How to Create Your Own Online Store in an Hour or Less

A lot of people own small side businesses which they use to make some extra money. Personally ,I do web-development, for others it might be something like creating wooden furniture, making personalized clothing, doing lawn care, or just about anything. Unfortunately the barriers to moving one's online business is still somewhat high for the non-technical individual. One could fork over hundreds of dollars to a company to set you up an online store, but you can create your own online store in practically minutes! All you'll have to do is pay a minimal fee (if anything) to get your website hosted.

Before we can begin, you'll need to have some sort of web-hosting account (Personally, I use Dream Host), and have a package called Word Press installed. In most modern web-hosting accounts, you can install Word Press with two or three easy clicks. Word Press is actually a piece of blogging software, but can be transformed into a functional and vibrant online store with a few additions.

After you have your hosting and Word Press install ready to go, you'll want to download what's called the WP E-Commerce plugin. This is the piece of software which will run your online store, it's very simple and easy to use. It allows you to create product pages, online order forms, and provides a useful shopping cart. You can find it using a simple Google search. A set of simple installation steps to follow should come with the files.

Before you configure WP-Ecommerce, you'll want to get a PayPal account. This is how you'll receive your payments, they take out a fee, but it's still much more reasonable than anyone else would charge you online.

Once you have WP-Ecommerce installed, you'll need to configure WP-Ecommerce. Click on "Shop Options" in the plug-in and fill out all of the necessary info. You'll need to put in some basic information about who you are and some information about your store. Be sure to go under "Gateway Options" and set your PayPal account to the email address you registered with PayPal, otherwise you might not get paid!