# website building question



## ohsoap (Aug 11, 2011)

I'm building a website with dreamweaver, and I can't figured out how to add a featured item box on my site.  Can someone give me the technical name for this feature, so that I can incorp it onto the site?
It would really mean a lot to me,
Gina


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## ohsoap (Aug 13, 2011)

bump


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## Deda (Aug 13, 2011)

Can you show an example of what you're looking to achieve?


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## ohsoap (Aug 13, 2011)

Here is one from a jewelry website that I found online.
http://www.eastory.com/


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## Deda (Aug 13, 2011)

That website runs on a series of php scripts. Dreamweaver is more geared for HTML.  

Are you using a shopping cart?


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## ohsoap (Aug 16, 2011)

I'm still figuring that out.  I am unhappy with my current host, I can't format my site nicely and it's built in cart is near impossible to use.  I think I am leaning towards using paypal as my cart.  I've been searching for hosts for the last few days to compare and make my decision from there.


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## Guest (Aug 31, 2011)

Just wanted to say I think I will be using opencart for my soap site when I am ready to start selling. http://www.opencart.com/ It is free and has lots of nice features. 

There are also some other great free options out there:

http://webtecker.com/2008/04/22/8-best- ... solutions/

I have played around with magento and zencart and those are both nice as well. If I don't go with opencart I will most likely go with magento or zencart.


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## agriffin (Aug 31, 2011)

Not free but one of the best cart software/builders out there.  

www.3dcart.com

Super easy to use and great support.  I'm a web designer and I go with this and recommend it to anyone looking.


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## Guest (Sep 5, 2011)

agriffin said:
			
		

> Not free but one of the best cart software/builders out there.
> 
> www.3dcart.com
> 
> Super easy to use and great support.  I'm a web designer and I go with this and recommend it to anyone looking.



Yeah, 3d cart is nice, but I have to start with something free until I have more $$


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## erics (Sep 16, 2011)

ohsoap said:
			
		

> I'm building a website with dreamweaver, and I can't figured out how to add a featured item box on my site.  Can someone give me the technical name for this feature, so that I can incorp it onto the site?
> It would really mean a lot to me,
> Gina



The likely case is you'll be best off paying for a "pre-built" solution at least to get started. In other words some service that allows you to create a store online, without any coding.  

Dreamweaver and Paypal ok starting points, but even for experienced developers, using them to create a functional and esthetically pleasing site takes a lot.  

If, on the other hand, you want to use one of the open source e-commerce solutions someone mentioned earlier in this post, you're probably going to need some considerable development expertise to make them work the way you want.  

Our site, http://www.annas-soaps.com, is a combination of wordpress, an e-commerce plugin, various other plugins, theming, and customization (You can see a featured product slider on the home page).  Even though a lot of this stuff is geared toward the non-technical user, working out all the details and customization took a bit of technical know-how.

I hope this doesn't sound discouraging -- just coming from someone who's been through the ringer with this stuff quite a few times before. 

Eric


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## Guest (Sep 24, 2011)

Eric makes a great point - it really does take a TON of work to get your site up and running, plus you do need some tech skills. You don't HAVE to know how to program, but if you don't I would not think that during the time at which you want to develop a business website would be the best time to learn. My husband owns a web development firm so I see how much work goes into it, and let me just be the first to say it is HARD and time consuming, and I do know how to program. I am not trying to be a downer either, but I just don't want you to spend so much time in frustration. If you can recover the cost soaping, why not hire a pro to do your site?


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## Scentapy (Oct 6, 2011)

Very inexpensive, easy to use and excellent featues:

http://www.createashoppe.com


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## soapylady (Jun 1, 2012)

I use magento for my site and that is a built in feature that i love. I'd recommend something like that for all the automated features and easy product management.


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## carvan (Jul 27, 2012)

we have test websites for better part of two years.  We started with blogging on wordpress and moved into ecommerce.  Hands down the easiest and cheapest way to build ecommerce site is thru open cart.  Open Cart is free and you can buy very inexpensive themes on lay onto of open cart.  This is our first ecommerce site we build for less than 40 dollars (took less than 2 days to be up and running) and its simply to use:    We just starting with our homemade cosmetic site (just loaded few pics and added categories - no content yet).  Again Open Cart requires no coding ability and is significantly easier than Magento and some other programs out there.  If you have any questions, pm me and I will be happy to walk you thru process.


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