Building a WEB SITE

I have absolutely NO experience developing a web site. However, I know what I want it to do.


I want to publish a site that has a small store checkout.

I build & fly Remote Control aircraft. All RCers use CONSTANTLY, CA adhesive & a variety of Epoxies. Not to mention a constant use of BALSA WOOD. I have set my merchants & suppliers for the products that I want to carry and I have a massive emailing list covereing almost every registered RCer within the country.

Once my site is up & running the way I want it, I can START to do my weekly advertising.

Question) WHERE DO I START?



marwen1

www.oscommerce.com is a good start.

Buy a domain/hosting then setup oscommerce on it

Got the DOMAIN

Got the HOST

Now --- how do I start the site?

marwen1

Read that link i gave u.

If you want everything to be done for you then your gonna have to contract a web designer to do the work.

NO! Not that I want EVERYTHING done for me. I simply asked what I thought was a fairly straight forward question>

As I said at the 1st. I know nothing of the making of a site.

I engaged a local school to make a site for me as part of their formal training.

There were 3 weeks for this graduate web student to make the site. She spent the entire 1st week TRYING to make a FLASH intro. She finally said that she couldn't do it. OK Go ahead with the site. I had told them what I wanted but I had no idea what kind of info they needed from me.

All I want to do is to list some products in a store - have the customer fill in the quantity of that particular product and have it roll over into a checkout. Ultimately, have the order sentr to me and the payment sent on ahead to PAYPAL. (That accolunt has also been set up!)
There is NO where for the customer to input the quantity and no where did it roll over to PAYPAL.

Everytime the customer hits the final product to be purchased in that site, a JAVA popup shows up telling me "sorry about your luck" LOL

Needless to say, at this point in time, I am totally frustrated!

I have tried reading the manual for DREAMWEAVER but it is complete overload!

As I said, I have the domain & the host.

Now then, my question to you was this: Q) WHERE DO "I" START?

Q) What do "I" look for?


marwen1

oscommerce > download the oscommerce file. Install on your host.

Or if you have cpanel currently installed on your host.

Click Fantastico > oscommerce

I am on a MAC OS X

I don't know that it is that you directed me to either do or go.

Can you break that down so that this totally non informed person can understand

respectfully

marewen1

www.oscommerce.com
Go there, download it. Install to your host, if you get stuck read the 'readme' file.

Well, Nice try. But it is not available to my MAC OS X system

marwen1

Your not getting it...

This is for your host not your computer. It doesnt matter what OS your using.

Perhaps you should learn more about websites before u try and accomplish this feat by yourself. Read some web design tutorials etc.

YOU are absolutely correct. I don't deny that I don't know ANYTHING about HTML or web design.

I do know this though. I know when someone tells me to shove it!

I also know that I am 65 years old. I am retired and my cash flow suddenly came to a scrwaching halt last year when I became disabled.

Having to do for MYSELF these days is about the ONLY way I can get anything done.

"You don't get it!" Yep! You are 100% right! That's why I -- for some ironic straying thought -- felt that perhaps I could find someone within the forums to "assist"

I also know that when someone "doesn't get it" in the forum that I help to moderate, I HELP them.

GEE, maybe they just didn't get it!



marwen1

You've taken things a lil too personally.
I didn't read syphers post that way at all.
He was trying to [b]politely[/p] help out by suggesting that you need to learn a little more about the subject to ask the question.
Reading the thread from a neutral position, the replies have been just and correct.
Many, many, many, professional and amateur web and graphic designers use Mac and OS-X.
Sypher's accepted your beginner status and tried to help you get on from there.
What you're asking for is not beginner stuff.
It's quite advanced server side scripting which html will not help you with, other than maybe the positioning of the code once it's done.
Nevertheless sypher's given you a starting point.
Personally I agree with his earlier comment about contacting someone who knows a little about it.
This is 'bread and butter' for those people, and they're hardly likely to offer the answer you're looking for free-of-charge.

[edit: For the record, this post was made in a helpful, friendly manner, free of malice and ill-will. I was combing my tail at the time and had an amicable grin on my face. ]

[edit edit: I also belong to THIS forum, where you may find more than a passing interest in your business.]

Take it easy man...

It's give and take in this business. We can only really help you if you have a starting point based on some skills (however basic).

For someone like yourself I would say that you are going to have a very hard time setting up any kind of website let alone an e-commerce site. The workings behind it are quite substantial and complicated.

I know you said that your budget is low - non existent but to be perfectly honest you're stuck between a rock and a hard place.

You have no budget so you need to do the work yourself but you have no Web development skills so you need a lot of help... which will cost money.

I sympathise with your situation, I really do, but please don't get angry with us. It won't be beneficial to your situation in the future.

Dan.

OUCH! I guess I've been told! LOL

Thank you -- all!

I guess when you try so darn hard to get something done. after a while, total frustration sets is -- thoroughly!

I guess I need to ask it differently. WHERE IN H*&& DO "I" START?

Back when I was 7 years old I got an ANSCO darkroom kit. I asked my Dad to teach me how to do it.. By the time I was 9 -- it still hadn't happenned so I decided to read the directions for myself. I've been teaching myself almost anything I have wanted to learn all of my life!

I am STILL involved with professional photography today. Even to the point of buying my own 50" ENCAD LARGE FORMAT printer and teaching myself how to use the RIP.

That was lots of fun.. Thank goodness I had a background in Photoshop.

I have DREAMWEAVER. But for some unknown reason, it's completely overload.

Try one more time, please. WHERE can I find some BASICS to help bring me up to speed?

Again folks, thanks for the kick in the butt!

marwen1

here..
http://www.w3schools.com/xhtml/default.asp

http://www.elated.com/tutorials/authoring/css/

That should start you off.