AlanBarber.Org

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today is the big push… I’m going to try my hardest to get the website up and running today.  I’m pretty close to finishing up the shopping cart layout.  Then it’s just a few more steps and I’ll call it finished.

My todo list:
[  ] - Finish shopping cart layout
[  ] - finalize cart configuration
[  ] - setup paypal
[  ] - setup shipping options
[  ] - write shipping and return policy
[  ] - write privacy policy
[  ] - write contact page
[  ] - create product listings
[  ] - customize email templates
[  ] - transfer domain name to my control (in progress)
[  ] - point domain to server
[  ] - go live with site

the goal is to get the website up and running today.  Then after I run a few test orders in the cart it’ll just be a matter of “flipping the switch” and pointing the domain to the server and we’re live.

We’re a little behind but I’m pretty confident I can get things done today.

I’ve started the domain transfer but there’s a bit of a hangup becuase the current domain was registered with my girlfriends hosting company and they have the domain locked.  The transfer can’t proceed until the domain is unlocked.  We’ve contact the hosting company and are trying to get that done right now.

This is why I always say register your domain name seperately from hosting.  Web hosts are dime a dozen now days.  Commpetion has driven hosting costs to the floor.  If you keep control of your domain name you can always switch to new hosts to get better service, features, price, etc.  It’s just a matter of updating your domain info to point to the new host.  However if you have a host take care of it for you you can end up with big problems should you want to move.

Hopefully the hosting company she uses, bigstep.com, won’t be unethical bastards and hold the domain hostage becuase they don’t want to loose a customer.  There are web hosting companies that do this!  They register the domain for you acting like it’s just a service they do, but the reality of the situation is they’re scumbags that know that the domain is your identity.  If they control the domain they control you.  You become locked into using their service.  It can be a real battle to regain control of your property.

Well off to get working…