newbie

Hi,

Firts of all, hello from a staffordshire newbie. Spent a few days reading through the site now, and must say how informative it is, even though everything is quite confusing at this stage, as im new to the world of zen cart.

Basically, i have just started an online shop, selling laptops, ink cartridges, toners etc (not sure if i can put links to websites up on here). What im now looking for is professional help with a new design for the website, and general seo help as i have spent a fair bit of time link building it myself, and can actually find the website on google in the natural listings, without google adwords etc.

Where I struggle is the website design, as i chose the basic package due to budget restrictions etc. I have tried this myself, but don't want to end up messing it up, and not being able to get myself out of it. I don't mind paying for professional help, as i know nothing in this world is free, just looking for recomendations from the professionals.

Cheers,

Andy.

Hi Andy, and welcome.
first up, what do you mean by "chose the basic package due to budget restrictions"? ZC is free.
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Apologies, the basic package is with the company I have set up my online store with is what I meant to say. They happen to use zen cart for the ecommerce websites they design. They do offer upgraded designs, but wanted to weigh up all my options first before I decide who and where to use. Hopefully I've made it a bit clearer now.

andyd99:

Hi,

Firts of all, hello from a staffordshire newbie. Spent a few days reading through the site now, and must say how informative it is, even though everything is quite confusing at this stage, as im new to the world of zen cart.

Basically, i have just started an online shop, selling laptops, ink cartridges, toners etc (not sure if i can put links to websites up on here). What im now looking for is professional help with a new design for the website, and general seo help as i have spent a fair bit of time link building it myself, and can actually find the website on google in the natural listings, without google adwords etc.

Where I struggle is the website design, as i chose the basic package due to budget restrictions etc. I have tried this myself, but don't want to end up messing it up, and not being able to get myself out of it. I don't mind paying for professional help, as i know nothing in this world is free, just looking for recomendations from the professionals.

Cheers,

Andy.

the same problem with mine.. I've planned to create an e-commerce site also which concentrate on selling computer gadgets, cleaners and etc. but I struggled also on finding websites designs to fit with my business nature.. any help? thanks in advance

There are lots of free templates in the Free Software Add Ons area - see top of this site for that.

There are also several sites out there that offer free templates you can download and install. One such site is mine, and the link is below in my sigline.

Another site that shows demos of the different templates can be found at http://(sorry, site offline)/zc150/

Hope that helps you both!!

There is a Commercial Help Wanted section of the forum where you can post a request and take bids on doing the work.

If you're looking for something really complex, I'd suggest you start there.

If your needs are much simpler, I suggest you try to do it yourself with help from forum members (and by help, I mean posting questions and getting responses).

I have several reasons for suggesting this:

1. you work cheaper than anyone you can hire :laugh:
2. although you may feel :frusty: and :censored: at times, what you'll learn will be more valuable to you than you can imagine
3. you won't run into an issue of misunderstandings with a designer
4. you won't have to try to figure out what was done if the designer is unavailable in future

Take stellarweb's suggestion and look at the free templates available for Zen Cart. Find one that suits you and modify it any way you like. Remember that what you're selling is more important than the design. You can always think about a site redesign once you're making money.

Exactly what I was building up to suggest :-)
have a read through all the free addons, there are many very useful tools for your admin side as well as changes for your shopfront.
Rarely and I mean very rarely would you need to pay for any commercial work unless as fo states it is very complex. Rest assured most people who use ZC have built their own sites using these free addons, albeit with a lot of trial and error (I speak for myself there).
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