Getting a website up and running.

I could start rumbling here about all kind of softwares, etc, but my best advice to you:
find a store that behaves exactly like you wish your store would behave and find out how it was done.

There are many different approaches to store design, all have different look and feel. it also has to do with the question you should ask yourself: am I going to sell directly online or do I want people to contact me by email and followup on the transaction? this is a major decision both from design POV and costs.

Oh, and buy the domain name!

-- The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep...

dont have any advice..but will say congrats, and hope things go well…...

-- The Grizzone

me , i don’t know squat !
but you allready knew that .

lot’s of luck .

-- david ,new mexico ,allheart

Computers plot against me secretly Larry, but I’m with the rest of the boys in wishing you all the best in your new business.
I can’t be a web site contributor but I’ll sure be a web site visitor.

-- Eric

I tried 3 different web GEEK’S over 3 years and finally went to GoDaddy.com and built my own. Being a Beek and not a GEEK I think it turned out just fine. Shipped another order today. Just my advice
Deputy Dawg www.dsmdiststore.com

-- DeputyDawg

If you are going to do a “marketbasket” – take orders and payments over the web….I would definitely get it professionally done the first time….there are quite a few places out there that do decent pages on the “cheap”....make sure you get references first…and check them…...

I’ve made a few pages…but none with “marketbaskets.” You really want your customers protected….and for the payments to process correctly. Paypal is also something you should set up…you can take credit cards that way without opening a merchant account….merchants pay discounts/fees for card processing…

Thats about the best I can do on that subject…

Ohhh…and congrats on taking the plunge…will look forward to seeing your new page…

-- Woodworking.....My small slice of heaven!

Congrats Larry.

-- CJIII Future cabinetmaker

Depends how much you want to spend.
More stuff costs money.
KISS- Keep It Simple, Stupid (no offense), not everyone is on high speed Internet. More graphics and animations take longer to load, so on dial up, people may get frustrated and leave your sight.
If you can do it yourself, make changes at least weekly to avoid your site from becoming stale. If you have nothing new to add or change, people won’t come back to visit again and again.
Make links that work- test them so that you are taken to where you should be, broken links kill a site also.
Make it fun and interesting.
Yahoo geocities uses to be about $10 a month but I think they no longer do it, not sure tho, and was easy for anyone to learn and build their own website. Check local websites see who they are using in your area.
For a new person it can take 6-8 hours to get one up and operational, another consideration on doing it yourself or hiring someone to do it for you.
Just some thoughts Good Luck
Rick

-- Rick... A tree knows more about wood then I do.

wish I could help but my son did mine

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop, custom furniture maker, woodworking school, heirloomwoodshop.com

Another option is to build your site using one of the blog mechanisms (very simple to use, like wordpress) or one of the CMS platforms and when shopping is needed to point to either amazon or ebay store. this way you simplify the flow and reduce the costs (as you don’t have to mess with the payment clearing – buy you pay commission for this)

As I said – first find a site that has the right look and feel for you and start from there.

unfortunatly, lazylarry.com is already taken….

-- The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep...

if its a business, take the advice above that argues for a commercially created website.

i’ve been working on mine at least 5 years— http://www.woodworkinghistory.com —

i’m retired— and have gone through the wysiwyg brands, cms, comcast’s brand—which i think is like wordpress—and then, finally, took the time to learn html text editing,

using a text editor— the freebie software, komodo— i get the best results and the most satisfaction, but it meant learning html code. a very steep learning curve.

i don’t think that you can do that and run a business too. don’t do cms, i tried it and it is a disaster, largely because it changes all the webpage titles, and if you have a lot of pages, creates chaos when you try to revise, or create hyperlinks.

wysiwyg software lards up the code with all sort of unnecessary syntax

again, i say go for a commercial website creator

-- Raymond McInnis Washington State ray@woodworkinghistory.com

Godaddy or others like it that allow you to create a website from a template are a place to start. My biggest problem with them is for the most part they look like the next website. Everyone uses the same templates.

If you are brave enough there are some places you can go to do it yourself:
http://www.zen-cart.com/
http://www.weebly.com/

-- Whether You Think You Can or You Think You Can't, YOU ARE RIGHT!!!

Unless you are real good with computers have someone that is build it for you. I started building my own and it has been unchanged for quite sometime now, not for the lack of desire to improve, it is very time consuming to say the least. Good luck, and congrats!

-- There is no such thing as scrap wood! Rastus NE www.nativelumber.net

Dont know why I wasnt able to post more than the 2 links in the last post
http://www.serif.com/webplus/
http://www.dreamtemplate.com/features.shtml

I hope this helps.

-- Whether You Think You Can or You Think You Can't, YOU ARE RIGHT!!!

degoose, I’m a builder and in the past havent needed a website because all my business was WOM. However this year things are obviously VERY slow so I put together a very quick website on a “free” hosting site. Free web sites are plentiful for “personal web pages” but commercial website cost money sooner or later. I use homestead.com It has the online version of the website builder or you can download a more functional version from their site. getting the website up and running is fairly simple. Getting traffic to your website is more complicated. For me, having an online presence is more like a yellow pages ad for “local” searches. For an online store that creates items for sale to be shipped elsewhere you’ll need to target your ads more broadly than I would.

-- Dan, Sterling Alaska, http://sullcon.homestead.com/ Before you criticise some one, walk a mile in their shoes...then you will be a mile away and you have their shoes!

Thanks for all your information,,
I think that the best thing is to hire the best man for the job someone who actually knows about building a web site,, I can’t really afford the time and effort it would take me. i went to see a good friend who is the advertising manager of the local paper and he gave me a name to call .. he did his web site.. also gave me a good contact as far as an accountant/tax agent.. lots of things that can be deducted by a business..
Thanks again,
One thumb Larry lol

-- Drink once, cut twice. New website up.... lazylarrywoodworks.com.au

Larry,

About 8 month ago I built my first website and it wasn’t very difficult. I bought a $30 program, Wed Easy Pro from Walmart and started building. It was actually pretty easy and fun and I had a website up and going in about 2 days.

I host my website at 2ip.com because the price is good and I got a good plan (you buy certain “plans” simular to a cell phone plan but for your website, basically mine is unlimited minutes and unlimited everything else for $50 a year). It didn’t really take long to build the site and I am considering making another website that has to do with woodworking soon.

My site is http://www.sailingandsuch.com . I am not selling anything on the website, basically jsut giving free information and making it easier for people to find some hard to find websites by having them all in one place. I am actually making money with the site, about $140 bucks in 6 months, all this from Google Adsense which is easy and free to singup and use. I made $2.62 yestarday fro doing nothing! I haven’t worked on the website in probably 4 months, it could get much better and make more money but I am leaving at that for the time being.

I suggest, go for it. It is easy to make your own 5-6 page website with photos and videos. Once you get the basics you will be building pages very quickly.

-- Check out my woodworking blog! http://woodworkingtrip.blogspot.com/

you need another website??? Don’t you own this one?

-- Matt, Napa, CA...fun is beautiful...just trying to have some fun...

Yes Napa, I do own that one but I would need another domain name if I were to start another website dedicated to woodworking. It doesn’t hurt to have more than one, basically there is no upkeep to SailingandSuch.com, just pay the $50 bill once a year and collect the meager earnings.

-- Check out my woodworking blog! http://woodworkingtrip.blogspot.com/

lol…sorry sailor…i didnt read your post…I was just jostling with Larry since he is such a frequent poster that I used the term “owned” this site…meaning he is posting so much it seems like he owns the place…but just a joke…the amazing thing about all your posts larry is that you TEACH as you go…

cant wait to see it up and running…

-- Matt, Napa, CA...fun is beautiful...just trying to have some fun...

sailor..two questions..
1) How much traffic does your boat site require for $140.00 in 6 months..roughly?
2) Did you work the system to drive traffic to it like topic specific forums etc?

-- Dan, Sterling Alaska, http://sullcon.homestead.com/ Before you criticise some one, walk a mile in their shoes...then you will be a mile away and you have their shoes!

You first need to register the domain name …

Then squarespace is a very easy way to build and host the site …

There are a bunch of thigns to consider during the deisgn, build, and hosting process …

I work on servers, computers, and all that stuff for a living … I have helped lots of people and buisnesses do a lot of different things with them … if you wnat more specific advice message me …

-- RavinHeart - Wisconsin

Matt, ,,, you will have to let Martin know.. he is probably in the dark as to ownership :LMAO
Thanks all for the info,
Larry

-- Drink once, cut twice. New website up.... lazylarrywoodworks.com.au

mics,

My website gets around 1400 Unique Visitors each month. (1400 different people) With the type of ads that I have unique visitors and views aren’t what you are really after. I get paid each time someone clicks and ad. So you could have a website with 10,000 unique visitor each months but if the ads aren’t what they are interested in then they will not click them and you will no make any money.

If you are asking if their are forums on my website, no there are not. There is no interaction between the viewer and the website at all, other than browsing the pages and clicking links and ads. I would drive traffic by posting on sailing forums and things that like, I probably got about %25 of my traffic that way. I would get maybe another %5-%10 of my traffic form direct links (other websites that have links to my site on their webpages)
The majority of my traffic comes from search engines, Google mainly. Google is also who sends me the small check in mail every once and a while!

Building and hosting the website was pretty fun and I learned alot, try it.

-- Check out my woodworking blog! http://woodworkingtrip.blogspot.com/

I would drive traffic by posting on sailing forums and things that like, I probably got about %25 of my traffic that way.

That’s what I asked. I was curious if you did that.
I didn’t mean to highjack this thread. If I could I would like to send you a pm for further discussion about your experience with the website.

-- Dan, Sterling Alaska, http://sullcon.homestead.com/ Before you criticise some one, walk a mile in their shoes...then you will be a mile away and you have their shoes!

Be careful about using those fly by night services that say they will get you on top of the search engines. I have seen alot of them on complaintsboard.com….

Once your page is done…you can do just as much as they do by running multiple searches and selecting your page….the more times selected…the further up the ladder you go….

Sailor…I like your page….Its been so long since I’ve been sailin…...used to race with my uncle on his S&S 63 (Tahiti race, manzanillo race….and one transpac on that)....then a few runs on other various boats on Transpacs….lived aboard and cruised on a 27’ for 8 years….but now am landlocked. I used to get the Latitude 38 magazine way back when….was in it several times…even wrote a few articles for them….don’t know if they are still around…Keep up the good work..

-- Woodworking.....My small slice of heaven!

I built mine myself from a template the host offered. It has not been an expensive undertaking. I spent alot of time learning about them before I started mine. I looked at alot of hosts; free and for fee. I chose sitekreator for mine because it was simple to use and low cost.

I have a basic site right now. I update it on a regular basis and enjoy doing it. There are some skills you need to have or learn. I am learning to take better photos right now. It is a challenge. My site is really for fun, I can point people to it to see some of my work. The sales page is there only to pay the bill and it is the part that needs the better photos. If I sell 3 pens a year off the site, it will cover the cost of the site.

If you do it yourself, ask your friends (us) to help proof it. Spelling errors, grammar, consistent page layouts and fonts are another set of challenges.

-- ---call me Mark

You might be best off with a host that allows people to make storefronts.

This can be as simple as starting an eBay store (and not everything has to be auction).

These kinds of services allow templates that you can customize and they handle all the backend stuff. QUick setup and little technical knowledge needed on your part.

Once you get into hosts and web designers and programmers, things are going to get hairy fast.

My advice is to look at “build your own storefront” services first. Try one. If things take off you can always port your name to something more robust.

And how do I know? Guess what my day job is :-)

-- Eric ---- Wise Words T.B.D.

just sit on the busiest street corner with a cooler of your favorite drink and your cutting boards…with some grilled brautwurst…..and there ya go…..real easy…..

-- The Grizzone

lets get really geeky:
put a webbed hammock in the busiest street corner, lie on it with your XXXX and a big sign “web site”.
just beware not to get too many hits….

-- The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep...

HITS???? I think he might get ran over and then he wouldn’t need the website…..............Right Larry?
LOL

-- Jerry--A man can never have enough tools or clamps

On the outside chance you’ve got a Mac, purchase iWeb from Apple. Nothing does more for the ease of use. You can learn it in 30 minutes using video from their site. Other than that I know of some good software but nothing in comparison.

-- The smell of wood, coffee in the cup, the wife let's me do my thing, the lake is peaceful. http://web.me.com/deceiver6/Deceiver/Craftsman_on_the_lake/Craftsman_on_the_lake.html

If you’ve never done it before, I’d go with a pro. Just ask around and find somebody you trust. Look at other sites so that you have an idea what you want. I would make sure you own everything. That way if you want to change something, you’re not tied to one guy.
Good luck!

-- MW | www.MissionWorks.com

I’m a software developer by day and a sawdust creator by night. I have to say that neither venture should be taken lightly. A useful website is serious business. You will likely want something that you can maintain and update yourself but with the “geek support” necessary to keep the whole thing running in case you get in over your head. And you will get in over your head.

All software starts with one thing…requirements. You are best off writing down (in extreme detail, to the best of your ability) exactly what you want. Do you want to be able to add new products? Change prices or availability? Automatically respond to orders? All of these things are important and will lead to the ultimate success and ease-of-use of your website. Seriously think about what you want, and write it down! I can’t stress this enough. If you have to contact your web guy every time a price goes up (or down) you will find yourself in a world of pain.

There’s a good chance you can find an “out-of-the-box” solution that will fit the majority of your requirements, however in my experience you will often want to make small changes that, in reality, prove too costly for someone else to do, and too difficult for you to do. If you can live with these compromises I suggest doing as unklegwar says and start with the “build your own” storefront services. However, as soon as you expand beyond those services, your costs will likely go up exponentially.

To give you an idea…my sister and her husband do professional web design and charge in the neighborhood of $40 USD per hour. The entry rate for a new site is around $2000. This does not include any sort of storefront/shopping cart applications. A web developer creating custom web applications will often charge twice that for quality work and support.

That said, if you need help please let me know. I’m more than willing to trade my geek skills for your board skills ;)

fwiw, I use Joomla CMS and host it on godaddy.com. Joomla is open source and has lots of add-ons. goddady.com supports everything necessary to run it.
Don’t learn html programming as someone suggested. It’s just not necessary anymore and too difficult to manage and change. The CMS system has a front end management system. You define how everything looks using a template ( hardest thing will be to pick one) and then just add content.

It also has a storefront add-on. I added it on but I don’t sell anything so it’s not turned on – but was really easy to set up and I played around with adding a few products – but then I am a computer geek, so your mileage may vary.

..but the price is right( free), can look professional pretty much out of the box amd easy to run on most hosts

-- Steve, New Zealand, www.steveracz.com

Im with daltxguy…Joomla with virtuemart is a really good easy start. I designed this site for a friend using joomla and virtuemart. He doesnt actually take orders with it, but it makes it really easy to show off his products(we just need to add more pictures)

-- If you can't build it, code it. If you can't code it, build it. But always ALWAYS take a picture.

I use the server-based version of Wordpress which is hosted through Hostgator. It costs about $8.95 per month. Most web hosting sites have boring web templates. By using Wordpress, I had an almost unlimited selection of templates to choose from. For appalachiancraftsmen.com, I use an e-commerce plugin from another company which interfaces to paypal. I run my dgmwoodworks.com blog using Wordpress on the same server, but without the e-commerce plugin. Even though I view Wordpress as easy to set up and even easier to maintain, It still requires “under the hood tweeking” and if you don’t know Linux, you will be lost.

You may want to look at pagebuzz.com. I use to use it to sell my boards with great results. It has e-commerce and interfaces with many merchant services. They have a lot of nice templates and the site is easy for a non-techie to maintain and update. The only reason I moved away from it was my desire to run a blog, which they don’t have.

My primary business, www.closetdreams.com is an old school, hand-coded site that I created 7 years ago. I will never go through that again! I am planning to convert it over to Wordpress in a couple months.

-- I don't make mistakes, only design changes....www.dgmwoodworks.com

I haven’t much advice for you Larry except to remember that you usually get what you pay for and like they say with tools it’s better to pay too much and get a useful tool than to waste your money on a cheap one and still not have a tool that can do the job. It is probably good to use a company with a proven track record.

Congratulations and best of luck with your new venture !

-- Mike, American in Norway

As with woodworking I am interested in photography. In fact hope to be a pro wedding photographer in the coming years(have to pay for my woodworking toys….err…tools somehow:-)

Photography is a highly web centered business so here is a few tips.

1. Stay away from Flash sites. They look nice, it is interesting but they have two problems. 1. Not everyone wants to sit thru the movie to get to the menu and will leave if it is boring them. That is a neg as you want people to see and hopefully purchase some of your work. 2. They don’t show up well with search engines. Because of their nature google has a hard time tracking the hits you get. Much better is to have a blog, simple and elegent that will show what your brand is all about and a link to your pro site.

2. Unless you have experience, a very quick learner and a BOAT LOAD of time it is better to handle it thru a pro. If you are a software developer who does a woodworking business on the side then you can probably get away with it, but what would you rather do, make great works and perfecting your craft, or taking big chunks of your day to maintain a website, cause it will. If you can do both great, but better to outsource what doesn’t add value to your business and work on what does.

3. A good way of getting hits(people looking at your site, don’t mean to offend if you know, I just don’t want to assume). is writing a daily blog which is easy, 10, 15 min of your day and have a link to your pro created business site. I have seen where people have tried to incorporate the blog and business site into one and it just looks messy and unprofessional(as a business not a web designer). Having a blog gives the customer a chance to see who you are and have a connection, then when they go to the pro site it will make them want to purchase your work, and/or services.

4. You can shop around for a good designer. If you have limited income you could try to get someone either working in college or just graduated, they will usually do great work for a low fee to boost their portfolio. If you can afford a good pro do so. THere will be less headaches in the end. You could also trade favors. Like with photography it is usually a free portrait session or even wedding, in exchange for services rendered. You could work on a piece for them for the same.

Well hope that helps, and gives some food for thought. Good luck and much success to you!

-- Carpe Nocturne

Hello everyone!

I am a web developer and computer programmer, and I have to say that Mauritius is pretty much spot-on when it comes to hiring a pro, except for the price. While there are many designer / developers out there that will charge well over the $2000 mark for a new site, there are also some cheaper designers (myself included) who offer similar services at a fraction of that price.

Obviously, I would be happy to provide anyone with a quote after discussing your needs (after all, this is my business!), but I think you can do it all for a quite a bit less, just shoot me an email, and we can discuss your project.

That being said, DEFINITELY read Mauritius’ post, as there is a lot of valuable information there, especially in regard to customizing your site. The more you want, the more it costs!

-- Check out my blog at www.timdietrich.net

Thanks Timmy.
Got your email and while I appreciate the offer, I have already got my site up and running.
Just a smaller site first off but it has everything I want right now,,, maybe when I am as big a Bill Gates might need a “More Professional” build..
Right now I am happy with pagebuzz .. site builder, domain name, full e-commerce, web hosting and tech support all inclusive….and all for under 10 bucks a month. It is very user friendly and any changes take only a few minutes. While this may seem to be doing it on the cheap,, the software and service is definitely not!

-- Drink once, cut twice. New website up.... lazylarrywoodworks.com.au

I too am a web developer and programmer, and wish I saw this post earlier. First, Mauritius couldn’t be more spot on about knowing business requirements first. Second, I wish I saw this post earlier as I would have been willing to develop one for you for just some tools. I really need some haha.

I can see “will work for tools” t-shirt coming….

-- The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep...

Moshel here is abutton, shirts available also :)

-- Whether You Think You Can or You Think You Can't, YOU ARE RIGHT!!!

I didn’t have the time to read through all of the previous responses. I can only ASSume that they’re as high quality as usual. As a professional web developer myself, I can highly recommend buying something off of www.templatemonster.com and then having someone inflate it for you. Check the Products = Website Templates and start with Category = Interior & Furniture. That will give you a pretty good idea of what your site will look like. The next step is good photograpy. If you set up a white sheet with lighting, and put your camera on a tripod, you might be able to do it yourself. Please message me if you have any further questions. Like I said, this is what I do when I’m not making sawdust. I’d love to help out a fellow LJ. I’m actually doing a template site for my brother-in-law right now.

-- You can't control the wind, but you can trim your sails

I host at Host Gator for 8.95 per month they have a good selection of programs to use for free. I use Joomla and a template we also mow have a message board and google maps at the bottom of the page that I am trying to work into the ad section so the ads are placed on the map but I am having trouble getting the time and do not have the skills to do it.

-- Sell it here> http://woodworkerslist.com

On the outside chance you own a Mac I can let you know about Apple’s website program iWeb. Anyone can make professional looking websites with about 30 minutes instruction. If not then many of the above solutions are good.

-- The smell of wood, coffee in the cup, the wife let's me do my thing, the lake is peaceful. http://web.me.com/deceiver6/Deceiver/Craftsman_on_the_lake/Craftsman_on_the_lake.html

I used Fatcow reasonable prices and has DIY web builder software package at no extra cost.