Hosway CorpISSUE 67 / MAY 07

Dear Valued Customer,
eBay has them. Amazon.com has them. Expedia and Orbitz have them.

Nearly every successful ecommerce Web site on the Internet today has customer reviews and ratings. And recent studies show that these features contribute to the sites' financial success.

Find out what else customer ratings and reviews can do for your Web site and how you can get them up and running quickly and easily.

Hostway Community

quotes I have been doing business with Hostway for over seven years and have never experienced a single day of Web site interruption. I would never consider going anywhere else for any price.

— Jerry Hodak
Vice President, Jedco Products www.jedcopro.com

Featured Product

Merchant Manager 4.5

Design a customized store, track sales patterns, manage your inventory and create targeted promotions from a single user-friendly control panel. You'll gain customers' trust with a secure ordering process and give them all the information they need to make quick buying decisions. Start selling online with Merchant Manager 4.5!

Domain Update

Hostway Launches Domain Name Auto-Renew

If your domain name expires, and you don't act right away, it becomes available to the general public. With auto-renew, we automatically renew your domain name 30 days prior to its expiration date so you don't need to worry about losing your domain name. You can add this new feature in your SiteControl account.

.Asia to Go Live this Year

The .asia top-level domain is scheduled to launch this year, according to DotAsia, the official registry for the new extension. Registration opportunities will open in three phases: governments, registered trademark owners and registered companies. With about 400 million Internet users in Asia, .asia helps businesses and individuals establish an online presence in the growing Asia-Pacific market.

Survey Says

What type of user-generated content do you offer on your Web site?

Blog
Product reviews
Forum
Member profiles
None of the above

Check back for the results in next month’s newsletter.

Previous Survey Results

How long have you been in business?

Less than a year

28%

1-2 years

7%

2-3 years

3%

3 or more years

62%

In This Issue

  1. Top Story: Increase Sales with Product Reviews and Ratings
  2. Hostway News:
  3. Smart Tip: Don't Censor a Review Just Because It's Negative
  4. Special Offer: 10% Off Puzzle Pro Plug-In

1. Top Story

Increase Sales with Product Reviews and Ratings

Recent studies show that objective third-party reviews and ratings increase sales on ecommerce Web sites. Reviews, even negative ones, can help establish credibility and trust in the minds of potential customers. And they provide customers with vital information that reduces return rates and raises post-sale satisfaction.

Adding ratings and reviews to your Web site is easy, but you need a plan. Consider how you will:

1. Get Your First Reviews

Naturally, you'll start at zero, and you'll need to work to get those first few reviews. You can try a strategy that worked for pet supply retailer Petco. The company offered anyone who wrote a review a chance to win a $100 gift certificate. Petco built up its reviews and gave customers something valuable in return.

2. Give Reviewers a Chance to Express Themselves

People who review products on a Web site might fancy themselves experts in the subject area. Offering the option to post a profile may encourage more reviews by giving them the chance to show off their expertise. This not only helps you gain more reviews, it makes the reviews more valuable to customers by exposing biases and establishing credentials.

3. Hold Reviewers Accountable and Monitor Posts

You may fear that people will post inappropriate and offensive comments (as you should). Find a way to monitor posts and protect your brand image. Start by requiring reviewers to register their information and create a password-protected username before they post a review. They're more likely to post serious comments when they're not anonymous. Post your privacy policy on your registration page to assure reviewers that you will not share their personal information with third parties.

Benefits Abound

When you've successfully added reviews to your site, you'll find many other benefits, such as:

  • Improved search engine ranking as a result of additional fresh, relevant content
  • Increased sales of highly rated products
  • An understanding of the flaws with poorly rated products
  • Insight into how your customers use your products

If you have an ecommerce Web hosting plan with Hostway and you use Merchant Manager as your shopping cart, customer reviews and ratings are included in your plan. Other shopping cart software may include reviews, or they may be added at an additional charge. Check your software features to get started.

2. Hostway News

Merchant Manager 4.5 Released with New Features

The recently released Merchant Manager 4.5 has even more features for you and your customers. You get complete control over all new product settings, more shipping options and the ability to monitor stock levels. Your customers can create, search and email wish lists to their friends. These features and others have been automatically added to all ecommerce customers' Merchant Manager accounts at no additional cost.

Learn more.

Increased Mailbox Storage Space for Hosted Exchange

All new and existing Hostway hosted Microsoft Exchange customers received an extra 200 MB of storage space for each mailbox account at no extra charge last month. Hostway increased the storage space allotted to each mailbox from 300 MB to 500 MB to make it easier for customers to manage their Microsoft Exchange accounts. Learn more about Hosted Exchange.

Learn more.

Hostway Acquires Affinity Internet

Hostway acquired Affinity Internet last month, creating one of the largest Web hosting companies in the world. The combined company serves 600,000 customers with 15 operations centers around the world. "Our first and main focus through this acquisition has been to ensure that customers of both companies do not experience any disruption in current services and in fact bolster it further," said Lucas Roh, Hostway's CEO.

Learn more.

3. Smart Tip

Don't Censor a Review Just Because It's Negative

Use your negative reviews to learn how you can improve and to establish credibility with your Web site visitors. Only delete reviews that are mean-spirited or profane.

Learn more about adding user-generated content to your site.

4. Special Offer!

PhotoshopSupport.com

10% Off Puzzle Pro Plug-In

Create puzzles or split your images into interesting shapes with the Puzzle Pro Photoshop plug in. PhotoshopSupport.com offers Hostway customers 10% off the full price.

Learn more about this tool.

Need to update your contact or billing information? Log into SiteControl now to update your account information, ensure continuous service and prevent any potential system delays.
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