# Websites



## wood2art (Aug 9, 2010)

I have been selling my wood boxes on Etsy for the last 7 years. I have had some success, but not great. My prices are higher than most things on Etsy. I will not work for $2 an hour.
I would like to build my own website, so I can try to appeal to a different crowd.
Has anybody used an affordable website builder where you can have an online store?
Any help would be appreciated. Thank you all.


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## Ripper70 (Nov 30, 2015)

Check out wix.com.


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## diverlloyd (Apr 25, 2013)

https://bontraweb.com// This guy right here is amazing and one of my friends. He is cheap for what you get and don't have to worry about paying for a site that is half assed and then have to pay someone else to fix it. Remember a great looking and running site will pay for itself in the business it brings in.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

Wordpress is terrific because how search engines
crawl blogs. Anytime you update with a new
post your content gets prioritized in search results
over older content.

For little cost or maybe even free these days
you can install wordpress on your own .com domain
and have full control over the site. Free wordpress
blogs are available at Wordpress.com but they're
all hosted there and functionality is limited. On
the upside you'd get traffic from other bloggers 
who host there.

http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/self-hosted-wordpress-org-vs-free-wordpress-com-infograph/


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## wormil (Nov 19, 2011)

Wordpress is really easy and has a ton of plug-ins. Or you might consider an all in one e-commerce solution like Shopify or Weebly.


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## YesHaveSome (Sep 10, 2017)

If you're wanting to sell online then I would recommend Shopify or Squarespace. In the past I was a WP developer and then exec director of digital agency. I love WP, it's what my site is built upon (theaveragecraftsman.com), but it's a little more cumbersome than the previous ones I mentioned for someone that doesnt know anything about web development.

I would suggest trying out each platform. They all have demos and they all have, at least, free trials. You can spin up a WP site in about five minutes on wordpress.com. Use whatever you feel comfortable with. If you go the WP route you can use the woocommerce plugin for your store. I would suggest Stripe as your payment processor. I believe it starts around 2.5% per transaction with no other fees.

@loren, SEO is based on how the site is coded, not its platform. You can use WP and get crap SEO results if you don't have a properly coded template.


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## DIYWaterDog (Mar 26, 2017)

I have recently "retired" from web design, development, and promotion. After over 20 years, it's time to stop the coding.

Could not compete with the ignorance of people thinking the FREE boxed solutions of plug and play was a better solution. Every boxed solution has limitations. Just when you think it has everything you need you WILL find the limitations and need to hire someone specialized with that package to integrate custom code to meet your needs and goals.

My recommendation is to find a PERSON to do it for you and work out a deal for them to TEACH you how to manage your own site.

No matter how wonderful of site you have, you will need to PROMOTE it. SEO is only one piece to the very complex puzzle today. Social Media is your FRIEND.

When you purchase a domain name, be sure YOU own it. Not the developer or hosting company. Treat it as a piece of Internet Real Estate. Do a little research to see the history of Dicks.com Ha Ha!! LOL! It's not what it used to be and someone paid lots of money for it.

Depending on your tech literacy, you can put something together nearly for FREE but will need to learn a lot about getting traffic to your site. Ecommerce can start with a PayPal Account button.

My last warning is that if you decide to do it yourself for FREE you will be paying GREATLY in time to LEARN what needs to be done to get the traffic and keep the traffic rolling. Web marketing is a tremendous industry for a reason.

Good Luck!
DIYWATERDOG


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## DIYWaterDog (Mar 26, 2017)

BTW… Looked at your projects. Beautiful stuff. I am envious!! Looks like it takes lots of TIME to create that magnificent artwork. Hint Hint


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## davidojames (Apr 12, 2018)

ok


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## Finn (May 26, 2010)

> "...My recommendation is to find a PERSON to do it for you and work out a deal for them to TEACH you how to manage your own site…."
> 
> This is what I recently did. I found a local company to set up our website. It is way too new to judge how it will work. Give it a look at craftingcouple.com


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## DIYWaterDog (Mar 26, 2017)

Yep…. local company using WordPress instead of custom design and development.

How is your traffic to site? If not yet, be sure you have Google Analytics integrated into your site.

Good luck with your marketing!



> "...My recommendation is to find a PERSON to do it for you and work out a deal for them to TEACH you how to manage your own site…."
> 
> This is what I recently did. I found a local company to set up our website. It is way too new to judge how it will work. Give it a look at craftingcouple.com
> 
> - Jim Finn


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