setting up a website?

hi everyone, i have been selling a few things on ebay recently but am realising how high the fees are for ebay and paypal and am thinking of doing my own website.
I dont know about it, web hosting and domain names, so i was hoping someone could help me with it all.

1) should i design my own website or pay someone to do it, i have found a company online that does this for only $197.

2) what exactly is web hosting, do you have to pay someone for this every year? The company above offers this for $144 per year.

3) does it cost money to register a website name, the company also offers this service, per year, do you have to pay every year?

thanks
tracy

Hi Tracy,

Just before you start spending your money, may be SaleHoo can help..Try having a look at the links below:

SaleHoo offers some basic information on setting up an ecommerce store/website in our blog and resource section.

Link hidden: Login to view
Link hidden: Login to view

However, we do not currently offer any website system of our own. If you are looking for a cheap and easy way to get an online store up and running, we recommend:

eCrater Link hidden: Login to view (find out more here: Link hidden: Login to view)

BuyItSellIt Link hidden: Login to view

Auctiva Commerce Link hidden: Login to view

Cheers!

Hosting : You get what you pay for, you can get free hosting, you could buy shared hosting, which is anywhere from 3$ - 20$ a month generally. Or you could buy a VPS (Virtual Private Server) Which is pretty much having your own server, all to your self. These are a little more expensive at about 80$ / month. You could also, if you site gets a lot of traffic go with a dedicated server. This is your own server and can cost anywhere from 100$ - 400$ a month, depending on the specs. VPS and Dedicated Servers require a bit of knowledge about web hosting though.

Design : Personally, i would get a pre made template. You never know if your sites going to turn out good, and spending almost 200$ on the theme is a bit much, since customers dont come to your website for the looks, they come for the prices!

Domains : Yes, it costs money to register a domain name and you generally pay per year but you can also pay for 2 - 3 or more years in advance. If you are going to use paypal to purchase the domains, i suggest Link hidden: Login to view You could also try out Link hidden: Login to view if your paypal account has a credit card attached to it.


I hope that helps :)

Hi Tracey,

Check out smartyhost.com they are Melbourne based cheap and quite good from all reports also have packages letting you design host and publish your own website.

Also check Link hidden: Login to view sydney based and appear not bad from all I hear.

I used to have site with netregistry, not the cheapest, but provide a first class service. I now use godaddy in the US for all my hosting.

I would suggest you take a look at something like Link hidden: Login to view, open source shopping cart. You can then get someone to just set it up for you, plenty of templates available starting from free, and ending up around $150US.

You will need to register a domain name, that is your URL, and you will need a hosting account, that is basically where your site is displayed.

You should also consider a site like Link hidden: Login to view. It is a shop based site, free listing and very low success fees. That would get you up and running completely hassle free in no time, then you can take your time in developing your own site if you still feel it's required.

thanks for the info guys, at least i understand it a bit more now, will just try other auction sites at first, to make a bit of money to buy some stock, no point in having a website if you havent got stock lol

tracy

I would like to see this 197.00 company. What is their domain, don't worry I am not trying to take your idea I have more websites than I can count on both hands, literally. Having a website is great and can make you a ton of money if you do it the right way, and that is usually not the cheap way.

I will be glad to give you some pointers as well . Do not get free hosting unless you want to go nowhere fast I don't know why anyone would tell you to do that as Google penalizes a site if they use free hosting, by saying penalize here is what I mean.
If me and you had the exact same website you had free hosting I had paid my website would come up on page 1 while you were on page 55, who do you think would get more sales?

You can have your site hosted at host gator for $6.00 a month and you can pay monthly instead of 1 year in advance like most require.

Ecrater and those other website are ok if your not really serious but if your going to do this do it right the 1st time and then you will not have to do it again.

a good website would cost lot more then that.