What software do you use to do your web site

[GoldRapt]

It's ben a long time since I did a website, what software are people using now please?
Do I just go and get a zen web cart and it comes with a site or do I have that the wrong way round?

[GoldRapt]

Is everyone paying a web guy to do there websites then?

[Justin]

I did have a go myself years ago but it took up so much time and I could never get it looking really professional. I bit the bullet and employed a local company , best thing I ever did. I got a great looking site, easy to use with PayPal integration. The site worked a treat but wasn't the success I'd hoped......so I'll be selling it on if anyone's interested!
You can buy a skeleton of a site and then add your pics/items etc. which works really well.

Justin

[bms]

For several years we used ebuttonz.com. The basic site was free and you could integrate to PayPal or use your own card terminal. Worked well for us in the early years but then paid a professional for a database driven website with full ecommerce integration. Ebuttonz is worth a look if you're selling a small number of products.

[JSR]

It's ben a long time since I did a website, what software are people using now please?
Do I just go and get a zen web cart and it comes with a site or do I have that the wrong way round?

Website complexity is inversely proportional with how much you're prepared to pay. If you're prepared to pay a good sum to get someone to do it for you, it'll be easiest. If you want free, expect to roll your sleeves up and get stuck in.

If you have no experience with websites, then it's probably not a good idea to go free. But if you know the basics and have half a clue about how to work things out, then free is certainly an option.

For instance, something like ZenCart is free and fairly easy to install (if you know your database from your webspace). Once installed, it has its own template and pre-installed products so you have a "working" shop right from the start - but you will need to tweak it to suit your own preferences, set up your own products, tweak the shipping and payments sections, and so on. It's not difficult if you've done websites before, but if you're a complete newbie then you'll probably run into difficulties. They do have an extensive forum filled with many people who will answer questions - ZenCart is quite weather-worn now so you'll probably find many questions you'll ask have already been answered.

Of course, the simplest "free" website is just to slap your products on an HTML page and cut & paste PayPal buttons to a PayPal shopping cart. Doesn't get much simpler than that.

For examples of what you can do with ZenCart, this is mine: http://www.mugsandgifts.co.uk and this is Karen's: http://www.eggsandantlers.co.uk/ and this is one I set up for someone else: http://www.aosmithepc.co.uk

[Stitch Up]

Geez, roll your sleeves up huh!!!

I've been struggling with osCpmmerce for the past 2 months. I am making progress but still a lot to do and learn.

At the mpment I'm adding categories & products and learnig a little HTML to improve my product listings.

Here it is so far Stitch-Up Click on Citroen as this is the most work!

John

PS JSR kindly installed the Zencart software on another site I haven't started on that yet

[JSR]

Geez, roll your sleeves up huh!!!

I've been struggling with osCpmmerce for the past 2 months. I am making progress but still a lot to do and learn.

At the mpment I'm adding categories & products and learnig a little HTML to improve my product listings.

Here it is so far Stitch-Up Click on Citroen as this is the most work!

John

PS JSR kindly installed the Zencart software on another site I haven't started on that yet

From what I've read, oscommerce and Zencart share certain similarities. In theory, what you learn from oscommerce should stand you in good stead if you decide to go with Zencart.

[GoldRapt]

Those sites look very nice, I don't have one and wonder, at the smaller end of business...do they bring in a good revune please?

[Paul]

my web site is here
it costed me on the end about £240 and I have php site menager where I can paste all info, pics etc. not need to know any thing about html or php.

[JSR]

Those sites look very nice, I don't have one and wonder, at the smaller end of business...do they bring in a good revune please?

I can only speak for my own site. A website won't instantly make you money, it just makes it easier for people to buy. A better question would be - does the product bring in a good revenue? With the advent of desktop sublimation (etc), everyone and their dog can do printed products. Just putting up a website won't make your offerings any more enticing than anyone else's.

I can say that, before I used ZenCart, I set up a website that looked fairly similar but that wasn't quite so easy to "click and buy" and I got no sales from it at all. On the first day of putting up the ZenCart version, I got a sale. But those first few months were so slow that you'd wonder why I bothered. Today, I see some months when I'm laughing and other months that I'm glad I don't have to pay a monthly fee to some ecommerce company.

In short, a website is one string to your bow. If it's going to be your bow's only string, then you need to put more effort into it (or pay for someone else to). This is no different whether you use ZenCart, osCommerce, cubecart, or any of the others.