I Built an eCommerce Site in 2 Months for $99!

Planning Pays

My developer, Scott Kroeger, the owner of Hudson Avenue Technologies in Omaha NE, says the first and most important task of designing a new Website is developing a comprehensive plan.

"Before writing a single line of code, the site owner and developer should have a clear idea of the scope of the project," Scott says. "Because Linda had a clear idea of all of the components and capabilities she wanted, I was able to recommend a comprehensive solution that would address all the issues her specifications raised. This saved a lot of time and expense, and made my job much less frustrating."

Educating myself on Website design was tedious but essential for a good outcome. Even though I was very Web savvy, if I hadn't read extensively about site design, I would have overlooked many features my site should offer. Also, I wouldn't have been able to ask technical questions and communicate as effectively with my developer.

Development

After documenting the site specifications, I began searching online for a developer. I knew I was shopping for champagne on a beer pocketbook, but I didn't want to compromise unless I had to.

Soon, one of the people I contacted emailed me a slew of probing questions:

• What kind of site do you need developed?
• How did you choose php?
• Is an admin interface required?
• Do you need to manage banner ads?
• What are your support requirements after implementation?

I felt like I was taking a test. But the quality of his inquiries gave me confidence that this person wanted to clearly understand the scope of the project, as well as my level of expertise to manage the site.

The Developer Says...

Soon I scheduled a meeting with Scott Kroeger, owner of Hudson Avenue Technologies in Omaha NE, to discuss the challenges of launching such a complex site on a limited budget. After I reviewed my site map and specifications with him, he recommended a proven and supported open source content management system (CMS): PostNuke.

I was excited about integrating supported public domain software that could be maintained by a multitude of providers, should Scott and I part for whatever reason. Plus, no software debugging would be needed.

Many developers start coding right away. However, Scott believes that first of all, developers should survey what open source software is available and determine if it's possible to piece it together to provide a solution. "Because my background is in integration, I get more excited about finding open source software, figuring out how the code works, and then using my technical skills and coding to make the modules work together," Scott says. "This way I don't have to spend a lot of time programming from scratch and debugging code."

After reading the PostNuke documentation, though, I became concerned because it doesn't support unique block/page configuration for multiple pages. As I had over 20 unique subtopics or categories, I didn't see how PostNuke would work. Also, I didn't like the article layout restrictions. I preferred the flexibility of designing html pages. So I tossed these problems back into Scott's lap.

"By examining other PostNuke site installations and reading forum discussions, I quickly figured out that multiple PostNuke installs would work around the page layout problem and provide complete control over the subsite blocks," Scott says. "So my challenge was to figure out how to make all 28 installs talk to each other by modifying what database tables each subsite looked at."

"Linda wanted to use html blocks to handle the bulk of the content," Scott said. "However, PostNuke only searches major modules, not html pages. So I integrated Content Express -- a PostNuke module that provides the site with a very friendly admin interface for adding html pages and controlling the site navigation, as well as a search engine for html pages. Unfortunately, Content Express wasn't built for multi-site configuration, so I also had to figure out what it was doing to know how to integrate it for the multi-site installation."

Two Week Success!

Within two weeks, I was laying out pages and uploading data. To complete the site, Scott integrated free PostNuke modules to provide an ezine, forum, job bank, and banner/ad management. The only software I had to purchase was a classified ads module and shopping cart for $59, plus a $30 theme. The rest of the modules were free.

Because I had educated myself on Website design and defined the site specifications so well, Scott knew clearly from the start what was expected. This made his job much easier, and, combined with his open source integration strategy, saved a lot of time and money. By the end of two months, the site I'd dreamed about was up—within my budget and without sacrificing one feature or requirement.

Additional Resources

Web Marketing and eCommerce http://www.wilsonweb.com/

Apromotionguide.com -- free Website promotion tutorial http://apromotionguide.com/

PostNuke.com -- open source Weblog/content management system http://www.postnuke.com/

Content Express -- open source Web content management system http://pn.arising.net/ce/

WhatsNews -- open source ezine module http://nuke-modules.gading.de/

phpAdsNew -- open source ad server http://www.phpadsnew.com/one/

phpBB -- open-source bulletin board package http://www.phpbb.com/

phProfession -- open source job bank http://www.phpsolutions.co.uk/index.php