New Website - Buy or DIY?

[Justin]

I need to get another website up and running. Whilst I want something a little better than of the shelf, I'm thinking about getting something online asap and then working on a better one longer term.

I was looking at this seller on eBay.... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120838223559?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2648#ht_5097wt_1137 and wondered if I might be better going down this route or just setting it all up myself? I see that this sample uses ZenCart. I guess it's time as much as anything but I'd appreciate advice on this.

Do any members specialise in website design?

[smitch6]

depends on what you want Justin
i've made a few for myself and other customers
but steer clear of zen its a pain, lumpy not many features and the support isn't very good

[Justin]

Cheers for that :-) I know we've discussed this elsewhere on the forum but thought I'd start a new thread more based around the website rather than the eCommerce but obv. that's part of it.

I need something professional looking but quick and easy to use. I have a live site that I could customise but the company I 'bought' it off used to charge me £25 p/m hosting etc. and there's no point in me going back to paying that when I have space already. Eventually I want a much better site where the customer can upload and see their finished article before ordering but to get me started just something straight forward with the upload facility.

[smitch6]

i use and always recommend open cart as it has a good upload feature built in
if you wanted any help i'll try and help out where i can

i've just sorted a member off here out with a new site
maybe he'll pop along at some point and give you some info on how it's like to use coming from a complete newbie to the software :)

[Justin]

Just looking at the shop on your site, looks pretty slick, runs well :-) What facility do you use for customers to upload their own design/pic though?

[smitch6]

it's built into the software
they can upload files or text
whichever you want to apply or both etc

i know the person who i just set up mentioned there is a paid mod which does something more but i'm not sure what
as as far as i can tell images and/or text is all thats needed :)

[smitch6]

pm sent Justin so u can have a play with a demo site and see how the software works :)

[Ian M]

I was looking at another one on Ebay & they were charging just under £60 per year & they designed it for you. Their selling point was that you could see the eShops they had built for others on the net & must admit they all looked really good. I really want an online shop but must admit I'm really lost when it comes down to building a website of my own from scatch. I just know if I had an eShop I could do pretty well as I have a friend who is putting together some superb designs.

[Justin]

I hear what you're saying Ian. I'm the same, I just thought it was time to get on with it. I've been putting it off because I know I won't get exactly what I want just yet but I'd be better off getting something online soon.

My last website I had to pay monthly, I thought this was hosting but when I wanted to move the site I was told that I couldn't. I thought I'd save myself some money by hosting elsewhere as I'd already paid a fair whack for the initial build...or rather template. This time I want to have full control and ownership!

[Justin]

pm sent Justin so u can have a play with a demo site and see how the software works :)

Looks great! PM'd you and will carry on playing! Many thanks.

[smitch6]

I was looking at another one on Ebay & they were charging just under £60 per year & they designed it for you. Their selling point was that you could see the eShops they had built for others on the net & must admit they all looked really good. I really want an online shop but must admit I'm really lost when it comes down to building a website of my own from scatch. I just know if I had an eShop I could do pretty well as I have a friend who is putting together some superb designs.

Ian the offer extends to you as well if you need any help or advice let me know :)
i can pm u my mobile number if u want
and sort out hosting and even get it up and running and make sure it's easy for you to use etc

hosting and web stuff is what my main business is sort of along side subbing of course
i need to keep my fingers in many pies :)

i also have a guy on board which if i don't know he does
and he is great at images etc, actually he's really annoying as i spend ages trying to do something and it looks pants
i email it to him and 5 mins later it's back looking 100% betterer

i'm cheap as well lol

[AdamB]

Guys - I'm also looking to get a website and from the sound of it, the design process will all be based around the same process ............... we'll all be selling a product that is broken down into various categories.

Although I do web design myself I don't have the time and have spent the last year planning on doing ours - something else always crops up!

If someone finds someone that is good - why not ask if they have a deal on, a few members getting sites done at the same time could be discounted??

Just an idea?

FAO Steve: I'm interested in seeing your demo site if possible?

FAO Ian: any chance of PM'ing me the link of the guy you mentioned please?

FAO of everyone: Yeah, would prefer to steer clear of Zencart (just from what I've read).

[smitch6]

Ian and Adam pm's with trial log-ins :)

no arguing who gets to play 1st though lol

[AdamB]

Received Steve - many thanks :-)

[barryslip]

Hi guys! It me who's currently playing with opencart thanks to Steve!

I've not had time to play a lot, but I am happy to say that it is quite simple to use out-of-the-box so to speak. I don't have the techincal skills required to modify any of the code to customise it, but I have already downloaded a free "theme" which simply changes the colours, backgrounds etc which has given me an insight as to what is possible. There are also custom templates available online (I found some here, but I'm sure there others http://m.tripwiremagazine.com/2011/11/opencart-templates.html ). This maybe an option to give the site a unique feel? I've not enough experience to know if these are a) any good or b) achievable by a mere pleb like me to do myself!

I currently use EKMpowershop which, although £20+vat a month, is very easy to use and requires very little setup. EKM is easy to polulate your shop as it allows the uploading of categories and products via excel The provide templates for it, so it's pretty simple. There is a demo available too. Having said all that, I'd like to move away from EKM purely for the cost element (they don't tie you in to a contract either - one month at a time). I've read online about and "export/import" module for opencart - this seems to allow product uploads via CVS/excel too, but I think it's about £30? Steve has installed the "upload your image" module for me on my test site, but I think (?) this is normally a paid module?

EKM doesn't offer the "upload your image for the mug" functionality. I have been discussing that with them this week - it will cost £180+vat AND I would need extra storage to host the files the customer uploads - that's and extra £10+vat per month, on top of the £20+vat per month for the shop. That's the main reason I'm looking elsewhere!

I've read review of opencart, and there are people loving and hating it - but that's going to happen with every system that's out there.

My main worry with something like opencart is future-proofing any "custom" code - i.e a purchased template or a hand-made template. What guarantee do we have that these will all work if opencart upgrade anything? I've been assured that this will never happen with EKM - they've only had one custom template issue, and that was with Google Chrome - the site didn't quite look the same.

Hope that helps?

Barry

[smitch6]

wow i'm multi-tasking woo hoo
i have a user on my forum chat tin to me on a live chat and sending pm's and looking at websites for Justin lol

ohhhhhh i need more hair to pull out rofl

[smitch6]

thats why i'm loathed to use templates within OC
if you change the main stylesheet.css it'll work with any upgrades they bring out
where as a template might not
it may work but it also may need tweaking altho the author is usually good in doing this :)

Barry thanks for posting i didn't want to mention any names in case you didn't want the info made public :)
confidentiality laws etc lol

[smitch6]

the image upload feature is a standard feature with OC :)
i uploaded a couple of other paid mods for you ;)

[smitch6]

i also give all DSF members 1 months free web hosting and will upload any free software and help out where i can free
maybe i should put it in the suppliers section rofl but i can't afford it i did enquire once but funds won't allow it at the minute sorry Justin :)

[Ian M]

Many thanks Steve although I haven't received your Pm as yet. No worries though mate as I'm already loosing the will to live...............lol.
I was working with someone else last year who could design, build & host websites but, turned out he just wanted to find out how to print mugs himself & took away a lot of my business. I even finished up loosing my domain name because of him. I suppose it all seemed to good to be true with all he promised me. Just wish he was a good guy like you Steve.

[smitch6]

awwwwwww thats horrid
well i would like to think you all know me well
and if anyone wasn't happy with what i have done you'd tell me
we all make mistakes and do things which aren't up to other ppl's standards but thats the name of the game
if we were all the same it'd be a boring world

i did embroider something for someone on here the other month
and it was the 1st time i'd done this item and tbh it was a nightmare
twas really thick and i struggled to do it on my little machine
and i wasn't happy with the result but sent it anyway and did email them and explain i wasn't happy
they weren't happy either which i din't blame them and gave them a full refund including the special delivery charge i paid to get it to them next day

but thats the name of the game
i did it wrong and it cost me

i hope i can still be friends with the person involved we have still swapped emails etc, i don't like loosing friends i'm such a happy chap :D

which is why i offer ppl the 1st month free on the hosting that way if they don't like it they aren't out of pocket
but hopefully the service i give them and the experience of working with me they will decide to stay on board

ok been waffling loads now hehe

[smitch6]

Many thanks Steve although I haven't received your Pm as yet. No worries though mate as I'm already loosing the will to live...............lol.

it might of been because my box files were full lol
I think Justin has made them bigger for me :) (that sounds so painful) lol
i'll send it again ian

[JSR]

As mentioned on another thread, I used to use ZenCart. It has a load of features built in as standard, but the back-end is very disorganised. If anything, it has too many features so you can't easily find what you want. The out-of-the-box template is very old-hat, too, so you'd need to look into a decent template straight away. Also, the next version of ZenCart will (whenever it's release) be a major upgrade from the current version - so any work you do now will be wasted in the long term.

Since the beginning of the year, I've switched to OpenCart. The back-end is much simpler, and the out-of-the-box template looks nice and modern. However, it's not bug-free. I've had to wade through several bugs - some answers found on the forum, others I had to figure out for myself. There's a huge bug-fix thread going on on their forum so I imagine there'll be a new release very soon with the bugs all fixed.

It's like everything else - if you go free, don't expect a bug-free experience. And, if you pay for it... don't expect a bug-free experience (but at least you'll have someone to shout at!).

[JSR]

Many thanks Steve although I haven't received your Pm as yet. No worries though mate as I'm already loosing the will to live...............lol.
I was working with someone else last year who could design, build & host websites but, turned out he just wanted to find out how to print mugs himself & took away a lot of my business. I even finished up loosing my domain name because of him. I suppose it all seemed to good to be true with all he promised me. Just wish he was a good guy like you Steve.
This is one reason why I always recommend registering your domain name with someone other that the host - so you're in control at all times.

[smitch6]

i always recommend 123reg for domains
i have links on most of my sites :D

they have always been good and are 1 of the cheapest i've found for domains

[Mattie]

I use opencart for my website and can't fault it, some of the extensions you can get are great and if there is not one available for what you need there is plenty of people on the opencart forum who will build it for you.

[Justin]

Opencart downloaded and installed, site is live! lol. OK, got to make it look like my store now by getting rid of default images etc. :-)

[smitch6]

thats easy :)
esp when you remove all the images etc before uploading it lol ;)
looking at that theme you sent me
tomorrow (if i get time)
i'm going to have a play with the default them and change the colours etc and try and adapt it so someone like barry who doesn't know about coding can just add this theme and it'll work straight away

[cardman]

bit offtrack i know but look at this store

http://www.spreadshirt.co.uk/create-your-own-C59/product/20033812/designSearch/uk
(http://www.spreadshirt.co.uk/create-your-own-C59/product/20033812/designSearch/uk)
@justin


Opencart downloaded and installed, site is live! lol. OK, got to make it look like my store now by getting rid of default images etc. :-)
Buy one of them templates they sell,look really good then.

[smitch6]

looks good but i reckon it's complicated to set up
and it wouldn't let me scroll down the page :~

i've asked on the OC forum if anyone knows of anything similar :)

[Justin]

Re. Spreadshirt, does the final shop you create still show that you've used them or is it brand free?

Looking at the templates :-)

[cardman]

not sure but wondering where can some of them vectors from
esp the one where the ape goes though evolution to man then rides the motorbike

Would get screenshot but site is in flash arggggggggggggg

[Ian M]

Steve, many thanks for your help & wonderful offers of help mate. :biggrin:

[Justin]

Steve really has gone the extra mile today for many of us, thank you from me as well Steve, rep points have been applied from me! Aren't we a great forum? lol.

[smitch6]

no worries folks glad to help where i can :)
after all you all helped me loads when i 1st joined
and yes Justin we are a great forum, but not as great as mine rofl :D

[DS Designs]

would be interested to see too.....wouldn't mind a new site doing also

Dave

[smitch6]

i have a couple of demo sites set up if you want to look :)
i'm playing with themes at the minute so they'll be changing regularly
www.christianhosting.org.uk/oc
www.christianhosting.org.uk/shop

[cardman]

thanks for the logo m8,gonna have a mess with this (rep given)


i have a couple of demo sites set up if you want to look :)
i'm playing with themes at the minute so they'll be changing regularly
www.christianhosting.org.uk/oc (http://www.christianhosting.org.uk/oc)
www.christianhosting.org.uk/shop (http://www.christianhosting.org.uk/shop)

Just ordered a Imac off your site for : Price: $191.20

gotta love it :)

[GoldRapt]

i have a couple of demo sites set up if you want to look :)
i'm playing with themes at the minute so they'll be changing regularly
www.christianhosting.org.uk/oc
www.christianhosting.org.uk/shop

Very nice.
But is it at all possible to have a web site were the shop is only one part and not the main page please?

[smitch6]

oh yes thats easy
just have your normal index page and then install the shop into a folder named shop or store etc
and then have a link etc to it simples

[GoldRapt]

oh yes thats easy
just have your normal index page and then install the shop into a folder named shop or store etc
and then have a link etc to it simples

But can the store/shop "Theme" match the overall look of the whole site please or will it be "different" some way in looks?

[JSR]

But can the store/shop "Theme" match the overall look of the whole site please or will it be "different" some way in looks?
I had a play with that kind of thing on my site. I set up opencart as the main site (www.mugsandgifts.co.uk) and then copied the theme across to create a Wordpress blog (www.mugsandgifts.co.uk/blog). It's a bit rough and ready (I just lifted the design elements from the OC theme and plonked them into the Wordpress theme. Not the right way to do it, but it works.

[smitch6]

there are ways to do it as JSR has said
you need to make sure you have the right css stylesheet added etc
it'll be a bit of work but certainly do-able :)

[GoldRapt]

That looks quite good JSR.
Steve, could you possibly ask on the OC forum if it fits into a CMS site like drupal please?

[smitch6]

asked for you :) i'll keep you updated

[GoldRapt]

asked for you :) i'll keep you updated

I take it no one replied :-(

[smitch6]

their reply wasn't much help they just said the shop homepage does everything you want so why would you want a separate page

sorry :(

[JSR]

their reply wasn't much help they just said the shop homepage does everything you want so why would you want a separate page

sorry :(
Having browsed their forum quite a bit, this is the kind of reply you can usually expect from an OpenCart query. If they don't see a reason for it, they'll tell you that you don't need it. That's the "solution" to most things, apparently.

In short, if OpenCart does what you want then it's a grand piece of software. If it doesn't, then it's probably best to find an alternative that does.

[Imme]

Has anybody used 123-reg to host their E shop?
I have a couple of sites registered with them and noticed they were offering a shop package for £8.99 a month including some decent looking templates.
Just wondered if this was a good deal
Cheers

[smitch6]

Imme thats expensive
i offer def members hosting starting from 2.99 cpm and offer lots of help setting up your shop as well

i have helped quite a few members on here so far :)

[GoldRapt]

their reply wasn't much help they just said the shop homepage does everything you want so why would you want a separate page

sorry :(

Thanks for asking for me. Maybe OC users don't realise that some people dont want their shop as the splash page, I'll have a look at your /shop suggestion.

[smitch6]

at least the software is free to download so you can have a play if your any good at coding?
i'll always help out where i can :)

[chongsta]

Hi Justin,

have you considered going Joomla?

If you have some basic knowledge of building sites then this is for you. actually it takes you from scratch anyway so dont worry too much.

http://www.joomlashack.com/

I signed up for the 3 month university course and I learnt it in a month! The support is second to none, so helpfull and they treat you on the level that you're at. There's no script-kiddies laughing at you at all. I can totally recommend them. If you create an account they're always sending out offers, just monitor your emails from them and eventually they'll send you a good offer!!

This is a site that I built from a template that i bought for a bank busting $29 !!!!

http://www.funkypumpfitness.com

There's 1000's of Joomla templates available, try http://www.bestofjoomla.com/ and you'll see.

Hope that helps
Dave

[Justin]

My site us now up and running through Opencart, works really well I'm very pleased....just need to find the time to get everything on there :-(

[JSR]

Hi Justin,

have you considered going Joomla?

If you have some basic knowledge of building sites then this is for you. actually it takes you from scratch anyway so dont worry too much.

http://www.joomlashack.com/

I signed up for the 3 month university course and I learnt it in a month! The support is second to none, so helpfull and they treat you on the level that you're at. There's no script-kiddies laughing at you at all. I can totally recommend them. If you create an account they're always sending out offers, just monitor your emails from them and eventually they'll send you a good offer!!

This is a site that I built from a template that i bought for a bank busting $29 !!!!

http://www.funkypumpfitness.com

There's 1000's of Joomla templates available, try http://www.bestofjoomla.com/ and you'll see.

Hope that helps
Dave
I've put up a couple of sites with Joomla. We haven't used any templates so far, just customised the ones that come with it, but then I didn't do any "3 month university course" either... :wink:

The only problem with Joomla is, as it is with all of these free things, having to go around updating them all when there's a "fix" for something - hoping desperately that your tweaks to the template won't cause the whole thing to come crashing down around your ears when you apply the update.

[Philipjbaker]

Hi Guys, I'm new here but been reading this thread. When I was creating my site I looked at a lot of shopping carts and the one that suited me best was Ecwid. It was the easiest to set up my products in and the easiest to integrate into my website. I'm using the free option now which allows up to 100 products but there is a paid option which costs $17 per month which I guess is about £11 which gives you way more products plus extra features, etc. Just thought I'd mention it in case anyone wants to try it.

Phil