Web Hosting Guide, Everything for Your Online Business

Click an icon and bookmark this post. Have You Checked Out the Cost of a Merchant Account Web Hosting Tips When first-time, online entrepreneurs start to put together a budget they often overlook what will almost certainly be a significant expense the cost of a merchant account. A merchant account is simply an account with a credit card company or companies that allows you to accept credit card orders. Without a merchant account, no credit cards please. This article will provide web hosting tips on merchant accounts, accepting credit cards, their costs, alternative payment methods, transaction fees, and incoming revenue. Now, credit cards are the most popular way to pay for items or on-line services, but check out some of the merchant account providers resellers of merchant accounts that assume some of the risk of granting you credit. (In effect, that s what a merchant account does. It grants you, the site owner, credit which you then pass on to your buying customers.) These merchant account resellers often require you to sign a one- or two-year contract that means you re going to pay a monthly fee of $30 or more for 24 months even if your site closes after two months. And that monthly service charge never goes away. Not a problem for active, profitable sites, but a $30 bite each month might actually mean the difference between success and failure for a pushcart, start-up site selling a single ebook download and hoping to generate AdWords revenues to put the kids through college. You ll also get dinged a per transaction fee (anywhere from 25 cents to 75 cents) and pay the merchant account provider a percentage of each sale on a sliding scale. Those online commercial sites that process thousands of orders daily pay the least maybe 0.5% of each transaction. Online businesses that only process a few orders each day may pay as much as 3% of each order s total. So add it up. Monthly fee = $30 minimum. 25-75 cents per transaction. Plus 0.5 3% of the total order. Those fees, expenses and percentages are certainly going to nibble away at your bottom line, even though they don t sound too bad. But let s say you re operating at a 24% margin on a small number of monthly sales. Merchant account fees can decrease your margins by as much as 20%, and that s a big hit when you re just starting out. Don t forget to add merchant account cost to your line item site budget. And one more thing: no matter how much the merchant account reseller charges, you still may not be able to get an account especially if you have a less-than-stellar credit history. Also, even though the merchant account will be set up in the name of your online business, you are personally responsible for all business activities and payments, whether you make a single sale or not. You pay. It actually might make sense to skip the merchant account altogether, at least for the first few months until you start to see actual incoming revenue. But then, how is the buyer going to pay for services rendered or goods shipped without a credit card Alternative Payment Methods There are, of course, alternatives to the credit card and, with some creative copywriting on your part you can turn a negative into a positive using these alternative payment methods. Let s start with good, old-fashioned snail mail. Mail in a check for the order amount (six business days), wait for the check to clear (three business days) and snail mail order delivery (add another seven business days to account for handling at the warehouse). You could easily forget the order before it even arrives it takes so long to get to you. Especially in this age of one-click shopping and free overnight delivery. Using snail mail is one possibility, but you won t get rich depending on your letter carrier s daily visit. However, there are web-based payment gateways that most knowledgeable web users recognize and accept. And if you construct your checkout to highlight the benefits of these alternative payment methods, you might actually convince a few buyers to make that first purchase. One alternative payment method is 2checkout. Low fees, no long term contracts and available to even those whose credit records look like a disaster in the making. 2checkout, like other gateways, doesn t actually extend credit to you or your buyer. It is simply a processing service for individuals who already have credit cards. So, because the risk is lessened, so, too, are the costs. Another option is payQuake, another order processing service with more merchant account features that 2checkout. payQuake offers tiered services depending on the size of your online enterprise from lite (perfect for small established sites and start-ups) all the way up to the PRO version, perfect for online businesses that process lots of orders and generate a pile of revenue. payQuake, as its website states, [provides] merchant controlled payment processing solutions [payQuake] is a Real Merchant Account. payQuake offers complete ecommerce accounts, swiped card accounts for brick and mortar outlets, international accounts, specialty merchant accounts for high risk (read high end) transactions and electronic checking. Finally, you ll want to open a PayPal account. PayPal, which is owned by eBay, enables buyers to charge purchases on their own credit cards or to pay by direct transfer from their checking or saving accounts. PayPal is the most recognized name in cash transferal services one most buyers will recognize immediately. And one that most buyers will have confidence in. Turning a Negative Into a Positive WE DON T WANT YOUR CREDIT CARD NUMBER! Now that ll grab a lot of eyeballs. Since when do e-tailors NOT want credit card numbers. When they want to protect the sensitive data of their customers or clients. Make a point to remind customers about online credit card fraud and the risks they take whenever they give out a credit card number online. You don t want to put your valuable customers at risk so you don t accept credit card information directly only through processing services like payQuake and PayPal. Further, point out that buyers can eliminate credit card charges and over-limit fees by using PayPal to electronically transfer funds directly from the buyer s checking or savings account into your business account. No numbers exchange hands. Just the payment. Many people prefer this method of purchase. It doesn t run up large credit card bills and actually prevents the buyer from over-spending because, if the money isn t in the account, the transaction won t be made. In other words, describe the benefits of using PayPal, payQuake and 2checkout. Lower costs (We pass the savings on to you!) and less likelihood of credit card fraud because the buyer s credit card numbers are all stored in one place instead of dozens of big and small online sites. Buyers have confidence in PayPal and similar services because of their amazing, trouble-free histories. So, skip the merchant account until you determine that (1) you need one and (2) that you can afford one. As a start up, every entrepreneurial penny should go into building an attractive site and promoting that site. Keep cash close at hand and hold on to every cent until you see whether this thing is actually going to fly. You may someday decide to get a merchant account. You ve heard many pundits state that the more payment gateways you offer, the more sales you generate. That may be true at some point. But on the day you launch your site you may not see a single visitor. They don t know you re there yet. So why pay $30 a month to accept a Visa purchase that never takes place. Wait to see how things go. You ll know soon enough whether a merchant account is something you want or need. And, if you go with a web host that s established and reliable, you may be able to get a break on some of those merchant account charges through your web host (and merchant account reseller, but one that actually cares that your site be successful.) Web Hosting Company Provides Information Our company provides valuable information for webmasters. We don't just offer "how to" on HTML, but we offer important tips and news about websites and the Internet. We believe this information is helpful to webmasters, ecommerce, and their online stores. We encourage you to visit this web hosting blog again for more valuable information on how to make your website a success! Click an icon and bookmark this post. This article is offered by your website hosting Talking to Strangers Remember What Mom Said How do you know that IM is from a legitimate buyer with a quick question How do you know that email isn t infected After all, the author of the email may, indeed, be a legitimate customer but that email doesn t go straight from the customer s computer to your system. It goes through routers to automatically find the fastest, most available route to deliver that email. So, even though the author of the email is a legitimate client, her email may have been routed by way of Chile for all you know and an infected email delivery system can spread a virus faster than you can say e coli. A good link scanner security program scans incoming in real time not just daily or at set times. The scanner runs as long as your system is on. Why Well, if your site is secure 99% of the time, but vulnerable 1% of the time, guess what Your system will eventually become infected. By scanning incoming links continuously, you re assured that each contact you make, whether from a consumer, vendor or another site owner by way of Morocco, is virus free. The software alerts you before you unleash the malware. Sneak Attacks Hackers Adapt Just Like Viruses Hackers never sleep. Right now, somewhere, someone is developing the next worm or virus to produce the next network meltdown. Even big business that spend millions on security are still vulnerable and still targets. Very desirable targets, not only in developing hacker creds but because big business is where the information is and that s the commodity hackers want. Personal, sensitive information stored on a supposedly secure system. Even redundant security software isn t always enough. Hackers have gotten through to databases managed by everything from major retailers to the U.S. government. So what can you, the small, ebiz owner, do Get pro-active, for one thing. Stay Vigilant and Never Assume You re Safe It s essential that you monitor network traffic and the content of every site you visit as you conduct market research. Today s system attacks are dynamic, highly-adaptable, self-propagating, mutating and fast moving to best exploit weaknesses in your site s security. Your firewall won t protect the business, again, because you invited in the hacker believing it to be a legit customer care case. And, by the time your anti-virus and anti-spyware have discovered the malware injection (if they ever do) it s too late. The malware is now on your system. And, if your work station is plugged into a network, that virus will spread just like a cold among cubicles. Link scanner software top-down scans all incoming instantly so you don t have to leave customers hanging on an unanswered IM. Same with all emails. These tools also let you surf safely, alerting you to potential dangers before you actually enter a site. Very useful for conducting online research on your business system. Products Worth a Look McAfee s SiteAdvisor helps you keep spyware, spam and scams at bay. Here s how McAfee describes SiteAdvisor: McAfee SiteAdvisor helps protect you from all kinds of Web-based security threats including spyware, adware, spam, viruses, browser exploits, and online scams. Our automated testers continually patrol the Web to browse sites, download files, and sign-up for things with e-mail addresses. As you search, browse, download, or register online, SiteAdvisor's safety ratings help you stay safe and in control. You can download a free trial version of SiteAdvisor from McAfee and give it a test drive. You ll like the extra security and peace of mind. Exploit Prevention Labs has introduced LinkScanner Pro . Again, you can try it free and use the truncated version, or spend $29.95 to buy it. Look, this blog post isn t pushing one brand of link scanner over another. There are lots of good programs available. Some OSS, all low-cost security software to help you sleep at night. Also check out LinkScan, another well-known, well-reviewed software. Another popular link scanner software comes from Grisoft. The free download offers basic anti-virus protections. The AVG Internet Security pack provides protection from all sides at a reasonable price. You don t have to spend thousands to keep your links safe, whether inbound links from unknown customers, or links exchanges with another site owner who just happens to be siphoning off your business through redirects that you don t even know about! No, you don t have to spend a bundle but you have to invest something in software that equips you to safely interact online with unknowns. Otherwise, you re open to attack every time you open an email or IM. So, relax. Spend a few bucks and buy a real-time link scanner one that monitors all network and site traffic and prevents you from logging on to an infected site. Then, get a good night s sleep. Web Hosting Blog This web hosting blog is intended to help webmasters in the success of their website. Come back next week for more relevant and helpful articles. Click an icon and bookmark this post. Permalink 06:26:59 am, by srose Email, 877 words, 294 views English (US) Categories: Marketing Alexa Rank: What It Means and How to Increase It content on left & ads on right title Alexa Rank - Web Hosting Provider Explains description Let your web hosting provider explain - Alexa rank is calculated from information collected via users of the Alexa toolbar Alexa Rank: What It Means and How to Increase It Web hosting Tips What is Alexa rank Should you care How can you increase it for your website Alexa rank explained Let your web hosting provider explain - Alexa rank is calculated from information collected via users of the Alexa toolbar. The most-visited sites that is, visited by people using the Alexa toolbar have the lowest or best Alexa rank. An "increase" in Alexa rank means a decrease in the rank number, and vice versa. The highest Alexa rank is 1. Ranks are based on pageviews (the number of Alexa user URL requests for a site) and reach (the number of unique Alexa visitors) over a three-month period. More information is at Alexa.com's FAQ. The Alexa toolbar provides Alexa data for the page being visited, a popup blocker, a search box, lists of related and inbound links, and other features. Although it's been downloaded over 10 million times, no accurate statistics indicate how many people actually use it. Why Alexa rank is inaccurate Some reasons that Alexa rank is not representative of all web users:

• Webmasters and other people who work online use the Alexa toolbar more than the general population because they're more likely to know about it and to want to use its features. As a result, sites with webmaster or tech audiences tend to rank disproportionately high.
• The Alexa toolbar is available for only some browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Mozilla.
• Its use varies in different parts of the world.
• It doesn't collect data for secure (https:) pages.
• Sites listed on alexa.com get a disproportionate number of visitors with the Alexa bar installed when Alexa users follow the links from alexa.com.
• Alexa rank can be manipulated to some extent. For example, webmasters can join programs where they surf or autosurf sites of other webmasters in the program to increase the Alexa rank of each other's sites.

Overall web traffic stats may have no correlation with Alexa stats. An increase in site traffic may happen at the same time as a decrease in the site's Alexa ranking. When Alexa rank matters Alexa rank matters if you offer advertising at your site. Many advertisers and advertising networks use a site's Alexa rank to determine the value of having ads on it. Text Link Ads and Review Me, for example, base their rates at least in part on Alexa rank. The higher the Alexa rank, the more you can earn for ads or reviews at your site. The value of Alexa rank is similar to the value of Google PageRank Are You Completely Indexed A site with five or 10 pages won t have any trouble getting indexed by SE spiders. But what about sites that contain hundreds and hundreds of pages How can you be sure all of your site has been indexed and properly indexed, at that Site analytics will indicate how many of your pages are actually part of the search engine s inventory. If a lot of your pages have been mis-indexed, or just plain missed, there are a couple of things you can do. Spiders follow links when crawling a site so add links to those pages that are missing from the search engine index. You can also submit a site map to Google, Yahoo, Ask and other search engines. This acts as a personal invitation to a spider to stop by for another look. A site map can also provide links to all pages, ensuring a more complete indexing and a more accurate indexing. Who s Beating The Pants Off You Who are the heavy hitters in your market Conduct a search based on page rank or on the quality of the site s optimization, i.e. see well-optimized sites. Why What are they doing that you aren t If you re an HTML coder, you can access the underlying code of any site using Internet Explorer so sneak a peek at keyword selection, title tags and content architecture. Also check out site navigation. The easier the better. Keyword Searches Two functions, here. First, enter your keywords to produce a list of other sites using the same keywords. If one of them is a behemoth site, add lesser-used keywords to by-pass the stiffest competition. The second function is to refine your keyword list based on keywords that have been entered into the big search engines in the past day or two. Keyword rankings change as quickly as today s headlines. If your site sells time sensitive content, services or products, it s essential to stay up to date with the latest in keyword use. Online success is all about the numbers, how you analyze them and alter your site accordingly. It s a never-ending process of refinement based on what works and what doesn t. And the only way to find out that We all like what we can get for free. The word "free, " by itself and with other words, is searched for thousands of times a day. It gets our attention when we see it on a web page. As a webmaster, you can use free offers to attract people to your website and acquire more inbound links. The links may come from blogs, forums, social media sites, and other sites. You can also ask to have your site included in directories that list free offers. Web hosting tips are provided by your web host, WebsiteSource.com Free offers at your website What you offer as freebies depends on your site focus, tone, and target market. These ideas may bring more ideas to mind: Free products: free e-books, software, samples, newsletters, photos.

• Write an e-book about a topic that's related to your site content, or hire someone to write one for you. It doesn't need to be long, just informative, relevant, and different from what's already available. Include a link to your site in the e-book.
• If you sell software or other online products, offer one or two less valuable products at no cost. They'll provide exposure to the products and services that you charge for.
• Offer free samples, perhaps charging a minimal amount for shipping. Or offer them free with a purchase worth a minimum specified amount. People who might be reluctant to pay for something that they may not like will be more interested in buying the product if they can find out beforehand if they like it.
• Publish a free monthly newsletter with free tips and other information that's useful to your target audience.
• If your website is about a location, for example, a few free photos of that location will attract interest. Free photos of events, well-known people, or interesting items may also be popular. For more exposure, ask for a link back to your site from the sites that publish your photos.

Free services: memberships, consultations, affiliate signups, service items.

• If you offer memberships at your site, they could all be free, or you might offer two levels of membership: free and paid. Free memberships can often lead to paid memberships. You can also offer memberships that are free for the first month or few months only.
• Free initial consultations can work the way samples do they give people the opportunity to find out if what you offer is something they're willing to pay for.
• Affiliate signups can increase your sales at no cost to you or to your affiliates. You just need to give them affiliate links, and they'll link to your site and help promote your products and services.
• Perhaps some of your services can be used only in combination with other services. When you offer one such small service for no charge, the overall package becomes more attractive.

Contests: give something away. The prizes can be products or services that you offer, and the contest page will attract links from other sites. You can also ask to have it listed in various contest directories and send out press releases about it. In addition to the exposure you'll gain, you can offer the option (or make it a requirement) to sign up for your newsletter during the entry process. Free content with links back to your site If websites with related but non-competing content have free offers, a page with descriptions of and links to the freebies adds useful content to your site. And you may be able to get reciprocal links. Offer free content for other sites in return for a link back to your site. If you offer an e-book or newsletter at your site, you can gain more exposure by allowing non-competing webmasters to offer it at their sites too as long as they link to your site. While you'll want most of your web content to be original, you might want to offer some articles for publication at other sites as long as you get a link back. If you do this, it's advisable to wait until the articles have been indexed at your site for at least a few months so that search engines will see your site as the one with the original content. Free products or services for charity Some charities or non-profit organizations might be able to use the products or services you provide. And you can use the publicity gained by helping them. For a win-win situation, you could offer your help in exchange for a mention and a link at their site. You could then write a press release about what the charity or organization gained from your services and publish it at your site. Free for how long The problem with offering something free for a limited time and then giving it a price is that its perceived value has dropped. Who wants to pay for something that they didn't have to pay for in the past Of course it has value or no one would want it even as a giveaway, but don't expect to be able to charge money for giveaways afterwards. Exceptions may be contest prizes that cost money to everyone except the contest winners. Some products, such as e-books or photos, you can give away indefinitely at no extra cost to yourself. Some other products and services cost with each giveaway, so you may want to make the offer time-limited. Choose the giveaway for its quality and uniqueness and for your target audience, and choose the length of time that works for you, and it should be a gift that keeps giving to you and the recipients for a long time. Click an icon and bookmark this post. Permalink Permalink Leave a comment 06/14/07 Permalink 09:02:38 am, by srose Email, 1428 words, 519 views English (US) Categories: Webmaster Issues Your Conversion Rate and a Reputable Web Hosting Company Increase Your Conversion Rate If you re new to the world of e-commerce, you ve heard a lot of chatter about search engine optimization or SEO optimizing your web site to ensure complete and accurate search engine indexing. Fast. The longer it takes to get recognized by search engines like Google or Inktomi, the longer it ll take to turn that web site into the cash cow you ve been hoping for. But SEO isn t for human eyeballs. It s intended to configure a site for search engine spiders who, despite crawling your site every 48 hours or so, never buy anything. SEO is just part of the online success equation, and a part that s shrinking in importance. Getting your site listed on the first page or two of Yahoo s SERPs will deliver organic traffic to a site, but how many links can appear on the first page or two of any search engine results pages Not many. The key to long-term, online success is conversion optimization optimizing your site for human visitors by providing the incentive to make a purchase, complete a form or pick up the telephone to give you a call. Select a web hosting monebaggasse