Looking to get myself a website for a forthcoming small business i'd like to start.
I'm ok on a Computer and understand HTML codes etc but no idea where to start with a web site.

Googled "build your own website" and a few come up which look good, http://www.webs.com/

but do they actually work, are they actually free etc

Any suggestions? Website would need to have a google checkout or similar system as well

Although, this is in the wrong forum so maybe not a good start… 🙄

moonfruit

If you are mostly selling stuff might be worth considering a shopping cart website. They are still CMS after install. Take a look as OS Commerce or CubeCart.

Although it depends if you have like say more then 10 products and want to do stock control and stuff to be worth while.

With something like moonfruit you'll be restricted to buy it now buttons which is OK if you are only selling like three things.

Then again I think for proper integration you need professional google check out / SSL or whatever.

Pick the right hosting (Fuzioned) and there will be wizards to install the sites for you.

will be offering courses so not really product's as such, just need a way of people paying for the course on line.

In that case just get dreamweaver, watch a you tube tutorial and put up a couple of html pages.

If you know your way around html, I'd suggest getting yourself a template offa somewhere like templatemonster, then edit it a bit to suit your needs, and finally add Paypal's 'Web payments standard' buttons to it for the purchasing – doesn't get much simpler than that.

Home built websites can and often do look rubbish, you should factor in a simple professional build into your startup costs

buy dreamweaver (snide versions may be available) and buy a template and do it yourself. I think its easier than people migh think.

We're all here to help too

Cool thanks for the tips, will have a look at the options and go from there

The Podge- Correct, really don't fancy the home built shonky look! Good website = More business hopefully!

If you have the time and the enthusiasm then building your own website can work but as with most things, a professional can always do it quicker and better.

before its done (by whoever) sit down and really work out what you want. i've seen and built far too many sites that have looked good and had everything needed but they ended up being too big and too cumbersome to keep updated. people are lazy and want information there and then, not after 5 minutes of scrolling and clicking through pages. the old addage of KISS really does come into its own here.

if you do consider doing it your self. take a look at a few blogs. these days anyone with an hour can build something that semi professionals could only dream of 5 years ago. plus blogs tend to have a lot of plug in stuff so they might just be able to automate your shop easily.

If you're expecting people to pay online then you need an ecommerce solution not just a website.

I'd go to someone who's done this before and can offer the whole service off the shelf. It needen't cost loads (although clearly it's more than doign it yourself) but for payments you need soemthign secure that has a link to proper payment gateway/acquirer.

phildowling, drop me a line (my email in prof). just gone through the process myself in the last year and can save you some hassle.

A wordpress blog setup on its own domain and then tweaked is about as much website as most small businesses need – download a theme and install and you are done. Should take someone who knows what they are doing less than a day plus a bit for a logo and custom colour.

So that was easy… but when you chuck ecommerce into the mix it all gets tricky fairly quickly.

You can get free ecommerce plugins for WP (ie http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/) and if you are happy to integrate with paypal or google checkout then no big drama.

Otherwise:

Free, Medium weight: OS Commerce (good enough, templated looks a bit rubbish)

Free, Heavy weight; Drupal with Ubercart (very good and flexible but a major learning curve!)

Actinic looks tempting and could get you going quickly but it's a bit shit in the long run.

You may get better value out of a shopping cart system offered by an ISP (as above)

BUT as above – you need to sort out what you really want your site to be doing first (for instance are you going to extensively blog and sell off the side of that or just sell and do no blogging?).

Once you know what you are going to be doing then match the feature against the above systems (for instance do you need live stock levels? Do you need to integrate with a particular payment gateway other than paypal or google checkout) Do you want the system to automagically generate receipt emails etc etc etc. Mostly you don't need much to start with but realise that you will be doing a fair amount of running around after your site – all the money on expensive big sites goes into automating and streamlining.

You should probably spend just as much time on your email marketing (use Mail Chimp) and get your head around Google adwords as soon as your site is live!

That started as a few lines of advice 🙂

Good luck

A

Actinic is a big bag of pants

If you're expecting people to pay online then you need an ecommerce solution not just a website.

I'd go to someone who's done this before and can offer the whole service off the shelf. It needen't cost loads (although clearly it's more than doign it yourself) but for payments you need soemthign secure that has a link to proper payment gateway/acquirer.

He already said he doesn't need an ecommerce solution, just a means of accepting payments. Google, Paypal and a dozen others can provide this with buttons and security just by pasting in a few lines of HTML generated in a wizard in your account.

For a professional look take a cue from something off Template Monster and mirror it.

The trick for beginners is to design it completely offline e.g. in word if your are comfortable with that. Then build it with a web design program. Rather than doing both at the same time.

Given the trouble the STW people had with Actinic, I'd steer clear. There's a lot of off the shelf ecommerce products from UK based webhosting companies that will integrate with Paypal, ebay, the lot. Even ones that have scheduling/appointments if you're selling services rather than goods.

If you're after a website, either have a crack at it and see how it looks or use a sitebuilder product. they'll be enough to get you started and see if you need something better.

If you want to pay someone to build a site, drop me a line and I'll recommend some names.

I'm a web designer. I'll happily put together a quote for you and do you a STW discount! Email is on profile.