So you have a great product and you want to set up your own ecommerce website. How do you go about setting up your first e-commerce site? Should you pay a full service website designer to design your e-commerce site from scratch? Should you use a free template or purchase one? What about using a free platform like Magento or Big Cartel? And what about using some of the free blog platforms like WordPress or blogspot? Although, there is no right answer, I hope to give you a few pros and cons for each of these choices based on my own experiences. Hopefully my own trial and error will save you some time and money.
Start with a Good Ecommerce Template
When I first started working on my ecommerce website I started with Magento, Magentocommerce, which is a free and very powerful open source tool that offers many "bells and whistles" such as the ability to create micro-sites, merchandising and promotions campaigns, email marketing campaigns, do SEO and much more.
First, I found and used a free Magento store template online, found a hosting service and followed the instruction for downloading it online.
Use a Professional Freelancer When its Cost Effective
Setting up the website started taking me too much time and more trial and error than I expected. So, I finally purchased the magento guide online which cost me about $30, but in the end it saved me a lot of time. If i had to do it over again' however, I would still use Magento but would spare myself the hassle of learning it all from scratch and just contract this part out using a site like http://www.elance.com, where i can just hire a professional at really inexpensive rates and get it done right and professionally.
I have since done this with other ecommerce websites and have saved a lot of time and hassle. Sites like Elance allow you to post your project online and wait for potential contractors to place bids. I get bids all the time that are as low as $100 to set up a Magento sites. The bids come from all over the world so you do need to exercise some discretion and make sure you are looking at the reviews of the bidders. Read Full Story
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