website for subscription publication

tipptom

Hi,I am working on a hard copy nationwide and NI publication that is nearly ready to go to print that have not got around to a website development.

Bearing in mind that i need the simplist cheapest option at the this time,what would I need and how much to get this so that I can get it running to accept subscriptions and offer a downloadable subscription type leaflet to organisations for a commision for themselves.I would also like to do online polls and customer interactions at a later date on the site.
As you can see my knowledge of this area is non existant so dont be to harsh.

smcelhinney

Talk to Stuart and Martha at woop.ie, they love this stuff ;-)

You might need to look elsewhere for the subscription part though.

tipptom

thanks for the link Mc

tipptom

Their work seems to be online digital,mine is a a hard copy publication,looking for a website vehicle for subscription etc,would not have any online content on the website.

28064212

When you say subscription, do you mean accepting payment and adding users to a database of your subscriptions? What are you currently using to manage your list of subscribers?

tipptom

28064212 wrote: »

When you say subscription, do you mean accepting payment and adding users to a database of your subscriptions? What are you currently using to manage your list of subscribers?

Nothing set up at the moment as nothing published yet as it is a new start up,events are pushing me in to trying to set up earlier than I anticipated.This was the side I was dreading as a complete no nothing as far as IT is concerned.But yes,i need to set up for accepting CC payments and set up a database and anything else that would stream line this end of it.Any suggestions would be appreciated.

28064212

tipptom wrote: »

Nothing set up at the moment as nothing published yet as it is a new start up,events are pushing me in to trying to set up earlier than I anticipated.This was the side I was dreading as a complete no nothing as far as IT is concerned.But yes,i need to set up for accepting CC payments and set up a database and anything else that would stream line this end of it.Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Shopify might be an option. It's more aimed at products rather than subscriptions, but would get you up and running quickly. Or you could go fpr the totally simple option of a one-page website that allows people to put in their contact details, and someone calls them back and takes the subscription over the phone. Only possible for small volumes of course.

Tbh, it sounds like you're right to be dreading it. This falls under the old problem of "Cheap. Fast. Good: Pick two". And considering you have no experience in this area, Good would massively decrease the "Fast" aspect, and Fast would massively decrease the "Good" aspect. The only positive of you doing it yourself is it's Cheap, but there's a very good reason why that's true

tipptom

28064212 wrote: »

Shopify might be an option. It's more aimed at products rather than subscriptions, but would get you up and running quickly. Or you could go fpr the totally simple option of a one-page website that allows people to put in their contact details, and someone calls them back and takes the subscription over the phone. Only possible for small volumes of course.

Tbh, it sounds like you're right to be dreading it. This falls under the old problem of "Cheap. Fast. Good: Pick two". And considering you have no experience in this area, Good would massively decrease the "Fast" aspect, and Fast would massively decrease the "Good" aspect. The only positive of you doing it yourself is it's Cheap, but there's a very good reason why that's true

Yea,i have seen a company that an Irish woman has set up advertised on the the Phoenix magazine that sets up a database and handles subscriptions but i cant remember the name of it.I wonder could I set up a small simple website with a link to a company like this.I am in a catch 22 position at the moment on waiting for funding but am talking to alternative people at he moment and would like to give an impression that i could be up to speed on this side and pay for my site to be built when the business is running if thats possible.I can pm you with the idea if you want,it might explain it better.

omega42

To start it off cheap, you could start by setting up a wordpress site, relativity cheap to buy a decent theme, as far as subscriptions go you could offer it via paypal, the customer sign's up, pay's by paypal and then their detail are emailed to you from the site and you can add it to your subscription database / software. The benefit of this is a cheap solution that will be fully scale-able and with using paypal your subscribers will know its safe.

Be mindful that while you only want a simple site to start of with it still needs to be professional as it is the face of your business online

tipptom

omega42 wrote: »

To start it off cheap, you could start by setting up a wordpress site, relativity cheap to buy a decent theme, as far as subscriptions go you could offer it via paypal, the customer sign's up, pay's by paypal and then their detail are emailed to you from the site and you can add it to your subscription database / software. The benefit of this is a cheap solution that will be fully scale-able and with using paypal your subscribers will know its safe.

Be mindful that while you only want a simple site to start of with it still needs to be professional as it is the face of your business online

That sound like a good idea and could be relatively cheap to set up and manage.My main aim at the start is to not get caught on the hop and be in the embarrasing situation that I cant handle the subscriptions coming in,(and have a "Talk to Joe,there is a scammer out there"plot).Any ideas what sort of fees paypal would charge?.
I would hope to have that type of a website as a stopgap and put some decent money in to a good company website that would show of a professional side to the company shortly after a good sucessfull launch.

Thanks for that advice,much appreciated.

omega42

fee are here

https://www.paypal.com/ie/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-receiving-fees-outside&countries=

As for the cost of the rest, domain name will be about €25 for .ie

you will get hosting for 40-60 euro, as for the site unless you have at least a basic knowledge of web design/development your better of looking at getting somebody to do it for you.

PM me if you want a hand with anything else

Omega