Hosting & Website Help

A frequently-asked query:

I am starting a web store , I already have a website and pay for the hosting and domain of the website so I am not looking for complete ecommerce solutions. I would like to have a powerful web store builder that allows full website integration. That way I can just copy the script and paste it into my pre existing website.

Other important features I need:

complete inventory control – I need to be able to enter the quantity of the product as I am listing and when people have purchased the total quantity , I need for the product to auto-hide to prevent people from buying an out of stock item.

High powered search and organization – I want people to be able to search products as well as browse through categories

Easy discount management – I am setting up a rewards program , so I want to be able to easily do coupon redeem codes and other similar features.

I need to at least be able to list up to 1000 products at a time , unlimited would be more ideal (although the prices of these packages are out of my budget as far as what I have found)

Customizable appearance of the store front so I can make it match my website.

These are the key features I am looking for , and I am of course looking for something that is affordable especially while first starting out. I am not looking to pay more than 200 USD a year at this time , I have found a few free ones but there are some features missing that are very important to me.

If muncom.com (which has full website integration and is unlimited product listing for free with ads)met with freewebstore.org (which has all the other features I need but no website integration plus costs 45 dollars a month for unlimited product listing) I would have the perfect web store builder for my new business venture.

Any ideas where to look for an online web store builder that meets my specific needs or if you know of one I would greatly appreciate your input.

Expert Answer: This is quite a popular question Web hosting is the heart of your online presence and can mean the life or death to your business.

Common Misconception

A lot of website owners are usually confused on what they should do if they want to build in their first ecommerce site.Their primary requirements always include to not to spend so much on  hosting services or the cheaper the better  would apply. However, because of this condition, they often end up with unreliable web hosting service with insufficient hosting features.

Clarification

Building an ecommerce store shouldn’t be complicated. There are at least 2 options you can have in creating your eCommerce site. First is to use a complete hosted ecommerce solution which includes hosting service, free domain registration, ecommerce application such as shopping cart, inventory, templates and so on such as in BigCommerce. This is very applicable to beginners and don’t want to hassle their self much in website building. However, the only disadvantage of it is it’s very expensive. Your second option is to use a self-hosted free shopping cart such as Zencart, OsCommerce and Cubecart.  You have to find a reliable web host that has ecommerce support and register your domain name and point it to your web host. You have to install a free shopping cart to your server. You can use a one-click installer such as Fantastico to easily install your shopping cart. Although this option seems to be cheaper but you are require to have a good knowledge in programming to set up your ecommerce site and configuring and adding necessary ecommerce modules to it.

Beware of getting the cheapest web hosting plans for they are usually for more than a year of prepayment for their hosting service. Review carefully your web host features, their payment terms and what you can get by paying less or more.

To answer the above query, here are 7 factors to look for in a good web hosting. An excellent hosting:

1. has at least 30 days money back guarantee,
2. gives more-than-enough diskspace,
3. offers unlimited bandwidth,
4. gives multiple add-on domains,
5. has easy-to-use Site Builder,
6. has Fantastico and QuickInstall to quickly install apps like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, OSCommerce, ZenCart and more
7. can be easily upgraded to VPS or one of the cheap dedicated server plans if and when your business require.

Best Website Host

Answering the above question, many experienced web developers suggest to try Hostgator. If you need an “unlimited” hosting plan, experts usually highly recommend going with Hostgator because they are the best best domain hosting around.

What if you find out that Hostgator sucks after you signed up with them? HG has an amazingly long, 45 days money back guarantee so you have ample time to test them out. They are rated A+ by Better Business Bureau which shows their commitment to customer satisfaction. You also do not have to pay for the first month. You can just try their fully functional hosting service – you pay only $0.01 (you need to use the special coupon code). Do you know any other hosting company that can give you that kind of assurance? Anybody can grab an account from Hostgator for almost FREE.

How to Get an Unlimited Hosting Plan for Only 1 Cent

Click the coupon below try Hostgator cPanel hosting for almost free. If you already know that Hostgator is what you want, you can even save 25% off the normal price with the Hostgator coupon code 2015 below.

Why You May Want to Avoid Hostgator

To be honest, no web hosting service is perfect. Drawback of Hostgator includes:

1. No free domain name – but you can easily get a domain name from the best domain registrar such as Godaddy or Namecheap for $10 or less. That is fairly cheap considering a domain name costs no more than a few cups of coffee.
2. You need to pay full price after your first invoice – well, they need to make money too and all the support and great service do come with a cost

If you are still not sure if HG is right for you, or you have specific query about anything at all, try the Live Chat at HG. They are fast and knowledgeable. Just shoot them some questions before you decide.

More than 7 million site owners depend on Hostgator for their hosting need.

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