Hey Viv, just a note. My eyes aren't the greatest and I basically can't read much without the old reading glasses. I noticed that you have green rollover links on this page

http://www.deloreanjewellery.co.uk/dies … sting.html

I can't read that green text even with my glasses on.

While the URL does play a part in SEO, don't underestimate the shopping cart software. It does very well in the search engines, especially if you use the SEO tools in the program. Just wouldn't want you thinking you won't rank at all.

To give an example: I had two sites running for some time, one built with another program similar to VSD - a static site, and one built (with a new URL to boot) with Shopping Cart. Within 3 or 4 months, my shopping cart site was outranking my older static site.

So you have to ask yourself if the learning curve, and extra work involved in setting up both a VSD & Cart site is worth it to you. I agree the URLs are a nice advantage, but it depends on how much time you want to put into it.

If you are considering VSD in conjunction, I would suggest looking at the mega pack for $289 on the Home Page. You basically get it, and a whole heap of other useful programs too, for $60 more than the PRO eCommerce pack.

Bren as usual is correct, infact i tried an experiment some time ago, with a VSD site as a stand alone and the identical site with a different url, and a SCCP site attached, The one with the SCCP attached was found quicker in respect of products, and the VSD standalone ranked just below it

Tom interesting point thanks, I cant read any of the text without my glasses, so i had not spotted that

I use traffic lights almost so green denotes go to, red denotes stop on page, original colour or alternative colour to denote page you are at (amber shows really badly so not used)

Thanks for pointing it out, i may try alternatives

Based on those last two comments from Bren and Viv, I am leaning toward the shopping cart alone.
It's very easy and intuitive and does exactly what I need without too much filler.
I have built up a bit up a decent SEO ranking on the search engines with my ebay, zazzle, Facebook and Twitter presences so hopefully that will almost offset anything that VSD would have done anyway.

Thanks again to everyone for helping me get going!

I found you pretty quickly ....

Whichever way you decide to go, I'd try out all the software concerned, as you get fully functional trials (usually 20+ days at least), and then you know exactly what suits your needs. Based on what you've said though, the Pro Cart & Pro Designer (maybe with the Alpha Pro theme which looks quite edgy), and I think you're set.

Although, you still may want to consider the mega pack, as you'd get good use out of at least 3 - 4 other programs in it (sitemapper, contact forms, photo gallery where you could put a complete catalogue of your shirts regardless of whether they're in stock), and you'd get VSD too, to use later on if you want to expand on your site. Good luck with all your decisions.

Yes it's official. The mega pack is what I am going to go with.
It seems to be the most bang for my buck and gives me room to grow...
You guys ROCK!

Good choice Chris.

When you get yourself up & going, try to get your sitemapper on the go, and you can either link it in so it matches with your cart exactly using the HTML Editor (with help from our resident expert Eric), or possibly Viv, paintbrush or Eric can help with how to do it in VSD. The sitemapper has really helped my rankings, and I only submitted it a week or two ago.

Anyway, you've got plenty of time to delve into the other programs, so congrats on your choice.

Cool Bren, sounds like a plan...
Just outta curiosity, how do I find your site(s)?

I don't link my site as CC lock posts after 15 minutes and I don't want it showing in the searches, but if I can contact you (let me know how, ebay?), I'll send you my site link. Mysterious aren't I?

Oh I see... (I think)
Yeah no biggie but when you get a sec just send a message through ebay so I can check out your work.