Website help

marine1

marine1

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Hi guys need some help.
In the process of setting up new business with website.
The website will host a database and will be used to book appointments for client on a calendar.

What I need to know is the following

1. Who would you recommend for hosting? I see hetzner is quite espensive at just under a grand.
2. We need to allow for people to pay via credit card. Which service would you advise and what are the commissions?
3. Do you n3ed your own server at the hosting side? Spending a grand a month now is a bit much. What about google apps?
4. Once the booking is made we would want an sms sent , how would this work?

Many thanks guys
 
marine1 said:
Hi guys need some help.
In the process of setting up new business with website.
The website will host a database and will be used to book appointments for client on a calendar.

What I need to know is the following

1. Who would you recommend for hosting? I see hetzner is quite espensive at just under a grand.
2. We need to allow for people to pay via credit card. Which service would you advise and what are the commissions?
3. Do you n3ed your own server at the hosting side? Spending a grand a month now is a bit much. What about google apps?
4. Once the booking is made we would want an sms sent , how would this work?

Many thanks guys
Click to expand...

Hey Marine

Here are some thoughts:

1. Who would you recommend for hosting? I see hetzner is quite espensive at just under a grand.

Does it have to be local? If not, have a look at some hosting offers at Hostgator.com, Namecheap.com or serverpoint.com. Local hosting is much more expensive than that abroad.

2. We need to allow for people to pay via credit card. Which service would you advise and what are the commissions?

There are a number of services offering credit card payments such as Paygate, Paypal. A Google search will show some services. https://www.google.co.za/#sclient=p...05,d.ZWU&fp=5b0cdb384d8cdfd7&biw=1680&bih=925

3. Do you n3ed your own server at the hosting side? Spending a grand a month now is a bit much. What about google apps?

If you are going to make use of a third-party payment processor, you don't really need your own server. You can make use of normal shared hosting. Only if you accept payments on your own website I would recommend your own server, SSL certificate and other security measures.

4. Once the booking is made we would want an sms sent , how would this work?

You will probably need to sign up with a service such as Clickatell. A simple script can send automated SMS's once a client has made a payment and is redirected (from a payment processor) to a specific page on your website. This service is normally cheap (about 26c per SMS) and very easy to use.
 
1.
What hosting are you looking at? You just need web-hosting, not dedicated/managed hosting. Hetzner's web-hosting that would suit your needs..
http://www.hetzner.co.za/webhosting/business/basic

2.
You can use a variety of providers. I don't really deal with it myself but VCS is a good way to go. Your best bet would be to get a list of them and compare pricing and benefits.

3. No, you don't need a dedicated server. See #1.

4. You get SMS-providers that allow you to enter a cellphone number and message into an email, you trigger this email, and their system handles it.
 
1. Like many have said, look at some of the shared hosting options. You can find companies that do hosting for less than R100 per month (very basic)

http://www.hetzner.co.za/webhosting/business/basic
http://www.afrihost.com/site/product/linux_home_hosting?src=nav

2. CC payments can be handled by a couple of companies www.vcs.co.za, or www.paygate.co.za, although this will require a bit of HTML skill at the minimum. I've worked with VCS, they are not too difficult to get setup, however, its going to cost you. Typically you pay per transaction and you pay a fixed monthly fee.

3. No, it depends on what you want to do. If you want to setup a Joomla/Wordpress/Drupal site with Credit Card integration, then a basic hosting package will be enough.

4. Using a company such as www.clickatel.com is where you go to do SMS, they allow you to send SMS messages via the web, so you basically just do HTTP post to a URL with the message. Its really quite easy, but, again, its going to cost you. Contact them for details on pricing.

Or, you can PM me, and I can see what I can do to help you - all of the above is what I do.
 
froot said:
1.
...
4. You get SMS-providers that allow you to enter a cellphone number and message into an email, you trigger this email, and their system handles it.
Click to expand...

Very unreliable email to SMS and why most aggregation WASPs stopped offering the service. I always suggest a basic HTTP API should be used (if the WASP requires SOAP calls and redonkeylious XML files, then move on).

@marine1 make sure, actually insist, that who ever your use for your SMS, that you have a return path. I've been using SMS notifications for our client appointment reminders for the last 6 years and only started monitoring the replies 3 years ago. We where surprised to see how many clients replied to their notifications and how many. Our system emails the replies to a googlegroups account so whoever needs to get them can.

I use a physical modem for my setup.
 
cbrunsdonza said:
Very unreliable email to SMS and why most aggregation WASPs stopped offering the service. I always suggest a basic HTTP API should be used (if the WASP requires SOAP calls and redonkeylious XML files, then move on).
Click to expand...
Ok. I've never worked with the SMS systems so have no idea what they use now, but yes, your solution does make sense.
 
cbrunsdonza said:
Very unreliable email to SMS and why most aggregation WASPs stopped offering the service. I always suggest a basic HTTP API should be used (if the WASP requires SOAP calls and redonkeylious XML files, then move on).

@marine1 make sure, actually insist, that who ever your use for your SMS, that you have a return path. I've been using SMS notifications for our client appointment reminders for the last 6 years and only started monitoring the replies 3 years ago. We where surprised to see how many clients replied to their notifications and how many. Our system emails the replies to a googlegroups account so whoever needs to get them can.

I use a physical modem for my setup.
Click to expand...

Clickatell does not work on e-mail to SMS alone.

They have a variety of methods you can use to connect to your account and send an SMS. Take a look here - http://www.clickatell.co.za/apis-scripts/

I make use of http and a simple PHP script, no more than 10 lines of code to send automated SMS's to clients who made purchases, appointment confirmations and reminders 1 hour in advance.
 
House said:
Clickatell does not work on e-mail to SMS alone.

They have a variety of methods you can use to connect to your account and send an SMS. Take a look here - http://www.clickatell.co.za/apis-scripts/

I make use of http and a simple PHP script, no more than 10 lines of code to send automated SMS's to clients who made purchases, appointment confirmations and reminders 1 hour in advance.
Click to expand...


Thats why my 7 years experience in the WASP industry makes me write slightly better code. I use PHP to only insert into a database, I then use a script that listens to the database for new inserts and this then submits the requests, success is recorded and if something fails its then retried ever 5 minutes until max retries.

I also parse all receiving messages back into the database.

PHP is stateless by default in its usage and what happens if Clickatell is down or you have a timeout? Are you going to reject your request and require the end user to retry. Not very efficient.
 
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