Running out of patience looking for web hosting please help

Well I have visited probally 300 sites and read reviews and features and well i'm going crazy. So I figured I would join a forum and ask for some personal advice for myself and see if that would help me any better. I am looking to start an online business so I need a store to sell my products in. I was just going to buy my own domain name somewhere. And use it when signing up for my new hosting package. I am looking for all the best things in an ecommerce site, and probally a paypal shopping cart since I already have a merchant account with them. Looking for reliable uptime, 24/7 support, easy site builder would be good but I do know some about html and site building and do a lot of graphic design so I would like to be able to incorporate some of my own ideas into the look too. I'm looking for free set up and monthly charges, not looking to pay months or years in advance...cant seem to find that anywhere. I have also seen some with advertising gift certificates as incentives. Of course that would be a plus. But I feel like I have been putting more work into finding a host than anything, so please if you have any suggestions of web host providers that would fit my needs, please point me in the right direction.

Thanks

I understand what your saying. Infact your not the only one who goes around getting confused because of the amount of hosting companies out there.

Every host has a good side and a bad side. You can't expect to be with an absolutely perfect host. Domains are not a problem. You can purchase one anywhere then host whenever.

When it comes to online shopping it depends on what you are selling. It also depends on the amount of bandwidth and space you will be using. Usually you can purchase software that setup a shopping cart for you. All it requires is a few config changes and your all set.

Nearly all companies have free setup so nothing to worry about there.

Have you done a search on this forum for other suggested topics similar to yours?

Thanks for your reply. I will admit I havent extensivley searched this forum for some leads. I did browse through some posts that related to my topic. There are just so many hosting providers out there I dont know which one to choose. I did find a couple that I was willing to sign up with but they wanted a years payment in advance. I'd feel safer starting out paying monthly to make sure that the host will definatley work for me. I'm not looking to pay alot. For now something like 14.95 per month or lower would be ideal. I'm looking to set up a clothing boutique with fashion and beauty products and the like. This will be my first venture at opening an online store so I just want something that will be good for me starting out.

14.95 (what currency?)

Most web hosts i believe have monthly plans. Also once getting a web host all it takes nowadays is to upload a free shopping cart system and your done.

So i guess the hardest part would be the hosting and domains.

You could try SonataWeb. I've heard nothing but praise about them.

http://www.sonataweb.net

Thanks for the link. I was wondering what does it mean by host unlimited domains and subdomains. And also what are shared hosting plans/

Unlimited? Don't even believe in that word.

But what the website means is that you can add as many domains to your hosting account as you wish. So you would share your hosting account with other domains. sub-Domains look like this: <name>.domain.com. The website is saying you can create any amount of these type of domains.

Shared hosting plans: A shared hosting plan is a portion of what you get on a server. So you would be hosted on a server along with other websites.

So they are saying that I get my own domain name included in the package, and I dont have to register one with someone else/ And that I can have as many more as I would like/ For one thing what would I do with all these other domains/ And two would another created domain be sharing the space and such given to my account.
I have a website now non ecommerce, it is hosted by a free service and its just for fun. I have thought about getting my own site but always gave up the search. Now that I want to open a store I know I will need a good host. Maybe even one that offers search engine placement. But the bottom line is I cant figure out the right host.

Sorry i think i may have said it wrong.


On a hosting package you assign it to a domain name. On some packages like the one you mentioned you can assign multiple domains, so you can use them for that same hosting package you have.

You can't get free domains, but some hosts provide a free domain of your choice if you purchase hosting from them. Do make sure you read the TOS to ensure that the domain is under your name, and you have all privileges.

Thanks for all your help. Although after countless hours of yet again searching for hosts. I am looking at one now that sounds pretty reasonable. But I dont want to make the decicion just because its there and sounds good. But it does seem to include a lot of what I wanted. Just wandering if anyone has ever heard of them to be reliable. Here is the link
http://www.superwebhost.com/hosting.html

Although it says it comes with an os commerce cart. I dont know what that is. And I dont want to have to pay to set up a merchant account with someone. I have a merchant account with paypal. Im just kinda confused about all this sorry.

As i mentioned before there are lots of free shopping cart software. All this software such as OSCommerce integrate with PAYPAL etc...

They are just software and not credit card processors etc... This software just combines everything for you and sets up the website. You can get software such as this for free anywhere really.

The evaluation of the website depends on reviews. You could try it for one month and see how it goes. It all really depends on your final decision.

Os commerce, Agora, ZenCart, Miva Merchant etc are all shopping carts. Many (especially cPanel hosts) bundle some or all of them with their hosting plans. Some even offer Fantastico which is a simple (one click) script installer for dozens of popular scripts including but not limited to ZenCart.

I doubt you will need to spend more than $10.00/mo for a reliable host. Nor do I think you will need more than a 500MB plan starting out. You should however take care to get 10-20GB of monthly transfer with that plan. This monthly allocation will allow you to drive enough traffic to your site to recoup your investment and turn a profit for many months. Be wary of any host offering more than that on a regularly priced plan as this may indicate overselling. Especially if it's some exoribant figure.

Since you are using PayPal for your merchant services you will not need an SSL Cert, DedIP and the same installed by your host to run an ecommerce site. However if at some point in the future you decide to expand beyond the 50 or so countries PayPal accepts payments from you will need to get your own Merchant account. Then you will need your own SSL Cert, DedIP and your host to install the same. The SSL cert provides Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or in simpler terms security for your online transactions. It allows you to serve pages on your website using the https prefix rather than http. Absent this people are less likely to give you credit card information online.

Decide on a domain and a webhost. Register the domain at godaddy.com or name.com. Then use the nameservers assigned you by your webhost at the registrar. 24-72 hours later your domain will be resolving at your webhosts server and your site will be viewable by the world wide web.

Good luck
Gus

Thanks for your info. I am still looking. I'm indecisive, I don't know if everyone else has this much trouble deciding on a host to use. Especially with the overwhelming number of choices. Although besides the host I listed above I am also looking into this
http://www.imhosted.com/hosting_plans.shtml

Again I just need some reassurance that I am making the right decision. Since I have no expereince with web host providers.

One more thing when signing up it asks if you want to register a domain name for 15 dollars a year, or solely change the DNS Name servers of my existing domain name to theirs.
I dont know what that means, I dont have a domain name yet. I didnt know where I should get one and if it mattered where.

Well if you purchase a domain somewhere, you will have a domain management area with that web host provider.

Once purchasing a hosting package somewhere, you need to be able to connect the domain to your hosting package. Nameservers point the domain to a server so you can use that domain for your hosting package.

Usually nameservers look like this:

ns1.domain.com
ns2.domain.com

All you need to do is edit the nameservers in your domain panel and it will be done.

It is usually easier however to register a domain before hosting. This way name issues are out of the way.

I'm gonna reccomend a host, and no I'm not affiliated with it, its at
http://www.edatarack.com/?CHF
My friend and me just bought a basic package, still waiting for it to get activated (they said 24 hours), I just hope they didn't trick us or anything. The basic one is at 35$/year with ok bandwith and space and cpanel with all the preinstalled scripts (we are starting a forum site so a phpbb script is vital cuz installing it is very hard), and once again I'm not affiliated with that site.