Setting up a website - hosts/domains/online shop etc

valve90210 · 6 Nov 2009 at 18:20

Hi All

My girlfriend is just starting out with a business and would like a website to go with it so she can sell online.

She has a domain registered so that's one step out of the way, and I have been looking at various different hosts, and am thinking of going with vidahost seeing as it seems to get a lot of praise on these forums and their packages seem to be good value.

Now, in the past I have put together a couple of very basic websites with not a lot more than just image galleries etc, which I created in dream weaver and just uploaded.

I have no idea how to go about setting up an online shop and don't really want to spend out on e commerce software to begin with until the business starts to take off a little.

However I do need to get something in place in the next couple of days really as my girlfriend has work going on display next weekend (she's an artist you see) and we want to make sure that there is al least something as simple as a biog page and an email link. (is it faily simple to get the domain pointing at the right place for the hosted files as the host will be a different place to te domain registrar.

As such I'm not really sure of the best wya to go about things. For the simple biog page and email link I'm happy with that, if it;s just a case of uploading the html files etc, but when it comes to an online shop etc I really don't know what I'm looking for in a host or quite where to begin, any help much appreciated.

Pho · 6 Nov 2009 at 18:49

There's lots of decent free eCommerce software.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_shopping_cart_software

To get the host to point at the right files you should just need to switch your domain's nameservers (do this at the registrar's site) to that of your hosting company (they should tell you them). Alternatively you could set-up A/CNAME DNS records instead, which is the better option. Who is your registrar and who is your hosting company and I might be able to tell you what to use.

daz · 6 Nov 2009 at 18:51

Pho said:
To get the host to point at the right files you should just need to switch your domain's nameservers (do this at the registrar's site) to that of your hosting company (they should tell you them). Alternatively you could set-up A/CNAME DNS records instead, which is the better option.

Just wondering why you think this is the better option? It completely breaks functionality like being able to add sub-domains for your website and have the DNS records automatically created for you... it also means you have to set your MX and CNAMES manually, rather than them being managed by the host - which for most people, is a lot more straightforward.

citycm · 6 Nov 2009 at 19:13

Pho said:
Alternatively you could set-up A/CNAME DNS records instead, which is the better option. Who is your registrar and who is your hosting company and I might be able to tell you what to use.

This is definately not a good idea. I would look for a host that uses cPanel with Fantastico as they will offer some free shopping card facilities.

RandomTom · 6 Nov 2009 at 20:09

I'd highly recommend Vidahost as you already know - they use cPanel too which is really simple to play around with the domain settings, email set-up etc.

In terms of an online shop, and one which is available on a free licence, I'm still looking for the right one too, so may follow this thread.

Pho · 6 Nov 2009 at 20:54

daz said:
Just wondering why you think this is the better option? It completely breaks functionality like being able to add sub-domains for your website and have the DNS records automatically created for you... it also means you have to set your MX and CNAMES manually, rather than them being managed by the host - which for most people, is a lot more straightforward.

Maybe it's just the hosts I've used in the past but their DNS management has always seemed to be less useful then the domain registrars, i.e. for when you want to use Google Apps and have to set-up custom CNAMEs.

citycm · 6 Nov 2009 at 20:57

Pho said:
Maybe it's just the hosts I've used in the past but their DNS management has always seemed to be less useful then the domain registrars, i.e. for when you want to use Google Apps and have to set-up custom CNAMEs.

You don't need to set up custom CNAME records for Google Apps. It's easier to just set up a sub domain and forward say mail.mydomain.com to mail.google.com/a/mydomain.com

You will need to change the MX records though but you'd have to do that anyway.

Pho · 6 Nov 2009 at 21:12

Ah, I didn't think of that.

Mind, I work with dedicated servers mainly (without cpanel) in which it's far easier to set this up at the registrar level to point it to the right machine

.

citycm · 6 Nov 2009 at 21:28

Pho said:
Ah, I didn't think of that.

Mind, I work with dedicated servers mainly (without cpanel) in which it's far easier to set this up at the registrar level to point it to the right machine .

Fair enough

cPanel does make things a lot easier

suarve · 7 Nov 2009 at 17:12

citycm said:
This is definately not a good idea. I would look for a host that uses cPanel with Fantastico as they will offer some free shopping card facilities.

It's a good idea if you want say your web to be hosrted by one caompany and your email elsewhere.

malef!c · 7 Nov 2009 at 21:02

You will get the normal recommendations for hosting Vidahost or TSO so I won't say anymore

Get something like Cube cart or Zen to put together the store and you are on your way.
I don't like the ecommerce script, but a lot do so it may be worth looking at that one as well.

Good luck

Izi · 7 Nov 2009 at 21:07

www.nopcommerce.com - asp.net open source shopping cart.

unwashed potato! · 8 Nov 2009 at 00:20

i'd get the site looking ok first until you start thinking about adding the shop. you have a big job ahead of you and as you'll be dealing with selling online it's fairly important you do it right. get the simpler bits out the way so at least potential customers can see what she does, bio etc, then when thats done there is no pressure to rush something half built out the door.

Gav · 14 Nov 2009 at 20:37

Mammalian said:
i'd get the site looking ok first until you start thinking about adding the shop. you have a big job ahead of you and as you'll be dealing with selling online it's fairly important you do it right. get the simpler bits out the way so at least potential customers can see what she does, bio etc, then when thats done there is no pressure to rush something half built out the door.

I would start with the shop and build the site around it..

Also, I would advise to use a proper cart system rather than the free ones.. In the long run you will see the benefits..

I spent ages building an online store only to find out that the software couldnt handle the amount of products I had and the developers werent interested.

unwashed potato! · 15 Nov 2009 at 00:12

Gav said:
I would start with the shop and build the site around it..

Also, I would advise to use a proper cart system rather than the free ones.. In the long run you will see the benefits..

I spent ages building an online store only to find out that the software couldnt handle the amount of products I had and the developers werent interested.

but surely given the op's situation, speed was important and the mai priority was to get a general business card style website up, then even if he restarts for the shop at least there is something complete for people to see as quick as possible?