setting up an automated eshop

I personally wouldn't go for a built-in solution from a hosting company but what you use really depends on exactly what it is you want to do? You mention setting it up for downloadable products such as ebooks which is quite easy to do without any expensive add-ons.

When you say in an "automated way" do you mean just for downloads, if so you will probably need a way of protecting your ebook downloads as well. You might be able to use something such as DLGuard which I find very good. It is a paid product and worth the money but as I said earlier it really depends on exactly how you want things set up.

I want a built-in solution that's a simple as possible to build, customize and use where I can sell downloadable products like ebooks and video files.

I want to have everything I need in one place. I want to be able to write a sales page, outlining all that the product offers, with a call to action etc, list my product, put a price and that's that.
I want to be able to do that without fuss.

By automated, yeah I mean automated. I sleep, customer clicks on the product, buys it, pays with paypal, I get the money, he gets the product, and everybody's happy.

Any precise recommendations if anyone knows any, please. Not to be dim, but responses like 'setting up for ebooks is quite easy to do without any expensive add-ons' are not particularly actionable to me.

Thanks for the DLGuard reccomendation, I'll look it up.

I have signed up with 1and1.com for a 30 days free trial at about £ 12 per month. If anyone knows of a better deal please let me know. Although I am on a budget, functionality and ease-of-use over price is important to me

Apologies if it didn't quite make sense? I have sites where I sell products such as ebooks and other downloadable content and I just use Wordpress to create the website and DLGuard to handle the payment, product protection, and delivering the download links.

I used to use 1and1 but changed to Hostgator which I now use for most of my websites. I don't use hosting companies site builders and you can get Hostgator hosting cheaper than £12 month with no long term contract. (I have special 1 cent deal for the first month's hosting with them available for my subscribers).

Feel free to send me a PM or get in touch using the contact details on my site which is in my signature and I can give you some more specific help with what you are trying to do if you like.

You might also want to take a look at something like e-junkie which handles payments, delivery, and affiliates. You have to set your own website up but it's not that hard to do.

the guy above disappeared all of a sudden.....these forums are a total waste of time.....in 2 years I have asked 6 questions and I never received any helpful info whatsoever....never learned anything about anything from anyone here. Warrior forums....LOL....what a big load of crap. I'll just gtfo, at least I save time