This is my first post here so please excuse my ignorance

About 2 years ago, I had a basic eCommerce website put together for me based on CRE Loaded. Although I've had the site hosted I've never really done anything with it, mainly because I didn't like the banner etc etc!

It seems that for a complete newbie like me to change the appearance of my site, I'd be best off purchasing a ready made template. Am I right?

Basically, my main business is producing embroidered shirts and other clothing. Although I produce mainly for the motorsport market I don't want to restrict myself to that. I want to produce embroidery patterns for schools, colleges, sports clubs and anywhere where they can use our designs/clothing.

So my question! Where is the best place to look for suitable templates? I've done a quick Google and of course get lots of hits. But rather than running the risk of an expensive mistake, I thought I'd ask here

BTW, my present website can be found at www.stitch-up.biz Maybe I need to be looking for a particular template?

Anyway. thanks for taking the time to read this and any help would be gratefully received.

John

I would suggest something neutral
and do NOT purchase from anything related to or showing level ten on its site
such as the template shop

algozone.com
templatemonster.com
are probably the largest two.. but you get by just having someone customize the new cre63 template.. which would also require you to upgrade/patch up to 6.3/6.4.. which you would want to anyway.. as many security issues and bugs have been fixed since your version

Thanks for the reply Jason

I know I have a lot of learning to do! I did plan on getting 'stuck in' a while back, I even bought Dreamweaver but never found the time!

May I ask, what is the procedure for patching my existing installation? I have setup Dreamweaver's FTP to access my site.

I've had a look at the two template sites you suggested, in fact, I'd come across them before

Again, thanks for the advice.

John

The patching process depends on what, if any, modifications you have made.

from your current patch level, 11, you would need to ftp up patch 12, 13, and 14.. then upgrade to 6.3/6.4
I would suggest just doing the upgrade path to 6.4 (depending on when you purchased it, it may require a purchase) which requires a fresh database.. done in a new folder.. so you have two installs.. the live.. and the dev 6.4 install.. once you have the dev install done to your needs, move it down to replace the existing install (making sure to do full backups first)

I have paraphrased the above.. so depending on your understanding/skills.. it may or may not be something you would want to attempt light-handed

Yikes!

My skills are below basic! I'm definately going to need someone's guiding hand for this part of the process! Is that something I could find on this forum or do I need to use RentaCoder?

Thanks for the info.

John

http://creloaded.org/freelance-market-beta.html
follow peoples sigs
or rent a coder

beware.. rent-a-coder may be cheap.. but you also may run into issues