How to start a web-based business?

chemistry_geek

chemistry_geek

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I've been thinking about starting a web-based business. I have a product to sell, but I don't know what software to get. I'd like a customer to be able to come to my website, read about the product, view the products, purchase them online through credit card transactions, and have the software keep track of inventory, and financial matters (income, taxes, shipping charges, etc...). Does this software run on Mac OS X? If so, where can I get it? I'm not interested in hosting a web forum, so software like that here on MacOSX.com is NOT needed, but I need to have the software show a line of products similar to the responses to threads. Another question is how do I get the major search engines to put my website up near the top when someone types in my product name?

Also, I need to have the web page look elegent, simple yet stylish. I had a business before selling the product, but traveling to distribute the product to different locations was difficult having a full-time job. I'm envisioning a business where UPS or FedEx can come by and make the pick-ups and drop-offs.

Also, any hardware recommendations? Hard drive space? DSL? Cable? T1?

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.
 
Here's a link for you to osCommerce...http://www.oscommerce.com/

Here's their description...
osCommerce is an online shop e-commerce solution under on going development by the open source community. Its feature packed out-of-the-box installation allows store owners to setup, run, and maintain their online stores with minimum effort and with absolutely no costs or license fees involved.

osCommerce combines open source solutions to provide a free and open e-commerce platform, which includes the powerful PHP web scripting language, the stable Apache web server, and the fast MySQL database server.

With no restrictions or special requirements, osCommerce is able to run on any PHP3 or PHP4 enabled web server, on any environment that PHP and MySQL supports, which includes Linux, Solaris, BSD, and Microsoft Windows environments.
Click to expand...


I haven't used it yet but plan to in the future, seems like a nice piece of software. They have some links to sample sites in there.
 
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