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This web hosting service is quite alike to another host, Bluehost. They have almost the same features and prices. This is not surprising considering that they are from the same company. Despite their similarities, Hostmonster has quite a few features to offer that Bluehost doesn't.
The Plans
For one thing, they have a great promotions and discounts all the time to attract new users. Right now, at the time of writing this article, Hostmonster is offering $4.95 per month for a two month contract and $5.95 per month for two years. Originally it used to be $6.95 per month for two years and $7.95 per month for a yearly service. However, there are certain terms and conditions to be adhered to when you sign up.
The Features
Most hosts are not generous enough when it comes to bandwidth, space or domains. Hostmonster, on the other hand feature unlimited supply to all three. Unfortunately, they do make it clear that you cannot host big sites on the server in exchange for the space. So, although they say it's unlimited, in actuality, you only have unlimited space and bandwidth if you don't use too many CPU processes.
Aside from that, this host gives plenty of other features to keep webmasters busy. To name a few, Hostmonster offers Cpanel with Fantastico, Shell Access(SSH), 100 MySQL Databases, unlimited sub domains, Ruby on Rails (Ruby on Wheels), Custom PHP.INI Files and many more. All of these can be accessed through an easy-to-use control panel that even noobies can use.
Once you sign up, they give you a free domain name and also a free domain transfer if the need arises. Your site can also be up and running straightaway. They give free site promotion, although they don't state for how long. They also give away free Google and Yahoo credits, some $75 worth.
The Performance
This service boasts a top-of-the-range server that is monitored by their team around the clock. When asked about the server's performance, Hostmonster guarantees to have 99.9% network uptime. This was put to the test when a third-party monitoring service monitored a sample account. According to the service, it registered a 99.5% average uptime from January to September, with the highest being in September at 99.92% and the lowest in June at 99.15%.
The Help
Based on user reviews, Hostmonster's support team isn't exactly the best. Although they do have a 24/7 toll free line, some users have complained that they have been slow in fixing problems. A user also said that some members of the support team are not knowledgeable enough. However, they do have online chat rooms and help through email. Online support might not be fast enough, but they are almost guaranteed to help you. You can also read the FAQ articles if your problem is a basic one and doesn't require much help.
The Verdict:
Hostmonster may not stand head shoulders over other web hosts, but it is still quite a decent service. Despite several drawbacks, such as not having truly unlimited space and bandwidth, it should serve any webmasters, whether casual or professional, really well.
If you enjoy reading this, you may enjoy to read more about which web hosting is your Best Web Hosting and read HostMonster Reviews
Tired of reading all blatant Hostgator Reviews? I thought I'd finally write down a truthful Hostgator Review that will tell you the real Strengths and Flaws with Hostgator Hosting. First off, a word of caution. Most Hostgator Reviews in the Market are hyped up to make you purchase Hostgator Hosting through their Affiliate Links, so, don't listen to them. For real Customers' Hostgator Review, visit the Hostgator Forums and go to the 'Customer Reviews' category. I am writing this Hostgator Review as a personal experience with Hostgator webhosting for the last 2 years, and I'll try to be as helpful as possible for helping you make the right choice in purchasing your hosting. I want to start off this Hostgator Review by highlighting the main flaws with Hostgator.
Hostgator Review - Flaws:
1) If you expect your sites to load with lightning fast speed with Shared Hostgator Hosting (which most people buy), then you're wrong. On a Shared Server, you're basically sharing one single server with about 700-800 different websites. Although, their speeds are better in comparison to other hosts, but still it may render a bit slowly for your visitors.
2) Hostgator doesn't have an exhaustive database of answers to common questions related to Hosting and cPanel, etc. Although, you can contact them via a Helpdesk and Live Chat (24/7 Live), where they will answer all your questions, but still it would be helpful to have a good solid knowledgebase.
I mentioned these flaws in this Hostgator Review, as some people do feel that 'speed' and 'knowledgebase' are important factors in considering a host. Now, don't just close this Hostgator Review. I'll write down some Strengths of Hostgator Hosting to complete this short Hostgator Review.
Hostgator Review - Strengths:
1) Hostgator has given me almost 100% uptime ever since I started hosting with them. I currently host over 27 domains on their hosting (all on one account), and I have never had even one complaint from my thousands of daily visitors about any downtime or server issues. I mentioned earlier about speed, but I must tell you that my visitors never faced any problems with the 'slightly' slow speed of page opening on Hostgator Severs.
2) I have tried over 7 different webhosts (all leaders in the hosting industry), and I must conclude that Hostgator Hosting has the 'best hosting features' among all these webhosts. Although, I would like them to offer a 'free domain' with a customer purchase (which is currently provided by many leading webhosts). But, they have done absolutely no compromise on the hosting features. I have various heavy scripts, such as Joomla, Wordpress, and a few Custom scripts (with CronJobs) running on my account, and they all work as smooth as butter.
There are many more points which I would like to discuss here. A few more Hostgator Flaws and Strengths are still waiting to be mentioned. But, I'll write another Hostgator Review for those. I hope this Hostgator Review will help you make a right decision in purchasing your hosting.
For another Hostgator Review and Hostgator Coupons, visit: http://hostgatorworld.com Want to Purchase Hostgator Hosting? Wait! We have special Bonuses for you if you at HostgatorWorld
Accept All Major Credit Cards and Electronic Checks for your Online Business, Retail Store and Mobile Sales Force using a Single Payment Gateway Service.
A real-time payment gateway service provides merchants with a secure method for accepting credit card and electronic check payments. A secure online point-of-sale service allows the merchant to capture customer credit card or checking account information then transmits that information over an encrypted SSL connection. Successful transactions will move the customer payment from the customer's credit card or checking account to the merchant's business bank account.
The top rated real-time payment gateway services can be used to process retail, mobile and online customer sales. As a merchant you want to select a virtual point-of-sale service that can support your business as it grows. Therefore, you want to select a payment gateway service that can support multiple sales environments (e.g. retail, online and mobile) without requiring you to open multiple gateway accounts.
Since there are a multitude of real-time payment gateways to choose from I have provided a checklist to help you select the right service for your business. Ultimately, you must select a service that meets the unique requirements of your specific business.
Merchant checklist for choosing a payment service (e.g. features must be included at no additional cost):
• Real-time sales reporting
• Virtual Terminal/Batch Uploads for processing manual transactions
• Virtual POS for processing card present transactions
• Recurring Billing capabilities for processing membership and subscription services
• Integration Method for integrating payment processing into your back office software
• Online knowledgebase
• Online Help Desk
• "Live" Technical Support
• Load-balancing for processing multiple merchant accounts using a single payment gateway account. This will become an important feature as your business grows.
• Commercial and Open Source Shopping Cart Payment Modules
• Secure Online Merchant Interface
• Address Verification (AVS)
• Retail POS software support
• CRM Payment Modules (open source and commercial software support)
• PCI Compliant service
Optionally, you should be able to select the following add-on services:
• Electronic Checks processing
• Advanced Fraud Protection Tools
• PCI Compliant Data Storage and Retention for storing customer payment data
• Mobile Payment Software (e.g. iPhone)
Always keep in mind, when you choose a payment service you are selecting a service to process your customer payments which is the lifeline of your business.
Ricky Bracken is President & CEO of SaleManager Merchant Services. SaleManager Merchant Services provides enterprise class payment solutions to small and mid-size businesses. Our payment solutions include PlanetAuthorize Payment Gateway, Certified Shopping Carts, CRM Payment Modules, POS Terminals and Mobile payment solutions.
E-commerce Websites are cost effective and its staff reducing, Where online strategies that can deliver much greater returns on a limited budget with affordable and efficient website solutions.
While it is impossible to know how many people actually see print advertising, online advertisers can track precisely how many see each and every ad and how many website visits it generates, enabling businesses to attract the highest volume of targeted traffic, at the lowest possible cost. Whatever the visitor action – making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, downloading a report, conversions are the key to measuring Return On Investment.
With e-commerce you will get the opportunity to build your All-Time-Open-Shop and offer all services & products online which can be purchased with a click of a mouse.
Professional web site design is critical for success in the modern Internet Business World. Offering an attractive, intuitive interface with a logical and easy to use navigation layout will make the difference between a happy visitor (and potential client) and a frustrated web surfer at your website.
Your website is an integral part of your image, identification and communication strategy. Successful web communication comes from grabbing your visitors' attention and providing a website that is comfortable to use. your web site should do both-innovative design captures the eye and is followed by a familiar and easy to navigate path.
A well-designed website is a mission-critical investment in
• enhancing brand image
• building consumer confidence
• increasing willingness to buy
From overall Website design and architecture, the simple things like clear contact information and telephone numbers, testimonials and case studies. Customers want to find what they’re looking for.
Setting up all requirements to accept payments online and automating all the processes, its all depends on reliable Web Development & Web Hosting solutions to ensure the best performance of your e-business.
Your E-commerce business can have its own online customer service solutions to meet your customers satisfaction like:
• Complaints Management System
• Live Chat Support System
• Trouble ticket System
• Online Billing System
About The Author
Ali Mohsen is a co-founder of eFAIT specialized in internet & web solutions since 1998 with many other Online Projects.Now you can start your own E-commerce website in 5 easy steps with eFAIT at: http://wwww.efait.com
How To Improve Conversion Rates On E-commerce Sites
Written by Joom Advisor1. Keyword Research
• Ensure that your keyword research (http://www.accuracast.com/resources/seo/seo-keywords.php ) is thorough. If you only select the most obvious keywords, you will pay more, since all your competitors will also be bidding on them.
• If you select only generic keywords, you will suffer low conversion rates since visitors typing such words in are often not yet ready to buy.
• If you miss out the unique keywords which no one else is bidding on, you will miss the opportunity to sell to visitors that search on these keywords.
• Use negative keywords to discourage irrelevant searches from displaying your advertisement.
2. Effective Ad Copy
• Ensure that your ads describe your product or service precisely.
• Do not lie in your ads to attract visitors. If visitors don't find what your ad promised on your site, they will leave, making your conversion rates fall.
• Use your ad to discourage the wrong sort of people from clicking. E.g. if you sell a premium product, don't use words like "cheap" or "bargain".
3. Consistency
• Deliver what your ad promises. Always.
• Make sure that your offline and online advertising image is consistent.
• Most importantly, for e-commerce sites, ensure that the price quoted is consistent throughout your site and through the entire checkout process.
4. No Hidden Costs
• Make customers aware of any extra costs at the very start of the checkout process.
• VAT and postage should be clearly mentioned as extras.
• If the amount quoted at the start is unexpectedly different from the final total, customers will abandon the checkout process and shop elsewhere. This will make your conversion rate suffer greatly.
5. Comprehensive Search Engine Marketing
• Customers often browse and return for products. If they can't find you when they return, you will loose the conversion.
• Top 10 placement in the natural and paid listings often reinforces customer trust in your brand, making them more likely to buy from your site.
• Ensure that your search engine marketing campaign (http://www.accuracast.com/services/ ) also builds a brand in the minds of browsers, so that when they are ready to buy, they will come to your site since it is the only one they recognize.
When you increase conversion rates on your e-commerce site, you can automatically afford to bid more per click without suffering a loss. If you find CPC's rising and profitably diminishing rapidly, the first step you should take is to review your site to ensure that you are converting as many visitors as possible. The maths is very simple:
If you currently pay £1.00 per click on Google, convert only 1% of these clicks, and the profit you make on each conversion is just £100, your total cost = total profit, meaning you just break even.
If you have to raise your CPC to £1.10 per click in order to maintain your top 10 position, you will suffer a loss.
However, if you just raised your conversion rate by 1%, you would actually find yourself making a profit, since your cost would now be £110 for 100 clicks but the profit made from 2% conversion, i.e. 2 sales would be £200!
Other articles to read:
• The advent of RSS advertising (http://www.accuracast.com/seo-weekly/rss-advertising.php )
• Website accessibility important for disabled visitors (http://www.accuracast.com/seo-weekly/website-accessibility.php )
SEO Weekly ( http://www.accuracast.com/seo-weekly/ )
About The Author
Farhad DivechaBefore founding AccuraCast, Farhad worked for and provided consulting services to a number of large and medium sized enterprises in the UK and USA including 3Com, Proctor & Gamble and Household (HFC, HSBC). He has over 7 years of experience marketing products and services online and offline.
The most common features of an e-commerce hosting are shopping carts that are used for online transactions. This service offers a fast and convenient way for online buyers to manage their purchases and make payments. The convenient navigation and ease of going through the motion of buying products has increased the popularity and take-up of shopping carts in websites. From web developers’ point of view, shopping carts provide the ability to manage the complexities of web purchases in a systematic and simplified manner. There are so many available shopping carts in the market that it is normal for one e-commerce hosting package to include three or four shopping carts to choose from. Names like Zencart, osCommerce and Agora are among the established shopping cart providers, providing end-to-end medium for purchases to be done over the web. These companies would normally provide a 24-hour technical support to provide immediate response to queries.
The other must-have feature of an e-commerce hosting is the Secure Socket Layer (SSL). With SSL, the security of an online website is going to be taken care of by the hosting provider. Since security is one of the most important, if not the most important feature of an e-commerce website, SSL guarantees the peace of mind of making transactions safely. With SSL, private information such as credit card numbers, telephone numbers and personal information can be sent through encryption that is virtually safe from theft.
The other functionalities that are important to look for especially for beginners are web templates for an e-commerce website. It would be of great advantage if users can tap in from the ready-made web pages of online stores and forms for customers to view, browse through and select products. These web pages can be very complex to develop, and thus it would reduce a lot of hassle and errors of doing it from scratch. Web developers can always build on these templates to create more advanced add-ons. The list of crucial e-commerce hosting services goes on with features such as online catalogues, customer order management, data collection, inventory management and analyses on customer demographics.
Overall, for online business owners and individuals alike, e-commerce hosting brings a lot of benefits due to its complete package, from the marketing of their products, purchasing by customers, and collection of data to eventually improve the business. Web owners can expect to proliferate their businesses, contributed by the convenience, security and credibility that come with a full-fledge e-commerce website.
About The Author
Mer Amer writes in http://www.hostrecommend.com on various articles related to web hosting. Visit http://www.hostrecommend.com for more resources on web hosting and list of highly recommended web hosting services.E-Commerce Website Design & Development Solutions for Today’s Global Market
Written by Joom AdvisorThe growth of online business has increased with the growing number of people making purchases over the Internet. Ecommerce web site design and development solutions have become more important than ever to make a successful business. Today there is practically no product which cannot be purchased through online booking and payment. Buying and selling goods or services over the internet have totally changed how business is conducted. Looking at the present scenario, this new online concept has brought in a revolution in the world and is acting as the ideal platform to give your business a global push.
Nowadays people like to be in activities which can save their time. With mobile technology and online shopping, they just do not like to waste their time in visiting stores to purchase a product. In such a situation, e-commerce is the only means to provide a better solution.
There are many companies that specialize in providing ecommerce web design & development solutions for a whole range of business. By hiring an expert e-commerce web design and development company, you will be able to get an ecommerce website that will make your business successful online.
Newpath WEB, a leading web design and development company in Australia offers professional web services that can help you build an effective online business presence. The company uses the latest techniques and methods in building an ecommerce website which enables you to sell your products or services throughout the world. The experts at Newpath WEB utilize various complicated applications and payment gateway systems to offer highly operative and interactive ecommerce solutions . The company offers complete ecommerce web design & development solutions, including administration, payment gateways, security, payment methods, product pages and customer logins.
To know more about Newpath WEB, please visit the site http://www.newpathweb.com.au
About The Author
Newpath WEB (http://www.newpathweb.com.au), a leading web design and development company in Australia offers professional web services that can help you build an effective online business presence. Visit Newpath WEB at http://twitter.com/NewpathWEB to know more about the company.Does your company need credit card processing? It does if you can benefit from the following:
Credit Card Processing Enhances Your Professional Status. When customers know that you accept credit payments, they often are more likely to pay more, return often, and tell their friends if the service is good. This is because a company that makes credit payment options available to clients is telling the world that they care about customers and they are professional enough to invest in systems that will enhance the shopping experience for guests. No one likes that disappointed feeling when, after browsing, you find something you want to buy but then fail to find enough cash in your wallet to purchase it. Writing a check may put you over the balance, and you don’t want to take time to run to the ATM machine to withdraw the money from savings. When customers can pay with a plastic card, they may show their appreciation by returning again and again to shop your store.
Credit Card Processing is Inexpensive. It depends on your current business budget, of course, but you don’t have to sink a lot of money into credit card processing equipment. All you need do is get a merchant account services account, buy or lease a credit card processing unit, and you are good to go. Plug it in or take a wireless unit with you on the road to make credit payments easy, fast, and secure. Plan on paying a per-transaction fee of perhaps 25 cents or a low interest monthly rate that may include minimums. Associated expenses may include discount fees, gateway fees, print statement fees, and membership costs. There may be others as well. Overall, however, the benefits of a merchant account outweigh its costs.
Credit Card Processing is Flexible. You don’t have to be stuck behind the cash register all day to appreciate the advantages of a merchant account’s ability to provide credit card processing. You can take a wireless unit from one destination to another to let clients pay at the point of purchase rather than wait for billing. You may want to invest in a pager that will let you provide instant deliveries or prompt responses to customer inquiries, some of which could lead to direct or indirect sales with the option of credit card payments. You can also set up an online Website to accept credit card payments from potentially billions of customers around the world. It’s all up to you, of course, as to what you’re ready to do in terms of growing your company’s sales. You won’t need extra staff to manage credit card processing, either. In fact, you may be able to operate some credit card processing systems automatically when you opt for the telephone payment system or the Website option. But you will need to have a staff member available at certain times for questions or troubleshooting issues.
Don’t get left behind by competitors who already have merchant account services and customers who expect them. Start browsing now to learn more about Credit Card Processing.
About The Author
Shane Penrod is the founder of http://www.Merchant-Account-Quotes.com Specializing in allowing merchants the ability to shop and compare multiple quotes from national merchant account providers. For free quotes on merchant account rates and fees, please go to http://www.merchant-account-quotes.com.
While you are attending to these five steps, there are plenty of other things that need to be done, too. You should have a business plan, of course, and know where your operating funds are coming from until such time as your business is self-supporting. This means you will have to guess at some things until you have enough real-world experience to "fill in the blanks." Follow those who have gone before you, and make use of their experience, especially in regards to what you should not do and what are must-dos.
1. Your name - The first step in a successful host reseller venture is getting a domain name that is catchy, out of the ordinary and at least somewhat descriptive. A domain name is, in fact, your business's personal ID. Your customers will need to have access to your products and services, and a good company name will help them remember where to find you on the Internet.
2. The equipment - Next you need to locate and set up a hosting reseller account. You could conceivably establish your own domain registration procedures, arrange for connectivity from one or more "major bandwidth" providers and fill a warehouse or two with powerful computers and racks of servers. Or you could get a reseller account from a firm that has all of those things going on already, an established supplier.
3. The software tools - Any good reseller hosting account will offer customers the tools, often combined in a web-accessed "control panel," to manage website hosting, domains and customer accounts from a central location. That way, you can log in check billing, uptime figures, account status and everything else, all at once.
4. Look, feel and functions - You must look professional to make customers feel safe in signing up with you as their website host. That means your own website must be designed and implemented by a professional. Try not to save money by using cookie-cutter website templates, as they tend to say, "We're cheap." One of the major benefits of using a professional designer is that you end up with a unique website, one that looks the way you want it to look and doesn't look like a copy of someone else's. One way to save money is to hire a designer simply to tweak and personalize the look of a good, flexible template, an option you should investigate if your funds are limited.
5. Easy sign up - However you decide to design and implement the site, make sure that you make the sign up process easy and straightforward. Keep your order form as simple, uncluttered and easy to complete as you can. One way to do this, as well as steer the customer a bit, is to have some choices pre-selected (default). It is important to supply customers with a summary page of their orders so they can review all of the details before making the purchase.
6. Differentiate yourself - Try to present yourself as being different in some essential way from every other web hosting offer. You can create a special offer, run a contest or promotion featuring a prize, bundle services and tools that other companies don't offer - it matters less what is different about your hosting offer than that it "seems" and "acts" different.
7. Be a good driver - And that doesn't mean in a car, either. You have to learn how to drive a lot of qualified traffic to your website, as that is the only way to get customers. There are entire textbooks - make that shelves full of textbooks - on how to market a website, build traffic, qualify leads and convert visitors into paying customers. If you take just one lesson from this article on possible traffic-driving solutions, one that has a proven track record for thousands of small, online businesses, it would be Google's AdWords program. Check it out, as well as the other million things you can do to get traffic to your site and get customers to sign up.
You never know what several or dozen different things might combine to create success for you and your web host reseller service. But one thing is certain. If you do not provide a high level of customer service, your newfound customers won't stay around for long. It is true of customers in any kind of store, online or offline, high-tech or not. If you are not taking care of them, and treating them like their business (and they, personally) are important to you, they will move to another web hosting firm as soon as they can.
You will need good luck to succeed in reseller web hosting, like in any other endeavor. If you follow seven steps outlined above, and tend to the other million or so things that are required of a successful business, you could be well on your way. Stay focused, stay busy, stay attentive and stay positive, and you just might stay in business, too.
About The Author
Amy Armitage is the head of Business Development for Lunarpages. Lunarpages provides quality web hosting from their US-based hosting facility. They offer a wide-range of services from dedicated servers and managed solutions to shared and reseller hosting plans. Visit us at http://www.lunarpages.com/ for more information.Using a Cheap Web Hosting Company To Initiate Online Presence
Written by Joom AdvisorIn this highly competitive market online presence is must to gain an edge over the competitors. Even if the competitors have web portals, with better quality and performance of the sites you can easily run leap ahead. Millions of consumers hunt for desired products and services and only a proper Australian web hosting company can help a business to focus up products and services. Actually as Australia led in e-commerce implementation, the web developers of the nation bagged huge experiences. Now they just execute their skills to prevail better.
A proper web hosting company develops and hosts a web portal to make a business up and successful. In this time of recession, many online trades are not largely affected. This is another good reason of making online presence prominent. Internet and communication convergence have revolutionized the world and now conducting business transactions over the net is in vogue. To ensure secure online transactions it is advisable to go for the reputed web hosting company.
While providing the specifications to the web hosting companies, each requirement should be clarified to get the web site exactly as desired. For facilitating the visitors with online shopping, nowadays online shopping carts are used. A customizable page layout along with a soothing look and feel of the web page is always nice. Besides these, the payment processing tools should also be created considering the security issues. Highly secured payment gateways provide security and in addition this makes the purchaser’s confidence high. Australian web hosting providers are aware of all these details.
There remain several packages and it is possible to select a suitable one. There are different uses of technologies and while developing a web site several specifications can be done regarding the use of technology and tools. The renowned web hosting company may provide effective suggestions and guidelines related to usage of specific software and tools. Performance of the site largely depends on use of tools during development and launch of the site.
It is a proven fact that with an up to date website it is possible to increase profits. Instead of procrastination it is best to search out a cheap web hosting company. Local yellow pages and community newspapers offer classifieds of different website hosting firms. A comparative analysis among the various sites helps in finding quality web development firms who offer affordable rates.
About The Author
For more information related to web hosting, business web hosting, cheap web hosting, web hosting provider, ecommerce web hosting, web hosting Australia please visit: http://www.aussiewebhost.com.au/Featured Articles
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Dymystifying the Content workflow
Improving Your Content Strategy
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