Step Number Two – How to Select a Small Business Hosting Provider
First and foremost, do not have your domain hosted at the same place you have it registered. Unscrupulous hosts can hold your domain name hostage forcing you to continue hosting with their company or else risk losing the domain name you worked so hard to establish. At the very least, some hosting providers might intentionally delay and make a domain transfer next to impossible. Having your domain separate from the host gives you complete control over where your site is hosted. Very important and a mistake many newcomers, including yours truly, make when first starting out.
Once you have the domain, it is now time to select a host. There are a myriad of providers offering incredible deals and unbeatable prices. Beware of relying on Google to sift through the reviews. Many hosting review services charge a fee for placement in their top-10 lists. Basically, a host with top placement just has deeper pockets or more dollars attributed toward advertising. It says absolutely nothing about customer service and quality. Nothing.
Perhaps the best source for unbiased and realistic reviews is webhostingtalk.com. I was blind until I found this resource. This forum is populated primarily by hosting providers. However, forum rules do not allow them to hype or advertise their services. As such, you get information from arguably the best source on hosting – the hosts themselves.
Coupled with this unparalleled access to information, the site is littered with offer after ofter for hosting services in a single category that allows for host advertising. This is where I found one of the best hosts I have worked with, Sharkspace.com. In fact, Sharkspace hosts this very resource guide.
The three biggest factors when choosing a host are price, customer service, and uptime (quality of server). There are other factors such as terms of service (TOS), control panels, and money back guarantee to name a few. Generally, though, most hosting decisions come down to price which is perhaps the common mistake when choosing a host.
From personal experience, I think price is a distant third. Knowing what I know now after having set up multiple websites and ecommerce stores, I put customer service as my number one factor when choosing a host. Server quality and uptime are a very close second. It is such a relief to get server problems handled within minutes by competent professionals. In a way, it is like you are hiring your own personal staff to help you with server and hosting issues. For a few dollars more a month, you can have a top notch team at your disposal. It is not worth the frustration and hassle to save a few bucks when the host represents the foundation of your online presence.
If you are building an eCommerce site for the first time, I recommend selecting the lowest level of shared hosting. I’ll break down the difference of shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated hosting in a future post. If you are just starting out, then shared hosting with a solid provider will suffice. Anything else would be overkill. One caveat would be to make sure the host allows for an upgrade on the fly in the event your site starts to outgrow the level of service. Trust me, if you have to upgrade and pay more for hosting, then you are going to be beyond happy to spend those extra dollars. It means you’ve got an up and coming internet business.
The bottom line is that you need to research a host and place more of an emphasis customer service and server uptime. This decision alone can set up a positive, strong foundation from which to anchor your eCommerce website.
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Step Number One – How to Select the Perfect Domain Name.
It’s easy to get the impression that all of the great domain names are already taken. While there’s an awful lot of truth to that statement, there are still good names available for small business owners. Here are a couple of strategies to nab that perfect domain.
The most inexpensive way to find a domain name is by searching through available domain names. The cost to hand register a domain name ranges from $8.99 to $14.99 on average. GoDaddy is easily the most recognizable name in the industry. Part of their popularity stems from their aggressive marketing techniques including the constant injection of discount coupons into the market. Here’s a link for a $6.89 .com coupon. $6.89 .com at GoDaddy
As a side note, it is a good rule of thumb to keep your domain registrar and hosting provider separate. Do not get hosting from the same place you get your domain name – even if the hosting company allows for a free domain name! How to choose a great hosting company will be featured next in this blog.
The consensus is that registering a .com extension is generally the best. For the most part this is true. However, there are many successful .net, .org, and .us websites on the net. I would suggest taking a .net only if the .com is not already developed. No reason the send type-in traffic to your .com neighbor. Plus, most of your customers will have an easier time remembering your .com extension. If the dot com name is taken but not developed, then a dot net is an acceptable option. If you envision some day acquiring the dot com version once you become established, please realize a developed and successful .net site will more than likely run up the value of a .com.
When choosing the domain name, consider how easy the name is to recall, how natural the domain sounds in conversation, and how easy it would be for the would-be customer to type the domain name in without any errors. One other consideration is keyword usage. Keywords within the domain name often help search engines like Google pick up on your site. One example is using an industry keyword in your domain name like ‘books’ in ValleyBooks.
One of the resources I like to use when searching for a domain name is domaintools.com. Domain Tools has a suggestion area to check for similar names in the event the name you want is already taken. Once you find a name you can live with, then it is time to register the domain name with one of the aforementioned registrars.
The next way to find a great name is one that is at auction. NameJet.com is a great site to pick up expired domain names, names that the owners failed to renew. There are a lot of choice domain names at this site. However, the cost can skyrocket in a hurry with just a few interested bidders.
GoDaddy has an auction site, TDNAM.com. This site requires a small membership fee of $4.95. TDNAM also specializes in dropped/expired domain names with a separate market of people actively selling their domain names.
The bottom line for the domain name: make sure the domain is relatively short. Two words (maybe three words) is optimum. Make sure the domain sounds natural and is easily remembered. Try and get a .com. Leave dashes and numbers out of the domain name. These are all generalizations, and there are definitely exceptions to this rule, but, by and large, you will position yourself to more success with a decent domain name.
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