pleasureridgecandles Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Does anyone have any suggestions for user friendly website hosts? I guess I'm putting that correctly I currently have one, but, the site was done by someone who knows how to do all that and it's all html which I'm totally lost with. I want to switch if I can find one that will be friendly to someone who has not a clue. What I want is something to where I can go and add, remove, update etc with ease and not feel like a complete dumba$$ scratching their head. Yes I could have them do the updates for me, but, that can get pretty expensive and with all the costs going up everywhere I figure if I can find something to where I can do it myself that would be money saved. I hope I made sense.Thanks!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlwaysWondering Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 You might want to take a look at Intuit. Their CS is outstanding and will walk you through anything. Has plenty of templates, everything is in plain English and normal icons you would find in Word or PowerPoint. Relatively easy to add inventory or products by product or with multiple options. Integrates easily with PayPal or you can apply for a Merchant Account to accept credit/debit card directly.I have also heard Vistaprint is the easiest of all. Not sure how inventory or product categories work as I have no first hand knowledge. All I know is that I heard it is really easy to build a website and lots of templates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricofAZ Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Hosting and building are two different things.I use hyperconx.com as a host because it is high speed and inexpensive and has great stats pages, email capability, spam control, and bandwidth.As for building the site or maintaining it, that is not a function of a host, but sometimes a service that the host will sell. HyperconX can offer this. Be careful, some website developers charge huge fees if they think the buyer can be taken advantage of. Kinda like going to a car lot.You may find a kid at a local junior college that can build a great site for you for a reasonable fee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kountrytimes Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Check outhttp://www.stonealleyhosting.comVery reasonable and Becky is friendly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SliverOfWax Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 A lot of folks here, myself included, use www.Designer218.com.I completely, 100% recommend Designer 218. I tried 2 others before Designer 218, and 218 beats the other, hands down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAgirl89 Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 I just started using Vista Print for my website. I had Yahoo Business and built the site myself but for me, it didn't look professional enough. So I switched.Vista Print offers 1 month free trial then it's $19.99/month for their premium package which includes a shopping cart/PayPal services.You can choose from Vista's designs or create your own design for the website. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleasureridgecandles Posted February 26, 2011 Author Share Posted February 26, 2011 (edited) Thanks for the replies I will look into those mentioned. I knew I was saying it wrong. I thought I'd go ahead and get a jump on trying to find something before our current one expires. I know when we renewed last time there was an option of taking the site to another host, but, it was so last minute I just did another year. I would like to take the site with me and make changes to what I want and add the new stuff without having to completely redo the entire thing. From my understanding you can do that. Or am I being a complete dumba$$ again?? The only problem I have with keeping it as it is, is that I can't do anything with it. I've gone into it to attempt to make changes, but, everything is html and I don't understand what I'm looking at. The person that did the site was more than happy to do updates, add, etc but the cost for doing so... no thanks. Do I just need to move elsewhere and start all over? ThanksETA: The site currently has the same company for the building and hosting. The only problem is you can't build, change, update etc without knowing html since it's all in html. I'm totally lost when looking at it. Might as well be in a foreign language. Edited February 26, 2011 by pleasureridgecandles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnna Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 We recommend http://www.diyestores.com/ Very easy and user friendly. Shopping cart was super easy to figure out too (we had issues with that on a prior site we tried to use..lol).Support is great. We send an email and typically have a response in less than an hour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleasureridgecandles Posted February 26, 2011 Author Share Posted February 26, 2011 A lot of folks here, myself included, use www.Designer218.com.I completely, 100% recommend Designer 218. I tried 2 others before Designer 218, and 218 beats the other, hands down.I quickly checked out the link you gave me and I think that's what I'm looking for. I have a few months before I need to renew so I'm trying to get a jump on the whole thing. Do you find it to be fairly easy to add, change, update your site?Thanks Sliver!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SliverOfWax Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 (edited) We recommend http://www.diyestores.com/ Very easy and user friendly. Shopping cart was super easy to figure out too (we had issues with that on a prior site we tried to use..lol).Support is great. We send an email and typically have a response in less than an hour.DIY estores is definitely NOT easy. I had them about 5 years ago. Their support wasn't the best then, either. A lot of us complained on the forum that our sites were horrendously slow and we were having other minor problems. It seemed to be only sites on a particular server. Enough of us that they should have been paying attention. Instead of listening to us for several months, they decided to take the server down and fix whatever the problem was just before the holiday sales season. That's when they lost me permanently.DIYestore sites look nice, but I wouldn't go back on a bet. Seems like I had them for about a year or so, so maybe I didn't give it enough time. I was glad to get out of there.I quickly checked out the link you gave me and I think that's what I'm looking for. I have a few months before I need to renew so I'm trying to get a jump on the whole thing. Do you find it to be fairly easy to add, change, update your site?Thanks Sliver!!As far as knowing html, no, you don't need it if you build your site using IE. I personally use IE ONLY when working on my site. All other times, I use Firefox. It's just one of those things I've accepted and adjusted to. No biggie. As far as moving your site from one host to another, you need to talk to Mandi, but I don't think it can be just picked up and moved, so to speak. When I switched from DIYestores to 218, I started from scratch. I did somewhat plan my move inasmuch as I copied and pasted my text in an email to myself. And I had all my images saved in photobucket. Just get with Mandi and ask her what you need to do to make it as painless as possible. I enjoy working on my site and it's easy enough that if I decide to completely change the topper, colors, add categories, delete whatever, pretty much anything at 3:00 a.m., I can do it in the blink of an eye without having questions and having to wait on someone from some mysterious support group to respond. Plus I don't think Mandi ever sleeps. She seems to always be there if you have questions.Forgot to include my url: www.SunshineWaxWorks.com. Edited February 27, 2011 by SliverOfWax Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SliverOfWax Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 (edited) Just for lack of something better to do, I was poking around on a few crafter websites, and I notice a lot of sites are slow to load. They have the dreaded scroll from top to bottom when opening. You know what I mean.Your images MUST BE OPTIMIZED to prevent this. It's something people either don't know they should do or they don't know how to do it. It's very, VERY easy and is really a necessity. That's actually the one thing I learned when I had my site with DIYestores, lol.Here's an article about it, but I haven't actually read the article, Just googled and this is the first article that came up. It looks to be informative, at first glance, and will at least give you a kick start.http://articles.webdesigners123.com/photo_optimization.php Edited February 27, 2011 by SliverOfWax Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jewls819 Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 (edited) Just 1 month ago I knew nothing about website or how to build one. Many of my customers wanted one because they only spend spring and summers here, so I took the plunge. I chose www.pappashop.com. Their site was sooo easy and in less than a week I had it all put together. The price was nice as well. Edited February 27, 2011 by Jewls819 typos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SliverOfWax Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 Just 1 month ago I knew nothing about website or how to build one. Many of my customers wanted one because they only spend spring and summers here, so I took the plunge. I chose www.pappashop.com. Their site was sooo easy and in less than a week I had it all put together. The price was nice as well.Let's see your site so we can be the judge.From pappashop's home page:Please note that the $4.99 web hosting package is for someone who has html knowledge and can create and maintain their site without the use of our software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jewls819 Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 (edited) Sure ... www.candlesect.com. I got the basic plan (4 novice) for 12.99. Its only 9.99 a month if you pay for a year. I have not done that yet because I was very unsure when I started. So far it has worked out ok and I have learned alot in this last month. Also I wanted to add there was no set up fee. I paid for the hosting and domain and that was it. It cost under 30 bucks. Edited February 27, 2011 by Jewls819 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SliverOfWax Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 That's a nice web site. Thanks for sharing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapgirl10 Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 I have tried many of sites and the one that was the easiest for me is Vista Print (www.vistaprint.com). They let you try it free for 30 days. Here is my website from Vista Print:www.thesoaphaven.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshK Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 In terms of keeping your same site and just moving it to a new host, it is more likely that you would need to find a shopping cart you like and then have someone convert your current design into a template for the shopping cart. It won't be starting from scratch because the designer can use the images and such from your current design, but it's not likely going to be a matter of copying and pasting. Hope this helps,Josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravens Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 I use Designer218 and love it. For my other business I use SiteBuildIt (SBI); very user friendly, even for computer fossils like me, but it's not cheap (around $300 a year). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rae Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 I used www.designer218.com She is a member on this forum,also. Super nice gal and is very helpful. She is very quick to get back on any questions, too. You certainly won't be sorry if you choose her.:yay: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SliverOfWax Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 What I want is something to where I can go and add, remove, update etc with ease and not feel like a complete dumba$$ scratching their head. Yes I could have them do the updates for me, but, that can get pretty expensive and with all the costs going up everywhere I figure if I can find something to where I can do it myself that would be money saved. It won't be starting from scratch because the designer can use the images and such from your current design, but it's not likely going to be a matter of copying and pasting. Hope this helps,JoshI think the point is she wants something easy enough that she doesn't have to pay or fret over a so-called designer. SHE wants to do her own site. That's why so many people recommend Designer218. You are in control of your own site and it's easy. And much, much less expensive that hiring someone to do any part of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapgirl10 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Vista Print has NUMEROUS templates. Just pick the one you want and customize it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love2Scent Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Another vote for Designer218. Mandi is absolutely the BEST! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SheilaRae Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 If you want reasonable, easy and effective then take a look at http://www.ezshoppes.comWe take pride in providing great customer service and we just make your life EZier Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SherriLynn Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 I use Intuit..... several packages to choose from depending upon how many pages you want to have... LOTS of templates to choose.... Love the program... quick and easy. I was also able to move my current website hosted with a local company to Intuit.. it took just a few quick clicks. Intuit is 1/2 the price I was paying another hosting company and that company had no templates etc for self building websites. Shopping carts, paypal.. etc. are also available.~S~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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