New Website - Buy or DIY?

[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/o ... lates.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.