Bluehost domains, SSL and customer trust.

[VioletEye]

I have a quick question about using a secured zen cart on a bluehost domain:

I don't know if any of you are familliar with bluehost and the way they set up domains and user accounts, but I've discovered the following:

1. An account is based off of a main domain (public_html/index.php)

2. any add on domains are subfolders in the main account's public html (public_html/addon-domain/index.php)

3. Any subdomains of addon domains are a subfolder of an addon domain. (public_html/addon-domain/subdomain/index.php)



My store exists in the third scenario, because I owned several domains before consolidating them into one bluehost account.

The store works fine where it is, but I've hit a snag when it comes to securing the page, and how it may look to customers when they begin to shop.

The store exists at

store.addondomain.com

as far as the world is concerned. But in order to secure the site properly, I've had to set ZC to secure the site via:

maindomain.com/addondomain/store.

This is actually a perfectly valid way to access the site, as well.

I'm wondering if store users (and you) will find the change in domain name a strange thing when they begin to use their accounts. I've set it so that the change in address occurs when logging into an account, or making an account.

As I've said before, everything works fine, it's just the appearance of changing domains that I'm concerned about. I don't want people to think I'm running a fake store.

[Merlinpa1969]

I suggest to people to use the main domain as a type of corporate site

then make sure that you havbe that the stores are part of the corporate family

examle

Pepsico.com is the parent company

now stores

pepsi.com
tacobell.com
pizzahut.com

are all children

then in the footer of each put in a division of pepsico.com

so when the url changes there is no surprise

[VioletEye]

That's a good suggestion.

In my case, my main domain is a site where I host a lot of personal projects (webcomics, writing, etc.)

My addon domain is a 'professional' blog where I talk about what I do for a living (art and education). The store sells real life prints and whatnot of my art.

In the past, I'd wanted to keep the domains separate, but recently I was trying to come up with a way to associate them with one another without much fanfare. It seems like this is the answer unless I magically come up with a way to make bluehost swap the domains' positions.

Oh well. I guess it's not so bad. I was planning to sell prints related to my other projects, anyway.

[mamasylvia]

I also use Bluehost and am using their SSL. I've used several URLs for my store: first it was steigerfamily.com/ZC, then I set up subdomain mamasylvia.steigerfamily.com to point to the ZC subdirectory, then I registered and set up mamasylvia.com to point to that same subdirectory. So my customers go through a name change to, and have for about a year. All I know is that no one has complained, which of course doesn't mean that some people haven't left without complaining.

[yellow1912]

Usually you would be extremely lucky if someone does complain though, most people will just leave.