I am not a web host but have been researching this extremely competetive industry. I am not a business guru, an economical wizz nor have I ever run a business in my life but it seems to me that many 'small' hosting companies are simply ignoring the maths and the increasing trend toward smaller margins:

Lunarpages offer: 1gb store (some offer more for same £$) ** 40gb transfer (again some offer more) *** toll free support**** FOR $7.95.

Surely a link through from smaller hosts could lead to an equally competitive plan in which the 'small' hosts fund and staff as a group therefore saving costs.

This need not interfere with any niche, personal business that the small host enjoys and would surely ensure the honest survival of; and improve the reputaution of those
small hosts.


Just my twopennies worth:


Feedback encouraged.



Hi by the way I'm new here.

PS I am willing to do the leg work to make this happen if any are interested in pursuing this further.

Hello zendaze.co.uk,

You bring up a very controversial subject in the hosting industry. Some people argue that the larger companies that are providing 24/7 toll free support along with amazing hosting deals, do not provide the personal attention that most hosting clients seek for. Then again alot of the smaller companies are having problems surviving in the industry because they are not doing the math properly. In my experience with several different hosting companies the small to medium sized companies gave me the feeling that they appreciated my business and on a numerous amount of occassions they would go above and beyond to help satisfy me.

Just my three cents!

I think talkwebhosts.com is absolutely correct in the statement that a lot of small companies are not doing their math.

The web hosting business world is in general populated with quite brilliant technicians who, like many research scientists, have no concepts about business nor public relations.

I say 'in general' as I am sure we have all seen our share of new web hosting companies that then come into a forum and ask 'How do I log in as root?' or 'How do I set up a mail account for my client?'. Clearly the majority of this type of hosting companies don't last their first year of operations, their customers, especially those hosting for the first time, are left with a poor view of the hosting industry in general and many will just give up at this point.

Over the years I have spent in the hosting business, I have seen a trend for hosting companies to offer 'unlimited everything' for less and less per annum. Obviously the scale of ones operation dictates the offers one is able to make to the general public and for a new host to enter into the market and compete on a purely cost against specification basis is both unreasonable and unattainable (not to mention the often discussed morality of offering 'unlimited' anything!).

This brings us to the question of support, probably the single most important after sales service any web host can offer and the one thing that can set your business apart from the competition and which is responsible for the majority of personal recommendations your customers will make to their friends and associates.

Again, it is unrealistic for a one man operation, new to web hosting, to advertise 24/7 support, all this provokes is poor response time from the customers point of view. Much better to be honest and claim 20 min response time during office hours Monday to Friday or whatever. Also the hosting operator must never lose sight of the fact that the customer may have little or no idea of what they are doing so giving them complicated instructions or 'the brush off' with a statement like 'log in using ftp and chmod that file' may be totally useless to that client. Firstly they often don't know what ftp is nor have an ftp client and as for 'chmod', they thought that was some sort of cigar!! So often I see web hosts who have an excellent knowledge of server operation and are brilliant at programming and configuring their servers but are incapable of communicating to their customers in a polite, concise, step by step, manner without 'talking down' to the client.

Coming back to zendaze.co.uk idea of small hosts grouping together as a co-operative and sharing costs, expertise and resources. Yes the business model for this type of operation lends itself to doing just that, however, (and a big however this is) the majority of the people starting out in the hosting business don't have the experience to see this, if they did, and if they had indeed done 'the math' they likely wouldn't start in the first place on their own. The simple rational of income minus server cost + advertising + phone bills etc. + actually eating and paying the rent, seems to escape them!

Small to medium size companies, not necessarily the cheapest out there, nor offering the sun and the moon for your money, are usually the ones that represent the best value and levels of support. The hosting business is very competitive, but, when all is said and done, the old maxim of 'You get what you pay for' tends to be applicable across the board in this business.

Please don't take the above comments to be a categoric statement about all one man and small hosting operations, there are always the (unfortunately extremely rare) exceptions that prove the rule and those exceptions, if you are lucky enough to have found them, can give you outstanding service and value for money for many years.

The best help we can give newcomers to the hosting industry is to educate them as to the realities, economics and expectations of the business. As a qualified accountant, I would much rather see someone that's considering starting a web hosting business gaining the basic ground knowledge of what they may expect in order to better appraise whether indeed this is the right business for them to be in at all.

I work as a nurse in the UK National Health Service and take pride in my customer service skills but that pride is often damaged because the low budget of my employer restricts the time that is available for 'frills'.

I have always worked in 'frontline' customer service rolls and my level of expertise in offering friendly,relaxed yet efficient, service is always evolving.


My point is that one does not have to be rude to encourage customers to read the instructions, the leaflet or the FAQ. It can always be done with a smile in the voice and a helpful tone: if they still dont understand enough after reading the instructions they can call you back for a 'live walkthrough'. The principal is based on transactional psychology ie people wish to minimise their 'needy' interactions and replace them with either: 'minimal or 0 interaction' or; 'knowledgeable interaction'. In other words people try to maintain their independence and more importantly their image of independence: they learn to fix it themselves and they are grateful for your 'discreet' assistance.


Of course there are always more demanding customers who expect you to do everything for them and you; of course ,point them to the faq and instructions and give them the walkthrough.You then explain that there is nothing you can do unless they require 'designer services' and remind them of all you have done to try to help. Most people are quite reasonable at their core. You can,of course, always refund their money.No questions asked. That helps too

It really does not have to be costly to provide a high value - friendly, discreet, efficient service that stops at a predetermined level and it is an effective business strategy.



Good Feedback so far. More encouraged.

You raise some excellent points there zedaze. Perhaps what the industry needs more than anything are opportunities for us troglodyte techy nerds who interface better with a computer than live people to learn 'people skills' as well as the more intrinsic business practices.

Your points on transactional psychology are well received and I am sure we, in the industry, have all been guilty at some time or another of losing sight of the customers needs, requirements and self esteem.

My heartfelt thanks for your input, you raise some valid points that are quite applicable to my operations day to day running, and that I shall endeavour to have in the forefront of all the staff's minds when they are communicating with our customers.

Now, Now. I suspect that you sir have superb people skills: or should that be customer interfacing abilities!!!!!


Good Luck in your business; but you dont need it.