Novus Needs Advice - Many Unique Products

[zmarksz]

I built a simple website (HTML/CSS)(MarkszCo.com) for my business selling one of a kind hand fabricated jewelry via remote link to paypal shopping cart. With each item being unique, my problem is the amount of time between photographing each of my items, naming the 2-6 photos for each item, then creating (copying and pasting a template .html file over and over for each item/page) new pages in an text editor going through and altering image names so the actual product can be seen and descriptions and other information unique to each piece, saving the file and doing it again and again..... then i have to manually put the images/link in other corresponding pages of the website to link to the product pages... and when i sell the item i must manually remove the page from the server and remove the link from the website... it seems very laborious but i don't have the expertise or the time to do anything more complicated then that.

I want something that works with my existing design (maybe not exactly but with adequate control over design) to create a more streamlined way of getting products described, uploaded with images pages and menus, and all that taken off automatically when something is purchased. It would be nice to have everything more automated. I've seen some server side type programs like magento but i'm not familiar-is this a good program, is there better, does anyone have experience. Also, i have Dreamweaver CS.... does it have the capability unknown to me to help me with all this or maybe other software....

Thanks for you time and help in advanced, just need pointed in the right direction....

Zack Marksz

[roban]

Zack you need a shopping cart like Magento although I don't find this as easy to configure as some. I use CS-Cart which costs less than $200.00 for a lifetime license. Cart software is designed to make all the work you are doing more intuitive and they contain image uploading, product descriptions and options, shipping, Pay Pal integrations, etc.

There are free carts like OSCommerce and Zen cart with support forums to help guide you along the way.

[marc77]

If you want to dive into CGI/Perl/PHP and server management by yourself (it is worth doing so), then get a good virtual server from a renowned webhoster and an e-commerce software (like the one roban suggested, but there are also others...).

You have to spend some time and money, but all in all it will save you monthly fees for renting a remote shopping cart on the long run. However be prepared that it isn't as easy as "install and run".

As an alternative there are hosted e-commerce solutions available as well, which provide you with all services for a monthly fee. Maybe this is a good choice if you need to take care about your business and cannot spend own energy to CGI, scripts, software, servers, ... (you know what I mean ;-)

My recommendation is KingCart (http://www.kingcart.com), since we work together with them for many years (they provide direct support for our affiliate management solution). But you find "tons" of others as well.

All in all it's up to you: If you like to get familiar with the tech side, DIY is the solution for you. If you like to simply call someone in case of trouble that does the job, a hosted solution should be preferred.