How to Open an Internet Store

Purchase a domain name for your store. A domain name is like the street address to a business. For example 'www.BestBuy.com' or 'www.apple.com' are domain names. You can purchase domain names from sites like 'godaddy.com' and pay a yearly amount. Prices for domains can be as low as $1.99 to $14.
Purchase web hosting for your online store. A web hosting company provides a shared or dedicated server for your website. Search for web hosts specifically for e-commerce sites--for example, ehostpros.com. Web hosting fees can start at $4 a month.
Find a web designer for your online store. A web designer will take your concept, images, and ideas for your website, then create your online store for you. You can locate web designers by going to freelance sites, such as 'Guru.com,' 'Elance.com' or 'getafreelancer.com.'
Determine what method of payments you can and will accept. PayPal and Google checkout are third-party processors that will accept checks and credit cards on your behalf for a percentage. Approval can take place in minutes.
Consider opening a merchant account. Instead of a third-party processor, such as PayPal, which costs more, you can actually open your own merchant account to accept credit card payments. You then can deposit funds into your checking account. You can go through your local bank to determine if it offers merchant accounts.
Advertise your online store. You can create banner ads, purchase ads via Google or utilize pay per click advertising. Pay-per-click advertising is a form of marketing where you only pay a certain amount of money if customers click on your ad to see your website. You can also advertise via online forums and online magazines.
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How to Host a Website on a Server

Enable the Web hosting software on your server. In Windows, this software is called 'Internet Information Services' and can be found in the 'Administrative Tools' section of the Control Panel, under 'Add/Remove Programs.' Check the box for 'Internet Information Services' to enable the Web server software. If you are on a Macintosh computer, you can find this in the 'Sharing' section of the System Preferences. Enable 'Personal Web Sharing' to start the Web server.
Put the home page of your website in the root folder of the Web server software. All the pages in your website should be in this folder or in folders beneath it. In Windows, this folder is 'c:\inetpub\wwwroot.' On a Macintosh, it is '/Library/WebServer/Documents' on your primary hard disk. The name of your home page file should be 'index.html.'
Test your Web server by opening the home page in a browser such as Internet Explorer (Windows) or Safari (Macintosh). You should be able to access your new Web server by using the server itself or any other computer that is on the same local network. If you are testing it on the server itself, the web address is simply 'http://localhost.' If you are on another computer, the web address will be the IP address of your computer.
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