Shopping Cart?

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  customcandlesandcraft · Member · Oct 30, 2011 at 6:09 am

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  Im trying to find a way to add a shopping cart to my webpage.
  Do i need to change the theme? Does wordpress do this?

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  thesacredpath · Member · Oct 30, 2011 at 6:16 am

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  You cannot have a shopping cart at wordpress.com, and I’ll offer the following links for you to review regarding advertising and such.

  If you are selling products that you have yourself made, wordpress has no problem with that, but what you will have to do is set up something off-site such as an Etsy Shop and do the actual selling there.

  http://en.support.wordpress.com/advertising/
  http://en.wordpress.com/types-of-blogs/
  http://en.wordpress.com/tos/

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  thesacredpath · Member · Oct 30, 2011 at 6:19 am

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  The other choice is to self-host a wordpress.ORG installation on a third-party hosting service such as bluehost, dreamhost, etc., and then you can have SSL and a shopping cart and all that.

  Figure an average monthly cost, all things considered, of about $10 to $25. You will also be responsible for all upgrades, all installations, all backups and all troubleshooting. If something goes wrong, you have to figure it out and fix it.

  WordPress.ORG has made self-hosting much easier than it used to be, but there is a higher level of “geek” required to do it and it does come with additional responsibilities.

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  thesacredpath · Member · Oct 30, 2011 at 6:21 am

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  The $10 to $25 would not include any payment processing services. I always recommend using PayPal for that. If your volume gets high enough, then you can look into credit card processing services and such (an added expense).

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  raincoaster · Member · Oct 30, 2011 at 6:25 am

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  And Paypal costs about 3% per transaction too.

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  thesacredpath · Member · Oct 30, 2011 at 6:33 am

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  Yeah, with no monthly fee either. I switched one client over to full paypal a few months ago and they are liking the lower expenses and higher income and the real great thing for me as the guard dog is that I don’t have to worry and fret about someone getting in and stealing customer’s credit card numbers and such.

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  customcandlesandcraft · Member · Oct 30, 2011 at 7:24 am

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  Thanks heaps for your info! Ill do my research!

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  thesacredpath · Member · Oct 30, 2011 at 8:41 am

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  You are welcome.

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  auntiebswax · Member · Oct 31, 2011 at 4:00 pm

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  I’m disappointed to hear this. One of the reasons I switched over to WordPress was to eventually get a little shop going in addition to the blog. I’ve already paid for a .com and no ads on my posts. I lack the money and geekitude to continue on with my hopes for branching out beyond Etsy. :(

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  customcandlesandcraft · Member · Oct 31, 2011 at 10:08 pm

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  I must admit i am quite dissapointed too!… I signed up for wordpress as a beginner and wasn’t aware that I couldn’t set this up without self-hosting..
  I honestly dont have the skills to do this.
  Im stuck at the moment because I don’t know wether to leave wordpress or not..
  I should have done more research before paying

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  raincoaster · Member · Oct 31, 2011 at 11:21 pm

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  All upgrades at WordPress.com apply only specifically to the thing they say, and there are dozens and dozens of threads in the forum on this as well. Always do your research before making a purchase; once you’re hosted elsewhere, that will apply more than ever.

  It costs money to make money. That’s the way of business.