Just a quick ponder...
Theres thousands of web hosting companies websites out there that look almost identical.

500 pixel or so wide table, centered
flash header, with a pic of a nice looking server case/rj45 cable end
then a couple of columns with the content in
about 6 pages on the whole site
usually no phone number or postal address, just email addresses
and the off sprinkle of times new roman among the arial

just wondered if any of these sites actually get any customers?
can anyone else see where im coming from?

If the design didn't work very well... would you see that many sites using it? You often see lots of what works well, because stuff that doesnt, doesnt stick around long.

fair point
Im guessing you're saying that because http://www.afnhost.com/ is exactly what Im talking about
Im not saying its a bad design or anything, dont get me wrong, but, I dunno, it just seems a bit, um, repetitive among the industry

nothing against you as a host, Im sure you're very good, but I'd never host with a company who fits my description above, simply because a lot of them are going to be 15 year olds who have aquired a free template (and please don't start the whole 15 year olds are ok arguement. I'm 18, I know some of them are good, but I also personally know a couple of 15/16 year olds who have sites like that, and they suck to be fair)

sorry for causing any controversy

In most of those cases, it's probably just template use, and small or new hosting ventures who don't want to spend the time or money in the design aspect of the site. IMO, in some instances (No, not all) - the hosting provider is just seeing a trend and doesn't want to dedicate the energy to be a little more creative or differentiate themselves - it's easier to just throw up an out-of-the-box site design and focus on advertising.

Then again, maybe some of the small or new host ventures are just trying to keep consistent with the competition - maybe they worry if the site is too "different", they will be missing out on some pertinant sales-pusher.

Things like excessive misspells and blatant font inconsistencies look unprofessional - it happens sometimes, but a good designer who cares about the business's image would correct those things.

Personally, I won't buy anything from that kind of site.

While they are looking great. It's really easy to see thats a template. I hate templates.. They look so unprofessional.

Thank god, I thought I was the only person who thought that about those sites

Dont diss the templates lol, We are a development company who are breaking into the consumer hosting market, we currently have about 100 websites which we host. 80% of them are sites that we have developed or are sites that are related in someway to the sites that we have developed.

We have all the skills inhouse to develop a great website but feel our time will be better spent on setting up a good infrastructure and support system, therefore we have chosen to buy a template as it will save us time so that we can spend more time on other things once we have everything in place we plan so go over all areas especially the website and re-develop and design it from scratch.

It makes good business sense to spend little cash initially to test the waters, there is no point in spending loads of time and money in developing the best hosting website and you dont get any customers lol.

So I guess what I am trying to say here is dont judge a book by its cover, It just makes sense to start off with a template and grow into your own design.

In saying that it really makes me laugh when someone has bought a template, but then edited it and you can see what they have changed cause its in a completly different font.

Originally posted by robdavy
fair point
Im guessing you're saying that because http://www.afnhost.com/ is exactly what Im talking about
Im not saying its a bad design or anything, dont get me wrong, but, I dunno, it just seems a bit, um, repetitive among the industry

nothing against you as a host, Im sure you're very good, but I'd never host with a company who fits my description above, simply because a lot of them are going to be 15 year olds who have aquired a free template (and please don't start the whole 15 year olds are ok arguement. I'm 18, I know some of them are good, but I also personally know a couple of 15/16 year olds who have sites like that, and they suck to be fair)

sorry for causing any controversy

Well, it may seem repetetive, and to be honest, I picked up a dirt cheap ($12) template from templatemonster.com for afnhost.com, mostly because its where I market cheap hosting. Whereas my main utaria.net site was developed by a graphic designer who averages $3-7000 per site that he does.

Templates are frameworks for websites... websites are built for a purpose... so if a template fits the purpose, and does well, I'm not complaining.

While my site is certainly not the best in the business, while designing it, I moved far away from the "common" hosting company design. It's unique it its own way, but very simple, yet effective, in my opinion.