Hello Matt, I had your email address from a while ago when we met.
I would like to create a website using one of your templates. I have never made a website before so all of your help is appreciated. You have so many templates available so what I want to do is recommend a site that I would want mine to look like and you can let me know if you have any similar. A site that I like is:
http://www.oroking.com/
The only difference I am looking for is I wouldn't want the categories on the front page (at the bottom with the jewelry pictures) to be at the bottom. I would want those in the middle where currently they have their logo and new arrivals etc. I hope this makes sense.
Please let me know if you have a template with a similar format.
I would also need the ability to import all of my products using an excel spreadsheet and have the ability to update the products as needed using an excel spreadsheet.
I appreciate your help and look forward to hearing back from you.
Thank you,
Bob
Bob,
Thank you for contacting me again.
Our templates are available for anyone to purchase when they are venturing out on their own to create a website without our help.
But they are only templates, in that you have PhotoShop files and HTML pages available in the template. But there is still a lot of work to create a website.
You would need to know web programming and how to use Dreamweaver, and you need to know how to use at least Photoshop CS3, and most of the time you also need to know Flash CS3
So many people get stuck looking at the templates in the "jewelry" category. There are thousands available and I admit that I don't know them all myself. You should consider looking into another template category if you can't find exactly what you are looking for in the jewelry category.
We don't provide support on the purchased templates. We sell them as is.
I see that you have an eBay store and that your domain name is pointing to it. Are you trying to move away from your eBay store? May I assume you are looking to put together a jewelry website to sell your merchandise through?
I know from experience that ebay stores are very difficult to manage, but you should know that even if you create a totally new site for your domain name it will still take a lot of time to manage. Once out on your own you will need to do a lot of SEO work on your website and internet marketing. IT WILL TAKE A LONG TIME.
Even if you hire Sapphire Collaborative (www.sapphirecollaborative.com), or some other website firm, it will take a long time to get yourself noticed in the search engines and it will take a lot of long hours to do it. How many hours? Probably 1 or 2 hours each and every day for 3 months. The key to SEO is long term consistency. You can't do all the work in the first week and then sit back and wait, that's what the illegitimate stores do and Google knows that. You have to do the work slowly over time. Listen, Google understands that we all have lives to live, and the Google Engine looks for consistent behavior over time which would indicate a normal human is trying their best to slowly build their site. Think of it this way, only a scam artist with a get rich quick scheme is going to insist that you do the SEO job over night. Google understands this mentality, and they filter those websites out.
So here's what you need to do for yourself. You can buy one of those templates on your own, but first you should consider what shopping cart system you are going to use, what hosting service you are going to use, what credit card processing system you need to use, what content management system (CMS) you want to learn and use... there are literally thousands of ways you can put your website together on your own. It all depends on your own level of skill. You at least need to figure out what CMS and shopping cart you are using. Some of those templates will plug right into various systems without any effort. But most will require many many hours of Photoshop and Dreamweaver work.
If all this sounds daunting, it's because it *is* daunting. If you want to do it right you need to put a lot of time into it, just like you need to put time into running a real brick and mortar store. Building a website is easy if you are technically adept and have the time to do it... time being the key word... If you don't have the time to do it yourself then you need to hire someone.
Take your time and looking for someone to help you program your site. They need to be able to work with you and follow your directions. They also need to know what they are doing. Please don't hire a first timer right from college or a trade school. You will be wasting your money if the person does not have 3 or more years experience with ecommerce. Your hired programmer needs to anticipate your needs just take care of the little things without you needing to say "please cross the T's and dot the I's"
On the other hand, if you have the money to commit to your online store, you should hire an established firm. But expect to spend $10,000 in the first year. Take an honest look around, search Google for jewelry website design or programming. If you'd like to hire us, give us a call.
Thank you,
Matt
