New Federal Requirement: Starting January 1, 2024, most business entities in the US will need to report Beneficial Ownership Information.

Immigration Assessment

Following numerous requests by our clients to provide assistance with U.S. business visas we have partnered with VisaPlace.com, a leading U.S. & Canada immigration service to provide free Immigration Assessment for potential visa applicants. We invite you to use the form below to assess your visa eligibility:

MyUSAccountant

Welcome!

MyUSAccountant™ is a joint service provided by MyUSACorporation.com in cooperation with Eco-Tax, Inc., a public accounting firm in the greater New York area. Eco-Tax, Inc. has over 30 years experience in the tax and accounting industry working with individuals and Small Business Owners. We are thrilled to partner with the Eco-Tax, Inc. professionals to tap their superb level of expertise in providing our clients with these crucial services.

We Offer:

30-Minute Tax Consultation With CPA

A detailed tax consultation with an experienced CPA is a crucial first step to have your business properly structured and maintained.

Our partners at Eco-Tax, Inc are seasoned professionals with many years of experience handling tax related issues for both domestic and foreign clients. Our CPA consultation service is the best opportunity to have your tax related questions answered, and the initial tax strategy planned out.

Business Income Tax Return

A business tax return is filed annually by all companies that conduct business in the U.S.

We offer three types of business income tax return packages: zero-income tax return for dormant companies, standard tax return for most companies that were active during the year, and premium tax return for companies falling into some special categories.

Personal Income Tax Return

All U.S. persons (citizens, permanent residents and certain non-residents with Social Security Number) are required to file personal income tax returns by mid-April of the following year.

Non-U.S. persons are typically responsible to file their income tax returns in the country of their residence. However, when doing business in the U.S. in certain cases the U.S. law requires non-U.S. persons to file personal income tax return.

Obtaining ITIN for Non-U.S. Individuals

In order to file a personal tax return a non-U.S. person without Social Security Number needs to obtain an Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN) from the IRS.

We provide assistance with obtaining ITINs for eligible non-U.S. tax payers.

Filing Periodic Sales Tax Returns

If your company is a holder of any state’s Sales Tax ID (reseller permit) it is required to file sales tax returns per this state’s law. Failure to file sales tax return even if no sales were made could result in fines and other penalties.

We can take over your sales tax return preparation and filing, whether it is monthly, quarterly or annually.

Quarterly Tax Planning

Quarterly Tax Planning is a VIP service provided to our clients looking to ensure that their taxes are structured in the most beneficial manner. Typically this service is intended for those expecting high tax liability in a given year.

Skillful and systematic tax planning could help reduce your tax bill in the end of the year.

Audit Representation

Currently we offer an assistance with audit representation that covers correspondence audits only.

If you are facing an audit and would like to retain our services, please fill out the form below and our representatives will contact you to discuss your specific situation.

Marketing Your Products Online

Creating an outstanding website is not enough to achieve the success on the Internet. You need to attract visitors to your website. Whether you have small business website or building a large website for corporation, you ought to know basics of Internet Marketing.

What is Internet Marketing

Internet Marketing, also known as digital marketing, web marketing or online marketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. Internet Marketing ties together the creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including design, development, advertising and sales. Internet Marketing also refers to the placement of media along many different stages of the customer engagement cycle through search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), banner ads on specific websites, email marketing, and Web 2.0 strategies.

Online Marketing Basics & Tools

Тhe success of your business depends on your audience and how you approach them. So, before you start doing anything, you need to do some research and learn about your target audience.

Once you’ve gathered all vital information about your audience and what product you will deal with, it’s time to start creating websites to promote those products. There are many different ways you can realize it – from blogs and forums to small webpages or full sized sales letters. This is where you can influence and entice your readers to follow you calls to action. You must generate interest in your products by using various methods of sales writing, such as powerful headlines or comprehensive product description, carefully worded guarantees and pitches.

And probably the most important part of any marketing campaign is to get traffic to your website. It can be achieved by sound back linking and SEO. To attract interest you must fill the Internet with content that points back to you. You can use different social media sites like FaceBook, Twitter and YouTube to place capitative content that your readers will follow or you can use a blog to create an associate authority and set up yourself as an expert. You should also use different SEO tools to find high PR sites with “follow” links where you can post, or government sites and directories that you can get listed on.

You can also use email marketing to achieve business promotion. It is one of the latest forms of marketing and is simply defined as marketing, promoting, advertising and finally selling of products through the emails. Email can be sent for the purpose of enhancing and maintaining customer relationship or to acquire new customers as well.

PRWeb

PRWeb.com is a leader in online news distribution and online publicity. PRWeb “democratized” news distribution, transforming the “press release” from an expensive tool used by large corporations to an inexpensive yet highly effective way for organizations of all sizes to distribute their news on the Internet, increase their visibility online and attract customers. PRWeb is a service of Vocus, which is a leading provider of cloud based marketing and public relations software.

Vocus and PRWeb web-based software suite helps organizations of all sizes to fundamentally change the way they communicate with both the media and public, optimizing their visibility and increasing their ability to measure its impact. Vocus is used by more than 30,000 organizations worldwide and is available in seven languages. Vocus is based in Lanham, MD with offices in North America, Europe and Asia.

PRWeb.com offers four main packages for news release and lots of additional services to upgrade those releases or get additional support. The most cheapest package PRWeb can offer is Basic Package, and allows you to attach your web site, provide contact information so those interested can find out more about your business, and choose two regional targets so you can focus in on your market.

For more info – click here.

24-7PessRelease.com

Launched in 2004, 24-7PessRelease.com is a leader in the online press release distribution industry. Through it’s own multi-channel distribution network, 24-7PressRelease.com helps corporations and organizations disseminate their news to customers, editors, journalists, bloggers and websites. 24-7PressRelease.com supports business brand awareness, increasing visibility on the web, and enhancing SEO to help boost sales.

Today 24-7PressRelease.com has a database of over 60,000 members and has distributed over 100,000 press releases. Business owners recognize the importance of an invaluable press release service which is why 24-7PressRelease.com has become the preferred choice by so many companies.

Like PRWeb, 24-7PressRelease.com offers four basic press release plans. You can also submit one free press release per days for free, but free press releases receive limited distribution and are not guaranteed to be posted. The cheapest press release package is called Online Visibility , this package allows you to be found on top of search engines like Google and Yahoo, distribution to opt-in journalists subscribers, distribution through RSS and JavaScript feeds, add tech links and formatting, add files, logos and images, measure results with statistics and reporting.

With SEO Professional press release package, you’ll get the same options as in Online Visibility package plus the opportunity to improve rankings on search engines like Google and Yahoo, increase visibility with social bookmark links, distribution to premium to premium news partners, distribution to the 24-7 Newswire Network, add video and next days distribution option.

The other two press releases are SEO & Media Exposure, and Mass Media Visibility. SEO & Media Exposure offers news release through traditional media including newspapers and magazines and a Mass Media Visibility offers 24-7PressRelease.com’s unique partnership with PR Newswire for top media outlet distribution.

For more info – click here.

Credit Card Processing

A credit card processing system is transaction processing system that functions as payment service using a secure transaction service on the Internet. With a merchant account, merchants can use that system to submit, authorize, and settle credit card or eCheck transactions without the need for a separate transaction terminal or processing software.

Generally there are three methods of processing transactions:

  • Virtual Terminal is completely hosted on transactions servers, where merchants can login using their internet browser and perform live transactions using their accounts.
  • Web Link: To process credit card payments from customers in real time with complete automations, merchants can link their web site to the credit card processing system with a simple Web Link.
  • Automated Direct Connect: the third method is Automated Direct Connect, that provides a simple and straight forward mechanism to link more complex web sites with transaction gateway server, including support custom programming.

A credit card transaction is considered to be more secure than most other forms of payment, because the issuing bank is responsible to pay the merchant the moment a transaction is authorized, regardless if the buyer defaults on his or her credit card payment. Sometimes credit cards can be even more secure than cash, because they discourage theft by merchant’s employees and reduce the amount of cash on premises.

Banks assumes the credit risk, by evaluating each customer’s credit history before extending credit. Much of merchants’ marketing is based on extra turnover, which is generated by the fact that the customer can purchase services or products immediately and less concerned by the amount of cash in his pocket or bank account.

Merchant Account

First step in accepting credit card is opening a merchant account with a merchant account provider (typically a bank or a specializing company).

Merchant account provider charges the merchant a commission (discount fee) for each purchase. The commission is often a percentage of the transaction amount plus a fixed fee (interchange rate). There are several factors that can influence the discount rate, for example the length of time you have been in business, the percentage of your sales that are made over the phone or over the internet, the type of business, merchant’s personal credit history or even the average dollar amount of each sales transaction.

The Application Process

To verify the fact that the merchant is at the location he says he is, some companies will want to send representative to the place of business, some will accept the photo of the place or office. Depending on credit card processing service provider the following documents will be required: copy of business license or certificate of business name (DBA), profit and loss statements, copies or previous years’ tax returns, etc. The two-way access to merchant’s bank account will be required, thus allowing both deposits of collected monies and withdrawals in cases of charge backs.

High-Risk Merchant Account Providers

Merchant accounts are typically divided into low-risk and high-risk accounts. Depending on the industry type, international location of the merchant and other factors, you will be categorized into “low-risk” or “high-risk” category. There are special providers who specialize in high-risk merchants, for example merchants located abroad who will be using foreign bank accounts to withdraw funds from the merchant account.

The terms of high-risk merchant account by definition are harsher than those of low-risk account. A high-risk merchant should expect to see higher discount fees, longer fund holding periods and other terms needed to offset the added risk. It is possible to reduce the risk over time by maintianing record clear of chargebacks and disputes. Our company works with a number of high risk merchant account providers, and you can order a free consultation with all of those providers when placing an order for company registration.

 


Services by Cardservice International.

The FIRST DATA name, trademark and logo are owned by First Data Corporation. All other trademarks, service marks and trade names referenced in this material are property of their respective owners. The First Data Independent Sales Referral Partner Program is operated by Cardservice International, LLC Cardservice International, doing business as First Data Independent Sales (FDIS), is a registered ISO/MSP for Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Walnut Creek, CA. American Express requires separate approval.

E-Commerce Tools

Over the past five years e-commerce has expanded rapidly, which is understandable because of the time and hassle involved in running from store to store in a search for an item in the real world. On top of saved time and energy e-commerce saves consumers’ money as well, since it allows finding the best deal from a myriad of online vendors.

E-commerce provide a variety of benefits for business over non-electronic commerce. It reduces the labor cost, paperwork and errors in keeping data, and most crucially helps expand the business into wider geographical locations (domestically and internationally).

E-commerce Tools

Your e-commerce website can be as simple or as complex as you like, but it is important that you keep it as simple as you can so your clients can access and navigate it easily and quickly find the information or the product they wish to purchase. There are some essential e-commerce tools that you’ll need to make your site successful.

While selling online, you persuade your customers to buy based on what they see on your website. It is easier when you sell well-known brands, but if you are a small business enterprise you would need photos, videos and other multimedia tools that will introduce your products to your clients. All that can be achieved by integrating different multimedia content and plugins that allow good and clear display of your products.

Your e-commerce project will not be complete without shopping carts where clients supposed to load their purchases. But it is not necessary to install shopping cart on your own website. Instead you could link to other shopping or merchant websites, or even to payment gateway sites. Shopping carts enable your customers to keep track of their purchases prior to checkout of payment.

Another vital part of your e-commerce business is security of your visitors’ personal and payment information. One of the best ways to solve the problem of security is to introduce third party payment gateways.

Among other e-commerce tools, you may want to use, can be different data directories, order and email managers, feedback forms and currency convertors. With all those components you will be able to build advanced and successful e-commerce website.

Shopify

Shopify is a complete ecommerce solution that allows you to set up an online store to sell your goods. It lets you organize your products, customize your storefront, accept credit card payments, track and respond to orders — all with a few clicks of the mouse.

Shopify is web based ecommerce software. This means there’s no installation required and it works with all operating systems. Your store is hosted on Shopify servers so you don’t have to worry about installing, upgrading or maintaining any software or web servers.

You can actually use your own domain with Shopify. The easiest way to do this is to register a domain using Shopify. Shopify also integrates with an existing web site or a domain name registered with another provider. Ask your domain registrar to point your domain or subdomain to Shopify’s servers.

Shopify works in almost every country and currency. It is dependent on the payment gateway you use. Furthermore, the ecommerce storefront, checkout, email communications, etc, of a shop can be in any language.

For more info – click here.

Bigcommerce

Bigcommerce is an e-commerce platform for fast-growth businesses, enabling them to easily launch professional online stores in hours. Bigcommerce has helped over 30,000 online stores find success and pride themselves in being the fastest growing eCommerce software.

Their newly redesigned software creates beautiful and completely customizable online stores with incredible features. With the ability to sell products online, process and ship orders, and track inventory, Bigcommerce has everything an online business needs.

For more info – click here.

Web Traffic Monitoring

Once you have invested the time, money and effort to build a company website, it is important to maximize the ways in which your website is improving your business. How do you know if your marketing campaigns are paying off? Are those search engine keywords working to bring new clients to your website? Are your affiliated partners helping you gain new customers? And where is your target customer base located?

These are all questions that web traffic analysis can help you answer. With a better understanding of your website effectiveness, you can write better-targeted ads to focus on your best markets, as well as engage and convert more visitors to your business.

How Web Traffic Analysis Can Help Your Business

Registering a domain name and putting up a website is the first step to marketing your company on the Internet, not the last. Once your website is open to the public, you need to measure its effectiveness in bringing in clients and boosting your profits. Web traffic analytics are designed for this very purpose. Depending on which web traffic analytics program you use, you can utilize a wide range of programs and functions based on your needs and goals.

Marketing Strategy

Most likely, you decided to build a company website in the first place as a marketing strategy, to give your business wider exposure to potential clients through the Internet. You may have chosen one or more of a number of marketing strategies, including purchasing search engine keywords and using referrers, directories, advertising sites and banners, and/or email campaigns. But how do you know which of these marketing strategies are actually working and giving you the best return on your marketing investment?

Web traffic analysis helps you get the best ROI (Return On Investment) by tracking sales and conversions through email campaigns, banner ads, offline ads and more. The traffic analysis programs can trace transactions to campaigns and keywords, get loyalty and latency metrics, and identify your best revenue sources. They can also optimize performance of search engine keywords, such as Google Adwords, with post-click data on your keywords, search queries, match type and more.

With detailed reports on the performance of your current marketing methods, you can improve future marketing strategies by focusing on the highest-performing investments, and tailor your advertising by using the most effective keywords and targeting the highest-concentrated customer locations.

Website Design

Another aspect of ensuring successful online marketing is the design, layout, and content of your website. There are a number of factors that go into having a successful website, but the most important goal is usually to attract and retain clients. How do you know if the website you have built is doing the job it is supposed to do: converting clients?

Web traffic analysis answers this question by tracking and reporting visitor information such as page views, duration of stay on a particular page, click-paths, and entry and exit pages. You can utilize these reports to see not only how visitors found and entered your website, but how long they stay on the site, which parts of the websites are most interesting to them, and at which point visitors leave the site. This information is helpful as you maintain and update your website to focus on the areas that are most appealing to visitors, and modify those parts that are less successful.

Site Monitoring

In addition to measuring marketing success, it is also important to make sure that your website is up and running smoothly. It is critical that clients and potential clients who are interested in your company have constant and easy access to your website. Most web analytics companies also provide site monitoring services, which keep track of your website downtime, connect times, and alerts you via email or phone if your website goes offline for any reason, especially during unplanned emergencies.

Choosing a Web Traffic Analytics Program

The two prevailing companies providing web traffic analytics are currently Google (through its Google Analytics application) and Web-stat.com. While they offer many similar tracking and reporting services, there are some marked differences between the two services.

Google Analytics

Like many other Google applications, Google Analytics is a free* but relatively basic web traffic monitoring and reporting application. Its main features include:

  • Advertising ROI – as described above, this function tracks sales and conversions by tracing visitors to email campaigns, banner ads, offline ads, search engine keywords, and loyalty and revenue sources.
  • Cross Channel and Multimedia Tracking – Google Analytics also offers mobile tracking, internal site search, benchmarking, and Flash, video and social network application tracking.
  • Customized Reporting – Users can choose highly customized and segmented reporting based on custom variables and using advanced data analysis tools. Data exporting and integrations with external applications are also available. In addition, analytics intelligence monitors reports and sends alerts to changes in data patterns. Report formats include motion charts, geo-targeting, funnels, spark lines, and score cards.
  • Sharing and Communications – Users can control how sensitive data is shared and which reports are available to users on their account, as well as schedule or send ad-hoc personalized report emails.
  • Integration with other Google applications, such as AdWords and AdSense, as well as third party applications.

*Google Analytics allows up to 5 million page views per month for no charge. Page views are unlimited for users who also have an active AdWords account.

Web-Stat

Web-Stat offers similar web traffic analysis, advertising ROI tracking, and customized reporting services as Google Analytics. Web-Stat also measures conversions, referrers, search engine keywords, site entries and exits, file uploads and Flash sites, and sends customized reports to its users. However, Web-Stat differs from Google Analytics in some significant ways.

 

Live Traffic Analysis

Unlike Google Analytics, which only offers pattern reports from designated time periods, Web-Stat also offers live traffic analysis. This means that not only can users look for patterns from past time periods, they can also follow visitors as they travel inside their website – in real time. Every time someone visits your site, Web-Stat can see where they are located, which pages they visit, how long they stay, etc. When you log into your Web-Stat account, you will get live information as to who is currently on your site, who has been there, what pages they have looked at, and how they found your site.

Independence from other Google Applications

Generally, it is recommended that you use a third party to measure the results of your advertising campaigns. Many people promote their websites by advertising with Google AdWords, which helps business place ads using keywords and the Google search engine. However, if you use Google Analytics to measure the success rate of your AdWords campaign, you are using the same company to both sell you the advertisements and measure their return. Web-Stat is independent from Google and can do you web traffic analysis without conflict of interest.

Web-Stat Watchdog

Web-Stat also offers another unique service: Web-Stat Watchdog. This feature monitors not only the content of your website, but how smoothly it is run. Watchdog keeps track of factors such as your site’s downtime and average connect time within a specified time period. If your site goes offline for any reason, especially during unforeseen emergencies, Watchdog will send you an alert via email or cell phone. This feature is essential for ensuring that current and potential clients can access your site easily and quickly at all times.

Keep in mind that because Google Analytics is free, but Web-Stat offers independent analysis and unique features, users can choose to use both services at the same time.

For more info – click here.

Custom Logo Design

In the simplest of terms, a logo is a unique symbol or a graphical interpretation of the name of a company, organization or even an individual commonly used to aid and promote instant public recognition. Logos can be purely graphic or composed of the name of the organization or a combination of the two, but the goal of a logo is always a visual representation of what your company stands for.

Your business’s logo can be as important as its name. A good logo creates a favorable first impression and differentiates your business from its rivals. People process an image in their mind more readily than words alone, that’s why opinions about your company, its integrity, individuality and reputation can be formed at a first glance. So it is important to include your company’s name or slogan in your logo design to make consumers associate them with your logo.

You can also give some personality to your business by using different logo design concepts. For example you can make your customers feel at ease and develop a sense of trust in your company by using a cartoon character or cute animal in your logo, or you can make your company look more original and innovative by using bright colors or unique design in your logo.

A logo is an important component of your marketing and branding strategy. Using your logo in advertising vehicles, such as newspapers, magazines and internet banner ads, flyers and business cards, is a great way for those who are interested in your services and products to get to know your logo, and by extension your business. Logos can also be placed on pens, T-shirts, hats, mugs, Frisbees and bumper stickers and released as promotional products.

Logo Design Tips

Whether you decide to design the logo on your own or entrust it to a professional designer, the first thing you should do is answer some questions about your business in general. For example: How would you define your business in a few words? What products or services are you offering to your clients? Who will be your potential target market? What differentiates you from your competitors? All these questions will help you or your designer understand the essence of your company and depict it in the most relevant logo.

The next step is to consider what type of logo and design characteristics works for your company. There are three types of logos: text logo, symbol logo and text-and-symbol logo. Whichever type of logo you decide to choose, you should keep in mind that it’s not about what you want to see, but how your customers will perceive it. There are also a few design characteristics to consider. Color, font, shape, presence and contrast – all these elements must be considered, because even a small oversight can inflict damage to your company’s reputation or budget. As an example, you need to be careful when picking colors for a logo. It may look excellent in five or more colors, but when it comes to printing on stationary or corporate literature, the price won’t be so attractive.

Each logo design should also meet certain requirements. An ideal logo design should be simple and memorable, if it is too detailed and complex, the design in not recognizable. Uniqueness is also an important characteristic of a good logo design. Your logo must stand out among the millions of other logo designs and it must not violate any copyrights or trademarks of other companies. As long as a logo’s purpose is to represent the company, it must be easily associated with the industry, service or product to which it relates. You should also think over the functionality or flexibility of your logo design, because it will be used in many forms, such as in emails, on letters, on business cards, on envelopes and on promotional items. It must work well with different backgrounds and in various sizes. So you must be sure that your final choice is going to be equally compelling in each appearance.

Once you came up with a logo that represents your company’s mission at a glance, make sure it hasn’t already been trademarked by someone else. If no one has, then you could trademark it to protect it from use by other companies. You can apply for a trademark at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Web site or use a lawyer or another service provider to help you. If you are working with a designer, make sure the copyright ownership is assigned to you or your company in a signed document.

Choosing a Logo Design Company

Nowadays the Internet provides you with a great choice of online logo design services, you have access to the skills and talents which were once out of reach. We recommend the following companies that combine great quality of design with affordable pricing.

Logo Garden

LogoGarden.com is the simplest and most cost effective way to create a professional brand for businesses on any budget. Users can create a customized logo and business cards in just minutes, no design experience needed. Or, they can choose to have a logo custom designed for one flat price that includes unlimited revisions.

For more info – click here.

99designs

99designs.com pioneered the design contest, where designers submit competing designs in response to a customer’s design brief — and the winner receives a cash payment for their work. Through more than 268,346 design contests, 99design have paid out $66,455,134 to their designer community to date.

For more info – click here.

Web Design Services

In today’s market, having a well-designed, informative and user-friendly website is essential to a business’s success. A significant and increasing number of customers are Internet-savvy and regularly use the Internet to search for a wide range of products and services. In response, company websites are becoming more sophisticated and interactive, allowing customers to make reservations and payments online, submit feedback, and follow company blogs and newsletters to stay current in the latest offerings. More sophisticated websites can also take advantage of integration with other sites like Google Maps and Flickr to supply additional information and creative content.

Basic Elements of Web Design

As the demand for professional and commercial websites has increased among companies of various types and sizes, so have the options that business owners now have in creating a website. A number of companies specialize in providing a wide range of website building services, from basic site building and web hosting, which are usually free, to custom website design by specialized design teams and additional services such as e-commerce, online marketing, and lead generation. Finding the perfect site and web hosting service for you depends on a variety of factors, including your business type, budget, and the level of interaction and feedback you seek to have with clients and potential customers on the Internet. Here are a few basics that you should consider when starting a website for your company.

Domain Name

The first and most fundamental step of creating a website is buying a domain name. A domain name is the web address that Internet users type into their browser to find your web site online (for example, www.yourcompanyname.com). For those who have the desire and skills to build their website independently, a domain name can be searched for and leased from the appropriate registry, which gives the domain name buyer the exclusive right to use that domain name. As an alternative, most web design companies offer domain name searches and leases as part of a design package, either as an included feature or for a separate fee.

Design Layout, Templates, and Stock Image Libraries

Once you have a domain name, the next step is creating the layout and content of your website. If you do not have any technical experience in programming a website, this is where professional web design companies become especially helpful. Established web design companies usually offer hundreds, sometimes thousands, of pre-designed layout templates that you can choose from, separated based on subject, theme, color, industry, and many other categories. No matter what your business type, you will have plenty of options and styles to choose from.

In addition to a layout and color design, web design companies usually also offer large stock image libraries to help your website look more attractive to potential clients and customers. Stock images usually include professional photographs and other creative depictions of different objects, products, or services.

Design and Editing Tools

Equally important to having a good basic design and layout is the ability to revise, edit, and improve your web site over time. Look for a web design company that simplifies this process by offering user-friendly, instant point-and-click editing.

Custom Design

Almost all web design companies offer custom web design by a specialized design team, for a higher fee. This is usually a better option for companies seeking a highly sophisticated or interactive website. Custom web sites are also ideal for companies that offer unique goods or services that do not fit well into pre-designed templates and stock images.

Email and Web Storage

Email and web storage are basic services that are offered by most web design companies. Having an email account that has the domain name as your website (for example, info@yourcompanyname.com) is much more professional than using popular free email services like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo or AOL. A professional email account will add extra credibility to your online business. There will usually be a limit on how much email storage memory you are entitled to.

Web storage allows you to store many different types of files that you use to build and customize your website. For example, you can store and transfer documents, photos, music and video files.

Choosing a Web Design Company

Different web design companies employ varying business models in terms of what services they provide, and how they charge for services. The two companies below are good examples of different features and fee structures. These companies are recommended by MyUSACorporation.com

Web.com

Web.com is a leading provider of online marketing services for small businesses, offering a full range of web services, including website design and publishing, online marketing and advertising, search engine optimization, lead generation and e-commerce solutions. According to their statistics, more than 15 million successful websites have been created with Web.com tools and services. These tools and services are offered as part of three different service packages.

The most basic package is the Website Builder package, ideal for companies that are budget-conscious and want only a simple web presence with basic design and functions. For a monthly fee of $19.95, Website Builder provides a domain name of your choice based on availability, over 9500 starter templates, a large stock image library, unlimited web storage for documents, photos, videos, and music files, as well as an unlimited number of email accounts with up to 10GB of email storage. In addition, the package also includes $150 in advertising credits for Google, Yahoo, and Facebook.

The Business Builder package provides a slight upgrade at $29.95 per month (currently $19.95), adding a Marketing Bundle which includes Local Directory Submission, Search Engine Submissions, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Consultation, and access to the Do-It-Yourself Logo Design software. In addition, Business Builder increases the advertising credits to $200.

Finally, for businesses with more specialized needs and a bigger budget, Web.com offers its eWorks! XL package. At $94.95 per month, this package offers all of the services listed above, but adds custom website consultation and design, as well as professional copywriting. In addition, eWorks! provides extra online marketing services including search engine submission, Internet Directory submission, and Google Maps submission with online coupon. Results tracking for website statistics and telephone call activity is also included. These services are essential to companies that substantially rely on the Internet to attract new customers and generate sales, by allowing these companies to maximize and track the effectiveness of their website traffic.

For more info – click here.

Yola.com

Yola.com is another website builder and hosting service that helps small businesses stand out on the web. The company’s services and products have received recognition from a number of publications, including Entrepreneur, BusinessWeek, ABC News, CNET, and The Wall Street Journal. Yola.com offers web design services similar to those of Web.com described above, but with some significant differences.

Yola.com’s online marketing services are somewhat less comprehensive than those of Web.com, but it offers more focus and flexibility, as well as affordability, in its web design services. Its pricing structure is also significantly different, offering a wide range of options from a free sub-domain name, to highly customized web design services for $349 for the first year.

There is a range of options available on Yola.com for small businesses with varying levels of web needs. For companies that want a simple web presence to increase visibility and accessibility to current and potential customers, Yola.com provides sub-domain names on its main site for free. This means that if you’re not picky about having a custom website name, you can have a relatively basic website on Yola.com for no charge at all. As part of this free service, Yola.com offers over 100 customizable templates, easy point-and-click design and editing, unlimited bandwidth, and free site traffic statistics for the past seven days. As additional options, you may choose to purchase a custom domain name for $19.95 per year, or a premium website style for a one-time fee starting at $19.95 each. You can also buy Yola Mail as a consolidated source of emails from your website for $9.96 per year.

Yola Silver is an upgraded package that includes, as part of its $49.95 annual fee, a custom domain name, premium styles, and site traffic statistics for the past thirty days. Also included are stock photography credits, Yahoo! Search Marketing credit, Facebook advertising credit, and HP Logowork Logomaker credit. In addition, the Yola branding is removed from your site and all sub-sites.

Finally, for the most comprehensive services, Yola.com also offers Yola Premium, which includes one-on-one consultations with a professional website designer, resulting in a professionally designed, completely unique 5-page website, which you can expand as needed.

For more info – click here.

Domain Registration & Hosting

One of the first steps every new business should take is establishing Internet presence. Today Internet presents plenty of options to connect with your potential and existing customers, from email to various social media networks and more. However, launching a company website should be your top priority as the owner of a new business.

To begin creating a website you need to choose a service provider for domain registration and hosting. This guide allows first time users to understand the basics of domain name registration and gives them tools to choose the right hosting provider.

Domain Name Registration

Choosing the right domain name is the most critical yet challenging step in website creation process. Domain name can reflect the name of your company or the type of your business, so it makes it easier for your customers to find your business on the Internet. It also should not be too long or difficult to remember. You can always do a quick search to make sure that the domain name you picked is available by typing “whois” into search or address bar and use one of the services that provide free lookup. If the name is available you can register it.

The service that adds your domain name to the worldwide Domain Name System (DNS) is called “website registrar”. When domain name is registered, it’s associated with an IP (Internet Protocol) address. When submitting a domain name to a web site registrar, you must also choose one of the extensions (for example: .com, .net or .org). You can prevent others from registering your domain name with a different extension and diverting some of the traffic intended for your site by registering domain name with more than one extension.

There is an annual fee that you must pay to website registrar to retain ownership of domain name, and a variety of payment plans that will allow you to pay the fee for several years in advance (as you increase the number of prepaid years the annual cost decreases). During registration DNS requires your business name, address and telephone number, so anyone can look it up. However, you can pay additional fee for private domain name registration (also called “proxy registration”) to protect your account information from anyone who wants to search for it. A proxy service replaces your information with its own name, address, phone number and e-mail.

Website Hosting

After registering your domain name you should consider finding a reliable website hosing service. The main function of web hosts is to provide connectivity to the Internet, as well as storage space for all files, images and video that you’ll need to run your website. You can include a variety of other services that can be adjusted for your own requirements. Before signing up for a web hosting service consider your budget, the website needs, the kind of server, and the types of services offered by the web hosting service.

The variety of web hosting services can be divided into six types.

  1. Free web hosting: this service can be a good choice if you want a very simple website. Among various disadvantages of free web hosting are low connection speed, frequent down time, and advertising banners which are automatically added to your website pages (often at the top).
  2. Shared hosting: In a shared hosting environment you and other website owners share one server, it means sharing physical server and all software applications within it. The features available with this type of service can be quite extensive, but the amount of sites on one server can be somewhat limited, and you have restricted access to control the server.
  3. Dedicated server: when you rent dedicated server form a hosting provider you’ll get your own web server and gain full control over it. The hosting provider however is responsible for buying hardware and a high-speed connection to the Internet for that server. There is also an option of self-managed dedicated server when the customer having full administrative access. This option is less expensive, but you’ll be responsible for the security and maintenance of your server.
  4. Collocated web hosting: with collocated web hosting the hosting company provides you with the physical space to store your own server hardware, back up hardware for electricity and internet access. This type of web hosting service is the most powerful and expensive. Typically you’ll be able to have access for your own administrator to visit the data center for any hardware upgrades or changes.
  5. Cloud hosting: a new type of hosting platform that allows customers powerful, scalable and reliable hosting based on clustered load-balanced servers and utility billing. Simply saying, the idea behind cloud hosting is in paying only for the resources you actually use (not what you could use), and removing single-point of failures.
  6. Hosting on home-based server: there is also an option to set up home server on your own premises. With that option you will have to finance Internet connectivity, hardware and software, and configure and maintain the system. Some Internet service providers actively attempt to block home servers by disallowing incoming requests to TCP port 80 of the user’s connection or by refusing to provide static IP address, so if you choose home hosting it is advisable to obtain an account with a dynamic DNS service.

Choosing Website Registration and Hosting Company

Among the huge variety of website registration and hosting companies that today’s Internet search can offer choosing a reputable and reliable one can become a real headache, especially for newbies. For your convenience we have reviewed a number of more established and known players in that field:

GoDaddy

GoDaddy.com is the world’s largest domain registrar and is the flagship company of The GoDaddy Group, Inc. As a ICANN-accredited domain registrar, GoDaddy has more names under management than any other registrar, offer products at prices up to 70% less than the competition and supports them all with world-class 24/7 live customer service. GoDaddy.com offers a complete product line, including comprehensive hosting solutions, Web site creation tools, Secure SSL certificates, personalized email with spam and anti-phishing filtering, e-commerce tools and more.

As a domain registrar, GoDaddy offers a great variety of domain extensions including international, bulk domain discounts, private registration, GeoDomainMap tool, domain transfers, auctions and backorders. The cost of your domain registration includes a long list of free extras, such as:

  • hosting with website builder which allows you to build 1-page site,
  • personalized email account,
  • GoDaddy photo album,
  • getting started guide,
  • domain forwarding & masking,
  • 100-pack e-mail forwarding,
  • auto renewal protection,
  • total DNS control,
  • status alerts, and
  • domain locking.

For web hosting GoDaddy.com provides a range of hosting plans and types of servers. Whether you choose Windows or Linux Hosting, GoDaddy’s services also include email, databases, free applications, free access to the exclusive GoDaddy Hosting Connection community and much more. GoDaddy offers affordable web hosting which is fine for most personal and small business sites and Business Hosting packages that offer discount bundles with all the products you need to build, optimize and promote your web site. GoDaddy takes advantage of 4th generation hosting which uses advanced features as Dynamic Traffic, Defense and Server Management, making your site fast, reliable and secure.

GoDaddy has three most common hosting plans. For a $4.99 per month you’ll get Economy 4GH which contain 10GB space with unlimited bandwidth, 100 email accounts, 10 MySQL databases and a free ad credits from Myspace and Google. Deluxe 4GH hosting plans will provide you with 150GB space and unlimited bandwidth, 500 email accounts, 25 MySQL databases and the same free ad credits as in previous hosting plan for a $7.99 per month. You can get unlimited space, bandwidth and MySQL databases, 1000 email accounts, free ad credits from google and myspace, free premium DNS, site scanner, SSL certificate and fixed IP address by purchasing ULtimate 4GH for $14.99 per month.

GoDaddy.com also offers Dedicated and Virtual Dedicated Servers which are perfect fro hosting multiple traffic-intensive Web sites on one server, running enterprise or gaming applications, or operating development environments. There is an option of purchasing a preconfigured dedicated or virtual dedicated server plan or the flexibility to build your own server. And if conventional hosting plans can’t keep up with your demands, Grid Hosting from Go Daddy puts the power of multiple servers to work for you. With elastic scalability, 99.9% uptime and no need for site migration during growth spurts, Grid Hosting is always at the ready.

For more info – click here.

Web.com

Web.com is a leading provider of comprehensive web services and products that enable small business to establish and maintain an effective Internet presence. Web.com offers a full range of web services on an affordable subscription basis, including domain name registration, website design and publishing, Internet marketing and advertising, search engine optimization and submission, logo design and call center services.

When you register a domain name with Web.com you get the following:

  • simple domain management with Web.com’s easy-to-use control panel,
  • private domain registration that will help to protect business from Internet spammers,
  • domain locking which safeguard your domain name from hijacking and unauthorized transfers,
  • for advanced users: complete DNS control allowing you to edit your name servers and MX, A, and CNAME records for complete control over your domain.
  • 24-hour customer service.

The annual fee for domain name registration is $37.00 per year and decreases depending the number of years you want to register. You can also get a free domain name when you sign up for a Linux or Windows web hosting plan. Web.com also offers some upgrade options for domain registration: private domain for $1.95 per month, marketing bundle which will get your business found on the web with local directory and search engine submissions for $14.95 per month and a hosted exchange that allows your email, files, calendars and contacts to be always synched in near-real time for $8.95 per month.

For web hosting Web.com offers: unlimited storage, unlimited transfer and multi-domain hosting with all of the reliability of a dedicated server and enterprise grade technology in a clustered website hosting platform. All for only $11.95 per month you can build and maintain a great web presence with an assurance that Web.com powers your site. Web.com hosting services are offered as part of Windows or Linux hosting plans that includes:

  • unlimited data storage,
  • unlimited bandwidth transfer,
  • unlimited MySQL databases,
  • unlimited hosted domains,
  • 10GB web mail storage,
  • clustered reliability and green hosting,
  • support for development languages,
  • unlimited FTP users,
  • 24/7 technical support,
  • free 1 year domain name
  • search engine marketing credits.

Web.com also allows you to protect your domain from expiring if you forget to renew with Domain Expiration Protection for only $1.95 per month.

For more info – click here.

Dotster

Dotster offers a range of innovative solutions to individuals and businesses designed to enhance online brand management. Because of their commitment to customer success, Dotster is one of the world’s largest domain name registrars. They serve millions of customers worldwide and have millions of domains under management. From its inception, Dotster was designed to deliver high quality products and services including domain registration, web hosting and do-it-yourself website builders, email, custom web design, online marketing services, security and privacy solutions.

In general Dotster offers domain registration services similar to those of GoDaddy.com described above, but with some significant differences. Dotster offers all general top-level domains (TLDs), many country-code extensions (ccTLDs) and third-level domains. When you register a domain at Dotster, you have the option of adding additional services such as email and URL Forwarding, NameSafe and DNS Management or purchase a Domain tools Bundle and save 10%. Dotster also offers such services as domain renewals and transfer, private registrations and domain sync which allows you synchronize your .com and .net domain renewals to the anniversary date of your choosing.

As GoDaddy.com, Dotster offers different hosting plans and solutions on Windows and Linux platforms, instant website and blog hosting. You can build your website using one of Dotster’s hosting plans on Windows platform: Basic, Deluxe and Ultra, with a $6.75, $9.45 and $17.95 per month fee respectively. Prices for the same Dotster’s hosting plans on Linux platform are little bit lower: $5.75, $8.75 and $15.99 per month. Dotster also offers a VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting services which provide you with the speed and flexibility of a dedicated server at a fraction of the cost.

Dotser is committed to becoming a more sustainable business and one of their primary initiatives is to purchase renewable energy credits equal to 150% of their hosting server power consumption. This means that by hosting your website with Dotser, you’re supporting renewable energy programs. Dotster.com purchase a tree from Trees for the Future program for every new Dotster web hosting customer. Dotster hosting customers can add Eco-friendly hosting badges to their websites to promote that they are powered by renewable energy.

For more info – click here.

Online Fax Services

As an alternative to traditional fax machines, which transmit faxes over analog telephone lines, many businesses now have the option of using an electronic fax (e-fax) service, which transmits documents over an encrypted Internet connection. E-fax services allow you to send a fax through an online account or through your email by attaching the document you want to fax to an email message. Then, the e-fax provider’s online processor sends the message and attachment to any indicated recipient’s fax machine.

Likewise, an e-fax user receives faxes as email attachments, usually in PDF format, or also in digital format through the user’s online account. Most e-fax providers give each user an individual local or toll-free number, which looks like a traditional fax number. When someone sends a fax from any fax machine to your designated number, the e-fax processor automatically turns the fax into an attachment and sends it to you in an email. Many e-fax services are also compatible with mobile devices such as cellular phones and PDAs.

Advantages of Electronic Fax

Electronic fax completely eliminates the need for physical fax machines and paper faxes. For many businesses, this means substantial savings from equipment and maintenance costs for fax machines, paper, toner, and IT contracts. Furthermore, for businesses that maintain a separate phone line for their traditional fax machines, e-fax allows you to save on telephone company bills. For smaller businesses that share a telephone and fax line, using e-fax means the sender will no longer receive busy signals when you’re switching between lines.

Another big advantage of e-fax is that the user can send and receive faxes from anywhere in the world. Because e-faxes are transmitted over the Internet and can be sent and received from any computer or mobile device, the user is not tied to any physical location, but can use fax from any location with a computer and Internet connection. Furthermore, even if your computer is not on, a fax sent to you will not receive a busy signal, but will be waiting in your inbox the next time you turn on your computer.

An added bonus of using e-fax is that all of your faxes can be digitally edited, signed, forwarded, and stored. This eliminates the need for physical storage and paper filing. Because e-faxes are sent over secure encrypted Internet connections and only show up in the inbox of the intended recipient, e-fax also resolves the privacy problems that can arise from shared physical fax machines.

Choosing an E-fax Provider

There are a number of e-fax providers to choose from. eFax.com is one of the most prominent and widely-used e-fax providers, but a number of other companies, including RingCentral.com and Phone.com, also offer e-fax services, either individually or as part of a package with other services such as virtual phone numbers.

eFax

eFax® is a leading online e-fax provider. It has more than 11 million subscribers and offers local and toll-free fax numbers in over 3,500 cities and 45 countries around the world. As described above, eFax® works by turning every fax sent to your designated fax number into an email attachment, and then sending the email to your eFax® online account within minutes. Every time you get a fax, eFax® will send you an email or mobile alert. In addition, eFax® is compatible with Microsoft Outlook and most other popular email providers. Therefore, instead of having to log onto your eFax® online account to access your faxes, you can simply choose to have all of your faxes sent directly to your personal email inbox. Similarly, you can also send all your outgoing faxes directly from your personal email account.

Every eFax® user has access to a free, downloadable eFax® Messenger software, which allows you to create, edit, highlight, and add notes to any fax document. You can also create a personal electronic signature stamp to be attached to faxes using this software. All fax documents created, received and sent are automatically stored in your online account for 2 years. In addition, you can save any fax as a regular PDF document for permanent storage in your personal computer.

eFax® has several plans that accommodate businesses with varying levels of faxing needs. For larger businesses with 10 or more employees, eFax® also offers eFax® Corporate, which customizes your personal e-fax plan tailored to the needs of your business. For businesses that are switching from an already-established fax number, eFax® allows you to transfer existing fax numbers to use with your eFax® account.

For more info – click here.

RingCentral

RingCentral, like Phone.com (below), offers e-fax services in addition to their virtual phone services (link?). Therefore, you can subscribe to their e-fax services either separately or as part of a package. For RingCentral users who are already subscribers to their RC Mobile Business plan or any RC Office plan, the e-fax service is already included in the virtual phone package.

RingCentral’s e-fax service is functionally very similar to that provided by eFax®. The user sends and receives all faxes as attachments either through their online control panel and/or to a designated email or mobile account. RingCentral also provides free software and a FaxEditor tool with which you can edit your fax, add texts and graphics, create custom cover pages, and create a custom electronic signature. Furthermore, RingCentral’s software allows you to block junk faxes in the same way your email provider blocks junk email messages.

One unique aspect of RingCentral’s e-fax service is that it can be integrated with any Microsoft Windows application, such as Outlook, MS Word, or Excel. Once you sign up for their e-fax service, a fax icon will appear on the toolbar of any MS application. Using this icon, you can send a fax directly from any open application, instead of having to close the document and then email the document as an attachment.

For more info – click here.

Phone.com

Phone.com also provides e-fax services as part of selected virtual phone packages. However, Phone.com offers e-fax only as an included feature of its virtual phone service, and does not offer separate e-fax plans. Subscribers to the Virtual Office, Home Phone Plus, and Virtual Number plans can all send faxes under their plans at no additional charge, but only Virtual Office subscribers can receive faxes.

Because they come as part of a virtual phone package only, Phone.com e-fax features are very basic. Faxes can only be sent through the Phone.com online control panel, and cannot be sent directly from external email accounts or applications. Furthermore, the software does not allow you to edit faxes within the program. If you want to edit a document, you must do so in an external application. Finally, to receive a fax, you must have a separate line for fax only.

For more info – click here.

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