Mina Salome wrote:
But I don't see an option to host more than one website anywhere?  Does that mean I would have to pay twice?  Why are there separate billing options for stores when the website plans also have store functionality enabled?  So confused...  I hear Squarespace is the shizznit for the actual part of building websites, but I am completely stuck on the billing page.  Thoughts?

It looks like the "store" options add options for label printing, analytics, inventory control, accounting and stuff like that... and have no transaction fees.

The personal/business options have the selling and blogs you want, but have transaction fees and don't have the accounting and that other stuff.

It looks like you would probably have to have two accounts to handle your two different sites.

Lightcraft Studio wrote:
It looks like you would probably have to have two accounts to handle your two different sites.

Yeah, I think you're right.  Darn...

Thanks for your help though!

Hunter  GWPB wrote:
That is a really good idea.  Maybe you could provide a little more information about building one, or the pluses and minuses of hiring someone to do it.  I suspect that if she is finding a package deal like square space intimidating, starting from scratch on her own may also be intimidating.

More people than the OP would benefit!

I used to build sites as a side job... mostly shopping sites and other sites where payments were required.
The first thing I would tell prospective clients was "re-inventing the wheel is very expensive... you can do this far cheaper using do-it-yourself options". Some folks don't care about the cost and want something totally custom.

If money if no object, then by all means, she can hire someone to build from scratch. She will need ongoing maintenance as well... browsers change constantly, rules for online credit card processing change, and expensive changes are needed to keep up... you need to constantly keep up or the site no longer works.

But, you can get more "custom" with your own programmer... it's just much more costly.

Hunter  GWPB wrote:
That is a really good idea.  Maybe you could provide a little more information about building one, or the pluses and minuses of hiring someone to do it.  I suspect that if she is finding a package deal like square space intimidating, starting from scratch on her own may also be intimidating.

More people than the OP would benefit!

Like martin b said above, I was referring to Wordpress. It's not that hard to build a Wordpress site for yourself. I've done it for people many times, and then they take over and manage the site themselves. If you can use a program like Word, you can manage a Wordpress site. Lightcraft above brings up the idea that a site needs to be constantly updated. However, Wordpress does this for you!  Versions are automatically updated to keep up with the changes in browser usability, etc.

Pluses and minuses

-It's true, it's a little more work to add features, but you have more ownership (and it's still all free).

-It's also true that you have to pay for hosting and domain name rental. But depending upon your need, this could cost as little as $10/year. I use a host called freehostia.com. As the name implies, the basic hosting is free, and the domain name can be bought for $10. If you need more complicated features, like contact forms, you would need to pay for the next higher package, which is $36/year. So in the end, it's $46/year, which is still cheaper than squarespace.

-Squarespace is drag and drop, and Wordpress is not, but you can literally design anything with Wordpress. Their themes (free) are infinite and you can alter them as much as you want.

Anyway, I don't work for Wordpress. I've just designed many sites over the years using it. If you PM me, I can send you -- or anyone else -- links to those sites just to show you what can be done. (Now I see you have to "friend" me first if you have a basic MM account before you can PM me, so feel free to do that. I will accept your friendship!)

There are other CMS (Content Management System, i.e., where you manage it all yourself) Websites out there like Wordpress, such as Joomla, which are also good though I've never used them. All I'm saying is that if you are willing to put in the time, you can get a product for good that is yours forever, and not rented.