Turnkey Building-Hosting Solution

[pvsurfer]

I want to develop an on-line presence for my 1-person business in the most inexpensive and painless way possible. Late last year, I read about two turnkey solutions - Bigstep.com and Freemerchant.com - both received Editors' Choice awards from PC Magazine. Seemingly, they each provide a quick and easy procedure for building a basic site and managing it - FREE! I do realize that they charge for their advanced-feature packages and that they try to sell related services.

I would appreciate receiving any and all feedback - re: my taking this approach, their services, etc. If anyone has had direct experience with either one, I sure would welcome your impressions.

Moderator's Comments: This looks border line advertising. I'll let it stand for now but be careful.

[pvsurfer]

Moderator's Comments: This looks border line advertising. I'll let it stand for now but be careful.
Hey Mod~ I am sincerely (although not successfully) attempting to get some feedback! Bigstep and FreeMerchant are direct competitors, so how can you construe this as advertising?
I could use a little help here, not reprimand.... pvsurfer

[Jaiem]

The way this is written, especially the parts about the editor's choice and free services, appears to me as advertising.

However, I chose to leave the post as is for now. No reprimand intended. :)

[pvsurfer]

Thanik you mod... No advertising intended either. That was just to indicate how those two services first came to my attention.

But gosh, not even one comment/opinion yet! That is disappointing.

[akashik]

Actually I was going to reply to this last night, only I hit peak hour traffic through my dailup just as I got to it.... :rolleyes:

I see no reason not to use them myself. A few years ago I considered much the same thing myself. The few I looked at back then seemed much the same from the quick look I had at the two you mention.

The things to consider would be whether they have fees in there somewhere and whether those fees would outweigh the DIY approach. In short, why pay someone for something a little time and effort can get you cheaper.

It appears they'll allow you to use your own domain name. This is good as using a 'geocities' type address for anything of than a page about your dog Spot is a poor business approach. People feel that if you're not ready to get a domain name then you're not ready to do business.

Some services have limits on the amount of products you can offer, or indeed the types of products. Careful research of the site should tell you in this is so. If you can get example of sites already in production you'll be able to see the setup they have and be able to test things out (ease of use, speed of server etc). Also whether there is any branding on *your* site through them. Having a link at the bottom leading off to their site is almost the same as using a Geo address.

Look at their 'extras' too. You should be interested in not only what you get from them for free, but also what you DON'T get. It may very well turn out you find they're offering something you couldn't do without for an extra amount of money. After all they don't give things away for free without expecting a fair amount to move to paid products :)

In the end, if the product suits you and you think your customers will feel safe shopping with you and can delevop a level of trust before they poke the buy button, then there's no reason not to take advantage of the system...

Greg Moore

[pvsurfer]

Thanks for the insight Greg.

[GregS]

Click this link if you want to know what spoon_boy and others REALLY do to steal your money! Even if this pyramid scheme worked, they all lie and cheat to gobble up more than their share anyway!


http://www.whew.com/On-Line_Spam/Tools/Tracking/spam_tracking_104.shtml