Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Newbie needs suggestions for hosts...

[cinbja1]

I'm an absolute newbie to all of this, so please excuse my ignorance when it comes to all of this. I'd like to explain a little bit about my site so you can suggest a host (RELIABLE) who can help me with my particular needs. My site will only sell one product, that's it. The product is customizable, business card size. When people go to the site, my home page will have a little bit about the product and then they will go to the order page. This is where I'm mostly confused. The order page will have approx. 20 categories. The customer can pick up to 12 categories that will be included in their customized product. (sorry if I'm being vague, but I can't disclose the product at this time). The information that they submit, which cannot be dropdown boxes..it must be fill in the blank type boxes, needs to come to me so that I can finish the order. Perhaps this is a programming thing, I'm not sure. I don't know how that information gets to me?? The site will have a total of about five pages only...Home, Order, About Us/Contact, Billing/Shipping....and maybe two pop-ups that will open in a separate window so that they can see a sample of the product at any time and suggestions to customize their own product. I hope I'm making sense. I don't want a host where there will be any advertising at all...no pop-ups, no banners, nothing. It would be nice if I could get a host with an all-in-one type package, register name, host, and a merchant account...I need to be able to accept credit cards. This may not be the right forum, but if you have a suggestion for merchant accounts too, I would be grateful. I guess an All in one host would be best. Please don't post if you are suggesting your own hosting company...I would really love to hear some good advice as to where I can go to get this done. If you have had good experiences, that would be great to hear about. Obviously, 24/7 support, perhaps a support forum too, rare downtime and I'd like the site to load quickly..although it will be a fairly simple site, low on graphics and such.

Thanks so much!
Cynthia

[VNPIXEL]

it would be easy. Most host will have OSCommerce available for you. Once that install, you all set.

[cinbja1]

I'm sorry, I don't understand. I'm not even sure what OSCommerce is. What hosts can someone recommend that can do everything I described?

TIA!

[Rochen]

You will probably get a fair few recommendations coming soon.... so I would recommend you run a search on each of the companies using the "search" tool, this will probably help in your decision making

[cinbja1]

Is there anyone here who can make some suggestions for me? I have now registered name with Godaddy and need to find a host. I feel that I need to be tech savvy for anyone to help me.

[techxon.com]

have you tried the shared hosting offer forum? you may find a few there.

[blue27]

Cynthia, will the price of the product vary depending on the choices they make.
If not you could create a simple form to gather the information which could be email to you via a php script. After filling out the form they could be forwarded to the order/billing page.
If you open an account with Paypal (free) or something like 2checkout ($50 signup) you would have a secure checkout without needing to sign up for a merchant account.

[cinbja1]

Thanks! The price of the product will be exactly the same. It's just a card with information based on what the customer wants on the card. I've thought about PayPal but I don't want my customers to have to have an account. I'd prefer to make it as easy as possible for them. I don't mind spending a little bit of money. I've already registered the name, so I now need a host and a merchant accout. I've heard about Trustcommerce.com for merchant accounts. I'd like to keep it under $75/month for both hosting and merchant account. I would definitely want a host who will grow with me. I don't want to be limited to a # of visitors per month.

[bonnmac]

Hi Cynthia,

Your best bet for a merchant account would be 2checkout.com it's a $49.00 one time fee then you just pay a transaction fee on everything you sell through them. I know this doesn't exactly answer your question about hosts but I hope it helps a little bit.

[Cirtex]

There will be many hosts out there with Fantastico included in their CPanel which will install many scripts such as OSCommerce for you automatically

And most hosts will limit you by amount of bandwidth such as 5gb bandwidth, not how many visits you get
And merchant accounts wont be expensive
2checkout.com is good also paypal isnt bad at all
You might want to post a request in WebHosting Request too, im sure you'll receive many offers

[cinbja1]

I don't want to post a WebHosting request yet. If I do that, everyone is just honking their own horn. I'd rather hear from those of you using hosts what you would suggest. Then, I could go over there and put in a request. Otherwise, I'm just going blindly.
TIA!

[coight]

I wouldn't recommend you posting there, often you will find hosts that give ridiculous deals. Go with a host that has a good reputation... make sure you do a search here: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/search.php?s=

My recommendations

- enhancedhost.com
- rochen.com
- affordablehost.com
- hostmatters.com
- futurequest.com

All top notch companies

[blue27]

Originally posted by cinbja1
Thanks! The price of the product will be exactly the same. It's just a card with information based on what the customer wants on the card. I've thought about PayPal but I don't want my customers to have to have an account. I'd prefer to make it as easy as possible for them. I don't mind spending a little bit of money. I've already registered the name, so I now need a host and a merchant accout. I've heard about Trustcommerce.com for merchant accounts. I'd like to keep it under $75/month for both hosting and merchant account. I would definitely want a host who will grow with me. I don't want to be limited to a # of visitors per month.

I don't think you would have to worry about number of visitors a month. The type of site you describe I don't think would be a bandwidth hog.
You should have a look at www.2checkout.com
The prices are reasonable and the setup cost is low. That way you can accept credit cards and not worry about your own secure server certificate.
I think most good hosts would be able to grow with your needs.

[psalicrup]

Oscommerce = good = simple

[cinbja1]

Since I've narrowed it down....I've looked into Hostmatters.com for hosting and 2checkout.com for merchant account. I'd like to make a decision and get going on the site. These two seem good to me, but as I've said, I'm new to this. Any positive or negative comments on hostmatters.com or 2checkout.com is appreciated!

I just read about a host site getting hacked. Call me naive, but is this practice common? Should I be worried if I go to hostmatters?

TIA!