Website Hosting

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What is a Web site?

A Web site is a way to present yourself online. Your Web site is a place on the Internet where anyone in the world can visit whenever they want to find out more about you, ask you questions, give you feedback, or even buy your products. Think of the Internet as the world's biggest trade show, and your Web site is your booth.

What is a Domain Name?

Your Domain Name is your address on the Web. Just like people use your phone number to call you on the phone, your Domain Name allows people to access your site on the Web. Clever, simple, or easy to remember Domain Names are most desirable as they can play a large part in attracting visitors to your site. Most Domain Names end with ".com" (short for company), but other extensions such as ".net" (network) and ".org" (organization) are also available. In addition Domains can be used with your e-mail accounts allowing you to send and receive e-mail with addresses such as "support@yourcompany.com"

Why do I need a Web site?

Five years ago having a Web site was a vanity.
Two years ago having a Web site was trendy.
Today having a Web site is a necessity.

People are using the Web for everything from researching schoolwork to buying dinner. It's quick, it's convenient, and you never need to leave your desk. Even people who prefer to shop off-line are researching products on the Web. These days when people are trying to find you, the first place they look is on the Web - and if they don't find you, they will probably find someone else!

What can a Web site do for me?

Your Web site can be used for a large number of tasks such as:

• Making public announcements
• Providing support to your customers
• Receiving feedback from your visitors
• Sharing/distributing files and images
• And, of course, selling your products

Those might not sound impressive, but don't forget that you'll be able to do those things for people around the world at any time of day or night. You have the potential to become a house-hold name 10,000 miles away.

How does a Web site work?

A Web site is simply a collection of files that reside on a special computer connected to the Internet. When someone visits your site, they are actually contacting that computer, and that computer (called a Web server) gives the visitor the files they want to see. It sounds very simple, but most normal computers don't have the power or the software needed to constantly respond to all the requests made by all the visitors to a site. And even if they did, they'd need an extremely fast connection to the Internet to keep up with all the requests. Most people and small companies don't have the resources to run a Web server, and that is where Web Hosting comes in.

What is a Web Host?

To have a Web site on the Internet you first need to have a Web server. Unfortunately, owning a Web server can be very costly and requires technical expertise that most businesses don't have. This is where Web Hosts come in. Web hosting companies provide the equipment and other technical resources that you need without the headaches that come when you have to do it yourself.

Think of a Web Host as the landlord of building. A landlord rents out storefronts to various businesses. Each business decorates and runs their store differently, and doesn't worry about the maintenance of the building. In a similar way a Web Host rents out space on a Web server, (or entire Web servers), to various businesses. Each business builds their own Web site and never has to worry about the maintenance of their Web server.

In other words, the Web Host provides the place on the Internet where your Web site lives. It's a lot cheaper than buying you own server, and you don't have to hire the technical staff to take care of it.

What kind of server should I choose?

Note: The most popular choice of web servers is the shared server, maintained by professionals, and connected to major internet backbones through reliable carriers.

Shared Server: Shared servers offer clients the ability to host their Web site on a powerful, professionally managed server, at a low monthly cost. Shared servers provide individual Web sites with redundant connectivity, 99 percent uptime and 24/7 monitoring for a fraction of the cost of a dedicated server

Other Choices: If you are a large corporation you might want to have a Dedicated Server to handle your company's email, web site, databases. and networking needs. This requires a lot of technical maintenance, and a dedicated line for internet connectivity. To get your server connected to a high speed internet backbone you could have your server Co-located and pay a network center to store and manage it for you.

What kind of operating system should I choose?

Web servers have operating systems, which allows certain programs and files to be handled in specific ways. The main operating systems are listed below.

Unix Hosting: This is the most popular file system for web servers today. Unix (developed by Sun Microsystems) runs on a variety of operating systems such as Linux, FreeBSD, etc. We use a combination of Linux (the RedHat brand) and Apache (server software) which is unbeatable for reliability, flexibility, and speed. When you add Cpanel™ (web control panel), the amount of features available to you is truly amazing. If you don't need to run any Microsoft databases or need ASP (Active Server Pages), Unix hosting offers the most bang for the buck.

Win2000 Hosting: Not as many features as Unix hosting, but a must for certain Microsoft programs to run effectively. If you want to use any of your Microsoft databases (Access, Excel), MSSQL, FoxPro, or do ASP programming, you will need Win2000 Hosting. Our Win2000 servers now handle ASP.NET, run MSSQL databases (with connections through Enterprise Manager) and also support coldfusion too!

Ecommerce Hosting: If you want to set up an online store and sell products to the world, you will need to have the right tools. We have just the answer for you with our Win2000 E-commerce hosting plans. These plans are specifically designed for online storefronts. Includes a Link Building Wizzard to create the HTML code for each of your products . . . just copy and paste. You can view orders and sales reports, and even set up real time processing. Comes with an SSL secure server, the ability to use your existing merchant account, and fantastic web statistics to chart your traffic.

Note: For Ecommerce Hosting => Call 1-202-580-8696 or visit:

• DuncansOnline - Win2000 Hosting with integrated Ecommerce Tools
• DuncansOnline - Build an online store using Soholaunch Website Builder
• DuncansOnline - Unix or Win2000 Hosting - Ecommerce from $7.95

Why should I choose DuncansOnline as my Web Host?

Because we're here to Serve You!  We will try to earn your business with lower pricing, faster connections, more features, & real 24 Hour Support (toll free 1-202-580-8696). Our customers must agree, because they keep referring their friends and family to us. Here are a few reasons why:

Experience – We understand what it takes to compete in the global marketplace, so we strive to offer products that will fit your needs, at a price you can easily afford. Our main goal is to keep you happy, and treat you like our Only Customer! We have the experience to provide you redundant connectivity, 99 percent uptime and 24/7 monitoring . . . and can modify any of our products to your specific requests.

Selection – DuncansOnline Hosting offers more than just Unix Hosting. We have grown and now operate 4 different Hosting networks:

•  DuncansOnline- Unix Hosting w/ Online SiteBuilder, Cpanel & Free Hosting Trials
•  DuncansOnline - Unix & Win2000 w/ Online SiteBuilder, Ecommerce & H-sphere
•  DuncansOnline - Win2000 Hosting w/ Integrated E-commerce Tools & shopping cart
•  DuncansOnline - low cost Win2000 Hosting w/ fast connections & database support

Quality / Price – DuncansOnline Hosting is proud to offer More Features for Less Money than the big hosting companies! We don't have their name recognition, or have their advertising budget to pay for, so our prices are much less (and don't require any long term contracts). We also give 20% Off your 2nd account, 3rd account, etc. to keep you coming back for more!

Take our Price Challenge - We will even try to beat any Hosting Company's price that is connected to a major network. Give us a call at 1-202-580-8696

Don't let our low prices fool you - We only use the highest quality components in our servers, software, & network . . .  Get more, for less!

• Verio, Hosting.com charge $40-$50 just to Set Up Your Account!
• Verio's advertised prices require a 5 year hosting commitment
• Dell their Starter Plan is $17.95 /mo. - We offer the same plan for $3.95 /mo.

Service /Support – We strive to provide our customers everything they need to build, market, and run their online presence. From exclusive products (Free Tools) and features that you won't find anywhere else to Customer Service

Choose a Domain Name for Your Site

The first thing you need to do when establishing a Web presence is decide on a Domain Name. Choosing the right Domain Name is very important, as it directly affects how easy it is for potential visitors to find your site.

Try for something that's easy to recognize, easy to remember, and to easy to guess. For example, if your business is "Barb's Beach Balls" then "barbsbeachballs.com" would be a good Domain Name since it's logical, easy to remember, and easy to spell.

It's also a good idea to think of alternate Domain Names in case the first one you think of is already taken.

Visit domainsatcost.ca and use the handy search box they have to check out if the name you have in mind is available

If you are not planning on building your Web site right away, you might still want to consider registering your Domain as soon as possible. Thousands of Domain Names are registered every day, and there's no guarantee that yours will still be around when you decide to build your site.

Select a Web Hosting Plan That's Right for You

Most people start by browsing through the hosting plan descriptions on this site. We offer a plan for everyone, but it's not always easy to decide which one is for you. Here are some tips to help narrow down your choices:

• If you don't know how to create a website, choose one of our Site Builder Plans.
• If you plan on selling from your Web site, take a look at the e-commerce plans.
• If you plan on using Microsoft Office extensions or databases, or plan on having a dynamic Web site, choose one of our Windows 2000/NT plans.
• Consider the Bronze plans if you're an individual.
• Consider  Silver or Gold plans if the site is for a business.

Try our Pro Website Builder - Sign up for a FREE Hosting Trial
Includes Ecommerce Tools that anybody can learn to use!

DuncansOnline HOSTING is dedicated to helping you establish your site.

You can give us a call at 1-202-580-8696. We can help you decide on a hosting plan, answer any questions you might have, and even walk you though the order process.

When you have decided which Web hosting plan best meets your need, click on the buy button on that plan's page to start the ordering process. Placing the order is easy and your site will be running in a matter of hours.

Build and Publish Your Web site

Building your own Web site can be very gratifying, but doesn't have to be very difficult. There are currently a lot of software packages available - such as Microsoft FrontPage 2000 - that make creating and publishing your Web site relatively quick and painless. All of our Hosting Plans support the use of most Web site design and publishing tools.

If you don't have web building software, try our FREE WEBSITE GENERATOR No HTML Experience Needed - Just PICK A DESIGN, and Fill In the Boxes!

If you find that you need help publishing your site, or are interested in more advanced Web site features, DuncansOnline provides easy Tutorials on FTP / Uploading files, Publishing a Site using MS FrontPage, Adding interactive features using Cpanel™, as well as excellent Technical Support by both phone and e-mail.

What is cPanel - It is a Dashboard that lets you manage your website.!

cPanel® XP is for customers that only expect THE BEST web hosting control panel and nothing less. This is not your usual cPanel® Skin. Packed with user friendly interface and powerful features such as built in tutorials, you can NOT get a better control panel for your web hosting account! 

It is easy to learn how to use and you get to have it as soon as we have your order.

Set up your own mail accounts, forward your mail, set up sub-domains, etc. etc.

Multilingual

Cpanel Evolution the World's Most Multilingual control panel.

Built In Flash Tutorials
With our Tutorials module, you will be able to find the flash tutorials you want with ease. Our tutorials cover ALL aspects of using your Web Hosting Control Panel

Easy Access to Billing, Ordering and Customer Support Center

From right within the Cpanel XP Evolution web hosting control panel you can:

• Access your billing & account records

• Order additional services

• Register additional domain names

• Purchase a SSL Certificate

• Access all tutorials for Cpanel, applications, WHM and more!

• Request technical or customer service assistance in our Support Center

• Access over 8,000 webmaster tools on our Webmaster Resources site

• Find links to official support sites for 3rd party website applications

• Purchase professional quality website templates

• Purchase books and e-books of interest to webmasters

Build Your Web Site online with our Site Builders

DuncansOnline Hosting Plans now offer Soholauch Pro with: 175 professionally designed web templates to use easy "drag and drop" interface requires No Experience! instant publishing, so no need to learn about FTP the ability to instantly change your site's design E-commerce, databases, email, and more ... Learn More About Soholaunch Pro Try it FREE NOW!	Soholaunch Website Builder 175 Designs + Hosting $4.95 View Soholaunch video Tutorials
DuncansOnline also offers SiteStudio Hosting Plans with: 300 professionally designed web templates to use an easy web interface that requires No Experience! instant publishing, so no need to learn about FTP the ability to instantly change your site's design E-commerce, databases, email, and more ... Learn More About SiteStudio Hosting	Site STUDIO EZ Web Design 300 Designs + Hosting $7.95

Promote Your Web Site

To really succeed on the Web, you need more than just a Web site. You need "traffic" - a steady stream of visitors coming to check out your products, services, information, and everything else you offer online. In order to draw people to your site, you need to be listed in the Web's most popular search engines and Web directories. DuncansOnline offers many Free Web Tools to help you optimize your web pages using Meta-Tags, and then submit them to 60 Search Engines. You can get listed in 50 Top Search Engines in just 48 hours using our Priority Submission. We also have Search Engine tips for making your Web site more easy to find online.

Analyze the Results

The success of a Web site is generally measured by how many visitors it gets. Your Web server automatically logs each time someone accesses one of your Web pages. Looking at these logs can tell you how much traffic your site gets, how popular different parts of your site are, and when your site is the busiest. Analyzing your traffic can even give you an idea of which parts of your site may need to be improved or expanded.

All DuncansOnline Web hosting plans come with built-in tools that you can use to help you analyze your traffic. Once you become a DuncansOnline Hosting customer, it is easy to log into a your Web Control Panel and access current site statistics, see which pages are most popular, where your traffic is coming from, and which keywords are being used. These statistics are stored on your server so you can compare them and view monthly reports to see if your marketing efforts are paying off.

 

What is a Web store?

A Web store is a special-purpose Web site designed to display and sell products. Just like traditional brick-and-mortar stores, Web stores can sell just a few products or thousands of items, they can advertise their products, have sales, and accept various forms of payment. Unlike brick-and-mortar stores, however, Web stores can reach customers all over the world, instead of being limited to one city or neighborhood.

The Storefront

From a customer's point of view, a Web store is special-purpose Web site that offers products for sale. A Web store has one or more pages that display and describe products, and a shopping cart where customers can buy those products by giving their name and address and, typically, providing credit card information. The look and feel of a Web store can vary quite a bit, depending on the number and types of products being sold, and the taste and skill of the person who designs the store!

Fulfilling Orders

This will require you to have a merchant account (Call 1-202-580-8696 for help getting one). When the customers makes a purchase, you would be notified by email that an order came in. Your store could process the transaction(s) either of the following ways:

• manually - you would retrieve the customer information and enter it manually into your POS (Point of Sale) terminal, or a "Virtual Terminal" provided
• real time processing - this automatically takes the information and verifies it, letting you know whether the credit card was approved or not

If you have one of our E-commerce Plans Each time an order comes in you will be notified via E-mail. This email will have a Product Description, Product ID#, and let you know who placed the order. To manually process their credit card information you will need to log in to your Web Control Panel and click on the "View Completed Orders" link in your Commerce Tools. You can then process their card online on your Virtual Terminal, or use the terminal of your choice.

Note: If you would like the customers' credit cards to be processed automatically, there is a one-time fee of $49 to set up your "Real-Time Processing".

DuncansOnline Commerce Hosting and Enterprise Hosting plans offer advanced features so that you can provide your customers with the easiest and most efficient online store available. All customer information is stored online in a secure database. You can easily access this information by logging into your Web Control Panel. Orders are automatically entered into the database and can be viewed many ways (individually, by month, from /to date, etc.) Orders can also be viewed as a Reports spreadsheet, or downloaded at any time for accounting and inventory purposes.

 

What is e-commerce Web hosting?

E-Commerce Web hosting adds an e-commerce application to a Web hosting package, which is what allows you to have a store on the Internet. There are basically 2 kinds of E-commerce Web hosting:

1. Built-In: This means the e-commerce software applications are pre-installed on the web server, so you don't have to install anything! These Hosting Plans are designed specifically for doing business on the web. They would include a secure internet connection, an SSL Certificate, a database, and have all of your E-commerce Tools built right in. This would and allow you to easily set up your storefront, create links for each of your products, and view / process orders over a secure connection.
2. Add-on: This is a Web hosting plan that allows you to easily add on a specific brand of E-commerce software and have it integrate into your web site. You would have to go to their website for documentation and support, since it is an Add-on application. You may also need to purchase a secure connection and an SSL Certificate, or rent a payment gateway for payment processing.

DuncansOnline offers 2 Hosting Plans specifically designed for E-commerce. These plans offer everything you need to build, maintain, and run an online storefront. The orders are processed over a secure website (included), and all order information is automatically stored on an MS Access database for viewing, download, etc. View E-commerce Plans!

What is an e-commerce application?

An e-commerce application is software that makes it easy for you to build and operate a Web store. Online retail giants such as Amazon.com spend lots of money and hire large numbers of programmers to build and maintain their site, but DuncansOnline offers e-commerce applications that let you do it from the comfort of your own home or office without any programming!

The e-commerce application is server software, which means that it is installed and runs on the server - you don't have to install anything on your PC. You access it with your Web browser, and you simply click buttons and fill out forms to build your store. You can check orders and make changes to your store from any computer that has a connection to the Internet. It's easy to learn and easy to use, so you can focus on running your store instead of learning a program.

What e-commerce applications does DuncansOnline offer?

Built-In Ecommerce
DuncansOnline offers special Hosting Plans that are made for Ecommerce and have all the applications already Built-In. Our 2 E-commerce Plans enable you to easily create your online store, choose the colors and buttons for your shopping cart, add products, and process orders via a secure connection with these Built-In Applications:

Shopping Cart Tools+ 5 Views Link Building Wizzard+ View Real Time Processing Virtual Cash Register+ View Secure Server (VeriSign)+ View Built-In Access Database ODBC - Add Databases	Click Here to View More Features How it Works
	E-commerce Hosting Comparison Chart

Add-on Ecommerce
DuncansOnline also offers a multitude of Ecommerce Add-on applications that are much more affordable, and allow you the freedom of setting up your own store just the way you want it. They include:

Our Unix Hosting Plans now offer 4 affordable Shopping Cart choices:
1) osCommerce , 2) Cube Cart , 3) Zen Cart , or the 4) Agora Shopping Cart
All with easy "1 click" installation using Cpanel / Fantastico

We also offer the Soholaunch Pro Ecommerce Plugins that
enables Novices to create an Online Store with No Experience!
Sign Up for a FREE TRIAL

  SSL certificate - Each of our servers has a server-wide SSL certificate installed. You have free access to this certificate for your hosting account. (i.e. https://....). This allows you to secure e-commerce websites so your customers can securely transmit credit information to you.

We can also create and install your own Certificate for as little as $30 /yr.

 

How do I get started?

There are two primary tasks involved in building and opening a Web store: planning and implementation.

Planning

Having a successful Web store involves much more than just an "If you build it, they will come" mentality. You aren't ready to get started until you've done a significant amount of planning.

Decide What to Sell

The products that you offer for sale are - of course - a critical factor in ensuring the success of your store. Here are some questions that you should consider when evaluating your product offerings:

Uniqueness - Are you offering unique items for sale, meaning that they are either one-of-a-kind or are not offered for sale anywhere else? Or are the products in your store easy to find in other Web stores?

Competition - If your products are also available from other Web stores, have you spent time browsing in those stores? Have you compared their prices with what you plan to charge? What is it about your store that will draw customers away from competitors' stores?

Profit Margin - For products that you buy at wholesale, is your markup enough to provide you with some profit? For products that you make, will you earn a fair return on the time that you invested? Most merchants aren't trying to run their Web stores as non-profit organizations!

Organize Your Products

The ease with which customers can find the products that they're looking for is a critical factor in sales. If you are planning on selling more than one type of product, you need to have planned out the organization of your store prior to building it. You should categorize your products in ways that your customers are likely to look for them, and then plan to place them on pages that reflect those categories.

Obviously, a store with thousands of products will require a more advanced organization.

Even great advertising can't replace good organization in helping your store to succeed.

A Picture is Worth...

Your store will be more useful and appealing to customers if you include pictures of each product. You should also consider having an appealing logo on the first page of your store, and perhaps a smaller version of the logo on all other pages.

Pictures must be in jpg or gif format. If you have the ability to scan and edit images yourself, you can simply create the images and store them for later. Otherwise, hire a graphic designer to take photographs, or use photographs that you supply, and use them to produce images in jpg format. When you receive the images from the graphic artist, store them on your computer. You'll be able to upload them to your Web store when you're building your store.

Gather Product Information

Knowing what you're going to sell and having pictures of those items is a large part of the preparation for building your store, but you should also gather other information about your products. Having product information on hand will make building your store much faster and less frustrating. Specifically, you should have:

• Product names.
• Product descriptions.
• Product pictures.
• Product prices.
• Product SKUs or other tracking numbers if you use that information for inventory and shipping.
• Product shipping weight, if you intend to charge for shipping by weight.

Planning Payment, Tax, and Shipping Policies

Once you've planned your products, you need to plan for transaction processing and fulfillment. Specifically:

• What types of payment methods will you accept in your store? If you're planning on accepting credit cards, how will you process those payments? You can perform offline credit card processing, such as with a POS machine, or you can perform online credit card processing with our E-commerce Hosting plans. Any method of credit card processing requires that you have a merchant account and an account with a transaction processing company. DuncansOnline can help you sign up for those accounts.

   

• How much tax do you need to collect, and from whom? You will need to collect tax from customers in states where your store has nexus - which is defined as a physical presence - even if it is just your office or warehouse. You may also need to collect at a higher rate from customers in your home city or county. You generally do not need to collect sales tax from customers in states where your store does not have nexus. These are just general guidelines and may not apply to your situation-consult a tax professional to make sure that your store complies with the laws of your location.

   

• What shipping methods will you offer and how much will you charge? E-Vendor and Marketplace plans offer real-time UPS shipping charges, and all plans offer many other methods of calculating shipping charges, such as shipping by weight, shipping by currency (price), and charging a base rate plus an additional amount for each product. You should register or contract with a shipping service and find out what you need to know in order to charge the correct amount for each product and shipment.

Implementation

Once you've completed your planning, you're ready to get started with the implementation. We can help you find the right kind of hosting plan if you Click HERE, then you can decide on the size vs. price. Remember that you can start smaller and then upgrade your plan when your business grows, but the additional features in the E-Vendor and Marketplace plans can help your store to grow more quickly.

After you've picked a plan, call a DuncansOnline sales representative at 1-202-580-8696 and sign up for that plan. Your account can be active in just a few hours, and your sales representative can help you apply for merchant accounts and credit card processing, too. You can start building your store while you wait for your application to be approved.

Once your account is set up, you'll receive an e-mail message that has a link to the back office of your store. Click on that link and log in with your username and password, and then the store building wizard will walk you through the steps of setting up your store.

Define your Needs

Here are a few simple questions, just click on the links for your answer.

1. If you need built-in Web Site Creation Tools click here
2. If you will be needing to run any Databases click here
3. If you want to have a professional online store click here
4. If you just want a basic web site, that is upgradeable click here

Soholaunch Pro

Now all of our Unix Hosting Plans include Soholaunch Pro. This fantastic Website Builder uses a simple "drag and drop" interface that anyone can use to easily create professional websites with No Experience. There are 175 great looking designs and so many features. There are even Premium Features that include Ecommerce, Searchable Databases, and much more .... all designed for the Novice to create compelling websites with ease! Plans start at just $4.95 /mo

Learn More about Soholaunch Pro / Try it Now for FREE

SiteStudio

If you want a website but don't know how to create one, you are in luck!  DuncansOnline offers web hosting plans with SiteStudio, the online Site Building software that lets you design beautiful websites using a simple interface that is like Microsoft's WORD program! You can save hundreds of dollars in web design fees, and Plans start at just $7.95 /mo.

Learn More about SiteStudio

 

Databases

There are basically two kinds of databases . . .

1. those that need Microsoft Operating Systems (MS Access, Excel, Foxpro)
2. those that don't, which can run on other operating systems (mySQL)

• If you need to run Microsoft Databases such as MS Access click here.
• If you don't need to run Microsoft reliant databases click here

E-commerce

If you want to sell products or services online, choose one of our E-commerce Plans that enable you to easily create your online store, choose the colors and buttons for your shopping cart, add products, and process orders via a secure connection with all of your applications and tools Built-In.


Unix Hosting - flexible and upgradeable

Our Unix Hosting Plans offer all of your basic hosting needs, and a great way to start. They also allow you to add many interactive features (such as Chat rooms, bulletin boards, forums, etc.) from your Web Control Panel with just one-click. They also feature 50 of the most popular programs on the web that can all be installed with "1 click" using Fantastico. Some of these programs are for Ecommerce, Content Management, Blogs, Auctions, Customer Support, and even Website Building! We have great prices on them, and they are easily upgradeable. Compare Prices

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