Web Hosting Geeks' Blog » online business owner http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog Web Hosting Industry News, Latest Trends, and Analyses. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:48:19 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Three Steps to Choose an Ecommerce Hosting Planhttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2010/01/14/three-steps-to-choose-an-ecommerce-hosting-plan/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2010/01/14/three-steps-to-choose-an-ecommerce-hosting-plan/#comments Thu, 14 Jan 2010 23:03:25 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=706 Due to the rapid growth in popularity the internet has received over the past decade, most business owners are expanding the sale of their products and service into the online marketplace. The practice of selling goods or services online is called ecommerce, or electronic commerce. Although running an online business is often easier than running a brick and mortar shop, there are some things you’ll need to know to get started. The most important aspect of your business website will be it’s hosting account. There are many ecommerce solutions available, however choosing the right one can be difficult if you don’t know what to look for. The following three steps will guide you through the process of picking an ecommerce web hosting solution.

1. Assess Your Needs

Finding the right ecommerce plan will depend largely upon your needs as an online business owner. What is right for another company may not necessarily be right for you. If you’re planning on running a smaller operation then you could get by with the bare minimum, however it is important to consider scalability. Choosing the cheapest service will almost always end in disaster, especially if you plan on expanding your business in the near future. A general rule would be to consider reliability over affordability. If you have a lot of products to sell then you’ll want to purchase a plan that comes with unlimited disk space and high bandwidth. Many times the best option for large business owners is a dedicated server.

A website lacking these server features can suffer downtime, and ultimately loss of business. The appearance of your website is important no matter how big or small your business is. The goal of a small business owner is to be able to compete with the big corporations that often consume all of the business within a particular niche. Doing this would be nearly impossible without the programming tools included in a good ecommerce hosting solution.

2. Review Payment Methods

Once you know what you need in terms of server space and features, it’s time to consider how you’ll be paid for your efforts as an online business owner. Once your customers have decided to purchase a product or service from you, you’ll want to make it easy for them to checkout and pay you. Therefore a shopping cart solution is crucial to your website. In fact, most customers will leave your website if you do not have a secure shopping cart feature. It is best to have a merchant account, however you can also accept credit card payments with a simple PayPal account.

3. Make Your Decision

Now that you’ve rounded up a few prospects base on the above attribute, it’s time to make your decision. While price should not be a deciding factor, it should be noted that most web hosting plans are very affordable due to the competitive nature of the market. Therefore, it should be easy to find a plan that fits your needs in terms of finances and server requirements.

Related posts:

]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2010/01/14/three-steps-to-choose-an-ecommerce-hosting-plan/feed/ 2 Twitter Lists and Businesshttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/11/05/twitter-lists-and-business/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/11/05/twitter-lists-and-business/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:53:07 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=605 The latest feature rolled out by Twitter is lists.  This new offering by Twitter allows users to create lists of specific Twitter users.  Believe it or not, Twitter lists can be helpful to the business web site owner.  After all, social media has been proven to be a boon to the online business owner.

How Twitter works for business

As social media outlets go, Twitter is quickly becoming one of the more popular micro-blogging sites around.  The list of businesses currently using Twitter in one fashion or another is constantly growing.  Comcast, JetBlue, and Dell are just a few companies that realized early on that Twitter has great potential to help them get in contact with and support their customers.  Comcast is a perfect example of how a business can use a micro-blogging service to give fast and courteous service to their existing customers as well as garner new business by word of mouth from happy and support customers.

How Twitter lists work for business

Once a business has set up their Twitter account, it is very easy to start racking up the number of users being followed.  At last count, the official support Twitter account for Comcast has over 32,000 users it’s following.  Trying to keep track of that many conversations at once is completely impossible.  So, what is the solution?

Simple – Twitter lists.  Creating a list is a very quick and easy process.  Log into Twitter and click on the “New list” link found on the right-hand side of the web site.  A new window will open up where a name can be typed in as well as the type of list it should be (private or public).  Once the list is created, it’s then a simple matter of going through the “following” list of the account and adding members to the newly created list.

One great example for a business use for a Twitter list is a company that has offices and customers across the states.  If this business wished to group its customers by area, lists such as “northwest_customers” or “Oregon_clients” could be created.  Then, support teams could have direct access to specific customers based on geographic location.

Taking it one step further

Twitter has made it convenient to include user lists within web sites.  By going to the Goodies – Widgets area, one can find the easy to customize Twitter list widget.  Once customized, the code then can be grabbed and integrated easily within a business web site.  This widget provides a quick way to keep tabs on customers and makes it very simple for new customers to join in on the conversation.  The list widget can be placed on a front page of a web site or even within a support section.  Either way, including this bit of coding is a perfect way to generate more business.

Conclusion

Including Twitter within a social media campaign is a smart move.  Twitter is continuously adding new features to make the experience of micro-blogging easier.  The latest addition of Twitter lists is a splendid way to monitor topics and people who matter most and a great way to keep in contact with and give support to customers and clients.

Related posts:

]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/11/05/twitter-lists-and-business/feed/ 0 The Importance of MS SQL in Windows Hostinghttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/09/01/the-importance-of-ms-sql-in-windows-hosting/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/09/01/the-importance-of-ms-sql-in-windows-hosting/#comments Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:30:17 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=501 Windows hosting is compromised of several useful components, many of which are developed by computer software giant Microsoft.  Most of these features are designed with simplicity in mind and lend tremendous power to business applications.  As an online business owner, one feature of Windows hosting that can truly help your organization is a powerful software tool known as MS SQL.

What is MS SQL?

Microsoft SQL Server or simply MS SQL, is a commercially licensed relational database management system and the main rival to the MySQL open-source software.  As a licensed software application, it is a proprietary product with the source code and copyrights owned by Microsoft.  Some talk negatively about commercially licensed products because you must purchase them in order to use them on the open market.  However, the major advantage of such products is that they come with excellent support, are thoroughly tested functionality and receive continuous upgrades.  In the case of MS SQL, you get all this and much more.

As one of the most widely used SQL systems, MS SQL is supported by a large number of applications and programming codes designed to integrate with its databases.  One of its most common uses is website implementation to generate dynamic content.  In fact, if you have ever visited an e-commerce site and browsed through pages or product listings, more than likely, you have interacted with a database such as MS SQL.

What Does MS SQL Do?

Like any SQL database, an SQL Server database is a data storage facility that allows you to manage significant amounts of information.  Because it is so challenging and time consuming for the average person to manually sort through such large amounts of data, databases are used to request data and retrieve the requested information in a faster and more efficient manner.  Although it possible to directly interact with a database, the mere structure of the data often makes this a difficult process.  Similar to many Microsoft products, MS SQL is are far more user-friendly than other database systems.  This particular software was designed with the premonition that users and applications will frequently need to access its databases, which is why it streamlines the process and makes retrieval easier.

Databases are capable of storing all types of information.  Upon first hearing the term, you may assume that a database is something that stores customers names, telephone numbers and addresses or product inventory for a warehouse facility.  While MS SQL can indeed handle basic text information, it also has the power to store other types of data such as graphics, audio files and even more complex formats.  With all the advancements in web technology, this ability really comes in handy for someone who desires a feature-rich, interactive website.

Whether you need a database to store a list of employee data, create a dynamic website or power an e-commerce storefront, MS SQL makes a perfect solution.  Signing up for a Windows hosting package that offers this feature is well worth the investment.

Related posts:

]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/09/01/the-importance-of-ms-sql-in-windows-hosting/feed/ 0 Three Methods for Better Customer Relationshttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/07/27/three-methods-for-better-customer-relations/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/07/27/three-methods-for-better-customer-relations/#comments Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:21:52 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=441 Any online business owner understands the importance and complexities of customer support.  The process of fielding customer inquires, getting a staff member to follow through on them and making sure the issues are wrapped up properly is a time consuming and costly task.  A thorough support system requires many elements and this article will introduce you to three essential methods you may want to consider.

1.) Support Tickets

One of the most affordable and effective customer support solutions is the ticket system.  This type of application allows customers to open up an official case, submit their questions or concerns, and a member of the support team to take care of it.  Such a system can be very cost effective because all it takes is a few employees to handle the communications.  These systems are also generally easy to use and can be integrated to your existing support system.

While a support ticket system can definitely be useful, it may not be the best tool for developing personalized relationships with your customers.  The communication can be slower than some may like, especially when queries are being submitted from another time zone. Therefore, while it is good to have a ticket system, this tool cannot be relied on alone.  In the time-sensitive, fast paced internet world we live, the delay in response could result in loss sales and profits for your online business.

2.) Live Chat

If you’re looking for a way to better interact with your customers, then live chat is the way to go.  This feature has become quite popular in recent times as the world moves faster towards full-fledged automation and on-demand services.  While it may be a financial disadvantage from the aspect of needing physical resources to communicate, live chat is something that can take your customer relations to the next level.  This is a feature loved by customers as they can get help in real-time and instant feedback to their queries, which could result in faster sales for you.

3.) Automated Response Systems

Like many areas of the business, the easiest way to lower your customer support expenses is to automate processes and cut out large chunks of related costs involved.  This can be done with an automatic response system.  Recently introduced to the customer service field, these systems provide a way for you to cut down on overhead without leaving your customers out in the cold.  Such solutions range from systems that are quite expensive and require programming skills to create scripts that accurately analyze text queries and send back automated responses, to simple and affordable features like autoresponders that automatically respond to general queries when you’re away.  Your customers are able to get responses almost instantly while you can save money on the salaries in your support department.

Support is one area in which you must give careful consideration to numerous elements in order to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction.  If at all possible, you should try to implement all three of the solutions mentioned in this article.  Although cost is always an issue, you never want to ignore the customers who are responsible for your profits and the business itself.

Related posts:

]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/07/27/three-methods-for-better-customer-relations/feed/ 1