Web Hosting & Online Selling

[diarmaid]

Hi all,
Wasn't sure where to post this. Im wondering about anyone who has a website for their business.

Who did you get your hosting from and do you have any general comments/suggestions about choosing a host and setting up a commercial site?

Also, if you sell online what software do you use and do you again have any comments or suggestions?

At present Im looking at this site that uses ecommerce for the commercial side.

http://www.register.com/retail/index.jsp

I looked at OSCommerce before but not sure about integrating it with a site set up with the above host.

Thanks.

[widgitmaster]

My primary business is DiscountCalcium, I sell on eBay and from my own website! For several years I have used PowWeb for hosting, they have the best package deal! Including OSCommerce !

My trick is to sell on eBay, then with every sale I send the buyer a thank you email which points them to a special page on my web site with lower prices and free shipping! This email also gives the buyer an opertunity to opt-in to my mailing list, as it is against eBay rules to use emails without their permission!

Once they have opted in to my mailing list, I have a CGI script installed on the PowWeb server which allows me to send bulk emails once a month with special offers and reminders to my repeat customers!

Coral Calcium is primarily consumed by senior citizens, and people with diabetes! But it works wonders for people who stand on concrete floors for 10 hours a day in a factory! The calcium helps strengthen bones and joints, that is how I found it!

[fyffe555]

I've used register.com to manage domains for myself and my clients for about 7 years. Several clients have used Register's extended services like commerce. Generally they do a good and reliable job as a domain registrar but have been adding new services in the last few years. They are quite expensive for domain registration and management and the commerce services are similarly priced. Regard them as a top end service that you pay for.

As an aside, watch out for the recent rash of 'comparison' sites supposedly showing the top ten best hosting companies, registrars or domain registration services. Almost without exception they are paid by the host company sites and theres no comparison involved..

[diarmaid]

Thanks for the comments. I'll watch out for that fyffe. Nice site widgitmaster, there's been many days when I would have liked a boost to my poor old bones! (I'll hit the 30 mark in a few years! )

[sdantonio]

My girlfriend runs a ISP and used to host. She has been trying to get out of the hosting end of things and just concentrate on selling her stuff. But if you want to check out her stuff and ask about hosting she is at:

http://cruzanengineering.net/ her site (heated motorcycle gear and vinyl graphics)

http://www.theluthiersbench.com/ my site (music stuff)

Ebay is good as widgitmaster mentioned.

Steven

[Harlow]

Stay away from register.com. They charge $35.00 / year for registration and will bug the he** out of you with promotions. I use to do web site design and hosting. Still have several clients that I host for. Use Godaddy.com for registrations. $7.95 / year and better support. They also host. Not sure about their ecommerce. Shopping carts are an open book. Lots of options. If all you want to do is accept PayPal with fixed shipping then use the PayPal shopping cart. Free and easy to set up. OSCommerce is great but the setup can get involved. I need to build a new site for new cnc products coming soon and will probably be using http://www.cart32.com/. They've been around forever. Good prices, shipping calculators, etc.. I could do OSCommerce but I just don't have the time.

later, Harlow

[diarmaid]

I will want to accept paypal, and if possible direct credit card payments.
Paypal isn't a problem, but Im not sure how to set up so that people can input their credit card details directly and I can receive payment that way. Im sure I need a credit card merchant id from the credit card company, but how do I set up the online side. Register.com seems to offer this facility with ecommerce so that was a positive point for them. Anyone have any ideas?

I'll have a look at godaddy and cart32. Register.com did seem more expensive than I was expecting but if fyffe's comments in post no.3 are correct then maybe its worth it.

[sdantonio]

Paypal is easy, and it places a buffer between you and the buyer which sometimes is a nice thing to have. Credit cards you have to get a secure site which usually is an additional cost. There is another credit card payment plan offered bu google. It is banned on ebay for obvious reasons (ebay ownes paypal if the reason for the ban isnt obvious), I have heard lots of good things about this service. I just can't remember what it is called.

[fyffe555]

Harlow makes some good points. If you're interested in finding a host with ecommerce then GoDaddy and its competitors are a decent choice. You might have to add paypal manually but the pricing is good.

register.com has been bugging the heck out of me too recently with mail flyers.

One point to make though, Register.com is a Domain Registrar service first and a host second. That means you can manage your domains directly and can personally set IP pointers and records like A,MX, IP, DNS for your domains. In otherwords you control where and how your domain is set up, regular hosting companies don't provide that.

Register.com used to be the best registrar show in town, now its still good but expensive. Register.com is still a registrar thats adding hosting services. In contrast GoDaddy is a hosting service and like most hosting services doesn't offer the same domain management control.

If you dont need to have such direct control over your domains or don't exect to have to move them around frequently to different IP's, servers or hosts, or host your own servers then you probably don't need a registrar and Register.com then becomes an expensive option for a pure hosting solution.

As you say, to take credit cards you need a merchant account. Watch out for the per transaction fee as well as the application and discount fees. Paypal is offered by some hosts but can be simply added to the site with a paypal kit from ebay. Whoever builds the site could add the paypal.

Andrew

[Harlow]

Register.com – I try to avoid business with greedy companies that make outrageous profits. Originally my names were registered with Network Solutions. Can’t remember why but I know they pis**d me off so I switched to register.com about 8 years ago. About 3 years ago some idiot in management decided it was good marketing to harass the customers. Started getting all kinds of emails and snail mails with stuff like “Your Domain Name Needs Your Immediate Attention” on the outside of the envelope or as the subject in emails. Would open them to find my domain would be expiring in something like 9-10 months. Kept getting all these “Specials”. Right. Save $5.00 on a year by renewing for 5 years. I called them and emailed them several times to get off their cra* list but it kept coming. I have 18 names registered for myself and am the tech on another 18-20. It got to the point where I was getting 3-4 items a day of register.com bs. Got fed up a couple of years ago and did some research. Ended up moving all my names and clients to GoDaddy. Very happy with the move. Compare some of the costs between the two. Ex. Ownership of name transfer. Register.com = $500.00 (?) GoDaddy = Free. $500.00 for a couple of minutes of data entry.

PayPal – Love It. Have been with them since the beginning and never had a problem. Needed support a couple of months ago when a merchant double charged my card. Got a human on the phone immediately. Was not asked if I wanted to “Speak Spanish”, problem was taken care of. Not happy that Ebay bought them but I’ll live with it. Not sure what you know about basic web site design but if you go to PayPals site and read, the shopping carts are explained. You could get one of the templates driven hosting services that allows you to insert basic html. Fancy web sites are not better. Most viewers want info and fast/easy access to it. Make sure to get a PayPal debit/credit card. You get 1.5% credit on what you spend on it. So if you pay 2.5% receiving payments and then purchase or pay bills with the card you end up with 1% cost to accept payment. Not bad.

Merchant Accounts – Another rip off. These greedy sob’s think you should pay $50.00 - $60.00 a month for some reports that cost them practically nothing to create. Some of this may have changed, as I haven’t checked on it lately. I just don’t like getting ripped off. I may end up doing a merchant account in the future but only if I have to.

I’ve been selling the following, FussyBrush , for three years with only PayPal and checks. May have lost a few sales but I have sold thousands worldwide with no problems.

Harlow

[diarmaid]

Thanks for all the info.

Im going to give register.com a wide berth I think. Better to be safe than sorry.

I have looked at and after working through the process on one of their featured sites, I really like cart32's ability for easy direct credit card payment, simply putting in the card number and address.
Im wondering though, do I need a merchant account for this with my credit card company or can payments simply be lodged via cart32 onto my regular visa credit card?

I also really like paypal's setup.

I would really like to have them both. A button on my site in the 'view cart' page that says 'Pay With Paypal', and another button that says 'Pay direct with Credit Card'. Im intending to design the site myself in Frontpage so could I do this since the paypal option is basically free, or do they have rules against using more than one company?

Do I even need to do the above since paypals site says that the customer doesn't need a paypal account?

Thanks for all the advice, it is really helpful.

[sdantonio]

Just keep in mind that cart32 is banned on ebay (free market rules do not apply to ebay). So if you use cart32 you also have to use paypal (or direct payment like checks or money orders) for your ebay stuff.

Personally I like godaddy for domain registration.