Host Interview - interviews with successful web hosts

Your name:
David Ledbetter

What is the URL of your hosting site? http://past.twilightparadox.com

What country / area are you located in?
USA/Canada

How long have you been in the web hosting business?
I just started this Blog Host today, 13 February 2006. But I have been reviewing free web hosts for one year. See http://freepgs.com/ledbetter/wordpress/ and http://fastlynx.zeeblo.com.

What type of hosting do you provide?
Free Blog Hosting.

Have you ever changed the name of your web-hosting company? No.

How do you market and promote your web hosting business? I use
directories, blogs, automated link exchanges and exchange services, and I post in a few forums. I strive to achieve high rankings on the major search engines.

How would you describe the perfect web-hosting client?
The perfect clients will be computer literate. They will not expect free private lessons.

What advice would you give webmasters to help select the perfect host?
Find a host that supports all the major programming languages — PHP, Perl, C, ASP, etc. Make sure the hosting plan you choose provides the bandwidth you need. (And leave enough room for rapid growth.) Ideally you want a host that has been functional for a number of years, probably three years or more, and that does not hype trivial services in order to overcharge.

What advice would you give someone entering the web hosting business?
Act like you work face-to-face in a big suburban mall: Be nice to your customers, even the bad ones. Don’t piss people off.

How do you see the future of website hosting?
As our technology becomes dirt cheap, free web hosting will become quite prevalent. Everyone will have an “Advertisement of Myself” online. I imagine that at some point, Google will offer quality free hosting, too.

Your name
Amit Patel

What is the URL of your hosting site?
http://www.edgewebhost.com

What country / area are you located in?
USA

How long have you been in the web hosting business?
5 years

What type of hosting do you provide?
Reseller, Shared, Dedicated

Have you ever changed the name of your web-hosting company?
No

What has been the most important factor in your success as a host?
Support and Customer Service

How do you market and promote your web hosting business?
Word of mouth so far

How would you describe the perfect web-hosting client?
Person easy to get along with and if have problems comes to ask for help.

What advice would you give webmasters to help select the perfect host?
Price is not everything, cheap prices good but also check out there support

What advice would you give someone entering the web hosting business?
Come with a Twist in your hosting

How do you see the future of website hosting?
It will always be growing more people get online everyday

Any further info or comments you would like to add.
Anything you put your mind to keep at it and you will reach your goals

Your name
Michele Neylon.

What is the URL of your hosting site?
http://www.blacknight.ie

What country / area are you located in?
Ireland - Our offices are in Ireland, however we have equipment in Ireland, The Netherlands, UK, USA and Germany.

How long have you been in the web hosting business?
About five years.

What type of hosting do you provide?
Everything from shared hosting for small business through dedicated servers to colocation.

Have you ever changed the name of your web-hosting company?
No.

What has been the most important factor in your success as a host?
High quality service and innovation.

How do you market and promote your web hosting business?
Through a combination of online and offline media and channels. We are actively involved in the industry at various different levels, so our company profile is growing slowly but surely.

How would you describe the perfect web-hosting client?
One who pays their bills punctually :)

What advice would you give webmasters to help select the perfect host?
Be honest with yourself. Decide what it is you absolutely need and what you would like to have. If service and reliability are the key issues then you need to ensure that the provider has a good track record and isn’t some “fly by night” operation. Make sure that they provide tangible contact details. Be realistic in your demands. If the online aspect of your business is worth thousands to you per year, then you really shouldn’t host it on a budget hosting account.

What advice would you give someone entering the web hosting business?
Be honest with your potential clients. Have a look around at what other companies are doing. Do the figures. If they don’t seem attractive they probably aren’t.

How do you see the future of website hosting?
As the industry matures so will the clientele, so hopefully we’ll see a
greater level of professionalism throughout the industry as a whole.

Your name
Fergal aka HostBidder

What is your web host URL?
HostBidder.com

How long have you been in the web hosting business?
The HostBidder.com web-hosting forum was set up over two years ago, in September 2003. We commenced offering free web hosting services just over one year ago, in November 2004.

What type of hosting do you provide?
Free website hosting. Hostbidder.com is a web hosting community that provides free domain names and website hosting to our members. Our community provides all the advice and support you need to get your website up and running and generating revenue.

Have you ever changed the name of your web-hosting company?
No.

What has been the most important factor in your success as a host?
Providng good quality customer care to our clients is of paramount importance. Clients who are hosted for free still deserve customer support when they need it. We provide support to our clients through our discussion forum at HostBidder.com.

How do you market and promote your web hosting business?
The majority of our new members find us through referrals from friends and through the various search engines. We have good search engine listings for relevant terms associated with website hosting, domain names and webmaster forums.
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