Planning Your On-line Business? Don’t Look for a Host; Look for a Partner.
In the world of Business and Ecommerce Web Hosting, there are partners and then there are the other 200 million websites that pop up in Google when do a basic search for “web hosting”. At Lunarpages, we realize that your business means more to you than high bandwidth offers or empty uptime guarantees, so we strive to be the kind of hosting company that does more than just host your website – we are the backbone of your business.
What does a reliable Business Web Host deliver?
Besides the usual terms you need to know for any web hosting plan you’re looking into (longevity, uptime, and technical support), for Ecommerce Hosting, you need to look specifically for the following:
- Dedicated IPs — A Dedicated IP Address is an address that is not shared with any other site on the server and corresponds directly with your domain name. In a shared hosting environment, this is very important to ecommerce security. It’s also one of the first things you’ll need to purchase for your online business and something not every web host can provide – without charging an arm and a leg, anyway! The fact is, IP addresses aren’t easy to come by, so many hosts just don’t bother, but without a Dedicated IP, you won’t be able to secure your site with an SSL Certificate, and without that, no client is going to put their credit card in your hands. At Lunarpages, we offer a Dedicated IP as an add-on to the Basic Hosting Plan for $2.50/mo, or you can get one for free with your Business Hosting Plan purchase.
- SSL Certificate — A “Secure Sockets Layer” Certificate sounds like something out of a bad 50s Sci-Fi flick but is actually the difference between a trusted ecommerce website and an online business that never makes it off the ground. An SSL Certificate is used to identify the merchant who owns it, as well as to encrypt the credit cards and payment data being processed on the website. Without an SSL Certificate, the information viewed and sent via the website could be intercepted by just about anyone. At Lunarpages, we offer two different SSL Certificates: the Basic Certificate for $69/year or the Pro Certificate for $89/year. Both come fully validated with 99.3% browser coverage and 128/256 bit encryption, along with a $10,000 warranty or $100,000 warranty. On the Business Hosting Plan, the installation of any SSL Certificate is Free. With the Basic Hosting Plan, a one-time fee of $24.95 is standard.
- Multiple Ecommerce Features — The basic needs of your business most often include shopping carts, merchant accounts, and great statistics tracking. At Lunarpages, you get all those and more! With one-click installs of your choice of OsCommerce, ZenCart, or CubeCart shopping cart software standard with every hosting plan, you’ve already got a great base for your online business. Using the merchant gateway of Authorize.Net, one of the industry leaders in payment processing, we also offer CrazyEgg Tracking Software, another industry leader and the pioneer of Heat Map Technology. With CrazyEgg, you also have the opportunity to test versions of order pages or layouts, see where your users click the most, and have the ability to fully optimize your results.
Which shopping cart should I use?
While most users prefer OsCommerce for its compatibility with PayPal, Credit Cards, Checks, Money Orders, and most other payment types, others may go with ZenCart for its reputation for ease of use or CubeCart for its email marketing systems. In the end, it’s up to each individual user to choose the shopping cart system that works best for your business. If you need to use a merchant gateway like Authorize.Net, we recommend OsCommerce, while if you are simply using PayPal or sending users to another website to pay, you may want to consider ZenCart or CubeCart.
What else do I get for my Business Website?
Everything you need! Let’s start with an unparalleled Unlimited amount of Storage Space to keep pictures of your products, video demos, files, user databases, and anything else you need for your business. Add to that 3,500 Gigabytes of data transfer, Unlimited Databases, Unlimited Sub and Parked Domains, Unlimited email accounts, three free blog choices, forums, chatrooms, and more! For $21.95/month, you can have your business online in no time with a beautiful layout, plenty of space to store your data, and a partner like Lunarpages standing behind you 100% of the time.
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