Who is iPage?

When it comes to cheap web hosting, few names get chucked around quite as much as iPage does. The company has long been an industry leader when it comes to feature-rich, low-budget, and customer-service studded hosting experiences. The company has been pushing boundaries for more than a decade now, providing a unique focus on the consumer and their needs.

As stated on the company’s about page, iPage knows “… web hosting and the typical hosting customer, which means we know there is NO typical hosting customer. That’s why iPage offers a great deal of flexibility, without overcomplicating things.” It’s a brilliant summary of the services and tone offered by the company, as their main goal is first and foremost to get the average Internet user online without much fuss, and with the best possible set of tools to ensure the success of their site. We noticed a few important areas in which iPage really set an example for the market, and it’s there that we’d like to start the review.

First and foremost, iPage offers an unparalleled focus on the eMail side of web hosting. With all of the sites we’ve hosted over the years, we’ve never been more focused on any one aspect than we are with our eMail. It’s the lifeblood of our business, a fact iPage well understands. According to the company’s website, they perform thorough and studied tests of the eMail performance within their infrastructure, ensuring that each and every piece of mail arrives intact the moment it’s been transmitted. We can’t speak highly enough about this, as there’s nothing worse than losing a client’s necessary complaints to the Gods of Lost eMail.

Additionally, iPage also appears to offer quite the focus on security, including active and daily malware scans designed to protect your data. This also includes spam scanning of your email, and domain verification to prevent fraud. All in all, they appear to know what they’re doing when it comes to initial customer peace of mind.

On another note, iPage is one of the few hosting providers to have fully jumped onto the green hosting bandwagon. Their energy output is matched and exceeded by a rate of 200%. Additionally, the company also makes it easy for eCommerce users who sign with one of their hosting plans to advance and market their own green campaign. In essence, the company has proven its own eco-minded focus, and is now eager to share that focus with its users.

The Marketplace and Packages

However, all of this is paper-based speculation. Sure, iPage could say just about anything they want to get customers! So what sort of concrete packages does the hosting provider offer those who are willing to give them a test-drive? It’s a valid question, and one we’ll dive into right here, right now.

In a manner similar to other user-friendly web hosting providers like FatCow, iPage has decided to simplify the process of choosing and acquiring features by segregating the various utilities available to a Marketplace. This market houses all of the additional options one can purchase to compliment or otherwise enhance the basic shared hosting experience. There’s an entire host of by-payment options, including site backup and restoration, as well as an entire bevy of free options too. In the latter category, you’ll find a $75 Google AdWords voucher alongside a top-notch site builder. However, the real meat and potatoes of the marketplace begins with the specific hosting packages offered by iPage. The first of which just happens to be:

The Personal Website

Nine times out of ten, it seems the average user looking to get a place on the Web is in fact just that: The average user. Someone who wants to own a personal blog or other Internet enclave to which they can live out their Net-enabled dreams. iPage understands this desire to a T, and as such, has compiled an incredible list of features to help the user get their data online. This includes the simple creation of eye-catching HMTL eMail newsletters to spread the word about the personal site, as well as the intuitive creation of eMail lists. There’s also the option to track the success of your Internet campaign by way of included analytical tools.

If you’re looking to start up a blog, iPage makes that easy, as well! They offer full support for popular softwares like Drupal and WordPress, allowing you to more simply create a place for your thoughts and favorites on the Web. To top it all off, you’ll also get site backups and restores in one, handy tool. This features costs an additional $13 a year, but at that price, it’s still quite the bargain for peace of mind.

The Business Website

Earlier, we said nine times out of ten those looking to get onto the Web are interested in a personal website. And though we tend to think that’s true, we’d be willing to say another 50% are looking to found an Internet-based business—don’t ask us about the math, it was never our strong suit! However, no matter the idea behind the need, iPage offers just as good a business package as it does a consumer-based, personal one. Let’s hit-up the details below.

First and foremost, if you’re looking to create an eCommerce or other such business site on the Web for the first time, you’re likely feeling a bit put-out where the design of your content is concerned. iPage understands the desire for ready-made content that’s custom-tailored to your needs, and as such, is offering a full suite of design and marketing tools. These run on a sliding scale basis, and are capable of covering just about any design need you may have. Don’t want to hire an expensive firm to take care of your site creation? Just use iPage, the same company that’s also willing to host and manage your media.

As with the personal hosting plans, iPage also makes it easy for the business consumer to create, manage, and propagate eMail campaigns and marketing lists. This means you can easily reach your consumers where they are with special offers and promotional tools, as needed. For the same $13 mentioned earlier, you can also add daily site backup and restore to your account, forever securing the uptime and presence of your Website on the Internet.

eCommerce Solutions

Lastly, iPage offers a full bevy of tools and utilities aimed at the eCommerce user, wether or not they’re already using a business website account. For those not in the now, eCommerce simply means “online shopping cart,” or any other utility designed to help consumers sell and move products on the Web.

iPage makes this complicated process simpler by first and foremost offering an entire suite of comprehensive tools. This starts with the easy addition of credit card payments through iPayment, and also includes a free shopping cart utility. Both of these streamline the process of creating an online store to the umpteenth degree, and as with the other two packages, site restore and backups are only $13 a year away. All in all, the iPage Marketplace appears to offer just about everything one could need to get a website up and running.

Additional Products and Services

However, iPage doesn’t stop providing there! The company offers an whole host of other products and services to help you create the best possible web hosting experience. It’s one heck of a long list, and in the interest of time, we’ll do our best to keep things brief. So for the quick run-through, jump on down beyond the colon:

Domain Services: iPage will register your domain, protect it with domain privacy utilities, or even transfer an old domain left at another provider. They also offer full support for subdomains, should you need to create a few under your main heading. And when it’s time to renew your lease, iPage will handle this automatically.

eMail Services: In addition to the offers we’ve already covered, iPage will also provide you with full Microsoft Exchange support, should you desire it. There’s also mobile services support, in case you’re looking to take your Microsoft emailing experience on the go. You can also access your accounts with PoP.

eCommerce Services: Looking to secure your site, raking in the hesitant customers with the sheer force of your site’s guarantee? No problem! iPage offers both QuickSSL Premium and Extended Validation SSL to handle your certification needs.

Scripting and Site Add-Ons: Need more storage further down the road? No problem! iPage allows you to upgrade your bandwidth and disc space and any point in time, without hassle.

Marketing Services: This is a big one, so stick with us. As we’ve already mentioned, iPage will handle the design and marketing of your website, should you wish to not tackle these things yourself. However, the provider will also search engine optimize your site, whether they’ve created or not. Additionally, they’ll give you $75 USD in Google AdWord’s credit, submit your site to local searches, provide you with a fair amount of Yahoo search credits, and help you get your venue up on YellowPages. They even offer content distribution options for those needing to expand into other markets in a hurry.

The Hosting Plans Themselves

Just to recap, so far we’ve looked at a few of the ways in which iPage is prepared to get you online quickly through the use of various packages and services. These have all been pretty cool, but if you’ve been in the business long, we’re willing to bet you’re somewhat anxious to hear about the actual plans themselves. We understand your pain, Cowboy, and we have no intention of keeping you at bay any longer. To see the full specs and run-through on iPage’s hosting plans, check below just beyond the break.

Personal Shared Hosting

Believe it or not, iPage actually offers quite a few unique hosting plans. Again, their model tends to look a bit more like FatCow’s, allowing users to pick the basic plan that meets their needs, and then add services on top of that. And the most basic of plans is of course the iPage Essential Plan, or personal shared hosting option. How low is the price on this bad boy? Unbelievably low if you ask us! For only $3.50 a month, you can enjoy all of the features iPage is offering and then some. What are those features? you might be asking.

Well, to kick things off, iPage will give you unlimited disc space, transfer and bandwidth, domains, and even MySQL databases just for signing up. That’s not that big of a deal though, as it seems like every shared hosting provider and their grandmother is providing unmetered accounts these days. So what else is here?

With each shared personal hosting account, you’ll also get a free drag-and-drop site builder, literally hundreds of site templates, a personalized domain name for free, and even a blogging set-up wizard to get your solipsistic Web journal live quicker. As we’ve said already, you’ll also benefit from a whole load of Google AdWords credits, as well as free listing on local search sites. eMail accounts are pretty full too, offering unlimited emails listed as you@yourdomain.com. You’ll also enjoy email forwarding, auto responders, customizable spam filters, and virus checking. And again, we feel we should mention that by signing with iPage, you’ll be getting all of this at less than the single cost of a Starbucks latte per month—it’s almost too good to be true.

Blogging Hosting Plan

Do you feel like you’re just not quite ready for the full commitment of a dedicated site? Do you not care about additional features like marketing campaigns, email lists, or even drag-and-drop site builders? If so, iPage is ready to hit you with a plan of your own. The company doesn’t just offer personal hosting, but blogging-based hosting as well. The best way to think about this is package is as a streamlined edition of the plan we previously mentioned. At only $25 a year, you’ll get a free domain name, your choice of popular blogging softwares, a full load of photo gallery software, and even 10 eMail accounts to communicate with the world. You’ll also get a few extras, such as enhanced security utilities, a SubmitNet listing for SEO purposes, and of course, support for blogging tools like WordPress and Drupal. All in all, $25 a year is a brilliant way to get online with a blog without ponying up the money for an expensive and dedicated hosting plan.

Reseller Hosting

But what if you want to do just the opposite? What if you’ve been running websites for a while now, and are completely ready to bite the bullet and jump into the game yourself? If you’ve been considering becoming a web hosting reseller, iPage is ready to help you do so. In fact, iPage offers simply one of the best packages we’ve seen in terms of reselling value anywhere. And at $49.95 a year, it’s really quite the bargain, too.

iPage has dubbed their reseller program the WholesalePlus Program, and we have to admit that wholesale is the best way to think about it. each account comes with a robust suite of marketing and management tools, giving you the maximum amount of control over the chunk of server you’re leasing. You’ll also get full access to iPage’s technical support to help iron out those issues that creep up, as well as one of the industry’s most powerful reseller consoles. Add to this a private name server, as well as a 30-day money back guarantee, and you’re looking at a very solid reseller hosting experience—especially where price is concerned.

The Customer Support

Last on the list, we’ll be exploring the customer service experience offered by the company. If you’ve ever had your website hosted before, you’re likely familiar with the fact that things just inevitably break. We have never had a truly flawless shared hosting experience, and we don’t expect to, either. As such, there’s really almost nothing quite as important as a company’s technical assistance and support. So what’s iPage packing under the hood?

First and foremost, you’re more than welcome to reach an iPage representative at any time, whether you choose to do so through traditional telephone lines, or by way of live chat. The company is around 24/7, and promises to respond quickly and efficiently to any requests. If you’d like to talk about sales, feel free to go ahead and give them a call now: Their number is 877-472-4399. Want to ask for support for your existing iPage account? Call 877-472-4399.

However, the support iPage offers isn’t just limited to human interaction. The company also boasts one of the largest and most comprehensive community-driven resources we’ve ever seen. First and foremost, you can check the knowledge base for any common problems you may encounter during your hosting experience. Secondly, there’s general website help and domain help to pick through, as well as help on email. All of these offer robust and detailed articles either explaining common mistakes, or providing immediate ways to troubleshoot and fix your site’s errors.

The iPage Help center is located at http://www.ipage.com/support/.

The Final Word

So there you have it! We’ve looked at all of the features, all of the plans, all of the services, and even at some of the technical support offered by iPage. However, we have yet to talk about the final word: The customer reviews and roundups. According to the company’s testimonials page, iPage appears to be cleaning up across the board. Their technical support has been lauded as some of the best in the business, while users also appear to enjoy the stellar service. iPage has also received a lot of attention for its green initiative. As such, we’re willing to call iPage a solid looking host, and perhaps a company worth looking into for your next shared hosting experience.

However, we can never be sure. Taking a look at some of our iPage customer reviews, it appears iPage may have some serious problems to work out. It appears the unlimited plan may not be quite as limitless as so many of our readers had hoped, while technical support runs the gambit from being applauded right down to being blamed as perhaps the worst in the industry. We’re also seeing reports that the company has had troubles processing payments, accidentally charging their customers incorrectly: An aspect that’s an heavy dealbreaker for us.

All in all, just be safe with your web hosting decision, consider some of the other heavyweight contenders we tend to favor, like Web Hosting Hub, InMotion Hosting or FatCow. All of them offer similar benefits, prices, and features, and though they tend to have their detractors too, we’ve got solid experience with them. However, if you do decide to sign with iPage, let us know how the experience goes here! Tell us if you love them, hate them, or just haven’t got an opinion yet. We’ll, of course, be willing to share your pain or joy with others.

More information: http://www.ipage.com.

Read our iPage customer reviews.

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InMotion Hosting (www.inmotionhosting.com) features one of the most unique advantages in shared hosting we’ve ever seen. The company offers data centers located at centralized West Coast and East Coast locations, each with specific “Max Speed” zones for optimized uploading and management speeds. Because of this unique server placement, users of InMotion Hosting can enjoy server speeds up to six times those of the provider’s competitors.

In addition, the company also features a unique software management system to work alongside its hardware set in the form of peer-based networking. InMotion uses the strength of many servers working in a combined manner to increase up-time, improve stability, and solidify connection speeds along the higher end.

We’re also enamored with InMotion Hosting’s affordable business and eCommerce-minded pricing schemes. The provider’s monthly rates with eCommerce support start at only $7.95 a month, before topping out at $13.95. Even at such a low price, users are free to benefit from six distinct websites, up to 26 domains (as well as 100 subdomains), 50 MySQL databases, and 2,000 free FTP accounts.

Users are also unrestricted by data limitations, as InMotion Hosting’s plans support unlimited disc space, email accounts, bandwidth, and website hosting across the board. This means eCommerce users will never have to worry about scalability during high-demand periods like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and holiday sales.

InMotion is also industry-ready with full support for major coding environments and languages. Dynamic web application development with eCommerce in mind is a cinch with full support for Adobe Dreamweaver, as well as WordPress. InMotion Hosting also comes with ready-to-roll support for Perl, PHP, Javascript, and HTML.

Lastly, InMotion Hosting was selected as “Best eCommerce Host” for offering 24/7, toll-free tech support that can be reached by both traditional land-lines, as well as via the Internet. The company provides stellar tech support that’s competent and field ready, making it a bargain solution for small eCommerce businesses and large operations alike that would rather not have to worry when problems arise with their digital storefront.

If you’re looking for a cheap, comprehensive, and unrestricted way to host your eCommerce site, InMotion Hosting is the most cost-effective way to go, bar none.

Visit http://www.inmotionhosting.com for more information.

Read InMotion Hosting customer reviews.

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Now and then, though, we see something that reminds us that we can take a step back and look at some bigger picture.  We typically refer to this as a “sign of the times.”  In browsing there some recent tech news I caught up with some of the newest information about the latest product from Amazon, the Kindle Fire.  In reading the early reviews of this device, I realized that this is a great example of this phenomenon.  The Kindle Fire is the coalescence of many modern web trends all shoved into a single new device.

Here’s a rundown of this new toy’s features, and why it’s a good reflection of the World Wide Web, circa 2011.

It’s a tablet.  Stop there.

When was the last time there was a new desktop PC that was released to such fanfare that it took the tech world by storm?   I honestly can’t remember myself.   More get released than we can keep track of, and they all draw collective shrugs, even as we continue to gobble them up.

When a new portable device of almost any kind is released now, though, it’s like watching a old-style carnival where crowds rush back and forth in swarms between new attractions.  Then what follows from it is a scrambling of analysis and IT reshuffling, as the rules for how things were done before get altered by the specifications of this new interface.

Web browsers as integrated components of E-commerce

 Gone, it’s starting to seem, are the days of web browsers simply existing to allow users of all platforms to browse all web sites with the greatest of ease.  Former love affairs like Netscape and then Mozilla existed because of programmers who looked at the browsers that came before them and saw how they could make them better.

Such is not the case with Amazon Silk, the browser built into the Kindle Fire’s Android-based operating system.  Programmed into it are features specifically designed to work with Amazon, or its Kindle, or both.  In fact, at least as of right now, Silk exists only on the Kindle Fire.  However, some commentators have found reason to believe that this might be a test run.  If the Silk gets a strong enough reception, it’s reasonable to believe that Amazon might use this as a launching pad to get this browser into other more popular operating systems.

It’s important to recognize what this means, if so.  It means that a retailer is using the technology of a new device to push a new browser to devices outside of it: a new browser that, in turn, was created to drive more customers their way.  So you might someday be on FaceBook, mention a movie, and get a free trial download suggested to you by Silk on your PC because of this device designed to get people to buy more books.

To try to put this into perspective, this would be like Walmart, instead of making you want to shop there more, designing cars that are specifically engineered to make driving to their store easier, and then that technology making it into cars that had nothing to do with Walmart in the first place.  Some might argue that Microsoft already pulled this trick with their Internet Explorer.  It’s not a bad example but Amazon being a non-IT-based (i.e. “old economy”) company at its core, this analogy doesn’t match up that well.

The cloud eats everything!

There’s more.  Silk is designed to be what Amazon calls a “split browser.”  What they mean by this is that some of the browser’s more processor-intensive functions get farmed out to Amazon’s Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2).   Amazon’s EC2 isn’t entirely new, with 5 years of development behind it, and Amazon has already integrated this technology into other facets of their business.

Putting it directly into their new browser, however, represents one of the most invisible forms of cloud computing yet.  This may seem little, but it quietly signifies that we’ve crossed a threshold in how we handle even the most basic computing tasks.  The immediate reason for the development is that, by sending out computing tasks that take some muscle, your device can cut down on the amount of processor time per request, and thus extend its battery life.

Here is the larger point.  As cloud technology integrates itself into our computing world on continually smaller computational task levels, computing devices and their associated programming languages are going to have to increasingly take into account the possibility that the requests they are serving are not local.  This signifies a whole lot of seismic information technology changes, not the least of which is the potential for a whole new generation of security issues.  This might be why one user described the Silk as being about as “secure as a bathroom stall without a door”.

Spending money to make money – the next generation

Still, that probably won’t stop those lining up to buy it given the Fire’s aggressively low price of $199 per unit.  This blows away a lot of the related devices that consumers might choose this over.

There is something important to note in this low price, though: it’s lower than the manufacturing cost by about $50.  Amazon is outright expecting to lose money on each Fire sold.  In turn, they’re expecting to gain that much more from the extra sales of digital media that this new tablet will push.

It shouldn’t take an economic genius to divine all sorts of fascinating conclusions from this bold marketing play.  Here’s the most obvious one we get out of it.  This is the strongest proof yet that the move towards making digitally downloadable media a viable long-term economic model, which was the point of the original Kindle in the first place, has proven successful.  Amazon couldn’t have made such a daring move as this without a room full of number crunchers displaying charts that showed just how much they were sure they’d recoup.  This makes the release of both the original Kindle and the Fire a major event in the piracy/intellectual property wars, itself another important modern battlefield.

A sign … but of what?

Before we betray too much excitement here, let’s be clear and state that we can’t tell just yet where this is all going.  Especially with the huge price gamble that Amazon has taken with this device, it’s not impossible that, before all is said and done, the Kindle Fire will go the way of New Coke.  Amidst the excitement for it are a lot of valid concerns, and we’ll have to see how they play out.

The Kindle Fire is a fascinating new development to watch, largely because it highlights where much of our web and E-commerce development is going.  The great thing about signposts, though, is that they only tell you where you’re going.  They don’t tell you what it’s going to look like when you get there.

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Eliminate the basics

Let’s first go through a list of what features you should always expect.  It should, for starters, place no limits on the amount of products and categories you can create: imagine getting 90% of the way through entering in your information and discovering that you can’t go any further.  It also should be as easy to use and as cheap to purchase as possible: for the former, check web reviews, as this is naturally a thing you can’t know until you try it.

Now the list

Even this is just a long list, so we’ll try to restrict it to ones that are important but that the software package you are looking for may or may not include.

• Customer product feedback – This is critical these days.  Ecommerce is becoming more and more social, and one of the main elements that customers use to decide on their purchases is what others are saying.  Most packages offer this, but not all.  Check also to see if it supports product ratings and polls.
• Immediate shipping calculations – Only about half the packages on the market include this feature, and not all of them give you shipping amounts via different methods.  Shipping rates for the United States Postal Service are common to find.  For Australian and Canadian rates you’ll have to look harder.  If you want Federal Express it’s even harder, and it’s rare to find the package that will give you shipping rates for DHL.
• Instant search – This is where you type something into a search bar and it makes suggestions before you even finish.  It’s a wonderful little feature that we’ve already gotten used to, but only about half of the products we surveyed currently include it.
• Social bookmarking – Reference the above statement about the importance of ecommerce as a social event.  The line between networking sites and shopping is so frayed as to almost not exist anymore.  You’ll want this feature for now, and you’ll want it even more in the future.
• Returns – There’s one you might not think of, but is obvious once you hear it.  Just try to picture working with a sales system that’s electronic and a returns system done on paper.  This is another feature that you’re only about 50-50 likely to get.
• Larger images – Most of the available packages out there seem to have this, but that makes it all the more important to notice if yours doesn’t.  This is when you click on a product image to bring a separate window up with a larger, more detailed picture.

Even among basics features there are still a lot more things to look for, such as site membership, coupon support, and site maps.  As you are looking through each package, go through the full list of what they offer.  You’d be surprised what good features exist that you may not have thought of, and what necessary features exist some products didn’t.

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If that’s the case, then it’s a good idea to go over the options available to someone investigating Linux servers and E-Commerce for their web sites.  Here are five hosts that are good selections for the Linux E-Commerce user, judged not just by their specific E-commerce offerings, but by what else they have to offer surrounding those packages:

1) WebHostingHub

WebHostingHub’s Premium Website Builder lets you build a storefront from scratch without having to fuss with any other programs.  For those of you who want to dive into the nuts and bolts, though, WebHostingHub should have everything you need to get started.  Their supported shopping cart packages include Cube Cart, OS Commerce, and Zen Cart.  Among important and related features are RingCentral, a virtual phone system, RatePoint, a word-of-mouth marketing program, and iContact, an email marketing tool.

2) JustHost

This big name in the web hosting world impresses with a strong array of both E-commerce and other supporting features.  They offer OS Commerce and Agora shopping carts, several types of security protection, Merchant Account and PayPal support.  Their accounts also come with several different types of site building software and lots of ad credits.

3) iPage

The very affordable web hosting accounts at iPage have three shopping cart options (ShopSite, osCommerce and Agora), multiple content management system packages, $150 in ad word credits, related scripting and other software of all varieties.  They are one of the largest hosts around today, meaning they have experience in managing and supporting these packages.

4) DowntownHost

One of the better-kept secrets in the hosting world, DowntownHost has a dazzling array of features.  CubeCart, OS Commerce and Zen Cart are all offered.  Even more impressive is their dozen different portals and content management systems, 5 blogging software packages, 2 project management software packages, and a few miscellaneous programs that you don’t see often but could greatly enhance the right E-commerce site, such as Noah’s Classifieds and PHPAuction.

5) BlueHost

Another big player in the web hosting world with millions of sites on their servers, BlueHost has one of the largest selections of shopping cart systems, with OS Commerce, Agora, Cube and Zen carts all present.  Rounding out their offerings is support for lots of types of multimedia, script support with some more rare inclusions such as DHTML, and an average 30 second hold time to reach a technical representative.

As stated above, the amount of hosting companies that we will be looking at for this category will likely do nothing but increase over time, and increase rapidly.  It appears safe to say, though, that these five companies will continue to have a strong place on our list for some time to come.

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So far so good

The early numbers indicate that it is definitely giving the E-commerce world a shot in the arm.  One study indicates that since 2009 visits to flash sale web sites have been more than doubling each year., with some of the central flash sale hub web sites quickly moving up the traffic rankings.  What’s more is that the same study indicated that these sites are popular across all income levels.

A greater sign that this is catching on is that the concept is spreading beyond the major flash sales web sites.  As usual, Facebook is leading the charge on the social networking front.  A plug-in already exists for Facebook store fronts to add flash sales to their site.  And major retailers themselves are now integrating flash sales into their own web sites.

The Danger – An exhausted consumer base

In addition to the fact that liquidity is becoming a thing of the past (ie, we’re all broke or in debt), the success of this trend has the potential to be its undoing.  One study reports that more than 50% of subscribes to flash web sites are finding themselves overwhelmed by the number of offers they are receiving.  Clearly this is an economic tactic that is more sensitive than normal to saturation.  The whole appeal to this type of tactic, after all, is its spontaneity.  When spontaneity becomes the expected it defeats its own purpose.

One solution – integration

If you are someone who is running a store front and thinking of integrating flash sales into your business, one suggestion that some observers remind you of is to link this idea with the power of socialization.  This does not so much mean a major networking site.  It simply means giving consumers a way to communicate with each other, to share thoughts about a product, as well as to just make it more of a social occasion.  There are more products out there today that integrate this into their ecommerce technology.

At the same time don’t shy away from social networking as a tool here.  Twitter, in particular, is especially attuned to being useful to these ends.  Nothing will help sales to your product like a shout out from someone to 500 people who trust them that a certain product a lot of them like is available for dirt cheap for another 4 hours.

In short, while there are always pitfalls to any new idea, the early verdict seems to be that flash sales as a marketing technique have serious potential; and thus, the serious ecommerce user should be taking a serious look at using them. In addition, make sure you pick reliable hosting for your ecommerce website.

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Ecommerce has, of course, revolutionized business as regions and boundaries are harmoniously reached. Online buying and selling of products have opened up avenues one hardly expected even half a decade back.

The ecommerce industry is growing without any sign of a downslide. In USA alone, the growth rate has been put close to 17 percent. UK stands out as the leading ecommerce market at present. Countries like India too are catching up as a result of the massive benefits that are to be extracted from the concept. With convenience and reliability taken to the next level, ecommerce has certainly changed the way the game has been played. Ecommerce has engendered globalization in the purest form of the world.

The Benefits

Marketing and selling are no longer restricted to an area or regional zone. With ecommerce solutions available, the whole world is a viable market the can be tapped for business needs.

Ecommerce ensures complete and thorough visibility of products without you having to pay for establishment costs. Efficiency and cost savings are obvious benefit of this concept.

Not only does the business turnover increase but there is also a high degree of saving on time spent in conducting business as opposed to the more conventional techniques.

With a wider business base to exploit, ecommerce warrants a chance of building long term client relationships. Moreover, the chances of conquering newer markets are additional brownie points that are sure to make the propositions sound even more lucrative. . All these benefits await, and much more – simply by switching over to ecommerce.

If you had been considering taking a plunge into an ecommerce site, now is the time to make that dream a reality. Simply keep in mind the following tips for a successful ecommerce activity:

• Clarity regarding the products being offered.
• Convenience of use.
• Secure modes of payments.
• Easy ways to come across your site.
• Find reliable hosting for your ecommerce website.
• Proper and clear cut statement of all associated terms and conditions meant for users

Research well and visit some top ecommerce sites to gain an idea of the features to include. Good luck!

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This rule was strongly agreed upon and enforced by any means necessary until about five years ago.  It’s difficult to say exactly what happened to cause this shift.  Likely, it was a combination of a number of factors.  For one, there was a general sense that web site users were getting a bit of a free ride and that the money for web site owners to pay their bills had to come from somewhere.  Also, whereas businesses who wanted to find new customers before had to resort to reviled options such as direct email solicitation (forever etched in our vocabulary now as “spamming”), now alternate means exist, mostly through non-intrusive means found on social networking web sites.

Jump on in!  But do it right.

This means that those who are in new or growing businesses who want to use social media web sites to increase their customer base no longer have to worry about the blowback from treading in forbidden waters.  However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still certain rules that apply.  It also doesn’t mean that it’s just as simple as slapping down an ad and forgetting about it.

If you’re a business who wants to expand into the social networking world, here are a few things to keep in mind:

1) Work with the site, and the users

Since large social networking sites need your money to keep going, they’ll be in the best position to tell you what the lay of the land is like: they’re not going to want to see you set up shop just to get chased out of town for not following some social code you didn’t know of until you broke it.

Also, listen to user feedback.  While there will always be some trigger-happy users who find spam everywhere they look, generally you’ll get a good idea of what’s fair and what’s not from user reactions.  And if you actually asked, you’d be in such a rare category that you’d automatically earn a certain level of respect.

2) Follow the cool kids

Yesterday it was MySpace.  The day before that it was LiveJournal.  Today it’s FaceBook, but there are already signs that it might have peaked.  Tomorrow it will be someone else, possibly FourSquare, or likely Google Plus.  The “hot spot” changes at lighting pace.  You need to move just as fast.

3) The toys change too

In addition to new places on the web, you will need to keep track of new ways to access the web.  PCs aren’t exactly dying as much you might hear, but iToys are going to become more and more frequent.  These new technologies more and more often include in their embedded software ways for businesses to interact with customers without having to go through a web browser.

One last bit of advice: hire an IT guru.  Or if IT is your specialty, hire a marketer or secretary.  The point is that just keeping up with how your business does Ecommerce is enough to keep one person busy for well more than 40 hours a week.  You’re going to want to make sure that you have someone who can focus on that, and only that.  Social networking is no longer a no-business-class zone.  They can and do now coexist.  You just have to devote the resources necessary to do it right.

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Professional Security Discount

Unfortunately in the past the cost of SSL certificates has prohibited many smaller websites. Therefore, the 40 percent discount on the professional security layer offered through Namesco Summer Sale will greatly assist many businesses. These certificates guarantee that sensitive information like credit card and banking details are transferred through the user to the website in an encrypted manner.

Also, the certificates protect against online fraud, phishing and other nefarious activities by confirming the identity of the server and website connected to by the user. There are three tiers of SSL certificates from Geotrust, the world’s second largest digital certificate provider, each of which is included in the sale.

Search Engine Submission Discount

Also, Namesco is offering an automatic search engine submission service known as Hypersubmit. Although basic web hosting packages can put any old website online, they are not automatically identified by search engines. Therefore, Hypersubmit ensures new websites are indexed by hundreds of search engines from around the world. The software is available at a 40 percent discount and is guaranteed to be seen by those browsing online.

Email Service Discount

Additionally, premium email costs can be extremely high. Luckily, Namesco is offering a 50 percent cost reduction with all five of their email services. Since organizing, accessing, sending, receiving and synchronizing emails across many computers is critical for most eCommerce, the price reduction will be extremely helpful. Startup businesses can utilize the professional email service giving them a major edge over similar companies.

Namesco Company Information

Founded in 1996, Namesco has been involved in a variety of business purchases such as the acquisition of Simply.com and NDO Limited. Namesco is an industry-leader in web hosting, domain registration and broadband services.

Discounts on any product or service are excellent. However, Namesco is offering major discounts on expensive website hosting products in which small businesses could never afford. The Summer Sale is likely to attract many more customers to purchase their products.

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At the beginning of 2011, Telerik released the latest version of their content management system, Sitefinity 4.0 which was a major update for the product. It focused on user experience by adding several improvements such as a new SDK and integration with Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF). At the time, Telerik also confirmed that they were in the process of including ecommerce functionality.

Months later, Telerik has done exactly that. Version 4.2 offers an additional level of integrating ecommerce into the system while fixing many bugs and improving Quality Assurance and automation testing. Additionally, the designers have refined the core content management experience for the user.

Unfortunately this release has not updated customer experience controls such as marketing dashboards, multivariate testing, Internet marketing campaigns, personalization, multi-channel management and rules engines. However, this is not really a major issue because the basics have not changed while ecommerce is exploding.

The most significant addition to the latest version is the ecommerce Module which gives users all the fundamental tools to be successful without being fancy. These resources include:

• Real-time shipping and tax calculation
• Reporting, statistics and metrics
• Product, department and manufacturer management
• Online payment processing through PayPal and Authorize
• Support for a variety of custom product types and other variations

Although the ecommerce Module was a major focus for this version, there are other improvements to the system. For instance, the media library system has extended its functionality by supporting storage providers. Also, localization support has been added to all templates. Furthermore, the filtering of feeds and advanced configuration of notifications has become granular which satisfies content managers.

Sitefinity also offers a respectable level of support for A/B testing and experience optimization. This relies solely on the integration of Google’s Website Optimizer which will greatly assist users with search engine optimization techniques.

Members of the Sitefinity team discussed that customer experience continues to be on their radar. However, the primary focus has shifted to improving quality, integrating ecommerce tools and providing a fantastic content manager user experience. The new focus brings an excellent set of goals and objectives for the corporation.

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