Mr Site - your opinions required

[goldieab]

As I cannot afford to stretch to a fancy website, I'm now looking into Mr Site Pro package. I looked on Amazon and it had mixed reviews. I understand that it is probably basic compared to a web designer type site, but as a small business start up - do you think it is worth it.

I'm finding that my current website provider is not what I need, hence looking for a change.

I also have a logo, which is on my current home page. I was reading that you cannot upload your company logo on to Mr Site - is this true?

Who on this forum has Mr Site and how do you find it.

All comments greatly appreciated, thanks

[mizgeorge]

I love Mr Site. OK, it's not very sophisticated, but it's fine for what I need right now. I'm more than capable (on a technical and design level) of creating an all-singing all-dancing website if I wanted to, but I'd rather spend the time making stuff - I lose enough hours photographing, listing and promoting (which I don't do enough of) without tweaking bits of code too.

You can upload anything you like as your header (presumably within the boundaries of good taste etc .

You only need pro if you're bothered about stock control. If your pieces sell very quickly once you list them, it's probably worth it, but if not, I'd say it probably isn't necessary tbh.

Feel free to ask any specifics you like - I've had mine for over 18 months and I'll be renewing again this year.

[staceyjlew]

I have had Mr Site Pro for a year now, and for me the advantages of Mr Site Pro, is having your own checkout page, rather than going to paypal everytime something is added to the cart - however.... I am just in the process of switching to Do Your Own Site which I feel has many more advantages over Mr Site, and for less money than the Pro version.

In DYOS you can have discount's, more shipping options, and tons more, they also have a 30 day free trial, so might be worth having a go and see what you think before making any decisions.

Unfortunately my site is currently unavailable due to the switchng process (only 24 hours), but will let you know when back up and running so you can have a peek if you like

Stacey

[goldieab]

Thanks for that info.

I was looking at Pro package because it has the Siteboost option - for web optimisation. Also image editor could be helpful, although I do have a program on my laptop that edits photos, so could get away with that one.

I don't think I will ever need more than the 50 pages, I do not require stationery or stock control.

It's the SEO tools that thought I would need to get better ranking in the earch engines - any advice on this one George.

Also I do not know the difference between Paypal Cart and the Advanced Express Checkout??

[goldieab]

In DYOS you can have discount's, more shipping options, and tons more, they also have a 30 day free trial, so might be worth having a go and see what you think before making any decisions.

This is a good point Stacey - I would like the option to add additional items, choose from either an 16" or 18" chain on each item, therefore would need drop down lists. Can you get this in Mr Site Pro??

Also by offering a voucher system and discounts would also be advantageous.

[staceyjlew]

You can have drop down lists and options in Mr site pro and normal I think - but you can't have a blank box for customers to add their own text, for example, I sell personalised cards and want customers to enter their own greeting in a text box - this is not available on Mr Site.

I also thought the layout's and colour options were better on DYOS, but it really depends what you want!

[onlyme]

I also like the look of DYOS better than mr site. The only thing that stops me from having one is I can't seem to transfer my domain name from my freewebs account, which I pay for, grrr!

[goldieab]

Thanks Gail - love your art work and Sugar looks very sweet

[xrheax]

Interesting thread......

Now I aren't sure if I should go to mr site, or go to DYOS, or just upgrade my free webs......

I shall have another look around tonight! I think a 30 day trial is a very good idea though - I am definitely going to try this out!

[ladyluckjewellery]

I've just moved to Mr Site Standard from a site I built myself but had problems with browser compatbility.

Mr Site is great in so many ways, it's easy to use, you don't need to know anything about coding etc and it's pretty self-explanatory in most cases.

The downsides are you are restricted to their templates (although there's a wide choice) and in terms of checkout etc, you are limited to Paypal - which is ok if that's what you want to use, personally I quite like paypal but many don't.

I chose the standard as I didn't feel I needed the extra features from Pro. I'll probably stay with Mr Site for at least a couple of years as I don't really need anything more advanced at the moment.

As for SEO etc, I don't fully understand it anyway, but most of my traffic comes from links from other sites (such as here, Facebook, MISI) or directly with no referring link, so they have quite probably got the address from one of the many cards I leave everywhere I can! Only about 10% of my visitors come from search results, and a lot of those searches were for 'lady luck jewellery' anyay.

HTH.

Claire

[onlyme]

Interesting thread......

Now I aren't sure if I should go to mr site, or go to DYOS, or just upgrade my free webs......

I shall have another look around tonight! I think a 30 day trial is a very good idea though - I am definitely going to try this out!

A word of caution about 'freewebs' or 'webs' as it's now known...upgrading to the starter package only allows you to sell 10 items, and that costs as much as the full DYOS package! If you only want to sell a few items from your webs account, then go for Roman cart - you get 10 free items before you have to upgrade.

[staceyjlew]

Ohh, and that's another thing with DYOS, you can have nochex and google checkout and a few others, all running at the same time as paypal!

[dee_liteful]

I also like the look of DYOS better than mr site. The only thing that stops me from having one is I can't seem to transfer my domain name from my freewebs account, which I pay for, grrr!

Hi Gail,

Let me know how this goes as i am currently having the same issue and would really like to do it myself on DYO. I did the free trial and found it great. But like you i am also paying for my site at present.

[goldieab]

Anyone else with views about Mr Site?

There must be more people who use it.

[Hagar]

Hi
I started using Mr Site standard about 2 weeks ago and found it very simple to set up and work with. Wish I had read this thread and thought about it a bit more before hand and may have gone for the pro version or something else, purely for the different payment options and having a cart instead of going to paypal.
that aside, it will do me for a few years I guess and I am happy that it did not take to many hours to set up, I am no computer whizz so was a bit worried about technical jargon, etc.
There are a few niggley bits (which hubby points out on a daily basis - grrr), but i can live with it for now.