How do I set up a website?

Question

Hello
I would like to set up a website selling childrens clothes etc online. This is more of a hobby but to make a little money would be good, so I don't really want to be spending a lot on setting it up.

I have purchased the domain name from namesco and have already realised that I maybe loosing money as I was under the impression that I could use one of the sites that provide free webdesign and link that to my domain, however I have now realised that it seems most websites I have gone onto charge you a monthly or annual fee for web design/builder, and that if I had gone with this option I would have got a free domain rather than paying. Anyway we live and learn!

So.. my next move is to look at desinging the website. I had a look on one website freeco (I think) which seemed reasonable for the design things however it says I have to transfer the ips over, when I have contacted namesco there is a charge of £12.50.

What I would like to know is firstly is it possible to design a website at no cost from scratch, if so is this fairly easy and how do I do this. If this is not possible is there a way of paying for webdesign and not having to transfer the ips over and of so how do I do this.

Nameco do have the option of sitemaker, however I would like to trail first, they do have a 14 day free trail option which I have signed upto, I have followed the instructions to access this but it does not work, I have emialed them, just waiting for a reply.

Any advice would be grately appreciated. I am ok with computers and have no problem putting the time in to set my website up but nothing to techi.

Many thanks

Answer 1

eCommerce (Some Free):



Mal's e-commerce is a FREE Shopping Cart Service: http://www.mals-e.com/

Free Shopping Cart Software for Joomla! & Mambo: http://virtuemart.net/

Create your own Online Store for Free with Free Webstore: http://www.freewebstore.org/

eCRATER.com is both a free web store builder and a free online marketplace: http://www.ecrater.com/

Ubercart is an exciting open source e-commerce package that fully integrates your online store with Drupal: http://www.ubercart.org/



Free Shopping Cart Software: http://www.1freecart.com/

ShopSite Shopping Carts (Trial): http://www.startlogic.com/product/shopsitestarter.bml

osCommerce Online Merchant is an Open Source online shop e-commerce solution that is available for free under the GNU General Public License: http://www.oscommerce.com/

Zen Cart™ truly is the art of e-commerce; free, user-friendly, open source shopping cart software: http://www.zen-cart.com/



More...

Answer 2

You do need web hosting, the best way I can explain it is that www.yourdomainname.com is your domain name or URL (like and address), your website is like a digital file and Hosting is where your digital file (website) is stored and made accessible to be viewed online. If you already have a domain name then you need to get some hosting (preferably in your home country) the hosting provider you should look for should have cPanel control panel, 24/7 support, A fair amount of disc space (this is for the size of your website) and bandwidth (like viewing time for your website) they should provide good up-time 99% or better and MySQL databases most hosting with cPanel will have an auto installer like Fantastico or Instalatron where you can install WordPress which you can build you entire website on without knowing any html. There are a tonne of video tutorials (look on YouTube) on WordPress on line to help you when you get stuck and most good hosting companies will show you how to change your domain names DNS to Point to your hosting and your away. Good luck

Answer 3

To make a website from scratch, you would first need to learn either HTML or Java (Preferably both) coding languages. Since these are probably not available to you in your time frame (can take years to learn) I recommend using the template building websites (Like wix.com) or blogspot (Free blog designer provided by google). Apart from these 2 choices, there isn't much of an option for you to create your own website.

In conclusion, the easiest way would be to let someone create it for you (could be expensive), use a template building website or use blogspot to create a free blog.

Answer 4

An ecommerce website which is what this is, is quite technical. If you were to get someone to do it for you, you would be paying quite a bit but in all honesty its not that hard to set up IF YOUR A BIT AWARE. The tools to do the job are free to use I have them for free and that's all legal and above board. Now I don't think your talking anything ultra professional here as long as you have a working system to sell the clothes.



HOW IT WORKS.

You have a back end database your going to need one. This stores all your details on the cloths



Type (Shoe, trousers)

Size

Colour

etc



You would then need a language to interface with that database and the web page. SQL for the database and PHP as its more common for the web page database interaction. Retrieving and displaying data from the database is easy to do it only gets hard when the ordering starts.



And from here on in it just gets more confusing. With creating the basket receiving and storing orders and processing payments.



So as for hand coding this thing unless you have knowledge even drag and drop software is going to be hard.



Steps to take

------------------------



1) Buy web hosting



Web hosting is where your web page files are stored. The company you pay will host your files so everyone can access them at any time. If you hosted them on your own computer when you turn your computer off no one can access your site. Its also safer to upload your files to a company as they have better systems of protection.



2) Buy a domain name



Which you already have. A domain name points to your site.



3) Build your site



Obviously as mentioned for you this is going to be the hard part. Building it for you by a professional will not be cheap doing it yourself will be near to impossible with no experience (assumption)



4) Upload your site



You will need to download an FTP client program. FTP meaning file transfer protocol. "File Zilla" is free to use. When you buy hosting they should email you an FTP username and password which you would type into the FTP program to create a connection. You then access the root folder on you online server and drag and drop the files across.



That sounds confusing to some but its not. You access files on your own computer all the time I would guess for music and stuff same thing here the only difference is its not on your computer its on theirs.

---------------------------

That just about covers it the process. As I mentioned the building is going to be hard for you. I understand there are a few companies who allow you to build sites for free. But your URL or website address will contain the name of the company.



http://www.webs.com/



I hope this gave you some useful information regarding the process. If not and you still have questions regarding the build get in touch.



PLEASE be aware I am not aware of current companies and or products online I hand code sites I don't use the online tools. So I won't be able to answer questions like "Who does this the cheapest?" etc



Don't let this be a put off to you. Learn and try and get it off the ground. However you may have to start of out of pocket.



Good luck. Sorry for the length.

Answer 5

Have a website made at wix.com, to save cash. Takes few hours, and you are limited in design functionality. However, to get your website to the client you need a lot of ad money OR an offline source to direct customers to you. You will need to set up in a library, and start reading up on SEO.

Answer 6

Hi there



To setup a web site, you need :

- Domain name (costs about USD8-15 per year, and looks like you already bought it)

- Hosting services (costs about USD4-10 per month, depending on how many domains you want to be linked to hosting services)

- Web Design Software ( Many powerful ones are easy to use and FREE - eg WordPress) . For details on the setup, there's a very good and detailed step by step article here at :



http://www.webdesigncoursesingapore.com/5-steps-to-create-your-website/

Answer 7

Try purchasing a website already created and just change it to meet your needs. Try template monster.



Before you purchase do your homework on what you need to change it.



If you want somone to set it up for you real cheap then look for working from home sites. Vworker is a site that you can hire someone to make it for you by bid method.



If you have someone set it up for you then you will need someone to alter it every time you need to.



Good luck.

Answer 8

You need hosting, as it is a place where the files of your site will be stored and accessed. I would set up a free template for the particular type of site you want. Opencart is a good one for sites that sell goods.

Answer 9

Hi, I will suggest you a website which may help you to develop a web site, web designing and web marketing. Please visit the site. I will be happy if it can help you.

Answer 10

you need to buy a hosting package first. it's several bucks per month. you can pay it monthly or yearly.



since you want to make the site yourself you can choose script(s) for your site. you can search the web to find the script you need (free or paid).



then install it, point the domain to the site.



for hosting, if you're in uk/eu, uk2 is a good choose, it's a large host in uk.

Answer 11

I recommend you Shopping Cart Elite.This ecommerce platform helps you with this question.

Answer 12

I would like to try to express the things simply and efficiently:



1.) "I would like to set up a website selling childrens clothes etc online."

You need a online shopping cart or web store. It is a script/package, You can install it in your web server. If you install it:-

-> you can add/post your item's titles, photos, categories, descriptions, prices, shipping methods, etc.

It is free of cost (because most of them are avail for free / open source projects)



-> And you need to integrate a payment method (e.g: paypal, 2co, google chechkout) to receive payments from your buyer. Most of such services are free to join and integrate. They only charge a small % fee from your sale. (Because, they give you a secure interface to receive payments from your buyer, and pays you without any head-achs).



2.) "I have purchased the domain name from namesco" & "what is hosting? is it compulsary?"



If you already buy a domain, you can use it to host your website (without transfer charges. see below step 4).



"Domain" means "an address/name" and "Hosting" means "a (built house or) store".

If you use your address without a house/store, your visitors will go to another store/shop to shop/buy something.



or, If you have a store without an address, no one can't find/reach it.



So, a domain (address) and hosting (store) are two sides of a coin/website.



If you have both of them (a well built store and an address/name), your visitors can find you, view your items and can buy them.



Domain registration (only costs about $6.10 annually!) is cheaper than buying a domain.



Sure you must choose a domain registrar who give you full control on your domain. (some companies keep your domain's most of controls at their side to charge you often).



Hosting will costs less than $100.00 annually.



While choose a host, you must look at their support. It is very important. Some companies does not support everything, some others not support on your website related matters (e.g: installing a package for you, shopping cart or web store related settings, file editing, ...). And some others do anything for you, but charge you often.



3.) "So.. my next move is to look at desinging the website"

If you install a shopping cart package, you can apply free themes on it. So no need to spend extra for designing. most of themes are free of charge, a lots of free themes avail online. (your company may be try to sell it. You can go with free one!)



If you want to design your website, it will be takes a long time. And you will have to pay a sum (for your electricity, books, Internet Fees, Energy, Time, Days, Months, etc.).



And you need to have a good experience to create a webstie which works well on most web browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Netscape, Chrome, ...), various operating systems (windows 7, 8, 95, 98, ME, XP, 2000, Mac OS 6, 7, 8, 10, RedHat, Ubuntu, KDE, ...). Because in Internet, one visitor may come to your website from his P2 + 128MB RAM + Netscape browser + Win95 or Linux, and at the same time, another one may come with her i7 + 8GB RAM + Opera Next + Windows 8!. But your website should works well in all time, all machines (PCs).



So best is, paying a good developer (not designer. Designer is may not well in creating a shopping website. Because, shopping websites are dynamic, database driven applications.) Programming (coding) will build such a website. This is only you really want to develop your website without any free shopping cart/store packages. (In other word, if you use free packages, you can save these costs.)



4.) About transfer:

No need to transfer/change IPS to host a website. Just point your domain to your host. If you have a domain, log into its management account or control panel > find host or point or DNS settings > give it to your hosting company's DNS.



If your domain manager does not allow you to change DNS, contact them to do so.



If they refused, then it is best to get back your domain such a domain manager. So, start transfer. But it will be about $6.10!



If you have not had a domain yet, register a new one with your hosting company. It is easy to manage.





5.) I hope all of above will clear your doubts and helps to proceed next. I'm experienced (over 10 years) in web technologies, administration, development and server management. If you want any help/assistant, don't hesitate to contact me: [e-mail] (No need to be our customer or client. I'm open minded, I just try to help you with my knowledge (personally). Thats all. You can buy your domain/hosting anywhere.).



Have a great day!

Answer 13

go to www.bigrock.com