Web Design - Where to start?

[mace¬]

Just after a bit of advice from the web gurus on here.

In the future I want to setup an ecommerce site using something like Zen Cart or similar. Ideally coming from a programming background I'd like to do it myself so I can maintain it myself and make any tweeks required.

Before I make a start with that I'd need to learn it. Where do I start? What do i learn first? Do I start with html and CSS and then move onto php and the server side stuff?

What else will i need to know?

Cheers
Pete

 

[Krispwee]

Yeah HTML/HTML5 and CSS is best place to start. You should pick it up stupidly quickly. Use a decent editor that colour codes the code as your writing as it will make life a lot easier.

For the basics I would recommend W3Schools as its easy as pie to follow. Also check out Wordpress.

 

[mace¬]

Will do. So am i going the right route? What about javascript?

 

[C.J]

CSS and HTML(5) is a good start. Don't worry about java yet, you won't need that for a basic ecommerce site anyway.

 

[Kam.]

most ecommerce sites are php or similar. Start with html5 and css and basicallyy get a copy of a site installed and start playing and hacking...

 

[mace¬]

Once I'm all clued up on the basics I take it I need to look into SEO? Is that something I should get some books on from the very beginning? or when I'm ready to get the site up and running?

Ta people.

 

[Mitchell]

SEO is on a totally different level from building the site. That is more about writing the content, good keyword rich content.

To start building an eCommerce site, I would look at Magento which is a very powerful system which has few limits in terms of development.
I personally dont know many people who can do the whole hog, i.e. Design -> Front-end build -> PHP development -> SEO and content. It may be worth teaming up with someone else / a few people, and you will get a much better outcome.

If you need any advice on front end stuff (HTML, CSS Javascript) I would be happy to help.

 

[C.J]

SEO is best implemented from the start, while you're working on each page. At least that's how I do it, I wouldn't work on the same pages twice when building.

 

[Mitchell]

All down to preference really, and scale of the project. I am a front end developer, not a content writer / SEO specialist, so I just put the tools in place to make it easy to change afterwards

 

[mace¬]

Cheers guys. I take it that it is quite a bit to learn. Jack of all, master of none comes to mind. I'll get going with the front end stuff and see how I go.

Expect many questions in the near future. I'll take a look at W3schools and go from there.

One more thing.... I suppose i'll need some graphic designer for logos and shizzle at some point. I don't think my paint skills will cut it. Do they just produce me a logo and stuff that I can build into the website?

 

[Birdie*]

Once you have learnt the basics of building a site I would get it designed in paint cough before trying to build the site so you know how to go about it and have a starting point more than trying to design a site around a premade layout.. Get the layout built then shove in the econmerce code.. But yeah all you need is jpgs/gigs for logos and images to use on the site

 

[mace¬]

From what I see from zen cart (the only one i've looked at) it would be easier to customise the site from a template. Seem to be loads for less than a few hundred quid.

 

[cava83]

Opencast + themeforest + [realex or world pay]% = winner

 

[mace¬]

Opencast + themeforest + [realex or world pay]% = winner

Is it wrong that makes no sense to me?

 

[Nik]

To start building an eCommerce site, I would look at Magento which is a very powerful system which has few limits in terms of development.

Not sure I'd recommend Magento to a beginner. Powerful and flexible yes, but its got a reputation for being a bloody nightmare to pick up due to its complexity (and some would say overly complex).

 

[cava83]

Is it wrong that makes no sense to me?

lol no, not at all.

You have two options.

1) you pay for hosting and install a third party ecommerce tool such as opencart / zencart / magento community edition..... and maintain it yourself, do all the updates, make sure you have the right certificates and so on.

2) You pay for an ecommerce SaaS solution such as bigcommerce and all the other ones on there, you basically pay them, for their hosting cart + backend + security certificates and they manage all the updates, all you do is concentrate on your products. (I would recommend this for you, if you don't want to mess around)

Once you have your website done (via option 1 or 2) you then have to choose your payment gateway i.e wordpay/paypal/google checkout

How many products are you looking to do?

 

[mace¬]

I was looking at option 1. Would option 2 not be very costly? We were lookign to start with probably 100+ products and build from there.

To start out the website wouldn't be the main popint of sale but I'd like it up and running so we can point people to it if asked and build sells from there. Initial sell would be from word of mouth, parties and markets.

Plan was she does all the leg work early on whilst I get a website up and running.

 

[cava83]

Mace, do option 2 buddy. Start with that.

http://www.bigcommerce.com/plans.php

$24.95 that's £16 a month, includes all your hosting and everything.

It's up to 100 products, if you call them up, you might be able to haggle.

Thanks,

G.

 

[mace¬]

Interesting, I'll have a look into that. So they optomise the site for SEO aswell? I might have a look at the free trial when we are ready to go.

Thank you.

 

[Chapster5]

Joomla + Virtuemart = awesome fully customisable easy to run shop.

In my opinion anyway

Nick

 

[cava83]

What was the outcome?

 

[mace¬]

I haven't had chance to download that bigcommerce one yet, does look ideal though, I know SEO is done on content and that but what about the back end stuff? Will it be good for that or will i either need to learn it or get some outside help? Been reading through a html5 book but haven't got to anything I don't really know yet.

I've had a little look at zen cart as well and that seems pretty customisable and loads of templates available.

 

[cava83]

I haven't had chance to download that bigcommerce one yet, does look ideal though, I know SEO is done on content and that but what about the back end stuff? Will it be good for that or will i either need to learn it or get some outside help? Been reading through a html5 book but haven't got to anything I don't really know yet.

I've had a little look at zen cart as well and that seems pretty customisable and loads of templates available.

Zencart / opencart /virtuemart / magento commnity = you install them on your own hosting package, so you look after not only adding the products but the maintenance of the software and in some respects the security.

Bigcommerce / volusion / magento go = this is software as a service (Saas) you pay a monthly retainer, your shop is on their server, you leave them to sort out the security and the geeky stuff, you look after adding products and selling it.

I would just choose one option and get started, start basic, build up from it. it's not too hard, but I could never write a program from scratch, but the above are good and have used all of them apart from magento go.

 

[Danny Lee]

Just spotted this thread so thought i should jump in

I personally use and suggest opencart - iv used most major hosted solutions and to me thats the coolest to work with - both from a coding point of view when adding custom modules to templates its the most fun to play with by far and the actual shop back end stuff is simple enough imo

I could actually help you out somewhat with the hosting too - i run www.simplesites4u.co.uk and can provide you with a hosted install of opencart or whatever (ill preinstall your chosen ecommerce script for you) and can send you what themes iv made for you to play about with - im pretty cheap so if you interested just drop me a pm or mail me at danny at simplesites4u.co.uk

a couple of examples which i run which are built with opencart by me would be http://www.barbecuestation.co.uk/ and http://shedstation.co.uk/

if i can be of any help lemmie know!