There are dozens of different e-commerce platforms available out there. Some are free, while some cost thousands of dollars. One free e-commerce platform that many people talk about is Magento. It is included in the automatic installers for many web hosts and is touted as the most advanced free e-commerce platform. But is it really the best choice for you? Especially if you are new to e-commerce?

Well, to be honest, it is not. The first thing that you need to know is that Magento is an enterprise class e-commerce solution. Powerful, yes. But it is also very complicated to use for new users. But what about support? Isn’t there a knowledge base or something? Well there are support forums that are provided for users of the software. The problem with them is that there is not much “support” going on there. Mostly users saying “Oh! Darn this doesn’t work” and others joining in with “Yeah! It doesn’t work for me too! Bummer”. Magento staff rarely answer any questions on the forum and there is a reason as to why: the software is free. The support isn’t. If you want support from them, well then you would need to pay for it.

There are also a few other issues with Magento. The first thing is that the admin panel is quite slow. Sometimes it takes up to one minute for a page to refresh after you have made a change. It is not my hosting or my server that is a problem, believe me. I have tried with a cloud server and a shared hosting account. Both have given the same results.

What about customizing it? Magento says that you can customize their software fully to fit your exact needs and make the site look and work just like you want. Well, this is not a lie. It IS possible. Just extremely hard. There are some templates provided with the software, but they will not work for everybody. You can download some free ones or pay for premium templates, but the issue is that many of them are buggy and have problems working. You can also modify the code, as it is open source software. But you better be an expert on the Zend Framework. Otherwise, expect to spend several months (that’s right, months) learning it before you can accomplish anything useful with it. Quite simply Magento is not the best solution for beginners… unless you just want to take the default template and add a few products for your e-commerce site.

Is Magento E-Commerce a Good Solution for Beginners? is a post from: Websites For Sale

• Free web hosting

There are hundreds of free web hosting services. There are also various types of business models in the free hosting industry. Some put up text ads on your site. Others put in banners or popup ads. Some do not put ads on your site at all. While certain people think that free hosting with no ads may be sufficient for a serious business, this is quite a mistake to make. Free web hosts often are not as reliable as some of the better (and not free) web hosting companies out there. Just read some of the comments on message board. You will find plenty of complaints of people’s accounts getting deleted for nebulous reasons, slow or unreliable servers, etc. Some of these hosts will also pressure you to buy their “premium” hosting if you find their free option to be not suitable for you. It is just not worth the trouble, as by saving $10 a month, you might be losing thousands in sales if your site goes down.

• Very cheap hosts

These hosting companies are small web hosts that charge maybe $1 or $2 a month for hosting. This may seem all good, except that they often suffer from the same problems than free web hosts: lack of reliability. Many of these small, “bargain basement” hosts often oversell, which means that they overload their servers in an effort to make money. This can cause downtime and your site to load very slowly, especially at periods of peak traffic. Their support could also be severely lacking, and often consists of just one or two people who answer emails or occasionally appear on the live chat on their website.

• Local hosting companies

Let’s clarify one thing: not all smaller, local web hosting firms are bad. In fact, some of them may have world class data centers and provide top notch service to their webmasters. The issue here is that many of these hosting companies have not established their reputation yet in the industry and as such you may have a hard time finding independent reviews of them. Furthermore, a lot of smaller local hosting firms have smaller budgets. Thus they may not be able to afford to have the latest hardware and the fastest connections to the internet. They may also not have the staff necessary to offer you around the clock tech support, which is a necessity if you are running an e-commerce site.

Web Hosting Choices For Online Business: Which Kinds of Hosting to Avoid is a post from: Websites For Sale

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Here are some possible drawbacks of using a small local hosting company for your website:

• They haven’t established their reputation yet

Large, international hosting companies which do business with everyone and are not aimed at a particular city have usually been thoroughly reviewed and talked about on the internet. You will find reviews made both by webmasters who have simply hosted a website with them, to experts in the field of web hosting. This can be very helpful in making a determination as to whether a certain web host provides quality service or not. If you can’t find many reviews on the host you intend to use, it can be quite hard to make this decision.

• Their support could be limited

Small companies often cannot afford to have staff members that are available 24 hours a day who can answer all of your questions and resolve problems, just like the bigger hosting companies. Remember, your website is not like a store, it never closes. Therefore, it needs to be up 24 hours a day and help should also be available 24 hours a day should it be needed to resolve any technical problems that cause your site to not function properly. This staff should also be truly able to fix problems, rather than just note down information and say that someone will get back to you the next day.

• They may have limited resources

Smaller companies usually cannot afford to make large investments in order to have an entire data center filled with servers. Furthermore, they may not have the facilities to make daily backups, as well as have a contingency plan in place should there be a problem, such as a fire, natural disaster, or power failure.

So, who are local web hosting companies actually good for?

If you run a small website for your business and you don’t mainly depend on the site to conduct your operations, then you could go with a local hosting company if you believe that it is a better idea in your opinion. However, if you are running an e-commerce site that is the main source of revenue for your company, you are much better off using the services of a larger web hosting company which has shown that they have a good reputation in the marketplace and have a perfect record when it comes to reliability and support.

Is Local Web Hosting a Good Idea? is a post from: Websites For Sale

The primary advantage of using a blog is that it will serve to give your business some personality as well as originality. Unlike a website where the primary purpose is to sell the product or service that you are offering to the visitor, a blog gives you the chance to connect more with your visitors and provide them with some useful information about your line of business. So, let’s say that you own a web hosting company. In that case, you can make a blog and make posts about the various types of web hosting, the differences between them, providing web development and online advertising advice, etc.

This will give you the opportunity to better connect to your audience and not sound like you are trying to sell them things all the time. Your blog should also feature images, graphs and videos where applicable. Don’t choose a bland template as a design for your blog and simply make it a wall of text. Many readers would be turned off by this and even though the content may be very interesting, they will not be very inclined to read it if it is not presented in a good way to them.

Another important point that every webmaster needs to keep in consideration when building a business blog: don’t start a blog with the simple intention of advertising your products, services or websites. While you can include links to your website and your offerings, don’t make blog posts whose only purpose is to promote what you have without adding any real value for the reader.

The rise in popularity of affiliate marketing and CPA offers has had the effect of also increasing the number of fake blogs or “flogs”, which are websites that are designed to look like a normal blog, but where all the posts are actually thinly disguised advertising. If a user is web savvy, chances are they have seen such pages a few times before. So if you make your blog look too much like a flog, readers will assume that it is one and will simply move on to another site. Obviously this is not something that you want.

The best thing to do is to create a blog that is informative to the users, friendly and does not contain too much advertising material. Your site visitors will be more likely to find interest in it if the blog looks attractive to them and provides them with information that they find useful.

Using a Blog to Promote Your Business is a post from: Websites For Sale

• They are usually not real “web hosting companies”

What is meant by that is that they don’t have their own offices, staff, servers and connections. In most cases, these cheap hosting providers actually rent a server from another web host and then resell the space to their customers in an effort to make money. But what could be worse is simply one person buying a server and then plugging it into their internet connection at home. Obviously, don’t expect much in terms of reliability with that kind of arrangement.

• They don’t provide good support

It would be very rare for such a company to give you 24/7 customer service and technical support. In most cases, the only way you have of getting in touch with them is by email or by opening up a support ticket on their website. It can take several hours, or even days for them to get back to you. Don’t assume that if they have a toll free number and claim that they offer “24/7 support” that they are actually a real hosting company with staff standing by to take your call. Any kid can get a toll free number and then just forward it to his cell phone. Many times, you will find that when you try calling them, no one is available and you are told to leave a message.

• They haven’t built a reputation in the web hosting industry

These inexpensive hosts are usually “no name” companies that have not built a reputation and have not been reviewed by many customers. As such, you will have trouble actually trying to find out whether they offer good service or not. Buying hosting from a reputable company is the key when you want stable and secure hosting. Consider this: which one would be a better MP3 player? A real iPod, or some Chinese imitation that sells for $10? The same principle applies to web hosting as well. You are much better off sticking with the known companies and brands if you want decent service.

• Security and reliability could be a further problem

Professional web hosting companies know how to keep their servers running in optimal condition and how to secure them from attacks by hackers, viruses and malware. A no-name hosting company might not. In fact, they may cut down costs by not even making any backups, so if data is lost due to a server malfunction or hacking, it could be gone forever unless you have made your own backup copy first.

Why Avoiding “Cheap” Hosts is a Good Idea is a post from: Websites For Sale

• VPS Hosting

VPS, or virtual private server, is kind of an in between solution, between getting a dedicated server all to yourself and getting a shared hosting account. What you actually get a part of a dedicated server to yourself. It is called a virtual server, as it runs in a virtual machine on an actual server that you will share with a few other users. However, you will be assigned resources for your virtual server that only you can use, such as RAM, disk space and bandwidth. You are free to install any applications or scripts that you need to run your site as well. The pricing varies and can range from $25 to $300 a month.

Recommended for: Large scale affiliate marketing, running a medium to large e-commerce site or web store.

• Dedicated Server

Here, you get to rent a dedicated server all to yourself. You basically have the entire server just for your usage. You will get to customize the hardware that your server will have, such as the hard drive space, the CPU and the amount of RAM. A dedicated server offers unparallelled security, reliability and performance for the most demanding applications. Depending on the host, you may get to choose whether you will be using a server based on a Windows or Linux environment. Prices range from $100 to $500 a month, depending on host and server configuration chosen.

Recommended for: Large membership sites, medium to large general online business, large e-commerce sites.

Selecting a dedicated server is not complicated. All you have to do is to consider what your needs will be and then go look for a webhosting company that will offer you what you are looking for. However, it is important that you don’t base your decision solely on price. Sure, there are a few small webhosts which are able to offer very cheap prices, however based on comments from other webmasters, I can tell you that these are not always the most reliable companies to do business with. You should rather base your choice on what other webmasters who have used a certain host recommend and by reading reviews written by experts in the industry. That way, you can avoid making a mistake and going with an unreliable or problematic hosting company, but will rather end up with a quality server to power your website.

Dedicated Hosting Options: Making a Choice is a post from: Websites For Sale

• Free Web Hosts

These webhosting companies will provide you with a free place to put your website on. You will be able to build a fully functional website and have it seen by anyone on the web. However, there are some limitations. Most free hosts put up ads in the form of banners, text ads or popups on your site, without you having any say on this. However, you can find some “bannerless” hosts that don’t put up any advertising. But they still impose some limitations on bandwidth and storage, so it is rare to find an unlimited bannerless free web host. Furthermore, their servers are not as reliable as commercial, paid hosts.

Recommended for: Hosting a family website, practicing your web design skills, hosting a site for a hobby, or for a very small business that you don’t expect to make much revenue from.

• Shared Hosting

The most popular option in webhosting. When people talk about webhosts, they often mean a shared hosting plan. Why is it called “shared”? Well this is simply because your site will be hosted on a server that is also hosting many other websites and you will therefore be sharing the resources of the server with others. However, you will have full control over what you put on your site and the host will not put up any banners or advertising messages on it. You will also have access to some more advanced features that free hosts rarely offer like databases, scripts, web building tools, website templates, an advanced help system complete with tutorials and more.

The cost of shared hosting varies from $2 a month to $20 a month depending on the plan you chose as well as the company you are hosting your site with. Many companies will give you a heavily discounted price if you pay up front for 1, 2 or 3 years. While this is a good cost saving option, be careful as you will have paid up front for a long period of time. Therefore, make sure you research your host properly before signing up. Discussion forums, blogs and websites that deal with online business and webmaster issues are excellent sources of information for help in choosing a webhost.

Recommended for: General purpose internet marketing, affiliate sites, light e-commerce applications (selling digital goods or having an online store), websites of small businesses such as plumbing companies, photographers, etc.

But what if you need something more? What if you want to host a big e-commerce site and therefore will need increased security, reliability and the capability to run any software or script that you want? Tomorrow we will discuss dedicated servers and more advanced webhosting solutions that will be more appropriate for your needs.

Your Hosting Options: Which One To Go With is a post from: Websites For Sale

Someone who is serious about running a successful e-commerce website will often choose to host their site on a dedicated server rather than a shared account. Here are the advantages of using a dedicated server:

More resources just for you. A dedicated server is just that: a server that is entirely dedicated for your use. No other sites are hosted on it, so its entire bandwidth, CPU, disk space and RAM are for your use only. While you may think that you would do fine on a shared account at the beginning, once your site expands you may find that you actually need your own server as your website has gotten bigger.

Better security and reliability. This advantage is the result of the fact that, once again, your server is not shared with any other site. There has been numerous occasions where a site that is hosted on a shared server has been compromised and viruses and malware have been introduced, which have infected other sites on the server. When you use a dedicated server, you get access to security solutions such as anti virus tools, firewalls, etc.

Increased flexibility and more control. You get the choice as to whether you want to run a Windows or a Linux operating system on your server. Another great point is that you have complete control as to what applications, software and scripts you can run on your server. Many large e-commerce sites require the use of software which would not be supported on a shared account, but can be easily installed and used on a dedicated server.

Selecting a Web Host

In the world of web hosting, there are hundreds of different companies that you can choose from. While they may all look to provide the same services, you should know that not all web hosting companies are the same.

When you select a web host that offers dedicated server hosting, you will need to look far beyond the price in order to make the right decision. If you simply go with the company offering the cheapest price, you might end up getting the cheapest service. Many of the “rock bottom” priced servers are actually run by individuals located in third world countries, where connectivity and reliability are not all that great.

Do a search online for reviews of dedicated server hosting providers and see what these reviews say. Also, take a look around webmaster forums to find out which companies fellow webmasters are using and whether they are satisfied with the service. This will help you narrow down your search to companies that you would want to do business with.

Is Dedicated Hosting the Right Choice for You? is a post from: Websites For Sale

Unlike established web hosting companies, free or very cheap web hosts are often run by just one person or a few people which often have little experience in the field of webhosting. As such, you may encounter the following problems:

Reliability problems.

No one really knows whether their servers are going to stay up at all times. Sure, they may boast a 99.999999999% uptime guarantee… but can they really back it up? These hosts could be running on cheap servers sometimes located offshore in places where connectivity is not the most reliable.

Poor or nonexistent support.

The bigger webhosting companies have customer service and tech support teams that are available 24 hours a day and can be reached by using many different methods such as live chat, phone or email. Bargain basement hosts usually only offer support through email or a ticket system. Maybe live chat, but only when the operator is available, which will not be 24 hours a day.

Stealing traffic or other gimmicks.

Even if a free webhost says that they don’t put banner ads on your site, they could still do other things to try to earn revenue from sites hosted on their server, such as redirecting some of your traffic to another site and hoping that you won’t notice, making popup ads appear when loading your site, or worse, such as inserting malicious code in your site in order to infect visitors with malware. Of course, not all hosts do this, but some have been observed engaging in such practices.

This is not to say that all free or “dollar” webhosts are bad. Some may provide good service which would rival that of the best paid hosts out there. But, as a general rule, they are to be avoided if you are hosting an important website that you absolutely need to be up at all times. If you really want to use such a host, at least read some independent reviews left by other users to see what they have to say about a particular host, that way, you will at least be aware of which places to avoid.

If you are looking for better webhosting, you will find that plenty of professional web hosting companies exist which can offer you a plan for around $5 a month with no commitment or contract. You will be sure that you are dealing with a professional company in the webhosting industry.

Free Web Hosting Services – Are They Any Good? is a post from: Websites For Sale

Bulk traffic sites

Sites such as BuyHitsCheap offer to sell packages of thousands of visitors for very low prices. They also make claims that this is “real traffic” from “real visitors” and will result in “potential customers”. While the first two statements are technically true, the second one is quite unlikely to occur. Here’s why: these sites use “popunders”, which basically load the website in a popup that goes under the browser’s current window. Few people will actually bother to look at your site and most will simply find the popunder annoying and close it right away. So you definitely won’t get any customers. Now think logically for a second. They sell 10 000 visitors for $12.50. If you promote a product that gets you a $15 commission and you get a conversion rate of 1/2000 (which would be atrociously low in other means of advertising), you would earn $75, more than 5 times what you spent. If this was possible, a lot of us would be millionaires right now.

Paid to click sites

These sites often claim that they can get you “real visitors” at very low costs. Now make no mistake about it, the visitors will probably be quite real. But the problem is, they won’t really care about your site or your product. These sites pay their visitors a fraction of a cent in order to click on a link and keep your site open for a period of time, such as 15 to 30 seconds. Most people on these types of sites won’t even bother looking at the websites that they have clicked through to and will simply end up closing your site after the timer expires, so that they can move on to the next site and possibly end up earning a few pennies a day.

Traffic exchanges

Many of these services claim to give you free traffic and the ability to earn views to your site simply by looking at other people’s sites. Anyone with half a brain will know that this concept is quite flawed. No one will be interested to sign up for anything on your site, much less buy something from you. All they will want is to get visitors to THEIR site as well. Traffic exchanges are simply little more than a waste of time.

Not All Traffic Sources Are The Same is a post from: Websites For Sale