# just bought my domain from godaddy, should i try to learn html or build it with godaddy shopping cart?



## goosemontana (Jun 28, 2011)

i know nothing about making websites so if i have to build it myself it will take me a while to learn how to, im just wondering if i should try to build it myself or if it would be a better idea to pay $10 a month to build it with godaddy. i would like to know how good godaddy is for building my website.


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## airwaves32x (Jun 30, 2011)

godaddy websites are pretty basic, so depending on what youre doing on the site you may not be able to do all the things you want to do. Doing it yourself with dreamweaver, iweb, etc. is a better option if youre making a more complex site, but it involves learning code and is very time consuming. 

If i were you I would use a trial for godaddy and see if you like it, if not learn html yourself.


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## goosemontana (Jun 28, 2011)

thanks for the reply, i want to start learning how to code so i will probably just use godaddy for now until i feel comfortable building a website


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## Leepetroraney (May 12, 2009)

You should always hire someone that knows what they are doing.


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## Flagrant-T (Nov 11, 2009)

WordPress is a great tool to build websites. Its free, and there are tons of resources to learn it. Some huge sites are built on it too.

Hiring a programmer is great too.


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## 135367 (Mar 10, 2011)

I used GoDaddy web maker and I'm happy with the results. I can make changes as needed. I now need to upgrade my website and will most likely be hiring someone to help me with the upgrade. I also want it to be me-friendly so I can make changes easily.


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## EnMartian (Feb 14, 2008)

Knowing basic HTML is a good idea even if you're just going to make small changes to your site. So, investing time in a class or money in a book is not a bad idea. 

In the meantime there are options for e-commerce sites that provide templates and are designed for those who don't necessarily have a lot of HTML knowledge. I know Yahoo had one at one time, and most hosting programs offer something too.


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## FromQ2U (Mar 3, 2011)

I have used godaddy for the past 3 years and I use there website tonight, because its template based and you can replace every aspect of the template with your own artwork and its very easy to do.


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## deuce (Apr 16, 2008)

It really depends on what you are wanting the site to do. Godaddy is cheap for domains and good for buying domains but you can get better hosting for cheaper. 

If your looking to sell something or multiple products that's one type of site as opposed to a simple portfolio lead generation site.

I would recommend wordpress or Joomla. Both are free open soirce content managers ans have alot of third party modification plugins to make the site do what you need it to do.

It's not difficult to setup and you can manage the content in the back end easily. 

Website tonight is not a terrible option but I've worked on those sites for some of our clients and you are extremely limited to customize. I


Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.


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## Austin300 (May 24, 2009)

It's always a great feeling when you get your domain and the ideas are spinning around about which direction to move when it comes to a shopping cart and the images on the website you hope to add.

The big problem is that there are so many options and you need to look at it from several angles.

A website first and foremost needs to be found by people. Just having a domain name is great and you can finally start putting that all important www DOT on your business cards and advertising.

The next thing you need is to figure out the key words and tags that your site will have so when the website is up and the search engines finally find it (3 weeks sometimes) it will begin to draw traffic.

Some of the best looking websites online don't get much traffic because the site wasn't planned out properly and the key words and phrases aren't there to "grab" the attention of the search engines.


Something else to consider is how fast do you want to be up and running with your sales. If you are ready to go with products and they are all sitting behind you in boxes then you could be up and running in a few hours by simply forwarding your domain (easily done) to a Big Cartel site that you can use to get your products sold asap. A Big Cartel site is SO easy to set up and you are up and running with a Paypal checkout. This is an option for those who haven't much experience with websites and they are set up and ready to go. You could forward your domain to the BC site so it goes directly to it or you could set up a basic website tonight page and have a link to the BC site for people to buy from. This will give you time to work on your main website while sales are coming in.

Even the most basic websites take time to create and you will be changing things on them for weeks. After the search engines "Crawl" your site you will find that you will change even more to gain maximum visibility.

And lets not forget that you MUST submit your website to the search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.) when you get it complete. This is free and many build a site and have no clue that they should submit it.


There are tons of options out there and it all depends on how soon you want to start selling and how much knowledge you have to create a sharp website.

Hope that helps.


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## gurugrv (Jun 25, 2011)

hi, I am a professional web designer n developer from India, I can help you out with your site.


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## Iano (Jul 5, 2011)

I'm just a newbie silkscreener, but I've been a graphic designer for a long time. GoDaddy may get you off the ground quickly but you'll soon outgrow it as it has pretty limited features. I'd recommend get in there and getting your hands dirty. The easiest way to start is probably using Wordpress (which I think GoDaddy can install for you with one click). Plus it has decent SEO built in.

There are plenty of great resources out there for learning how to build sites. HTML is only of aspect of programming for the web (wordpress uses PHP to get most of the work done).

If you want to get an eCommerce store up and running the downright simplest way is to use BigCartel or Shopify. You register with these guys and they supply you with a pre-built store that you can populate. Later you can customize the store to look the way you want it too. They do take a commission on sales (the reason I left them) but if you are doing tiny numbers it's only a few dollars a month.

Building an eCommerce site is getting easier by the day but for an absolute beginner it's still a big learning curve. Having said all that... I dived right in and got my hands dirty... a year on and I've got a pretty solidly functioning and unique design.

Hope that helps.


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## thutch15 (Sep 8, 2008)

I would suggest you spend time learning what you are going to do to make money. If you are going to design sites then yes learn... if you are going to print shirts then focus your time on that and pay someone that knows how to do websites... 

You want people to buy shirts from you because you know what you are doing... instead of them learning the basics so that they can just make their own. Commerce is a big cycle.


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