Hi All.
Over the years I've collected a lot of spare parts with the thought of when I fully retire I would sell parts to fund the restoration of the cars I plan to keep. I've kicked this idea around for quite a while. Now that the laws are changing and ebay & paypal will be reporting transactions to the IRS of over $600 a year I'm feeling like I can no longer buy/sell stuff on the side and call it a hobby. I need to get serious about it and create a small business so I can track things for tax purposes. I've already started that for this year and gone from doing my own taxes to having a tax preparer do them for me. The question I'm wanting to ask about is a web site. Does anyone here have a web site of their own? I'm looking at different hosting sites and being somewhat of a dinosaur when it comes to technology am not sure what I need. There's a bunch of hosting sites that go from pennies to several dollars a month. I want to post pictures and possibly video's of the cars and parts I'd be selling. I'm looking at one that has an option to accept credit cards for online sales. If its not too spendy I'm thinking that might be a handy option. Does anyone have some experience with this sort of thing you could share with me? Any pointers of what I might look for and look out to avoid? I still remember spending $800 for my first digital camera back in the 1990's and how that opened things up for me. I believe this could have the potential to make another positive change in how I manage the hobby/part time job. I still have way too many cars to restore but am enjoying myself. I've also run out of storage due to the amount of stuff I've bought and drug home these last several years. But as long as I'm having fun I'm going to continue doing it! I just may need to be more organized and serious about it!

 

The only thing I can say. You want a company that you can work with and be available to you when you have problems. You might want a local company, might be more cost but be more likely to help with problems,

 

John - I'd be happy to assist in anyway I can. Just this year I took down my last website. It was nothing more than a complete hobby for me. I've owned and created ~15-20 public web-facing websites of my own over the past 15 years. Mostly nothing more than ***** & giggles websites to host a gazillion pictures.

There are free websites you can create - they're everywhere; but, this is not the type of website you are wanting to construct I don't believe. I can walk you through all of the various functions of a website from the front-end public interface through to the back-end which is where things like the database (DB) resides, the encryption algorithms, the Administration of the website, management & monitoring, hosting interface, etc. until you're blue in the face.

The first thing you'll want to do is decide for a name of your website. This then is the "domain name" of your website e.g. www.2blu442.com, www.2blu442.net, www.2blu442.info, www.2blu442.org, etc., etc. Pick a name which might draw some attention to it as you create meta tags on the website. Meta tags are what search engines utilize to "rank" websites. The websites are then categorized by Google, Yahoo, etc., etc. Meta tags are used to "draw attention" to your website. There are tricks to garnering attention to a website I can share with you or you can pay to have your website moved up in rank (yes, money can buy you to the top of the list).

Anyways, you need a domain name from the get-go. Registering a domain name is super inexpensive, generally ~$10-$15/year. Once you register your domain name at any one of the hundreds (or thousands) of hosting sites, you'll be provided the ability to create a free website. This is often nothing more than a 1,2 or 3 page free website often hosted as a sub-domain under the hosting site's domain. That's not what you want if you intend to update regularly and it will not work if you intend to create any form of payment/transactions - you'll need a dedicated top-tier domain for such a website. In this regard you are paying for a hosted website - it will contain many/most of the essential interfaces you will require to Administer your website.

I'll attempt a top-down explanation for you. Register your domain name (e.g. www.2blut442parts.com). I'll reference GoDaddy as the Internet Service Provider (ISP) where you register your domain name (you can use any ISP you like). But, let's keep it simple and discuss one ISP for now (GoDaddy). Next, you want to create a website based upon goal(s) - selling parts, inventory, etc. perhaps payment transactions (hosting pictures will obviously be a part of your website, but hosting pictures to display may not be the end goal of your website and hosting pictures is a walk in the park) - you upload pictures and they're there no biggie. What is important is the type of website you build right out of the box. Most ISP's provide several and numerous COFS (Canned Off The Shelf) websites. You're going to be better served if you use an ISP's COTS website for many reasons: (1) they'll provide you with support for navigating (Administration) of the website because they're selling it to you and they support that COFS website product (as opposed to a website you developed & created on your own). If you're asking about how to create/host a website it's highly unlikely you'll have the knowledge to develop/create your own website. So, plan to buy a hosted website from an ISP and use that ISP's website software to host your website. You don't need to spend thousands per year to host the type of website you're after, but you'll most likely spend $300-$500/year (minimum) to host the type website I believe you're asking to create. That would not include payment transactions - that would be and additional charge. Additionally, many ISP's won't allow you to host payment transactions without purchasing from them some form of encrypted software to guarantee payment transactions. It's not difficult, but you can obviously see the need to ensure payment protections for both the consumer and yourself. That does come at a cost.

To finalize, you need to register a domain name - think of a domain name which gets recognition based solely on the domain name itself is the best way to go - this moves you to the top of ro(BOTS) which scour the world's top domain name web servers e.g. .net, .org, .edu, .com, .info, etc. Once you establish a domain name, you're going to buy/host a website (e.g. GoDaddy). It will then be up to you to Administer your website. Depending on the website you buy, you will be the top (creator) Administrator with full Administration rights to every aspect of the website. It then becomes one of negotiating the several communication pathways on the website software to setup the website e.g. what page images are stored, 1st page (web-facing) front-page, second page, links to pages, etc. Once you get this far along, you should create meta tags for your website. When the BOTS come through all the Internet servers which host the top level domains (i.e. .org, .net, .info, .edu, .com, etc.) the BOTS parse meta tags - which are a simple assemblage of "keywords". So, your meta tags (which the BOTS are looking for) should contain a list of keywords (parts, Oldsmobile, bumper, tire, wheel, or whatever) this then gets ranked into a searchable index on the WWW (WorldWideWeb). It's the basis for how/why one website has a higher ranking than another website.

I'm moving away from simplicity here. Once you get to moving on this thing - let me know. Determine a domain name, register the domain name, then buy a COTS website from (preferably) the ISP who is hosting your website. If you have any questions, reach out.

 

Thank you for the thoughts shared. Yes Norm, I'd like to talk with you more.

John

 

I am a Shopify partner and have an Integration App to QuickBooks accounting. (we could even create a discount for forum members)

They have a specific Automotive Ecommerce playbook https://enterprise.plus.shopify.com/...4_June2022.pdf
I can set you up with an unlimited trial site let PM if interested.

Thanks

Tim

 

Another thing you might consider is to file letters of incorporation. I don't know what it would entail in Oregon but in Texas, it is very simple with instructions all over the internet. That is just a CYA in case you sell something that someone claims they were injured by it.

 

Norm is the guru

But IMHO SEO Key words/phrases at the most important things that can drive people to you new web site.

 

Interesting thread. That's good info Norm.

 

IMO: The hardest thing about starting your own website is getting the exposure to drive traffic to. your site. This site will help for sure, and use facebook groups as well. You can also list on facebook marketplace and promote your website in the listing. Consider starting an ebay store, there's already millions of people on there daily searching for whatever it is you're selling. Yes, the fees SUCK for sure... But try to use it as free advertising as well! Just my 2c.