# Help, thought I could



## daffy4226 (Mar 30, 2011)

I have learned so much from this forum (shout out to everyone) that I really thought could make a website. Boy was I way off. I purchased the domain thru go daddy.com then got magenta Ecommerce and somehow hostgator (not even sure why now). I did figure out how to set up the email and have it routed to my other accounts. But my page is just sitting there blank. Home page. Anyone have any advice, I thought it would be dummy proof and walk me thru.
Thanks in advance.
Darla


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## DonR (May 6, 2011)

You can upload a home page using the control panel. The page should be named index.html.

Use Adobe Dreamweaver or some other html edit program to create the page.


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## tcrowder (Apr 27, 2006)

If you need a hand setting up the home page and or your site, send me a PM and I'll see if I can help you out.


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## daffy4226 (Mar 30, 2011)

tcrowder said:


> If you need a hand setting up the home page and or your site, send me a PM and I'll see if I can help you out.


Thank you, but It says you do not accept private messages.


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## daffy4226 (Mar 30, 2011)

If I can't figure it out it would be awesome to have it say "Coming Soon"


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## Louie2010 (Feb 26, 2010)

Your thread is exactly what I worry about happening. I am in the planning stages myself and was gaining confidence that I could do it myself. 

Can you try a different shopping cart that maybe would click with you better?

I was looking at OpenCart, it sounds somewhat user friendly.


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## BrianRichards (Dec 12, 2010)

To be honest, if you want your site to look professional and are not familiar with web programming languages (HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, etc) then you're better off paying someone to code it for you. 

You should be able to find someone to make one out of a (customizable) template for a couple hundred bucks. 

It's better to shell out the bucks for something appealing rather than wasting hours of frustration for a sub par product.


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## nperoni (Aug 12, 2010)

hey darla, one of the best resources you'll have when setting up a template website through an online host is that host's tech support. they should be able to guide you through any questions you have when using their software.
another website i would suggest is www.thesitewizard.com. the information contained on that website is priceless and has helped me numerous times. i checked out your homepage though and it looks to me that everything is fine, you just haven't inserted any content yet. you should have a control panel when you login to your ecommerce host that allows you to customize certain parts of your page, add products, change layouts, etc. i would ask tech support what you're missing, because it may be just that you haven't navigated to the right page yet for what you need to do. plus they get paid to help you.
good luck.


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## tcrowder (Apr 27, 2006)

daffy4226 said:


> Thank you, but It says you do not accept private messages.


Sorry I'll fix that right now. You can always e-mail me at Terry[USER=11104]@[/USER]ccdepot.com too


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## Louie2010 (Feb 26, 2010)

This thread has got me to wondering. If you sign up with a web host that offers multiple free shopping carts to choose from as part of their features, can you try building the site with two or three of them in order to determine which one you like? Or do you have to pick one and if you are not sure you like it must delete it all before trying another option? It would be nice to be able to compare them.

Also is there usually some type of offline more you can remain in until you are ready and then active the site to go live?


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## tcrowder (Apr 27, 2006)

Louie2010 said:


> This thread has got me to wondering. If you sign up with a web host that offers multiple free shopping carts to choose from as part of their features, can you try building the site with two or three of them in order to determine which one you like? Or do you have to pick one and if you are not sure you like it must delete it all before trying another option? It would be nice to be able to compare them.
> 
> Also is there usually some type of offline more you can remain in until you are ready and then active the site to go live?


My webhosting company offers about 6 different carts with the hosting plan. All can be installed at once so you can compare them side by side. As far as getting all the files up before you "go live" you can always just use a Coming Soon as your homepage. Or you could redirect to another site if you have one until the new one is in place.


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## Louie2010 (Feb 26, 2010)

> My webhosting company offers about 6 different carts with the hosting plan


Which company do you use? I am leaning towards BlueHost right now, and I believe they have about six choices also.


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## Oracle81 (May 13, 2011)

Dont suppose you have tried wix.com? I set up a website selling sneakers and because I have no knowledge regarding coding etc, this is fantastic as it is totally drop and drag and you can do all sorts to your site and simply add your domain to it.


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## Louie2010 (Feb 26, 2010)

Oracle81 said:


> Dont suppose you have tried wix.com? I set up a website selling sneakers and because I have no knowledge regarding coding etc, this is fantastic as it is totally drop and drag and you can do all sorts to your site and simply add your domain to it.


Do they host the site as well or do you use them just to create a template for your site that you have hosted somewhere else?


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## Oracle81 (May 13, 2011)

The way I worked it was to go to wix and you can either choose a template or start a blank, once you get used to it you can then publish it through wix but your webpage address will be something like www.wix.com/oracle81tees and the site will also have their banners on - if you upgrade to their premium pack (doesnt cost too much) all this is then removed so you can attach your own domain name to it so yeahwix host the site.

Here is recent one I designed for a friends store (live but not fully finished - not to everyones taste but used the "basic" specs they provided - but will hopefully show you how the basics of wix work. Hopefully anyway!! lol


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## Oracle81 (May 13, 2011)

whoops! here is link (im new to this!!)

IDEMSTORE


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## tcrowder (Apr 27, 2006)

Louie2010 said:


> Which company do you use? I am leaning towards BlueHost right now, and I believe they have about six choices also.


I've been using HostMonster - Web Hosting for several years now and have never had any issues.


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