How To Make Your Own Online Store and Save Money!

ABOUT ME

I'll show you how you can setup and make your own online store, but first a little about my background as a Web Host Provider since 2001. When I, Mark Errington, was in college at CWU in Ellensburg, WA, from 1996 to 2000 (age 38-42). I met a computer science guy. He showed me how to setup and make websites using Microsoft Front Page. My first website was mark.pair.com After graduating in 2000. I got a job at KVAL Ch 13 in Eugene, OR, and started work there in July 2000. In 2001, I started Eugene Hosting (http://www.eugenehosting.com) and still have it today, but I'm not taking on any clients. I started out with a small Reseller account, then when I got more customers, I got a larger Reseller account. About 2003, I rented a server out of Dallas, TX, for about $150.00/mo. Over time my customers left and I with back to just a Reseller account. It was just a hobby for me to learn about being a web host provider. I didn't care that much anymore. Besides that, it took up a lot of my time. Now I have only one customer that has been with me over the years. At one point, I had about 100 customers.

As of today, I have 60 domains of my own, and about 70 websites of my own. Most of them are using Joomla. I paid about $30/mo for a reseller account and I paid about $10/yr per domain.

Most or ALL web host providers are renting servers, most likely even GoDaddy.com!

Did you know that Godaddy.com started their business in March 1999? This was a few years after the internet was getting so popular.

Online E-commerce (Shop Carts) to avoid:
wix.com : Business Unlimited : $27.00/mo
shopify.com/pricing : Basic Shopify : $29.00/mo
ecwid.com/pricing-page : $35.00/mo
shift4shop.com/pricing.htm (3dcart) : $29.00/mo

These are just a few but AVOID ALL of them and SAVE MONEY!

Please remember, a lot of these type of sites above are targeting on people who DON'T KNOW how to build their own online shop cart! Below I will show you how.

LET'S GET STARTED!

Let's get you your Domain and save money:
Setup an account with OnlineNIC: https://onlinenic.com/
If you signed up with OnlineNIC with the Bronze plan you can save $10 per year per domain ( .com ). Over time you will jump to the next plan saving you money. I started out with the Bronze plan and over time I went up to the Platinum plan.
OnlineNIC Price for PositiveSSL: per year, per domain, SSL Certificate is $9.00/yr.
After you add your money to your OnlineNIC account, you will be able to ADD (Buy) a domain or Transfer (Move) your domain from Godaddy.com into your account.
If you need help. The Support staff can help you with the Transfer from Godaddy.com, 1and1.com, BlueHost.com, HostGator.com, etc. to your account.

If you're using GoDaddy.com and your .com domain is about $19.99 a year. With OnlineNIC, you will save $10 or more a year.

I have been with OnlineNIC since 2003.

WEBHOST PROVIDER

Sign up with InMotion Hosting because their servers use a SSD (Solid State Disk) compare to the older servers that use a hard drive disk. SSD servers are faster than older servers.

InMotion Hosting:
https://www.inmotionhosting.com

Select: Shared Hosting -> Compare Plans
Pick one of the Launch Plans. A 3 year plan would be the best. This is a good plan for any shop cart.
At checkout: Remove "+ Backup Manager"
You don't need it or any extras at check out. Just your hosting plan. We will install a free Backup Manager plugin below so this is something you don't need to spend money on.

PAYMENT PROCESSOR

As for your online Payment Processor you can sign up with Paypal: https://www.paypal.com

CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (cms)

Now should you pick Wordpress or Joomla?
A lot of people like Wordpress and a lot of people like Joomla.
Right now, Joomla is getting a transformation from version 3.x to 4.x.
I would prefer you getting Joomla because it is easier to work with than Wordpress. I know because I used both of them. Hackers got into Wordpress easier than Joomla.

You can download Joomla here but ONLY use version 3.10.x for now. After your site is up and running then see if the plugins are compatible with v3.10.x. Don't update to version 4.x for about a year or so. Not everyone is updating their Joomla plugins right away. I would start with Joomla v3.10.x for now and set up your Shop Cart.

Select the download link below:
https://downloads.joomla.org/cms/joomla3/3-10-0/Joomla_3-10-0-Stable-Full_Package.zip?format=zip

Install Joomla: video coming soon...

JOOMLA TEMPATES (free) :
https://www.phoca.cz/joomla-templates
ONLY download these. You have these choices:
Pix, Premiere, POS, Phoca Star, Duka, Fashion, Photography, Cart, Be, Gweld, Tre

DO NOT download the ones that have (Joomla! 2.5) under them.

SHOP CART ADDON for Joomla (free)

For your Shop Cart there are many out there for free for both Wordpress and Joomla.
I use Joomla and a free shop cart I found is Phoca cart:
https://www.phoca.cz/phocacart

Install and Setup Phoca Cart: video coming soon...

WEBSITE BACKUP MANAGER

For your Backup Manager, download the free version of Akeeba Backup for Joomla 3!
Click here -> https://www.akeeba.com/download/akeeba-backup/8-0-12/pkg_akeeba-8-0-12-core-zip.zip
Or you can install it through your Joomla: Extensions -> Manage -> Install -> Install from Web

More here -> http://howtomakeyourownonlinestore.com/