# Does anyone design and run their own website?



## SamBella Designs (Sep 19, 2008)

Hello everyone,
I was wondering if anyone uses a site like Yahoo or similar for their website? If anyone designs and runs their own website. I will be ready soon to get my websites (I want to start two) up and running and dont have alot of money to do so. I have been reading up on the sites and I think I can do it myself but would love some input from those who know alot more than I do...that would be a whole lot of people! I will be making t-shirts of course along with quite a bit of other clothing items such as jackets etc...
Thanks for the input and looking forward to this very exciting time!
Happy Day All,
SamBella Designs


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

Yes, many members here design and run their own websites. That's what this whole section is for  

What kind of input are you looking for exactly?

You can also use the search box at the top of the page and type in yahoo to see feedback from people who use yahoo storebuilder or yahoo hosting.


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## SamBella Designs (Sep 19, 2008)

I would love to run my own website, actually two of them for my products. I would love some input as to what people are using to host their sites (Yahoo etc...) and for any suggestions as to what the best self-run sites are financial wise and sites that are user friendly for someone like me who has never run their own site before. Any and all tips will be appreciated.
Thank you for the input.


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## GRFXARMY (Apr 23, 2007)

I have an account with bluehost.com , they have tools that can automatically set up a few different shopping carts, including cubecart, oscommerce (which I use for StreetwearScene.com) and another one I believe. You have to learn some details on how to run it, but with practice and time you can definitely do it, I did!


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## jkruse (Oct 10, 2008)

Dream host has been awesome to me, and is definitely worth the extra money.
For domain registration I use go daddy. 

You can always use a domain and bigcartel to run your entire store.


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## queerrep (Jul 18, 2006)

SamBella Designs said:


> I would love to run my own website, actually two of them for my products. I would love some input as to what people are using to host their sites (Yahoo etc...) and for any suggestions as to what the best self-run sites are financial wise and sites that are user friendly for someone like me who has never run their own site before. Any and all tips will be appreciated.
> Thank you for the input.


I also use bluehost, and like JStylez said, through the control panel you can install OS Commerce, Cubecart or ZenCart.

My yearly cost to maintain website:
bluehost - ~$84
SSL cert. - ~$100
ZenCart - $0


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## bwiewiora (Oct 23, 2008)

The first thing is to get a domain name and hosting account. There are different levels of hosting based on the amount of traffic you expect to receive, but usually if you're just starting out one of the more basic packages works fine. Some hosting providers offer services to get your website up which are very useful. My hosting right now is through hostmonster, and they offer a bunch of different services.

My site is run using wordpress, which is blogging software but can be customized to use for a lot of other purposes. Using one these content management systems makes it a lot easier to administer the site because you don't have to dive into the code every time you want to change something. 

There is a plugin for wordpress called wp e-commerce which I'm using for the products sections of my site. It works fairly well, although it's definitely not perfect. The best thing to do, though, is to dive in and try it out!


Good luck!


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## tfalk (Apr 3, 2008)

I've got several sites hosted on Lunarpages, they include install scripts for ZenCart, OSCommerce and a couple of other things. I'm running a couple of sites using OSCommerce and another I started a few years ago using CommerceCGI. 

Figure out what payment options you want to use first, then find a shopping cart that has a gateway already configured for it. The first time I went down this street, I found the cart I wanted to use, then spent weeks trying to learnenough about PHP, etc to code a gateway file to connect to my merchant account. Not fun...


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## InterStreme (Feb 9, 2008)

I use godaddy.com for hosting and wordpress as a platform. Wordpress is pretty easy to set up manually. Godaddy now has an option that allows you have them install wordpress on your site. Wordpress is pretty east to manage and customize.


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## taglessthreads (Sep 16, 2006)

We use Godaddy.com it is very user friendly !


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## T-BOT (Jul 24, 2006)

*"Does anyone design and run their own website?"*

yes. 


free hosting, c-panel and a bunch of other stuff...can't complain.


but Im not a designer. 


:


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## Teecycle_Tim (Nov 7, 2008)

I'm a big fan of wordpress for my own site. Very user-friendly.


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## SamBella Designs (Sep 19, 2008)

*InterStreme: I LOVE your products. Your website looks great and the shirt on the opening page is fantastic!*


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## SamBella Designs (Sep 19, 2008)

*Thank you so much everyone. I have gotten alot of valuable input. This is such a great site.*


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## krylonking (Aug 28, 2007)

please dont use yahoo, not that I dont like yahoo or anything, but usually those cookie cutter style website look like crap and do more to hurt your sales than help. I personally dont buy from stores that are created/run with yahoo. 

I would put in work/time to either build your own from scratch, or pay someone to do it for you.


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## T-BOT (Jul 24, 2006)

krylonking said:


> I would put in work/time to either build your own from scratch, or pay someone to do it for you.


Todd, I agree. 

I mean, do people have any idea how much money and sales they can make by having a good working site that offers great products and content? noooooooooooooo.... most are happy with a beautiful site that joethesitemaker.coma gives you free included in your hosting pakage. Pardon my french, Im in Paris and I feel a change coming on. ...with google translate.


btw: Im by no means an expert and I love AltaVista.  





:


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## InterStreme (Feb 9, 2008)

Thanks SamBella! If you ever need help with wordpress just let me know.


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## bcash (Apr 4, 2008)

krylonking said:


> please dont use yahoo, not that I dont like yahoo or anything, but usually those cookie cutter style website look like crap and do more to hurt your sales than help. I personally dont buy from stores that are created/run with yahoo.
> 
> I would put in work/time to either build your own from scratch, or pay someone to do it for you.



I use Yahoo and have been pretty happy with them. My site is definitely not cookie cutter either. I love how everything is integrated, makes for easy management.
search "Printable Memories" to check out what a Yahoo store can do.


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## NancyJPants (Aug 28, 2007)

I use Godaddy for hosting but the E-Junkie shopping cart allowed me to integrate and design my own shopping buttons and shipping.


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## kurt (Apr 29, 2008)

We design program and maintain our web site. We work on it every day and employ several full time people to keep it going. A web site takes time and lots of money to do properly.

Kurt
http://www.brokenarrowwear.com


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## KimKman (Jul 31, 2008)

kurt said:


> A web site takes time and lots of money to do properly.


Yes, they certainly take a dedicated effort and budget. Yours is a professional example. Nice site Kurt.


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## flirteegirl (Apr 10, 2007)

I am currently using Netfirms and Netobjects to build my website. I only pay $119 a year for hosting and I can host as many websites as I want. I also have my domains registered through Netfirms. It's like $10 per year per name. And Netobjects is great for building if you have no prior web building skills like me. Check them out too.


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## HEAL Clothing (Dec 10, 2008)

I use godaddy for my hosting which I have no problems with and run my store with volusions store front. Its has a lot of features which I haven't even began to use but hope to soon. Its very customizable. I used godaddys storefront in the beginning but didn't like it and prefer volusions to it. 

Hope this helps a bit.


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## lburton3 (Aug 14, 2008)

I pay for hosting space and it's like $80 bucks a year or less, but nearly unlimited space and bandwidth, and unlimited websites/e-mail accounts/mySQL database, etc. I register all of my domain names through GoDaddy, with a discount code, and it comes out to be like $7.69/year, so it's not bad at all.

I installed CubeCart v3 and re-coded it to work with my website. I do all of the design/coding/managing myself, so I save on costs there, and I think it turned out really well, and for a very very very good price (practically free!). Check out my website in my signature to see what I'm talking about, and let me know if you need any help!!


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## HA (Jan 9, 2010)

Does anyone use Volusions?


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## jamiel (Sep 1, 2009)

I'm also considering Volusion, anyone have any experience with it?

Also, are credit card gateway fees the only way?


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## airborneranger (Apr 28, 2008)

I, like so many of the others use Wordpress on a quarterly paid host (about $60 per year) - Web Hosting, VPS Hosting, and Dedicated Servers by InMotion Hosting has always done great with me... Recently had them add SSL cert from goDaddy - they basically did all the work for me after I setup the directory - Purchased a Wordpress template and customized it myself ($30) - I host the shop out of Big Cartel (using the $9 per month plan) but am moving it local soon using OpenCart (which is free) and SSL is WAY more affordable these days. I've also integrated most of my communications through a Facebook page that I created and maintain pretty easily after learning some FBML.


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## jamiel (Sep 1, 2009)

How much do you pay in credit card gateway fees?


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## ShiroiNekoOnline (Feb 7, 2010)

I use HostGator.com and I'm satisfied with it.


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## saulnier31 (Jun 30, 2008)

krylonking said:


> please dont use yahoo, not that I dont like yahoo or anything, but usually those cookie cutter style website look like crap and do more to hurt your sales than help. I personally dont buy from stores that are created/run with yahoo.
> 
> I would put in work/time to either build your own from scratch, or pay someone to do it for you.


 
I use Yahoo as well for one of my other business. I have to agree that some of the designs they give are pretty cheezy and cookie cutter looking. but I build mine not using one of the templates. They are a bit more expensive then most hosts out there but they do give you everything you need. Merchant acount, shopping cart, analytics, reports, etc. And the customer service is pretty good.


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## HA (Jan 9, 2010)

Volusions is awesome and reasonable. It is very deep and takes awhile to learn but that 's good because deep means flexible and expandable. You can do everything yourself and still look professional but it helps to have an html or cascade background. Try it out. Their phone help is good, if you find an expert let me know because there's some things I want to do but don't want to put the time in for. My site is Volusions I did it all myself except the music and video. Check it out-Jeff


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## PBRme (Jun 18, 2007)

i use bluehost as well for sites. shopify for store (very easy to set up). paypal pro for accepting cc's.


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## fapwear (Nov 18, 2009)

WordPress for the blog (had no idea how many websites out there were actually managed by wordpress until recently...lots!)

Big Cartel for the shopping cart

CheapDomain-Registration for the host (pretty sure this is just Go Daddy under a different name)


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## Hatter & Company (Jan 10, 2010)

fapwear said:


> WordPress for the blog (had no idea how many websites out there were actually managed by wordpress until recently...lots!)
> 
> Big Cartel for the shopping cart
> 
> CheapDomain-Registration for the host (pretty sure this is just Go Daddy under a different name)



Agreed - this is a good start for newcomers...Wordpress is an AMAZING tool...I would suggest having someone design/code a site if you don't know what you're doing.


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## jamiel (Sep 1, 2009)

Hi Airborne, how did you get the Flash scroll on your website? Nice site, btw!


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## oneeyedjack (Mar 7, 2007)

Hi,

Check out bigcommerce.com for all in one solution.I tried Volusion free trial and gave up after an hour or so,to complicated for a total noob like myself.Big Commerce is VERY user friendly.Doing the free trial i was adding products and product options within a half hour.Check it out because if i can figure it out pretty much anyone should be able to.

Gary


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## HA (Jan 9, 2010)

I checked it out ,it looks good it's less then volusions, and i can put way more products. I'm thinking about switching. -Thanks


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