Overview

There are many choices out there for web hosting, and only a few are specific to using your own domain, so those are listed first, and the rest are things you want to look for whether you are going through someone else's site, yahoo or your own domain.

• Domain Name Registration. This may be included or may have a fee associated. Keep in mind, there are services that provide this service for $15 and under, so you don't need to pay an inflated fee for this service.

• Monthly Hosting Fee. This fee varies by company, so make sure you shop around, as some are much higher than others, and offer the same services as their cheaper counterparts. Also, if it's an option for you, many offer discounts for quarterly or annual hosting payment.
• Ecommerce Solutions. Make sure that the hosting company you are looking at offers ecommerce hosting and that it is included in the fee. Ecommerce is the portion of the web site that allows you to sell items seamlessly. You could set up your store manually without it, but it's much easier to use ecommerce enabled hosting!
• Web Site Design Software. Do they include software to easily set your web site up? If they offer templates, are the templates customizable? You want to make sure you aren't stuck with the cookie cutter templates they usually offer, as you want your site to be unique!
• Tech Support. This is very important, as your site being down means that your customers can't purchase your products! So make sure tech support is offered and find out how it is offered? Is it 24/7 and are there live people you can speak or chat with, or is it only via email. Email only tech support probably would not be a good idea as that is a long process, and when it comes to your business, you want it to get back up and running asap if you run into problems.
• Number of Products or Category Restrictions. Do they offer an unlimited number of products and categories or are their restrictions? If they have restrictions, you may want to look elsewhere as there are many options with no restrictions, and you want to allow for further growth of your business!
• Editing the Look and Feel of the Site. Make sure you are able to edit your store including adding your logo, pictures, colors and fonts. You want to make your site unique and match the look and feel of your business. You don't want your logo to be limited because of limited ability to edit your site.
• Hard Disk Space and Bandwidth Transfer. This number is basically how many files and pictures (and their relative size) the company allows you to utilize on their server before charging you more or forcing you to upgrade to a premier hosting plan. Most people overestimate what they need, so there's no need to get huge amounts of disk space unless you will have a graphic intensive site or many, many files. The other feature is bandwidth, which is in regards to your site traffic as well as any downloads from your site. Again, in most cases, the normal size should be fine. If you have questions, contact the hosting provider and explain what you would like to do and they can advise you which plan you should choose for your specific space and bandwidth requirements.
• 128-Bit SSL Security. This is something you definitely want to make sure is offered. This allows your customers to send their payment information securely and is a must-have if you want your customers to come back to you. No one wants to do business with someone after their credit card information is hacked because of the lack of security!
• Shipping. Do they offer you multiple shipping options to provide to your customer (FedEx, UPS, USPS, DHL) or is it limited? This is your preference depending on how you want to ship items (which will be covered in another chapter in more detail).
• Backups and Reliability . Do they backup their data, and how often? In the event that something goes wrong with their server, can they bring it back up just as it was, without losing data and orders? Do they have problems with their servers going down and what is their percentage of "up-time"?
• Downloadable Items. If you intend to sell downloadable items (or may ever in the future), do they offer the option to sell downloadable files and media?
• Search Engine Submission. Do they submit your site information to the search engines? This is key to getting your site in search engines like Google.
• 3rd party tools. You may find that you want to add other tools to your web site, do they allow that? For example, you may want to add a blog to your site or a forum or chat room, so make sure they allow integration for these items.
• Marketing. Do they offer any type of marketing tools? Some do and some don't, it's more your preference when it comes to this than anything else. Of course, free marketing is always good!
• Do they offer things such as discount pricing, coupons and gift certificates? You may think that you don't need this feature, however it can be a great tool for you. Offering discounts and coupon codes is a great way to drive people to your site, so you may want to make sure you are able to offer this service to customers.
• Payment Processing. What methods of payment processing do they offer? There are many options for receiving payment out there, with some of them being free and some charging a fee. This is an individual choice and will be discussed further in another chapter.
• Emails. Email should be included in the hosting package, it is more a matter of how many email addresses they offer and how you access them. Some people may only need one email address, while some people may want separate email addresses for web site administration, customer service, returns and such.
• Reports and Statistics. Do they offer tracking of your site visitors, which pages they visited and other tracking data? This can be a great tool to determine where customers are visiting the most to help target your marketing or determine areas that need to be changed on your site.