How To Host Several Websites Under One Account – Domain Name
How To Host Several Websites Under One Account
Mario Sanchez
If you operate several websites, each with its own domain name, signing up of separate hosting accounts can be an expensive proposition. Even if your hosting company offers the add-on domain feature which will allow you to add different domains to the same hosting account you will be charged a monthly fee for each domain you add, sometimes costing almost the same as your full hosting fee.
The solution is to open a reseller account. Reseller accounts were created to allow web designers to offer hosting services to their customers, to create a one-stop-shop for all their web design and hosting needs. However, you dont need to be a reseller to buy a reseller hosting plan.
Reseller accounts are usually slightly more expensive than regular hosting accounts, but they will allow you to host different domain names without incurring in the add-on domain fees, making more efficient use of your space and bandwidth.
You want to choose a reseller account that offers:
no limit to the number of domains you can add.
the possibility of hosting your main website free, without using any of the space and bandwidth in your hosting plan. If you are a reseller, your main website will be your business website, and the space and bandwidth will be reserved for your customers. If you are not a reseller and just want to manage different websites, you can designate one of your domains as your main website usually the largest and/or most popular, since you wont accrue any space or bandwidth for it.
the possibility of upgrading to another plan without any penalties or fees.
To find out how much space and bandwidth you will need, first determine how many sites you are likely to host, how many pages each site may have, and how many visits will those sites most likely have. If you plan to host 10 sites with 20 pages each, at an average of 50KB per page and 100 page views per site per day, you will need 10MB of space 10 x 20 x 50KB and 1.5GB of bandwidth per month 10 x 100 x 50KB x 30.
As far as pricing is concerned, there are reseller accounts costing as little as $10 / month up to several hundreds or even thousands. It all depends on your requirements and the hosting company you choose, so shop around to get the best possible deal in terms of cost and reliability.
About The Author
You can freely reprint this article. Just include the following resource box at the end:
Mario Sanchez publishes The Internet Digest http://www.theinternetdigest.net , an online collection of web design and Internet marketing articles and resources. You can freely reprint his weekly articles in your website, ezine, newsletter or ebook.
Setting Up Your First Web Hosting Account – Domain Name
Setting Up Your First Web Hosting Account
Russ Mate
The Basics
Setting up a web hosting account for the first time can be confusing and frustrating for the novice. This article will guide you through the steps of setting up a new web hosting account for your website.
Setting up your web hosting account will depend upon many things, the first of which is:
Do you already have a website built and ready to be hosted
If the answer to that question is yes, then your next set of questions should be:
How was your website designed Did you design it yourself using Microsoft FrontPage, or did you use some other WYSIWYG website building software Did a professional designer build your site for you Did they use Microsoft FrontPage, or did they use some other WYSIWYG website building software Did your designer use a database driven software, such as Cold Fusion Maybe they coded your site using a text editor
How To Find the Best Merchant Account For Your Business – Merchant Account
How To Find the Best Merchant Account For Your Business
Diane Hughes
What a great idea! Start accepting credit cards and watch your profits soar. Nothing could be simpler. Or so you thought until you began researching merchant accounts. It can all get extremely confusing. There is an easy way to find the best deal that suits your business. Youll be able to compare apples to apples and have a clear picture of what the merchant account will cost you.
Lets take a look at some of the phrases youll encounter in laymans terms when you begin to search for a merchant account.
Merchant Account Provider - The company who arranges for your payment hardware or software and your ability to accept credit cards.
Nova - The company who processes the credit card transactions and forwards them to the appropriate credit card company for payment Visa, MasterCard, American Express, etc.
Set Up Fee - The one-time amount the merchant account provider charges to set up your company in their system. For this example, well use a set up fee of $65.00.
Discount Fee -One amount there are others that Nova and the merchant account provider deduct from each sale as a portion of their payment for your merchant account. Well use a discount fee of 2.25%.
Per Transaction Fee - This is a second amount that the two companies subtract from each transaction as a portion of their payment. For our example, well pick a per transaction fee of $.35.
Terminal or Gateway Fee - Whether you have a real terminal or a virtual gateway via the Internet, you will be assessed monthly charges to cover the use of that service. Lets say $10.00 for our example.
Statement Fee - The fee for your merchant account provider to send an itemized statement each month. An average amount we can use is $15.00.
Annual Fee - An annual fee just for having your merchant account. For the annual fee example, well choose $35.00.
I know what youre thinking! But dont give up before you start. Remember, Im going to show you a way to decipher all this information.
Choose a number -- any number. This will be the total number of transactions you think you might conduct during the course of a year. For our example, well use 100. Next, choose an average transaction amount for your product or services. Well say $175.00 for now. Finally, well calculate a years worth of charges by using the amounts above and within the definitions.
Set Rate Charges:
Set up Fee = $65.00 one time only
Gateway Fee = $10.00/mth
Statement Fee = $15.00/mth
Annual Fee = $25.00/yr
Then multiply your estimated number of transactions by the $ .35 per transaction fee. That equals $35.00. Next, multiply the average transaction amount $175 by the discount rate of 2.25%. That equals $3.94. Youve estimated that youll have 100 transactions per year, so again, multiply the $3.94 by the 100 transactions. The total equals $394.00. All that is left is to add them all up.
Set up Fee = $65.00 one time only
Gateway Fee = $10.00 x 12 months = $120.00/yr
Statement Fee = $15.00 x 12 months = $180.00/yr
Annual Fee = $25.00/yr
Per Transaction Fees = $35.00/yr
Discount Rate Fees = $394.00/yr
Total Fees & Charges For One Year = $819.00
Lets look at one other quick example just to show you that looks can be deceiving.
This company offers the following rates:
Set up Fee = FREE
Gateway Fee = $15.00/mth
Statement Fee = $10.00/mth
Annual Fee = FREE
Per Transaction Fees $ .30
Discount Rate Fees = 2.35%
Software Lease = $24.95/mth
Based on our same $175 average transaction and 100 transactions per year, we come out with the following figures:
Set up Fee = FREE
Gateway Fee = $15.00 x 12 = $180.00
Statement Fee = $10.00 x 12 = $120.00
Annual Fee = FREE
Per Transaction Fees 100 transactions x $ .30 = $30.00
Discount Rate Fees = $175 avg. transaction x 2.35% = $4.11 x 100 transactions = $411.00
Software Lease = $24.95 x 12 = $299.40
an additional fee our first provider didnt charge
Total Fees & Charges For One Year = $1040.40.
Even with free set up and no annual fee, this company still charges over $200 per year more than the first merchant account provider we previewed. Be very careful - the word "free" can often times be deceiving.
Merchant accounts can open a world of new business for your company. They can provide a very convenient way for your clients to pay - and for YOU to get your money. However, when you shop for a merchant account, be sure to use a standard unit of measure like weve outlined above to be very sure that you are getting the deal best suited for your company.
Copyright 2004 Diane Hughes
About The Author
Diane C. Hughes * ProBizTips.com
FREE Report: Amazingly Simple Yet Super Powerful Ways To Skyrocket Your Sales And Build Your Business Into A Tower of Profits! ==>> http://madmarketer.com/diane