I have seen literally hundreds of online stores put together by kids, brothers-in-law and much worse, people selling site building services that were just plain horrendous! And in some cases Mom, or whoever, would innocently even come on the forums and suggest that others use the same person to build them a lousy site.

I also read many sad stories from people who had spent thousands of dollars on sites that even after several years on the net had produced few, if any, sales. I can't help but feel sorry for folks like that. I've also seen story after story about people using the "free sites", Yahoo stores, eBay stores and other "out of the box" sites, often with poor results.

For a couple of years I thought how it would be a good thing to offer an entry-level online store building service with an affordable hosting package. It was never anything I went out of my way to develop, since I had no experience in the hosting business and was not interesting in learning. So, everything just stayed in the back of my mind.

Then in the fall of 2006 two things happened. One, I read an article about out-sourcing or contracting parts of any business to make the business better than it would ordinarily be. Get experts in the different areas to contribute to the overal whole business. And about the same time I found a hosting service offering Lifetime Hosting, a new concept to me.

So, I started putting things together in by now the middle of my head, having moved things up from the back. An experienced hosting operator with a great pricing package and the ability to handle server support issues. Step number one was to convince him to set me up where I could sell his product in a way that I could make some money. So, I got together with him and worked out an agreement that works well for both of us.

I had gotten into the hosting business, without being in the hosting business and I had a dependable support team behind me. But, while I could probably make some money just selling hosting (as I do), that did not satisfy the real reason behind my thinking - helping newbies and those on a tight budget get into online selling. That took another couple of steps.

As some visitors here are aware, I have been running a forum for folks who buy from a large wholesale dropshipper. It's for members only, many of whom have little or no experience on the internet. Around the first of 2007, my time was running out on the server where I was hosting the forum, and I wanted to move it to my Lifetime Hosting account. And I got some help from a forum member. And I needed it. I am a Super-User of the net, but not a nuts and bolts guy, at all.

He has since agreed to handle the setup of the free shopping carts we have. And do the ongoing work where clients want us to help with the upkeep of the carts. This is an option we offer, but do not require. Another one of my stumbling blocks had been removed.

And while all of the free carts we offer have a number of "skins" or "templates" to change the look of the sites, I knew some people would want custom designed sites. So, I have found a site designer who is willing to do custom designs where clients are not satisfied with the avaialable templates.

Now, it's ready to go. No great grand opening. Just word of mouth to get us started. Coming soon will be an affiliate program, where current clients can get paid for sending new clients to us. At this point, the site is not totally complete, so we are not doing a lot of promotion. Just taking things as they come, which is doing quite well.

That idea has moved fully from the back of my head to the front of my thoughts. My reasons for going into the business are the same, and with the prices we have, it is not an instant retirement plan. It truly is what I intended from the start - inexpensive, good quality hosting and low cost, hold-your-hand shopping carts for newbies and experienced online business people tired of paying and paying and paying forever more.

Pete Sonon