The Management Consulting Group

Disk Space
The amount of disk space offered generally not a factor these days. Most websites will use less than 50 mb and unless you’re hosting lots of images or video and sound files, a few hundred mb will be adequate. If you like to store your emails on the server you will want to have more space.

Bandwidth
Most websites use less than 2gb of traffic per month. If this will be a high traffic site look for more. Also inquire about overage charges and about their policy concerning what happens when a site goes over the limit.

OS
Under most conditions you are going to want to choose a UNIX based system. These are generally more stable and secure than their Windows counterparts. The only time I recommend someone use Windows hosting is if they need it for ASP or ASP.NET scripting or for some other reason it is required. Many individuals misunderstand that the computer they use at home plays no role in this choice.

Speed
Before you signup with a company always be sure to ask what type of connection they have to the internet and what type of redundancy is in place for this connection. Also see if they have any sample sites they can refer to you so you can test the loading time.

Reliability
Ask if there is an uptime guarantee for their hosting plans. Look for uptimes of 99.99% or better. Things happen and servers have issues, but it is important to see how quickly these issues are resolved. Ask if they have any historical data of their reliability they can provide.

Shell Access
If you anticipate needing shell access, check to see if it is available. Many web hosts are disabling this feature

Scripting Languages allowed and Database
Make sure the plan you go with has all the features you need. Make sure it has CGI access. If you want to install a script make sure the hosting supports the language and type of database it may use. Most UNIX based plans should have CGI, PHP, Perl, MYSQL included and most Windows plans should have ASP, ASP.NET, MS SQL and support Access databases.

Statistics
Make sure they provide software to see statistical information. Ask what they offer and investigate whether this contains all the information you need.

Support
This can be a very important thing to look for. Look for both phone and email/ticket support methods. If phone charges are an issue, make sure a toll-free number is available. The most important thing to look for in the prospective Web Host is the turnaround time for resolving technical issues. It is too late to check or complain about this once a problem has occurred. The shorter the response time, the better. If you are new to the website/hosting world and expect to call in for help with setting up your account, make sure that you check to see if this is allowed. Most support departments will not be your web design reference section and will charge to fix design mistakes.

Server Location
The location of your server play’s an important role in the access speed. If your customers are in the United States your server should be in the United States. If your customers are in India then your server should be in India.

Price
If the price is too good to be true, then it probably is. You will get what you pay for. If you are spending less than $10 a month, expect the level of service to be similar to that amount. I’ve personally spoken with customers running websites that take in thousands of dollars a day on a $3.95/month hosting package. When the site goes down with server issues don’t expect the hosting company to pay a single cent of your lost revenue. If you’ve got a high revenue website a shared hosting plan is out of the question and you should look for a custom package with redundancy built in.

Scott is the owner and chief designer for Smith-Concepts LLC a Fairfield County web development firm located in Danbury, Connecticut.

Related Links: http://www.smith-concepts.com

Want to build a website? If yes, but you have no programming or
html knowledge this article is for you. You have four options:

1. Hire a web designer

2. Use a free template

3. Affiliate website

4. Buy a WYSIWYG editor

Let’s take a look at each of the above options, including
advantages and disadvantages, and then decide on the best one.

Option #1: Hire a Web Designer

You can hire a web designer from Elance or Rent A Coder.
Alternatively, you could hire a web design student for
significantly less cost than a professional designer.

Advantages: You’ll likely get a website with a more advanced and
professional look and that is also unique.

Disadvantages:

1. The most obvious is cost. It could cost you several hundred
if not thousand dollars to hire a web designer. Costs could
increase with improvements, upgrades, additions, expansions
etc., and these can be numerous.

2. You have to lead the designer by the hand. Not easy,
especially when he/she is not close-by, as is usually the case
with when you hire one off the internet.

3. Time-consuming: By the time you have perused dozens of
designers’ portfolios, made a decision, communicated your ideas,
changed this and that… well, several weeks or even months may
have elapsed.

4. After having gone through all the above, you might end up not
liking what you see. Back to square one and additional costs.

Option #2: Free Website Template

You can build a website using one of the free website templates
available on the internet.

Advantages: Free of charge, though you could end up paying in
other ways, including some of those in “disadvantages” below.

Disadvantages:

1. Free templates are usually tied to hosting and may not work
with your choice of hosting. The hosting is not free.

2. You may be required to boldly display the template owner’s
logo on every page of your site. This tells the whole world that
your site is built on someone else’s “charity”. There goes your
credibility.

3. Future expandability issues: you may not be able to expand
and/or improve your site in future when you need to, which
hopefully you will.

4. Inflexible: Not easy, if at all possible, to customize

5. From my personal experience two words: Not good.

Option #3: Affiliate Website

These usually come with affiliate promotional packages. MLM and
brochure sites also fall in this category.

Advantages:

1. Usually, but not always, free.

2. Ready website with sales letter and/or content

3. May be hosted free on company’s servers

4. Professionally designed in most cases

Disadvantages:

1. You have no control over content or design and you cannot
change it.

2. If any room is left for your own content it’s usually very
limited

3. Your website looks exactly like thousands of others all over
the web.

Option #4: WYSIWYG html Editor

WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) html editor is software
that allows you to see your website as you build it: sort of
like a word processor with more features.

Advantages:

1. Simplicity and speed: With a good website builder, you can
build a website in a few hours.

2. You don’t need to learn html.

3. Some WYSIWYG html editors allow choice of building your site
from scratch. This not only gives your website a unique look,
but you a sense of accomplishment as well.

4. You can expand, improve and edit your website as you go along.

5. Future expandability not an issue unless your site out-grows
the WYSIWYG (in that case, congratulations!)

Disadvantages:

1. With some WYSIWYG editors, pages and buttons may not be
customizable.

2. May only work best with the particular software maker’s
hosting.

3. They can be prone to errors.

4. There’s a learning curve, usually longer with increased
features.

5. Some WYSIWYG editors are plain frustrating, even agonizing,
to work with.

So, what is the best option for building your website when on a
budget and short on time?

To create a website without spending a lot of money and time, a
WYSIWYG editor would be the best option. But, pick the wrong one
and you’re in for tears. Solution?

Go with the three Ts: tested, tried and true. The following two
WYSIWYG editors have consistently given users excellent results,
without costing an arm and a leg:

* 123 WYSIWYG: Go to http://mercantilecentral.com/123wysiwyg.htm

* Site Build It: Go to http://mercantilecentral.com/sbi.htm

Created by leading internet marketers who know first-hand the
frustrations of building a professional website, the above
website builders are top choices. With either one, you can get
your website up and running in a very short time, with great
results.

Both the above website builders have free trials, so why not try
one today?

Website traffic can pay for itself in a number of ways:

#GoogleAdSense”>Google
AdSense
#CPMBannerDisplay”>CPM Banner
Displays
#PTCBanners”>PTC Banners
#Sales”>Sales / New signups
/>

These are a few examples, there are certainly more unseen ways
traffic is paying for itself, including a better
search engine ranking, resulting in higher quality
website traffic!

Google AdSense

CPM Banner Displays

PTC Banners

Sales / New Signups

Sometimes you see promotions come along and you wonder - did
they just do that? The current MSN promotion - msnsearchandwin
is a prime example of this.

Not only do they use “black hat” or at least “questionable”
tactics on the site, but the messaging is inconsistent.

In this article I look at the new MSN promotion and ask the
question: Why bother?

By now you’ve probably heard about the new MSN promotion where
you can win prizes simply by using MSN search.

They did do something right by registering a domain name that
implies that message. If you go to HREF=http://www.msnsearchandwin.com/ rel="nofollow">http://www.msnsearchandwin.c
om/ you will see the familiar MSN search box.

Wait a minute…Why is this search box blue? Didn’t MSN just
rebrand with a nicer, cleaner silver grey look?

That, my friends, is mistake number one. It’s as if the
technical team and the marketing team didn’t get together to
discuss this program.

I mean, when you go through something as complex and massive as
a rebranding, you should make sure the messaging is consistent
across the various media. Especially when the promotion and the
rebranding launch within days of each other.

This is eerily similar to the article I wrote about Superbowl
Ads: HREF=http://www.textlinkbrokers.com/blogs/comments/329_0_1_0_C/ rel="nofollow">h
ttp://www.textlinkbrokers.com/blogs/comments/329_0_1_0_C/.
In that article I talked about how advertisers spend millions on
a 30 second or 1 minute TV commercial yet they fail to carry
that messaging over onto their website effectively if at all.

And here we have MSN - probably one of the most recognized
brands on the web and subsidiary to the company with one of the
most effective and ruthless marketing arms in the world - and it
can’t seem to communicate it’s message that MSN is rebranding.

I mean, how hard would it have been for someone in Tech to phone
up someone in Marketing and say, “By the way, you know that
search and win promotion you are doing? Be sure that the colors
match the new look of MSN that’s launching in a few days.”

But wait, it gets better.

First spotted by HREF=http://www.kerrydean.com/blog/ rel="nofollow">http://www.kerrydean.com/blog
/, if you view source of the msnsearchandwin home page what
do you see?

That’s right, about a million keywords stuffed into the keywords
tag. (OK maybe not a million but there are 256 keywords in the
meta keywords tag).

It gets worse. Immediately below the overstuffed keywords tag
you will see a bunch of keywords stuffed into a comments tag.
Again the same 256 words used in the meta keywords tag.

So tell me, is it OK for a search engine to spam itself?

Perhaps we could all learn a little something from MSN’s
marketing mistake: Keep it consistent!

The emotion of colors

Color by virtue of its tremendous expressive qualities is one of the most effective tools in advertisements and presentations. Web design is no exception in this regard. Psychologists have found out that color impression can account for 60% of the acceptance or rejection of that product or service.

Here’s a brief elucidation on varying dimensions of color.

There is a high degree of universality in the implicit meaning of color across cultures and geographies

Name something Green, people will refer to trees, name something blue, people will mean water. People generally associate colors with where each color is predominantly found, regardless of cultures and regions.

Here’s a description of the symbolic significance and potential uses of common colors.

Red

Symbolizes : Passion, fire, love, lust, war, violence, blood, and aggression

Potential Uses : Where the aim is to motivate an individual to initiate action, convey a warning, or stop the user.

When using different shades of red on a website, exercise caution Bright red can be quite irritating if used over large areas.

Pink

Symbolizes: Calming, cute, candy, soft romantic, and feminine

Potential Uses: When you want strike on a user’s caring or romantic side.

Orange

Symbolizes: Vibrancy and warmth. It is like a less passionate red.

Potential Uses: Recommended for food sites, nature sites.

Orange is good in moderation. Over-use should be avoided.

Yellow

Symbolizes: Sunshine, caution, happy, cheerful, warmth, hope, light, energy, weakness or illness, or symbolize cowardice.

Potential Uses: To make a webpage brighter and more spring-like.

Like red, it catches attention swiftly, but can be an irritant if over-used.

Green

Symbolizes: Spring, renewal, fertility, wealth, inexperience, health

Potential Uses: Excellent color option for websites about money and growing.

Blue

Symbolizes: Sky, sea, intelligence, reassurance, also depression and sadness.

Potential Uses: To give a website formal look and feel.

Purple

Symbolizes: Creativity, spiritual and mysterious.

Potential Uses: Best for spiritual sites, expressing romantic tenor

Black

Symbolizes: Power, elegance, and sophistication, death (Western context), evil, anger and sadness.

Potential Uses: Be on the safe side, never use over a wide area.

White

Symbolizes: Cleanliness, purity, and spirituality. It symbolizes life and marriage in Western cultures, but it is symptomatic of death in Eastern cultures.

Potential Uses: Great as an accent or background color because it makes other colors seem more vivid and bold

How to make color scheme work for you

Keep it simple . A color palette using three or fewer overall colors contributes to the clarity of a web page.

Use white space . White space does a balancing act for colors, lets the design breathe and makes a large site feel less complex.

Be consistent . Consistency in colors (i.e. links, menu items, instructions etc.) allows your audience to instinctively know where to look for information.

Know your audience. Before you set the ball rolling in design, you should be convinced enough what colors the audience would find compelling and right for your product.

Choose the right temperature of colors . The perception of your site is affected by your choice of warm or cool colors. Cool colors are water and sky colors like blue and purple; warm colors are red, orange and yellow. The temperature of a color affects how your message is likely to be perceived. SALE written in red will be perceived as more vibrant and urgent than soft purple text.

Let color contrast distinguish significant parts of your site.

Contrast between text and its background is essential for legibility. Dark text on a white background, for instance, is more legible than orange text on a red background. Different elements on your web page (i.e. the menu and body of the page) must contrast or they will begin blending together.

Color lesson: A well-considered color scheme can transform an okay website into a great web site

Color is one of the most important yet not-so-thoroughly understood elements of web design today. Whether web designers appreciate it or ignore it, visitors to a site respond to colors and other visual elements on the site on a psychological level, and will continue to do so.

Color affects the emotion of the audience, and emotion, in the process, drives decision-making. An intrigued visitor is more likely to be engaged in your site — whether it is meant to inform, entertain, or to sell products or services or ideas.

But if the colors are unsuitable, or outrageous, or not in line with the underlying symbolism, the visitors can outrightly reject the site–and the products as well–no matter how good they are. So, picking colors on your website carefully can transform your site, and of course, your business too

Deepak Sharma is a Web Designer at BlueApple, a Web Design and Development Company with a well connected development infrastructure in India having a strong offering superior web services and solutions at competitive costs.

While it seems pretty obvious that planning a web site is vital to its future development, I’m positive that a lot of web designers, programmers, etc. miss this step or don’t give it the importance it deserves.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO PLAN YOUR WEB SITE?

• Prevention is better than cure: There are few things more annoying than changing plans in the middle of a process. Of course you will always be exposed to mischances, but by planning ahead you will avoid potential problems that would require major modifications along the way.
• Faster development: When I worked as a web designer there were essentially two different types of clients: those who had a clear idea of what they wanted, and those who wanted “just to be on the Internet”. At first it could seem that the second type would be more permissive, making the development smoother. But on the contrary, those clients came up with a bunch of objections, additions, modifications… slowing down the process.

  If you have not a clear idea at first, you will only know exactly what you want when you see it. And trial-and-error isn’t a wise method for developing anything.

• Better performance: By aiming to an objective through all the steps of the web development process, the final result will be more consistent with your original idea. The efficiency of your web site to achieve your main goals will rely mainly on your initial planning.

HOW TO PLAN YOUR WEB SITE

• Determine your objectives:

  • Why are you developing the web site? If you don’t know the answer to this question, stop reading this and try to do something more productive.
  • Set your expectations, specific and realistic. Don’t try to be the next Google. Not even if you work at Microsoft. Specially if you work at Microsoft.
  • If possible, set also a way to measure those expectations so you can find out later your level of success. It can be a certain amount of visitors, sales…
• Define your target audience:

  • Who are you developing the site for? Your grandma and your aunt don’t count.
  • Analyze your potential visitors and what they are looking for. Focus on their needs, not yours.
  • Find a reason why they would choose your site from among the available alternatives. This is the Internet, there are millions of web sites. Depending on the niche there will be hundreds or thusands competing with yours… Does it really worth the effort?
• Research your competitors:

  • Identify and study the competition in your field. Basically competition is any site within your niche that you would like to make disappear (or even better, that you would like tu run).
  • Check web sites related to yours in any way and find their strengths and weaknesses. Why do you like them? Why do you dislike them? (besides they are the damn competition, of course).
  • Use that information so you can determine a way to beat your competitors. Can’t you find that way? Then you should go back to the target audience study.
• Outline your web site:

  • Think of the proper structure to make the relevant information easily accessible. Try to balance the information relevant for your visitors and the information you want to make relevant.
  • Determine how to merge different aspects of the development like content management, design, programming, usability, search engine optimization… and how to merge the people in charge of those areas (it uses to be way more difficult).
  • Try to make all scalable, so future additions or redesigns can be accomplished quickly and easily.

Original article published by Javier Garca: Basics: Planning your web site in Monetizing the Web
Read more articles on Web planning.

Many people believe that selecting a hosting service for their web site is a routine tasks and not that important. This is a big mistake as there are a number of very costly things that can and will go wrong if you are not aware of the important factors you need to take into account.

Answers to these important questions need to be found and fully understood before you can proceed with hosting your domain name in confidence.

This important activity is often seen as a routine technical / administrative task and insufficient attention is given to it. This is particularly the so with newbies who have little experience of the wider issues of internet marketing and the more technical aspects of the internet.

Selecting Your Hosting Service

All web sites need to be hosted (stored) on a server (special internet computer) in order to be accessible over the internet. There are many companies that offer hosting services for your web site.

It’s not a good idea to host your site with the same company that registers your domain name, as it can cause complications if you later wish to move your site to another hosting company. By keeping these two activities seperate, you will keep your options open and retain control of your business.

Tip:

Never use a company offering free domains as part of a cheap hosting package — it’s false economy and you will not be in control of your business!

There are many good hosting companies that will charge you about $7 a month and provide a good service. I can recommend using Hostgator, as their basic package provides all the essential functions you will initially need.

Tip:

It doesn’t pay to get free hosting or unrealistically cheap hosting. If your web site is a success, you will loose a lot of sales and profit whenever your server goes offline. Be wary of hosting plans that offer unlimited diskspace or bandwidth as something else has to suffer to make this viable.

Most hosting companies provide you with a control panel that enables you to perform a number of basic functions to manage your site. e.g. create, rename or delete folders and files (similar to files on your PC). You can also set up email accounts, databases and various other things as well.

The first thing you need to do is get some help in the form of step by step instructions and coaching videos designed specifically for newbies.

We can’t emphasize enough the importance of including keyword-rich content on your site to increase your ranking potential. Simply put, keywords are the words and/or word phrases people use when searching. As we’ve mentioned throughout the site, search engine spiders love content. Therefore, the more keyword-rich content you have, the better. When a search engine spider crawls your site, it won’t recognize pictures or images.

So, if you have limited amounts of text (or none at all) and you’ve got a lot of beautiful pictures or Flash animation, the spider may deem your site unworthy of listing.

What Is Keyword Density? Keyword density is the ratio of a keyword or key phrases to the total number of words on that page. It is one of the most critical aspects of successful search engine optimization. To improve your search engine ranking potential, your keyword density must be just right. To calculate your keyword density, divide the total number of words on your page by the number of times your primary keyword or key phrase appears. Keyword density is critical when outlining the keyword portion of your search engine optimization strategy.

Naturally, there is a fine line between strategically scattering these keywords throughout your content versus grouping them all together, separated by commas. The latter is known as spamming and you will get penalized for doing it. Don’t think you can fool the search engines — they have the technology to figure out these little tricks. Using Keyword Density To Improve Your Search Engine Ranking The best way to increase your search engine ranking potential is to develop your keyword strategy by researching the most relevant (and most searched for) keywords or keyword phrases before you even begin building your site. So, you’ve already built your site? No worries — you should still consider reviewing the keywords you have selected and make any necessary changes to your meta tags and site content. No matter how nice your site looks, you won’t get high search engine rankings without the right keywords. And remember, if your site has a lot of graphics or Flash animation with little content, we encourage you to consider a redesign. We understand that most site owners who fit into this category have spent a lot of money for these beautiful sites, but what is the purpose if they aren’t getting the high rankings?

That being said, here are a few tips on using keyword density to maximize your search engine ranking potential:

1. Use our Search Term Suggestion Tool (powered by Overture) to research your keywords. This powerful tool will direct you to the most popular keywords for your specific business based on how many times that keyword or keyword phrase is searched for each month. You can then take that information and develop your keyword strategy based on those results.

2. Incorporate these keywords or keyword phrases in your meta tags as well as your site content. People often forget that search engines will spider the heading meta tags first because they preceed and stand out from your main site content.

3. Write keyword-rich content that not only satisfies the search engine algorithms but is equally informative for customers visiting your site. This is the most difficult part of writing your content - but also the most critical.

4. Try to write at least 300 words for each page on your site. Again, the more content you have the better chance you will have to include those all-important keywords you diligently researched and ultimately selected.

5. Too often we see content saturated with too many keywords that, as popular as they may be, just don’t relate to the site itself. Avoid doing this - it will only irritate potential customers.

6. Web sites should be updated on a regular basis — don’t let them go stale. Add new products/services, update users with new information and tools, do what you can to change your content (keyword-rich content, that is!) and keep users coming back for more.

About The Author

As Submit Today’s copywriter and editor, Kristy Meghreblian has written online content for many successful companies, including Monster.com. She has successfully combined her excellence in journalism with the delicate art of keyword density as it relates to search engine optimization. As a result, she has helped many Submit Today clients achieve top ranking. Submit Today is a leading search engine optimization, submission and ranking company located in Naples, Florida.

kristy@submittoday.com

The Internet has had a huge impact on class reunion planning. High school reunion website builders have made it much easier to find classmates, and communicate all the important details regarding the high school reunion. Virtually anyone can create an incredible class reunion website with no technical skills at all. The user just fills in forms and clicks on buttons and their class reunion website is created instantly.

High school reunion organizers everywhere are reporting that having a class reunion website has had a dramatic effect on the attendance at the reunion. Seeing pictures and stories from the year of graduation creates a nostalgic mood that makes classmates look forward to the class reunion.

Some class reunion website builders have special features that help class reunion organizers collect people’s information, pictures, ticket payments as well as share event details, stories and more. The reunion organizer just fills in forms and clicks on buttons and their information is sent to one of many beautiful design templates. It is the best way to share all the event details, hotel information, and create a buzz that builds momentum right up to the high school reunion.

A Class reunion website allows the user to collect payments with a credit card right on the reunion website. The organizer can collect funds for tickets to the class reunion, memorabilia, or literally anything. This helps the planning process a lot because collecting everyone’s checks is usually an unpleasant task, and can be a stumbling block when trying to plan any reunion.

The organizer planning the class reunion is able to quickly and easily upload pictures on their class reunion website and create unique pages that suit their needs simply by filling in forms with their information. Some popular page titles include “flashback”, “teachers”, “news”, “committee” and “past reunions”. The “classmates” page allows the user to put a picture for each graduate today and from graduation. There are also great features that entertain classmates such as quizzes, polls, music, video, message boards, a guest book and much more.

The quiz page can test classmates’ knowledge of their high school history and the poll page is a great way to get a consensus on what everyone wants to do for various reunion activities. The class reunion organizer creates the questions and answers simply by filling information in forms and clicking submit on their high school reunion website. It is 100% dummy proof !

Putting all the details of events and map links on the class reunion website eliminates many phone calls to the organizer. The high school reunion website acts like a communications hub for the high school reunion. The organizer can send class reunion invitations by email with the planning tools and classmates can RSVP right on the class reunion website. This can save significant funds and make the job of planning the class reunion significantly easier.

The organizer can also post all the pictures and stories on the high school reunion website after the class reunion which allows friends who could not come to the school reunion to feel like they were part of the festivities ! So, if you are considering planning a class reunion, make your life easier and increase attendance by making a class reunion website.

Robert Hirscheimer is the President of http://www.myevent.com the #1 website builder on the Internet. Myevent.com allows anyone to create an incredible website with no skills for any event. There are special features for Wedding Websites, Class Reunion Websites, Family Reunion websites or a website for any event. The company also has a generic website builder where anyone can create a website for a business, foundation, association, corporate event or any other purpose. To create a website for a class reunion go to http://www.reunions.myevent.com and start a 7 day free trial with no credit card required. The cost is only $9.95 after the free trial.

When you started your business, perhaps you thought it was
enough to make your goods available to a few neighbors in the
community, with no thought of ever applying for a Web hosting
merchant account. Then you might have expanded the company’s
range by advertising in the newspaper or on the radio to get the
word out to those who did not drive by your company in a typical
day’s time. But now you’re poised to enter the electronic age as
your company moves into the e-commerce era. It’s time to put up
a company Website for all the world to see.

But you may lack the skills and perhaps even the funds to
design, set up, and maintain a professional Website via a Web
hosting merchant account. Perhaps you don’t even know where to
begin to find someone who can consult with you about what the
site should look like and how it should operate. You can’t begin
to understand how to process credit card payments or manage
other electronic functions to better serve your customers. But
rather than admit any of this, it may be you are sitting back,
resting on the old ways of doing business, and watching your
colleagues’ profits climb while yours hold even or occasionally
droop.

If this scenario describes your operation, maybe it’s time to
inquire about a Web hosting merchant account. A bank or another
financial services provider can explain the terms and conditions
of operating a merchant account. Once you find out if your
company is eligible to apply, you can look for the lowest rates
and best service before making application, taking care to avoid
various setup and maintenance fees that can be calculated in
addition to your monthly transaction costs. When your
application for a merchant card is accepted, you can get help in
locating a Website designer, one who will work with you to
represent your company the way you want it to be. Then you can
equip it with software that will let you accept customers’
credit card payments when they shop online so they can pay for
their purchases immediately rather than mail a check. Your
merchant services underwriter will arrange a gateway coordinator
to funnel customers’ credit payments directly into your
preferred checking account. All you will need to do is pay a
monthly rate for each credit card transaction or a low overall
percentage rate.

You can design a Website that will stand apart from the
competitors’ sites. It could feature product descriptions, price
lists, sale dates, FAQs, testimonials, and links to related
sites if that will support your company goals. The site should
be error-free, contain easy-to-read chunks of information, and
not be littered with so much information that the customer will
feel overwhelmed. You can arrange to add an email site in case
visitors have questions or problems, and you can let them pay by
credit card online, which is perhaps the most essential feature
of all. Ask your banker for details about a Web hosting merchant
account.