Need help on building up a webpage

[I_luv_HP&trq]

I haven't designed a website since high-school and am pretty much out of touch with it all. I plan on doing a bit of online retail and also selling some one off art pieces. My main question is about how to bill a customer and all that....Saw on one page they had a set up where you can use a credit card through paypal but not have to be signed up with paypal.

How do you go about setting this up? What's the average cost for having your own domain?

Is there some program or system I can use where people can click on stuff to add to their basket and then check out, and then have an invoice sent to my email so I know where to ship?

I'm overwhelmed with all the technical stuff I need to know. Any helpful links or suggestions are welcomed.
thanks
-Rob

[Warfire80]

godaddy.com for domains I guess, I built webpages back in highschool also but used frontpage to assist me. Prob the easist way is to go through paypal for payments, not sure if the c/c companies charge you a fee. Could always setup an ebay store but I heard alot of people dislike it cause of all the fees.

[wiarumas]

outsource the job to india.

[3.3Liters4Fun]

Quote: Originally Posted by I_luv_HP&trq I haven't designed a website since high-school and am pretty much out of touch with it all. I plan on doing a bit of online retail and also selling some one off art pieces. My main question is about how to bill a customer and all that....Saw on one page they had a set up where you can use a credit card through paypal but not have to be signed up with paypal. How do you go about setting this up? What's the average cost for having your own domain? Is there some program or system I can use where people can click on stuff to add to their basket and then check out, and then have an invoice sent to my email so I know where to ship? I'm overwhelmed with all the technical stuff I need to know. Any helpful links or suggestions are welcomed. thanks -Rob

Go daddy for the domail, its about 8 bucks a year. For a host I would use Host Gator. They have good prices for the space and good up time. The issue with simple carts system like you said, is a user could change the price on you so make sure that if you go that route you check your invoice really closely for each transaction. If you are a low volume site I don't think this would be to hard for you to do. The better way is to set up a Database of your items. That when a user check's out removes the item, or deducts the quantity purchased from the database so you don't oversell your inventory. Also you are only passing item number, and quantity which you do not care if the user has control over those numbers because he/she will anyway.This is also a good way for you to produce inventory reports. But, since your asking all those questions I assume this is all over your head. Just if you hire some one make sure they know what they are doing and not doing post/get request with price.

[I_luv_HP&trq]

Quote: Originally Posted by 3.3Liters4Fun Go daddy for the domail, its about 8 bucks a year. For a host I would use Host Gator. They have good prices for the space and good up time. The issue with simple carts system like you said, is a user could change the price on you so make sure that if you go that route you check your invoice really closely for each transaction. If you are a low volume site I don't think this would be to hard for you to do. The better way is to set up a Database of your items. That when a user check's out removes the item, or deducts the quantity purchased from the database so you don't oversell your inventory. Also you are only passing item number, and quantity which you do not care if the user has control over those numbers because he/she will anyway.This is also a good way for you to produce inventory reports. But, since your asking all those questions I assume this is all over your head. Just if you hire some one make sure they know what they are doing and not doing post/get request with price.

Hey thanks for the help. yea some of it is over my head but I plan on learning how to do it myself to keep costs low and so that I feel I have control over my own website. I'm mainly going to use the page to display what stuff I can powdercoat, custom paint, and airbrush so that customers can get an idea of what it all looks like... I'm working on becoming a dealer for the products I'm using so I don't expect it to be a high volume of sales.

Why would I need to use a seperate host from the domain provider? What's the advantage of one host over another?
Thanks for all the input.
-rob

[Brent]

I buy all my domains through Godaddy. Right now we have a co location setup but I do have a Host Gator account. They would be my choice for smaller sites.

You can buy the domain at Godaddy and have it hosted on Host Gator. You'd just need to point the domain to Host Gators DNS servers which is easy.

As far as carts go, no experience there other than Paypal.

[n8r]

Host gator is great. I love it.

[3.3Liters4Fun]

You can have go daddy host it as well but i am sure it won't be the cheapest. When putting up a site you will need to buy a domain. That domain is then pointed to your host. Host gator use to be the cheapest, and I am sure its still very competitive. I have not priced things out recently but I have been happy with them when I have used them for other people.

[Brent]

Godaddy hosting sucks