Hey guys and gals -

I am starting a small apparel company. I've got my shirt designs mostly done for the introductory shirts. I've got a company "about" section text ready. o I am now ready to start a website. I will want to sell some shirts on it obviously among a few other things.

I would like the site to be professional looking, unique, vintage, and easy to use. My questions.

1. Where is the best place to get the domain name registered and have hosting?
2. What programs/process/whatever is best to use to set up a new site? one that can meet the description above?

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1. IMO- Hosting for a start up company may be somewhat trivial. Many shared hosting plans will work at this time. I like Hostgator personally but don't take my advice, just do a little research within this forum on hosting companies. Just remember that, if your site visitors grow to a large number later, your site will need to a different kind of hosting environment to accommodate a large number of visitors.

2. Judging by your question I will assume you have limited knowledge of web design, therefore, I would suggest an open source CMS(content management system). Though "I" am a Wordpress guy, Drupal or joomla! tend to excel at e-commerce.

These CMS's will have plugns and various templates that make creating a store easier and more affordable. Of course, if you have the funds, I would always suggest hiring a professional to do set up your store. Especially if you want it to be unique looking. That is not usually what templates are for.

Good luck!

If you have neither a domain name nor hosting space it might be a good way to do a search for "all in one" packages which includes site builder, hosting package & a domain name.

Depending on the products amount there are plenty of e-commerce systems you can use: staring with Wordpress + e-commerce plugin & ending with huge systems like Magento.

Wordpress is what has been recommended the most. I don't have much experience with building sites. I made a basic page for my small cleaning business w/fatcow. But it's too template/cheesy/generic. My apparel site needs to be way better looking and cool. I just don't know if this is something I can do or if I'm better off highering someone.

I'd be interested in hiring someone who is good at making cool websites.
let me know your rates and shoot me some examples.