Getting Your Business On-Line

Starting a business on the web is not easy, so we have stepped up to the plate to help you get your business up and running successfully on the Internet. Our services range from acting as a consultant to taking full responsibility for making sure that your business on the Internet is operating properly.

The following is a list of things to consider while getting your business on line.

Step 1: Find a Domain Name
Find the perfect domain name for your business. It is getting harder and harder to find a good domain name in the .com and .net arena. New top-level domains have become available such as .biz or .cc that you may want to consider. Click here to search for and procure that perfect domain name.

Step 2: Build The Site
Whether you build your site yourself or need to outsource it, with our help, you can find all the tools necessary build an e-commerce site. We offer a world class shopping cart that you can base your new business on. Take a tour of the shopping cart before making a decision. Compare the features of this cart to those of shopping cart software like Miva and see how superior it is.

Step 3: Find a Host
Find the perfect Web site Host that can handle your business growth. Not all hosts are created equal. A host like Yahoo is fine if you are doing a personal website or do not care about the performance of an ecommerce site. Some of these large hosts will not provide all the resources necessary to run your ecommerce business. Others put as many as 1000 sites on a single server. Here at Hosttec, we monitor our servers for performance. The number of sites that we put on a server is based on load levels that the server runs at, rather than numbers of websites. This will equate to somewhere between 100 and 170 websites per server.

Step 4: Accept Payments
In order to do business on the web and sell products or services on the web, you need to have a way to accept payment. This is commonly done through the use of a merchant account that connects up with your shopping cart and allows you to accept credit cards. Another method of accepting payment is through a company named PayPal. This method is an easy way to get started but does not enjoy the acceptance that a merchant account has. If you wish to do business using a merchant account, we have researched one that appears to be the best deal for startups and has a great acceptance rate.

Step 5: Secure the Site
Before you can accept credit cards, you need to consider the security of the payment transaction. When customers are placing an order on your on-line store, during the payment process, they will be looking for that little padlock that appears in the bottom right browser bar. This padlock signifies that you are who you say you are and that the credit card information is being encrypted while it is being sent across the Internet.

The way that this is accomplished is to purchase a secure certificate from a trusted source that verifies who you are during the process of issuing the certificate. We offer 3 different levels of certification as described here.

Step 6: Maintain the Site
As time progresses, you will find the need to make changes to your web site and your store. You are not left alone in this quest for change and perfection. We will be happy to assist you in doing as much or as little work as you need to have done for you, all at reasonable rates.

Step 7: Keep Customers
Keeping in touch with your customers during the purchase phase is important. We offer a free live helper chat program that will allow you to communicate with your customer during the sale. Other reporting software is available to track where your visitors are entering and leaving your site.