Starting a business - advice on website, logo, payments etc

[Hold]

I am currently in the process of setting up a business. I won't go into much detail, but it involves selling a physical product online. The production end of the product is pretty much all setup. Right now there are a few things I need:

- web site - I have some basic knowledge in website development but it would be hard for me to build something from scratch. I was advised that it would be better to spend a little cash (around the 100$) and get a ready made customizable template. Does anyone have any experience with such things? Google shows hundreds of site that sell templates, which would be best?

- payment and shipping - There won't be any shop all orders will be made on the website and I want to get paid with paypal. How can I implement all this into my site? Is it part of the web site template?

- Logo I need a logo that for the product/company. Yet my photoshop skills aren't great. What are my options.

- Copyright Would I need to copyright my company name? how is this done?

Any other things I am missing?

 

[cambookpro]

On the logo part, why don't you post in the Design and Graphics forum? The people there love creating logos for new businesses. Some of their recent work include:

It's got all the copyright sorted and everything!


Seriously though, bite the bullet and hire a designer for your logo. Plus you don't want to use Photoshop for logos really either. HTH

 

[killerrobot]

Post or look for a designer offering website/logo design on your local craigslist. I think it's always easier to explain design concepts/wants when your in person rather than over email/chat/phone. They'll be able to setup the paypal payment system for you as well.

As far as copyright/legal check out this website for advice help and documents:
http://www.docracy.com/

 

[Melrose]

$100 for a website, and, I take it, with ecommerce capabilities? These days $600 is cheap for brochureware - ecommerce can be quite a bit more if you get more customer options. Unless you do it yourself you won't get an appealing website of any kind for your price. You really do get what you pay for..

Try Elance... You might get a halfway decent site for a few hundred, but you'll be dealing with people in India who may have trouble speaking English.

If this is a serious venture, seriously consider investing a bit more into it to get a good looking experience for your customers. You need to look at this as an investment; def not something you can cheap out on. Spend a couple thousand on an entry level designer who can handle it from start to finish, from business name to logo to website and checkout.

 

[prostuff1]

Probably best to look into something like RapidWeaver (http://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/overview/) and look through its huge collection of plugins and themes. Some themes and plugins are free, others are not.

Hope that helps

 

[Jessica Lares]

Use WordPress. It's the easiest system to use, and everyone designs for it. If you want to buy templates, there is: http://www.woothemes.com/, http://www.elegantthemes.com, http://topwpthemes.com, more here: http://www.moreofit.com/similar-to/www.woothemes.com/Top_10_Sites_Like_Woothemes/

And a quick search on Smashing Magazine gives me these: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/sea...860845561969:5884617103&cof=FORID:10&ie=UTF-8

You can easily find a plugin that's already done to do payments with PayPal at: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/

The logo however will easily cost you $100.