Web Development

1) yup, purchase the ssl certificate from whomever you want. usually more cost effective through the hosting company. NOTE: you are stuck with whoever they have contracted with for certificates for a year then, you may want to pay the premium to buy a cetificate from Verisgn/Thawte or RSA, they are much more wideley recognised and trusted. RSA you have to buy through telephone, fax and snail mail process, they do not have an eccommerce solution. I actually trust RSA more because of that, they have the time to verify data before issuing a certificate, unlike these 30 second delivery after credit card is processed.

2)
a) Not really, the form data can be processed through clientside scripting to a certain extent, but then you have to duplicate that server side to make sure it worked right, and avoid breakage of clientside script by end user not having it enabled for whatever reason.
b) try php.org for their documentation on using php, or go buy a php/mysql website scripting book at local bookstore, most come with a cdrom with sources for the apps in the book. and $100 isn't to much to invest in a hard copy manual.

3) scan your organisation's loan application form into the system. that gives you the fields that your form will need. or take a look at your competition's websites, see if they offer this and copy the form. Fincanial forms all must follow local regulations for what data is required, so there isn't a generic template for such except locally

1) Security
SSL will encrypt the data en route to the server. You also need to take great care in securing the server itself, as one publicly known hacking attempt will sink confidence in your company. You may want to look at firewalls, intrusion detetction, server hardening and other measures.

2. I will let others talk to that.

3. You need the fields that your company needs, at least no less, so start with those. The underwriter needs a certain amount of data to make a decision. If they find that certain conditions apply, they may require more data. The more you can get up front the better. If they are using an automated decision engine(many do) you can easily get the specs for that dataset.

Hope that helps.

James

Your employer obviously puts a lot of faith in your ability to deliver this project. That's Good News.

From your questions though, I'd doubt you're going to turn out a product that's going to stand up with the best. Please take this in the spirit in which it's intended.

Maybe engage a specialist online lead generation specialist to build you the basic framework, and then tailor that according to your needs.

Online financial sales is a contested market - is your boss aware you'll have a google ppc of $5+ ?
It's big bucks to shell out if your site doesn't convert!

Can you use this site to contact me? Feel free.