# Web hosting, ecommerce, and site building, OH MY!!



## farmthreads (Oct 17, 2007)

Hello all,

A little background first.... I run a website through MonsterCommerce for my real job and maybe I have been spoiled with their web building features. I 

Here is the problem. If I wanted to go with Monster, I would be paying an arm and a leg for hosting and eCommerce a month. I want to get my company online (already have shirts from doing trade shows) and was talked into ixwebhosting. I have found out that ix isn't as user friendly as I was told it was. Is there any web hosting sites I can use that offer cheap prices and an easily understandable web builder? I don't want a carbon copy of different sites, but don't have the money, time, or knowledge to build a website on my own.

Any help would be appreciated.


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## sonambulo (Sep 22, 2007)

i had no ( i mean absolute zero) knowledge when it came to web building a couple weeks ago. a guy i know thats into stuff like this refered me to w3schools.com. they have tutorials on html ,css, javascript and lots of examples that one can read and comprehend in a weekend. Really. It worked for me and can work for you.

Ummm. sounds like an infomercial, no? i guess i should add in tiny font (results not typical). 

but seriously, i found it quite easy to learn and very helpful.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

You should look into cubecart. It is a software that you download and install on your webhost (or have someone else do it)

You just need a webhost and someone to design the layout. Cubecart has admin backend areas that allow you to manage and upload products.

Here's a quick example breakdown of the costs. You can see why it would be less expensive to go this route:


$179.95 One time Cubecart4

$150 hosting yearly (places like lunarpages)
$50 SSL Cert Yearly (for processing https:// secure transactions)
$300-500 custom design ONE TIME (hiring a designer to give you a custom layout so your store doesn't look like everyone elses)
$100 coded ONE TIME (to hire someone to take that design layout and turn it into an HTML layout that can be implemented into cubecart)

Once you pay the one time fee for most of the stuff, your monthly fees will be much less with a shopping cart like cubecart/oscommerce/zencart that you host yourself.


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## peteVA (Nov 11, 2007)

And if you go with the free version 3 of CubeCart you can get started for even less.

Many here use and recommend CubeCart. It is a free shopping cart site that is well suited to most products, including clothing. It has the capability to handle size / color options for clothes and shoes.

Here is a breakdown of costs - 
Hosting is available in the $ 5 per month range. Included with most hosting is a package called Fantastico which includes a free version of CubeCart.

Then there is the cost of the domain. This you get on your own. Cost is about $ 10 to $ 12 per year. .com domains can be piad for year to year, but .co.uk domains have a two year minimum. So, from $ 10 to $ 24 or so for your startup domain purchase.

Hard to believe, but that's it. That will get you on the way to a very capable online store. Many don't want a "plain jane, out of the box" look to their store, so there are templates or "skins" available. These run from free to in the $ 50 to $ 100 range for a large variety of pre-designed skins, and up to a few hundred dollars for a truly custom design.

Again, this is optional and you can set up and get your store running with the base design. And then you can have a number of skins as you grow your business. I once had an online store with a skin for New Years, Valentines, St. Paddy's, Mother's Day, etc., right through to Christmas. 

Now, for some sites that will give you some examples of what can be done with this free site and a bit of design work - 
CubeCart - Live Stores

So, you can see that the basic cart can look anything but basic. This is something that many find hard to believe and they get told they need a site built from the ground up. Nothing could be further from the truth. You can have a store up within a couple of days for $ 16 to $ 30, or thereabouts.

Here's what the "office" looks like. This is where you set up your shipping and payment types and add your items for sale. CubeCart - Online Demo


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## BAD311 (Nov 17, 2007)

I just got all of my sites off of ixwebhosting, I thought they were cool until their servers kept crashing on about 30-40 of my clients websites for hours on end. Cant have that! Not to mention during peek times of the day the servers would be sooooooo slow - why? They have over 1,000 sites per server!!!! You get what you pay for!


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## EnchantedMirror (May 24, 2008)

I use homestead for my webstore, it is easy to use, figure out and work with, and 25 dollars a month


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## osix (Jun 1, 2008)

HI , had register and buy about 4 domain name now , and is too hutning for webhosting service , 
there is so many offer by so many different host all so confusing ..
The last Host i use is Cirtexhosting.com

if you PM me i can give you a Code for 50% off . whahahahah if too many people end up using this host - in future it might be slow whahahaa 

the Real deal from what i heard and spoken with is that you got to get a dedicated server , 

the rest is all Shared hosting which is - at the mercy of the host if there over sell or not , 

i had look at Iweb.com also 
but is a 10 years deal . which is super price cheap . 

i know nuts about all the SSL SSH or ruby ok rail and this and that , which make it very hard for me to digest when i read up all the good and bad . 

and seem like every good host i think i am on .. when i do a google eg.. HOSTname + Suck 
i seem to be alway able to dig out some dirt abotu even the best host .. 

so i gues sthere is no perfect Host unless you run it on your dedicated home server which very good ISP .

i had spoken to local bank .. maybe you should too .. in term of credit card payment , maybere there can give you advice on what host is good and what host had there work with ..

i am i Thailand so my advice may not apply 100 % 

oh .. Cirtex have good online support , there on MSN as well as every tix get reply with hour . like most good host would and should do . 

MY suggest is the same plan i am going to do now ,, BUy some cheap Host . like 2-5 GB run it to see how it go .. and since it cheap -- i can just move on and lose maybe 2-3 days traffic ..

best of luck in your hosting hunt .. 

there is just too many confusing info to determine who is good . 

i am sure every host have their plus and down point .

why not get 2 cheap host and move between them with Link or something if it allow


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## Yazakisan (Jun 19, 2008)

We've been using Monsterhost for the past year or so and they've been good to us. They also offer PHP and MYSQL support.


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## Down The Leg Inc (Jan 17, 2008)

The route I went is Godaddy premium host for $14.99 a mo (unlimited websites) and comes with a free SSl cert and a ton of other stuff take a look https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/hosting/shared.asp?ci=9009 
Also I got the $5.99 a mo "website tonight" https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/hosting/hosting_build_website.asp?ci=9028 But if you are really hard up and don't have a very big site or not alot of traffic you can just go with $5.99 mon which comes with a little hosting. So that could be $16.00 (9.99 domain + 5.99 website tonite/hosting) for domain,hosting and website builder and $5.99 mon. Under $20.00 and got a site up in a few hours and only 6 bucks a month with no SSl.The website tonight is easy to use a nd a pretty good selection of stuff. My site building/managing/Html skills are only about a 2 out of ten also. The only thing that pisses me of with godaddy is how thier site is just sooooo crowded with stuff and navigation and kinda confusing at times.


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## CUSTOM UK (Jun 28, 2008)

*Hi. I use Dailyrazor.com* *for all my sites. Have always found their customer service is superb. Nothing is too much trouble for them.*

*Cubecart is a good program, but their checkout process is far too laborious for me. A third party developer did develop a fast track checkout system for Cubecart, but the contact page is dead on their website. Just far too many clicks to pay.*

*Building web sites is not too difficult, making them work is the hard part.  *


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## shawnar80 (Jul 23, 2008)

In response to Dailyrazor.com, I thought they were just awful. Everytime I called I would have to explain from square 1 what the issue was because no one communicates there. It was a real pain. I would suggest inMotion hosting. They're awesome! Customer service is super informative and their web builder is really good.


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## CUSTOM UK (Jun 28, 2008)

I host multiple sites with dailyrazor. I have never had an issue with them. Every technical issue or request has been sorted within two hours. As with every host provider, using the technical support ticket always yields better response than calling.

Having looked at the Inmotion hosting packages, I see that they ask you to pay for two years in advance. That's not a realistic proposition.


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## Sundancerde (Apr 12, 2008)

we use homestead for the online store...it was pretty easy to set up...I didn't have a lot of experience. Now I am looking for a simple to use & cheap website. I might try godaddy...thanks.
Sundancerde


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## Unified Web (Nov 5, 2019)

Everything outlined looks pretty accurate, just wanted to add my two cents.

If you're only running small orders to friends and family and don't have the budget then making your own site is perfectly fine, those clients come to you for the individual running the company, not the usability or design of the site (mostly).

However if you are looking to expand your client base to bring it more customers and increase your revenue then loyalty will not exist for cold traffic, if they come to a 'clunky' site and find the usability difficult to navigate then they frankly will not stay. T shirt printing is far from an under supplied market so you need every competitive edge possible.

I have worked in web design for many years and worked with many clients that have built sites for themselves and expected the traffic to come, the common phrase 'build it and they will come' does sadly not apply to websites in the large majority of cases. Tactics such as SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) must be employed in order to drive traffic to your site. Once they arrive, you have the matter of seconds on average to impress them and make them stay.

More recently a lot of my clients have introduced software to their sites in order to allow clients to design their own t-shirts with a virtual preview (similar to what you might see on spreadshirt) which adds another competitive edge over your competitors.

I am not here to promote my companies services as I know that it appears spammy and annoying in forums but if anybody is interested, feel free to reach out.


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