At some point you may want to create an Internet presence for your business or possibly it's an online only business as a merchant or affiliate. Either is a great business model. More and more shoppers are looking to the Internet for information and to purchase products. Without a online presences you could be missing a fair amount of business and a very easy way to expand your businesses reach.

The basics for taking a business online are pretty much the same regardless of business model. There may be some differences in bandwidth requirements or other technical abilities for a particular business model and we'll try to address those difference here also. At the very least each business model will require a domain, hosting account and web page design.

Most online businesses will fall mainly into 3 categories there are variations and combinations but we won't discuss that here:

• Brick and mortar business creating an online presence

• Online only merchants

• Affiliate websites

The following list are needs that all 3 groups have in common major difference in requirements are noted:

Domain Name

Every business needs a name and in case you didn't know, the domain name is the part after the "www." and before the ".com" (or ,org. or .whatever). The important thing is that the domain name should reflect the type of business that you are running. Unfortunately at this point in time a lot of the great domain names have been taken, however a lot of them are auctioned or sold by different services like Afternic or Sedo . Be prepared to spend a lot on a popular name. Ideally if you have a Brick and Mortar business you would want your domain name to match the name of your business, unfortunately this isn't always possible as someone else may have already registered the name. If the name of your business is trademarked you may have a recourse in recouping the domain name. See here for additional information The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

The easiest way to find out if a domain name is available is to type it in the address bar of your browser and see what happens. If you reach a "Page Not Found" there is a good chance that the domain is available. In some cases you'll end up on a "parked domain" which simply means that someone has already registered that domain name but hasn't developed a web site for it yet. Often these domains are for sale and sales or contact information should be somewhere on the page. You can also use Google or one of the other search engines to search for www.domainname.com to see what comes up in the search results, I usually use both methods if one doesn't find any results.

Whatever you do DO NOT USE THE DOMAIN SEARCH TOOLS PROVIDED BY THE DOMAIN REGISTRARS OR HOSTING COMPANIES until your are absolutely ready to register the domain name. These are often monitored by unscrupulous individuals and organizations that immediately reserve domain names that are searched for. You'll know that this has happened when you search for a domain name, see that's it's available perform another search and then return to your original search and the name is no longer available. This usually means that a wholesale registrar just reserved that domain name, they can reserve a name and hold it for a period of time without actually purchasing the domain. Now if you still want that domain you have to purchase it from them at in inflated price.

Web site design and Maintenance

Do you have the skills and more importantly the time to design, create and maintain a web site? If not you should contract designer or firm that will create a site that reflects your business and personal tastes. Take a look at the websites of competitors in your industry. Are their sites well laid out? Do they instill a feeling of trust? Are they relevant and make the buyer willing to purchase from the site or visit the store? I'm in no way suggesting that you copy their sites, but seeing how others have organized and designed their sites can help you come up with ideas that would better reflect your tastes and still offer a memorable experience to your customers.

When selecting a web designer you should always insist on seeing example of their other work and always ask for reference that you can check. If they refuse to provide references than move on to the next designer. They may have designed a beautiful and efficient web site but if they were substantially over budget or hasn't met time frames consistently then they may not be the right designer for you. When meeting with a designer be sure to listen to their ideas as well as expressing what you envision. They've done this before and often times they will have insights that would never have occurred to you.

Once you've selected a designer make sure that you are very clear on the terms of the engagement. They may have a standard agreement that they use for their projects but if not you can probably find a boilerplate agreement for web design on the web. Be sure that ALL elements of the site design are included in the agreement. And by all means make sure that you have a written agreement signed by both parties that outlines payments, performance and design elements. This includes; layout, menu structure, static pages such as about, privacy and contact us, databases required, data structure, supplied product portfolio, shopping cart if needed etc. Also make sure that the site design includes some basic instruction on performing simple updates to the site and make sure to include at least 90 days of support in the contract to allow for bug fixes or necessary changes. You could also include full documentation of the site design, however this could add quite a bit of expense to the design. And make sure that when the project is complete that you are the owner of the basic template as well as the design.

The web site designer should also be able to help you to select a host if you haven't already completed this step. Often they've worked with a number of different hosts and will be able to advice you on their preferences. Take this information with some skepticism and still perform your due diligence before you make a final host decision. Some designers receive a commission from hosts that they recommend.

You also need to decide how the site will be maintained and upgraded. If you are happy with the work your initial designer did they would be the natural choice to maintain the site also, after all they are the one that is most familiar with your site. You can usually contract with them on an ad-hoc basis but be sure to give them some flexibility regarding time frame as they may be involved with other projects. This is another good reason to have some familiarity with the site design yourself, it will save you time and money if you can make minor changes and updates.

These are all the qualities that you need to have a successful web business. Whether you are providing information about your brick and mortar business or are providing customers a way to purchase online, a poorly designed site can do more to harm your business and reputation than help it.

There are ways to easily get multiple quotes on a website and compare the prices and services provided without spending a lot of time or money. FreeQuotesWorld allows you to request quotes from multiple designers by filling out a single profile. You are then contacted by the designers and can negotiate whatever services that you need as well as compare their portfolios and pricing . All of the designers are pre-screened by FreeQuotesWorld so you know that you are getting a quality service. The service is free to you and allows you to get an idea of what your new site will cost.

Elance is another service that is free to you. They work a little bit differently than FreeQuotesWorld but are still a very good resource. With Elance you post your project on their boards with a detailed description of what services you need or you can search for a designer based on a number of criteria. Freelance designers then bid on your project. You can communicate with as many of the freelancers as you wish and can also check their reliability ratings an reviews from previous projects.

Acquiring a Merchant Account

Obviously if you're doing business on the Internet you'll have to start thinking about alternate forms of payment. Cash online just doesn't work very well. Instead you'll need to accept credit, debit cards, gift cards and other forms of payment. If you already have a Merchant Service Provider (MSP) for your brick and mortar business you may simply have to upgrade your existing retail account to a combined Internet/retail account. Keep in mind that transaction fees for Internet based accounts are typically higher due to the higher rate of fraud. If you're just starting out you'll need to find an MSP.

If you're just starting out the first thing you need to do is find an MSP. The MSP could be your bank or any number of third party providers. In addition to the merchant account there will also be secure payment gateways so that you can process payments online. It's important to make sure that the secure payment gateway will work with your shopping cart software. The safest choice will be one that connects to a variety of shopping carts. For a very low cost merchant account that includes a free shopping cart, you may want to look at Electronic Transfer, Inc, they provide a free merchant account, credit card processing, free recurring billing and check processing set up.

Some hosting companies also provide merchant accounts along with the secure payment gateway and shopping cart for a totally integrated solution. For those just starting out this is sometimes the best choice. Since a single organization is providing the hosting, merchant account, secure payment gateway and shopping cart they will take responsibility for integrating all of the components. This way you know that you have a solution that works. You should compare their pricing with tradition MSPs however a small increase in price may be worth it to avoid integration and compatibility issues.

Hosting Account

There are literally hundreds of hosting companies available and just like with anything else, there are good ones and bad ones. There are also those that are a better fit for some types of businesses than others. If this is your first time taking a business online you probably have no clue what you're requirements will be, and neither do I. What I can tell you are some of the bare minimums that you should use in selecting a host and above all the host you select should allow for some flexibility in their plans that allow for upgrading your account as your business grows or your needs change. You should also do a search on the hosts name to see what other customers are saying about them. I'd advise you to take the comments with a grain of salt, there probably isn't a single host that doesn't have some complaints.

To me customer service is one of the most important criteria that I judge a host by. Unfortunately you don't often know how good or bad their customer service is until you have a problem. When selecting hosts, don't just go to their web site and select a hosting plan. Most have a 1-800 number or online chat for sales support. Explain to them what you are trying to accomplish and for their recommendation for the hosting plan that fits your needs and compare that to what other hosting companies have told you. If you have provided all of the hosts with the same information than their recommended plans should be similar. Toss out the ones that are considerably higher or lower than the average. They are either trying to oversell you, low ball you with the hopes of selling you an upgrade later once you've committed or they just don't have a clue. Either of these scenarios is worth avoiding. A few place to start are Bluehost.com. , FastNext, and Yahoo Merchant Solutions. These are all hosts that have a good reputation for support and pricing and have a good selection of plans and customization options.

The basic things that you should look for in a hosting plan include:

-Monthly bandwidth - This is a tough one to estimate initially. 300TB (terabytes) is a pretty good starting point and unless your business is highly successful should suffice. If 300TB proves not to be sufficient for your business (congratulations) then most hosts allow pretty inexpensive upgrades in 1GB increments. If you need more than 2 or 3GB of additional bandwidth you should consider upgrading your hosting package.

-Storage - The storage allotment can very greatly from hosts to host. Some have a starting point of as little as 20MB while others start you off at 300MB at roughly the same price point. It's quite possible that you will require considerably more than 20MB after a few months of business, particularly if you are storing product images, music or video files or other large files. 300MB may seem like a lot but you can use this space up pretty quickly. Again, most hosts will allow you to upgrade disk storage as your requirements change, however this can be more expensive than purchasing the right plan in the first place.

-Mail accounts - Depending on the type of business and your number of employees this may or may not be important to you. All hosting plans that I'm aware of include a minimum of 10 e-mail accounts and many include up to 100 per domain and some plans allow for unlimited e-mail accounts. If 10 is sufficient than this becomes a non-issue. If you will need more than 100 accounts look for plans that are unlimited or allow you to purchase additional accounts.

-Shopping cart - This is essential if you're intention is to be an online merchant. While you can purchase a shopping cart separately, many hosts include this as a free option. Using the host's free shopping cart also means that it will integrate easier with their hosting package and they will provide support for it. You can always upgrade to a 3rd party cart later in the unlikely event that the host's cart doesn't meet your needs.

-Control Panel - The control panel is where you can control various aspects of your site. From the control panel you can add e-mail and ftp accounts, change permissions, create new databases and access the back-end of your shopping cart. All hosting plans will include some type of control pane, some are just better than others. One popular and very easy to use control panel is cPanel. Ask your host what control pane they use and if you can preview it.

-Web Statistics - Your host should provide you with at least basic statistics through the control panel. There are often 3rd party applications that are better than the statistics offered by hosts but at least these are free and most will provide you the basic information you'll need initially.

-SSL Security - If you plan to have a shopping cart and taking orders online then SSL is essential. Your shoppers will want to make sure that they are in a secure shopping environment before they provide credit card information. Most hosts provide this at an additional fee of $1 to $2 a month. Make sure yours has SSL as an available option.

Other things to look for would be if the host performs nightly backups, what is their uptime guarantee (99% or better), when is tech support available, the number of SQL database provided. If you re using a web designer to create your site it would be a god idea to consult them on the requirements for your site.

Value Added Hosting Services

Typically we think of a hosting company as providing the basic tools required to keep your site online and for many businesses that have expertise in-house that's all you need. There are several hosting organizations that provide more than just the basics. They provide tools that help you to create your web presence, templates that make designing your site quick and easy and everything you need to start a merchant account without the need to set up accounts with several different companies and then integrate all of the options. They basically provide you with all of the things that you need to start your eBusiness.

Here are a few hosts that provide a variety of different services and have a higher than normal rating for quality, customer service and usability. If you don't have the technical skills or resources to create a site yourself I would strongly recommend looking into these services as a much easier and ultimately less expensive way to get started and hit he ground running.

Bluehost.com. has an excellent reputation for reliability and performance. They offer web building tools as well as a variety of shopping carts for ultimate flexibility.

1 &1's Professional eShop surpasses all of the minimum recommended requirements for a hosting account and adds a variety of templates to help you get a quick start in getting your site online. They also provide a great deal of software to help you customize your site so that it has the unique look and feel that you want. 1 & 1's Professional eShop was specifically designed for online commerce. It includes a variety of shopping carts to choose from as well as product categories, product search capabilities, order processing and payment methods. Depending on the package you select you also have the option of online credit card processing through their network of partners.

Yahoo! Merchant Solutions Is one of the fastest ways to get up and running quickly. Yahoo! provides a wizard that lets you design your store in minutes by using a pre-designed theme or layout. You can customize just about every aspect of your store with the built in tools that they provide. They also provide a catalog manager that tracks product descriptions, styles, sizes, prices, and custom details making building and maintaining your store front easier than ever. You can also track inventory at the item level so you know exactly what's in stock and what needs to be reordered.

Yahoo! Merchant Solutions also allows you to customize your shopping cart to match your storefront and select either a single or multi page checkout process. They automatically calculate shipping, taxes, fees and discounts during the checkout process. They also allow you to accept secure payments online avoiding the necessity of a separate merchant account and secure payment processor.

Shopster.com is the ultimate in turn key eStore solutions. They provide everything you need to create your online shop including over 700,00 wholesale products to chose from. Shopster provides tools to create your store, manage it, populate it with inventory and track sales. You select the products you want to sell, decide on a price and add the product to your store. Shopster handles order processing, credit card processing, shipping and customer service. It's like having a full staff of employees working in the background to make your store a success.

Copyright © Robert Matthews http://bizTAMER.com