[Apple_John]

After spending so much money on the internet, I think it is time for me to make some now.
I only used .Mac to 'make' a webpage, being an ebayer, ftp, and understand very basic html, Pascal, C and Java.

This is my first biz and going to start small, very small. About only 100 items for sale and target local sales only. I will be the boss, the owner, the IT guy, the saleman... Hoping to generate $5000cdn revenue per month in first 6 months and break even after the 6 months.

Since I have no knowledge on building a website at all, I hope I can find some help there.

1. What is the best way to have my own domain name?
What should I look for when choosing a domain name? I am in Canada, should I use .com or .ca or both, how about .org .net Or buy them all??

2. How about hosting?
Do I upload my website to isp server, or to have my own server in aparment?
How to est. bandwidth? Anything I should know about when running a website?

3. SW and HW?
I am hoping to use OSX to build the website, but my Cube and g3 ibook is a bit slow and I cannot afford G5. Later on I may get a cheap AMD box if needed.
For now, what is the best App to build a simple yet flexable website?
I really like the layout of Apple.com, having a few Taps and very clean. And I need a powerful Search function (able to find any keyword in the site), ip logging (# of visitor), auto reply e-mail.
Later on, I will add forum, memebers' reviews (auto calculate ??/5 ), coupons, over 1000+ items...
After finish building the website, I hope it is easy to maintain and update. I do not want digging up codes every weeks.
If I can have my own server at home, how powerful it needs to be? lets say 100 visit per day, 0.1MB per page, 10 pages per visit. 1 search per visit.

4. Anything else I should know about running an online store? I only have ~$5000cdn cash to burn. I cannot afford too many mistake.

Anyone who is running your own site, please share the ideas.

Thanks,

John

ps. I will NOT use yahoo store. I am sure about that.

[thePurpleGiant]

Whoa, thats a lot to cover in one hit. Let's get started:

Domain Name
You say you are in Canada - I would most certainly use a .ca domain as your primary (advertised) domain, since this will help with localised search results and branding (makes a point that you are in Canada).

Also get .com if available, and possibly .net too. Don't bother about .org unless you want no one at all to have a similar domain.

Hosting
Don't use a server in your basement unless you know what you are doing. Find a flexible host that can help you out with issues like the amount of bandwidth you use (preferably one that doesn't charge you for every MB over on you bandwidth with no warning)

Hardware
Almost irrelevant, old hardware is fine (but slow) to develop web sites. You don't need the latest and the greatest machine to make a website.

Software
Dreamweaver to make your site
Photoshop to do some pictures

Anything else
I guess you should have some skill in making a website really! You will need to look into how you will be paid, and what type of shopping cart software you will use. It would be very useful to know php or another similar web programming language.

This is very much laking in detail, but its a start - good luck!

[waxcrash]

If you are looking to build a web store, I recommend using Miva Merchant. It is easy to use and administer.

[memento]

What kind of items are you selling? Do you also need to register with your govt as a business? In USA, we do.

Best way to get a domain name is to search yahoo and find a domain registration service. It'll be like $15 (US) or so.

Find a good host. most likely a 3rd party, not in your basement. Your ISP may not allow hosting for a business either from your house or from their servers. personal use only, but look into it. Also professional services are more reliable. What about setting up an eBay store? They have that feature. It may simplify things for you.

As for creating a website, you can use Dreamweaver if you want to invest a good amount of $$. There's also Adobe Golive ($$$). Check Macupdate for html editors. Heck, Netscape/Mozilla has a built-in free editor. It all depends on how much $$ you want to spend and how much time you want to invest. More $$ = less time.

Anything else - make sure you stay clean. It can be tempting to use graphics and code from other sites, etc. But since you're doing this for a business, make sure that you have the proper rights to use things that you don't create yourself.

[splatq]

Also check out ClickCartPro, it's inexpensive and a nice merchant software package. I've set it up 2 or 3 times and its always worked well for me.

[Apple_John]

Thanks for all the quick replies.

I will register my biz and setup bank account once I have a better/realistic biz plan. It will be 'just' paper work anyway. For now, I have to understand the whole scope, what is it going to involve, can I handle it 99% by myself, will it become profitable within 6 months, what is the best way to advertise my site...

I hope the site will start running in July and 100% before X'mas. Therefore, I have some time to have better understanding before burning the cash. I am a full-time student btw.

The nature of biz is for local sale only, so I can collect MO/check when I deliver the goods. No more damn Paypal.

A couple more questions:
1. The site has to have a very strong database structure. ie. The user can either browse the item by item, or organize/search items by price, size, category, brand... and able to search keywords in items' description. Also, I may have to add/remove items weekly. Is Dreamweaver alone good enough?
(I am an EE student, never touch database in programing. Is it too much to start for me? I will only have ~100 items at the begining.)

2. Hosting
How can I tell a honest/reliable hosting company from others? What should I look for from a hosting company?

Thanks,

John

[Scifience]

The hosting company I use has an e-shop plan:

http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=6954695

The plans start at $10 a month for fifty items and go up from there. It's $50 a month for unlimited items. They provide templates for your store as well as payment processing.

They give tons of bandwidth and allow you to set a limit so your site shuts off if instead of racking up overages. They also send you an e-mail when you are half way through your monthly bandwidth, and if you do go over it is only $1 a GB.

I haven't used them for their e-shops, but there is a demo of what one looks like here:

https://sslrelay.com/s77219299.onean...dex.shopscript

The search features, etc. are all built in.

Their domain names are also cheap ($6 a year) and I have had no problems with their service (100% uptime). They are also very generous with feautres and have extremely competitive pricing. Not trying to sound like an advertisement, just trying to help. Let me know if you have any questions about their service.

[daimoni]

It worries me that you're diving into implementation details (like what software to use) before you have a concrete (expressed in words) plan for your business.

Design first, code later. Always. Always. Always.

Put it in writing. Or else you will fail.

[paully dub]

You need to map out your site on paper, make a serious study of any existing competition there is. What works for me is putting together a real proposal, even if it's a personal site- it helps you put things in place.

Synopsis, context, target

Analysis of competition, or similar existing websites.

Lessons learned form the above analysis

Editorial style, language used, description of written content

Functionality of the site, navigabilty. How does the site work, what are the different sections. Describe a few different typical visits in depth.

Graphic styles, influences, colors used, fonts, ect. Here's where you define the look of your site - very important.

Technical description. What technologies are needed, what solutions are used, and why?

Referencing, marketing - very complicated. How do you get you site on search engines, and so on.

Budget, how much time/money will it cost?

Upkeep what does this involve? Daily, weekly updating?

And there's more, but you get the drift.


The programs needed are a browser, Word, and down the line maybe Photoshop, Dreamweaver, or whatever.

[fromthecloud]

Originally posted by daimoni:
It worries me that you're diving into implementation details (like what software to use) before you have a concrete (expressed in words) plan for your business.

Design first, code later. Always. Always. Always.

Put it in writing. Or else you will fail.

Important enough to repeat.

[thePurpleGiant]

I think we're all missing a vital thing you said there - from what I gather, you don't want to be paid online, correct?

Your plan is for someone to find an item, order it, then you will deliver it and get the money in person via cheque/cash - is that what you are saying?

If this is the case, then you wont need half of this stuff. If you have a few skills, you could simply create the website yourself using php and MySQL to store the items, surprisingly, it isn't actually too hard. I know you keep mentioning the number of items you will sell, but that shouldn't matter too much, if you have a database with the right fields, and some php pages to display/search through the info then the number of items is almost irrelevant.

This sounds much more manageable if you take out the payment aspect.

[nonhuman]

If you get a business account with dreamhost they provide you with software for setting up a store. They'll also deal with the domain stuff.

[Psychonaut]

Why the Internet Treasure Chest of course!

[Apple_John]

Thanks again for the advice.

I do have a business plan on papers, and one of the biggest obstacles/unknown is coding the website and hosting it. Since I cannot paid others to do it, I have to be my own code monkey instead. And I need to make sure I can handle it at startup. Maybe later I can hire others to expand/maintain it, but not until the business is profitable.

Hosting will be one of the major expenses, need to know more about bandwith, uptime and etc. I will research a bit more before contract hosting companies.

I do not mind learning to use Dreamweaver, even just for fun. MySQL and php depends on time, I will take 4 or 5 EE courses during the summer. The most important things are they are the right tools.

The viewers of the website is mainly local, will a local hosting company a better options? Speed, bandwith and uptime will be a VERY important factor.

Thanks again,

John

[ambush]

Check out eShox (google it)

and or

check out PayPal's stuff.. that's what I use.. it's so elite.

[shmerek]

my 2�
to register a .ca domain go here
to register a .com .org .whatever gohere

to find a good host check out here or here

for a cheap way to receive credit card orders without having to buy a SSL certificate go and browse for services like this

For a free ecommerce software solution you could take a look at this or something similar

Where ever you host make sure they have 24/7 support and guaranteed uptime because if things fsck up you wanted don't want to be waiting around losing sales.