Newbie wondering if wordpress is the way to go

Samjw89 · 21 Jan 2020 at 16:53

Hi guys,

I have had a ebay store for a while now selling bespoke furniture and i have decided its time to get a website set up, i have no experience in website building so i decided to try and find someone who can get me started cheaply so i went to fiverr.

I have found a guy who says im best off using wordpress for my website but i have been reading mixed reviews about them.

Would this be a good route for me to take or should i find someone els?

Or even is there anyone here who would like to take the job on?

Any advice is much appreciated,

Thanks.

Sam.

gpuerrilla · 21 Jan 2020 at 20:46

Do you have much time on your hands? Can you maintain it or have general managing to be getting on with?

The good thing about fiverr and wordpress is they are easy to use considering. If the ebay store is working well do you really need a website?

Mcnumpty2323 · 21 Jan 2020 at 20:51

It's not just building the website
From my limited understanding any way
Only did 2 websites years ago as favours to friends
Being on first or second page of search results is important
Most people don't get past 1st maybe 2nd page of results
Unless looking for something unusual

Samjw89 · 22 Jan 2020 at 11:49

Th0nt said:
Do you have much time on your hands? Can you maintain it or have general managing to be getting on with?

The good thing about fiverr and wordpress is they are easy to use considering. If the ebay store is working well do you really need a website?

I do have time on my hands after work but not enough to build it myself but once it is set up I would have enough time to maintain the website.

As far as eBay goes it does do pretty well but they have so many costs involved that dig into profits more than I would like.

Mcnumpty2323 said:
It's not just building the website
From my limited understanding any way
Only did 2 websites years ago as favours to friends
Being on first or second page of search results is important
Most people don't get past 1st maybe 2nd page of results
Unless looking for something unusual

The products we make are handmade rustic furniture, we specialise in bespoke shelving so I am hoping we can get high in the Google ranks but I'm guessing all that will come with time and getting someone good in to do some SEO work on the site

Deleted member 77746 · 22 Jan 2020 at 12:04

wordpress for a shop? urgh just nope. If you going to use anything use a real shopping cart that's built for it. You probably wasting your time though because the bigger sites like ebay/amazon already have an audience. This question comes up every month in this forum.

Mcnumpty2323 · 22 Jan 2020 at 12:50

Is it an actual shop website?
Ie click and buy stuff
Or just as a "window" to display your stuff
And people then contact you with their requirements?
Would imagine one is easier than the other
Though again not my area of knowledge really

Samjw89 · 22 Jan 2020 at 13:06

Mcnumpty2323 said:
Is it an actual shop website?
Ie click and buy stuff
Or just as a "window" to display your stuff
And people then contact you with their requirements?
Would imagine one is easier than the other
Though again not my area of knowledge really

Yes we want an actual shop, click and buy, but for people to also get in touch with bespoke items they might want from us also.

Samjw89 · 22 Jan 2020 at 13:09

mrbell1984 said:
wordpress for a shop? urgh just nope. If you going to use anything use a real shopping cart that's built for it. You probably wasting your time though because the bigger sites like ebay/amazon already have an audience. This question comes up every month in this forum.

I see your point but ebay charges so much for their audiance now and requires so much from the sellers that it is a struggle to manage everything.

I also think if people are looking for bespoke furniture or made to measure then a lot of people will do web searches rather than brows through ebay, we just feel its a customer base we should try to capitalise on.

Also if you dont like wordpress then what would you recommend? we preferably want a utility that would allow us to transfere our items from ebay to the store then edit from there as we have so many variations in our products that it would be a nightmare transfering them all over.

Mcnumpty2323 · 22 Jan 2020 at 13:14

Samjw89 said:
Yes we want an actual shop, click and buy, but for people to also get in touch with bespoke items they might want from us also.

Probably work out cheaper than all the eBay fees anyway
Though as a back up/supplement to ebay not a replacement
In the short term anyway until you are getting enough business through a website

Samjw89 · 22 Jan 2020 at 13:22

Mcnumpty2323 said:
Probably work out cheaper than all the eBay fees anyway
Though as a back up/supplement to ebay not a replacement
In the short term anyway until you are getting enough business through a website

Yes our ebay fees are a massive dent in our profits at the moment but we wouldnt close our ebay store as we do have a lot of viability on there.

Would you guys recommend going with shopify rather than worpress then?

I just dont want to strt going in the wrong direction.

Mcnumpty2323 · 22 Jan 2020 at 13:33

From a quick read
Not word press says too technical
Shopify for bigger store
Wix for smaller
They seem to offer try for free which is good

Deleted member 77746 · 22 Jan 2020 at 15:10

Samjw89 said:
I see your point but ebay charges so much for their audiance now and requires so much from the sellers that it is a struggle to manage everything.

I also think if people are looking for bespoke furniture or made to measure then a lot of people will do web searches rather than brows through ebay, we just feel its a customer base we should try to capitalise on.

Also if you dont like wordpress then what would you recommend? we preferably want a utility that would allow us to transfere our items from ebay to the store then edit from there as we have so many variations in our products that it would be a nightmare transfering them all over.

It’s more for the audience, how would you attract people too the site? You could run it in parallel until it gains business. Maybe offer a discount if you go through the website or something like that.

Vince · 22 Jan 2020 at 15:18

If you are going to go wordpress just get a host that knows how to manage it properly otherwise it WILL get compromised. A provider like WPENGINE (other WP specific hosts also exist) are a must and will update qp install, addins etc as part of the hosting package. Wordpress is very good, flexible and easy enough to build templates etc for so you could do a lot worse.