# **6K - 8K for a FULL Ecommerce Website Avg?? ***



## Raygunz187 (Sep 3, 2007)

Hi All,

I just want to get some feedback in regards to a quote I got from a Web Design firm for a full blown ecommerce website. He quoted me 6K-8K. Is that too much or avg for a professionally done ecommerce website? Please let me know what you guys think.

Thanks,

Ray


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## tim3560 (Jan 7, 2007)

Seems a little steep. I'm planning on doing the same and having my first run of inventory for around $5,000.


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## Raygunz187 (Sep 3, 2007)

You're getting your website done for 5K?


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## tim3560 (Jan 7, 2007)

Raygunz187 said:


> You're getting your website done for 5K?


Sure. One designer will do the artwork and the html for the site which will be around $1,000 and another company has quoted $2 - $3K for the ecommerce. If you have the patience to do the ecommerce yourself, which I don't, a lot of people on here talk about cubecart, which is free, and can save you big. I might try it myself but it's not my forte so I'd just assume have someone do it for me that does it for a living.
So that's $3-$4k total and $1,000 for shirts and printing. Then you can use the extra money you've saved and advertise your site.


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## Comin'OutSwingin (Oct 28, 2005)

The thing about cubecart is that it has great functionality. Most of a cart is back-end stuff. Things that the customer has no idea about.

If you're just trying to fill t-shirt orders online, there's not much of a back-end that you need that you can't fill with one of the free/open source carts that are available.

Also, when you factor in the ability to make the cart look exactly like you want, you save lots of money.

Any halfway decent web designer can install cubecart and have it look exactly the way you want it to look, for a tenth of what you guys are talking about.


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## mystysue (Aug 27, 2006)

Web Sites vary so much in what they cost and what is designed.. 
I know last web site we did we charged 2000.oo and that was just with a paypal cart.. .. I also know people that have paided 15,000 for web sites.. altho they are very complex.


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## Comin'OutSwingin (Oct 28, 2005)

I would hope that the site with the paypal cart was complex, too, for $2,000!


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## The T Shirt Man (Aug 29, 2006)

Am i missing something? I have read a few posts about people spending 4 figure amounts on their websites, are you insane??!? Maybe you just have a bigger budget from when i started, but i know if i had $6k to invest i would put the majority into advertising and not the website. Sure a custom cart is great, but are you going to be getting that, and is it needed? -Espeically when starting out. 

I always thought of doing web design as a sideline but have always been too busy, i also thought that market was kind of dead these days. maybe i should reconsider 


What exactly are you looking for your website to do? Anything out of the ordinary?

If you go for a professional company ask them what you are getting for your money; Is it hosted by them? (if it is there are lots more questions) It is a custom cart completly built for you?


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## Raygunz187 (Sep 3, 2007)

Here is the company that quoted me this and the websites look really good. What i wanted was a full ecommerce website along with custom blog ..shopping cart integrations.....and reporting.....

www.blazinmultimedia.com

Take a look and let me know what you guys think.


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## tim3560 (Jan 7, 2007)

Wow, the face was a little strong, wasn't really expecting that. The work on their site looks pretty top notch to me.


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## Raygunz187 (Sep 3, 2007)

Yes. That is the reason why we are thinking about using them. Some other firms that does mediocre designs are quoting me 3-4K for a Full Blown Ecommerce website. After all, this will be our storefront so we want a nicely professionaly done website.


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## Comin'OutSwingin (Oct 28, 2005)

Interesting stuff.

If you've got a really big budget, go for it.

But, I agree with The T Shirt Man. Without a big budget, that money could be MUCH better spent on marketing.

That's online AND offline. If you market properly, people won't really care how "cool" your site is, when they get to it. As long as it's functional, and secure, they will buy.

I don't have anything against spending thousands on a site. But, I wouldn't do it, and let the marketing suffer.

Spending $6,000 on a site that nobody knows about because of no marketing, is pointless.

Spending $6,000 on site that's busy, and distracts customers is pointless.

Just make sure you make good use of your money.


Raygunz187 said:


> After all, this will be our storefront so we want a nicely professionaly done website.


If that's your criteria, you can get a nice, professionally done website, that meets your needs for MUCH less.


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## SeasonEnds (Sep 9, 2007)

I've been quoted in that range before, when I was doing the quote thing, but that is for completely customized back end. Which... most people don't need. You can get an awesome store for way less. Pay them to make a cubecart store look really good or something. I would understand if you planned on being a massive company and needed all sorts of crazy features on your website, though.


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## Jeepwidow (Feb 12, 2008)

Where is most of the money coming from when starting out? 5-8k makes me shake in my boots. Do people borrow from banks in hopes that spending a good chunk of their buget on a website will gain them customers; and more money? I was considering the same since I have no experience in software. 

I've been reading a lot of posts and there is a WEALTH of knowledge here. My fantasy world would be startout at cafepress, make enough money to hire a nice webmaster. Any thoughts?


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## Raygunz187 (Sep 3, 2007)

Thanks for all your inputs. I have another partner and we are both in our 30's so we have the financial support as this is something on the side for us. 

I have to check if the backend is customized or not? They were talking about reporting and all that but that is not my lingo. I guess my major concern is for 6-8K for the work they do (As seen in their website) I'm not getting blackballed right?


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## Jeepwidow (Feb 12, 2008)

It was suggested that I try a free software program to learn how to create a website. That way, I know the lingo and informed about the business. For me, ignorance is not bliss. I want to know that no one will screw me over just because I don't know a thing or two about computers. 

Greg-I've read your past comments, and you sir are a great mentor. Gotta agree with you on the marketing aspect. If you spend too much money on a great web, you won't have enough to advertise.


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## Comin'OutSwingin (Oct 28, 2005)

> I'm not getting blackballed right?


No, you aren't. 

The work that they do, seems to be in the range that they quoted you.

It's just that you can accomplish the same goals for your company, AND your site, spending thousands less.

If the cart is fully customized, great. It's well worth it with their design capabilities. But you don't need a customized cart.

The fact that you have the money for it, in my opinion, is probably a hindrance more than it is a help.

You need a website. You throw money at it. You need something else, you throw money at it.

I too am in my 30's and can afford to spend lots on my company and site, but I would rather take the time and learn what I don't know. Try to spend wisely, as if I'm on a shoestring. Not just throw money at something because it sounds good.

Do some searching around. Look at what you can get for under $1,000 before you decide to spend 6K. You may be surprised.


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## Raygunz187 (Sep 3, 2007)

Actually we did. I found an overseas company from India that would do the whole job for 900 USD. I paid 200 deposit for the first phase which was a custom blog and index page. They came back with what looks like a free blog template and they threw our logo on top of the blog. The background colors didn't even match. We were so dissappointed. I'm still waiting for there revisions and I haven't heard back in a week already.


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## highstyleinc (Apr 4, 2007)

I think it depends on the job you need done and how much custom work goes into it. You get what you pay for, but I agree that learning to do yourself is also good even if you don't actually do it yourself. So you know what to expect.


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## Comin'OutSwingin (Oct 28, 2005)

Just because you found 1 bad apple, it really doesn't mean the whole batch is ruined.

Elance - Outsourcing to freelance programmers, web & logo designers, copywriters, illustrators and consultants | Elance
Freelance Jobs & Freelancers - iFreelance.com
Design Outpost - Graphic Design Firm - Logos, Templates, Print Material, and More
Rent A Coder: How Software Gets Done -- Home of the worlds' largest number of completed software projects

These are just a few of the places you can find great, quality free-lance web designers.

Ask to see portfolio's and references.

You can find someone to do what you want, in that $900 range that you started with.


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## woodchuck (Feb 13, 2008)

> Do some searching around. Look at what you can get for under $1,000 before you decide to spend 6K. You may be surprised.


I agree completely.

As a web designer myself, I can say that some
designers tend to make the whole process seem
more difficult & more laborious than it really is.

To folks that don't understand the process of
web design, it's really just a matter of building
one page (index.html), then renaming it for as
many pages as you need to build the web site
(about.html, contact.html, faqs.html, etc)

Then you "plug-in" (literally) the articles, shopping
cart, contact forms, etc where they go.

If you've never done it, then yeah - it's difficult.
But for those of us that do it every single day,
it's usually a quick and simple process, but they
still charge a design fee plus $100-$200 per page.

As for this company, I don't like the work that I
see in their portfolio and a lot of the designs are
templates that you can find on ebay for .99

And for the price they quoted, they could at least
make your website Search Engine friendly, but it
looks like they don't have a clue on SEO.

As for the blog, you can have it setup in a matter
of a few clicks of the mouse.



LC

BTW, whoever you go with make sure you own the
completed work and the domain name. It'll save you
some legal fees down the road.


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## Jeepwidow (Feb 12, 2008)

Woodchuck-
Any recommendations on software (prefer free) that novices can play with in learning web developing world?


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## woodchuck (Feb 13, 2008)

One of the most popular free web design softwares
available is NVU.

While you're using NVU, I recommend you download
Dreamweaver for the free trial period and seeing
how it works differently and more efficiently.

The reason is because all the various web design
softwares are different. Some write sloppier code
than others, some are easier to use than others,
and some provide more options than others.

Dreamweaver has a learning curve, but if you're a
noob, then there will be a learning curve no matter
what software you start with.

In the end, you'll make the switch to Dreamweaver
just like the rest of us.



LC


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## The T Shirt Man (Aug 29, 2006)

I suppose if you want to spend that then you will, personally if it were me and i was starting out i would:

Use something like OSCommerce, Zen Cart, Cube Cart etc. and get someone to design a custom template. 
If you want a blog use wordpress and get them to use the same template for an integrated feel. 

As Greg posted aobve there are freelance places where good designers/coders can do all this for you for a fraction of the cost.
Get someone to modify (hack) your cart to tailor it to your needs, should you need something which is not included in the cart.

Also keep in mind if you are adding/removing/ products, updating your store etc. you have to be able to know how to use it.


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## epaka33 (Jun 1, 2007)

woodchuck said:


> As for this company, I don't like the work that I
> see in their portfolio and a lot of the designs are
> templates that you can find on ebay for .99
> 
> ...


No joke!

They're flash looks good, but it's VERY simplistic. PLUS, using flash completely ruins any chance of getting picked up on search engines. My suggestion... spend $1,000-2,000 on the site and $4,000-5,000 on the SEO.

Any SEO company that knows what they're doing can AT LEAST triple the amount of visits to your site and raise your visiturchase ratio. Chances are you're not even converting at 1%. That's the first thing I would tackle... your conversion ratio.


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## The T Shirt Man (Aug 29, 2006)

Also their copyright notice is until 2006....havent they updated their site in 2 years?


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## oiskallmate (Feb 19, 2008)

Raygunz187 said:


> Hi All,
> 
> I just want to get some feedback in regards to a quote I got from a Web Design firm for a full blown ecommerce website. He quoted me 6K-8K. Is that too much or avg for a professionally done ecommerce website? Please let me know what you guys think.
> 
> ...


There is always the possibility to trade services or equipment with someone who can build and maintain a professional website. Anything you want to accomplish on your site is more than likely be something you will have to sit and talk to a pro who knows what they are doing, but in the right hands a project like what your talking about shouldn't be much to a designer worth his weight in salt. So if you can find someone who can give you the "hookup" you can usually get a price more around the area of a grand or 2 as in all reality it doesn't take that long (again if you know what your doing).
If your payin 6-8Gs for a site it better come with support and a damn good set up and even some advertising support and submissions, also make sure you can track traffic sales and ads if you do them. Otherwise check out monstercommerce.com or something like that and do it yourself.

hope this helps someone.


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## Jeepwidow (Feb 12, 2008)

It helps me. I may not know anything but learning a little sure seems like a smart business move. If your going to be in business don't you want to know about the business? Is it unrealistic to say to a developer, "here is what I've experimented with, so can we bargain with the price?" 6k for a website is for the rich (or inherited rich ).


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## tim3560 (Jan 7, 2007)

oiskallmate said:


> check out monstercommerce.com .


What do you get when you sign up with monstercommerce or volusion? In layman's terms.


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## oiskallmate (Feb 19, 2008)

tim3560 said:


> What do you get when you sign up with monstercommerce or volusion? In layman's terms.


monstercommerce is everything but the kitchen sink.. and by kitchen sink i mean credit card processing. Like all carts, you need to have what is called a gateway to be on a secure line to talk to credit card processing people who take the money and give it to you. This is not something even I would attempt to do myself cause then if you get hacked, it's your fault. so fo ryour sake lets say your using paypal. it's free in the way that there is not a montly fee like there would be from like your bank's merchant account, but they'll take 4% of you sale, no biggie. Monstercommerce (100$ mo.) and yahoo!(40$ mo.) both have gateways to Paypal. Both have the ability to configure your urls for SEO purposes and both maintain your order processing and inventory. You can do coupons and you are placed in their respective shopping sites.

As far as design goes, yahoo is a pain in the *** but there are designers who specialize in yahoo! sites who will be your best bet. MonsterCommerce is a little bit easier and if your talking to someone who's halfway good, he'll be able to edit the CSS and make your site look howeveryou want, to a degree, i mean ecommerce site all look the same for a reason... it works.

Aside from the ecommerce portion of your site if you only plan on haveing a few non-coded pages where you are not running like a blog or something monstercommerce is fine but if you plan to run a forum or blog with the same domain Yahoo! does a much better job.. for blogging there is ONLY one solution.. Wordpress.. its free and used by the largest and most productive news/blogs sites out there, another alternative is blogger. Blog technology runs best on Linux servers where monstercommerce uses .net and they dont allow you to upload scripts, like ads ect. because the WHOLE SITE is secure.

SEO, well like the others have said is where the $ is. That is because you start to show relavence in the natural search, so your not paying for ads, which is an art in itself. Here's the secret... NAME EVERYTHING... and name it good using keywords that you think people will use to find that item. Name your url, name you images, name your articles, use keywords at the beginning of paragraphs and in titles.


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## tim3560 (Jan 7, 2007)

oiskallmate said:


> monstercommerce is everything but the kitchen sink.. and by kitchen sink i mean credit card processing. Like all carts, you need to have what is called a gateway to be on a secure line to talk to credit card processing people who take the money and give it to you. This is not something even I would attempt to do myself cause then if you get hacked, it's your fault. so fo ryour sake lets say your using paypal. it's free in the way that there is not a montly fee like there would be from like your bank's merchant account, but they'll take 4% of you sale, no biggie. Monstercommerce (100$ mo.) and yahoo!(40$ mo.) both have gateways to Paypal. Both have the ability to configure your urls for SEO purposes and both maintain your order processing and inventory. You can do coupons and you are placed in their respective shopping sites.
> 
> As far as design goes, yahoo is a pain in the *** but there are designers who specialize in yahoo! sites who will be your best bet. MonsterCommerce is a little bit easier and if your talking to someone who's halfway good, he'll be able to edit the CSS and make your site look howeveryou want, to a degree, i mean ecommerce site all look the same for a reason... it works.
> 
> ...


Ok, so what am I getting with cubecart, vs. monstercommerce, vs. yahoo?


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## dbslogos (Feb 21, 2008)

My business partner and I had little to spend on our currently developing site. We choose to do the zen cart and use a web designer we found through another t-shirt person we knew, and the word of mouth recommendation really helps. We had a hard time finding someone to do our site (the way we wanted) and for a reasonable amount of money. If you do the research it will be worth it! Good luck-


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## Gunslinger (Aug 3, 2007)

I felt the same as LC/woodchuck, after opening thier website. It looks like your typical cheapy flash template (far more busy than it should be). The music tipped me off, right away. Nothing wrong with that, but I would have expected they would have shelled out $65 for a better template.

I have been designing websites for about as long as anyone (since 1996, getting a $1500 shopping spree from Microsoft for my use of thier ActiveX control on my first "homepage"), and even when webmasters were getting six figure incomes back in 2000 ... I am pretty shocked at this price quote. Maybe I am missing something for what your exact needs are, or whatever products/services they could possibly be providing you to justify those fees.

I have been researching local web designers here, for pricing and services, toying with the idea of offering web design to our t-shirt biz. There are three part-time designers in our rather small community. Thier websites are dull and poorly done, and tend to charge far more than I would have expected (with the possible exception of writing custom coding), but they come nowhere near the $6000 range.

I am a firm believer that you should charge as much as the market will allow, but the only way I could charge more than two grand for a client would to offer a year of hosting and website updates (on top of a company site with a HTML side, a Flash side, and an e-commerce storefront). That extra 4 grand would go a lot farther for you in marketing and advertising ... A LOT farther.


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## dbslogos (Feb 21, 2008)

I think it is a great idea to web design in the t-shirt industry. Most everyone does their own graphics (photoshop/Illustrator) and has a very good idea of what they want. Our problem was fitting it in the "template" that they told us to look at and that most of them source everything out to someone else. Flash is a whole other story and it was something we spent way too much time on, and that was time we could have spent on our business.


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## oiskallmate (Feb 19, 2008)

tim3560 said:


> Ok, so what am I getting with cubecart, vs. monstercommerce, vs. yahoo?


never used cubecart, but it looks like a rip off, i dunno why they are charging so much to remove a copyright and software licensing. your still paying for your own hosting. Looks like it works sorta like Joomla where you have module add ons, cept they aren't open source, which is crappy cause it's in PHP and should be which means you have to wait for them to come out with more other than having the entire php community on your side, i'd rather go with OSCommerce (free + open source) and hire a really good designer php guys to make it what you want if you plan on hosting and maintaining your own ecommerce site


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## oiskallmate (Feb 19, 2008)

Also Flash is totally over-rated and really a joke among the web community these days, you wanna see Flash do useful things look into FLEX. if you want the most bang for your buck, spend time learning CSS cause thats the REAL tech that will effect the design and usefulness of your site


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## tim3560 (Jan 7, 2007)

oiskallmate said:


> never used cubecart, but it looks like a rip off, i dunno why they are charging so much to remove a copyright and software licensing. your still paying for your own hosting. Looks like it works sorta like Joomla where you have module add ons, cept they aren't open source, which is crappy cause it's in PHP and should be which means you have to wait for them to come out with more other than having the entire php community on your side, i'd rather go with OSCommerce (free + open source) and hire a really good designer php guys to make it what you want if you plan on hosting and maintaining your own ecommerce site


I'm kind of surprised to hear you say that. Several members on here say that cubecart is all a tshirt company really needs.


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## Gunslinger (Aug 3, 2007)

DBSLOGO ... in your opinion, what would you have paid for a site like mine (if you don't mind takin' a gander through it)?

The only reason it took me a loooong time doing the flash site, is that I had never worked with flash. It took about 6 weeks for me to understand how different authors coded for their given templates (they all design differently). Beyond that, it actually takes me less time to customize a flash template than it does for the html side.


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## oiskallmate (Feb 19, 2008)

tim3560 said:


> I'm kind of surprised to hear you say that. Several members on here say that cubecart is all a tshirt company really needs.


I think my issue is that of being a web designer myself, so I'm always looking for bang for my buck. As far as what a tee shirt company NEEDS, well again you can get that for free if you are planning on doing your own hosting. those guys just make it look pretty, which in many cases IS what a tee company really needs. I'm always looking at things like scalability, support, exposure things like that. Cubecart appears to only be a canned software you have to install yourself or pay one of them to do it.


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## Gunslinger (Aug 3, 2007)

Jared, I was old school about Flash for a very long time. I thought it was silly, and cost to much. But, that was in how it was used (I could whip up an animated gif, instead). Now, with the exception of an online store, I really prefer them (done correctly).

But, I agree with using OScommerce. It is likely the software I will be offering clients (the manual is overwhelming, though).


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## dbslogos (Feb 21, 2008)

Loved your site! The graphics are great. We were getting quotes over $2,500 to do something like your site. They also said that there would be "other charges" for changes going forward. You have a great site...


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## oiskallmate (Feb 19, 2008)

the main problem with flash IMHO is not the time and energy it takes in the development or anything like that, is that once you take CONTENT and move it into a Flash movie you no longer hold any cards for your sites SEO. I think your site is pretty sweet, i really like the flash, and it DOES help keep the attention of the customers, called sticky sites. But in terms of search engines all they see is basically no more than an image and misses the whole ability to crawl the content of the site. being that i do mostly corporate site with heavy content and SEO is of great importance, Flash just doesn't cut it. Many people are using AJAX (fancy new term for JavaScript) now as a supplement for flash effects. Also Like i mentioned earlier I've been useing Flex alot lately and WOW is that cool! you have the form fuctionality of html and XML but u can use flash to design the stuff.. really is cool. Thinking about building a CMS in Flex and use Flash like I do CSS for sites like yours.. would be a moneymaker.


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## Gunslinger (Aug 3, 2007)

Thanks Shelly ... that was the ballpark I thought it would be. But, I just haven't seen anyone with that here (online t-shirt folk) or locally, with that kind of budget. So, trying to break things down and making a price sheet that is fair and affordable is proving to be quite a chore (taking me longer to do than create a website).

LOL, getting tired of seeing someone's website, and going ... "man o man, have I got the perfect template for you!"


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## Gunslinger (Aug 3, 2007)

Jared, that does remain the main drag about flash with regard to SEO. And that one of two reasons, I used the old stand-by of a choice between html and flash sided websites. And I personally wouldn't even use a flash banner for an online store, as the focus should be on the product/s, not how fancy and cool your website is.

Beyond that, I like something Rodney advised before ... you should design for yourself (not to be confused with designing a site yourself), and not get too tied up with SEO. There are only so many things you can do with SEO, all very basic rules, and when they are applied ... that's about all you can do, beyond the very basic rule of updating your site pages frequently. I prefer seeing a website that reflects it's owners. The most disgusting thing I have noticed, researching other web designers (and yes, other custom t-shirt printers) and their own websites ... how poorly they are done. Why would I want to have someone design something for me, who can't even impress me with their OWN website design?

I have seen the mention of FLEX, before, but didn't know anything about it. Can you tell me a little about it, Jared? Like, Joomla and Mambo, I need to check that out!


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## woodchuck (Feb 13, 2008)

> But in terms of search engines all they see is basically no more than an image and misses the whole ability to crawl the content of the site.


Flash isn't so much an issue like it use to be.
As long as you have *some* formatted text,
preferably a little more than Michael's, meta
tags, keywords in your title, etc you'll be fine
with all the SE's.

Even stale content isn't quite so bad any more,
(sometimes you just don't need to change the
content) as long as good sites link to you once
in a while the SE's will pick up on the backlink
and give you credit for it.

I don't build many flash sites for clients, but
when I do, I always SEO them up as much
as possible with meta tags, good title words
blah, blah, blah.

But, what most designers don't do with flash
sites is to add a sitemap on the homepage,
or even add a link menu to the bottom of
every page.

Keep in mind that it's best when the SE spider
can find every page within your site from the
homepage as well as every other page in your
site.

Implement a few good backlinks and deep linking
(sitemap or link menu) on every page and you'll
see a nice increase in search rankings pretty
quickly.

BTW, I've visited Michael's site before. Nice job!



LC


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## Gunslinger (Aug 3, 2007)

Thanks LC! I have a nice design for the corporate site, but things have been changing around so quickly here, lately, I haven't finished it ... frustrating, since it's a beautiful design and I'd love to show it off, lol.

I agree 100% with relevent links back to your site, and it's also the most difficult to get these days, particularly with online stores. The more "t-shirt" related sites link to YOUR t-shirt site, honestly has the most impact to getting loads of t-shirt folks to check out your website. It really was the "norm" back in the day ... "hey, I like your site! let's do a link exchange!" ... then, it became a matter of where to fairly exchange your links, and so on. The whole thing got too complicated that no one wanted to do that anymore.

That's where you have to hump a bit ... write articles for t-shirt sites, particpate in forums, mingle and network and honestly - just have fun talking about your industry. Time and patience, beyond providing the best service/products you can is really all you need.

Yeah, sitemaps are golden ... the only reason I don't use them is if I have text links somewhere on my site (though, I see I should tweak the entry page for that, myself).


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## oiskallmate (Feb 19, 2008)

Gunslinger said:


> ...
> I have seen the mention of FLEX, before, but didn't know anything about it. Can you tell me a little about it, Jared? Like, Joomla and Mambo, I need to check that out!


All are good ideas, funny I'm here looking for t-shirt info and I'm back into the web design convo, good times.
Anywho Flex is a Flash Based Programming Software. It isn't a CMS (like Joomla, ect.) it's actually the program you use to build the code for a CMS or anything like that and still have the ability to use flash objects so you can do stuff like this:
http://examples.adobe.com/flex3/labs/configurator/configurator.html
and also have the usefulness of a program connected to a database.

it's all flash based and you can use flash animationgs and the like, but you also use XML to communicate to php or .Net. Also with the ability to read xml in flex you can do news readers that run off sites with RSS feeds. Although this doesn't give you your own content it does help to keep your site fresh. Also with XML running in the background you can set up tags and keywords in the xml doc and you Flash application is now SEO friendly! The program for Flex is like 600$ but they have a free version called SDK. If you like the 'feel' of flash and want to run a eCommerce web store you could DEFIANTLY use Flex to build it and have all the benefits of Flash without any of the setbacks. 

check out
Starbucks Coffee - Profile - Community Little Book Yellow Pages

This is my day job site for a local yellow pages company... I used Flex to do the maps on our site in Flash, they are way cooler than the AJAX ones you see on google maps. All the information i need to build the maps are saved in a mySQL database and read through XML. Cool stuff.


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## oiskallmate (Feb 19, 2008)

FlexStore
another store in Flex. notice the videos too!


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## Gunslinger (Aug 3, 2007)

Jared,

I had some trouble trying to figure out what FLEX was doing different, looking over the source code on the first two examples. But, the last link got my attention. I am going to dig deeper into FLEX ... many thanks, Jared!


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## Gunslinger (Aug 3, 2007)

LOL ... and I agree, it's always nice to have a nice web design discussion come up! I love my t-shirt work, but web design will always be my first love.


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