# Domain Names, Hosting, Merchant accounts & SSL Certificates



## tbiggs (Jan 26, 2007)

Hey Everyone,

I am just starting to look into building our website for our apparel business. I have a friend who is going to do the PHP programming for us, and I am going to do the design. This leads me to my question. Does anyone here have any experience with godaddy.com? Good or Bad!!!!!!!We need to register our domain names, find hosting, setup a merchant account, integrate a shopping cart, and SSL certificate. I am looking at them because they seem to be a one stop shop for the items we need, and the cost at the moment does not sound to bad. I am new at this and don't know if we should look at places like godaddy.com or find individual companies to provide different pieces of the puzzle. Any thoughts or personal experiences with the Do's and Dont's of setting up a website with e-commerce capabilities? 

Thanks in advance for your help!!!!!!!!!


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

tbiggs said:


> Hey Everyone,
> 
> I am just starting to look into building our website for our apparel business. I have a friend who is going to do the PHP programming for us, and I am going to do the design. This leads me to my question. Does anyone here have any experience with godaddy.com? Good or Bad!!!!!!!We need to register our domain names, find hosting, setup a merchant account, integrate a shopping cart, and SSL certificate. I am looking at them because they seem to be a one stop shop for the items we need, and the cost at the moment does not sound to bad.



Yes, several members have used godaddy for different services.

I quick search of the forums for godaddy will bring up lots of posts about their experiences.



> I am new at this and don't know if we should look at places like godaddy.com or find individual companies to provide different pieces of the puzzle


Some people prefer to separate their web hosting from their domain registration to avoid any future conflicts with the web host bundling in the domain name with the hosting and then trying to make it difficult for you to control your domain name if you decide to switch hosts.



> Any thoughts or personal experiences with the Do's and Dont's of setting up a website with e-commerce capabilities?


This growing list has some resources: http://www.t-shirtforums.com/ecommerce-site-design/t15199.html

There's also this thread that has some best practice tips:
http://www.t-shirtforums.com/ecommerce-site-design/t1849.html

More could possibly be found in a search, but if you have specific questions, feel free to ask.


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## expo (Mar 22, 2007)

I use godaddy for domain registration but there are lots and lots of better web hosts.

Dreamhost's deal is really hard to pass up as well as gatorhosting.


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## carguygarage (Mar 29, 2007)

I'd suggest trying out Yahoo's small business section. They'll set up the ecommerce store, the SSL's, the merchant account, etc etc... they have a few different options and they take all the "techie" out of it if you're just starting up. --- I know of Yahoo stores doing over a half million in sales a month.


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## Annushka (Jul 26, 2006)

Need clarification - can u only buy domain from godaddy? Or do you automatically sign up for their hosting services if you buy the domain from them? Thank u


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## Chainy (Jun 15, 2007)

No, you get the domain separately. With Domains, reliability is the key along with speed. The 'cheap nasty' type of hosting companies look great with their list of features, disk space and cheap price, but what is their real reliability factor? As I said, if you want to be in the online business - reliability. Its no good if your customers can't get onto your site. I run a number of sites, so been there done that, and I have learnt the hard way.

I've had no issues with Godaddy with domain registrations.

I also suggest an 'off-the-shelf' ecommerce shop to start with. You can always modify it from there. If you rely on just one person (for programming a custom shop), you may get stuck if they move away, or for some reason you don't remain on good terms. Have a look at Zencart of Cubecart. Both are quite good, and the price is right. Also don't ignore site optimisation for organic (Google, Yahoo etc), if people can't find you online, you won't sell online.

Keep asking the questions, its a good way to learn.

Good luck!

Cheers,
Greg


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## aspen (Aug 1, 2007)

I get all my (200ish) domains from Godaddy. They're good for that. I would never use them for the others though, except maybe the SSL.

I get my SSLs from my host, The Planet, which is a Geotrust reseller. They get big discounts, moreso than if you went to Geotrust themselves. I think Godaddy is in the same program.

But I wouldn't use them for a host.


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## AndyC (Jul 20, 2007)

I highly recommend Host Gator. That is who I have used for a couple of years and have never had any problem. Stay away from Dreamhost no matter how sweet their deals look.


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## hycheese (Feb 21, 2007)

I have to agree with most, I buy and park all my domains at godaddy, very easy and quick to forward or redirect.
However most of my domains are pointed outside of their cheap hosting because I thought It to be too slow. I even called them many times over the last 7 years and told them that.

I have both host monster and dream host for my high bandwidth sites, but use godaddy's virtual dedicated server on my shopping cart sites. They are dependable and have good support. 

Now just for comparison I pay $150 for 2 years at host monster, almost twice that for for dream host, both are about the same 300gb storage with 3000gb of band width. My godaddy is about $700 for 2 years for 10gb of storage and 500gb bandwidth, remember a dedicated server is just that it is empty except for the operating system and essentials, most everything else has to be installed via ftp, root, and ssh.


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## jgratil (Jul 24, 2007)

AndyC said:


> Stay away from Dreamhost no matter how sweet their deals look.


Just curious, but why do you say that Andy?


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## 5FM (Aug 9, 2007)

I'm also register from godaddy but as a host I use PowWeb:
*300 GB Disk Space*
*3000 GB/mo Bandwidth*
*FREE Domain Name*
Unlimited Mailboxes
75 MySQL Databases
Host UNLIMITED Domains.


That's from their site, if you use godaddy(best suggestion) you wont need the domain and just need to setup up the name servers(easy to do), not many people really need everything they offer but currently at $5.77 a month (normally 7.77) I like it, only catch is you have to sign-up atleast for a 3month deal, I love powweb and have been using them for years for my personal sites, and now I'm setting one up for business, but since I have all the space, I only need one account and so far running 3 sites off of it.


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## airbornecal (Aug 11, 2007)

I was with POWWEB for a couple years but especially after they changed owners/management they started to go downhill. Fast forward to a few months ago and my community was beating my brains out about how horribly slow my site was moving. This wasn't an isolated incident - a common theme over a 3 month stretch. I stuck with them hoping they could turn it around, but alas I had to make a move or risk my community. I have since found a much smoother host - Web hosting provider - Bluehost.com - domain hosting - PHP Hosting - cheap web hosting - Frontpage Hosting E-Commerce Web Hosting Bluehost and I couldn't be happier. In addition to the best customer service/tech support I've ever received they will renew your main domain for free as long as they are your host. They are just a tad more expensive than POWWEB, but it is well worth the extra few bucks a month IMO.


5FM said:


> I'm also register from godaddy but as a host I use PowWeb:
> *300 GB Disk Space*
> *3000 GB/mo Bandwidth*
> *FREE Domain Name*
> ...


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## sunnydayz (Jun 22, 2007)

I just signed up for an account for my new site with level ten hosting, There service seems to work really well and also they have a great selection of shopping cart templates that they can integrate for you also. That is what I am having done right now, but so far they seem to have great service. I have switched to them because my current hosting company for my site I have right now is not so great. But level ten seems to be pretty good.

Bobbie


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## AndyC (Jul 20, 2007)

jgratil said:


> Just curious, but why do you say that Andy?


I have been around web hosting for a long time and have never heard good things about Dreamhost. They seem to have a lot of down time. It may be okay for a personal site or blog but I would never host an e-commerce site there.


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