Why Companies Get
Scammed on Website Hosting
The main reason people and
businesses get taken on website hosting is because they don;t
understand what it is and in every instance where the public is
not educated, they will be taken advantage of.
What gets me is the huge
number of people that truly believe they are experts and actually
know very little. In their minds they are not taking advantage of
someone charging them $100 an hour to build website because they
believe they are truly worth it.
So how do you know
if you are getting what you paid for?
You don't have to be a
rocket scientist to know that people are going to try to sell
you more than you need or sell you the cheapest product for
the most money possible.
One of the issues we face in
marketing our website hosting services is that the bulk of the
websites online are controlled by webmasters or so called "IT
Experts". In more cases than not, they are resellers of
other companies products, so they try to get the cheapest deal
possible and try to sell it for as much as possible.
That has led to the
proliferation of cheap unlimited hosts that offer everything for
just few dollars a month.
Since the experts are not
really concerned about what you get as long as they get paid ad
earn a profit, they want to cut corners and they spend $10 on an
unlimited account and put all of their customers on it.
Now, I don't have to tell you
that you don't get much for $10 a month and when you cram100 or
more websites into that one account you have issues like
bandwidth limit exceeded, system busy and server overload delays
as well as the insecure nature of shared hosting.
But when the webmaster floods
a $10 account with 100 websites they are paying just 10 cents per
account and charging sometimes $50 or $100 a month for the
hosting.
Then those same webmasters
tell you services like pageBuzz.com are just too expensive and
don't offer what you need.
Of course they think we are to
expensive, because they are used to getting website hosting for
pennies and making all the profit while you get shit for service.
Now webmaster wants to pay us
$20 a month because they can't mark it up 1000%.
So the shape of the hosting
market is molded by these resellers. The tools developed cater to
the 90% of the websites that the IT Experts are looking for and
not what the business owner needs, because the business owners
are not picking their own services.
By having your webmaster
choose what you need, they will choose the tools you can't use,
the ones you have to pay them hourly to manage, the ones you need
them to understand.
But
the fact is, websites are just not that complicated.
Or should I say, the act of
creating a website on a host is not that complicated.
The actual process of running
servers, generators, backup and power distribution grids and
fiber optic networks is very complicated. But one the hosts have
done their job, you just have to build and manage the website
using their tools.
Since the market is controlled
by webmasters and resellers, they believe web hosting is simply
buying a $10 a month account and splitting it up over 100 or more
clients.
That is 99% of the websites
that sell website hosting are actually selling services that
another company is selling to them cheaper, sometimes for pennies.
That means if you go out and
use a website host there is a 99% chance that you are paying way
more than the services are worth.
So how can you
avoid getting into one of these traps?
Research The
Host
Use Big
Companies or Reputable Small Companies
Avoid
Webmasters & Designers Opinions
Shop yourself,
don't let someone else do it for you.
Build and
Manage you own Website
Research The Host
I can't believe when people
call me and they have their website hosted at a company that does
not even have a phone number. How can you put your business
website online and not even make sure you can call for help.
Many hosting resellers don't
have phone numbers, and some don't even have direct email
addresses. In many cases they simply used a web based form as a
point of contact.
Now that is not very
professional is it? And what do you do if they don't respond?
The problem is, people see a
great deal, sign up and never check out the company or the
services.
Now, reviews are a good way to
go, but they are not usually reliable because any company can go
out and review themselves and post great things about themselves.
So look deeper.
How long have they
been in business?
How much
information is on the website?
Can you call for
help?
Do their terms of
service sound reasonable?
Does their content
seem like they made it? Or it is just the sample old
reseller garbage?
Do they have a
demo? (most resellers won't)
Do they have
proprietary Technology? Trademarks, Patents or Copyrights?
Obviously, points or contact
are important, just because they advertise 24/7 support if that
support is by email and it takes 24 hours to respond, then that
is really not true. Is it?
If the website is 5 pages and
there is little developed content you can almost be assured that
the host is a reseller. Real companies work on their websites,
have extensive help sections, demos and lots of details about
what they do and offer.
If the graphics look custom
and profession that tells you a lot. If they have a plain simple
website just offering services, they probably bough the template
and loaded it onto an existing host.
Of course, if they tell you
directly, they are not a reseller that is also a big help.
Working with a host that is
honest, up front and informative is important.
If they host you choose is
evasive, has not phone number or website pages, then you should
keep looking.
We have hundreds of pages and
when people call me, that often say, they read every page on our
website. Now, while that is unlikely, they have spent a huge
amount of time reading, learning and choosing us as a host. While
the people that sign up quickly usually choose a cheaper host
because in the beginning, it looks like a better deal.
Terms Of Service
Another great place to look is
at a companies terms of service, SLA (service level agreement)
and Privacy policy. Does the host even have one?
Since litteraly millions of
resellers are just teens working from home, they never developed
a business model, and don't have things like a privacy policy
even though it is required by law.
If they do, read it carefully,
because those hosts like bluehost, hostgator and justhost who
offer UNLIMITED plans will often impose limits in their terms of
service agreements. Then when you exceed those limits they kick
you off.
If the terms of service reads
like a one way street, "as the company we can do what
ever we want any time we want and change the policy anytime we
want" then you know it is not a good place to be.
Look for a company that has a
reasonable policy, talks in terms you understand and has
provisions that you can live with.
Trademarks, Patents
or Copyrights
Does the host have Trademarks,
Patents or Copyrights?
At pageBuzz we have registered
trademarks and registered copyrights on much of our programming
which establishes that we have created it from scratch and do own
the exclusive rights to those programs.
Obviously, a teen working from
home or even an adult running a hosting service as a hobby has
not spent the money and time to develop their own programming and
taken extreme legal steps to protect it.
This is a good indicator of
the level of professionalism that you might expect from the
company.
Are they actually a company?
You can look up the corporation nd see if they are registered in
their state or they just make up the name and run offices from a
mobile laptop.
Demos and Tutorials
Do they have demos or
tutorials? Have they taken the time to set up pages of
information to demonstrate what they provide?
If they are a serious business
they will have demos, videos and pages that explain why they do,
what you get and how it works. If they have not done that, they
likely wont spend much time helping you either.
Don't Pick them
because of their Name or Association
Too many people pick their
website host based on a name or common interest, such as
Christian Website Hosting, Local Website Hosting, for example a
company that uses your town name, or associated host like host
for fishing websites, or hosts for jewelry websites.
Just because you like in Tampa
Fl, does not mean that someone that calls their service Tampa
Website Hosting will be any good or even be a real company.
Don't think because you used a
local business that will care about you anymore than the other
customers they have.
Don't assume that
because a website host says they are only Christian based
that the actually are. In fact, Christian website hosting is
one of the biggest scams online by taking advantage of
Christians and dropping them on shared servers with hackers,
pornographers and thieves.
Companies offer web services
to make money and they will do almost anything, say anything and
try anything to make money. They lie, cheat and steal and don't
care if you find out because they know there is another fool
right around the corner.
Use Bigger
Companies
Now when I say bigger I hate t
exclude smaller companies like ours, but then again even with a
small staff, we are very big when you look at our annual income
and facilities.
If a company owns their own
datacenter, servers and has a regular office, office hours and
technology, that should be a good indication that they are
reliable.
If you can't get any
information on them, they are likely tiny and may not even be a
legaly formed business.
obviously using hosts like
Godaddy.com, Web.com or 1and1.com will insure that you are
getting a fair value for what you pay. But on the flip side,
using a smaller company like pageBuzz.com will provide elements
that the larger companies just can't.
In either case, you can call,
talk to people and do research on what they provide.
Don't sign up just because you
like the company name or the colors of the website.
Don't Take Advise
from Others
If you are paying a webmaster
for advice, make sure they are not making money by sending you to
their preferred host.
Many webmasters will get
commissions from sending customers to hosts, in many cases it can
be 100% of the signup or sometimes more.
So the money you spend
might be going right into their pocket.
That means rather than sending
you to pageBuzz where the tools might be better they send you to
bluehost.com or justhost.com because they get paid for doing so.
Don't get me wrong, we also
have affiliate programs but or payouts are lower, so webmasters
have less motivation to use us.
You should choose a host that
has what you need, what you can sue and what you want. If you let
someone else decide, you will almost always be scammed.
Be Careful
As long as you are careful, do
some research and ask lots of questions you will probably get
what you are after. But if you just sit back and let someone else
do everything and never question anything you are not only going
to pay too much for website hosting but you might pay too much
for everything involved.
Most businesses spend
thousands of dollars a year on their websites.
Webmasters know this and would
never want to tell those businesses they can have online tools to
update websites themselves and save thousands of dollars a year.
Because that money would come out of their pockets.
So the whole idea of using an
expert like a car salesman or a Realtor is really tricky because
they make their money only if you spend money. Are they more
motivated to sell you a cheap website, car or house so you save
money? Or are they motivated to sell you the most expensive
website, car or house so they make the biggest commission?
The only way you can avoid
being scammed is to learn about the industry, price your options
and learn what choices you have.
Choosing a webmaster because
they were referred by a friend ad not doing any research is bad.
Not that referals are bad, in
fact it is the best way to trust the webmaster. But just use that
as the only gage. Do research, check references and learn what it
is you are getting for your money.
If the person is
telling you you get a bunch of stuff that you don't really
understand, then it is probably a bunch of stuff that you don't
need.
|
