In a startling news release on CNET News, it was just reported that Network Solutions and Monster Commerce, who host about 10,000 ecommerce stores, had their credit card data stolen from almost 5,000 ecommerce websites.   This is obviously a nightmare for their customers, and the cardholders that have shopped on Monster Commerce stores.  We can help them!

Delaware.Net offers an alternative to Monster Commerce called Store-Logic

Monster Commerce has been a large ecommerce hosting company that we have looked at for some time for ideas as we built our next-generation ecommerce engine.   Particularly, we liked how Monster Commerce handled category viewing when managing their stores (we had a demo account with them), and we like how they employed a theme engine for their stores.    We took these good ideas into account when building our new ecommerce engine, which was released late in 2008.

Importing Monster Commerce Stores

Monster Commerce customers can call us, and we  will help them export their data from their existing stores into our engine.   We will import their product data, sales data, customer data, and more.

Credit Card Data Storage

While we can import your store data, we won’t import your credit card data.   Modern ecommerce stores should never hold onto credit card data permanently, as the risks are just too great.   It is possible to pass credit card data securely from your online store directly to a payment processor such as Authorize.Net, or PayPal’s PayFlowPro system, or YourPay.  All of these systems are already integrated into Store-Logic so that you can accept credit cards right away.

Ecommerce SEO, Shipping, and More.

Our system includes real-time shipping for UPS, FedEx, USPS, and UPS Freight.  Most other ecommerce engines out there do not include these features alone.   We are a certified UPS Ready Ecommerce Vendor, so our store engine talks directly with UPS’ servers.    Our store engine has the latest search engine optimization features, to help your store come up in search results. For example, as you add products and categories to your store, they are added to a special Google Sitemap file that you can register with Google.

Get a Quote Today to Upgrade Your Ecommerce Store

Let us help you with your ecommerce website. You can get a quote from us online using this form:
http://www.delaware.net/free-web-design-quote/

Our new slogan for the company is “World-Class Web Works”, and this has several meanings for us. It defines our goal – to build and host “world-class” solutions for our customers, and to give them the best support around. It also defines our advantage – the fact that our world-class solutions make customer’s web sites work better for them. Even though we are miles ahead of local competitors, we are committed to constantly improving our services across the board. To that end, I am happy to share with you some of the milestones we have reached already in 2007, as well as a sneak peek at our TENTH anniversary announcements that are coming in October.
Our New Hosting Framework – Team-Logic 2.0
We’ve built a Software As A Service (SAAS) web application suite that allows us to launch and manage ALL of our web applications more quickly. We call this new system Team-Logic 2.0. We’ve looked at “foundation Intranets” and hosting panels offered by other web design and hosting companies, and I have to say that our new framework blows away what these other firms can offer.

Our new Team-Logic system combines roughly 30 of our hosted applications into ONE new interface. By creating a new security system for all of our applications, customers can now log into ONE interface to control their web site, handle their marketing needs, and track sales.

This is a MAJOR deal because we can build dynamic web sites faster than other companies, and these applications are easier to manage and improve. Turn-key applications running on Team-Logic 2.0 include; custom web sites, blogs, content management applications, eCommerce storefronts, real estate MLS systems, Intranets, mailing lists, and much, much more. We completed this new framework back in July, and deployment of the system is underway now for some large clients. The new system works for all clients large and small, and it offers a significant performance boost over previous versions of our applications when they were separate. We’ve also invested in new hardware for this system, which will run much faster than the virtual servers that other companies use. As you can imagine, it has taken over a year of planning to build this new framework, and now that it is complete we will be able to offer an incredible amount of value for web site hosting customers that they will not be able to find anywhere else.

New Email Marketing Newsletter Server – Mail-Logic
Our newest on-demand application is called Mail-Logic. Mail-Logic is a complete re-build of our email newsletter application, and it is now complete and undergoing testing for a large client. Mail-Logic makes it possible to send out your newsletters, special flyers, and more to a very large audience easily. Mail-Logic will be sold as an on-demand product that can be used within minutes for any client that we host. Existing Delaware.Net newsletter clients will get a free upgrade to Mail-Logic. The feature list for Mail-Logic is very long, and there will be a new web site for it soon. We have designed Mail-Logic to compete with Constant Contact and other email marketing vendors. Mail-Logic can be used as a standalone solution, or it can be used within ANY existing web site. Pricing will be very competitive with national solutions. Mail-Logic is built as a module that runs on our Team-Logic framework, which means that it takes only minutes to deploy the newsletter server for new clients.

New eCommerce Engine – Store-Logic 2.0
Our Store-Logic engine is undergoing a complete upgrade. The store administrator will work as a module under our new Team-Logic 2.0 framework, allowing us to deploy eCommerce store with new features quickly. Store customers will enjoy new data migration features, as well as enhanced UPS shipping, AJAX, XML, and other features. The new eCommerce administrator is much faster than before, and busy stores will be able to manage their stores more easily due to the AJAX technology. Since our CRM, eCommerce, and Mail-Logic programs all run under the same framework, we can custom-tailor an eCommerce solution that includes email marketing and sales tools for any size company.

More!
There is much more coming that we will release information on soon.

• Syndicated Superstores for Manufacturers and Distributors
  It is now possible to have one very large ecommerce web site store that can syndicate its products to other stores. In the past, we accomplished this by adding designs to categories within the main store, or custom-designing categories that we linked to domain names (these were called ‘mini-stores’). What we have now is much better.Here is how syndicated stores work:
  A master store is created, usually for a manufacturer or a distributor that has a large product catalog. Inside the master store, product categories are chosen to become syndicated. Retail stores (or “child” stores) can then be created with Delaware.Net that can seamlessly pull these products and categories as they are added or updated, which saves the retail store owner a tremendous amount of time getting their store populated with products. So drop-shipped or standard items don’t have to be updated. The great thing is, each retail store remains 100% standalone and fully-functional, so retail store owners can have a custom design, and enter additional products to their store. The retail store’s customer data and sales data is also kept private.A retail store example would be a vehicle dealership that sells parts for their vehicles. The company that sells them the parts could offer them a complete up-to-the-minute parts catalog from their master store that is syndicated into their web site.
• AJAX Technology Added to Store-Logic
  AJAX stands for “asynchronous Javascript and XML”. Its the technology that makes Google Maps work without constantly refreshing web pages to make the maps zoom or move. We are using AJAX in all of our new applications, and it really helps to make the Store-Logic administration interface more responsive.
• UPS XML Gateways Finally Complete
  Store-Logic (at long last) communicates with UPS’ XML gateways. UPS recently upgraded their gateways, and these have been implemented into Store-Logic. This allows Store-Logic to be used for international and domestic shipping with real-time lookups, tracking, and more. UPS rates change with fuel prices, and there are also separate rate tables for residential and business addresses. Additional features also include dimensional weight shipping calculations. Testing of Store-Logic shipping with a third-party company is underway and should be complete by early June. This will make Delaware.Net a “UPS Ready” partner with UPS, which many other small ecommerce vendors won’t be able to say because their shipping charges will not be accurate.
• Multiple Photos Per Product
  Store-Logic can now manage many more photos per product than it could in the past.
• Additional SEO Fields
  We have added an entirely new SEO section to Store-Logic, and URLs are also going to be “search engine safe”
• Lots more on the way!
  There is a lot coming to the Store-Logic engine that will be announced soon. One thing that we can tell you is that it will work more tightly with our other marketing and sales applications.

For more information, call Delaware.Net at 888-342-7965 or get a quote online.

Searching for Available Domain Names

There are many places on the web where you can search domain names to see what is available, and who owns the domain names that are already taken. A domain name search is called a “whois lookup”. We have a whois lookup form here. You can also find an easy to use lookup at http://www.internic.org.

How to Choose a Domain Name

As long as the web has been around, one of the most difficult and personal decisions a company must make is choosing their Internet domain name. Good, unique domain names are hard to find sometimes, especially those that end in “.com”. You may find that the “nameofyourcompany.com” is already taken by someone else, and this can be a stressful realization.

What to do when the domain name you want is already taken

• Explore buying it from a squatter – This isn’t the most attractive option, but if you really have your heart set on a domain name that is already taken, then you might be able to purchase it from the current owner. If the domain name you want is taken, then look to see if there is a web site on it. Many individuals still to this day speculate on domain names (known as squatters), and they purchase them hoping to make a profit. When there is no web site on a domain name, or when there is a simple under construction page on the site, then it may be for sale. When you do the whois on the domain name, look to see who owns it, and how they list their contact information. Sometimes it is obvious that the domain name was registered by a speculator because the name of the company that owns the domain name is listed as something like “Domain For Sale”. Beware that no two domain name squatters are the same. Some will ask for $200 for a domain name and others will want $20,000 or more. If the domain name squatter is unreasonable, then move on and don’t waste your time. The average amount I have seen them ask for is about $2000. It is a supply and demand situation, so only you can decide what you are willing to pay for a domain name. Be very careful how you purchase the domain and get something in writing or use an escrow service. There are many such services you can find using a search engine.

• Wait for the domain you want to expire – A lot of people assume that they can just wait for a domain name to expire, then scoop it up on the expiration date. After all, you can see the expiration date when you do a whois search. Unfortunately, it isn’t that easy. When a domain name expires, it isn’t immediately available to be purchased. Instead, it goes into a sort of “hold” status for about 45 days so that the original owner can reclaim it. Waiting for a domain name to expire is almost NEVER a good idea, especially when they are automatically being re-registered.

• Registrar Warning: Domain registrars use this hold status as an opportunity to charge domain owners a re-registration penalty fee once the original expiration date passes. How nice of them. Some registrars also prevent domain names to be moved to other registrars when they are close to their expiration date (even before they expire). Lets say that your domain name is about to expire in 20 days, and you choose to move it to another registrar. Some registrars won’t let you until you pay for ANOTHER year of registration.

• Another Registrar Warning: It is now getting MUCH harder to purchase expired domains because they are being automatically re-registered the MOMENT they are available. Almost ANY web site that has the least little bit of traffic on it is being re-registered by unscrupulous companies that use the domains for “link farms”, “splogs”, and they fill them with content from “blog scraper” content or other search links. You have probably seen one of these sites when you accidentally typed a domain name in incorrectly. A link farm is a plain-looking, small, cheesy search engine that is completely automated. Domains couldn’t be automatically re-registered to these companies unless they had inside help from registrars, and this is part of the problem with the domain name registry system today. Why does someone go through all this trouble to re-register domain names and put bogus content on them? Simple: Google and other sites pay people for link traffic. There are many stories in the news about people that do this and make a full-time living off of these junk web sites. It isn’t illegal, but it should be.

Add a hyphen to the name you want – Adding a hyphen is an easy way to find an available alternative to the name you want. Most special characters are not allowed, but hyphens are allowed.

Use an optional TLD – If the .COM suffix (known as a Top Level Domain, or TLD) is not available, many companies also choose to use “.NET” or “.US” or “.ORG” or “.INFO” or “.TV”. There are MANY more TLDs, but these that I have mentioned are the most popular. They sort of all work the same, but most of the different TLDs represent countries (.TV is an example). Some registrars charge a little more for TLDs like “.US”. Obviously, .COM is always the best choice if it is available, because most people are used to seeing them and typing them in.

Avoid .INFO – I personally do not recommend the .INFO TLD because they are used quite a bit by spammers and especially sploggers. This is because they can be purchased in bulk cheaply. Some spam filtering solutions give a stronger weight to these domains.Use your location – Sometimes adding a city or state name or abbreviation can help differentiate you from another company located somewhere else that has the same name as your company.

Trademarked Names and Words – Be careful not to use trademarks in your domain name that do not belong to you. Large law firms now employ special Internet search tools to look for infringements on trademarks that their clients own.
Service Categories – Think about the services that you offer. If your company specializes in a particular area that is specific, that might be a way to find more words to use in your domain name.

Product Names – Like service categories, if you have specific products that you wish to market on your web site, then perhaps they can be part of your domain name.
Adjectives – Think about the types of people that buy from you, and the adjectives that people use to describe the products that you sell. Also consider the advantages of your product or service. An online thesaurus can help.
Slogans (taglines) – A short tagline for you company can make a nice domain name if it is short enough.

Abbreviations and Acronyms – Many domain names that are 4-5 letters are now all taken. Every combination. But if you are one of the lucky ones that has an acronym that is still available, it could be your best domain name. But be careful about difficult acronyms. Sometimes a word is easier to remember than an acronym.

Keep Your Names Short

While it may be tempting to keep adding words to your domain name, the golden rule is to keep them as short as possible. Longer domain names DO NOT help with search engines. Search engines give little or no relevance to the words in your domain. The longer your domain name is, the harder it is for your clients to type it in. Also don’t forget that your domain name is used for branded email as well. This means that everyone who wants to email you will also have to type in your new domain name every time they type your email address.

The domain you want is available! Now what?

You need to register it. The question is, which registrar should you use? Network Solutions, GoDaddy, Enom, Delaware.Net, or who? There are hundreds of domain name registrars, and hundreds of thousands of resellers of these registrars. Delaware.Net is a reseller of TuCows, which is the most ethical and friendly registrar for hosting companies. When you register a domain name with my company, we use TuCows or another quality registrar. You still own your domain name, and resellers like us only make a dollar or two on domain name registrations. There isn’t a lot of profit (if any) in this part of the business. There are companies that I do not recommend, including GoDaddy and Enom. Enom is the provider for Domain Registry of America, which is one of those companies that sends people fake renewal invoices in the mail hoping that people will renew their domain with them accidentally. As long as Enom allows this to go on, I can’t recommend them. GoDaddy is an inexpensive domain registrar because they use (sell) your information, and they WILL target your with advertisements for their hosting services. Obviously, most hosting companies can’t recommend GoDaddy for this reason, but that is the reason why GoDaddy is a couple of dollars cheaper than other registrars (because they make up the loss by selling your information and upselling other services to you). Network Solutions is also a domain name registrar that I do not recommend. Network Solutions has the worst support, and they make it VERY hard for their customers to get information changed. They also make it very painful when you are trying to move your domains away from them to other registrars. Network Solutions is one of those companies that charges penalties when you try to move your domain name away when it is close to its expiration date. Always read the fine print of your registrar’s terms and conditions before you chose them.

Make sure you own your domain name after you pay for it

I know this title looks strange, but it is possible to purchase a domain name and still not be the owner of it. This is very rare today, but I still see this happen from time to time. Always make sure that if someone else is registering your domain name for you, that this information is accurate, and the administration contact information should be someone that will be with the organization for some time, and who is trustworthy.

When a domain name is registered, there are three areas of the registration form for contact information:

• Registrant – this is the organization that owns the domain name. Make sure that this is the legal name of your company.
• Administrative Contact – This is the person that has the authoritative rights to change the domain name information.
• Technical Contact – this contact information is usually that of the hosting company that is hosting the domain.

Again, make sure that this information is accurate ANNUALLY, and always make sure that someone at your company is the administration contact. Don’t let your web designer or hosting company be the admin contact. Also make sure it is your company’s name and address in the registrant section. If this information is not yours, then you can lose ownership of your domain name.

How many domain names should you register?

If you have a few names that you have a hard time deciding on, and you feel in your gut that they are all good choices, then register them all. Domains are inexpensive, after all, so grab a few if you think you will actually use them. Just don’t go hog-wild. I had one client that came to me after he registered 1,500 domain names, back when they were $35 each just a few years ago. That cost him $52,500 retail PER YEAR! He didn’t end up paying full price, but he had received bad advice from someone that told him registering his name a bunch of different ways would help him with search engines. If he had come to me first, I could have saved him a lot of money. He ended up wasting about $80,000 on useless domain names. I myself have about 50 domain names after being in this industry for ten years, and I actually use about half of them. Unless you are a really large company or you have lots of products that each need to be trademarked, then I would keep your domains to five or ten tops.

Reasons for Registering Multiple Domain Names

Sometimes it makes sense to register more than one domain name for your organization. Here are some instances where it makes sense:

* Ad Campaigns – When I see a domain name for a company in an advertisement that has additional information attached to it for tracking purposes, it sometimes turns me off. Sometimes I see that and I only type in the root domain. So if an add in the Wall Street Journal says “visit our web site at www.oursite.com/wsj”, I might not type in the “wsj” because I know that is just for tracking. A more clever way to track ad campaigns is to create a domain name around the ad campaign that doesn’t necessarily contain your company’s name. Keep in mind that if you have a good web analytics reporting system at your disposal, it is not necessary to register additional domains, beca

* Mailing List Domains – If you have a successful web site today without using an email mailing list, then consider yourself lucky. An email mailing list that keeps your company’s name fresh in your client’s minds is a very important part of web marketing. The down side of mailing lists is that they can sometimes be mistakenly flagged as spam, even if they are completely opt-in. There are many reasons why this can happen, and I will cover them in another article. To keep your main email safe and not blocked, it makes sense to use a separate domain name for your email campaigns. So if your domain name is someorganization.com, you could have a domain name like someorganziationnews.com to keep your business email from being blocked. Using a mailing list service is also another option that you can use to protect your main domain, but you could use your own email list domain to host an archive of your previous newsletters.

Reasons to NOT Register Multiple Domain Names

• Sub-Domains (hostnames) can sometimes work just as well – When you host your new domain name with a web site hosting company, it is possible to create additional sub-domains, AKA hostnames for free.

• Domains don’t help with search engine placement – Some people assume that their domain name choice will have a big affect on search engine ranking. This is not true. The content and popularity of your web site will have an affect on your search engine positioning, but your domain name will not. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is out of the scope of this article, but I will post more articles on this soon.

How many years should you register your domain names for?

Domain names can now be pre-registered for up to ten years. If your domain name matches the name of your business, or you are sure that you are going to keep your domain name for years to come, then I would recommend registering it for at least three years. This eliminates any chance of forgetting to renew your domain name.

Don’t lose your domain name by accident!

It IS possible to lose your domain name if the company you register it from doesn’t alert you when your domain is close to expiration. One thing that I have seen happen, is that someone will register their domain name for just one year, then they change their email address. This is a MAJOR problem for that person because registrars ONLY try to contact you by email. If you change your email address and you don’t change it on your domain name registrations, then your registrar will not be able to contact you. If one of my customers has their domain name registered with us, and it is getting close to expiration, we actually pick up the phone and try to contact them before they lose it. This is rare but it does happen. Many people assume that their hosting company is liable for their domain name renewals, and this is not the case. You are responsible for your own domain names and their renewals. It is a really good idea to put a reminder on your calendars so that you don’t miss your domain renewal anniversaries.

Good Luck!

The domain name registry system, process, and competitive landscape is getting more complex, just as web sites and email are getting more complicated. I hope that these tips help you to find the perfect domain name for your web site. If you have any questions about this article, or about domain names in general, post them here in my blog.

What this means for Ecommerce:

Once a shopper has a Google account (ie GMail), they can auto-complete forms within shopping carts that use the Google Checkout API. Ecommerce companies will now need to implement this new API in their software. This raises another Google privacy concern for me because Google will be able to cross reference store software to merchants and shopper, setting the stage for them to take on YahooStores with their own commerce engine. Even if they do, Ecommerce companies such as Delaware.Net will still offer much more customizable software, while still taking advantage of this new feature. The video link below is very interesting and shows how the new system will work. It leaves no doubt that Google is targeting Ecommerce as a new growth area

Video Link:
Google Checkout Demo Video