How to build a successful e-commerce website?
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- Find your domain name before it's too late! -
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Did you know that 17,000 domain names are registered every single day? So your perfect and unique name could disappear any minute now!
Registering a web address (domain name) is the first step to create your online identity.
Many people think this should be the last step in their eCommerce jigsaw. They might decide on
the perfect domain name for their site early in the process but they don't do anything about it.
Know what happens to them? They lose out! If you are planning an online business, then get your domain name straightaway - before someone else grabs it! You don't have to do anything with it until you're ready but get it while you can - it's like money in the bank!
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Domain Name Suffix:
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Every domain name has a suffix that indicates which top-level domain (TLD) it belongs to.
Current top-level domains include:
- .com - commercial businesses - this is the most common TLD
- .gov - U.S. government agencies
- .edu - educational institutions such as universities
- .org - organizations (mostly nonprofit)
- .mil - military
- .net - network organizations
At the end of 2000 some new domain suffixes were brought into circulation. These include:
- .biz - general businesses
- .info - information
- .name - people's names
- .pro - professions, such as lawyers and doctors
- .museum - museums
- .aero - airline industry
- .coop - cooperatives around the world.
- .us - American Web sites
- .tv - rich content/multi-media Web sites
You can use whatever suffixes you feel are important to you and your business. The most
commonly used is .com, followed by .net and .org. There is no real difference between
them.
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Important! When it comes to search engine ranking, ".com" domains are considered first when search engines rank web sites competing for top positioning. With this in mind, try to get a .com for yourself if you can.
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Valid characters in the domain name:
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You can use up to 63 characters plus the .com, .net, .org, etc. Domain names can ONLY consist of
letters, numbers and dashes (hyphens). Any other character, including spaces, commas, periods or
ampersands is NOT permitted.
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Register your domain name for only $14.95 per year!
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You can register your domain name in 2 ways. One is with a dedicated domain name registrar such
as www.networksolutions.com, and the other is with your hosting company. You'll find that nowadays
many web hosting companies offer domain name registration as part of their services.
Registering your domain name with a web hosting company is a better way to go, you will save
time and effort on transferring your domain name to the new server. But if you don't have a plan for your website and just want to reserve a domain name, then do it with a domain name registrar!
If you search on the web for domain name registrars you'll see literally hundreds of
companies. The best and cheapest place that I have found is itsyourdomain.com. ItsYourDomain is a fully ICANN accredited registrar and provides customers with real-time access to their domain information. They only charge $14.95 per year!! And their domain name server transfer process is extremely reliable, simple and easy! Just think - for just $14.95 you can get the domain name you need right now!
Take a look at the itsyourdomain.com name registration box below - you can use this to
search out or check the availability of .com, .net, .org, .biz, or .info pecfect domain name for your site and register it in minutes! No obligations! You can even search and register a maximum of 120 domains at one time with the "Multiple registrations" function! If you need help finding a great domain name, the DomainTwistTM combines your words with the most popular words used on the Internet. Then, the twist shakes them up to help you find available domains!
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Common question: Why do I have to transfer my domain name every time I change to a different
hosting company?
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This issue bamboozles so many people because it just looks like unnecessary red tape.
Fact is there are good reasons behind it. Let me explain…
Many people don't realize that the unique identifier on the internet is the IP address
(short for "Internet Protocol") of a web site. The IP address is made up of 4 sets of numbers
separated by periods. For example, the IP address for Online Image is: 64.176.84.158.
If you type this sequence into your web browser you will go straight to the Online Image
web site - just as if you had typed in www.onlineimage.biz. As you can imagine IP addresses
are hard to remember and easy to mistype. We can't possibly surf easily and simply if we have to
type in complex number sequences every time we want to see a web site! This is why we have
domain names such as www.onlineimage.biz.
So how does your web browser know which IP address to go to if you specify a domain name?
This is where Domain Name Service (DNS) comes in. DNS maps the domain name to the IP address. So,
in my case, every time somebody types www.onlineimage.biz on the web address filed, my DNS will
direct it to 64.176.84.158.
When you switch to a different web hosting company, your site will be assigned a different
IP address. You'll need to tell your DNS to direct the domain name to the new IP address otherwise
your website will not be found. Most web hosting companies do provide DNS, but they can't do it
if they don't have your domain name residing on their server. And, THAT'S why you have to transfer
your name to the new hosting company' server every time you switch companies. The whole transfer
process takes about 24-48 hours to fully propagate over the web. During that period of time,
if you have an old website on the old server, people will still be able to access your old site.
If you've just loaded a new web site, then some people will be able to see it and some people won't
until the domain name transfer process is fully completed.
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"How to build a successful e-commerce website" Course Index:
- Preface
- Course overview
- Find your domain name before it's too late! (You are here!)
- You need a web site that sells itself!
- A secured hosting server gives you confidence!
- Guard your privacy with a SSL Certificate!
- Find a shopping cart that works for you!
- Manage your online funds with an internet merchant account!
- Put the pieces together with a payment gateway!
- Last Few Words
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Online Course written by Maggie Pearce
About the Author: Maggie Pearce is the founder of Online Image, a web development firm specializing in high quality innovative web site production that takes your business further on the internet! At online image, we deliver more than top quality online presence; we develop online infrastructure that makes your website sell itself!
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