With such potential in front of you how can you set up an e commerce web site on your hosting account? Even more important how can you do so on a budget?



It's fairly simple really, and very affordable. The first time you do it you may sweat a little as everything you do for the first time is not easy, but you will soon learn. It is also most affordable for most people. So what do you need to do?

So what do you need to do?

A first thing you need is a web host. It will be unwise to choose a free host, as they will also advertise on your site. I'm sure that you would prefer your customers to focus on your products rather than your hosting provider's products. You will also find it difficult to do all you need to do with such a limited host

You will also need a payment processor, one that doesn't cost the earth. Free preferably

One other thing you will need if you don't have it already is software for creating your web pages. There are some very good free programs available on the internet.

Finding a good web hosting provider is your first job. Here are some things to look for:

Can you run a number of domains on the one account? The more the better. How many subdomains can you have? Over time you will want to promote more products. Each of these products would need a new domain or subdomain.

Will you be able to run CGI scripts as well as PHP? How many databases will you be allowed to use. Most PHP scripts use MySql databases. This is what makes your sites dynamic. These are all questions you need to get answers to in order to decide on a web hosting provider.

You also need a payment processor. There are hundreds of these. I am just going to look at three of them. They are all budget and very affordable. One is totally free to set up.

The free one is PayPal. You pay them a small percentage of your sale when you make one. Their payment system works with email. You will need to set up a dedicated email account. You will be able to do this with your hosting account. Your hosing account should allow you to set up quite a few email addresses.

2checkout.com is another secure payment processor you could use. Many internet marketers use this payment processor. Most will use all three. This one has a setup fee of $50.00 and then charges a small fee for each sale you make.

The last on this list is ClickBank. ClickBank is free to join. It has a huge list of affiliate products that you could choose to promote. If you wish to become a vendor, selling your products using ClickBank you will need to pay a setup fee. This is about $50.00. ClickBank also charges a small percentage for each sale that is made through them.

On the sites of both PayPal and 2Checkout.com you can set up your products and their sites will generate code you can place in your sales pages where you want the buttons to appear. Or link to an existing button. ClickBank will generate a URL you can link to a button on your site. This is the easiest method of the three.

You see that setting up your site to take payments is both easy and very inexpensive.