Ahhhh website help-im clueless.

[mam29]

Basically im looking up starting 2 websites.

1 would be .com
1 would be .co.uk

Ones operating a service so unsure if needs payment function online?

The 2nd would be a shop and apart from paypal how do I take card payments? do i pay a monthly fee for that?

Im not at all technie or artsistic on computer.

What im after is ready made easy to build site with decent templates at reasonable costs allowing me to possibly link with

Twitter
fb-what the heck is a fb shop by way?
pinterest
unsure about google+is it that popular
blog- i guess use free blog that comes with website or wordpress blog.

should i buy domain name seperate to hosting?

found this site-what does everything think? anyone used?

www.create.net/examples.phtml

Looks good looked at few templates.

I am in the process of starting up my own web design company, I need to increase my portfolio and at the moment I am looking to setup a few websites for company for free.

PM me if you are interested or just want some advice.

I can verify piemaker - I posted a little while ago about needing help with a website & we are in the process of working on one for my photography.

If you are not at all techie etc, I would pay somebody to build the website and add the store for you.

Any decent website builder will be able to integrate your social networking applications with your website.

Be aware of costs: You'll have to pay for domain name, twice if you want .co.uk and .com.
You'll have to pay the person for building your website, and usually a monthly 'maintainence bill', you'll also have to pay to have shop software added to your shop. Usually they take a %age of your takings as well.

I'm quite a techie type but I wasn't happy with anything that I could put together and ended up getting one made.

Hi Piemaker, would be interested in your help...my DH has a small business and needs a website....can I pm you?

Sorry to hijack!

Hi priscilla101, yes, feel free to PM me any time :-)

piemaker thats so kind.

will email you for advicea as looked at create.net and easily/vista i know for definate one business that needs a site the other i want to target us market so may try etsy shop first and see how it goes before launching 2nd website.

its all just so confusing.

i thourght wordpress did build websites but seems really complex.
definatly think social medias important.
never have much luck ith blogs as its directing traffic the right way.

I don't understand why you need two sites? Pointing them at a particular audience (e.g., USA) is not a stand-alone feature - you can point your website to any demographic you like!

The create.net stuff looks fine but it's not free and you're likely to end up paying Company A for one thing and create.net for their template and then you'll have to link the two together - which proves to be a common hurdle.

Wordpress is (after an hour or two) super simple and you can get lovely themes which are pretty and do all the bits you need like the create stuff - take a look over at themeforest.net for inspiration - there are literally thousands of different themes out there and they're are very user-friendly - many will have shop integrations within them - failing that if you go with an ISP like for example 123-reg.co.uk (who have always been great to me - especially George who goes above and beyond!) then they have shop facilities too.

The beauty of wordpress is that it's fully self-maintained - there is no reason on earth why you should pay someone "maintentance" - if you can use microsoft word, you can maintain your own posts in wordpress!

(The hosting/.com package I got with 123 gave me 3 "free" .co.uk names - I'm still working out what I want... kateandwillsnakedbumholidaybaybee.co.uk perhaps?)

I wouldn't bother to have two separate websites if the difference between them was just .co.uk or .com, although you might want to buy both domain names and point them both at the same site. I have two websites, but they deal with totally different services.

While not being a designer I'm quite good at design, so happily built my own sites using a template. There are some lovely Wordpress templates around. Integrating with social media sites is a doddle -- you either download a widget as part of your template, or you just have to copy over a bit of code from facebook, twitter, etc. I'm not remotely techie, but managed to do both of those things all by myself! It looks daunting, but just have a go, and you'll find it easier than you think.

If you need any help with the content, blogging etc., let me know.

You dont need two websites if all that is different is the domain. You can 'point' many domains to one site and it is dead easy in wordpress even i managed it. Have you bought the domains?

Thank you everyone for interest.

Reason 2websites is they very different businesses.
one is selling to usa consumer

other is info on service sector based in uk,

Not brought domains yet still mulling it over as have few ideas want to do this year not to put all my eggs into one basket.

want to set up uk service ones first.
offering my cleaning services to just local area where I live initially.

Thinking I can do this well and cheap with posters and leaftlet drops as can only take on so much and local to begin with.Just need a basic website to provide info and look like professional business not just casual low paid work.

Im not at all techie to me a widget is something in can of beer.

Read a few things online seems to be so many out there.
I dont mind paying small monthly fee if they can produce something decent that i cant in less time. I know my weaknesses.

Kids go back today even so can start giving it my due attention this week.