Hey I've been thinking about starting my own website for website design/development. I can think of many different ways I could do this but I'm looking for the fastest, most simple, and most effective way of programing it. So let me explain what I want to do with this site.

First off I will be selling websites, both custom and template. I need to know the best way for people to pay for them. I don't know if I should use pay pal or what. I don't have any expirience in that area.

I also want to try to buy a server and host websites myself. Now I know how I'm going to make my site, but I need to know what kind of project I would be looking at if I wanted to create a content manager. I would assume that I could do it with PHP and MySQL or something like that and I understand that it is a large project, but how complex is it. I want the owners of the sites I host to be able to use a visual or text editor to update and modify their site.

Then theres the thing with buying a server and getting it on the internet. I shouldn't have any problems getting one or getting it on the net, but I'm curious if any of you have any expirience on were to start with a server for your first time. I meen what size and what are the best ways of securing the server from viruses and hackers. I know I can easily moniter and block what people upload for there sites, but I could use a little more info from those of yo uwith expirience.

Aside from all of that I just need to figure out if there is any legal work or licensing required.

Well any help would be greatly appreciated.

I recommend using Paypal so that you don't have to worry about handling Mastercards, Visa and other credit cards separately and making it more expensive to maintain. Paypal does it all for a cheaper price. Check out their commerce account and it's pretty good. Most eCommerce sites use it nowadays.




You could install XPanel to each of your client's hosted folder. It gives them a lot of control over their website settings and preferences. Install Fantastico if the control panel doesn't have it. It's good so that the people would be able to download any CMS.

PHP and Perl are very similar, I prefer to use Perl when programming something.

If your not familiar with either, use eBooks for learning one or both of them, or use proper books, either one works well.

I have never heard of XPanel? Is that like a newer version of CPanel or something?

If not, use CPanel A lot of hosts have it....then again, CPanel is more for people who know what they are doing, it's not very noob friendly.
I have been using CPanel for a long time, and it has everything you could need

As far as payments, definitely use PayPal! You may also want to consider using EGold, since some are still using it, and are too dumb to realize that PayPal is much better. I hate EGold though, using them is a huge gamble. You're money is in gold, and as the market changes, so does your gold value, meaning you cash will come and go as the market alters... PayPal though is plain money though lol. They are also the most trusted

Alright, first I want to mention that I wanted to do such a project myself, and I had it all planned but I just got busy and then I forgot about it...

Well, about the paying service I think it's best to use paypal because it is secure and cheap compared to other services. E-Gold is rubbish, I hate it.

I recommend using CPanel or XPanel (I am not sure if they are different because I haven't worked with websites since a long time) and try to have Fantastico too because it is very efficient and easy to use by your customers (it will actually save you alot of time in technical support). Also I believe it's best to provide your customers with all scripting languages they need for the sites because some hosts do not provide particular languages and eventually people won't use their service.

As a starter, I think you shouldn't use a huge server, you can start with a simple (but fast) server and then when your business starts running, you can expand your server.

Concerning the security of your server, try using some good firewall and anti-virus, just in case some lamer tries to hack into the server.

Well just want to wish you all the best luck