Do I need a domain name to have a website?
Yes, you do.  You need a domain name to have an ecommerce store with NetLogical.

You can get a domain name at an Internet Domain Registrar.  There are many available on the Internet. In case that you are buying the domain name that you have selected from one of the Domain Registrars (like www.namecheap.com), make sure that you buy the domain name only if that is what you want, since these companies have more products for sale and sometimes it gets a little bit confusing.

Just in case you wonder how a domain name looks like! - A domain name is basically the name of your website.  For example, NetLogical's domain name is netlogical.com.

How do I choose a domain name for my website?
First, go to one of the domain name registrars on the Internet.  Then enter your selected domain name in the space they provide to see if it is available.

Here are some simple pointers that, in our opinion, will help you to select a domain name:

• The best domains are the .com domains (specially in the US!)


• Use a name that defines your business


• The shorter the domain name the better


• Do not use strange letter combinations or words


• Make the spelling of the name very easy
• Make the name understandable
  
• Think about what somebody will type to get to your web site
• Avoid dashes (if you can!)
  
• Keep it simple, very simple

What do I need to get a web site?
You will need a domain name. When you register the domain name, you will need to set the nameservers. That way your domain name will point to NetLogical, and people will be able to get to your web site. Please send us an email to ask for the nameservers that you need to use.  After you register the domain name, you can go and select a NetLogical's web site plan, and then click on the Sign Up button to get a website with us.

Do I need to know HTML for the ecommerce stores?
You do not need to know HTML, but knowing some will help you a lot.  If you want to make the text boldface or change its color, it is very easy if you know some simple HTML commands.  Some advanced features of the ecommerce store (like the Extra pages) will look better if you know and use HTML.  You can go to www.webmonkey.com and check some of their free tutorials.

Do you submit my site to the search engines?
Our company focuses on the hosting of your ecommerce store. We feel that the marketing and advertising of the store are best managed by the owner of the web site.  Also today search engine placement has to do more with dollars than anything else. In the past, the majority of search engines picked up the best sites for particular keywords and listed them at the top. Today, to get to the top of most search engines you will need to bid for the keywords that you want and pay every time somebody clicks on your link. This can get very expensive.  The places at the top of the search engines are, as you can understand, limited, and they have become very valuable Internet "real estate".

Regardless of the above, there are some services that can help you submit your web site pages to the search engines, but many cannot guarantee top placement. These services will allow your web site to be listed.

Below there are some search engine submission sites that you might use.  We do not guarantee their services as they are provided for informational purposes only.
AddMe.com   FreeWebSubmission.com

Will you add my products to the web store?
When we set up your store, we will load one of our SAMPLE database of products.  To add the products that you will be offering to your customers, you will be able to use the maintenance pages that we provide.  With the maintenance pages you will be able to add, edit and change your products.

Some of our customers prefer that we load the products of their company for them. Although this is a service we do not normally provide, we can load the products for you as long as we have all the information and images needed.  The price that we charge to load the products is $8.00 per product.  But, remember that you can load the products yourself at any time with the maintenance pages for free.

Also we will be adding the capabilities to update the products and images automatically in the future from a central database for certain types of websites.

How soon will I start to get orders from my customers?
One important thing you need to know is that your website needs to be marketed.  Without marketing you probably will get just a few sales every now and then.  Some website owners get disappointed with their website when they do not make as many sales as they would like to, but more often than not they have not marketed their website. 

Plan ahead, develop a marketing plan, and set aside some funds to carry out the marketing plan.  Marketing is a fundamental step on the success of a website.  For customers to find your website, you will need to let them know the name of your website and what type of products you sell. Sometimes you will need to try different approaches and change your marketing strategy to find out which one works for you.  Your customers' orders will depend on how well you have devised and put to work your marketing plan.