Where do I start my Website? (small business, buy, companies, spend)

[tony23]

Here are a few articles on hiring a web designer. I don't agree 100% with all of them - for example, I absolutely do not lower my rates to match if you find better rates elsewhere - but it's a good start to get an idea what to look for:

How to Hire a Web Designer [Site Planning]
Tips To Hire The Right Website Designer | Practical eCommerce
How to Hire Someone to Design and Build Your Web Site | eHow.com

This one is more for a company hiring someone in-house, but it still has useful information:
SEOmoz | Interviewing Web Developers - 20 Good Questions to Ask

Be sure whoever you hire understands usability and cross-browser coding. Don't let someone talk you into a flash-based site. And don't jump for the lowest price just because it's the lowest - you'll end up paying more in the end.

[Murray1]

WOW! I am pleasantly surprised on the amount of help! Thank you all so much. I ended up getting my domain with Moniker (hopefully they are reliable). I am just parking the domain until I do further research and know exactly where I am going with this business venture. My next step is to establish a (successful) website. I have to admit I know nothing about starting a website let alone selling products on a website and don't know where to start. I will be selling a variety of home decor products. Many of you mentioned a web designer, would that be my first step? Any help or guidance would be great!

[poconoproud]

for the dyi crowd...

www.homestead.com

costs me $250 per year basic, then add their search light feature, for not much more to get your site more hits from yahoo, google, etc...

They help you design, and the program is easy to use.

www.pocononewhomes.net is the site I created using this tool.

[Sky1]

I host websites and use HSPHERE, it has something that allows those with no webdesign experience to simply drop text into fields, select photos and themes and the page is created by the system itself.
Many providers offer this now. It is kind of fun, I think you will enjoy it.
Good luck!

[heydade]

My ex-wife had her online maternity clothing site through FloridaProweb.com - AboutUs Wiki Page Jonathan is his name and he does excellent work at excellent prices.

[tony23]

To FIND someone, your local chamber of commerce might be a decent start. Use the links I provided to weed out the ones you shouldn't spend your money on.

I have been doing exactly this for about 14 years now - and I have been programming for about 30 years. I've seen way too many people get burned because they hired the neighbor's kid, or went with the lowest bid. I've also seen people get burned because they were wowed by someone's presentation, and ended up spending $5000 for a $500 website.

Originally Posted by Murray1

I will be selling a variety of home decor products. Many of you mentioned a web designer, would that be my first step? Any help or guidance would be great!

First, for a shopping cart, you would be more interested in a web developer - that is, someone who actually programs dynamic websites, rather than someone who builds static websites with FrontPage or DreamWeaver. Make sure that whoever you hire knows how to hand-code HTML and is aware of cross-browser programming issues.

There are a number of options available, depending on exactly what you want, and how many items you have.

If you don't have a lot of items, one possibility to consider would be a PayPal shopping cart. If you have a lot of items, you might consider getting someone to set up OSCommerce for the shopping section of your site. Or, you can look at having a custom site made. Whatever you do, be sure to work with someone who has e-commerce experience, if you plan to sell your products online.

[Murray1]

What company should I get to host my website?

[tony23]

Originally Posted by Murray1

What company should I get to host my website?

Now that's a whole other can of worms

Personally, I would recommend that you REGISTER it yourself. I use Godaddy - others will recommend differently. Then, have your web developer take care of the hosting. Any competent developer will already have something set up to do that.

Have you given any thought at all as to what you want to / are willing to spend on this?

[Murray1]

I don't really know what to spend because I've never done this before. If I go with go daddy can I pick my own web designer? I've read that host monster is one of the top hosts, is this true? How are they different then go daddy?

[mark85]

As for e-commerce, I would suggest going with a hosted e-commerce service like Volusion or Yahoo stores. rather than buying a shopping cart application, customizing it and hosting it. For a newbie, these services are much less of a headache to run compared to developing and hosting your own app, and they're quite customizable and fully featured, so your site will look quite professional. You still need to hire someone to do graphics and maybe to set up the site initially, though.

I have a couple of sites done with osCommerce and another shopping cart app and there are many bugs, security, server issues, etc. that need lots of regular attention. With the hosted solutions, these things are all handled by the service and you can focus on generating content and products. Unless you have a need for unique features on your site, your life will be simpler with a hosted solution.

One drawback with a hosted solution, however, is search engine ranking (where your site's pages show up in Google search results). I'm not sure if Google crawls and indexes pages generated by these hosted e-commerce services in the same way it does with other sites. Also, if you later decide to move your domain name to another hosted service or to a custom site you develop, you'll lose any page rankings that you've built up. Maybe someone else can chime in on this.