I'm completely rebuilding my site and need advice.

Hello All,
I have posted this is here because it seems to be the only general topic to cover all I'm about to ask.

Currently I have a wildlife figurines web site selling online retail. The host I use costs $39.95/month and is called Vermotion. Vermotion is an e-commerce package that enables you to add products, edit pages, it takes care of all the cart, programming the whole works. Another words, for an internet beginner who wants to sell online products and have an easy web site designer it does all of this.

Where it falls down is it wont enable you to expand once your knowledge of programming increases.

For example, it wont let you install a simply blog into your root folder. It wont allow any programming of any php etc, and definitely wont accept rss feeds or whatever. The only things you have control over are the products you add, and the HTML of your pages. And it only allows the addition of javascripts.

In order to excel in todays internet environment, you need to go beyond this to get good SERP rankings, and just the fact that I can't even install a blog into my root directory stinks. Forget trying to use anything that relies on scripts because you just can't.

I think the straw that broke the camels back was when I was given permission to sell link space on my web site that could net me up to $800/month, but because I don't have any programming capabilites outside of java and html, I am unable to take advantage of this.

So...........my goal is to change to another server and do a lot of the work myself, and this is where I need help.

The following is what I have used in my traders site.

So far I own X-SitePro and love it, but there is the issue of having to create your own css file.
My host for trading site is HostGator which includes CPanel.

Now if I wanted to change my wildlife site over to Hostgator, I am going to have to program a shopping cart, and completely design my site from scratch again. And this is where I got stuck, as it is obvious to me that installing and then setting up Agora cart for eg, is not a simple as ABC.

Cpanel gives me access to Joomla, but the only knowledge I have of this is that it is a content management system. But what is that?

If anyone had to completely shift a web site, knowing that there's a lot of products to sell, and a lot of pages to construct (although I'd use a simple template and fill in the blanks), and that programming knowledge is intermediate, which way would you go?

The reason I want to do this is primarily so I can have more freedom with my web site - such as blogs, rss feeds, xml, site maps, php, programming and so on, and also cut down on my monthly fees.

I would really appreciate any help on this.

Cheers
Dean

 

A content management system basically allows you to write the content of your website as if you were posting (like here for example) information using a wysiwug system, (just look at the B I U things when you make a new post and you will know what I'm talking about) Then this CMS allows you to organize these "threads" in a way that you can display the information on your website in a very efficient and convinient manner.

As far as your website, honestly I don't think you are ready to undertake on this project alone, I think you really need to either hire a webmaster or have a friend of yours who knows webdesign and scripts help you for at least a few weeks before you get a handle for what you are trying to do, or another solution is for you to play around with a lot of cms and scripts so that you get a better idea for what you really need and what you should do, there isn't really a "silver bullet" for webdesign and script management, it all depends on what you are trying to do and how you want to do it.

Switching to HostGator (which includes CPanel) is not a bad idea but not a great one either, I don't like their service, I would much rather recommend Bluehost or GoDaddy, I have one account with each of those and they have never let me down (5 years doing business) Bluehost has Cpanel and Godaddy's control panel is very ergonomic and easy to understand although I hate their database policy.

As fas as a shopping cart, you really have a ton of good options to choose from, that is the least of your problems and once you understand how scripts work you will be able to install any software yourself, it just takes practices like I wrote above.

I'm pretty busy with a project, but I should be done soon, if you need help (although not free) I would be willing to guide you and assist you in a more personal manner.

Hope I helped, good luck.

 

Thanks EJRaven,

I agree with you in hiring help, but actually to save me time more than anything.

I have found that I learn quickly but I just don't want to go down the wrong path, spend a week or two doing it and then realize I could have done it another way a lot quicker (or even cheaper).

My priority is to move to another host that allows me freedom to do almost anything on my site, but at the same time I need to know that I can impement a shopping cart for my 400-500 products with relative ease.

What I started doing was reconstructing my site www.wildfigurines.com in my builder X-SitePro. I was buidling a category page and adding products when something urged me to look at shopping carts and what was involved in setting them up. It became apparent to me that (in Agora's case) that maybe my web site needs to be built around Agora, and not the other way around.

I now do have some experience in designing outside of html - www.atradersuniverse.com/directory is an example where I took someone elses template and changed all the header, footer and so on to match my html desinged web site.

What I now needed to know was am I going to have to design my site around Agora or any other cart for that matter, (like I had to do with my traders directory), or can it be done the other way around.

Just incidentally, I actually like Hostgator and have had no prob's with them, although I find I get better help when using support tickets rather than live.

I mentioned Joomla because someone I have paid to do a linking campaign for me was urging me to use Joomla for my trading site but it didn't seem like it was going to benefit me in any way, not from looking at Joomla's web site - but I didn't spend that much time on it. I built www.atradersuniverse.com using XSitePro, but at the risk of appearing dumb, I'm assuming they are similar.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my post.

Best Wishes
Dean

 

I'm a bit confused... Are you planing to hire someone to do this work? If so, i would think they would consult you before hand, and give you the best solution. I'm not saying that to be an ass. I can think of a bunch of CMS's that can do what you want. However you will most likely need mods created for exactly what you want.

Here is exactly what i would do. Hire someone who's good and knows what there doing. Explain your vision to them, and have them create it at a decent price. While it's being built, go buy a domain name, any will do. Throw up mysql and a CMS. Start editing and screwing around and build the site yourself, or build another site that way. That way you can make live changes and build it from the ground up. Next, for the next week keep every recipe and claim all of this as a business expensive on your taxes

I think its absolutely idotic to screw around with a live product thats activly making money. I work fast. I put up a customized drupal, with phpbb. And even though i'm still having problems it was up in 2 days. So bare min it's a 2 day thing. If your new, even if you learn fast, your probly looking at a week or two of downtime. If the 800 dollar ad thing is on the table, it would make even more sinceto hire a professional, and learn on your own time.

I'm a HUGE fan of learning on your own, and learning everything. However i would never ever let it hurt my profit margin if i can help it.

 

No problem,

I just wish that if you do ask for advice you at least look into the options we recommend to you, it seems to me you didn't even review the hosting options I posted or even listened to what I was trying to tell you, but oh well... good luck.

 

This is my fault as I have not explained myself properly and I feel I have probably posted it in the wrong area anyway.
I was not asking for advice as to what host to use.
I was also not asking for hired help.

I want to know if I have to implement a shopping cart around my site that I plan on building in X-Site Pro and hosting on HostGator. OR
Do I have to build my site around my shopping cart.

As far as knowledge goes for everything else, I'm fine. I just have never had experience with installing and using a shopping cart before.

But to clarify why I posted this in 'Content Managment' - I was led to believe that 'Content Management' is a term used for software that enables you to build complete web sites from scratch and includes everything. But, whether this is correct or not, I already have a site builder called X-SitePro. I just wanted to know if I should stick with X-SitePro or do I want to go down the path of learning a program like Joomla - if it is what I believe it is.

I also have an account with GoDaddy for another website so hosting is not an issue.

Sorry for upsetting anyone due to my inability to explain myself.

Dean