Website building sites

Dear Orchid land,

I am at the point of finally getting a website. Can anyone recommend
websites that offer software to build your own website and store for
small business?

Thanks, Vincent LaRochelle.

Vincent I’m currently doing mine and I’m using Yahoo Small Business.
You might want to try them. yahoo.com
jim taylor

Vincent,

I just redid my site with an x-cart program. I am very happy with it
and you can take it anywhere. Some services require that you stay
with them or you loose your site and cart capabilities. If their
server is slow or you are simply not happy with the service, you
can’t leave without having to start from scratch. With an x-cart you
copy the files and take it with you. Mine is customized, but the out
of the box product is great too, very easy to work with. You can
check it out at x-cart.com. There are links to several shops that use
it, many different looks. Their tech support is fantastic. Any other
questions, you can email me off list. Usual disclosuRe: not
affiliated, just a very happy customer.

Best of luck to you!

Vera

Vera Battemarco
Couture Artisan Jewelry ™
http://www.verabattemarco.com

Hi Vincent -

I recommend bizland.com, which hosts my site.

All plans have a $9.95 setup fee, then, for $5.95 a month, the basic
hosting plan includes 5 Gb disk space, 500 Gb data transfer; the plan
that is $7.95 a month has double the disk and data transfer amounts,
plus a free domain name. Two other plans with greater capacity, etc
are also available.

The plans also include the use of SiteBuilder, a template-based
Web-page building and maintenance tool, and and ShopSite, a shopping
cart building tool.

I haven’t tried the shopping cart, but I signed up a friend and had
her very simple, basic Website designed and ready before the domain
name had been propagated to the DNS server, which is really fast.

If you do decide to use them, please tell them I sent you. I get
referral credits.

Linda

Hi, Linda,

I recommend bizland.com, which hosts my site. 

This sounds as though it could be what I need. Can you point me (us)
to your site so we can see what this service can do?

Thanks,
Noel

I just have to chime in here quick as a part time web
designer/programmer. Also, I will admit that I didn’t see the thread
that originated this I just noticed the ‘sitebuilder’ comments.

Site builder is great for a quick thing to get a site online with a
couple of buttons and some text but if you’re looking to get a fully
customized ‘look’ then you’re not going to get it. You get between
20-50 ‘templates’ to choose from (which all pretty much look the
same) and you can add some buttons like ‘Contact Us’, or ‘About’,
etc… thing like that ‘Services’… it will work, and you can get a
site up and running but if you think it will impress people into
buying it won’t… there is nothing that ‘stands out’ and websites are
what ‘make or break’ internet deals at least 80% of the time. If
you’re looking for ‘newsletters’, or commerce, or other stand alone
features you’ll have to hire someone or figure out how to do it
yourself. You COULD go find a website that allows you to do it for
free but then you just lost your whole domain name (brand) in the
process since it won’t come from your site anymore…

You (everyone) can ‘flame’ me for this if you want or tell me I’m
biased as a designer but I’ve seen it… actually YOU have seen it…
how many of YOU have bought from a poorly designed website, or a
site that looks ‘canned’? Personally when I see that I start to
disbelieve what the pages are saying to me especially if they talk
about ‘custom design’ this or that, or ‘art’ type things… what I see
visually is that the person didn’t take the time to create a web
’brand’ for themselves but instead took a ‘canned’ look and put their
name on it… then it starts to make you wonder if that’s what they
do with their products as well…

Just my.02… I’ve seen it happen…

Craig

Hi Craig,

Well said! No one will buy from a poorly presented display of any
kind, be it store front, booth or website. You described it
perfectly.

Tom Arnold

Could you give me an opinion about the website -

Thanks Eric

Dear All,

I put together a site for “david lee jeweler” using a site called
“Builderspot”. It does have its issues, though I found them to be
minor. It puts together a very user friendly site. Combine ease of
navigation and great pictures and I’d say you’ve got a pretty good
website. You do not have to use the builderspot tag in your web
address- it all depends on how you set it up.

They have a great selection of tools and features you can use if you
choose. They have a lot of e-commerce tools, such as setting up an
online store, handling your orders and all of the details that come
with that, marketing options, e-mail accounts, and on and on. I can
create a number of different types of pages, such as message boards,
password protected pages, catalog pages, photo albums, contact
lists, guest book, newsletters, etc. I’m sure there are things you
can’t do with Builderspot, but they do have a great deal of variety
built in.

They are also Mac compatible (mostly), and that was huge for me.

We’ve gotten a lot of positive comments on our site. Sign up for
their trial period to really see what the site can do. If you don’t
like it, you just don’t buy in.

Take care.
Brenda
david lee jeweler