# Best Website To Build A Store With



## speck (Mar 4, 2010)

Right now I am starting up my business and am currently using Weebly.com to build my site. Is this a site that's easy to use when building a store? Has anyone used it successfully? I am taking Web Programming Classes so at some point soon I hope to develop my own site. But right now I am looking for a successful and preferably inexpensive site builder. 

Thanks


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

"Best" is only in the eyes of the purchaser. What's best for me will not be best for you.

1. What are you list of must-have features?

2. Why do you like Weebly?

3. How much is Weebly and how much would you like to spend?


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## Fr4nk13 (Feb 10, 2010)

I wouldn't suggest weebly at all. 

IMHO, it just looks cheap and slapped together.

If I was to visit a weebly website, personally, I probably wouldn't buy anything from it, and be turned off from that company all together.

There's a few very simple solutions that look and feel more professional. You can try to look into a publishing platform such as wordpress, drupal or joomla!. Many webhosts (I use Dream Host) offer one-click installs of these platforms, which takes a lot of the technical aspects out of it for you.

All of these platforms have templates readily available online, and none of them have an excessive learning curve. And if you'd like, you can easily create a custom template yourself with a program called Artisteer (I believe the 'standard' version is under $140)

Now, I know this is significantly more work than a build-a-site provider, but I can guarantee that your results will be more professional, meaning higher traffic and revenue.

If you have any questions, you're more than welcome to PM me.


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## speck (Mar 4, 2010)

How do I use WordPress? I just downloaded it on my Mac and it's just a folder...When I did HTML & CSS I used Dreamweaver...Do I open the folder with that program?


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## mattsweb (Mar 10, 2010)

I'd agree with Fr4nk13's comments about Weebly. To add to his comments, Wordpress and the rest are content management tools first - you'll have to use a plug in or do some configuration if you want to sell products.
If you're looking for easy, shopify and bigcartel offer hosted ecommerce solutions. They have a fair amount of customization available and have most of the typical store functions built in.
If you're up for more tinkering, Magento is a great option. It's open source (free) and has a LOT of configuration options. You'll have to host it yourself though and the learning curve is a bit steep while you're getting to know the software.


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## Fr4nk13 (Feb 10, 2010)

speck said:


> How do I use WordPress? I just downloaded it on my Mac and it's just a folder...When I did HTML & CSS I used Dreamweaver...Do I open the folder with that program?


Wordpress isn't a prebuilt website. It's a content management system that you install on your server.

What's your hosting provider?


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## TeesForChange (Jan 17, 2007)

I really love bigcommerce. Their back end is user-friendly, they offer tons of templates and their SEO functionality is great!


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## airborneranger (Apr 28, 2008)

If you're starting out and don't want to spend a lot - more like testing the waters, you can use BigCartel.com - start out with small inventory and add more as you go. You can check my site - easily customized.


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## BleedingThreads (Oct 1, 2009)

I personally like Early Impact's Product Cart with the apparel add-on. It let's you have styles, colors and sizes (a 3 dimensional product... tough unless you have a specific software to do) with a single shirt type.

But that's my opinion. Check out their website and see for yourself...


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## BleedingThreads (Oct 1, 2009)

BleedingThreads said:


> I personally like Early Impact's Product Cart with the apparel add-on. It let's you have styles, colors and sizes (a 3 dimensional product... tough unless you have a specific software to do) with a single shirt type.
> 
> But that's my opinion. Check out their website and see for yourself...


Oh, and they work with sooo many different credit card processors... we use paypal pro but you can even use their more simple services.


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

BleedingThreads said:


> Oh, and they work with sooo many different credit card processors... we use paypal pro but you can even use their more simple services.


Post a link to your site so we can have a look.


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## BleedingThreads (Oct 1, 2009)

splathead said:


> Post a link to your site so we can have a look.


We are about to do a rebuild (Christmas special...lol..) but it is at All Products - Bleeding Threads


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## JoGonRu (Mar 18, 2010)

Hi Speck- I am not familiar with Weebly, but congrats on learning web programming! I will tell you that the msot important question to ask yoruself is what do you want to be a web developer or business owner? I think it's great to learn some web development, but business is tough enough. You really want to look into ecommerce platforms that allow you to do 2 things, update them quickly and easily from anywhere and provide all the important selling funcitonality that you need to be successful. Things like credit card gateways, product attributes for things like size and color and Internet marketing tools that help you with email marketing, integrated to Facebook, Twitter and others and so much more. I would recommend that you take a look at some of the following sites: Volusion, GoEcart, and xSellit. They are some of the leaders in the indsutry and are very fairly priced. 

Let me know if I can help in any other ways.

Good Luck!


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## brice (Mar 10, 2010)

Stay away from Prostores.com. It's an ebay company that CLAIMS to have ease of use and turn key install and nothing could be further from the truth. They use a proprietary mark up and their customer support makes you want to throw your phone in the toilet.

I use x-cart gold on a hardhat.com. But it takes some technical skill unless one of the supplied templates is satisfactory.


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## car-tats.net (Mar 18, 2010)

Get a host (I use hostmonster) get wordpress, and get WP e-commerce! SUPER easy to use. I am *working* on a site using this setup, you can see my two weeks of work *so far* on it with the link in my signature


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## SeasonEnds (Sep 9, 2007)

JoGonRu said:


> I will tell you that the msot important question to ask yoruself is what do you want to be a web developer or business owner? I think it's great to learn some web development, but business is tough enough.


Joe, I agree with you here, but being specialized is absolutely critical. It could be, in the end, what gives you a competitive advantage.

Anyways, web programming is a blast. It's great to see something that you have spent so much time on come alive. Samantha, I would suggest getting the Web Developer tool for Fire Fox and examining how successful developers construct their sites.


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## teesey (Aug 1, 2009)

speck said:


> How do I use WordPress? I just downloaded it on my Mac and it's just a folder...When I did HTML & CSS I used Dreamweaver...Do I open the folder with that program?


What you downloaded are files containing the code that create the wordpress content management system. If you open up header.php, for example, you'll find html, and if you open style.css in the default theme folder you'll find the CSS. But before you can edit these and see the results, you'll needs to install it on a server. Instructions are here Installing WordPress WordPress Codex

If you aren't too sure about how to do it, try signing up with Wordpress.com (as opposed to wordpress.org). It does all the setup and hosting for you. So if it's going to take you a while to figure out how to install wordpress manually on your own server, consider trying out the pre-hosted version first and seeing if you like it. 

Someone mentioned Bigcartel (Big Cartel Pricing and Sign Up) earlier and I'll say that it really is great - as long as you're not too concerned with fully customizing your site. Plus it's got a free option!

Otherwise, if you have some web design experience and you _do_ want total control over what your store looks like & how it works, I suggest using Wordpress. Someone mentioned using the free wp-ecommerce plugin earlier, however, and I must recommend against it. Instead, consider spending $55 and getting the Shopp plugin (Shopp ecommerce for wordpress).

We use Shopp on our site and I cannot emphasize enough how much better it is than wp-ecommerce (which I've also tried). The support, documentation, and organized code make it a breeze to work with. It's not worth pulling your hair out and trying to customize WP-ecommerce when there's an inexpensive and much more functional alternative. 

Oh, and good luck!


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

teesey said:


> We use Shopp on our site and I cannot emphasize enough how much better it is than wp-ecommerce (which I've also tried). The support, documentation, and organized code make it a breeze to work with. It's not worth pulling your hair out and trying to customize WP-ecommerce when there's an inexpensive and much more functional alternative


Congrats on being added as a featured site. I'm glad to see they finally expanded that section a bit. I would love to see a lot more examples of sites using their cart.


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## SHIROINEKO (Mar 31, 2010)

I created my whole website with Dreamweaver+Paypal.


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