I've purchased software over the years as I felt I could afford to invest in it. I have no idea where to even start and with what program. I'm a single mom trying to make a living selling some things from home, and I need to create a store for people to look at the things I have for sale, order them and pay for them.

So far I have bought some themes (photo gallery, responsive editor, shopping cart, visual designer, web form builder) and I'm still as clueless as when I started.

I'm older, and didn't learn computers in school. I have taught myself everything I know and I feel I am pretty computer literate. I have searched and searched online for tutorials to show me what to do with all this stuff, and which order they need to be uploaded. I've registered and paid for a website for the next two years - the last year I paid for came and went with nothing being done with it so please, can you point me toward something that is going to make some of this a little easier to figure out. I'm not in the financial position to have someone build this for me or I would have done this already. Bonus factor, perhaps, if I learn how to do this maybe I can make a few dollars designing a few (just kidding).

I don't know if you would want to look through the programs and PDF books etc that I have bought but maybe that would give you an idea of what stuff I should be starting with. Thanks for any prodding in the right direction you might be able to give me. At this point I'm feeling frustrated and stupid.

Actually, were you offering tangible goods (goods that need to be shipped) or Digital Download goods (goods that a buyer needs a download link for) ??

If you are just looking to take orders for tangible goods, then all you need is the shopping cart. Users can browse your products and place orders, paying through paypal. You would then ship the product to the customer.

Of course, themes are nice. To edit a theme you would need the Shopping Cart Designer. Both the Cart Creator and the Designer come in standard and pro versions. Pro being more flexible. This cart would act as both your web page and shopping cart. Lots of folks here to help you get started.