Web Design and Carts and Whatever...............

[BellisimaJ.]

Okay, question no. 1:
        Can I design a website from scratch and simply do an FTP upload?
          Or, must I use the templates??

Question n. 2:
          Must I use oscommerce or can I install a cart of my choice?

Question no. 3:
          Do I need to purchase my own SSL?

Thanks for any info.

Btw, no laughing at the tech-challenged allowed in public.

[regic]

Okay, question no. 1:
        Can I design a website from scratch and simply do an FTP upload?
        YES

Question n. 2:
          Must I use oscommerce or can I install a cart of my choice?
    You can use any cart you want (as long as it is Linux compatible and not a Windows script).

Question no. 3:
          Do I need to purchase my own SSL?
Yes if you will be using a merchant account. You'll also need to add an IP address to your account.

You can buy your SSL certificate at whichever issuer you prefer (and install/move it on any server if you  change hosts).  The cheapest SSL certificates are:

GoDaddy $19.99 yr ($17.99 yr if you buy a 2 yr cert) https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/ssl/ssl.asp?se=%2B&ci=271
RegisterFly $15.99 yr http://www.registerfly.com/ssl/
EV1 Servers $14.95 http://www.ev1servers.net/Dedicated/DomainsAndSSL.aspx

If you only accept PayPal or Google Checkout an SSL certificate isn't necessary, but your customers might feel more confident if you have one if you sell higher priced items.

When you order a certificate from any issuer, they'll ask you to copy and paste a CSR into a form on their site.  There's a video tutorial on generating a CSR -it's easy: you enter your company name and domain name, city, state, and the CSR is generated.

Generating a CSR video tutorial

After buying an SSL certificate, installing it is basically copying and pasting it into your control panel.

Installing your SSL certificate video tutorial

[BellisimaJ.]

Regic, Thank you! Very thorough response and immensely helpful!!   

[stardust]

If you only accept PayPal or Google Checkout an SSL certificate isn't necessary, but your customers might feel more confident if you have one if you sell higher priced items.

This is a wise statement, and certainly will pertain to my site, as I will start off with only paypal and google for cc acceptance.

I read the tutorials.  What's interesting is that a SSL Cert must be purchased not only for each domain, but each subdomain.  Seems that just ONE will not cover ALL.  Interesting.

[BellisimaJ.]

Stardust said:

I read the tutorials.  What's interesting is that a SSL Cert must be purchased not only for each domain, but each subdomain.  Seems that just ONE will not cover ALL.  Interesting.

I didn't know that!! That's one of the reasons I am glad to have this forum---I think we can all learn a lot from each other, also.

Stardust, are you hosting with TH also? Hope so--would really like to see it do well!

[bargainbloodhound]

I read the tutorials.  What's interesting is that a SSL Cert must be purchased not only for each domain, but each subdomain.  Seems that just ONE will not cover ALL.  Interesting.

Yep.  If you buy an SSL for www.yourdomain.com it doesn't work on yourdomain.com.  Luckily  you only need it to work on the www.yourdomain.com where your store is so you only need to buy 1 certificate (unless you have a second store on a different subdomain, in which case you'd need 2 certificates).

There are wildcard SSL certificates which will work on all subdomains but they're expensive: $200-$1000 per year.

EDIT: if you're buying an SSL,  when you fill out the CSR request you should remember to specify you want it for www.domain.com (or whichever subdomain you're store is on)

[stardust]

Stardust, are you hosting with TH also? Hope so--would really like to see it do well!

No.  When I was looking for a host change in May, they did not mention they were going to host.  I might have considered it.

[BellisimaJ.]

[quote author=stardust link=topic=4437.msg17905#msg17905 date=1153178482]

Stardust, are you hosting with TH also? Hope so--would really like to see it do well!

No.  When I was looking for a host change in May, they did not mention they were going to host.  I might have considered it.
[/quote]

That's too bad, Stardust!! I assume that most things would be very similiar wherever you are hosting and at least you know everyone here, so we can still all learn together. 
I am clueless, but learn quickly and I'm already finding it fun----um. sort of.

[bargainbloodhound]

fun----um. sort of.

That's a good description of setting up your first website...fun mixed with pulling your hair out. 

[cranky_hippie]

[quote author=bargainbloodhound link=topic=4437.msg17957#msg17957 date=1153256806]

fun----um. sort of.

That's a good description of setting up your first website...fun mixed with pulling your hair out. 
[/quote]

I'm still looking for the fun.  :o