

If your budget allows then paying someone to do it might be a good option, but make sure they are recommended by their previous clients and check out samples of their previous work. Also make sure the site is easy to update yourself (eg:with a content management system) so that you can add products, change prices, etc yourself.

no1mum_2

I am a professional web designer. My advice to you is to use Dreamweaver, it may seem like a minefield at first but it is the best software to use.

The problem with other software is the way it codes the HTML. If you use ever need another designer to work on your site they will find it almost impossible to trawl through the code generated by some of these other programmes.

Dreamweaver is quite pricey, but you will not need to update it for many many years. And the functions included in Dreamweaver are far better than those in other programmes. You do not need to use all these other features, it works fantastically as a basic coder, but it gives you the option to do more fancy work later. But whatever you decide, DO NOT USE FRONTPAGE!! EVER.

If you want to do a shop and don't know a huge amount of HTML, then my advice is to use Zen Cart. It comes as standard on a lot of hosting packages and is very easy to set up. To see an example of zencart in action visit http://www.monmouth-lighting.co.uk

Good luck!!

jayne-mams

I agree with no1mum that Dreamweaver is probably the best to go for and to persevere with it. Frontpage and Word have a very clumsy way of generating code. Initially you might think ah well it looks ok doesn't matter what the code is like, but soon you find that if you make even tiny edits the file sizes start ballooning and the pages start taking ages to load.

Another option for shopping carts is to use the PayPal shopping cart. It's free, relatively easy to install (just copy and paste), you can accept normal credit/debit cards as well as PayPal and there are no start up/ongong costs. This might be something worth considering if it's a small shop. You may want your own branded shopping cart though.

Browntoa

or Google checkout, which is free at the moment

tru

I use Mr Site, you can be up and running within a few hours. I know nothing about building websites so it's ideal for me at the moment but I won't stay with it forever. Loads of people have recommended Dreamweaver to me so I've have to learn all about that, I think

I submitted my site to Google, it keeps asking me to validate but when I do, it doesn't work. You have to paste a code into the header(?) but because of the way the software works, I can't get into the header to paste it :wall:

BillyBobThorntz0r

Dreamweaver is fine and dandy, but if you're wanting to produce clean, efficient and accessible websites, you will need to be doing the HTML, CSS and everything else yourself. Then passing it through validators online to just check your code for you.

A good first stop would be the W3Schools website. Work through their XHTML and CSS tutorials first. You'll be able to learn both to a competent level in about 2 to 6 weeks.

I started of doing websites on dreamweaver and letting it do everything for more, if I ever take a peak back at the code it produced, it really is horrible. You don't need many of the features it has, and there are a whole range of advanced versions of notepad that are freeware and much simpler to use.

Of course, the whole e-commerce side is different, but you need to build the foundations first. Once you've learnt the basics, your best bet is to look at google and find a cheap shopping cart that you can license for use in your own websites.

Good luck!

adypem

I thought that if you want to a shopping cart you can register as a trader with paypal and integrate their solution into your site for free ?
I may be wrong, but might be worth a look