Help with website idea

DotFifty89

DotFifty89

DotFifty89

Associate
Joined
24 Dec 2010
Posts
433
Location
Anglesey
Hi I am looking to make a website to sell my plaques and signs online.

I make handmade shabby chic plaques, and I sell them on an auction site.

I would like to try and make a website to try and sell them on.


My idea of the website is to have many of the plaques ready made so people know what they look like, and then a make your own page.

I would have different shape and sizes of blank plaques, so they can write in a box and it would appear on the blank plaque, they would also be able to select the colour of the plaque, the colour of font, and style and size of font.

So customers can see exactly how the plaque will look like before buying.


Is this possible? I have no experience with making websites, only the drag and drop ones.

I was thinking of creating the website on a drag and drop website, and then inserting the right HTML for the make your own page.

Thanks for any feedback.
 
Why not sign up to something like etsy or gettingpersonal (example)? Maybe these don't have quite the level of personalisation that you're describing, but will surely be easier (and expose you to more potential sales) than trying to build a website yourself, or paying someone to do so?
 
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I don't do website building myself, but I know what sort of thing you're on about. If you search for a company to make a registration plate I assume that is what you mean.

I would be able to put you in contact with a company who could help - but I don't know how much it would cost.
 
The selling is easy, as you can use pretty much any eCommerce solution out there (WordPress with WooCommerce/PrestaShop/etc). The bespoke 'make your own' page is probably going to cost you though.
 
Is there anyone here that knows how to do it? I am able to do the actual shop part, it is just the make your own part, that I have no idea how to do.

So I would like a few drop down boxes to select which shape plaque they want and what size, the colour of the plaque, the style and size of font, and colour.

So everytime you select an option from the dropdown box the plaque updates instantly. Also, when writing I would like the writing to appear while your writing.

If anyone has any info on how to do this, I would be grateful if you could share your knowledge.

Or something I could enter into google that could help me out. Currently , everything that I'm typing in isn't what I'm looking for.


@joemc I did a search on website registration plate, but that comes up with car number plates. Apologies if I've completely got the wrong end of the stick here :).
 
It can cost up to £2000 for a pro website to be made depends what you want. It would be cheaper to put up forums suit like vbulletin it comes with a cms that is like a website or you could add wordpress. I run my own site and can install it for you if you wish
 
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Resistance said:
It can cost up to £2000 for a pro website to be made depends what you want. It would be cheaper to put up forums suit like vbulletin it comes with a cms that is like a website or you could add wordpress. I run my own site and can install it for you if you wish
Click to expand...

Hi, thanks for the reply. I have had a look at Vbulletin, but I don't understand how I would be able to sell on their.

I like the idea of an actual website better.
 
How many combinations of plaque shapes and colours do you have?
Allowing users to add text and select a font and text colour would be quite easy. Changing the colours of a background image would be more difficult. It would be easiest to actually make images (or photos) of each possible plaque shape/colour and load a different background image depending on user selection.
 
touch said:
How many combinations of plaque shapes and colours do you have?
Allowing users to add text and select a font and text colour would be quite easy. Changing the colours of a background image would be more difficult. It would be easiest to actually make images (or photos) of each possible plaque shape/colour and load a different background image depending on user selection.
Click to expand...

I have nearly 200 different styles, 10 different colours.

That is what I was thinking of doing, taking a picture of every possible style. So when for example: Style 10 plaque is selected, it comes up. Then colour red, then the plaque turns red. Then user writes in "test" it shows on the plaque.
 
DotFifty89 said:
That is what I was thinking of doing, taking a picture of every possible style. So when for example: Style 10 plaque is selected, it comes up. Then colour red, then the plaque turns red. Then user writes in "test" it shows on the plaque.
Click to expand...

In that case, it shouldnt be too difficult.
A bit of jquery to load an image based on user selections.
Same again for fonts and text colours.
Might need a bit of simple maths for sizing and positioning the text over the image.
Nothing too complicated, but it will all need to be custom coded.

There should be a plenty of tutorials/information around for changing an image based on a dropdown selection.
I'd get the main shopping area of the website done first though then add the custom page after.
 
touch said:
In that case, it shouldnt be too difficult.
A bit of jquery to load an image based on user selections.
Same again for fonts and text colours.
Might need a bit of simple maths for sizing and positioning the text over the image.
Nothing too complicated, but it will all need to be custom coded.

There should be a plenty of tutorials/information around for changing an image based on a dropdown selection.
I'd get the main shopping area of the website done first though then add the custom page after.
Click to expand...

The images and position of each plaque in the image would have to be pretty much exact though for the text to line up.

I'd probably go with adding all your plaque designs to a shop and creating a simple plaque template out of CSS that you can edit.

DotFifty89 said:
Touch could I do the whole site on a drag and drop website? As I have no experience in this. And then add a page for the customise part using jquery? It does let me input html.
Click to expand...

That's probably a no-go, since you'd need to implement the sale of the customised product.
 
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DotFifty89 said:
Touch could I do the whole site on a drag and drop website? As I have no experience in this. And then add a page for the customise part using jquery? It does let me input html.
Click to expand...

I'd probably recommend wordpress with woocommerce shopping plugin. Its not as simple as drag-and-drop but there tonnes of information and guides for setting it up even if you have no experience.
 
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