Building my own....

[ant_inmypant]

Friends I got some great ideas to sell products online, but I am not sure how to give meaning and gather all my thoughts together practically. Mainly how to make my presence online.

I can use web hosting service or can create the whole thing of my own from scrach, like my own server, domain name and get static ip address. Which one is the best idea and why? Also how to give shape.....any suggestions or ideas will be heartly appreciated:p

Kindly suggest..... Thanks!

[mjc]

One one of the first concerns when selling online should be security. In general, a hosting service that caters to online merchants can provide it better/cheaper than you can on your own.

A certificate for a secure server can cost quite a bit and hosting companies that cater to online merchants often have shared accounts available that split the cost of that certificate among many merchants. Also they are geared to handling credit card sales, which account for the bulk of online transactions, while setting up an individual merchant account can quickly run into the area of 'no profit'.

Overall, it is best to go with a hosting service that handles small merchant accounts, than trying to get the whole thing set up and secured on your own.

[Erik]

Another vote for using a hosting service. If you host at home you will have many chances for failure that will bring the site down. Having a business site down for a extended period of time look unprofessional and can cost you business. How many internet connections that are totaly diverse would you have? How long could you run the server equipment and network gear needed to stay online in case of a power outage? What kind of physical security will you have in place?

If you look at good hosting companies they will have huge backup power plans so that if the city power is out they will not lose a beat. Massive backup batteries and generators all working together to keep the servers running. Multiple different internet providers taking different paths out of the site and to the internet so if one goes down your site is still accessible. Then there is the expertise with running web accesible pages and keeping everything secured. Yep hosted is the way to go.