Step 2

After you have carefully chosen for a domain name that best matches all your needs, the next step is to have your site hosted by a professional Web hosting company. The important word here is "Professional". If you are at all serious about your business, you should always avoid at all costs the so-called "free" Web hosting packages, which, I have never seen any to be serious anyway.

Shop around for a good Web hosting company, one that will offer you a free 30-day satisfaction trial period or your money back. Competition in the Web hosting business is extremely fierce and reliability and dependability should be your two most important parameters while shopping around.

Here is a brief list of "must-haves" when shopping for serious Web hosting plans available on the market today:

* Toll-free 1-800 number & email technical support free of charge
* SSL secure servers (128 bit) encryption on any hosting plans
* Fast T-3 Internet backbone connections, 365 days a year
* Ask that all your files be backed up daily (very important)
* Unique, dedicated IP address on any e-commerce plan (mandatory)
* Guaranteed 99.99% network uptime in writing
* A sufficient number of POP-3 email addresses, aliases and free forwarding
* email auto-responders with your custom, personalized message
* Complete daily site traffic statistics with full hit analysis and graphs
* Full FTP (File Transfer Protocol) included 365 days a year
* Sub domains (moreinfo.yourdomain.com) included at no charge
* Java Servlet support (Java is necessary for many e-commerce sites)
* Your own CGI-bin with (approved) CGI support scripts
* Ask for MySQL database support and always the latest version
* Ask for Server Side Includes (SSI) (no additional charge at most hosts)
* Ask for custom 404 error pages with your company name & logo

Although this list is certainly not exhaustive, it is only meant to be an important list of items that are critical to the long-term viability of your e-commerce storefront. Other important parameters such as certain multimedia drivers or Microsoft FrontPage support and extensions, ASP and PHP support are important too and should be discussed with the company you are contemplating doing business with.

If some of you need a good e-commerce Web hosting company that supplies all the items listed above and features a 99.99% uptime written warranty, I will be able to supply you one if you email me at sthibodeau@rankforsales.com

Whatever plan you choose for your e-commerce needs, I strongly suggest you consider some of these important conditions and parameters that will make a big difference in the overall success of your online business.

Go to Step 3