Web hosting and e-commerse - Cheap place?

[Stuart.Atkinson]

Does anyone know of a cheap option to do the two? Ive seen some scary prices for e-commerce! i just want to do it on the cheap for now and see how it goes for now.
Does anyone use anything for their photography other than stock sites with the integrated e-commerce?

 

[Andy.]

I have used a Dutch site for a couple of Mountain bike competitions I've shot. They take a hefty fee but it was very easy to use which was worth the trade off for me. Your photos will end up at the top of searches in Google etc too if you title them correctly.

http://www.oypo.nl/Default.asp?taal=en

 

[Stuart.Atkinson]

Thanks Andy. Any ideas on the quality of prints?

 

[Andy.]

No, I didn't get any feedback as most people bought the digital image. I sold a couple of large prints, but you dont see much cash back off it. i.e. 40x60cm print sells for €20 (or whatever you choose), after they have taken their costs and tax off, you get €6. Still, it's just a case of FTPing the photos up, setting up prices if you want something different from standard and the site does the rest. They also have APIs so that you can put the images and order forms on your own site too. I haven't bothered yet as I only use it for hobby photos rather than business.

 

[Sym0n]

If you're wanting to actually make money from selling your shots then you want to look in to setting up you own site, it doesn't require a great deal of work and the outlay is minimal.

 

[Stuart.Atkinson]

Cheers all for the replies.
Sym0n, i have my own website but it doesnt support e-commerce. Id like to add it rather than using another exteral party taking a big commision.... if its possible. I have only basic web hosting and i know for a fact id need to move to do anything more complicated. Im not very good with web design, so it would need to be fairly idiot proof to implement too.

 

[Sym0n]

Who is your host? As long as you have the availablity of SQL most content management systems will allow you to easily set up some sort of e-commerce site using nothing other tha plugins and paypal for payment. I used Wordpress for this myself in the past and it worked flawlessly, I'd be surprised if your hosting package wouldn't allow you to run this sort of site and TBH if it doesn't you may want to look at moving host. There are plenty of people on CS, myself included, that can offer you a budget hosting packing and going down the self hosted package will mean that you can set your own prices, using the printer of your choice and not getting stung for any commission.

 

[Stuart.Atkinson]

^^ that sounds perfect! could you pm me some details? or a web url with prices?
My current host is very basic and im more than happy to move to another to get what i need.