Create an Online Store the Cheap Way
Many people think that they need a heavy investment to create an online store. However, while it's true that the easiest and best options usually come with a price, you can create an online store with very little money if you know how to.
These tips will help you create an online store even when you are low on funds and can't afford hiring a professional. Even if you have the funds,
if it's a site that's not going to be terribly important, you might want to test the waters with a cheap option before you commit your money to it.
The first thing that you have to understand is that an
online store will demand of you either money or time. So, if you don't have or aren't willing to put in the money, then be prepared to spend quite a bit of time learning, practicing, experimenting, and testing.
First of all, you have to register the name of your online store. The cost per year will go between $5 and $20 dollars a year, which is quite cheap.
Then, you need to rent some hosting to set your site and make it available to the public. There are several companies that offer different types of plans, some of them are cheaper than others. You could compare several and get a cheap plan, but if you're really going for the cheapest option, get free hosting. Believe it or not, there are companies that offer hosting for free. Of course, there are some drawbacks, like having a very tight limit on storage space or having to have ads and banners on your site. However, you still get to pay nothing for it.
Afterwards, the hard part of how to create an online store starts. You have to select a shopping cart and a web designing program to create your site. You can find free versions of both programs that you can use. However, as I said above, you will need to spend quite a good bit of time learning how to use them. They have no customer support, of course, so any questions that you have will require you to either test the program in several ways or look for the answer in forums. To be honest, this is not as hard as it seems, just very time consuming.
In the end, you will not have spent much. Your end result might not be as great as others but it will get the job done, and you will have learnt how to create an online store and maybe even start sell your services to others.
