| |
| |
|
Advertising Information |
|
|
|
What is SSL (the little padlock)?
SSL ("Secured Socket Layer") is a protocol used to encrypt the communication between the user's browser and the web server. When SSL is active, a "little padlock" appears on the user's browser, usually in the status line at the bottom (at the top for Mac/Safari users.) This assures the user that sensitive data (such as credit card numbers) can't be viewed by anyone "sniffing" the network connection (which is an increasing risk as more people use wireless networking). Common web site owner questions about SSL: How do I get the little padlock on my site? To get the little padlock, your site must have an SSL Certificate from a Certificate Authority. Once an SSL Certificate has been purchased and installed, it provides three things: Once obtained, the certificate must be installed on the web server by your web host. Since your web host also has to generate an initial cypher key to obtain the certificate, very often they will offer to handle the process of obtaining the certificate for you. My web host has a "shared certificate" that I can use. Should I? It's still fairly common for small sites to use a shared certificate from the host. In this circumstance, when a page needs to be shown in secured mode, the user is actually sent to a domain owned by the web host, and then back to the originating domain afterwards. A few years ago, when SSL Certificates were quite expensive (around $400 per year), this was real attractive for new sites just getting their feet wet in e-commerce. Today, with a number of perfectly functional SSL certificates available for under $100 (exclusive of installation, etc.), it is a lot less attractive. Since your user can look a the address line of his or her web browser and see that the site asking for the credit card number is not the site he or she thought they were on, the cost savings is probably not worth the risk of scaring off a sale. What's the difference between the expensive SSL Certificates and the inexpensive ones? Usually, mostly price. Some expensive certificates have specific functions, like securing a number of different subdomains simultaneously (a "wildcard" certificate), but the effective differences between basic single site certificates are very slight, despite the wide range of prices: The encryption mechanism used by all of them is the same, and most use the same key length (which is an indicator of the strength of the encryption) common to most browsers (128 bit). Some of them ("chained root" certificates) are slightly more of a pain for your web host to install than others ("single root" certificates), but this is pretty much invisible to the site owner. The amount of actual checking on the ownership of the domain varies wildly between vendors, with some (usually the more expensive) wanting significant documentation (like a D&B number), and others handling it with an automated phone call ("press #123 if you've just ordered a certificate"). Some of them offer massive monetary guarantees as to their security (we'll pay you oodles of dollars if someone cracks this code), but since it's all the same encryption mechanism, if someone comes up with a crack, all e-commerce sites will be scrambling, and the odds of that vendor actually having enough cash to pay all of its customers their oodle is probably slim. The fact is that you are buying the certificate to insure the safety of the user's data, and to make the user confident that his or her data is secure. For the vast majority of users, simply having the little padlock show up is all they are looking for. There are exceptions (I have a client in the bank software business, and they feel that their customers (bank officers) are looking for a specific premier name on the SSL certificate, so are happy to continue using the expensive one), but most e-commerce customers do not pick their sellers based on who issued their SSL Certificates. My advice is to buy the cheaper one. I have an SSL certificate -- why shouldn't I serve all my pages in "Secured" mode? Because SSL has an overhead -- more data is sent with a page that is encrypted than a page that isn't. This translates to your site appearing to run slower, particularly for users who are on dial-up or other slow connections. Since this also increases the total amount of data transfered by your site, if your web host charges by transfer volume (or has an overage fee, as most do), this can increase the size of your monthly hosting bill. The server should go into secure mode when asking a user for financial or other sensitive data (which may well be "name, address and phone number", with today's risk of identity theft), and operate in normal mode otherwise. Updates to this article, and many other great articles and tutorials for small business web site owners can be found at Insanely Great Sites!
MORE RESOURCES:
Advertising - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
12 Easy and Effective Ways To Create Reports 1. Combine a few of your articles into a free report. Online Shoppers Say They'll Buy from Small and Large E-Businesses Alike As the holiday shopping season begins in earnest, consumers say they're just as willing to buy from small online retailers as they are from large, national e-commerce providers.In addition to this key finding, a new national survey of 2,500 consumers discovered extremely high levels of consumer participation in - and satisfaction with - shopping on the Internet, despite continuing concerns for security and privacy. Selling Globally Through a B2B Exchange Participation in B2B Exchanges is increasingly becoming one of the fastest growing marketing methods for businesses looking for augmenting their client base beyond their local markets. Any good B2B Exchange offers direct contact with thousands of prospective buyers in a single location. 12 Powerful Ways To Use Autoresponders That Will Take YOU To The Top If only I had known that autoresponders are a necessity to your online business when I first ventured online, I would have saved a lot of time and money. You have to automate in as many areas as possible and if used responsibly, autoresponders can be your best friend. What is SSL (the little padlock)? SSL ("Secured Socket Layer") is a protocol used to encrypt the communication between the user's browser and the web server. When SSL is active, a "little padlock" appears on the user's browser, usually in the status line at the bottom (at the top for Mac/Safari users. Building eCommerce Websites That Work - Part 1 You want to succeed at eCommerce? Welcome to a very big family. Right off, let's be clear - there are lots of ways to do business on the internet. Grow Your Business Using B2B Emarketplace - Part I If you are a small to medium size company and selling or planning to sell products and services over the Net and still did not try out emarketplaces, you are simply loosing a great opportunity!Research firm eMarketer predicts that worldwide B2B ecommerce revenues will surpass US$ 1.4 trillion by the end of 2003. Web Store - Why Do You Need One? Internet has opened a new era of business opportunities. Each day, thousands of new consumers are joining the Internet. Developing a Winning e-Commerce Strategy One bright spot on the economic horizons around the world seems to be continued consumer spending and e-commerce is clearly a part of this, with sales estimated to be in excess of $9.9 billion in the next three months according to ACNielsen. Implications Of E-Commerce For Tax Legislation As e-commerce develops ambiguities in the current tax code in which it may be exposed. It would not be regarded as too early to take premature steps for undertaking such a review at a time when detailed international legislation are going on to promulgate acceptable standards laws for imposition taxation in this regard. Google to Compete with PayPal? PayPal is secure in its domination over the electronic payment industry, at least for now.Following reports that Google planned to launch a new Internet payment service (nicknamed Google Wallet), Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, denied that Google would be directly competing with PayPal. Selling From Your Website Greetings!Friends and relitives ask us all the time " How do sell from your website?" and no doubt you want to know as well. Over the next two issues we will be covering this very thing! We decided to divide it into two camps - tangibles and non-tangibles. Are You Making These E-Commerce Excuses? (part 2) Last time, we started to take a look at the most common reasons why most people don't make progress on their e-commerce and Internet marketing goals. Today, we continue the discussion. eCommerce Software Solutions All of the long, grueling nights and an unknown number of working weekends spent converting your dream into reality finally paid off-in a big way! Affiliates are signing up every single day and the clicks have really turned into cash. Your success is not limited to a lonely website but several and all of them are helping you move very diverse product lines. How To Turn Any Product You Sell In To Residual Income The concept of this is for you to offer a subscription type product as an upsell or backend product. For example, if you're selling an ebook for $37 offer a subscription to a related e-zine for $9. Direct Marketing isn't all Brute Force There are so many metrics surrounding direct marketing. So many facts, figures, test results and other sundry measurements. How to Generate Cash from Your Web Site The Internet has changed the way people do business today. Most business owners don't have to rent an office in order to run their business. How To Prevent Your 3rd Party Merchant Account From Suspension What would you do if you were sent an email from your online credit card processor telling you that your account has been suspended or frozen? How are you going to pay the bills in the meantime? It is extremely important for you to familiarize yourself with the terms of your contract with your credit card processor. As long as you comply with their set regulation and guidelines to maintain your account in good standing you should have no problems. Website Marketing: 10 Resourceful Things You Can Do With A Product That Doesnt Sell Do you have any product that has not been moving well?Would you like to learn what to do with it?Here are website marketing secrets to help you:1. Sell the reprint/reproduction rights to the product. Your Site is all Direct Marketing This may not be a popular view, but I think writing a web site is very similar to writing a piece of direct mail. I'm not talking about smash-and-grab fliers.
|
