July 27, 2011

What to Look for When Choosing a Hosting Account

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — Jon Skulemowski @ 2:14 pm

An online business needs to have a website. This seems obvious. In order to have a website the business must have a hosting account. This is not always as obvious. When starting an e-business people usually put a lot of effort into creating a business plan, designing a unique layout, and dreaming up a catchy name, but a hosting account isn’t usually of high priority. Even so, the web host is a crucial part of the website. The web host stores a website and makes it available to others, but all web hosts are not created equal. An unreliable host can cause irrevocable damage to a company. While this sounds scary, you are not alone. We have assembled a guide for what to look for in a hosting account to ensure that your company is safe.

Reliability- Of course your host needs to be reliable, but how do you determine if it is? When looking for reliability it is best to look at the numbers. Companies like Go Daddy, Enom, Network Solutions, Yahoo, and Register.com all host over a million sites. This size gives you reassurance because many others have trusted this company and remained loyal.

Speed- Slow loading bore customers away from your site. Make sure you have the correct amount of RAM for your type of site to ensure quick loading times. For a simple site 256 to 512 MB will suffice, but for a more complex ecommerce or social networking site you will need 2 to 4 GB.

Bandwidth- A sudden spike in traffic is great for your business, but only if your hosting company can handle it. Look for a high bandwidth without capacity issues to make sure the host can handle your great success.

Shared or dedicated servers- Blogs, start-ups, and information sites can be comfortably handled by a shared server, but if you have a larger company with a large database it is best to choose a dedicated server. This allows you to decide exact capabilities such as bandwidth, RAM, and processer speed, making your site more efficient.

Security- One malicious virus can destroy your entire website and business, so security is not the place to skimp. Make sure there is quality security and also a capable team staying ahead of the curve to ensure your website’s safety.

Support- Problems inevitably arise, so you need the best support possible. Test the support out before purchasing to make sure it meets your requirements.

Pricing- You must consider your budget at the time of purchase, and revaluate your needs occasionally to make sure you are getting the most for your money.

Now that you can easily find a hosting account, you need software to put on your host! Check out iScripts AutoHoster, our most popular hosting software, and find out how you can start your own website today!

How to Collect Money: Payment Processing Gateways

Filed under: Uncategorized — Jon Skulemowski @ 2:12 pm

Do you have an online business or store? If so, chances are you are looking for ways to accept credit cards and other payments online. After all, collecting money the purpose of business! However, all the different online payment gateways out there can confuse and overwhelm the small business owner. PayPal, Merchant Plus, Google Checkout, Autorize.net, CyberSource, Amazon Payments, and Chase Paymentech are just a few of the most popular services available. How will you ever know which ones to offer to your customer? Luckily, we are here to help with the answers to many of your online payment questions!

 

First, it is important to understand just what an online payment gateway does for e-businesses. A payment gateway is a middleman between you and your customers. Simply stated, merchant services such as PayPal do the work for you. They gather the credit card information and send the money to the correct place. The payment gateway will let you manage your account, run reports, submit refunds, and send invoices. All the money handling can be done in one convenient location!

 

Now comes the time to choose the right service your small business. If you are just starting out in the e-commerce business you might want to consider using Third Party Processors, which are payment gateways and a merchant accounts rolled into one. The third party will accept credit card orders on behalf of your online business. This will streamline the process for your business so you can focus on other things and still let the money flow in.

To find more information on this topic see the article titled Accept Payments Online which provides with information on exactly how you can go about adding payment gateways to your website. The article also discusses the concept of ‘Merchant Account Solutions’ which explains the different companies like Auhorize.net, PSiGate, WorldPay to help you pick the right one.

To Read More about different payment gateways and how to pick the best one for your business needs please Click Here.

Drive Traffic To Your Site Now Using Free Google Analytics Tools

Filed under: Web services — Tags: , — Jon Skulemowski @ 2:08 pm

Your online business is up and running and you are sure people will love it… if only they could find it. You can cross your fingers and hope that people will see your site, but without proper SEO your beautiful site will be buried amongst the duds of the web. Good news, you can help your site to shine in the eyes of search engines with Google Analytics, a free toolkit that will help you make your website more appealing to search engines. While this service has been open and available for years, many people are unaware of its power. Therefore, we have assembled a quick and easy guide on how to use Google Analytics to increase your website’s visibility and profitability.

What exactly is Google Analytics? Google Analytics is a free and easy way to access detailed reports about your webpage’s visibility on Google. You will be able to see what keywords direct users to your site, what other sites have links to yours, and what errors may occur when Google is trying to access your pages. You can also find out how many visitors you are gaining from each keyword or link. Knowing this information will allow you to direct your efforts towards specific needs.

Beyond these basics, Google will also break down your site’s users. Want to know how many people are subscribing to your Google feeds? Curious about how long users stay on your site or which pages are viewed most often? Google Analytics can tell you all of that as well!

How can all of this information help you? Now that you know what people are looking for, you can adjust the site to meet their needs. If you notice you are generating a lot of traffic but visitors rarely stick around, enhance your content or design to keep people interested. If you realize that you get most of your traffic from keyword searches but don’t have many outside links to your site, find a way to get your links out there. The best part is that once you make these changes, you can watch them take effect through your Google Analytics account. If your numbers increase then you did something right, but if it doesn’t create a spike in traffic you know to move on to something else.

We know that everyone wants to use SEO to drive traffic, but we also know that many people don’t have time to monitor all of this themselves. Here at iScripts.com we offer very affordable SEO packages to take the burden off your shoulders. Click here to view our packages and learn how we can help you be a search engine hero.

July 5, 2011

Modernizing The Summer Flea Market

Filed under: Uncategorized — Aji Abraham @ 1:22 pm

Summertime brings a collection of small business endeavors.  Garage sales, lemonade stands, and flea markets pop up every weekend bringing in customers looking for reasonably priced, unique items.  What if you could harness the power of the flea market and generate business from all over the country all year round?  Good news, you can!  iScripts eSwap is a barter software that allows you to create your own swap meet in minutes!

What is iScripts eSwap?

iScripts eSwap allows you to create your own online marketplace where users can buy, sell, and exchange items.  Your users can list items, negotiate with others, create wishlists, and swap items.  You can charge a listing fee for each item, escrow feeds, or monthly subscription fees.  Therefore you make money for offering a service without having to sell anything yourself!

Why is eswap more effective than your run-of-the-mill flea market?

Besides eliminating the need to worry about the general constraints of location and weather, your flea market can also eliminate the constraints uninterested customers place on a business.  Instead of generating business from only partially interested bargain shoppers, you can focus your attention on a certain product or type of product.  This will set you apart from all the generic garage sales on every corner throughout the summer.  By offering a place to swap just kitchen supplies, children’s toys, or clothes you can create loyal swappers who want to come back time and time again.

iScripts eSwap also allows for an unlimited number of users, categories, and products!  Reach out to a growing market and you can have a swapping service for an endless number of customers.   You can always expand your marketplace without having to worry about the amount of physical space it would take to run this sort of swap meet in a physical location!

Want to know more about iScripts eSwap and how it can help clear some clutter and put some money in your pocket? View our website and learn more about what iScripts eSwap can do for you.

4 Tips for Making Your Website Memorable

Filed under: Uncategorized — Aji Abraham @ 1:17 pm

People spend hours browsing the web, clicking here and there, stopping on a page and quickly moving on.  What makes them linger on a page?  What makes them want to come back?  Unfortunately, people don’t always remember a website because it had excellent content, great products, or impeccable services.  People need a reason to remember and a way to remember.  Here we present four tips for making sure your website is remembered so that people can come back and appreciate its incredible content.

  1. 1. Create a catchy, easy-to-remember name and web address

A catchy, witty name will stick in people’s mind for days to come.  People may not remember “Joe’s Store” even if it had the greatest products simply because the name is too generic.  If someone can remember the title of your website they will be able to search for it in the future.  Similarly, an easy web address can make all the difference.  Keeping your web address short without any long strings of numbers will allow people to jump right to your website.  This is especially helpful if the keywords for your business are highly competitive in the world of search engines.

  1. 2. Develop a Unique, Identifiable Logo

The target bulls-eye, the Facebook F, and the Nike Swoosh are all examples of the power of a simple, identifiable logo.  A logo can set your company apart from the rest, but only if it is customer friendly.  Overly complicated logos with multiple pictures and colors get lost in a viewer’s mind, so keeping your logo crisp yet unique can establish you as a professional, credible company.

  1. 3. Use an effective layout and color scheme

A website equipped with ten different fonts, fifteen colors, flashing banners, and sound effects that blow out your ears will not gain any popularity.  Neither will a black and white webpage with font size twelve, double spaced, one-inch margin Times New Roman type.  The color scheme and layout of your page should reflect the goals of your company.  If you are selling baby products your layout can include pastel colors and little fuzzy animals.  This same layout would not be as effective for a tattoo and piercing shop per say.  Also, make sure to not overwhelm visitors with too much content at one time.  Break up the layout so it is easy to skim and comprehend.

  1. 4. Add extra features

Pictures, videos, moving animations, and slogans can enhance the quality of your webpage.  After all, a picture is worth a thousand words, so adding a few can’t hurt.  Images will stick in a viewer’s mind.  Videos generate interest and convince the viewer to stick around a little longer.

Feel like all of this is a little over your head?  Are you more business minded and less web savvy?  Don’t worry, iScripts.com offers a range of script customization services to fit your needs.

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