Web store solutions

[tallen84]

I am looking at starting up an online web store and I was wondering if anyone in the forums has either good or bad things to say about a particular hosting company. Ideally I am looking for a full package deal (website hosting, domain name, shopping cart, and online purchases).

[gripus]

Hi Todd,
For six years I have used http://www.godaddy.com (http://www.godaddy.com/) to host my site (http://www.gripus.com (http://www.gripus.com/)) and https://www.asecurecart.net/main/default.aspx for my shopping cart. I have been very pleased with both.

My wife, for her website (http://www.sevenyearetch.com (http://www.sevenyearetch.com/)), uses http://www.buildyoursite.com/ for both her host and shopping cart. Hers is cheaper than mine and has the tools that allowed her, with no web building experience, to produce her site herself with no help from me.

We have both had excellent experiences with tech support from knowledgeable, English speaking technicians from both hosts.

I am sure others will be able to recommend other hosts as well.

Joe

[gene]

Joe,
About how long did it take your wife to set up her site, does it take credit cards and do you know what the charges are for that? Thanks for the info, Gene

[gripus]

Gene,
It took her about a week of working on it off and on during the day when she had the chance. We do accept credit cards on all of our sites using PayPal and we also use PayPal's virtual terminal to process credit cards on phone orders. She said to call her (between 10AM and 3PM Central Time) at 1-800-970-3824 and she would be happy to go over all of it with you. (I am dexterously challenged so it would be quicker than me typing it all LOL)

Joe

[gene]

Thanks Joe,
I'll do that . Does it matter what day ? if you like e mail me at cabinetsplusofaugusta@yahoo.com
Thanks again, Gene

[john_l]

Ive used www.Citymax.com (http://www.Citymax.com) twice before.

Their interface for creating and editing is easy to use. You can do stores that accept most all payment options and paypal too. The sites have been dependable, except for two update situations that took them offline for about a day or so at a time. No telephone support, and very slow or non-helpfull email/forum support... so if you need them, they wont be there for you most times, or will be very late to the party.

Best of luck.

[Acmeaviator]

I really cannot say enough good things about Intuit and their web solutions. It's not that they are necessarily the best web host or that they have the best website builder (though it's pretty darn good) - what makes it wonderful is that it seamlessly blends quickbooks, websales, cash sales, and credit card sales all together in a "cafeteria" style - you just pay for the modules you need to use.

[cabindoors]

Joe,

Your wife's web page doesn't seem to be working.

[wmcghee]

I've used www.zoovy.com (http://www.zoovy.com) for the past 4 or 5 years and I'm happy with them. They have a pretty high monthly fee and it varies depending on the options you choose. When I started with them the start up cost was minimal but I think now it has gone up substantially. They have a lot of great features and almost makes everything automated to where printing labels and syndicating to different sites like Amazon, Ebay, and alot of others a breeze. Although initial set up can be complicated Plus if you send out newsletters, or want to keep in touch with your customers they have excellent customer relations capabilities. I'm not affiliated in any way with them, I'm just a paying customer. My website is not fancy but I think they will make you a specialized layout now. Mine is out of date and needs some work. www.tool-solutions.com (http://www.tool-solutions.com)

[rickwoody]

I used Volusion for a number of years, they were high but was satisfied. I shut my business down for a while and while down purchased Sunshop shopping cart software from;
https://www.turnkeywebtools.com/shopping-cart-products.html

It was a one time fee of $400 and I own the software. It was easy to modify the templates to something suited towards my business. You can have an unlimited amount of products. I'm still building the site from "on the road" and don't have most of my products listed on the site for lack of pictures. I am building another section of the site dedicated towards local cabinetmaking with Dreamweaver that I will be able to link to without the shopping cart software.
I use bluehost.com for hosting. Right now I pay about $5 per month just for building the site. Once I go live with the site again my cost will be $15 per month which includes an SSL certificate. This was the most inexpensive alternative that I found and I spent many months looking at shopping cart software and hosting. The software has "plug ins" for paypal, google payments, amazon payments, bank of america, etc...

Good Luck,

Rick
www.appalachiatools.com

[EddieM]

I know this is a older post but i wanted to offer up what i have been using for some time that may help others.

First off i run over 100 websites and all of them are hosted on Host Gator after years of problems with so many others host Gator just works and has 24/7 call in support and they fix any problem on the phone right away i have called in many times at 3 and 4am needing help and got it.

Go daddy sucks for hosting very slow servers that are way over crowded they offer a new package that sounds great but is not lots of down time and over crowded servers.

But Go daddy has great prices for buying website names i have most of names with them pointing to my host Gator hosting accounts i have many of them.

For a website go with a free wordpress site Google loves wordpress sites and you can use a unlimited amount of free plugins.

In your Host Gator admin area you can install Wordpress with in a few mins and have a website up in a short time under 30 mins.

For a shopping cart i like to use ecwid.com you can use the free version or have more features for a month to month cost i pay for the month to month version you can set this up very easy and sell anything.

Adding this to your new wordpress website is as easy as adding in a free plugin and copying and pasting some code into your site. You could have a shopping cart up and running in under 30 mins then you need to just add products and photos.

Once you have a new website you need to get it indexed many SEO places charge a lot for this but it is easy to do on your own.
Do not bother with requesting to be indexed with google that can take forever.

Go to Yahoo and join a chat room or two and post about something and say hay take a look at my new website and post a link to your home page.

Google spiders yahoo chats every day many times a hour and they will find your post and say hay this is not indexed yet in Google and they will index you sometimes with in a hour or two. I have had new websites i started go from not indexed to page one in Google in less then 2 hours doing this - other times it may take a few days.

Also if you have facebook account post a link to your new site in that as google spiders facebook all the time more then ever now days.
Also start a free Google plus account and post your site in that Google looks at that right away.

Post you new website to places like here and that may ever work as i am sure Google spiders this all the time to.

Now days with the recent Google changes that went into effect it is more easy for new sites to show up better faster for a local search just keep it basic and do not over stuff keywords in your site.

Sign up with yelp and yahoo for free business listings that will help your site move up faster.
Get some good reviews in yelp and yahoo and google will love you.

I did not say this but you can buy good reviews here http://fiverr.com/ for $5 you can buy a lot of things here for $5 and sell you own stuff to. Search for yelp reviews this is what all the big SEO people do and use a lot real reviews for random people for $$

Just some website and SEO info from a long time website user...

Wanted to add Know you webhost. Many people do not understand that many small webhost company's are not what they look like.
Many of them buy reseller accounts with Host Gator i have them to and then you can be your own webhost and sell webhost packages with your branded name you set up i do not sell hosting package but it cost me less buying it this way for my own sites.
Another words a lot thousands of website host company's are just reseller accounts setup with Host Gator you just never know it. Their is only a few large hosting companys left now dasy that offer good service most all the other are just reseller accounts it cost them less to do it this way.

Manage your own servers and pay out rages fees each month to run your own servers or pay a very small fee and run you web host business with a reseller account and let them manage all the servers and cost.

The website business is not what many people think it is same with SEO business most al of them use the same set ot SEO tools the rest is marketing and in most cases you can buy the same tools for less then paying a SEO company and do it yourself.