Want to create a website myself...

[Bubzeebub]

instead of having to pay exorbitant prices to sometimes unreliable people. I'm thinking of using Yahoo Sitebuilder but wanted to know how OSCommerce was. Is it easy for a newbie (and not very creative) like me to get a professional looking site up? What's the learning curve with Sitebuilder and OSCommerce?

[Bubzeebub]

The thing I notice about the Yahoo Sitebuilder is that I cannot use a full page of text in the template. Some templates only give you a small box in which to add your text and if you have more than that it just overflows without a little navigation arrow to scroll up and down with. Any other ideas?

[Rachel]

Bubzeebub, I knew nothing about php when I went with OSC (did know some HTML). I found a great host who actually encouraged me to call or email her with any questions, and she didn't charge a fortune. That poor woman probably talked to me every other day for the first month, and still is there to help when a more complicated contribution gets me turned around.

So, I'd say find a good host that'll install OSC for you and answer questions if needed, and spend lots of time on OSC's forum. I didn't want the stock OSC look, so I spent quite a bit of time on the site review section looking for original looking sites, seeing which contributions they had installed, and asking how they got certain things done.