Why do we care what our customers do with their websites?

The answer is actually quite simple.

If pageBuzz.com website hosting customers don't see value from their website they look for someone to blame, and standing in front of the line is, you guessed it, pageBuzz.com.

So even though we have no control over what our customers do, if they build an ugly site, go out of business or just do nothing, they will tell everyone it is because they hosted at pageBuzz.com and it was in no way their own fault.

Now, we know better, but what does that matter if customers are unhappy with our service? For any reason, even one that is not our fault.

So we try to work with every customer, 1 on 1 and give them tips, help with design and offer as much advice as we can. We routinely redesign pages and even add content to horrible sites if the owners let us.

We have created help videos and the "Mark's 2 Cents" series to help people better understand the importance of the Internet and how their website will impact their overall business.

We try to educate them on what they need to do, what they don't want to do and what they should avoid completely.

The biggest problem we face is that a large percentage of the information online is false, misleading and just plain incorrect. Anyone can write anything and anyone else can read it and believe it.

What people need to do is look at each article, each so called fact, and see that fact as one persons opinion and evaluate all the opinions to reach a consensus.

And there again, we have large groups of people repeting what they heard as fact and creating modern myths and bad information for everyone.

It is amazing how people will not listen to what we say, with 15 years experience, building and running thousands of websites, creating pageBuzz.com from scratch, if anyone else, even high school kids give them a solution that is easier and faster.

It is amazing how business owners will spend loads of money on scammers to get them in the search engines just to avoid doing the work on their website that will actually get them in the search engine results pages.

So we are confronted daily with the chore of trying to convince people what they saw online was wrong. That the information was intended to get them to spend money, that there are no simple answers.

Think of it like this.

If you want to win the NYC Marathon, what do you have to do?

You train, work hard, eat right, and train, train train. Even then, you are competing with the best runners in the world and your chances of winning are slim.

There is no pill you can take to make you better, there is no electronic gadget that can make your legs move faster for 26 miles, there is no easy solution.

You can't wake up on the day of the race and just show up and win it.

And running any business is the same, especially online.

You need to beat the best of the best, you need to be better, faster, stronger.

You just can't do that in 15 minutes by typing magic words in the page that propel you to the finish line in seconds. It is a long haul, lots of work and effort.

And that is one of the main reasons we avoid all the new fads, all the get rich quick dreamers and stick with solid ecommerce and solid businesses that need real websites.

We often tell people not to host with us because we know they will fail.

We really do spend way too much time with every customer for what we charge and if we just let everyone sign up and quit, we would probably go broke.

If we let a business build a bad website and fail, we lose a customer and have someone that is upset that their website did not do more.

So we are honest up front, we tell them what to expect, what they will get for traffic, how much money they will earn. Most people will just host with the company that promises the most even though it is a lie. We wont lie to anyone, we don't need you business that way.

So when we see a website that looks horrible, we tell you. Not to hurt your feelings, to help you.

We know that nobody wants to hear they did a shitty job, but we have to say it.

What people do on pageBuzz.com affects our reputation.

It is hard to believe that someone would blame Home Depot because they built a shed using wood and nails they bought from Home Depot and the shed looks like shit.

But on the Internet, that is exactly what happens. They take our tools, build something that looks like a 5th grade craft project and blame it on us.

So we make every effort to prevent that from happening.

Of course we don't have any control over what a business does or how they grow. But if we can help it, they will have a reasonable website to work with, a clean look and working programs.

We all know if someone went to Harvard or Yale they automatically are more respected than those of us that went to a smaller school, community college or didn't finish high school.

And that is because of the amazing reputation those schools have. The fact that so many presidents and industry leaders went to those schools, that people who attend them go on to do amazing things.

So our reputation is tied to what our customers do. What they build and what they achieve.

There is more riding on every website than just $20 a month. Our reputation and our ability to grow will either be positive or negative based on each customers own ability to grow their own business.

It is almost a given when people are researching hosting with us that they ask to see some of our current customers websites. We always refuse because what does what one customer is doing have to do with what you are going to do?

If we hosted walmart.com, would that mean you could be walmart.com? That you would make $9 billion a year is sales?

Of course not.

But that is how people think and that is why we have to do more than other companies to work with our customers to make sure their websites are successful and add value to their business and the pageBuzz website hosting network.

We routinely review customers sites and send then feedback. We ask them when they call to pay their bill, would you like any help with your website?

We don't charge for help, so most people will take it.

That helps us make their sites better and builds our reputation as one of the best places to host your website.