Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why is pageBuzz better than the other 10million website hosting systems?
A: It's not that pageBuzz is better, but its unique and offers tools that are not available at any other company. That is because we built the entire system from scratch. So there is nothing like it in use. All the tools were designed around our users. Taking their input and suggestions to build streamline functions that are user friendly.

Q: How can you offer a similar system to Yahoo's at $299.00/month for Only $10/month?
A: It's all about efficiency. We work from home and keep overhead low. We own the business so we are not paying employees excessive overtime, health benefits or paid vacation. Our datacenter is private and costs only a few thousand dollars a month compared to the megahosting companies spending hundreds of thousands. We maintain our own fiber optic routers and network keeping bandwidth costs at a minimum. Its about bottom line and break even points. Ours is low and we can pass on that savings.

Of course we could never grow to the size of Yahoo or Homestead with that business plan. But then again we do not want to. We get to know our customers and work with them personally. That makes our work more rewarding and less like a job and more like fun. We don't have supervisors standing behind us telling us to cut the call short. We help people because it is our business and if it takes an hour then we have a satisfied customer that will refer a friend. (read more about use here)

Q: Do I have to sign a contract or pay for one year in advance?
A: No, we only charge you for the current months services. If you cancel, you are not committed to any extra charges or locked into any contract. We depend on our services being useful to you. If we cannot provide what you need, we expect you to cancel and we will assist you in moving to an alternate hosting service. If our product is not suitable for your business, we do not expect you to continue paying for it. We never ask anyone for advance payments.

Q: How much space do I get?
A: We do not qualify space. Unlike other systems, pageBuzz does not allow ftp access. The entire website is built online. So space is managed by the programs. You can upload thousands of pictures and build up to 1000 pages with an additional 2500 product pages. We do provide10megs of space reserved for multimedia files such as MPEG or WAV's. Generally its more than anyone will ever fill.

The amount of space you use is not as important as how many pages you can actually build. There should be ample space for almost any business.

Q: Why don't you allow FTP access?
A: FTP access would allow anyone to run programs on your web server. This is a huge security risk. If you run a site with ftp access, anyone on the server (generally 100 people or more) will be able to access your website as well as run programs that could render your site unreachable or slow it to a crawl. Although this feature does give site owners great capabilities, you are completely dependant on the other people on your server not to overload, overuse or upload malicious programs. It would be like allowing 100 people to install software on your computer. Anyone could crash the system resulting in loss of your website and data. All businesses that depend on their website heavily run dedicated servers for security. But most small businesses do not want the expense and use shared servers and are unaware of the security risks. We cater to people that want security as well as affordability. There are plenty of hosting companies with FTP, but we are unique and offer a very special product.

Q: Is the page building system easy to use?
A: That is a good question. We suggest trying our demo and seeing for yourself. pageBuzz is not the easiest system online, bumblebeeworks.com is much easier to use, but much less powerful.

If you have never built a page, it may be very confusing. But so is tying your shoe laces the first time you do it. If you have used e-bay or other online sites and are familiar with word processors such as microsoft word or word perfect then building pages will be a snap! Even if you are unfamiliar with computers, if you have some patience and are willing to learn, a few hours of practice should have you building reasonable pages. It really depends on the person using it.

Q: Can I sell my products online?
A: Yes. You can sell with any webpage. But our system makes it very easy. Using an existing merchant account or PayPal our shopping cart system generates invoices and stores them on a secure encrypted server. The programing is already installed in your website and you only need to upload the photos, add descriptions and prices and your ready to sell. The system even makes thumbnails of your photos automatically and generates pages to browse or search your inventory. This is a high end application found only at bumblebee websites.

Q: What about bandwidth? How much do I get, what happens when I go over my limit?
A: If you have any time surfing, you have certainly seen the dreaded message "Bandwidth Limit Exceeded". That means the site is over the allowable data transfer for the month. For the site owner its a disaster. The search engines will remove the site from their index and the store is closed for business until next month.

We do not feel that this is an acceptable way to do business. All the time spent on the site is useless if you can get to it. For this reason we do not limit bandwidth. We do limit the types of sites we allow to avoid bandwidth hogs. (no porn or celebrity websites)

We manage bandwith over thousands of users. We have had an occasional client in the past that has been featured on a TV or radio show and hit up to 3megs of sustained bandwidth. If they were on a limited plan, the site would likely shut down after a few thousand pages leaving thousands of people with a not available message. If the bandwidth is left on, this could mean the site owner could be billed for an additional $2000.00 for bandwidth overages. One client was able to have 500,000 visitors in one day and incur no additional charges. Of course if the client continued to use large amounts of bandwidth we would need to make other arrangements. But most clients will not sustain intense traffic and should not be punished for sucess.

Its nice to know you can advertise your business and try to market your website without being shut down for actually getting traffic or billed for outrageous overage fees.

Q: How long has pageBuzz been in business? What is the chance you will close up like the thousands of failed dot com's?
A: There is never any guarantee that a company wont go out of business. But we have been online since 1997 and have been very successful by growing slowly and maintaining a competitive edge. Our overhead is low and profits are high. With about 500 of our own websites, we are not planning on traveling to the failed neighborhood.

Q: Can I build a successful website in 15 minutes?
A: Absolutely NOT! Anyone that belives that should save the money and buy a bottle of wiskey, because you are either drunk or dilusional. A good website takes hard work and time. Just entering items for sale takes time. If you have 500 items and need to upload pics, even at 2 minutes an item you would have 17 to 20 hours in data entry alone. Anyone that tells you you can build a good site in 15 minutes is looking to take you for a ride. A 15 minute website is worth about 15 cents.

Q: Do you backup data in case of equipment failures?
A: Although it is not typical for a web host to backup your data or website, we are not a typical web hosting company. We do in fact run a proprietary system called ARTB which provides almost real time backups on a remote standby server. We are fully aware that servers do fail and we try to take every possible precaution to protect data and provide redundancy for failover protection. Read more about our backup technology.

Q: Can I really make money with a website?
A: Yes. We have clients making over $20,000.00 a month using our inexpensive hosting platform. Other successful businesses do not sell products but use the online tools to assist or advertise their products or services. The cost is low for the return of online advertising. If your business can not afford to have a website, you can not afford to run your business.

If you plan to start a business online with a website. Do more research. You won't make money unless you know what you are doing. However, if you use the website to help an existing business it will be a great asset and even increase the value of your business.