I Want to start a website any advice?

[dragongreengolfgti]

OK so I have a plan about making a website and have no idea where to begin. So I am asking questions

1. Can I make a website which I would get paid by people to sell items on for example (Gumtree) for free?
2. Basically I am wanting to make a website where people can sell stuff as an alternative to ebay etc
3. Do you know any good guides or places which offer a theme/layout already?
4. is it dodgy setting your own bank account up to be the account they pay into?
5. How do you make your website secure with that https thing?
6. Does it cost me to have such a website?

Any other tips, advice or places to start would be good. I am going to go through Google over next few weeks and see what I can dig up about things but wanted to see if anyone has already done it and knows how to go about it on here 

[JC]

 are you hoping to make any money out of this 

[dragongreengolfgti]

are you hoping to make any money out of this 

One day hopefully yes  It's not a website to replace ebay etc starting local it's not even related to selling just anything it's a specific item which i would like to keep anonymous  but the idea to me is a good idea I just need to know how to make a website and what legally can and can't be done 

[dom]

OK so I have a plan about making a website and have no idea where to begin. So I am asking questions

1. Can I make a website which I would get paid by people to sell items on for example (Gumtree) for free?  - You could, but I'm not really sure what you mean? People pay you, to list items for free? That doesn't make sense?
2. Basically I am wanting to make a website where people can sell stuff as an alternative to ebay etc  - It would have to be something VERY special to compete with eBay
3. Do you know any good guides or places which offer a theme/layout already? - There are lots of companies offering website templates, some are free (and mostly rubbish), and some are bespoke and costly. Your best bet would be to use Google.
4. is it dodgy setting your own bank account up to be the account they pay into? - Yes, if you are setting up a business then you would need a business account.
5. How do you make your website secure with that https thing? - That depends entirely on how you choose to take payment, most payment gateways will take care of this for you.
6. Does it cost me to have such a website? - As a minimum you will have to pay for the hosting & domain name(s)

Any other tips, advice or places to start would be good. I am going to go through Google over next few weeks and see what I can dig up about things but wanted to see if anyone has already done it and knows how to go about it on here 

[dragongreengolfgti]

OK so I have a plan about making a website and have no idea where to begin. So I am asking questions

1. Can I make a website which I would get paid by people to sell items on for example (Gumtree) for free?  - You could, but I'm not really sure what you mean? People pay you, to list items for free? That doesn't make sense?
2. Basically I am wanting to make a website where people can sell stuff as an alternative to ebay etc  - It would have to be something VERY special to compete with eBay
3. Do you know any good guides or places which offer a theme/layout already? - There are lots of companies offering website templates, some are free (and mostly rubbish), and some are bespoke and costly. Your best bet would be to use Google.
4. is it dodgy setting your own bank account up to be the account they pay into? - Yes, if you are setting up a business then you would need a business account.
5. How do you make your website secure with that https thing? - That depends entirely on how you choose to take payment, most payment gateways will take care of this for you.
6. Does it cost me to have such a website? - As a minimum you will have to pay for the hosting & domain name(s)

Any other tips, advice or places to start would be good. I am going to go through Google over next few weeks and see what I can dig up about things but wanted to see if anyone has already done it and knows how to go about it on here 

Should have made it clearer on first question sorry I mean do I have to pay anything to set a website up in order for people to be able to pay me 

[novadragon007]

i recently started a website selling mobile phone contracts as an affiliate through the likes of carphone warehouse, mobiles.co.uk, e2save and so on.

First off do you have any idea how to design a website using dreamweaver or other software? if not you're in for a rude awakening. Depending what browser you are using you can usually view the page source (what makes the website look and act the way it does) if you're using firefox right click and click on view page source. If that stuff doesnt make sense to you then its gonna be a long and hard road ahead of you. Not impossible cause i started from scratch and had a working website within a month. If you dont want to do the design side of it you can use www.1and1.co.uk they let you use there pre built templates and i think they start from around 6.99 a month with your first month free but please believe me when i say their templates will NEVER allow you to build a site that will compete with ebay/gumtree or the likes. they are designed for small business owners wanting to promote their services.

Last but not least is the amount of time involved in getting your website functional. If you have 3 or 4 people under you then its feasable. I eventually had to give my site up simply becuase of the amount of time involved keeping it up to date.

Someone with masses of knowledge could keep it going so it all comes down to how much you know about doing this.

Dont give up dude if it wasnt for people like you wanting to do this we wouldnt have sites like ebay, gumtree and golfgtiforum.co.uk 

learn what needs to be learned and the first place to start is go to google and type in "how to build a website" its where i started and had my site within a month. one page will lead you to another with more info.

Good luck

[Nino]

Websites are very difficult to build I have quiet a lot of knowledge but I only really know HTML there are many other codes such as java, XHTML, asp the list goes on and different codes alow for different functions for example website with a search bar or login screen can't be done in HTML this is where my talent came to an end as I didn't have the time or want to learn the others. When it comes to design and looks I can make a website look fantastic my problem in the coding and I can only do HTML which caused me to hit a brick wall.

[Diamond Hell]

Websites DO NOT need to be difficult to build, provided you have a bit of rudimentary knowledge and understanding of the medium.  You also need to have the ability to dip into code when necessary.

Go look up Joomla and see what extensions there are which you could plug in to make the system do what you want.

I'll bet there are some.

Unfortunately your opening post does make it sound a bit like you know very little and I think that is where you're going to come unstuck, because you'll need to rely on other people to deliver what's in your mind.

If I had the time I'm confident what you've outlined could be knocked up and running within about two weeks.  There is definitely money in there, even if you get it to local prominence and then sell it, as happened with wightbay.com which has the local market here sewn up.

[Jay]

ebid.co.uk is a good alternative already.

[dragongreengolfgti]

i recently started a website selling mobile phone contracts as an affiliate through the likes of carphone warehouse, mobiles.co.uk, e2save and so on.

First off do you have any idea how to design a website using dreamweaver or other software? if not you're in for a rude awakening. Depending what browser you are using you can usually view the page source (what makes the website look and act the way it does) if you're using firefox right click and click on view page source. If that stuff doesnt make sense to you then its gonna be a long and hard road ahead of you. Not impossible cause i started from scratch and had a working website within a month. If you dont want to do the design side of it you can use www.1and1.co.uk they let you use there pre built templates and i think they start from around 6.99 a month with your first month free but please believe me when i say their templates will NEVER allow you to build a site that will compete with ebay/gumtree or the likes. they are designed for small business owners wanting to promote their services.

Last but not least is the amount of time involved in getting your website functional. If you have 3 or 4 people under you then its feasable. I eventually had to give my site up simply becuase of the amount of time involved keeping it up to date.

Someone with masses of knowledge could keep it going so it all comes down to how much you know about doing this.

Dont give up dude if it wasnt for people like you wanting to do this we wouldnt have sites like ebay, gumtree and golfgtiforum.co.uk 

learn what needs to be learned and the first place to start is go to google and type in "how to build a website" its where i started and had my site within a month. one page will lead you to another with more info.

Good luck

Hi there cheers for the advice and a sound answer to some questions  I don't currently know anything about software to use etc so it is simply a completely new start for me so i will need help and google very much.

I don't mind putting time into this and if it took me 6 months to make a good website for my needs then that shall be the case  I have an idea and would like to try it  if it fails then it's move on time but for now getting the design work done and operational is my main priority 

Can a website be made before it goes online and tested by myself to make sure it is going well ?

I am usually quite good at learning and tend to pick up things quickly so i feel this is a good challenge aswell and hopefully soon i will be going to a new job which is office based and more design work involved using microsoft visio so that could perhaps come in usefull aswell  cheers

Mike