You should always treat those the way you would wish to be treated yourself, right? Well, I’ll go over some of my recent customer services woes to teach others the right and wrong ways of handling a situation. On top of that we have all the hosting industry buzz, help and more right here on podcast 45, which is now on the air.
Download the Web Hosting Show, Podcast 45!
Running Time: 19 minutes | File Size: 4.35 MB
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Hello I am the hosting industry’s media rock star, Mitch Keeler, and welcome to the Web Hosting Show, the one and only voice of the Web hosting world. This show is supported each and every week by the fine folks over at Web Hosting Chat. Web Hosting Chat is your number one place for Web hosting discussions.
With the one year anniversary of the Web Hosting Show drawing near, I have been trying to figure out if I want to expand the services I provide you here each and every week any further. Should I look at other means of informing the public, or should I stick to what I know best? From the six month mark, looking towards the end of the first year our download numbers have increased 400 percent. Hopefully in 2006 and beyond we can do even better than that.
Want to get my attention? Just shoot me over and E-mail at mitch@mitchkeeler.com with all your feedback, thoughts, suggestions and comments and I’ll be sure to address them either offline or right here on this very podcast.
Web Hosting Headlines
The Web hosting news and headlines are brought to you by Web Host Magazine & Buyer’s Guide. The Web Host Magazine & Buyer’s Guide is the place to go to get all the latest Web hosting news from around the globe.
Hosting.com Buys Southern California Data Center
Hosting.com has announced the acquisition of a 36,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art data center facility in Southern California. The facility is located in Irvine, Ca. and will offer managed collocation hosting solutions and provide additional redundancy to Hosting.com’s global customer base.
Mitch’s Take: It never hurts to expand your Web hosting business. Hosting.com is one of the biggest dogs in the fight, and so they can afford to have data centers all over the globe. This is good news for Hosting.com customers and bad news for every other Web host out there.
DirectI Offers .INFO Domains For $1.49
DirectI, a leading Web Services Company and one of the fastest growing ICANN Accredited Domain Registrars, recently announced the sale of .INFO domain names, at an unbelievable price of $1.49 for a year. The new promotional price, effective from December 31st 2005, will be available up to June 30, 2006.
Mitch’s Take: This has to be the cheapest price I have seen for the .info domain name. However, I don’t ever really see too many .info Web sites making that much buzz. The only one I can think of that I visit that often would be HostingNews.info. Hopefully with this price drop, a few more .info domains will be getting my attention.
Industry Leaders Back HostingCon 2006
Following the success of the inaugural HostingCon in June 2005, several industry leaders have signed on to sponsor the upcoming HostingCon 2006. HostingCon 2006 is the leading conference and trade show focused on the hosting industry and will take place July 17-19, 2006 at The Mirage Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Mitch’s Take: The more folks you can get behind you, the better off you will be. I am happy to see that HostingCon 2006 is looking to be the be all and end all Web hosting event of the year. Now if I can only talk George Roberts into bringing the Web Hosting Show into the media fold for the event, I’d be one happy hosting guru.
Do you have some Web hosting news? Make sure you send it to mitch@mitchkeeler.com and I’ll try to get it on the next episode of the Web Hosting Show.
Web Hosting Tip of the Week
Every so often you just need a quick nugget of Web hosting knowledge. The Web hosting tip of the week is brought to you by Mitchelaneous. Mitchelaneous is my own tech news and views Web site, where I tell you what I think about some of the new things coming out of the technology world.
This week’s tip is about 24/7 Web hosting support. I recently wrote an article for Lockergnome.com on the topic, and I just wanted to touch base with a few ideas that I covered there.
No matter what Web host you visit these days, it seems like everybody and their grandmother is making the same promise. They will give you on demand 24/7 hosting support. It has become a statement made in almost every other industry, so I do not see why Web hosting should be any different. So what does it mean, how do Web hosts use it and what is the future of it?
Read the rest at Lockergnome’s Web Developers!
Do you have a Web hosting tip you’d like to share? Make sure you send it to mitch@mitchkeeler.com and who knows? It could be included on the very next edition of the Web Hosting Show.
Web Hosting Deals and Steals
The Web Hosting Show’s Hosting Deals and Steals are brought to you each and every week by AllHostingDeals.com. AllHostingDeals.com is your number one place to find Web hosting offers too good to be true.
This week’s hosting deal comes from CyberHostPro.com. They are offering:
Host 2 Domains
500 Mb space
2 GB Transfer
20 Email
5 MySQL Databases
ASP.net 1.1 and 2.0 included
1 MS SQL 2000 Database
This is one excellent place to get Windows-based hosting. What is the price for the bronze plan I speak of? How does $5.49 a month sound? Not a bad hosting experience at all.
Have a Web hosting deal or offer that is too good to be true? E-mail me at mitch@mitchkeeler.com and I’ll tell the folks about it on the next Web Hosting Show podcast.
Mitch’s Hosting Talking Points
All of my Web hosting thoughts, views and ideas are brought to you by Data Center Talk. Data Center Talk is the best set of forums on the Earth about the world of Web hosting data centers.
Customer Support 101
My experiences with Yahoo! SBC DSL have been horrible over the past month or so. I thought I would share with you some of my experiences, because many of the thoughts and ideas here could cross over to Web hosting or any area where you have to deal with customer support.
Now to cut a long story short, I have problems with my DSL line staying in sync. It drops the connection whenever it feels like it, and as you can imagine this is a huge pain in the rear. Last week they actually sent somebody to the house to finally check things out.
They checked the line in the house, and they noticed it was messed up. So they went outside the house and checked it there. It is messed up from there. Then they went out in the street and checked it from the phone thingy out there. It was messed up out there as well. So the guy tells me he is going to go into town and check things out there and then somebody will either call me or he will come back.
Then I wait, I waited for minutes, I waited for hours and at this moment I have been waiting for a few days. I still haven’t heard back from Yahoo! SBC and I doubt I will till I call them up again and start this entire process all over again. Customer service and support 101 here folks, don’t tell your customer you are going to do something and then not do it. It just isn’t very nice.
Web Hosting Show’s Birthday!
The Web Hosting Show’s one year birthday will be coming next month. What do you think I should do to make it special? Let me know by dropping me an E-mail at mitch@mitchkeeler.com or over at the Web Hosting Show’s fan forums. I haven’t added up the numbers yet, but my 50th episode might actually fall on the same date as well. Now how cool would that be?
Do you have a Web hosting topic of discussion you would like to hear me cover on the Web Hosting Show? Then make sure you send it to mitch@mitchkeeler.com and I’ll try to get it on the next episode of the Web Hosting Show.
Web Site Design Help, Support and Ideas
All of the Web Hosting Show’s design help is sponsored by BrowseHosts. BrowseHosts is the most comprehensive Web hosting directory out there today.
This week’s Web site that needs some help is HostingSimply.com.
Wow, this is probably the nicest looking Web site I’ve seen asking for design help on this podcast. It will not be too easy to find things wrong here, but I will try.
The first thing I want to bring up is the use of colors, I really like that aspect of the web site. The colors are bright, but don’t kick me in the teeth. It is a nice overall balance. Your yin is definitely lined up with your yang.
This tip could be said in any Web site design review. You need to check your layout in multiple browsers. I noticed things on the layout looked a little different when I was looking at it in Firefox compared with looking at it in Internet Explorer. That might be something else to also keep in consideration.
Other than that, things look really great and I wish you all the best luck in the future!
Do you need some help with your Web site design? Would you like me to just let you know what it is you could do to make your Web presence that much better? Make sure you contact me at mitch@mitchkeeler.com and I’ll try to get your questions answered and your Web site reviewed on the next episode of the Web Hosting Show.
Web Hosting Web Site of the Week
The Web hosting Web site of the week is brought to you by Banners World. Banners World is the number one place to visit to get all your Web site graphics, banners and designs done.
The Web hosting Web site of the week is HostSearch.com’s Promos and Deals.
Looking for a few more Web hosting deals out there? Well the folks at HostSearch.com have put together a great list of special deals and offers from all around the Web hosting world. Most offers are presented for HostSearch.com visitors only. Look around as you won’t find a range of deals like this anywhere else!
Go give the HostSearch.com’s Promos and Deals page a shot and if you find a deal, make sure you let them know that the Web Hosting Show sent you there.
Do you have a Web site that deserves to be the next Web hosting Web site of the week? Make sure you send it to mitch@mitchkeeler.com and I’ll try to get it on the next episode of The Web Hosting Show.
Hosting Winners and Losers
The Web hosting winners and losers for the week are brought to you by Lockergnome’s Guide to Web Hosting. Lockergnome’s Guide to Web Hosting is the best e-book out there covering the Web hosting world from head to toe.
This week’s winner of the week is Globix.com.
Globix.com along with Telehouse will present a free, monthly Breakfast On Broadway seminar on podcasting. I have no idea what Breakfast on Broadway means or how it relates to hosting. I’m just happy to see more Web hosting related Web sites and companies seeing the possibilities that podcasting has to offer. Podcasting is a real moving trend, and it is up to Web hosts to either jump onto the ride or get left behind.
This week’s biggest loser is Undead Web Hosting
The WHIR this week had a great feature about Christian Web hosting, but I have to ask where is the feature about undead Web hosting? Zombies I’m sure need to have a Web site as well, so I feel like that is a market that just isn’t getting tapped into right now.
Do you have a hot tip to share on who might be the next week’s winner or loser of the week? Make sure you drop me an E-mail and let me know about who they are and what they did.
Final Web Hosting Thoughts
Next week we will be doing more of the same! I am Mitch Keeler and you have been listening to the number one Web hosting podcast across the nation and the one and only voice of the Web hosting world, the Web Hosting Show.
