Web Site Startup ?'s

[dphillips81]

I have been doing a lot of landscape and wildlife photography lately and i have come away with some pretty good images. I have had a lot of intrest from people, other than friends and family, in purchasing prints of my images. So here is my idea, i would like to set up a website that i can use to display my images and pricing, and then would like to eventually get it to the point where i can take orders via the website, and take payments. I would also like to get it to the point where it is as fully automated as possible. I would like for the customer to be able to place the order, pay via credita card, have the order sent to the printer, and then shipped directly to the customer. I don't plan on this being my main source of income right away. I also plan to set up some booths at local events and sell prints there as well. I am also working a deal with a local coffee shop to display and sell my work. So here are my questions...

1. Who is the best site hosting serice out there for photographer sites? I am just in the planning stages so i would like to know who is the best, and also what thing i need to be thinking about when picking where i host my site.

2. Do most of you design the site yourself, or do you pay someone else to desing the site? I am pretty comfortable in the basic layout of the site, but would need some help in the more advanced features, shopping cart, credit card processing, and i would like to have a member sign up area so that i can send out emails when i post new collections.

3. When it comes to having the images printed who do you use? I currently use mpix.com, and they are great, but when they ship the prints are in and mpix.com box. Is their a way that i can have the images printed and shipped directly to the customer, and in a box with my business information on the outside? or should i just have several of each image printed and have them on hand and do the shipping myself? the later just doesn't feel like it makes any sense from a time and cost stand point.

4. As far as accepting payments.. is it ok to just use paypal or google checkout, or is it better to go ahead and get a merchant account with visa/mastercard. I don't know how much business i will be doing right away, so i don't know if the added cost of the merchant account would be worth it to start off.

I am still working on pricing of the different sizes of prints, and have not started on a web design yet. This business idea is in the very very beginning stages and i am just trying to gather all the information i can before i get to ahead of myself.

thank you all in advance for any help you may offer.