Hello everyone,
so as the title says I am looking for any advice on building an online store with WordPress. I want to start an online store for a clothing range for women (since my aunt already produces clothing and my family’s business is in clothing printing/branding, it will be pretty easy for me to start without having a steep learning curve of that part). I will try not to make this too long, so if I miss any information that you might need to help me please let me know.
However, I have a steep learning curve for building and maintaining a website.
Just to give some context as to where I am at, I have bought a domain for my company on GoDaddy, I do not have an SSL yet (because I don’t have a website yet) I do know how to connect my domain from GoDaddy to Bluehost.
I have a rough idea of building a website on WordPress but I still need to learn quite a bit, I am sure of that.
My problems are with money, I am in South Africa and converting to dollars is quite bad at the moment, which is why I am trying to save by building my own website (and I think it will be a good thing to be able to do instead of relying on someone else for everything)
I know I mention hosting In the post but it’s just to find out about the plugins associated with the host, not the hosting itself since I see this is against the rules of this sub.
I have been looking at hosting with Bluehost and using their online store package for $12.95/mo for 36 months, (I know I can get a bigger discount on a 12-month plan but I think this will be best because, in the long run, I will save more since the auto-renew will go back to the normal price after a one year (if that makes sense)) when I go to the check out they have extras like the SiteLock Security – Essential for $35.88 a year.
I know it looks like I am trying to cheap out ( and I am) but like I said I am in South Africa and the dollar is just insane at the moment, and once everything (like hosting, SSL certificates, plugins, etc.) are all in place it just adds up to be a lot, and I would rather put that money into more stock for a wider range of choices for the customers and hopefully some advertising. I don’t have a specific budget for the website, so if I need to spend money on something, I will, I just don’t want to throw money at something that is just an addon or something I don’t need.
My questions are,
1. Is Site Lock worth it or should I get another security plugin (preferably cheaper if possible) or should I not bother to get one at all, if I should what would you recommend?
2. What plugins should/would you say I should have a look at if I am trying to make a store that is cheap but will give me needed tools for an online store?
3. I want to have an online store where a brand endorser (so just people I know) can give out a checkout code and the endorser of the brand earns 10% on the sale and it gives 10% off the total of the cart (excluding shipping) so it will basically be 20% off on my side but I think it will be a good way to get the brand out. Does anyone know what Plugin I could you for this if it is possible?
Again I know I have a lot to learn but I have a few months to learn while I get the product sorted. So any advice or suggestions I greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
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Hi, are you planning on using WooCommerce to build your store? If so, you could check out the “Affiliate for WooCommerce” plugin. It allows you to create custom affiliate links for your brand endorsers, and they will receive a commission on any sales made through their unique link. You can set the commission percentage to 10% and the plugin will automatically calculate and track the commissions earned by each affiliate.To provide a discount of 10% off the total cart value (excluding shipping), you can use the built-in coupon feature in WooCommerce. Simply create a coupon code and set the discount percentage to 10%. You can then give this code to your brand endorsers to share with their audience.As for Security, have you considered WordPress.com Business plan? It will allow you to install any plugins (WooCommerce too), but they basically take care of the security for you. The SSL is included in any of their plans, as long as the domain points to your site hosted there.
I do not have expierience with BlueHost, only with Dreamhost
As I am in Europe and they host in USA, I was not satisifed with speed, so I moved to linode.com
They have ready woo-commerce stack
12,95$ per month is high price, you can start on linode.com with 5$ and upscale it if you need more power. And price is always same, no rise after one year. And you’ll have DDOS shield and firewall on infrastructure level. So no need for SiteSecurity.
I would add DoLoginSecurity or Wordfence, fail2ban, redis/memcache, LiteSpeedCache, some CDN like Cloudflare or quic.cloud (all gratis).
My two cents.
Succes and welcome to the club.
PS. I would try linode for a month or two, and see how it works. You get 100$ credit you can use for 60 days.