Chat With the CEO of HostSearch.com
There are many folks behind big oak desks that make the world of Web hosting go around. The ones you have to pay attention to are the ones that feel free enough to talk with anybody who wants to ask them a question. More times than not, they are also the more intresting breed of a Web hosting CEO. The CEO I have in mind today is Mr. Charnchon Lavitrangsima, CEO of HostSearch.com. I recently had the chance to have an interview with him and I have to say he has a lot of intresting perspectives on the Web hosting industry.
Mitch: It seems like HostSearch.com is not only a place to match up clients with hosts. Why do you think it was important to branch off into other areas?
Charnchon: The goal of HostSearch is to enable people to find web hosting that is right for them. Most people want more information than just price, disk space, and monthly bandwidth and they can educate themselves using HostSearch. Whether they want to look at the reviews and see what customers think of a host, learn about hosting with our articles, or get on forums.hostsearch.com and see what the hosting community has to say we have a variety of ways for people to find a good web hosting provider.
Mitch: Is the Web hosting world (between host to host or hosting site to hosting site) more aggressive or passive? Why do you think so?
Charnchon: Is this a Freudian question? Web hosting is a very competitive industry right now with companies as large as MCI and as small as you can imagine all trying to attract customers so I can’t say that I find anything passive about the industry.
Mitch: Can you give me some background information on HostSearch.com for the folks out there who haven’t heard of it before? What is it there for and what do you provide?
Charnchon: HostSearch started out in 1997 as the Internet’s first searchable web hosting directory. We’ve got a huge data base of Web hosting companies that we are constantly checking and rechecking for accuracy and updating. We’re here to help people find the best web hosting company for their needs and we do it by providing information on Web hosting companies, informative articles, reviews, a forum, the latest news, Web hosting promotions and showcases and we even do comparisons of Web hosting services and let people know what we find about different companies services based on our experiences with them.
Mitch: When looking for news, about 80 percent of the “news” I find is press releases for new hosting plans or more media hype. Has hosting hit a peak as far as real innovation or news is concerned?
Charnchon: If you follow the web hosting industry on a day to day basis you’ll find that some days a lot of really interesting things are happening. The Go Daddy CEO recently issued a public challenge to Network Solutions over their numbers the other day. There are lawsuits and hackers and corporate takeovers and all kinds of entertaining stories. We just ran one about Globat closing down an African political site after the Ethiopian government complained that the site’s criticisms were unfounded and then we had some African guys arguing Ethiopian politics through our comments on the news page so I think there are a lot of enjoyable informative stories out there. However, anything that gets attention in the news is going to have slow days. Take the NFL for example, it’s the most widely watched sport in America with massive coverage into every little detail and yet if you follow NFL news after the Super Bowl but before the draft it is some ungodly boring stuff.
Mitch: What is your favorite hosting related Web site out there other than your own, and why is it?
Charnchon: Like it or not, I have to frequently check out our competitors’ sites like TopHosts.com and WebHostDir.com. A community site like webhostingtalk.com is also a good resource to stay current with the industry.
Mitch: I have been telling hosts they should blog for some time now. Do you think it would be better for Web hosts to close that gap between themselves and the clients they serve?
Charnchon: I think it really works well for Go Daddy but not everyone is a writer or is good at telling stories. There are a lot of ways to put a face or touch of humanity into a corporation and a blog is just one.
Mitch: What does it take to be successful in the Web hosting world today?
Charnchon: It’s very difficult to differentiate your web hosting products nowadays. Setting up a web hosting? You just select the hardware, software and automation system like the control panel and billing solutions and you’re done. Complete reseller packages are out there and affordable and accessible for everyone. It’s non-sense to compete on hard disk space or bandwidth because if you can purchase a 400 GB drive, so can your competitors. The only thing left that you can differentiate on is the quality of services and customer support. So my advice: providing reliable services and good customer support. Certainly you also need the right prices and packages.
Mitch: Which method is more successful, word of mouth or advertising dollars and why do you think so?
Charnchon: I think they both have their place. If you are just starting out there simply aren’t going to be that many mouths with your name in them so you’ve got to do some paid advertising but for a company with a good reputation word of mouth will really help you. I know a lot of Web hosts get tons of sales from people who are reading our reviews. If you look at what people are Googling for when they search for web hosting often times it’s ‘review web host’. Still, for companies big and small paid advertising is absolutely necessary to keep from sinking into oblivion.
Mitch: What separates HostSearch.com from the other Web hosting Web sites out there today?
Charnchon: What separates us? Miles and miles of fiber-optic cable. Just kidding. One of the foremost things that separate us from other hosting companies is integrity. Most of the other directories out there sell their hosting awards and they don’t check the authenticity of their user reviews. I also think forums.hostsearch.com has the most supportive hosting community out there. We’ve got hosting CEO’s Daryl Williams (1 Plan Host) and Tahir Ahmed (NetSpaceOnline.net) moderating our boards along with our web editor so the boards are clear of junk and advertising and you can be sure someone who knows what they’re talking about is going to answer your question.
Mitch: Is there anything new or exciting in the future for HostSearch.com or any of the other Web sites you run out there?
Charnchon: We’ve recently opened up HostBizTools.com which is a web directory of tools and services for web hosting providers and we’re excited about that and we’ve got some development projects underway that the hosting world has never seen. We’re really going to take it to the other Web hosting directories. I don’t want to give anything away though but look out for HostSearch.com because we’re going to do something special by the start of next year.
I want to thank Charnchon Lavitrangsima for his time, and I want to get all of you to go check out HostSearch.com, it really is one of the leading Web hosting Web sites Online today.
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