Setting up a WordPress eCommerce website

If you’re new to the world of ecommerce and you’re looking for a cheap option to build your site, I’d highly recommend using WordPress. Turning this free blog builder program into a functional site where you can process orders and control your design is more confusing to set up initially than many all-in-one builders out there, but could save you money in the long run. Plus, you will have the flexibility to take your site to another hosting company in the future, or even take it offline for awhile without losing everything if you change your mind.

WordPress is designed to build blogs, but instead of writing posts, you can create pages that will stay in place. By having it hosted yourself (usually $6-8/month), you’ll have full ecommerce abilities like using your own domain name, attaching a shopping cart plug-in to process sales, and using new themes, etc.

Initially, you can sign up for a free blog at www.wordpress.com and play around with various options, like uploading pictures, changing templates, changing widgets, etc.

Once you decide to have it hosted on your own, you’ll need to take a few steps:

1. Visit http://wordpress.org/hosting and pick a host that’s easy-to-use with WordPress.
2. Install an FTP client on your computer. This will enable you to save all the files you’ll need for your site and send them to your host. I highly recommend downloading the free option at http://smartftp.com.
3. Download the latest version of WordPress from http://wordpress.org/download.
4. Follow the instructions at http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress to connect the dots.

Here are a few more resources that will be useful:

• http://www.wordpress.org – a collection of tutorials
• http://free-wordpress-plugins.blogspot.com – a list of plugins to make various functions work
• http://www.instinct.co.nz/?p=16 – a free shopping cart plug-in

Assessing your options & selecting providers

Before starting a website, it’s important to consider your web design experience level, what functions your hosting company should allow, and what domain name would be best.

Web Design

Are you experienced enough to build the site yourself from scratch? If not, don’t kill yourself learning, as your time can be spent better elsewhere. You may want to look for an all-inclusive package that includes builder tools, templates, and hosting. I would compare rates and look at example templates to see how professional they are. Two builders I highly recommend for beginners are Word Press and Site Creator Plus. This blog has a section dedicated to each, so you can check back for more information on learning how to do a lot with each.

One of the easiest programs I know of is Site Creator Plus. They offer ecommerce tools, free templates, and make it very simple for anyone to get a website up and running very quickly. The start-up fee for Site Creator Plus is actually the price for your first year. So it’s $120 for the first year (only $10 per month) then $24.98 per month after that. You may want to graduate into something more advanced later on, but this is an excellent choice for beginners! I also recommend www.web.com if you’re looking for an all-inclusive program.

Also, if you’re feeling more adventurous and patient, you may want to look into:

• Word Press (www.wordpress.com). To make full use of this free program, you should have your site hosted (so you can use your own domain, attach a shopping cart plug-in, use new themes, etc.) See www.wordpress.org for a collection of tutorials, as well as http://free-wordpress-plugins.blogspot.com/, where you can find a list of good plugins to make various functions work. You can get a free shopping cart plug-in at http://www.instinct.co.nz/?p=16.

• Shopify (www.shopify.com). It is a really cool program, but does require more knowledge of HTML if you want to change the templates they provide. You can use it for free until you want to connect your own domain name or until you process 5 orders.

• Using a free site building program included in the price of a hosting package (like BlueHost, GoDaddy, etc.)

For the most part, I recommend avoiding free builders like Yahoo because they don’t allow much space for meta tags and you won’t have full control over editing your site. This will hurt you in the long run when you’re trying to optimize and drive traffic to your site. In general, avoid builders that will put their own advertisements all over your site. If you can, I’d try to find a company with a trial period so you don’t waste money on a service you end up not liking.

If you are an intermediate or advanced website builder, you’re welcome to use any program you feel comfortable with. If you’re looking for a free program, again Word Press would be a good option. NVU (www.nvu.com) is a free web authoring system comparable to Front Page or Dreamweaver, but one problem is that you have to set up a database to use for a shopping cart, which is really complicated unless you know what you’re doing. Plus, the actual programming for hooking it up to a database and collecting money is a whole new issue, so keep that in mind.

Hosting Providers

I recommend using Blue Host, 1and1.com, iPowerWeb, or Hostmonster, just to name a few. These options will require a more intermediate to advanced understanding of how hosting works, but they are affordable and also offer quality service. If you’re a beginner, I think the extra few dollars a month for Site Creator Plus would be worth it to pay for an all-inclusive service that will save you a lot of stress. Really, it’s up to you. Search the web to see what suits your needs. Whichever company you pick, some things to look for are:

• Professionalism
• Fees
• Uptime
• Band width (also called data transfer)
• Space
• Technical Support
• FTP
• Security

A lot of free or dirt cheap hosting options out there will litter your website with tacky advertisements and pop-ups that will turn customers off to your business. Also, you’ll want to look for a host with a 99.9% uptime guarantee so you know your site will be reliable. Each website is different, so keep how much space and band width you’ll actually need in mind. Most websites don’t use more than five megabytes of space, so don’t feel pressured to pay for unlimited space if you won’t need it. Also, the average site uses less than three gigabytes of band width per month. However, if you have a lot of pictures, streaming audio, or videos on your site, you’ll probably need more. Whatever option you decide to go with, make sure to look into the host’s policy to see what happens if you go over, just in case. You’ll want a host that will be there for you any time of day, so paying for a company with 24/7 technical support can be worth the cost. FTP access will be really important if you’re using WordPress, because it enables you to transfer new themes and plugins from third-party users to your account to expand your options. Secured Socket Layer (SSL) is also an important option to secure your information and keep your customer’s information private.

Your Domain

The domain name should be descriptive of the products or services you are selling. For example, if I were selling shoes, the perfect domain name would be www.shoes.com. However, many of most simple domain names like that are taken. You may need to be creative when searching for options. You want it to be easy-to-spell, catchy, and relatively short. A lot of times you’ll get a domain name for free with a hosting package. I have found www.1and1.com to be a really easy registrar to work with when all you’re doing is buying a domain name. Their prices and tech support are great and the process to set up a domain name is pretty much fail-proof.