| 1. |
How do I get my site
listed with the major search engines? |
| |
|
| |
These days, the keys to getting your site
listed and ranked high with the popular engines like Google,
Yahoo and MSN is all about links. You want to get other
sites that are related to your theme to link back to you
using the keywords you are targeting. |
| |
For example, if your site is about bowling
balls, you will want to partner with other bowling related
sites and get them to link to you using bowling related
keywords. |
| |
This helps provide a "vote" for
your site and the search engines start to see that your
site must be worthy of a good rank if other people are
linking to it using certain keywords. |
| 2. |
How do I sell products
from my own website? |
| |
|
| |
To sell anything from your site, you'll
want to setup some kind of shopping cart software and
be sure you have some way to accept credit card payments.
|
| |
You can either install the shopping cart
on your own server (requires a bit of tech knowledge and
help from your web host), or you can outsource a shopping
cart service. |
| 3. |
How will I know
how many people are visiting my site? |
| |
|
| |
As a standard feature of our hosting packages,
we offer a detailed stats package that allows you to view
your site's 'hits' in real-time. This page displays the
hourly, daily, and monthly site visits as well as other
important information such as referrers (links to your
site from other sites - ie search engines), and the search
terms people have used to find your site.. |
| 4. |
How do I get my customers
orders? |
| |
|
| |
You are automatically emailed when an order
is received on your site. This email contains all the
order information except the customers card details. An
exclusive address will also be included where you can
view the card details with your browser. |
| 5. |
Are my customer’s
credit card transactions always secure? |
| |
|
| |
Of course! We provide the highest level
of secure server SSL encryption, to collect customer information
and credit card numbers. |
| |
When an order is placed on your site, our
system notifies you of the sale via email. You can then
visit our Account Management area to retrieve all the
customer purchase information if you desire. |
| |
When you use our Real Time Credit Gateway,
your customers' credit card transactions are instantly
deposited in the bank account of your choice. It's completely
automatic and hands-free! |
| 6. |
I already have a Web
site. Can I integrate an online store into it? |
| |
|
| |
Yes. We make it easy for you to add ecommerce
to your site. You can order a plan that includes ecommerce. |
| |
Once you have built your online store,
you can easily integrate it into your existing site by
either providing a link to your new store front or incorporating
your products into your existing site’s pages. |
| 7. |
What is a merchant account?
How do I get one? |
| |
|
| |
A merchant account enables you to accept
credit cards as payment for the purchase of goods and
services. There are different types of merchant accounts.
For example, if you have a traditional “brick and
mortar” store, you can get a retail merchant account.
If you want to accept credit cards on your Web site, however,
you need a specialise type of merchant account known as
an “Internet-ready” merchant account. |
| |
Internet-ready merchant accounts enable
you to handle Internet transactions in "real time"
without any human intervention. Because the risk of credit
card fraud is greater when you are accepting credit cards
over the Internet, these specialised merchant accounts
also provide additional checks that can significantly
reduce the chance of credit card fraud. Once the transactions
are processed, the merchant account provider transfers
the funds received from the credit card transactions from
your merchant account to your bank account. |
| 8. |
What is a payment gateway?
How do I find one? |
| |
|
| |
A payment gateway is a service that connects
your online store with your merchant account provider.
This service reads the information from the order forms
and translates that information for the merchant account.
The payment gateway also verifies that the customer’s
credit card account has the necessary credit available
for the purchase. |
| |
You can obtain a payment gateway separately
from your merchant account, however you may find it simpler
to choose a merchant account provider that also offers
a payment gateway. |
