# Website woes.. Can I just do it myself?



## SullySeps (Jan 1, 2011)

I must be cursed. I have been trying to get a simple website/ e-commerce site up and running for a line of clothing (like every other startup clothing line company) and seem to keep coming across 'web designers' that tell me they can get me a site to fit my needs (usually for a cost of about $1500 + maintenance), but once the site has begun, they dis-a-freakin-pear. Leaving me with a half-baked site floating out there in cyberspace! Is there a place where these designers fall off the earth together?

Ok, so I just realised I AM a designer. I can make stuff look good. Ive even built the initial art for these deserted sites. So after my little rant, here's my question for the forum and if anyone can point me in the right direction, offer input (I'll even take commiserating..) anything is VERY appreciated..

Can I do this myself? Is it really that difficult? Time is usually very tight with me. I'm weighing taking a local college class for introductory web design or just buying software (Dreamweaver) to TRY and do it myself.

I can design - yes, but taking the artwork from there... cutting it up, uploading via FTP, server assignment, URLs, e-commerce setups, debugging, etc etc. - at that point I get lost.


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## trexart (Aug 3, 2007)

It is possible to learn, but learn it well is a totally different thing. There are tons of techniques and details that take years to learn. 

I understand your frustrations with web designers who do that, believe me, all the time we get people who don't want to pay the amount I quote because they find someone else who will do it for 1/3rd the price. There are a lot of places that under-quote to get the job but then it ends up taking so much extra time that they just disappear. It is hard to know who knows what they are talking about and who doesn't.

Anyway, as for a solution for you, if you can use photoshop, I'd say try doing a design yourself and getting someone to turn it into a template, that might save you money. I guess it depends on what kind of solution you are trying to have done. Ultimately, if you are going to do it yourself, the best way would be to use an online hosted solution like Shopify or Big Cartel and then create a template. At least with places like those you normally have a starting point, and don't have to start from scratch. Also, there are people who will probably convert your photoshop design into a template for one of those solutions for not too much.

Cheers,
Steph


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## phoenix216 (Feb 6, 2011)

Hey Sully - 
I agree with Steph. I've been freelancing web sites for years and I'm still learning how to do it better. Feel free to PM me with your vision for your site and what hosting company you use and I'll try to point you in the right direction.


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## SnapGraphics (Dec 21, 2010)

Have you tried Bigcartel.com. It seems simple enough. The success of a website is all about getting people to your site and many of the bigcartel.com sites are very nice.


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## Dante2004 (Aug 23, 2010)

I feel your pain. I designed dozens of sites, so I naturally thought I could design our site (or for the last business I owned).

Then I had this realization...

First, graphic design and web design are two completely different animals. The art required for a website is just a SMALL percentage of the total work required.

I am in business to do the following:
#1 SELL t-shirts
#2 PRINT t-shirts

Any minute spent NOT doing one of the two tasks above is "non-value added time". (Background: tshirt business is a "side gig" for me. My "real job" is in manufacturing. I am a "lean manufacturing engineer" so I am constantly working on work flows and efficiencies in anything I do. Boring? yes. Annoying? Absolutely! But this explains my technical viewpoint).

So, even though you may think you are "saving" some money designing your site, are you really further ahead?

The goal is to MAKE MONEY. So if you spend months learning web design, buying books, taking classes, etc. You MIGHT save a few hundred dollars (or even thousand). But in the mean time, how many orders have you had to outsource? How many sales leads have you failed to follow up on because you were busy with your nose in an HTML book, or a class?

So in reality, you may have saved a thousand, but it may have COST you thousands more that you never realized!

You are a screen printer. That is your core competency. Stick to it. Outsource everything else. You already mentioned you don't have much "extra" time in your schedule.

Also, the site you want it probably not unique from the site that hundreds of other screen printers have/want. So why re-invent the wheel? Find a customizable template with a hosted service and give them the headaches.

I learned this the hardway with our last business. I was trying to make a "fancy" website and I spent more time designing an online calendar of events, than actually selling out product! Sales slumped...and what did I have to show for it? I half functioning calendar on our website. Big deal.

Establish a value for your time/hour. Let's say $25/hour. Any task that you can have done for you for less than that, you should outsource.

Perfect example. I'm sitting in my desk at work (when I should be working! haha) and there is a lawnservice outside mowing the lawn. Maybe we are paying him the equivalent of $20/hour. Meanwhile, we have an entire labor crew in our shop making $9-$18/hr. Why wouldn't we just have one of them cut the grass?

Simple. Outsourcing the job means that one of our employees is not interupted from his daily job. We don't have to own a lawnmower (or maintain it) and we don't have to train someone to cut the grass (not that it would be hard, but you get the point.

Finally, our $10/hour shop employee is actually costing the company closer to $30 after you include all his benefits/insurance/etc.

So, the guy in the shop would cost us $30/hr, plus the mower, plus the work force disturbance, plus the maintence and training.

The guy in the front yard costs us $20/hr.

And this is the most important point.
*When the yard is getting cut by the lawn serice, OUR GUY is still inside making our product that we sell for a margin.*

*Let's say we make 50 parts an hour. Each part has a $10 profit after the cost of time and materials.*

*So OUR GUY worked an hour and MADE US $500. If he had been mowing the yard, he would have COST US $30/hr.*

*With our current setup, we make $500/hr. + $20 for the yard service. Net = $480/hr.*

*If we mowed the yard ourselves, it would COST $30/hr.*

Now...does it still make sense to make your own website?

Does $149/month for some "fancy" website really seem like that much anymore?


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## kirbymurphy (Aug 25, 2009)

If your volume of sales will support $40 per month, you should consider Yahoo Stores:
Yahoo! Merchant Solutions: E-Commerce, Shopping Cart & Store Design Online 
First 3 months is $26, then $40

+ a 1.5% transaction
+ whatever gateway fees your card provider charges

Yahoo! Small Business - Customer Store Examples shows some sites. 

There is a large base of programmers available to work with you. While I can't promise they will be better than your past experience, many have been around a while and have references.

Your Store Forums - eCommerce Forum specializing in information for Yahoo! Store and Yahoo! Merchant Solutions store owners and operators is a good resource for Y stores. I think you have to register to view.

They can be very simple or quite granular in design if you want to dig in. They take a lot of the work out of running a site.

Another option is Volution, but I have no experience with them. http://www.volusion.com/ecommerce/web-hosting/

I've been examining free ECommerce packages but don't want to take the time to learn how to set it up. If you know php and mySQL you might want to give it a go. It's free if you can make it work. 

ISP's like 1&1 and Lunar have commerce scripts you can install from the Control Panel and Fantastico.

Hosted sites take the burden off you. You can print more and develop more designs and do some marketing. You don't have to worry about backups adn software upgrades.


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## JohnBee (Nov 28, 2010)

of course you can.... you said you are a designer so you've won half of the battle already.

get a dreamweaver.
search and view basic how-tos in youtube.
design a simple website and connect it to your paypal...and upload.
......done! you have an online store.

(forget about the CSS, flash, javascript, php, database, etc. etc.. your first goal is to paste an image of your t-shirts into a page, add text, and linking multiple pages and UPLOADING it ONLINE.... and second goal is linking your "BUY NOW" button to your Paypal account which Paypal has an step by step on that procedure.)

i'd say.... you will need to spend 3 hours watching youtube how-tos..... 1 hour to spend finding your tools in Dreamweaver..... get a nap..... wake up.....and start sketching your website layout.

goodluck


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## EnMartian (Feb 14, 2008)

Anyone can make a site. Heck, I know enough HTML to design a simple site. It might not be a good site, but it would be on the web and work. 

Here's the issue though, being on the web and working is not the same as being on the web and converting visitors and selling. Just having a site on the web is not enough, it needs to be a site that can display your products nicely, work properly and convert your visitors into customers. 

If you're good at the design part, but not at the development part, you might want to look into something like a yahoo store, where a lot of the development and SEO are handled for you. It might be a better option than building a site yourself.


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## jsonline2004 (Dec 4, 2010)

PM me if you would like ... I can get a site done for you and I won't vanish. I have never understood why designers take jobs and vanish... do they not need the money? I have been doing web design for 12 years ... I can help you out.


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## SeasonEnds (Sep 9, 2007)

I want to reinforce the idea that just because you might do some designing does not automatically mean you can make a website look nice. I have a partner that does apparel design. He is an amazing illustrator. He makes awesome logos too. He does not design well for user interaction. I have another partner that designs for print. She is amazing at it, but her strong point is not in web design. I'm not saying you can't do it, but at least consider that.


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## Recover Clothing (Feb 9, 2011)

I did mine by myself and I think it looks fairly decent until I can afford a huge budget website. If you want to see it here: Recover


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