E-commerce?

[Tourq]

Total noob, please don't laugh.

Do any of the options available (Hatchling/Baby/Business) have a requirement for selling things on a website (like an ebook)? Do I need to worry about the E-Commerce/Dedicated IP option?

Thank you.

[novastar]

From the looks of it, You can run an E-commerce store on any of their plans. I cant think of a single reason why any hosting company would disallow running a store on any hosting plan.

You dont *need* a dedicated IP. For most people, thats a luxury they can do without.

[gwyneth]

Originally Posted by novastar

From the looks of it, You can run an E-commerce store on any of their plans. I cant think of a single reason why any hosting company would disallow running a store on any hosting plan.

I don't know what bothers me more about this--your "from the looks of it" assumption, or one of the broadest, least qualified [the sentence, not necessarily the person making it] statements to appear here in a long time.

Originally Posted by novastar

You dont *need* a dedicated IP. For most people, thats a luxury they can do without.

Unless they want a SSL certificate, which some of your "most people" find essential for e-commerce.

[Tourq]

So I have two people (who I thank for responding) that are telling me what appears to be opposite opinions.

If, eventually, I wanted to sell an ebook on a website that I created, do I need to get the extra $2/month fee with the Baby package, or get the Business package, or simply not worry about that at all?

Thank you.

[Hullabaloo]

I think what you are asking is "If in the future I want to sell things on my website, what difference will these plans make?"

Whether or not you need a Private SSL depends on how you intend to collect monies.
If you are going to collect CC numbers (or other potentially private info) then yes, you need a Private SSL and Baby or Business is the way to go.

IMHO the easiest way to collect money is to use paypal, they are safe and secure, blah, blah, blah. This would do away with the need for your own Private SSL.

As for dedicated IP, (I asked about this in another thread) shared sites on each server all have the same IP. Therefore your site might share an IP address with NakedGirlsDoingNastyThings.com. If somebody out there is blocking the IP for that site they could potentially block you too.

There are probably other reasons for both of these things, but this seems to be the most common.

Also the E-commerce packages are not exactly what they sound like. They are very basic, bare bones applications that you will need to tailor to your specific needs.
Check out the home pages of the packages offered. They all have great forum support, but require some knowledge of CSS, HTML, PHP and SQL languages.

[Tourq]

Thank you. I imagine, though, that the problem you mentioned (about blocking an IP) is not too bad, as a lot of people share servers.

I imagine.

Thank you.

[Pitrow]

The missing link in all of the above is: if you want a private SSL you NEED to have a private IP.

If you're only going to be doing payment processing with Paypal, or that type of processer, then you don't absolutely need it, but a lot of people buying from you would feel more comfortable if you did have it.

If you're going to be doing the payment processing yourself, say through authorize.net or that type, then you should have a private SSL which requires a private IP.