Off topic: web hosting sites

[lee]

Les Howell <hlhowell at pacbell.net> writes:

> 	I have a relative who has a somewhat successful regional business
> currently located in Arizona, who wants to get a website set up for his
> product(s). He investigated GoDaddy, but didn't seem happy with their
> terms and conditions.  I'm not entrepreneurial enough to even know where
> to start or what to look for.  Any advice or recommendations would be
> helpful.

First he needs a clearer specification of what he wants: A website for
his company or no more than a webshop for his products.  He needs to
think about which webshop he wants to use, how products are entered into
a webshop, how orders placed there are going to be handled, what kind of
customer support he wants to offer and how returns are to be handled.

That may involve hiring a web designer to create and to maintain his web
site, hiring a photographer to take pictures of his products to be used
in the webshop and needing someone to enter the products and to create
sufficient documentation of the products for potential customers to
review.  He also needs to think about how to get people visiting his web
site/shop.

As to hosting the site, I`d do that myself or, if the available
bandwidth is insufficient, try to find a small local company and talk to
them.  99.99% of so-called support sucks badly[1], so he`d be better off
with local people he can actually talk to and get things done.

In any case, being able to move the site and shop to a different hoster
would be a crucial point to consider.  He probably doesn`t want to get
stuck with a particular provider after having invested a good deal of
work and money when he suddenly finds out that he`s unhappy in some way
with what they offer.

It`s a good idea to try out different things first.  He can always set
up a server and try out oscommerce[2] to get an idea of what he`s
getting into.


[1]: My latest example is HP being unable to replace a simple UPS
     battery.  They said I could file a support ticket they, of course,
     would charge me for just to find out a price for a new one.  I
     thought HP is a big company which surely is able to deliver spare
     parts for their products, yet they can`t even give you a price.  I
     had to buy a new UPS and went with another manufacturer.  That
     hasn`t been the first case their so-called support totally sucks,
     so I don`t buy HP anymore.

[2]: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OsCommerce


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