How to find the right Ecommerce Web Site Hosting

If you're starting an Internet Business where you will sell products, Ecommerce Site Web Hosting is what you need. First, though, we need to talk about Personal Web Site Hosting, so that we can understand the differences.

The Free web hosting that you might get with your Internet Access account falls under the category of Personal Web Hosting. If you sign up for an AOL Account, for example, you might get free Web Site Hosting for your own personal Site.

Free Web Site Hosting is very limited. It will have tight size restrictions, meaning that you will not have room for a large number of web pages on the site. Also, you will not generally be allowed to use it for business purposes.

For example, I have a friend who has an Internet Access account with one of the large, well known Internet providers. He gets a small, free web hosting space with that account. He uses it to put pictures of his family on the Internet, and to talk about the things that are going on in their lives. It falls under the category of a Personal Web Site, because nothing is sold on that site.

There are millions of Personal Web Sites on the Internet. From Dog Grooming Tips to Family re-union sites to the latest Nose Hair Clipping Methods. You can say anything you want to say on a Personal Web Site.

You just can’t directly sell anything. Free Personal Web Hosting doesn't allow it, and paid Personal Web Hosting doesn't have what you need.

What do I mean by 'directly sell'? Well, there is indirect selling, and there is direct selling.

Let’s say I created a Personal Web Site that talked about my Cousin’s recipes for Five-Alarm Chili. I list a couple of Three-Alarm Recipes there, to get you interested. Then I tell you that for the really GOOD stuff, you can mail me a check for $5, and I will send you the Recipes for the Five-Alarm Gut-Busters. I put a Mailing Address on the site, and I sit back and wait for your checks to roll in.

That’s what I call indirect selling. The Site is getting you interested in the product, but you have to go through an outside process (mailing me a check) in order to complete the sale.

If I try to do that on a FREE Personal Web Site, and my Internet Service Provider finds out about it, they may shut me down. It’s up to them. in general, I’m not supposed to be selling in any way on most FREE Personal Web Sites.

However, I can pay for a Personal Web Site from a Web Hosting Company, if I want to. I'll get a larger web hosting space that I can put more pages of information on. I can do pretty much anything I like, within the law, on a Personal Web Site that I pay for. So I can use it for indirect sales if I want to.

The reason that the providers of FREE Web Sites don’t want you selling things on them (directly or indirectly) has to do with the number of people who visit the Site. Web Hosting Companies reason that someone who creates a Site that’s built to sell something will be marketing that site with everything they’ve got. That person will be trying to attract as many visitors as possible. That means that many more people will be visiting that Site. The Hosting Company’s Web Server (the Hosting Computer where that web site actually resides) will have to work harder to accommodate all that Traffic (customers), and the Hosting Company wants to be paid for that.

However, if you want to pay for a Personal Site that sells something indirectly, that’s OK with them. Their Web Server is working harder, but at least they're getting paid for it. That's what their business is.

So, in general, no selling at all on a FREE Personal Web Site. Indirect selling is usually okay on a paid Personal Web Site.

Direct Selling means that the visitors to your Web Site can actually complete the transaction on the Site itself. They can whip out a Credit Card, okay an Electronic Check, use a payment service like Paypal, etc., right then and there. They go to your Site, see something they like, and they complete the sale.

You shouldn't try Direct Selling on any kind of Personal Web Site. Personal Web Sites, by definition, are Informational only. While Indirect Selling will work, Direct Selling will not. Personal Web Sites are not set up for Direct Selling.

So, what kind of Web Site is set up for Direct Selling? You guessed it! An Ecommerce Web Site!

An Ecommerce Web Site is really just a paid Personal Web Site with a couple of added features:

I’m sure we’re all familiar with the concept of a Shopping Cart in our everyday lives, right? Big metal cart with four wheels. One of the wheels is always either stuck, or square. Some of them come with screaming kids attached, depending on your personal situation. You squeak, thump and scream your way through the aisles of your favorite Supermarket, loading up on milk, hamburger and Cocoa Puffs. Then you stand in line at the Checkout Counter for ten minutes behind the lady who’s trying to write a check, but can’t find her ID.

Well, the concept is the same on an Ecommerce Site, except for the squeaking, thumping and screaming.

If you’ve ever bought anything online before, you’ve seen an online Shopping Cart. It’s the part of the Web Site where you:

A Personal Web Site is just a collection of Folders and Files on a Web Server that sits in a room at a Hosting Company somewhere.

A Shopping Cart is just another collection of computer files.

In order for the Web Hosting Company to turn a Personal Web Site into an Ecommerce Web Site, most of the time all they have to do is add the Shopping Cart files to it.

From the Hosting Company’s point of view, it’s pretty much as simple as throwing a switch.

On an Ecommerce Web Site, the Shopping Cart is not just a place to toss your Cookies until you get to the Checkout Stand. The good ones also calculate Sales Tax based on where your customer lives, calculate the Shipping the customer needs to pay (based on their Zip Code), and more.

Like anything else, there are good Shopping Carts, and bad Shopping Carts. A Shopping Cart, after all, is just another computer program written by some person, somewhere. It’s only as good as the skill and creativity of the person who wrote the computer program.

The good ones are easy to use. The poorly designed ones usually are not. I’ve had Sites where the Shopping Cart was something I almost never had to think about, and I’ve had Sites where the Shopping Cart was a constant nightmare that I had to futz around with constantly just to stay in business. You need to make sure you choose your ECommerce Hosting company carefully. Cheaper is not better, in most cases.

Once the Hosting Company activates a Shopping Cart on your paid Web Site, that Web Site now has all the Informational capability of a Personal Site, and the Ecommerce capability to directly sell products.

Ecommerce Web Site Hosting - more information