Web Hosting Weblog

Domains at $3.99 a pop

It seems Globat has joined the cheap domain name registration game with a $3.99 domain registration special. Catch is, you can only order one per week! Ho hum.

 
Posted at 8:34 PM by Justin, permalink.

She canna handle it! The servers are gunna blow!

An amusing article over at theWHIR about a Web hosting company which closed its doors for a few days because its 'servers were too full', and the reaction of other Web hosting companies to this news. 
Posted at 5:34 PM by Justin, permalink.

"Customers Rule!" say CIHost

CIHost continues its mission to cover the Earth in a two foot deep pile of press releases with an announcement that it likes its customers. What a shock! 
Posted at 6:12 AM by Justin, permalink.

Spam

InterMedia announces spam filtering for clients. Really, isn't this the most obvious idea? If you want to look like the world's best Web host.. just set up some great SpamAssassin system for all of your users and have it on by default. Perhaps I am missing something (probably filtering mail without consent is illegal) but this is something that is so easy to set up, and generates such goodwill.. every host should do it out of the box. Sadly most of those I have reviewed do not. 
Posted at 7:46 PM by Justin, permalink.

Slim picking

It's slim pickings for news in the Web hosting industry lately, so enjoy this little tale of someone's first professional Web hosting experience. 
Posted at 11:09 PM by Justin, permalink.

Free Zope and Plone Hosting

Objectis is offering free (non commercial) hosting for users of the Zope content management service. 
Posted at 1:41 PM by Justin, permalink.

NetFirms Strengthens Affiliate Program

We could be about to see NetFirms becoming more prominent across the Web, as they've just announced a new affilate program offering commissions of up to $50 per signup. Till now, NetFirms has been known for its smaller payouts, but with these changes, is entering the world of the pile-it-high sell-as-much-as-possible hosting. A change in NetFirms overall strategy, or just a new development, perhaps? 
Posted at 1:08 AM by Justin, permalink.

Followup on CitizenHost.com

Joseph Mbulu from CitizenHost.com got in touch with me regarding the previous story linked to on this weblog:

We were interviewed last Sunday, and apparently the writer of the article did not have a good grasp on web hosting; therefore the article contains a fair amount of misquotes. [...] Right now our 3 month average on Alexa's rank is ~96,000, but today we're ranked around 50,000 concerning traffic. Our retention rate is actually near 100%. Our business model is oriented towards making sure our customers are well serviced. We have dealt with larger web hosting companies so we know the typical flaws that these companies have. I think our customers are truly the happiest in the industry because we show them that we actually care about their sites and businesses, and we are always there to provide one-on-one discussions with customers concerning almost any topic(From technical support to online promotion to business ideas). [...] There is not a single web hosting company out of the 32,000 currently in existance that provides a more personal web hosting experience than CitizenHost. [...] By doing the article, we wanted to encourage others to work hard to accomplish goals. The article was never intended to be for financial reasons. We purposely wanted to be interviewed by our school paper. During the interview I did not once give any financial statements concerning our company, but I was suprised to be labeled a "Million Dollar Man" which was a bit humorous. [...]

 
Posted at 6:51 PM by Justin, permalink.

Students to make millions through Web hosting

The Auburn Plainsman Online reports that two students from Auburn, Alabama, are on the path to riches with their Web hosting company CitizenHost.com. The two 19-year-olds claim to have over 10,000 domains hosted with their company, and boast a near 100% customer retention rate. The article is interesting because it's been written by a small local paper, and features this cute quote: "If you're even in the top 2 million [in popularity of all Web sites], you're doing good." 
Posted at 4:07 AM by Justin, permalink.

EU/US tax levies inspire Arab host

An interesting piece of news in an otherwise dry week. As many readers will be aware, the EU has forced US companies to collect VAT (Value Added Tax) on transactions made with citizens and companies in the EU. Clearly, those who are further afield are also subject to taxes in the EU and the US, leading Emirate Internet & Multimedia to promote the use of hosting in Arab countries.

Even given the potential of a hefty 20% tax rate on top of existing hosting purchases, EIM's plans, priced from $20 per month for just 20MB of disk space, and 600MB of transfers per month, seem extremely expensive compared to budget packages available in the US. 
Posted at 1:01 PM by Justin, permalink.

A week of expansion and buyouts

Here are more good signs that the consolidation of the industry I predicted is continuing to take place. One of the deals is for 9 figures!

Globix announces plans to acquire Aptegrity, Netscreen Technologies is to acquire Neoteris for over $200m in cash and stocks. Israel Corporation Group buys the remaining shares in PSINet Europe giving them 100% control of the company. Sprint is close to selling part of its Web hosting division to Vericenter Inc. And Geotrust, the certificate folks, have announced plans to expand into Europe. 
Posted at 7:04 PM by Justin, permalink.

Web Hosting Companies and Spam

The WHIR takes a look at Web hosting companies and their connection to spam. 
Posted at 2:30 PM by Justin, permalink.