[tvrlover]

Originally Posted by KnowItAll

Godaddy is ok. We have a couple of hundred active domains with them. They annoy me... given that they try and sell you a LOT of crap that you don't need.

No clue why anyone would recommend a Hong Kong based design and hosting company... pretty much clueless .. and yes, you'll here crap like "buy links and PR" from them.

No disrespect meant.. but I'd not bother with them.

Their own site is broken ... shows you how seriously they take their business.

http://www.jump.com.hk/webhosting.html

Click on "Billing and Payment". Bleah....

I used to use jump, but maybe they got lazy and went to shit, who knows, that's the nature of HK business. They used to have a ENGLISH page too lol!!!

"buy pr and links", well, let's see, PR for google is about the #1 thing you can do - incoming 1 way links. Being that I sold a huge SEO company recently, I think I would speak directly on the topic of "buying PR". PR is about relevancy, not regularity; it's about good-neighbor relevant PR not bad-neighbor PR from a penis enhancement website linking to a wedding dress store. If you read the google algorithm patent, you'll see they rank PR and the 1000 sub-PR topics as one of their main tools of ranking. Just like if you were to scrape results you'd use multi-SE PR to scrape.

Currently, Google gets about 35-39% of SE traffic, vs. YAHOO that picks up about 30-31% ballpark. With yahoo, a simple WP blog will get you indexed, but with google you'll be sub-indexed in the new blog search which gets sub-par traffic:
http://blogsearch.google.com
Therefore, with the big G, you need to follow the PR procedure to the max!

[Muse]

Thanks, bbchris, I'll take a look at your link!

So, the question to the gurus out there , is purchasing PR necessary or not necessary? (the site I'm thinking about would be a shopping site for consumer goods and therefore, a certain target market for traffic would be highly needed if my company is to make any money and not go underwater).

[wai wai]

My company used a website designer to do it. The designer is quite responsible. My boss change the design many times and he still is very patient to change for us, without additional charges. The charges is not high as well. Please visit one of their designed website at pro-tent.com.hk. In case you are interested, please contact me. I can refer them to you.
In case you need to set up a company in HK, you can contact us as we specialized in helping small \ medium size companies to start up in HK. You can email me at ha12350@yahoo.co.uk.

[tvrlover]

Originally Posted by Muse

Thanks, bbchris, I'll take a look at your link!

So, the question to the gurus out there , is purchasing PR necessary or not necessary? (the site I'm thinking about would be a shopping site for consumer goods and therefore, a certain target market for traffic would be highly needed if my company is to make any money and not go underwater).

you don't have to "BUY" it per-se, you can get it by providing useful content, but as most "shops" start out - content is usually not the key. My suggestion is that you have a site that's a shop + content + blog, submit your blog to an RSS feed place and write informative articles for your content part of the site. Use the articles to submit them to major article sites and have your site link in the articles; thus, when someone uses the article they have to link back to you automatically - generating PR.

I would HIGHLY suggest against hiring any "gurus" to do your site or help with the process, as usually "gurus" are a waste of money and jokers. I'm just giving you some basics, you should invest time in researching here:
www.google.com
you can fine most SEO techniques there. What I told you is the "tip" of the iceberg, it's up to you to research the rest.

[eh?]

I agree with tvrlover, he definitely knows what he's talking about. It really is just the tip of the iceberg, not hard but you have lots of work ahead of you which starts with research before you jump in.

I would like to suggest www.instantestore.com for you to check out. They offer a 30 day FREE trial so I think you should give it go and see how easy it is to set-up and manage your own ecommerce store. This company has been around, has excellent customer service and their website is very user friendly. No contract, low cost and includes hosting. They include SEO (search engine optimization) tools. Many professional-looking templates to choose from, if you don't like any of them, they have reasonable rates for custom design. I have used them for a variety of things. When you become advanced enough, you will be able to easily figure out how to incorporate a blog. Write product reviews on stuff you're selling is a good start.

I agree with Knowitall, yahoo is highly recommended. I've used yahoo for so many things. I just registered another .com domain with them for US$2.99. If you're planning to sell your products in US dollars, I would suggest going with .com, if you're planning to sell in HKD, then go with a localized domain. I know that when I'm looking to buy online in Canadian dollars, not US dollars, I type in the .ca domain.

You will quickly see how low the entry barrier is to becoming an etailer so find a niche market, minimize your start-up costs, get the website up & running quickly (don't waste time on getting it fancy!) and follow tvrlover's suggestions... good advice that's free is hard to find. I have spent many, many hours surfin the web thru google and still do! Current library books on the subject help too.

Good luck and best wishes!

[Muse]

thanks v. much for your helpful advice and leads. I've been doing my research on the net and books and it's been good. Sometimes it's also helpful to go online like this, especially with a basic question, and to check out what other fellow chatters have to say given everyone has different background experiences and it's in just a chatting environment. So it's been very helpful following this thread. thx!

[Khema]

Originally Posted by KnowItAll

Highly recommend both Yahoo and 1&1 for registering your domain and hosting your website.
...
Recommend Yahoo if you're a complete novice.
...

checked both. (I am looking for web design and hosting for own, non-commercial, site).

yahoo! is small business offering.

1&1 (much good has been said about this site) only works with customers residents in US/Canada or UK.

??any more suggestions for HK residents??

[dylonchua]

hi Muse,

My name is Dylon,
I came across your topic in the forum about seeking help and advise for your company website development.

I am a working expat here as Multimedia Designer.
recently just lost my job coz of the company closing down. pretty bad luck though.

anyway, since i am very free now and i have very good skill in web development from conceptualization until end product. and i am sure i can provide all the information you need even the market price and the website standard.

if you are seeking for good price, profesional services, reliable person. I hope i can be the one to help you.

please drop me a call 6773 4164. we can schedule a time to meet for chat so that u can find out more about the website design business.i am sure my 5 years experience in website design business can tell you lots of things u want to know.

even not to be the one to help you to do your website, but still can be a friend right.friendship first, business later

regards,
Dylon

[tvrlover]

Dylon,

If I might make a suggestion. If you're looking for business, try using formal english such as YOU instead of U, makes you look less reliable when you use "U".

[dylonchua]

sorry for my mistake