I'm wanting to work on making my own website for selling my jewelry.  I've half heartedly tried Etsy, but without much luck and several others I've talked to find that they either aren't selling or have to mark their stuff down A LOT.  So I may put a few pieces on there just to keep trying and see what happens, but I really want my own site.  I already have a domain and space, just have to make the webpage itself.  I have some experience with creating basic web pages, but nothing this complicated.

Has anyone found a html editor or wysiwyg editor that works well for a jewlery site?  I've tried Frontpage but am quickly becoming frustrated with it.  I'm really looking for something free or cheap if possible (though if you have recommendations for higher cost software I wouldn't mind knowing for when I can afford something more costly).

Also, have you tried integrating a shopping cart into your website yourself and how hard is it to do?  I am thinking of using Paypal, and I know they supposedly have their own shopping cart software, but there are also shopping cart softwares that let you use Paypal such as OsCommerce.  Does anyone recommend either of these or something else?

Thanks!

 I did  a 2 week free trial and eventually bought SiteSpinner to build my website.  It was my first time ever building a website.  I found it pretty easy to use...it's a WYSIWYG type program.  It cost about $50...I wasn't ready to buy Dreamweaver, which I know is the "gold standard" for web design, but it's very costly. 

I don't have a shopping cart set up yet...I would like to but I need to decide how I want to accept payment first.  Right now I usually am paid in cash or check, but for a large audience I know CC or Paypal is the way to go...I just haven't gotten there yet.   

Hello...

I do not have a website yet thus I am using my blog until it is up but if you search for oscommerce on google, there are really good ones for reasoanable price...for shopping cart, I am using paypal.. at first I was very scared that it was going to be very difficult but it was very very easy.. i am using it on my blog.. it is cool, easy and free.

take care

ShiShi

Hello.

Suggestion on getting a website of your own.  I've found that GoDaddy.com has some very good prices for getting website started on your own.  In fact I'm getting my website up and running this weekend.  The cost for the website is only $97 for a whole year.  And I would have to pay for the shopping cart in order for customers to shop on my website.  And the showpping cart is costing me $29.99 a month since I'm only using the shopping cart on a month-to-month basis until I get established.  And to accept credit cards, checks, debit cards I'm going to use PayPal because you can use your personal bank account to set up.  But I advise you to make sure to check with your bank institution to see if they don't charge you for receiving money from different accounts.  Mine doesn't, but I will be responsible for paying PayPal something for the transaction fees that will be involved.  If you have any other questions or concerns please feel free to e-mail me at sistershouseofjewerlry@yahoo.com

A couple of months ago I want to get a website started too. I had no clue where to start. So was looking around for a company to do it for me, but a reasonable price. I found a company call Mystic Liquid that basically did everything for me. From shopping cart integration to actual design. They even worked on getting me ranked in the results. I would highly suggest to anyone to check them out.

Wandas11, if you don't mind, can you give us a ballpark figure what Mystic Liquid charged to set up your website for you?  I'd like to have someone do this for me also, but not if it's going to cost an arm and a leg.

Hi, there!  I bought my website from a designer that is no longer in business, so I can't help you there.  But for my hosting and shopping cart I use www.pappashop.com.  My website is still under construction and I haven't used the shopping cart feature yet, but it's there when I'm ready.  Pappapshop makes it very easy to edit your website.  They have website templates and SO many features that a jewelry designer wants and needs.  They have hosting packages as low as $4.99 per month.  I pay $12.95.  Their Customer Service is great.  I'm really happy with them.

http://www.freewebs.com the best to build your website $20 a year for your name

I hope I helped

Danica

http://www.GracefulJewelry.com

Hi,

After seeing Danica's website I checked out freewebs.com web design and shopping cart by setting up a simple website with a shopping cart. They use PayPal with their shopping cart. It was fun and simple to set up and I used their free service. At the top of the free website with them, you'll have a row of advertising relative to your site. Lately, a lot of jewelry designers are allowing a variety of ads on their own sites. So, the ads didn't seem that intrusive.

You can see what I did at CEN Studios   through freewebs. Start with just the first page and as you figure out what you want to do, you can add to it. Take small steps and the project won't seem so daunting. At a later date, if you want, you can purchase an ad-free domain at a very reasonable price.

Take the first step. You'll be glad you did.