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What Do I Need In My Hosting Package?

Choosing a Web hosting company Consider the size of your web site. The number of pages, what the content will be, if you’ll have images, audio, video, downloads, flash presentations and so on. Factor in additional pages and files as your company grows.

Review the number of visitors your web site generates. If it’s a new site, estimate what kind of traffic you believe you might achieve. Count the number of e-mail accounts required.

Will you need support for e-commerce and database?

How Will I Develop My Web Site?

You have three choices. Hire an in-house webmaster, contract
an outside web design company or choose a web host who offers web design services.

How Do I Choose A Domain Name?

Consider these key elements. Your company name or names with likely keywords your customers will use in a search. This could help your search result ranking. Once you have several ideas, check them for availability. You can choose from .com, .net, .org., .biz, .info, .us, .cc, .bz and .tv and you can register a name in as many extensions there are available. To search for availability, use the domain search on the home page.

You can register the domain name yourself or through your web host. If your web host registers it for you, they usually keep up with the renewal for you.

How Do I Register A Non-US Domain Name?

The process varies slightly from country to country; here are several basic steps you should take.

First, check with the appropriate domain registration agency to verify availability.

Second, check whether the domain registration agency for your country requires an account to be created on your web host servers to proceed with domain registration. If so, order your web hosting before registration. Your web host should give you all the pertinent information including your Web address (IP address) and information about name servers and their Internet addresses. This information is typically required by international domain registration agencies.

You should wait 48 to 72 hours between receipt of your order confirmation from your web host and registration of your domain in order to allow time for the name server information to resolve.

How Long Do I Register The Domain Name And How Will I Know To Renew?

You can visit www.nsregistry.com, enter your domain name and search for the registrar. Once you have this information, you can contact the registrar directly.

I Have A Web Site And Domain Name What’s Next?

You will need to transfer your files to your web host’s server. This done using a File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Ensure you have a copy of all your web site files, including images, audio and video clips and other files on your personal computer prior to the transfer. There are several FTP tools you can use. Work with your host provider to choose one for the smoothest transfer.

Setting Up Your E-Commerce Solutions

One vital E-Commerce component is accepting credit card payments. To do that, you have two choices; set up your own merchant account or have payments made to you through a credit card payment facility. The biggest advantage of setting up a merchant account is you only pay 3% on each credit card transaction you process. The down side is setting up a merchant account costs around $1500 upfront for fees, equipment or software.

Your alternative is to process your payments through a payment facility which will cost anywhere from 6% to 15% per transaction. Depending upon the dollar amount and number of transactions you will be handling, setting up your own merchant account could pay for itself quickly.

Next, think about how users will shop on your site and how you will process their orders. If you are selling a small number of items, you probably don’t need a shopping cart system. If you offer a larger inventory that customers will want to purchase in one transaction, you want to make it as easy as possible for them and that means using a shopping cart.

If you want your ordering system to work in real-time, then your shopping cart system will have to be compatible with your merchant account. If you will only be processing a few orders per day, you may want to
save the additional costs of real-time order processing and process the orders manually. In that case, your shopping cart and merchant account work completely independent of each other and do not have to be compatible.

Compatibility is also an important consideration when choosing your web host. For real-time processing, your shopping cart will have to be compatible with your web host servers. If think likely that you will one day upgrade to a real-time order processing system, you should consider setting everything up initially to avoid additional costs and complications.

With the compatibility issues, it’s easy to see the value in turnkey E-commerce packages offered by some web hosts; especially those of us with limited knowledge or experience with the inner workings of web-based technology. As you consider your options, just remember that “E” should stand for ‘Easy’ for you to manage and your customers to use.

How Do I Set Up A Merchant Account?

To qualify for an Internet merchant account, you must have a checking account with a U.S. bank. If you do not one, many acquiring institutions can assist you. Your acquiring institution must set up your account to use on of the following processing networks:

EDS, First Data Merchant Services, Norwest, Nova, Paymentech, TeleCheck and Vital.

To use Verisign as the software type or the payment gateway, your account must be set up with a bank.

How Do I Know My Clients’ Transactions Are Secure?

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is the common resource used to secure your clients transactions. This easily implemented protocol for transaction security is an encrypted link between your server and your customer’s browser. Once the link is established all communication between your server and your customer’s browser will be confidential. It is essential to any successful business that all customer transactions remain integral and secure.

Most web hosts who offer E-Commerce solutions are SSL Certified.

Do I Need Database Capabilities?

The following types of websites usually rely on information served from a database. A website that allows user customized web pages, automates searching and buying products on-line or has a store locator. Websites that provide customers with historical order reports, product reviews and have password-protected pages; even websites that serve press releases and articles from a corporate archive. This is just a small list. Any site driven by large volumes of information that need to be updated quickly are best done with a database.

What Platform Should I Use?

The main thing to remember is your choice of hosting platform will dictate what applications your website can utilize. The main advantage of Windows is that it is configured to be compatible with Microsoft applications. Windows also allows developers the use of programming environments such as ASP, Visual Basic, MS Index Server and Cold Fusion.

Unix however, is known for its reliability and security. Unix is also designed to integrate with large network systems, while Windows is developed to serve the needs of the individual user or companies.

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