Hey guys looking to start a website that sells virtual goods, i just need help on a few things.

So i understand that i register a domain name, but after that i donno what to do.
I'm going to try create my own, i've heard adobe dreamweaver if good to use for beginners like me. But i don't understand how i'd be able to get my finished (if i can create one on my own!) website attached to my domain name? Like if the website is already created on my computer using dreamweaver, how do i upload it to my domain name? I was gonna use godaddy to my domain name also

ftp

but if you want my advice, hire someone to make you the site.

lets say your domain name is sillypants.com

your website needs to be stored on a server, generally this is not something you want to do from your home computer, but you can use your home computer for testing.

you generally rent the server from someone. then you upload the website you have created onto the server (as carteblanche suggest, ftp is one way to upload it to the server).

the server will have an ip address, and then you associate your domain name with that ip address and then anyone who types "sillypants.com" will be directed to the ip address of your server (they will see your webpage).

http://support.godaddy.com/help/article/5289/updating-your-domain-names-ip-address-for-forwarding

as you don't seem to know the basics, if you want this thing to be up and running soon, i think carteblanche offered good advice to "hire someone to make you the site". However if you want to learn, its a great way to learn by doing it yourself (but this will take a large amount of time).

This post was edited by Azrad on Dec 16 2012 07:00pm

is it a good idea to hire someone to do a basic website, then when i have time to learn, create and upload my own website that i created?

1 step at a time bro. get your site up and running first. if nobody buys your stuff, dont bother spending weeks learning how to make websites if all you want is $$

wise words, okay i'll get someone to do it

while you are at, you will also want to look into payment processing and product distribution solutions for your website.

questions to ask your self:
- what means of payment will you accept from your customers? credit card? paypal? pay by phone? etc. once you have answered this, you can look into payment options - e.g. paypal, ccbill, paymentwall, etc.
- once customers have paid, how will you process their payments? will they need to make an account first on your website and then once they have paid their account will be granted access to a private section where they can download or get access to the virtual goods? or will you manually check each payment and manually give people access?

very good advice, i still have to figure this out. I'd prob just stick to paypal since i think accepting visa and stuff costs more per month (godaddy had that option but wanted 9.99 per month). Prob ask some friends and ask they're opinion

If you are going to use paypal, I have an easily solution.

You can host a vbulletin forum on your website. Vbulletin has a PayPal IPN built in which means you can create "paid subscriptions" whereby to access specific sections of your site (e.g. hidden forum) your customers need to pay. They can pay by paypal and immediately get access. If you know PHP you can create your own PayPal IPN using the Vbulletin IPN as a template.

I paid someone to design me a custom PayPal IPN for Vbulletin forums and it's worked wonders. Forums are a great means of distributing your virtual goods and getting paid.

thanks but i was barely able to put up my site using dream weaver ha, i don't understand how forums work atm. Plus i'm selling virtual items, like diablo3 items and gold, so i think i have to do this "live" kind of thing. I was able to set up a "live chat" today (took me 3 hours i think of trail and error, even tho its super easy!!). Next thing is paypal, then i think i'm goign to have them buy using paypals cart thing, then send me money (the best part), then click on the "chat live" with me to give me the btag and make the trade face to face. Hows that all sound partyinmypants?