It Begins — The State of Web Host Products Today

I think of these pages as an opportunity each day to spend 10 minutes writing my thoughts regarding the state of the web host business and how it is affecting my life. Halfway between a blog and a diary, it's a space for venting as well as for building.

The web hosting business today is extremely competitive. I have attempted with some success to carve out a niche in the business by assisting non-profit organizations, who have little or no money, to have a low-cost website presence around which to build their efforts.

As a result, dozens and even hundreds of new and potential customers have come my way over the years, and many continue to be good customers even to this day. However, the exigencies of modern business also sometimes require that changes be made in approach and attack of a marketplace. This website and the company that own it are no exception.

One of the constants of the business has been the need for a simple look to websites. When a business owner or a newly forming business owner contacts me, the common theme expressing what they want their websites to look like is that they want it to be “professional.” Of course from a design perspective that tells me nothing, and it makes it a challenge to get the customer to open up some more and show me what the word “professional” means to him or her.

With non-profit organizations, the emphasis is different. Most often, they emphasize that they only want only a few nice, simple pages, mainly (I suspect) because they want to do everything they can to keep the cost down. This is easily accomplished. What is not so easily accomplished is getting them to continue to add to and build their website. Content is king, and the more you can say about your venture or organization, the more that people will stay at your website and learn more about it.

October 28, 2007