By Carlos from a WebHostingTalk.com thread

First, a bit of background on me. I run a major site for Mac game developers. Like many of you, I recall the days when you could count all the hosting companies on 2 hands and 2 feet – not many! Also, like many of you, I’ve also played the “find a good host” game, and so iDevGames has had many homes since it started in 1998. I’ve used virtual hosting, ran a dedicated server, and now have a reseller account (because I want to let other people worry about script kiddies and focus on web content.)

I think there is a good number of you who know what you are doing from the technology side, and a very few that know from the tech side AND the marketing side. But that is to be expected, until the “big crash” occurs somewhere in the future for web hosting. (i.e.. My home now has FTTH at 100Mps, and someday everyone else will too – I live in Japan.)

Ok, so now on to the matter at hand. I come to this forum now and then to make sure what my host is giving me is in line with the market. So, I perform some “research” on a good number of you. (I am a marketing major with a C.S. minor.)

So, let me pass on some observations, which you might call pet peeves or which some may call “tips.” The idea is to make hosting companies better, and make it harder for people who don’t know what they are doing to do business in the industry.

"Monsters on the loose"

Too many lazy and cheap hosting companies using the “ME-TOO” templates which you can find on sites like templatemonster.com. Sure, not everyone is an artist or has time for a template. But I just visited 3 sites, and they are all using the same template, with a different logo. Your template/site is your “face” to the world. Don’t look like a clone. There are good artists out there that can create a template that doesn’t have the “stock look.” A GOOD example of a website is acunett.com. Loads quickly, not in your FACE, and doesn’t suffer from the next problem.

"Bait and Switch?"

I hate seeing different packages with an image of a server next to the package. Some spiffy looking box (or not) or server, sometimes colorized. Give me a break! Maybe 5% of you really know what your server looks like, and for sure it doesn’t look like that image you have on your front page! Maybe some customers don’t think twice, or worse, think that what you are showing is the machine they will host on. You should have a disclaimer, “This image is just a stock picture of a computer and no way will you be hosted on such a machine.” Anyhow, you get the point; I think the use of those images is SUPER tacky!

"If we don’t look good, you don’t look good."

Next on my “tacky list” are sites that use stock images of people. Ok, so you want someone pretty and your mug isn’t so hot. But do you want us to believe that your operators are that hot!? Or that your support staff looks like they also model for GQ! Go to a pro photographer, and get your staff’s portraits done right. Or have the photographer come to your network center with lighting and all, and take some images. To me, far too many hosts seem to be “hiding.” I want to see the people I am dealing with – giving my money to. I won’t judge you if you are yellow, black, have one eye, have a ring in your nose, but I will if you make me think you are the guy who looks like Brad Pitt on your site.

"Who is N.O.C.ing on the door?"

Speaking of network centers. I know you have to do what it takes to “look bigger.” But to me, it is lame for some companies to state, “This is our network center”, when what they mean is “We rent servers at a network center owned by <name>.” Why the need to feel like you must hide. In fact, if you are at a good network center, use that to your advantage! I think some of you will debate me on this, but I am giving you the view of the customer, one that has seen it all.

"Plagiarism"

Lifting text. It is scary when we see a company “steal” graphics/templates etc, but it even more scary when a company can’t write their own ad copy, bio, documents, etc. Sure, some of you are using boilerplate text, but if you want to stand out, I highly recommend you stop stealing text from other companies. THINK! And then get a copywriter to make your text shine!

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"Am two besy to spel"

Speaking of text, nothing says “loser” than spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes on a commercial website. (Ya, I am sure my post is full of errors.) I can see mistakes in a forum, but on a website?!? Have you REALLY checked every single page on your site? And re-checked it? What I see is a team/company that lacks care for the small details. And that will likely show up in other aspects of their service.

"I know you are, but what am I?"

Communication. Let’s talk about that, because sometimes it just doesn’t happen. From what I have seen and heard, this must be the single biggest factor in people switching hosts, or signs that a host is going down hill. Sure, we all experience that nightmare customer. But I don’t think enough hosts put enough thought into this vital aspect of the business. Try this test. When your support staff isn’t looking, create a new customer account. Then test them in the chat, email, and forums. See how they react. When I worked in retail, every few months my company would have an undercover customer evaluate me. (sales ) I could talk on and on about this subject, but most of it is common sense, yet so many companies lack it. Instead, I see “blame shifting communications” like, “your site is down, because our network center pulled our server, it’s their fault!” No, it’s your fault for not being on top of it. To many times, I don’t even see a remedy or plan of action clearly stated.

"Houston we have a problem"

Speaking of that. Many of you need to learn S.O.P. (standard operating procedures) and truly train your staff in them. Also, as I mention have an action plan for the worse. Please study Risk Management.

"You didn’t know that?"

Disease must be wiped out. Examples, “We migrated our server, you would have known if you did a search in our forum.” Or “We are upgrading our mail server, didn’t you get an email?” (huh?) I could go on and on. I don’t mean to visit your customer’s house with a fruit basket; simply, if I find out something after the fact, then something is wrong. I shouldn’t need to dig or beg to know what is going on. (That communications thing again.)

“Here is the world, and I’ll give it to you for only $9.99”

Look, it is human nature to want a good deal. It is stupidity to demand something from your “partner” that will see your partner disappear within a month. The guy next door is selling 1000GB for $2.99. Let him. He’ll be around for another month, and then you can grab his customers when they are all crying… and explain the realities of the business. Sure, some people will never understand it. But I say, there are a good number of people/customers like me, who want to see a good deal, but at the same time, we want to see that our partner is doing good so that they can continue to be our partner, and not belly up – thus forcing us to mode, yet again. This point is pretty simple, and can be summarized as, “Some idiots will search for the greatest deal on earth for $1.99” Let them find the idiots who offer that, and hopefully both will fall off the planet. Making it a better place to live.

"Support forums – we don’t need no stink’n forums."

I have two pet peeves about them. (1) forums are like insurance, your customers may not need them everyday, but when they do, it is nice to know they can go some place. Like I said, like insurance to help out in bad times (2) no one likes a psycho customer, but most people are not. Negative posts shouldn’t be edited, or deleted. Instead, address the problem I the post. Then a customer like me can read the ins-and-outs on how you handled the problem. Every company has good and bad. If I see a company that filters out “bad” or negative messages from their customer, it makes me highly suspicious!

“Let me buy from you!”

How many times have I visited a host and found their purchasing procedure falling flat. What’s the point of having a site if you can’t close the sale? I mean, if you can’t even get a shopping cart to work, how can I trust you with a server? You should go through the entire purchasing procedure every month to test your system, its friendliness and your staff.

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“Live Chat – Out to lunch.”

I see some hosts with a button for live chat. They have it because their competitors do. The problem is, some companies have 1 guy doing everything. I’m OK with that, but what is the point of that chat feature if it will never be working. i.e. someone is online. This makes me feel like no one is at home, or perhaps you are dealing with a flooded cellar or something. My point is, if you put some system on your site, make sure it gets used if it deals with the public. You might find that setting up a WIKI is better!

“Olympic plans”

What’s up with “Gold, Silver, Bronze” plans? I wanna be a winner and get the gold, but my wallet says I’m just bronze material. There are no doubt posts here on how to name plans. To me, I find it refreshing to simple see “VHP-2”, then “Intermediate Plan”, or “E-commerce plan”. With that last one, does that mean that lesser plans can’t do e-commerce? I bit your customers could still do it in many cases. Ok, this is a minefield, just requesting to think outside the box on the name of plans.

I have other “pet peeves” but I figure the above is enough to get some of ya moving in the right direction. Let me say that I realize that it is a tough business, especially with so many people trying their hand at this “web hosting thing”, and all too often, it seems customers are more apt to complain than praise. My intent is to help some of you that seem to need help. I think the better the industry; the better it is for everyone involved.

"But every domain name has already been bought"

It must be me, but I get certain vibes just by a hosting company’s name. A name that contains a year, like "2004" makes me worried –what happens in 2005? My point here is, the name might sound hip today, but will it sound just as hip when you’re running the company in your 40’s. (Anyone over 20 running these companies? )

Your hosting name should be professional, sound like it isn’t fly by night. aka wereallyarethecheapesthost.com Yeah, sure, if what you want is those guys wanting 50 cent hosting and 50GB transfer. Another way to think of this is that <something>hosting doesn’t future-proof your brand. That is why Apple is called Apple now and not Apple Computer. Not including "host" or "hosting" in your name is OK IMHO. Many might disagree.

"Honey I just blew the marketing budget on the template"

So you paid your $60 or so bucks for your monster-like template and then you go and stick a logo that looks like it was made in Microsoft Paint. If you must use a stock template then contact the designer about creating a logo that matched the template.

"Only people who use Windows need apply"

Ok, so my beloved platform, the Mac has a smaller market share than your profit margins, but hey we are human too! Check to make sure your template and text (especially text size) can be read on Safari, or other Mac browsers. So it takes all about 10 minutes but gets you some potential biz.

"Everything in the Kitchen list"

This is a little pet peeve. Say you have a table that compares your plans. Sometimes you are apt to list every darn thing in that list. By the time I get to the bottom of the list to see the price, I forgot what the specs at the top of the list were. You get my point? To me, a good list comparing plans has maybe 10 or less items, and a More info link and Buy link. I can click on more info to learn that my plan comes with PHP.

"We are a certified partner, umm I think."

I see many hosts with nice little icons, like Windows, MySQL, Red Hat, and so on. I have two points about this (1) You need to check their terms of use/guidelines before using them, otherwise you are in violation — yes, even for some open source projects (2) the same guidelines will state how they can be used, and specify rules, in terms of size, space near the logo, modifications, etc. Yeah, this sounds really @nal, and the chances of getting a letter from a lawyer could be slim, but why not be on the safe side?

"My mom will kill me if I give out our address"

I go to a hosting company’s contact or about us section. I demand to see the following: REAL SNAIL mail address, telephone, and fax number. If you have a toll free number than I know you are "in business." If I don’t see any of that and simply an email address or contact form, then I will assume you are hosting from your closet, or that you plan to take my money and run someday.

"WE"

I was just talking to a host, he suffered from multiple personality disorder, as he kept referring to himself as "we." That isn’t my beef, because I know everyone wants to be big enough someday to fall into the "we" category. Avoid WE IMHO and refer yourself to your business name. Which is the other point of this point. :p LLC or Inc. after your name scores you points in my book. "A division of daddy’s office" puts you on my skip list.

".9999999"

I see guarantees all the time, like 99.9% or 99.9999999% guarantees. Most of the time, its about uptime. There are lots of posts on this subject. As a customer, I don’t mind downtime, in fact, some downtime is good. Huh? A server needs to be upgraded, tickled, painted, etc every so often. If I see 100% uptime, I will assume that the admin never took the server off-line to do any updates! So don’t buy into the myth that it’s 99% or higher or nothing!

That said, make sure you obey my communication rule from above to clearly let me know ahead of time — and state the benefit of that downtime! This is the key. Just saying, we will do maintenance or go down in N hours/minutes/days makes me wonder, "Are they having server issues?", or "Did they put something on their server that wasn’t ready for a production ready machine in their zeal to be at the latest version?"

To recap, people who are going to host on virtual plans, or not have their own machines must realize that 100% uptime is going to cost $$$. Some people can’t understand that basic fact. Sometimes, it is better to turn away those customers! Otherwise, you’re apt to have someone who doesn’t understand the reality of server admin spreading negatives about your business.

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 "Them are bold words mister"

Following along with the guarantee issue. Please do this test. If you state 99% uptime guarantee, on your site, see how many clicks it takes to see what that guarantee spells out. What? It’s just a graphic image? Ah, that is meaningless! Show me how the guarantee works! And don’t make me hunt for it. It can be in your SLA, but it should also be clearly stated someplace. In fact, by doing so, you have yet another marketing bullet. Understand this point? It means to be able to back up what you are claiming, whether it is uptime or something else — in writing, not just words.

"Oversell? who me? Nah, that must be my twin"

I saw two hosting companies yesterday with pretty much the same concept/thinking. It very much confused me, and if I was confused, you can bet many others are too. Both companies put up the standard "Overselling is evil" text blurbs. I shook my head in yes as I read their warning to potential customers. And started to think, "OK, good prices, I don’t have to worry about them putting 5,000 sites on a Celeron." But a few clicks later, I see this on their reseller page, "You can oversell as much as you want!" ??? I’m not in the business, so I can’t understand this approach. On one hand, they are saying it is evil, but on the other hand, they are saying their customers can do it. Now, as a reseller, they most likely are boxed into a certain spec/plan, but the whole thing seemed at conflicts. I deleted both companies from my list. Do I really need to mention what the moral is?

"Don’t TOS me out"

You guys use acronyms left and right, like TOS, SLA, and so on. It stems from being IT people who program in acronyms, and who use hardware filled with acronyms. My point is don’t assume everyone coming to your site is savvy in the buzzwords. If you look at those LARGE sites that do hosting for mom and dad, they tend to avoid such things. Why not have a link called "Terms and Conditions" or "Conditions", and then on that page put your link for TOS… But spell it out! i.e. "Terms of Service (TOS)"?

"Will the real #1 please standup, please standup"

I suppose for someone’s aunt, seeing a "1 are number one in hosting" logo/badge makes them think "wow." And no doubt, clicking on said image will show said host as number 1. It must be me, but I find that a bit of a joke. Especially with a bit of research I find that this ranking site is operated or funded by said hosting company. This stinks. Sadly, it seems that true rankings and reviews are beyond this industry because there is too much room for abuse. Though I’ve read some interesting reviews here. What I would like to say is that if I see "JD Powers" or some outside, well known, no agenda agency do an audit, review, then I think a company can trumpet the fact. But to trumpet "We are voted as best host by my kid brother" or "We were voted best host in 2001" is lame. Again, IMHO. There are better ways to get across that your company is top notch. Like build a reputation the old fashion way, kind of like these guys rackspace.com

"Cell or slash, take your pick"

There must be a thread here that says "All web hosts are required to either have a "cell", many "cells" (i.e. hexagon) or a "swosh" (i.e., curvy line" in their logos. A small pet peeve of mine. Am I the only one who is noticing this "Logos-R-Us" shopping spree by all of you?!? Please put more thought into your logo. Make sure it looks good on the web, in print, and other media, resolution wise and color wise. Make it unique — something to really make people remember your brand.. Like Nike’s swoosh. Or the Apple mark. By the way, even the big guys get it wrong, with this fine example of a logo gone wrong: ev1servers.net (But we will give them points for having an Espanol page. )

Here is an example of a logo (character) geekhosting.com.
It needs work, and the text logo needs more work, but it gives a special feeling to the site. Good use of the brand to name the plans too. But too bad they stole Amazon’s button.

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"Not responding — please visit WHT"

I was doing research on a host here which I am thinking of switching to. Along the way, I noticed a problem that screams catch-22. Host’s server goes down, and in doing so, brings down their email server, support forums, and their clients email capability. The result is people rushing here to ask, to post MIA reports, scream at the hosting gods, yell that they’ve been scammed. Afterwards, I see a company rep come here with red face, followed by a guy with a bucket cleaning up after the elephant parade. Oh, what a mess! I hate seeing such damage control in public. You must operate your hosting company like it is a plane. In a plane, every system has a backup, and the backups have backups. Otherwise, the chances of you and your clients meeting A. Earhart are very good. Please don’t run company applications on client machines. Also, insist that clients provide an alternative email address which is NOT based on their server account. I won’t tell you how to IT, because if you don’t know it, I would rather see you go away like foot fungus, and allow people who know how not to fall into this catch-22 prosper. Oh, and by the way, NOT ALL YOUR CLIENTS KNOW TO COME HERE for support!

"Dr. Heckle and Mr. Hide"

Some people have what seems two faces, or two personalities, or worse the same bad one everywhere they go. I couldn’t possibly know all of you, but I have seen a few of you who fit my ideal of "CEO of a hosting company" image. This also applies to other staff, like support, and sales. My image is a person who, no matter the place, media, forum, or situation, projects a professional image. Communications to your customers, and the community should always been done with an eye on how it will effect/reflect on your business. This applies to public and private cases! It may seem like "being in a rush, or trying to be hip with the u’s and i’s, or pretending your SHIFT key is broken" is OK justification. I think not. People do searches here. And if your company is around for more than a month, people will do searches on it. What message are you sending when they see all your posts like a kid "running" (<– pun intended!!) a business? This is such common sense, I feel guilty for posting it. But it needs repeating. Summary: I see names pop up often, some of them always maintain a certain level of professionalism, be it in syntax, not attacking others, not being rude, etc. Those are the people I want to host with because I know that they carry that same attitude towards their business venture. (And chances are they won’t be rude to me when I need support!) I see someone who hasn’t the time to provide a clear and professional message, I get a really bad vibe. So START TODAY, with every post hence forth.

"Are you a hero?"

You can kick your brothers when they are down, or "laugh in their general direction", or be a saint. But why be a saint, what’s in it for you? After all, they may be your brother, but they are also your rival. Here is why — you build respect in the community. That respect is money in the bank IMHO. Some people just have a great knack for helping others, they know their stuff, and post for the betterment of all. To me, that says, "This person cares." Translated –> "I bet they would care about me if I hosted with them." It also shows, "This person is a fixer. They have the answers." Translated –> "I bet if I hosted with this person, they would get stuff done, and not make me wait while they flip through ‘Linux Admin for Dummies’"

"10,080 minutes of support"

You claim 24 x 7 support, and you are a one man/woman show? Please teach me how you have mastered the TECHnique of not sleeping. All customers demand good support, but if you can’t back up 24×7, and if your "WE" is just a "YOU", then IMHO, you can’t. Some may argue that help desks, email, chat, forums, etc all contribute to 24×7. I don’t think so, and I am sure to be flamed. (Please don’t.) To me, I’d rather see a small hosting company post "Live Support Hours From 10am to 5pm, GMT blah blah" This way, I know that if I call between those hours, I will get a human, and one that had a good night’s sleep. Hiding the weak points of your support will only in the long run, make your customers give up, and quit. (Please don’t misunderstand that I am against one man/woman operations. I’m not. I’m against misrepresentation.)

"Don’t be a vampire"

I’ve seen posts from hosting owners that seem like they are trying to do that 24×7 thing — on their own, or doing constant damage control, or running around like a chicken with its head cut off. (I read a review on a host that people like, but everyone says the same thing, that the CEO is trying to do too much alone.) I like a hard worker as much as anyone. But at some point, you must realize that being "overloaded" will be bad for your business. You will get snappy, forget things, lose your professional edge. Stress will build up, and things will start going down hill. You need a good life outside of hosting, so when you are hosting, you are sharp, cool, under control, and being professional — and enjoying it. To me, it is easy to pick up on CEOs/owners/staff that don’t have an outside life. That’s no good! As you can tell by now, I want the company to be good in the physical sense (web page, service, etc) but also in the mental sense — since it makes for a longer lasting relationship.

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