# Where do I even start?



## RyanMB79 (Mar 7, 2006)

I need to build a website from scratch, and I have absolutely no knowledge of web design/development. I'm thinking of finding a freelancer on getafreelancer.com. But what do I even ask for? What computer language should it be written in? What are common mistakes? Has anyone else had a foreign freelancer build them a website from scratch?

The other alternative is to use a really vanilla template from GoDaddy.com and then just plan to have a website re-made from scratch in few months when I have more experience and (hopefully) money. Has anyone used GoDaddy for this specific purpose? Or any other templates? Thoughts? Thanks so much for any input.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

Hey there, we just had a recent topic about just this thing  Check this link out:
http://www.t-shirtforums.com/showthread.php?t=2273


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## RyanMB79 (Mar 7, 2006)

Thanks, Rodney, I did see that link. I was hoping to get even more specific, rather than just hearing "get a freelancer" or "use a template." I'm more of a novice than you can even imagine! I need to know what to actually ask for from someone on getafreelancer or a template provider.I did read from that webdesignfromscratch website, but even that assumed a base knowledge, which I don't have. I realize it'd be asking for a lot, for someone to walk me through the basics of having a website made, but if anyone has any more useful links they can point me to or tips of their own it would be much appreciated.


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## badalou (Mar 19, 2006)

What is your budget for a start. Do you want a shopping cart?



RyanMB79 said:


> I need to build a website from scratch, and I have absolutely no knowledge of web design/development. I'm thinking of finding a freelancer on getafreelancer.com. But what do I even ask for? What computer language should it be written in? What are common mistakes? Has anyone else had a foreign freelancer build them a website from scratch?
> 
> The other alternative is to use a really vanilla template from GoDaddy.com and then just plan to have a website re-made from scratch in few months when I have more experience and (hopefully) money. Has anyone used GoDaddy for this specific purpose? Or any other templates? Thoughts? Thanks so much for any input.


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## RyanMB79 (Mar 7, 2006)

My budget is around 500-$1000. If that is unrealistic, don't laugh. But please tell me so. I think I found a freelancer in India I want to use. He charges $10/hour. For those of you who have done this sort of thing, roughly how long would it take to make a relatively simple, yet attractive ecommerce website. More than 100 hours? The only features that might not be typical ecommerce fare would be a blog and video hosting capability. Thanks for your help.


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## badalou (Mar 19, 2006)

India? 10 per Hour.. what is that in Indian money? How did you find him? remember if your doing an ecommerce you need to have something set up to collect CC's. I don't know if you here in the states I think you should have someone here do it.. But that is just me. Your budget sounds ok.. a good shopping cart program could set up back 100 to 400. Good luck.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

RyanMB79 said:


> Thanks, Rodney, I did see that link. I was hoping to get even more specific, rather than just hearing "get a freelancer" or "use a template." I'm more of a novice than you can even imagine! I need to know what to actually ask for from someone on getafreelancer or a template provider.I did read from that webdesignfromscratch website, but even that assumed a base knowledge, which I don't have. I realize it'd be asking for a lot, for someone to walk me through the basics of having a website made, but if anyone has any more useful links they can point me to or tips of their own it would be much appreciated.


I think reading webdesignfromscratch will help if you read it with an open mind. It really is taking you from designing a website from the beginning to the end.

There is no "quickie" way to explain it really, it takes some good research to learn how to do it and do it right. Webdesignfromscratch explains it pretty clearly.

If you have specific questions, we can help you with that, but for a general overview, the link in the thread I pointed you to is a good starter to learn what to look for when you're thinking about getting a website designed.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> India? 10 per Hour.. what is that in Indian money? How did you find him? remember if your doing an ecommerce you need to have something set up to collect CC's.


You can find a coder at rentacoder.com that will design a layout for you for around $10 an hour. The international outsourced market is pretty competitive.



 To get a good, unique layout, I would say you could pay anywhere from $0-$500
Webhosting would be anywhere from $7-$25 per month.
Shopping cart would be either $0 (for free carts like oscommerce, cubecart, etc) to $500+ (for enterpise solutions like miva,shopsite, etc)
Domain name would be $7-$12 per year.
If you want your own secure server SSL certificate (ex: http*s*://example.com), that would be about $50 per year. Most webhosts allow you to share their secure server certificate for free. (ex: https://examplehost.com/~youraccount/yourshop/)
First you register the domain name, then you find hosting, then you setup your shopping cart, then you apply a unique layout to your shopping cart, then you make sure you can accept credit cards (like through PayPal and/or a regular merchant account through linkpoint or authorizenet). Then you add your products, then you test that everything works, then you launch your site and start promoting it.

Many of those steps can be outsourced through independent contractors and some of those steps have many variables that can factor in the costs.

Any specific questions, feel free to ask


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## RyanMB79 (Mar 7, 2006)

Thanks, Rodney. I will take another look.


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## RyanMB79 (Mar 7, 2006)

Also, I understand it's difficult to judge, but do you have a really rough estimate of how many hours it would take an experienced designer to make an ecommerce site? Thanks.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

RyanMB79 said:


> Also, I understand it's difficult to judge, but do you have a really rough estimate of how many hours it would take an experienced designer to make an ecommerce site? Thanks.


It would vary ALOT depending on a lot of variables (how many products, which shopping cart, what type of design, how much content is provided by the merchant, how many product photos, which web host, etc, etc, etc)

What I would suggest is breaking it down into steps (like the steps I mentioned above).

First get your domain, then find a good webhost. 

Then figure out which shopping cart you want to use. There are a lot to choose from, you have to figure out which features you'll need, and which you might want in the future. A good free shopping cart that I've just started messing with is cubecart (at cubecart.com). A good paid shopping cart is miva or shopsite. All have different features, different levels (and ease) of customization, etc.

If all you're doing is selling t-shirts, then your site will BE the shopping cart, which means that most of it will be powered by the shopping cart and customized through some type of templating feature.

Figure out how you're going to accept payment. PayPal is a good start.

And move on from there...


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## RyanMB79 (Mar 7, 2006)

Gotcha. Thanks so much for your input.


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## DFras (Aug 9, 2005)

I know for me, I wouldn't want to go with an hourly contract as it seems too open- ended. Who knows how many hours you may end up getting billed.
I found a couple of sites with functional elements I liked, then, found a designer and pointed to these and was able to show her exactly how I wanted my site to operate. I then explained the look and color schemes. She knew what I wanted and what was involved so was able to give a quote for the complete project. Good luck with your site.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

The method dfras metioned is another great way to approach a designer!

Find a site (or sites) that you like (as far as look & feel/functionality) and let the designer/coder know that's what you're trying to acheive. That will help them see visually what you're going for so you're both on the same page.


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## DFras (Aug 9, 2005)

I found this method to be the easiest for me. I was so rookie, I did not know what questions to ask. So, I know exactly what you are feeling.
By being able to show the designer what I was looking for, it really smoothed the process. (I did use sections of several sites as examples.)


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## lawaughn (Jul 5, 2005)

You can get a good site from getafreelancer.com for way under $500. I've used them before.

First decide on how many pages your looking for.

Homepage
Contact Page
About Us
Store
Content

You need to think it out first and figure out how much you are willing to spend.
If you use getafreelancer.com think in your head that you won't go higher than
a certain price , say $350. They will out bid each other down to almost nothing.
_____________________________________________________________

If you want to learn some basic HTML go to www.2createawebsite.com they
have a great tutorial.
_________________________________________________________________

If you want to practice your HTML download a free 30 day trial editor from
www.coffeecup.com You can also use it to make real pages. It even has a ftp
so you can upload the pages to your server.
_________________________________________________________________

Last but not least go to the company that did my site. They are super fast, very creative and not expensive. [pm for information]
_________________________________________________________________

If you have any other questions feel free to ask.


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## RyanMB79 (Mar 7, 2006)

Thanks everyone for the help. Really. Another question: what does "Websites-Database/Ecommerce (Dynamic)" mean? I found this phrase on guru.com. It asks if I need that add-on and I don't know what it means.


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## lawaughn (Jul 5, 2005)

I have no clue. 

I failed to mention the free shopping carts.

www.zencart.com

www.oscommerce.com

How are people going to pay? Do you have a merchant account or 
are you going through Paypal?


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## RyanMB79 (Mar 7, 2006)

I'll be opening a merchant account. I think I'm going to request a quote from the people that made your website. If you want to private message me your name, then I can tell them you referred me.


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## lawaughn (Jul 5, 2005)

My name is LaWaughn. Matthew the owner knows me well.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

RyanMB79 said:


> Thanks everyone for the help. Really. Another question: what does "Websites-Database/Ecommerce (Dynamic)" mean? I found this phrase on guru.com. It asks if I need that add-on and I don't know what it means.


Many ecommerce stores are powered by a database (mysql is one type of database). 

A database is just a way to store the information (products, images, links, prices). 

The ecommerce script (like oscommerce, cubecart, etc) will allow you to save your products to a database and display shopping cart pages created from the database to make it easier to manage adding and editing products.

Just about every web host will come with php (scripting language) and mysql database(s). Just make sure when you're choosing a webhost that it has that in case you need it down the line.


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## lawaughn (Jul 5, 2005)

If the webhost comes with cpanel you will have access to cubecart, zencart and oscommerce. Sometimes if you install them through the cpanel zencart for instance has ads at the bottom. You want to download for the offical website and upload to get the lastest updated version with ads.


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## BelHeirClothing (Mar 23, 2006)

Where is the best place to get a merchant account? VeriSign? or what....


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## monkeylantern (Oct 16, 2005)

Verisign is not here for much longer. Bought by Paypal, slowly being absorbed.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

To get a merchant account, I would look for a company that uses the authorizenet gateway. There are lots that do.

One is e-onlinedata.com, but there are many others. 

A good way to find merchant accounts is to visit a shopping cart vendor's website to see which merchant accounts they work with. If you click their links, they usually are tied to affiliate programs (which doesn't effect you in any way), so you can either follow their links, or visit the merchant account provider's websites directly to compare their rates and services:

Check out the bottom of http://www.cubecart.com for a lot of different merchant account providers. Also check out: http://www.shopsite.com/cc_101.html#gateways


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## badalou (Mar 19, 2006)

here something interesting. At my Borders I was able to buy a magazine for web designers printed in England. It comes with a CD and often they have various free software for doing shopping carts and other things. Sometimes it is limited to only 50 products but they work as I use one. The idea is they want you to upgrade later.


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## normsbrand (Jul 26, 2006)

Lou,

That magazine is a great source of web site Design. Practical Web Design, I think it cost about $16 at borders. I have also found that you have to get there really close to the first of the month, even to get one. Eventually, I am going to get a subscription to it.


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