# Designing and building my t-shirt website



## emf (Sep 23, 2009)

I plan on building a t-shirt website, however my expertise in this field is extremely lacking. I am willing to commit lots of time to building the site my self, or working with someone (or some company) to get the job done. What are the most efficient and price effective ways to get a quality site built? how much does this generally cost? how much does website upkeep cost? The website I have in mind is not terribly complex, however it will be original and innovative. Thanks to everyone.


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## pukingdeserthobo (Jun 3, 2008)

try big cartel


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## Joe Micheal (Nov 16, 2009)

The Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University conducted a study using 1400 web users from the U.S. and Europe to determine what elements of a website make a website appear trustworthy and credible. The PDF is no longer online but you can view the cached version. 

It's not exactly a one-minute skim read so spend some time on it, and get relevant point for your website.


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## hostingdiva (Mar 31, 2006)

What you need and the cost really depends on what you want to accomplish. If you want a website like Zazzle | Custom T-Shirts, Personalized Gifts, Posters, Art, and more, for examle, you'll need to spend a lot of time and money. If you want a website like northerndelites.com, you'll spend a lot less time and money because that website was built using pageBuzz Website Hosting, whis is a do it yourself website system (see my sig).

So, if you can give us more information on what you want... maybe some example websites ... then we can be of more help.


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## spiros_saf (Aug 25, 2009)

Just from my personal experience:

-What are the most efficient and price effective ways to get a quality site built? 

Probably since you are not a web developer someone else will have to do the job for you. So in order to get the best possible result you have to know before contacting a pro EXACTLY what you want. When I say EXACTLY i really mean it. You have to know how you want even the SMALLEST detail on your website to be done.

-How much does this generally cost? 

Costs are relative to what you want. But in order to have the BEST possible price for what you'll order make sure you will be very detailed and clear on what features you want your website to have so as not to end up paying for features (translated to human hours, translated to money) you didn't really need.

-How much does website upkeep cost?

Here you will have to deal with two types of costs.

1) Hosting costs. There is a great number of trustworthy companies out there offering great deals on hosting plans. You will have to do your research. Also make sure that the hosting company you will choose to go on with will be compatible with the programming/scripting language your developer will choose to use for your website.

2) Costs for updating your website and adding new features to it. Make sure you will have your developer tell you EXACTLY how much it will cost you any new feature you will think of adding in the future. Well, since it's not really possible, make a list of examples and ask him to tell you how much these would cost. So in the future whenever you will have to add something new you will have a general idea of how much these would cost.


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## solomon_schwartz (Nov 24, 2009)

you would need to have a "very' clear blueprint of how your site will work, this is the most importing thing with my experience.
you need to have good designing for your sites first imprecision.
you need to have good instructions to make it 'very' easy to buy

good luck to your new site


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## jkruse (Oct 10, 2008)

What are the most efficient and price effective ways to get a quality site built? 

A successful store has a lot of things that make it a success. Usability, design, and traffic. Lot's of designers only worry about design which is what they specialize in. When I work with a client I try my best to make them knowledgable about all aspects of a site. The best website with no traffic will get you no where. Sites need to be designed with SEO, social sites/bookmarking and usability in mind to make it a "quality site" but everyone has their own opinion. 


how much does this generally cost? how much does website upkeep cost? The website I have in mind is not terribly complex, however it will be original and innovative. Thanks to everyone.

It all depends on what you want. How much does it cost for surgery? No one can give you a quote without knowing what they are going to be doing. 

For upkeep I usually don't have to do any because all the sites are run on cms and everything besides the layout can be edited by the client. If more work needs to be done I just sit down and see everything they want and give them a price, nothing is set in stone.


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## EnMartian (Feb 14, 2008)

I've got to agree with Spiros. The most important thing is to sit down and figure out exactly what you want your site to do, how you want it to function and how you want it to look before you contact a designer or anyone writes a bit of code. Having a blueprint will save you a lot of time and heartache later.


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## aminaic (Dec 18, 2009)

you need to get a content website template - you just put the products in and everything is ready for you that will be the quickest


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## oneeyedjack (Mar 7, 2007)

Just thought i'd throw my 2 cents in.I have absolutely zero skills when it comes to anything to do with making or designing a website.We do sublimation and engraving etc. so have decided we would like to do a website.So with no skills and not wanting to spend a whole bunch of cash we decided after lots of looking to try ecommerce hosted site and are going to use Interspire.

This weekend i tried their demo which is only for 2 days.I tried Volusions demo which is for 30 days and gave up after a couple hours was like looking at a foreign language,so i figured not a hope in hell of figuring out interspire in a couple days.Well no bull**** within a few hours i had about 20 products with different pricing,sizing,color and style variations.Everything seems pretty straight forward and no rocket science needed.They have templates to use and can do a lot with them with drag and drop but i think you need to know coding to alter them drastically.Anyways check em out because if i thought it was pretty simple it has to be.


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## Nikelover (Nov 6, 2009)

pukingdeserthobo said:


> try big cartel


yes big cartel i know they can make one.


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## Ethcs (Aug 4, 2009)

This really depends on your situation, if this is a new venture and you have a limited budget you may want to consider something like storenvy. It'll give you a chance to test your market and focus on marketing, making and selling shirts.


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