Website as Storefronts

<h3 align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Website as Storefronts </b></span></h3><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A customer walks into the store, browses through products and shelves, picks up items, inspects, considers the prices, chooses a product and takes it to the cash register to pay. Now if you want to sell your products online, then your site must be enabled for e-commerce, where you must have the following features:</span></span></span></div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></div><ul><li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">You need to provide plenty of content and product description like sizes, dimensions, colors and comparisons with other similar products. It must allow the customer to choose a product, get a clear pricing and shipping costs on the product, complete the transaction and get an order number, and/or invoice confirmation via email. Allow your customer to choose a shipping method.</span></span></span></div></li><li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">You must tell the customer if the item is in stock or delivered against order. Ideally, you should have an email contact or live help if the customer has a question. Most importantly you must respond immediately! If you want to provide your own live chat and help desk services on your website, specialized softwares are available for purchase. </span></span></span> </div></li><li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Be sure your customer service links are large and clearly marked, so your client does not have to dig around to find information.</span></span></span></div></li><li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Provide an ‘about us’ section or a section about your policies. If you have privacy statements and customer satisfaction policies, your customer will feel better about shopping in your store.</span></span></span></div></li><li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">You probably want to have customer quotes and references on the storefront page, as well, to let your prospective client know that others are happy with your service.</span></span></span></div></li><li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Provide an FAQ with information about your return-back policies, guarantees, shipping prices and insurance charges if any.</span></span></span></div></li><li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">If you are so inclined, you can offer a print catalogue if the customer prefers to order one from your storefront and shop in the privacy of their homes.</span></span></span></div></li><li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Do not annoy your customers by presenting products that are marked ‘sold’ or pages that say ‘under construction’ or ‘coming soon’.</span></span></span></div></li><li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Do add new content frequently, so your returning customers will not be bored by seeing the same products they saw four months ago.</span></span></span></div></li><li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">If your site has got a date tag or has current references, be careful to change these references frequently so you don’t give the perception that nobody is attending or reading your site.</span></span></span></div></li></ul>

Website as Storefronts

Website as Storefronts A customer walks into the store, browses through products and shelves, picks up items, inspects, considers the pric...

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Web Hosting Services and Domain Names

<h3 align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Web Hosting Services and Domain Names</b></span></h3><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Choosing an appropriate domain name is very important. First and foremost, when it comes to domain names, try to stay away from the silly, stupid, ridiculous or clever. Keep your domain name simple and make it something your customers can remember if they lose the link to your business website.</span></span></div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Take note that, while your domain name on Geocities or AOL may seem like the least expensive way to go, it may also get you dropped from certain search engines. Some search engines ignore domain addresses that reside on these ‘free servers’ or on the ‘cheap’ servers.</span></span></div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Even if your site is recognized and considered by search engines, a professional domain name that uses your primary company name or associated words is likely to get more attention and be considered as a stable business by your prospective customers.</span></span></div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Purchasing domain names are not that expensive which cost about $100 and there are many companies that can register the name for you, provided it is available and has not already been used by another company.</span></span></div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Using one of your keywords in your domain name can increase your score on some search engines. For example, </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>solderingirons.com </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">could be more effective as </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Electric-soldering-irons.com, </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">if that domain name was available.</span></span></div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">You might also choose to establish more than one domain name using keywords and then link your ‘doorway’ domain sites to your primary site. But you will have to pay for each of the domain name and also the monthly hosting fees. It all depends on the type and size of your business and your competition.</span></span></div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Keep in mind that some search engines disregard ‘doorway’ sites. So put at least a page of content on the doorway site with some useful information and then link it to your primary site. But don’t design it as an empty page. The other reason being, you can have one, three, five, or even more email addresses that all contain your business name, and give your business a professional feel. When customers get emails from </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">dominicstone@solderingirons.com</span></span><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">they feel as if they are dealing with a stable, professional business operation.</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">No need for customers to understand how you manage all your email boxes on your domain. They just need to feel your business is dependable and reputable.</span></span></span></div>

Web Hosting Services and Domain Names

Web Hosting Services and Domain Names Choosing an appropriate domain name is very important. First and foremost, when it comes to domain n...

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Web Hosting Companies

<h3 align="JUSTIFY" class="western"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Web Hosting Companies</b></span></span></h3><div align="JUSTIFY" class="western"></div><div align="JUSTIFY" class="western"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">With thousands of web hosting companies in the market it can be difficult if not impossible to know which web site hosting companies truly provide an excellent hosting solution at an excellent price. When you have an established domain name with a good web hosting company, you can get reports on your traffic and which of your pages your customers are visiting most often, as well as many other statistics.</span></span></span></div><div align="JUSTIFY" class="western"><br /></div><div align="JUSTIFY" class="western"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Your web host will charge you a fee for monthly service that ranges from $10 or $20 to the more expensive $50.00 per month. Plan to pay between $300 and $500 per year to your web host.</span></span></span></div><div align="JUSTIFY" class="western"><br /></div><div align="JUSTIFY" class="western"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Always avoid free or very inexpensive web hosting services, because you may experience bouts of server downtimes and you are likely to have significant limitations in storage, number of email addresses, FTP upload etc.</span></span></span></span></div><div align="JUSTIFY" class="western"><br /></div><div align="JUSTIFY" class="western"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Be sure your web host can accommodate e-commerce and storefronts, wireless capability, bogs, forums, chats, online interactive helps and anything else you want to add onto your site.</span></span></span></div><div align="JUSTIFY" class="western"><br /></div><div align="JUSTIFY" class="western"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Estimate what your growth needs are and ensure that this web host can serve you as you grow. The last thing you want to do is change host mid way unless you absolutely have to do so.</span></span></span></span></div><div align="JUSTIFY" class="western"><br /></div><div align="JUSTIFY" class="western"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Check your bandwidth capability to be sure that, if your website traffic grows rapidly, your customers will not have to wait to download or view information. Three things to look for in a web hosting company are:</span></span></span></span></div><div align="JUSTIFY" class="western"><br /></div><div align="JUSTIFY" class="western"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">1. </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Excellent Customer Support</b></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">: Your hosting provider should be there for you 24/7 and give you instant access to the technicians you need to solve your problem. Ask them how long it takes for them to typically respond to your problem. A good test is to call them in the mid night to check if you get to a live, level 3 support. </span></span></span></span></div><div align="JUSTIFY" class="western"><br /></div><div align="JUSTIFY" class="western"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">2. </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>A Sound Infrastructure</b></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">: Check whether they offer a multi-homed network powered by multiple bandwidth providers to ensure redundancy. Some offer a 100% guarantee on its network availability or network uptime. </span></span></span></span></div><div align="JUSTIFY" class="western"><br /></div><div class="western"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">3. </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Financial Stability</b></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">: If you're running very critical operations, you can't afford to be with a hosting company that may not be in business in a few months.</span></span></div>

Web Hosting Companies

Web Hosting Companies With thousands of web hosting companies in the market it can be difficult if not impossible to know which web site h...

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