Thanks Chris! Thanks Flood! Thanks Greg!

[jaclaz]

Thanks to all who help other folks here!

[christoefar]

If you are selling an e-book I would have it avialable in several formats.

• Adobe Reader
  Text
  HTML

You could have others but most people will be able to access this type of document.
I use paypal on my website, but I also use Nochex.

Web hosting is quite cheap, and search engine placement can be found for free/really cheap, just search in google.

[flood6]

I looked at the SiteBuildIt site you asked about. If they deliver all they say they do for that $299/year, then I would say that it looks like a good option for someone who knows nothing about website design and does not want to learn. It has its downsides, one of which being that the sites all look really similar, and if it turns out that they have really crappy customer support, then you will have that crappy support each time you have an issue or question about every facet of your site.

Do some google searching for reviews about SiteBuildIt that don't originate from them. Look to see if you can find a company that offers similar services.

They offer what sounds like a good guarantee. Get one of their reps on the phone and ask him for step-by-step instructions about how to go about getting your money back and any catches (hidden fees, etc.).

That's about all I can suggest for someone who does not want to hear about "HTML, and all that goolbty gook". When you eventually come the realization that you do want to learn about it instead of throwing money at someone who does, you can do a google search for "basic website design tutorial" or "basic website tutorial". I found a couple that looked promosing in about 7 seconds: http://www.htmlgoodies.com/nontechintro/ and http://www.w3schools.com .

Whatever you decide, good luck.

[jaclaz]

I've just found out SiteBuildIt is raising prices to $349 a year Wednesday. Also I found a fellow who has customizable affiliate software without the large monthly or set-up fees or the 20-30% of each sale. Gee how does any affiliate company stay in Biz with that big a bite out of the profits. I admit I will learn what coding may be neccesary to make changes and update the website as I already do with our freewebs site.

So how about PayPal?
PayStorm?
Attorney Generals?
Affiliate Software?
Autoresponders?
Search engine Utilitys?

Again Thanks for Contributing,
Jack

[TranscendMedia]

Jack,

Congratulations on starting your own business! We built an ecommerce engine for one of our clients that sales an electronic delivery product that just launched their soft-launch of the site. http://www.blockthepop.com/priv/default.htm The site is relatively simple but features complete online ordering with integration with VeriSign, but any payment processor would work.

There are other systems out there as well. Like someone mentioned SiteBuildIt which is great for newbies who want a hands on approach. Other solutions include ClickBank ,which has its own type of affiliate network, and PayPal. See their site for a directory of solutions built for eproducts. Although PayPal does work well it just doesn't offer the security of a merchant account.

There is a lot of work that goes into building a successful online business, including many tech issues. If you are a new to internet commerce you really have two options:
1) Read up on the various topics and get help online. There are tons of resources including forums, tutorials, articles, etc. that are great help.
2) Oursource all tech related tasks to a development & marketing company, where you can continue concentrating on building your business.

There really is not a right solution it is up to the business owner to decide on how much they want to learn and what your goals are.

I wish you best of luck with your venture and have a great Holiday Season. As always post your questions and comments here and you will surely get a great response.

Best of Luck,
Gregory Van Horn
President & Senior Developer
Transcend Media Interactive Marketing & Development Group
Ecommerce | Website Development | Affiliate & ROI Tracking Solutions | Online Marketing

[Chris - WSO]

Hi

My recommendation would be

Go with OS Commerce as your platform, costs nothing and you can get MySQL PHP UNIX hosting for peanuts.

With OS Commerce you can then get a range of payment systems to plug into PayPal, 2CO and others.

Plus there is a module for managing an affiliate pogram too.

If you don't know PHP then you might spend a couple of hundred dollars to set up if you grab someone from Elance to throw in the modules and do the set up for you. After that just hosting costs.

Cheers

Chris