Hey Mama's!!
I'm interesting in creating a website to showcase & sell my personal work! I would like to turn my hobby of creating personal cards, favors, announcements, etc. into a part time income. I figured the best way to start would be to start up a website. I don't need any help with the website creation, but am not really sure where to begin with finding a hosting site. There are so many options out there, but how do I decide?? I don't really want to put much money out for a site, especially since I'm sure it'll be a while before I actually start making any money. But, I do want one where I will be able to list my items for sale, have people contact me directly, etc. I have a paypal account, so I'm sure that'll help. But, please, where do I start!?!? Or, if any of you have websites, can you share your suggestions and/or experiences??
Thanks in advance!
Please don't pay out to anyone before you check out the free options. Check out "Yola"...my husband has used them for YEARS and it's free.
Go Daddy is a good web hosting place.
To make and host all in one - I like Wix.com. Super cute!
Sounds like your very creative- if your taking the time to make personal cards for people- that takes talent, so in my opinion if you don't want to spend money for someone else to help you create a website, create your own for free. Using Google create a web page, you can always change colors and fonts...etc....and later download apps to create more effects for your page. Plus Google will help send people your way by: ad-words.Google.com/
A free keyword research tool to research specific words and phrases specifically tailored to your website.
I highly recommend wahmshoppes.com Hosting is only $8 a month and includes a shopping cart. It claims to have limited space, but I know people using them who have loaded all kinds of images and items and haven't had a problem. I used them and really liked it. They have discussion boards full of helpful and knowledgeable people.
If you don't already have your domain name, get that through someone else such as GoDaddy so you have the ability to switch to different hosting down the road if needed.
I have a website for my home information service business (www.metroprofiles.com) that is hosted by www.addr.com. I pay $9.95 per month, my site has several hundred pages. I know they have less expensive options for a small site. Another hosting company that is widely known and inexpensive is godaddy.com (you may have seen their ad on TV on Superbowl night). I believe both of them will help facilitate the domain name registration process.
We've used fatcow as the host for several websites and have been very satisfied. The prices are very low ($10 a year maybe - I forget) and they have a wide variety of templates and styles you can use if you don't want to code your own. My mom has a very basic template for her website, all the way up to my husband's that is a very professional law firm website. And they're all hosted with fatcow. There's just no need to spend a lot of money to get a site designed when you can do it for $10 yourself.
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My husband and I use godaddy.com. If you click on the godaddy button on my website you will get a different discount (inbox me for my website address). Don't get tricked into thinking you have to pay hundreds of dollars for a website, etc. You can get a domain name, 5 page website, email, search engine optimization for under $200! Good luck to you and your business!
