"How To Find
The Best Ecommerce Hosting Site
(An Easy-To-Follow Guide) "
"Choosing
The Wrong Host Is
One Of The Worst Mistakes You Can Make.
And Moving To Another One Is A Major Pain!"
So
let's get it right the first time! Here's...
The Quick Way To Narrow The List
24 x 365 Support
24 hours/day, 365 days per year live-human support. The best ecommerce hosting site must offer free unlimited technical support (by email and, ideally, by phone). Test this before you sign up -- email them a tough question. If you don't get an answer within 2-3 hours from calling or emailing, look elsewhere.
Guaranteed Availability
Your site must be up 99+% of the time, or it will cost you more than your monthly Web hosting fee. Ask each potential ecommerce hosting site for a written guarantee on availability. The best ecommerce hosting site will have a clear strategy with significant penalty for exceeding allowable downtimes.
The next two steps involve sites that are already on your potential ecommerce hosting site. You can find them via the ecommerce hosting site's Home Page. If not, contact the ecommerce hosting site and ask for at least 10 sites, then choose 5.
Fast Connection Speed
We have already seen how speed important is. Don't get fooled with all the techno-jargon ("redundant T3s", etc.). Simply see for yourself. Connect to those sites at different times of the day. Ask 2-3 of your friends from a different part of the globe to do the same. Compare with other sites (not hosted by your potential ecommerce hosting site) at the same time.
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Here's a
great online tool by NetMechanic called
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Experience Counts
Call or email the 5 sites that are hosted by your potential ecommerce hosting site. Ask them how they are satisfied with the services of their Web host, how reliable the ecommerce hosting site is, how often the server goes down, etc. Keep your ears open for any dissatisfying answers.
Peering And Mirroring
In case you choose a large, national ecommerce hosting site they should offer peering and mirroring. Peering means that they have more than one high-speed backbone. Your site is delivered with the fastest speed and if the backbone goes down, your site still gets delivered via a different backbone.
A ecommerce hosting site that offers mirroring, puts your site on different servers at different locations. This feature improves accessibility and connection speed internationally.
Now you have the list narrowed down to a few fast and reliable servers and it's time to...
Choose
The Best Ecommerce Hosting Site
That Can Deliver Your Needs
First of all, you need to make a list of your needs from the following...
Virtual Domain
You will want to register your own domain (www.yourcompany.com). Either register it yourself via InterNIC or get your ecommerce hosting site to do it. They must do it in your name and name you as the administrative contact... your domain is yours, after all.
This is really a must. A lot of the, so called, "ecommerce hosting site" will put themselves as the administrative contact which will cause you problems if you decide to switch your ecommerce hosting site...
Email And Autoresponders
You should be able to get at least 5 email POP accounts, and one catch-all account which captures anyotheraddress@yourdomain.com. These help you organize your email to your company and also enhance your image.
Autoresponders are the email equivalent for "fax-back" service. Every time an email is sent to the email address manned by an autoresponder, this autoresponder fires back a response, immediately. You can use autoresponders for basic tech. support, product inquiries, etc. So... if you are planning on setting up such service consider this option to be included in your "best ecommerce hosting site" list of needs.
Secure Server
If you are planning to do business over the net, your ecommerce hosting site must have this. Secure server (SSL) enables your customers to send you a credit card information securely without third party being able to read it. This is really a must!
Real-Time Verification
You have 2 options how to clear credit cards while doing business over the net.
1) You can collect your customer's credit card information and clear it off-line, or...
2) you can take advantage of real-time verification and clear the credit card immediately after the order is submitted. Such service (e.g. CyberCash) must be compatible with your merchant credit card's processing protocols.
In general, the more orders you process a day, the more useful the real-time verification will be. It will save you a lot of time.
Data Transfer Limit
The busier your site, the more data it transfers. Most commercial sites transfer less than 1 gigabyte (GB) per month, so any ecommerce hosting site offering 2 or more GB per month will surely cover your needs.
Storage Space
You will need no more than 10 megabytes (MB) storage space on your server's hard disk... unless you are going to offer 9 MB software for download on your ecommerce Web site, of course!
Access To Raw Log Files And/Or Online Stats
This is a must! Let me repeat this again... This is a MUST! The stats are inevitable for you to know how many people visited your site, where they came from and what pages they have seen, so give the highest priority to this option while looking for the best ecommerce hosting site.
Unrestricted FTP Access
You must be able to manage your site without limitation to number of updates made to your site.
Access To Personal CGI Bin
This is a place where your CGI scripts are stored. CGI scripts are useful programs that run on your server and perform various tasks. (e.g. automatic delivery of customer's order to your mailbox, visitor counter, etc.). Make sure your ecommerce hosting site offers you several off-the-shelf CGI scripts and does not charge more than a minimal installation/configuration fee to install them. You must be allowed to run your own custom CGI scripts, too.
Shopping Cart Software
Depending on the number of items you will be selling, you may need this. Your ecommerce hosting site must either offer a shopping cart solution that meets your needs, or it must be able to install the shopping cart software of your choice. Don't choose an ecommerce hosting site whose shopping cart does not measure up.
Database Support
If you have a large catalog sales site or you are planning to retrieve data from a large bank of information, consider this option in your list of needs.
Bells And Whistles
Streaming Audio/Streaming Video (Real Audio/Real Video), Chat Software, Front Page Extensions, Platform preference (Unix, Windows NT, Mac OS), telnet access, Web-Based Control Panel are all tools that can be of an advantage to you. Ask your techie if you should consider one for your Web site.
Payment Methods
It should offer credit card or monthly/quarterly/annual billing.
Web Development Services
Not a must, especially if you are happy with who you are currently using.
Now, once you have made your list of needs...
Email Your List
Of Needs To Your
Ecommerce Hosting Site Finalists
Ask if they can deliver. Choose the one who responds the fastest and best. If they answers are poor or slow at this time, it will only get worse after you sign with them.
Choosing the best ecommerce hosting site is one of the most important steps on your way to start a successful online business.
But that's not all!
You will also need to build your ecommerce Web site. If you don't know how to do it, you must learn it, or hire somebody that can do it for you.
Now you have your ecommerce site built, but you have no visitors. Again, either learn how to master the search engines or hire someone that can market your ecommerce Web site to bring you visitors.. I tell you from my own experience... it's a lot of hard work and time to do it on your own and it's extremely expensive to hire somebody to do it, but...
...don't despair!
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There is a solution called Site Build It! It is currently the only one of its kind on the market. Site Build It! is the unique all-in-one ecommerce hosting system of tools that will help you build your own professional, profitable ecommerce site and attract targeted visitors from around the world. Best of all... zero programming or design knowledge/experience is needed to work with Site Build It! This is the first time you can focus on business, not on technology...
Check
out Site Build It!,
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