So I'm REALLY getting started, and getting lost, so I figured I'd go here for a little help, see what you guys think.

I have a small side business, sells maybe a few hundred dollars worth of stuff a month (mostly on ebay). I wanted a web presence about a year ago. So I found something cheap that I could just get up and going, and went with GoDaddy. Got a basic website, cost a few hundred dollars, with a very basic eCommerce platform. Godaddy is cheap, which is fine, but I'm limited in the number of pages I can have without upgrading, which doesn't make much sense to me. My ecommerce is limited to 20 items, which hurts me, but $120 a year is more than the site is currently generating in income (since most, if not all, sales are small and ebay basic now), it doesn't make sense to upgrade to $240 or $400 a year to get a better ecommerce account with GoDaddy. My subscription with them is set to expire in January, so I'm looking at options.

My 9-5 job is with a lawfirm that just decided to overhaul their website. Since I'm one of three members at the firm under the age of 50 (and one of 4 under the age of 60) I was put in charge of the website. We found a developer that got us set up (designed, hosted, seo incorporated site) for a good chunk of change. Now the site is turned over to me. It's a DNN system. After playing with this system, I really like what it can do. And it appears that a DNN system wouldn't have the page limitations that my current GoDaddy account has. And the ecommerce platforms I've seen as tie ins to DNN doesn't have limitations on items, which is a big perk. So I'm thinking of switching my current website to a DNN site.

And here is where I get lost.

I think I need to get the site hosted somewhere (GoDaddy, or somewhere else, don't really know), and install DNN, then get going. But I have no idea what I should be doing, or where I should be going with this. Everytime I start looking, I find a tutorial that is in hebrew to me (talking about SQL Servers, CSM something, or some other unknown set up to me). Or if it's not in hebrew, they want me to buy something. I don't want to pay for something, only to find out I have to pay more later, and then end up a few hundred underwater. Take GoDaddy for example. I tried to find a DNN interface on their website, but they said I need to have it hosted first (which I thought it was, since it is on their website, don't really understand). Hosting with them will cost $108.68 for the first year, but if you act right now it's only $53.34! But that's the hosting, and I have no idea if DNN then costs something, and then the ecommerce platform after that. Just a little lost.

Using DNN is the easy part for me. Getting to the point where I can use it is hard.

Is there any simple, basic tutorials about starting a site using DNN that I can use? Or about going from one of those off the shelf companies (like GoDaddy's sitebuilder) to a more involved DNN system?

Or am I spinning my wheels and I'm better off keeping it as a GoDaddy sitebuilder type system?

Obviously, any help is appreciated.

dnn4less.com offers a 100 a year plan that will give you a dnn based portal setup and ready to start working with.  They do all the setup and config work for you .

PowerDNN.com offers a 20 a month plan that last i checked come with smithcart or revindex storefront ecommerce tools pretty much ready to use.

On either platform - your only limits on page size or products is the amount of storage space - both come with 1gig of storage which should be enough for most sites you could envisage.

Personally i prefer powerdnn - their support is fantastic but - have also heard good things about dnn4less.

Either way - they look after the complexities of setup and hosting - you worry about your content and layout etc.

Westa

Justin, you can also start first aon a local System to get all how you net it on DNN.  Dnn if self is ready to extend by any ecomerce module that are availible on the forge or the dnn shop.  So you have to look what module covers your need.  Same is with any Hosting Provider.  PowerDNN is a Company that worked spezialy on DNN and you can get some Support from them too.  DNN if self will work on all DNN Hosting with Windows 2008, SQL 2008 Database .Net 4.x and above.

I can not suggest what you should do first, I have no Input of your needs, but If I have no idea how I go on, personaly I starting with a local test Environment.  It can easyly migrated a live System if you have Access to upload the DNN files and the dnn SQL Server database to the production environement.