I want to start a small business out of the home, but would like to have a nice looking website set up that is easy to update inventory, etc. Anyone here have any pointers?

I had a site through 1and1 a while back that was a horrible experence. I couldnt upload anything, the online page editor wouldnt work right, it was a huge waste of money.

12/11/2008 9:03:13 PM

http://www.geocities.com
http://www.angelfire.com
http://www.tripod.com

12/11/2008 9:07:32 PM

message_topic.aspx?topic=548843

12/11/2008 9:09:21 PM

0/2 so far

12/11/2008 9:15:02 PM

Yeah I definitely need my own domain.

12/11/2008 9:27:50 PM

eh, the reality is the things you're describing that were problems with 1and1 is more in their bullshit "website editor" or whatever it is they have and really won't have anything to do with what you're wanting to do now. i've been using them for years and never had any problems uploading anything and using pages i've written. it also has worked fine for a blog, forum as well as some databases i use at work.

what you need to find though is some sort of web shop template that will make it easy that you can build off of. after that who you pick for hosting isn't a big deal until you get some real traffic going.

eh, maybe somebody else can give more specific details.. google web shop template and that should get you started at least.

12/11/2008 9:36:00 PM

if you couldnt figure out 1and1 - you'd be better off hiring someone to create and maintain a website for you

12/11/2008 9:38:17 PM

Its not that I cant figure it out, but I will have a business to run, and as the sole employee, I wont have all day to figure out how to FTP basic HTML pages to their server.

But I would be interested in hiring someone to help with the site aspect of it all if it were reasonable. I dont need a secure web based e-store though, or anything that complicated.

12/11/2008 10:05:17 PM

http://www.squarespace.com

12/11/2008 10:42:50 PM

Quote :

"if you couldnt figure out 1and1 - you'd be better off hiring someone to create and maintain a website for you"

Seriously, I've been with 1and1 for years. It's been the best damn shared server hosting service I've ever used, without question.

You not wanting to learn the technical requirements of running an online business presence doesn't mean the host sucks. And based on this thread, you're probably not cut out to do this at the moment.

Quote :

"Its not that I cant figure it out, but I will have a business to run, and as the sole employee, I wont have all day to figure out how to FTP basic HTML pages to their server. But I would be interested in hiring someone to help with the site aspect of it all if it were reasonable. I dont need a secure web based e-store though, or anything that complicated."

Hire someone to do it for you. Seriously. Don't scoff at paying a grand to get something simple and well put together. That thousand or so bucks means you don't have to piddle-dick around with something constantly that you don't know anything about.

12/11/2008 11:04:52 PM

Did I say somewhere I wouldnt be willing to pay someone for expert help?? Let me make this clear, I have no problem paying someone to do something that I am not able to do myself, wether I just dont have time, equipment, or expertise.

Anyone on here capable of doing this type of thing? In the past I worked for a company who "had a guy" set up their the basics of their new site and then dissapear, along with the passwords so they couldnt edit anything on it. In fact the site is still up to this day, and the company is no longer in existence. I would like to avoid this type of situation.

12/12/2008 10:44:26 PM

check out http://www.webstarts.com Really straightforward, you can add your own domain, lots of templates, and the guys that run it are really helpful. Basic package is free. Lots of videos on youtube with tutorials, too.

12/12/2008 11:16:19 PM

^^That's why you write that into any contract.

Any small site I've ever done (unless explicitly asked not to by the customer) has had a FULL, non-html based CMS built in. No code knowledge, no phone calls to the tech guy to update or add content.

12/13/2008 6:05:40 AM

http://getshifter.com/

They do hosting too.

12/13/2008 10:20:59 AM

Quote :

"^^That's why you write that into any contract."

Write what into any contract?

Say I go through 1and1 again, register my domain, etc and then hire someone to do the site setup.

12/13/2008 3:20:33 PM

Write that the site you pay for comes with content management tools. Was it really that hard to infer?

And yes, that's a good idea. Might want to talk to the person first to make sure you get the right hosting package with 1and1 though.

[Edited on December 13, 2008 at 5:15 PM. Reason : .]

12/13/2008 5:15:20 PM

Sure you can pay me money to set up a site for you. More details please.

12/13/2008 7:00:55 PM

Well here is a friend's site, I like the size and simplicity of this. http://www.lucky8llc.com/

There you can put items into an online shopping cart but I dont think you can actually complete the order which is fine with me I would rather deal with people directly at this stage.

12/14/2008 12:28:27 PM

So the consensus is 1and1 then?

1/4/2009 9:10:11 PM

bluehost has been awesome for me

1/4/2009 9:54:12 PM

1/8/2009 2:33:36 PM