web hosting

Selecting a Suitable eCommerce Plan – Key Features

Everyday more business owners are taking their brick and mortar businesses to the internet for maximum exposure and increased profits. Many of them are under the impression that running an online business will be extremely simple, however this is not the case, especially when initially entering the online marketplace. Maintaining an online business is relatively simple compared to a storefront, however setting up an online business with very little experience can be a challenging task in and of itself.

Beginning an online Business

With a brick and mortar business, the main challenges presented involve initial investments, whereas the establishment of an online business requires less investment and more decision making. In the online world, decisions are the biggest investments you’ll make. As soon as you begin your first online endeavor the decisions and question asking begins – What do I want the website to look like? How am I going to list the products? In which way am I going to market the products? All of these obvious question com to mind fairly quickly, however the novice will often overlook one fundamental question – Which eCommerce web hosting solution am I going to use? Comparing the following attributes will help you make that crucial decision.

Security

The single most important attribute an eCommerce solution can have is security. When dealing with credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and other sensitive information online on a daily business, it is absolutely imperative to secure this info. The internet is a very dangerous place, crawling with hackers and cyber criminals looking to steal anything they can get their hand son. To prevent yourself from becoming the victim, you’ll want to make sure your eCommerce plan offers top-of-the-line encryption services such as SSL, as well as fully functional firewalls and anti-virus programs that scan your web applications.

Reliability

The next factor to consider would be reliability. Running an online business is all about providing customer convenience. In fact, the main reason why consumers choose to shop online rather than go to the store is convenience. Offering your customers maximum convenience means providing a stable and convenient website. If your eCommerce hosting plan is unreliable, then your site will be plagued with crashes and poor performance on a regular basis. Make sure you look for packages with unlimited features, such as unlimited bandwidth and server space. Customer reviews will also help you decide which plan would be the most reliable.

Support

Another attribute that is closely related to reliability is support. Users that are just beginning an online business will need a competent support staff ready to handle their problems at all times. As an online business owner, you’ll inevitably face many problems as you learn the ins and out of eCommerce. To simplify this learning experience you’ll need a good support staff by your side. Make sure the service you choose offers 24 hour support, and can be contacted in a variety of ways. Perhaps the best way to gauge the support capabilities of a company is by reading reviews and calling the support staff yourself.

The Power of Branding: What’s in a Name?

Acquiring a good domain name nowadays can be very difficult, as it seems like all of the good names have been taken. In the beginning of the domain name game, you could acquire any name you wanted without failure, now as corporations buy domains by the thousands it has become nearly impossible to find a name that will suit your business perfectly. However, it is important not to give up on your search for the perfect domain name. The name of your website will be your online brand. Having a memorable and authoritative brand is very important because it will give you a presence in your niche.

Building an Online Reputation Through Branding

You may think that the name of your website does not matter, however this couldn’t be further from the truth. Even the best search engine optimization experts on the planet cannot give you what a good domain name can. The first thing people will mention when they talk about your website is the domain name. With countless millions of websites online, it is very important to have a name that is simple to remember.

Every domain name is completely unique, therefore it can be seen as your online fingerprint. The entire identity of your online business will be decided primarily by your domain name. Simply having a good domain name will make your site appear to be more credible, and it can even make the search engines favor your site more, depending upon what keywords your domain names contain.

Finding The Right Domain Name

Thousands of domains are purchased each day, and every moment you let pass without purchasing your dream domain, is another opportunity for your competition to purchase it first. Some individuals and companies purchase domain names by the hundreds just to turn around and sell them for ridiculous prices to people that need them in the future. If these companies can make a living off of finding good domain names, then surely you can find just one to represent your online business!

Finding the right name can be a very difficult process, but before you resort to paying an exuberant amount of cash to retrieve your desired domain name, you should consider your options. If you lack in the creativity department you could use a domain name generator software that will automatically generate concepts for you. You could also enlist the help of freelancers. There are many creative minds online in forum communities that would be willing to lend a helping hand for just a few extra dollars You could hold a contest in one of these forums and specify what you are looking for in a domain name. This is a good way to brainstorm with other people from all walks of life.

Don’t Hesitate

If you have an idea for a domain name now, then I would strongly suggest that you purchase it now before someone else does. You never know when the domain name will no longer be available.

Your domain name is a very important part of your online business, in fact without a memorable name your entire business could fail based on this factor alone! Remember this the next time someone asks you “What’s in a name?” Give them this answer: “Success!”

Six Tools for Better Website Traffic

After building a nice looking website, you are ready to market your amazing products and services to the world.  With everything seemingly in place, you are still missing the one ingredient needed to make your business a success – traffic. Without traffic, your venture with an online business is destined to fail quickly.  Luckily, there are quite a few ways you can go about bringing traffic to your site.  Everyone claims to have the secret that unlocks the magical fountain of traffic, but one method that has been tried and proven involves site optimization.  There are many tools available to help you along the way and below are five of the very best.

1.) SEO Book – Founded by Aaron Wall, one of the true SEO experts, this site makes a great resource for learning about optimization and moving your site in the right direction.  Here you can find all the tools need to help you become familiar with virtually every aspect of the game.  As a member of SeoBook.com, you are a part of a tight-knit community that will mold you into a better search engine marketer.

2.) Submit Ease – This is a powerful software tool that bundles article directory submission and website directory submission into a single user-friendly package.  With Submit Ease, article syndication is easy, and you can submit your site to more than 600 article directories. 

3.) Bookmarking Demon – This is a tool every internet marker should have in their bag of tricks.  It is a fully automated pinging and social bookmarking software program that can help you create an unlimited number of backlinks.  With the free upgrades and all the advantages it offers, many users find Bookmarking Demon to be worth every penny.

4.) Animoto - When it comes to the web, you don’t have to be a expert with a video camera just to incorporate video into your site.  Animoto is a great tool that gives you the power to create movie style trailers from the photos you upload to your site.  You have the option to choose from various default music themes or upload your own.  This is all made simple through an easy to use interface.  Simply upload your photos, choose the music, enter some text and the system does the rest.

5.) Tube Mogul – Video sharing has become one of the most effective ways to attract targeted traffic in fast and cost efficient manner.  Tube Mogul makes an ideal tool as it allows you to distribute your video content to several sharing platforms, including YouTube, Meta Café and MySpace.  Best of all, this tool is absolutely free to use.

6.) Keyword Elite - This is a great research tool that can help you save a lot of time when looking for keywords.  Keyword Elite also integrates with other tools such as Keyword Discovery and Word Tracker, allowing you to truly maximize your researching efforts.  It lets you find out which keywords your Google Awords competitors are using and where their sites rank in terms of optimization.  The Keyword Elite tool is like having your very own virtual researcher.

Obtaining a Reliable and Secure E-commerce Solution

The initial reaction to your e-commerce solution may be a positive one, but that could all change depending on the perception of your customers.  Believe it or not, the company you sign up with and the service they provide can either make or break your business.  If your solution does not possess the following qualities, achieving success online will be very difficult and maybe even impossible.

Critical Security Features

There are a number of components associated with your hosting platform that can affect how customers perceive your business.  One of the important of all is security.  This is one aspect that cannot be overlooked because it will help you establish trusting relationships and the confidence customers need to feel safe when sharing their sensitive information with you.  Proven and visible security mechanisms such as SSL certificates will help to create the trust and confidence you need to be successful with an online business.  By neglecting to use them, you stand the risk of losing many customers because the consumer is growing increasingly aware of the potential dangers that come along with shopping online.

Speed and High Availability

The performance of your e-commerce site is critical, especially in today’s fast paced on-demand world.  If your hosting provider is utilizing slow servers, potential customers will more than likely click their way to the competition.  A degraded performance will undoubtedly impact your bottom line and possibly cause your company to go out of business.  This can all be avoided by choosing a host that uses the best server hardware and redundant connections to the internet.  It is the overall reliability of their infrastructure that will determine the success of your business.

Adequate Server and Network Capacity

Selecting an e-commerce hosting package with limited storage and bandwidth capacity is like intentionally placing restrictions on the potential of your business.  It is highly recommended to choose a plan that provides enough of both resources to compensate for expansion.  Although many hosts offer solutions with unlimited resources, this marketing ploy can actually work to your disadvantage once your files and traffic start bursting through the seams of the server.  When you are no longer able to update your site due to the lack of disk space and visitors cannot access your site because the bandwidth has been exceeded, your audience will view you in a negative light and this will definitely serve as a crucial blow to your credibility.

Having a secure and reliable hosting solution is critical to any online business.  While some of your more loyal customers may give you a second shot in the midst of slow loading pages and unavailability, most new prospects will never return and seek out someone who is more capable of meeting their needs.  When starting your journey with an online business, always remember that excessive downtime results in lost customers and lost sales.  It is simple as that.  A host that can assure you a reliable and secure environment gives you the best opportunity to keep your customers happy and your bottom line on the profitable side of the spectrum.

Six Essential Tips Towards E-commerce Success

Whether you run a small or large online business, the same basic rule applies: keep your visitors happy.  After all, if you don’t, your competitors surely will.  It’s a jungle out there, but these six tips should go a long way in helping you achieve success with your e-commerce venture.

1.) Engage Your Audience

There are a number of features you can incorporate to encourage interaction amongst your visitors.  On today’s highly advanced internet, interactivity is key.  Combine this with original, quality content and you could have an e-commerce site that keeps your audience tuned in.  This is how to convert repeat visitor into long-term customers.

2.) Make Purchasing Simple

This should go without saying, but the large number of failed e-commerce sites leads us to believe otherwise.  Most internet users could do without the lengthy sales pitches, technical jargon, and all the bells and whistles that make it difficult to uncover hidden order pages.  After all this time, many online merchants still fail to cut to the chase and give their customers the options that make them feel comfortable making a purchase.  If want to drive home sales, get to the point, and do it quickly.

3.) Open the Doors to Communication

When doing business online, you should make your contact information easily accessible.  This includes email addresses, business addresses, toll-free phone numbers and fax number.  By doing so, you are demonstrating the credibility that will instill the confidence consumers need to feel to do business.  Potential customers will know that you are there to address their questions or concerns and by making various options available, you can target a larger market and their preferred communications channels.

4.) Post Information in Fulfillment and Return Policies

Before purchasing something online, most customers want to know how much an item costs, how it will get to them and when it will get to them.  Most importantly, they want to know that they are covered if the item should be defective or damaged during transit.  While publishing this information will not sell your products or services, if do not include these details, there is a great chance that you will end up losing sales.

5.) Travel the Low Road

Surviving in the realm of online business requires detailed planning and sound budgeting.  Therefore, it is important to consider all your low-cost budgeting endeavors before throwing money into most costly campaigns.  There is a lot you can do, including networking, building strong partnerships and designing a website that is optimized for search engine traffic.  Spend a little time researching some cost-effective avenues to promote your site and you will have a much better chance of coming out with your bottom line intact in the long run.

6) Price for Profits

Unreasonably low prices are great if you’re in the non-profit business, but not when you are trying to generate steady revenues and brand loyalty.  There are many ways to keep your customers around without sacrificing profits.  It is up to you to determine how to achieve this while keeping a competitive edge and making profits in the process.