Web designers, Need Help...

[OHPM-Inc]

My company has a large parts inventory and they want to start selling to people on the web. My knowledge is only limited to the days of geocities and angelfire, just basic HTML. I need some information and a maybe even someone to help.

A few starting questions...

How much for a domain name? (http://www.ohpm.com or something)
How much for someone to build a website with itemized carts/baskets?
After building, how much knowledge is needed to maintain and update?
Can I connect my items/baskets to E-Bay?
Is there someone well known on these forums who does this and is recommended?

I'm sure there are other questions I need answered, can anyone help?



**Also, I think this post is in the wrong place. Can a mod move it? Sorry...**

[pepsi71ocean]

You can check for a free domain names through yahoo. It seems that it might be good for your company to invest into Yahoo Small buisness.

I use Small Buisness, and infact i have yet to have an issue with my companies website that i have maintained through SB. If your company has asked you to do the research i would say that it would be easier to build and maintain the website your self, without using any geocities stuff. I was Trained in High School on Microsoft Frontpage, but it was phased out for Microsoft Expression Web, which i find more tooled for my use.

You are better off building a database for your companies products and using that for your companies items. I think going through E-Bay may not be a great idea considering its offsite, and im not sure but it might cost you a percentage per item sold.

[OHPM-Inc]

I'll check into Yahoo Small Business. I used frontpage in highschool as well but its no different than writing your HTML codes, just saves time. I haven't done a website since those days and with c++ and java out there, I'm lost.

Do you sell products with your website? Can you paste a link so I look at it? I would like to stay away from Ebay myself as a company but he wants more hits than just word of mouth could provide.

[mairving]

I would advise staying away from Yahoo as a registar. GoDaddy is still probably the best currently. OSCommerce (http://www.oscommerce.com/) is a good free fairly robust shopping cart. Basically you would just need to get a template built and you can use that template throughout OSCommerce. After it is done you really just need to make sure that you update it when updates come out.

You don't really hook it up to Ebay, you do it the other way around. You link to your site from Ebay most of the time using Paypal.

[pepsi71ocean]

The company i work for does the same. but im in the process of building more user-friendly interfaces. Currently we only have 1 product that is ont he market, the other few are still off the market base but i do have pages for them.


I took some time to learn html by hand back when i was in high school. Frontpage i though was the greatest thing since sliced break, I magage the website, and its my dad's company.

[pepsi71ocean]

I would advise staying away from Yahoo as a registar. GoDaddy is still probably the best currently. OSCommerce (http://www.oscommerce.com/) is a good free fairly robust shopping cart. Basically you would just need to get a template built and you can use that template throughout OSCommerce. After it is done you really just need to make sure that you update it when updates come out.

You don't really hook it up to Ebay, you do it the other way around. You link to your site from Ebay most of the time using Paypal.

not to hijack the thread, but i have to check this site out, might be useful some day.

[perkster]

i taught myself ASP through free websites and MS Access from playing around and can make such sites now easily, the only thing you really need outsde help on is to take credit/debit card payments.

[OHPM-Inc]

I would advise staying away from Yahoo as a registar. GoDaddy is still probably the best currently. OSCommerce (http://www.oscommerce.com/) is a good free fairly robust shopping cart. Basically you would just need to get a template built and you can use that template throughout OSCommerce. After it is done you really just need to make sure that you update it when updates come out.

You don't really hook it up to Ebay, you do it the other way around. You link to your site from Ebay most of the time using Paypal.


I'm downloading it now so I can fool around with it. Does it also assist to build the webpage too of is it just for the shopping cart?

[OHPM-Inc]

i taught myself ASP through free websites and MS Access from playing around and can make such sites now easily, the only thing you really need outsde help on is to take credit/debit card payments.

We are going to use PayPal for that.

[OHPM-Inc]

I looked at the demonstration and it seems to be what they are looking for. I can't fool around and test it because I need my FTP to install it. Thanks for now but I'm sure more questions will follow.

[OHPM-Inc]

How can I get the OSCommerce to work without putting it on a FTP? They want to work on it before they get into buying/hosting web pages.

[mairving]

How can I get the OSCommerce to work without putting it on a FTP? They want to work on it before they get into buying/hosting web pages.
You can either install it on a local machine, another website for testing purposes or a sub-domain or folder on the main site that is password protected if you don't want anyone to see it until is is ready.

[OHPM-Inc]

It's in .php format and I know you can embed it into HTML but is that something I can do without using a personal server or a host? Such as using a free hosting like angelfire or geocities so I can test it out without buying something from godaddy.com.

[blue60007]

You'll need a local server or a host that supports PHP - free ones won't.

[etownguy]

If you're serious about making this work, I would strongly suggest taking the plunge and making the investment in getting a domain and a hosting account that will support .php if you are planning to use OScommerce.

As stated by blue60007 previously free hosts wont support it, and I'd stay away from MS FrontPage (IMHO).

[Zick Boy]

I have experience in programming and customizing an OScommerce online store. I think it provides all the basics that you need for your small business. If you want to customize it, you need to know PHP. At the beginning for me it was a little PITA and the documentation is just poor, IMO. You have to rely a lot on friendly users on forums.

A others suggested, I recommend paying for a good hosting service with PHP and database support.