Mimicking Mercola? How to choose ecommerce site/webbuilder the 1st time?

[Samjgd]

To 4HWW community,
I've listened to Tim's book repeatedly in the 6 months and am itching to get my muse off the ground. Seeking help.

My muse idea:
1. Similar to Mercola.com, but targeted towards the college student/grad student market (since these are markets I understand and were until very recently a part of).
a. Have articles on various topics (health, finance, career, stress, studying, etc).
b. Backend (subtly) products that are related to said topic, e.g. an affiliate link to a stress reduction product.
c. Mercola's website is very commercial (not ideal for me), though his free content is (mostly) great.

2. In essence, it's an information-based site, my doctorate and expertise is in human health, physiology, and wellness (I'm a chiropractor with extensive post-graduate education in nutrition, Eastern philosophy and pragmatism, & supplements). I want to share what I've learned but also earn money in an automated way (affiliate programs to products, selling my own CDs, ebooks, password protected portions of the website, etc).
a. Has anyone successfully pulled off a website like this? This is a "finding yoda" question.

3. I'm overwhelmed with the number of options and roads to follow to get this off the ground. Please please please advise on the following, and please do not 'hype' your own products (e.g. Sitesell.com).
a. For the muse I'm describing, which program should I use? Yahoo stores? Sitesell? Google stores? storesonline? others? I have searched this forum and haven't found any bulletpointed comparison to the major websites out there for ecommerce.
b. Please give honest downsides to the above sites, what are the limiting factors based on your experience. Example: people hype sitesell but never give specifics on the drawbacks.
c. How do you incorporate a VA to run your commercial site? Do these ecommerce sites have functions to let another person log in as an administrator so you can track what they are doing in case of a breach?
d. Did I not ask a crucial question I should have asked?

4. Is anyone in Dallas or the surrounding areas (e.g. Irving, TX) that is interested in forming a "Mastermind" group to get our respective muses off the ground?

Thanks in advance,
Samjgd

[Sven]

I had a quick look at mercola. It seems to me that drupal would fullfill all your needs. I had a look at sitesell a while back, It horrifies me...
If you use drupal or another open source system you'll gain experience that goes beyond a system for a fee.

The biggest problem is getting the traffic going, as it is for every website.

Do a search on earlier postings with topics about your questions, alot has been discussed previously.

Good luck!

[Samjgd]

Thanks Sven,

Thank you for checking out Mercola.com.

The only reason I gave Sitesell serious consideration was the entire emphasis on ensuring traffic flow based on content before putting a major website up. Plus I'm not website design-savvy and the idea of having a all-in-one package, even if limited appealed to me, but I am still looking at other options.

I looked at Drupal...fascinating. Will look into it further.

I'll keep combing the posts as I've been doing,

Best,
Samjgd

[webgal]

Has anyone here had actual traffic by putting up a sitesell site? I'm just curious because I have heard that is really not the case but perhaps there is someone who has had those results.