I have been talking to Andrew from findmyhosting.com now for about an hour. I signed up for his hosting directory the other day, but was having a few problems. He has guided me through every stage, step by step. I now have a fully functional account with my new hosting assured logo on my site, which he kindly helped me out with.

I wish him and his company the best of luck, they deserve it.

Nice .:D

A little OT:

Pay to use thier logo and to say you are verified host? :rolleyes:
No offense, am I missing something?


BC12

It's free to be a Hosting Assured host, there is no charge of any kind.

To maintain it - a host needs to abide by the ethics - with the main focus being to resolve any complaints in good faith and reach acceptable solutions.

Hosting Assured is also not a verification of any kind, it's a public statement by the host to embrace a set of customer focused values. The consumer then gets to see that statement via the Hosting Assured seal (plus review comments left by other customers) & also knows that should an unsolveable problem arise - they have a 3rd party they can turn to for help in finding a resolution. It gives the consumer an added sense of ease & it's added differentiation for the Host.

Hosting Assured is part of FindMyHosting.com

But don't you have to be with FindMyHosting.com, which costs $?

In my dealings with "Hosting Assured and/or Findmyhosting.com" I was not impressed and feel there is some mis-information going on. I too "thought" it was a good and signed up for their service. What an eye-opener it was.

There is a TOS for their services which they don't tell you about until you fill out the form and get an Email from them -- with Username & Password to access the Hosting Companies Area. Only there, and this was my beef with Andrew, do you find out things like this:


#7. Commission.

Company may direct Users to Host's Site listed herein and Company is entitled to receive commissions on orders placed on-line or referred by Company or FindMyHosting.com and that are accepted by Host.

Host agrees to pay to Company a "Fixed Commission" for properly placed Service orders by customers during the term of this Agreement and accepted by Host. Such Fixed Commission will be paid directly to Company and shall be due and payable as follows:

(a) for any subscription of one year or longer, 15% of the initial subscription; or

(b) in the event that the initial subscription is for a period of less than one year, 15% of the initial subscription plus 15% of any subsequent renewal(s) up to but not to exceed a period of one year.

Commissions shall be earned as of the date of payment for any subscription period. If customer pays subscriptions in installments, commissions shall be due in pro rata shares as each installment is paid.

Commissions are payable within thirty (30) days of the earned commission. Company shall have rights to audit and access information of Host reasonably necessary to calculate such Commission as shall be due and payable under this Agreement.


The last line really blew my top and, although Andrew tried to side-step it in our Email comunications, I see way too much amibiguity within it.

Here's another little diddy:

Our business model is clearly explained in the site & in the FAQ's on the customer site.
[Edit: thought I should mention this quote is what Andrew said to me in an Email I received from him, on Monday, April 01, 2002 9:20 PM]

Pray tell where this would be Andrew? I clicked the "Hosting Assured" link, listed at http://www.dot5hosting.com/ and on the page it took me to, nowhere was there any FAQs listed or mentioned. Or is it, Dot5Hosting or other clients of yours, are supposed to supply that type of information?

And please provide a link, to a publicly accessable Web page that provides information and explainations of how your fee-based business model works, such as #7 which I've stated above.

It was last month when I found out the above and although some things I've mentioned may have changed, I do have my Emails sent to and received by Andrew, as my basis of fact.

It is my own opinion that Findmyhosting.com is a place/service to avoid -- for Hosters anyway. The benefits do seem good for clients, but a lot of facts that should be provided "upfront" for Hosters, are not.

Thanks for letting me know about that. So am I correct in assuming that you have to be registered/paying them/using thier service in order to use the assured host feature? :mad:

EDIT: I see that now, its free if you use thier other service :rolleyes:

I remember Website Rob very well - he requested a login to FindMyHosting and then got extremely irate for reasons we could not completely understand. His response at the time stands out as the only response of it's kind that we have ever received and we just chalked it up to experience...

Let me address the 2 issues of Hosting Assured & FindMyHosting

Hosting Assured

Hosting Assured is free. At the moment you need to be set-up in FindMyHosting to join Hosting Assured. It is not our plan to keep it that way - as can be evidenced on the Join page of Hosting Assured. Having said that - Joining FindMyHosting is also free.

FindMyHosting

FindMyHosting is a different model than ad based directories. The concept is simple. FindMyHosting attempts to create an efficient market - our revenues come only from commissions on sales, which is very win-win. Any host can request a login. After logging in - our business model & commission structure is explained on the very 1st page they arrive at. If a host decides that they don't want to be part of the system - then they can just log out - simple as that.

I am at a loss to understand how we are misleading anybody. We have many hosts in the system & the response we have gotten has been very positive...but I suppose it is impossible to please everybody. We have a unique idea, we are very open to any feedback on how to improve the system & we have made many improvements due to feedback we have recieved.

After our experience with websiteRob - we took a hard look at his comments and made some minor changes - but on balance we had to simply accept that this type of irate response is part of doing business and will always be present in a small % of cases no matter what we do.

Good Morning,

We just joined this company about 2 days ago. We had many questions also which were answered to our satisfaction very promptly.

We have been in buisness a long time (over 3 years) and this it the first company we have ever offered to pay a fee for referring a customer to us. Sure we have paid resellers and still do but the problem with resellers you are responsible for everything they do and we decided this company will still be able to refer business that we will have much more control over. Is 15% per month high?? sure a little but 85% of zero is even more. What I mean is if this company sends 100 new customers to you and an average of $10 a month that is equal to an extra $850/month you might not have. Again I would rather have 85% of something than 100% of nothing.

As far as the Hosting Assured deal and having to pay if you are not "find your host" I found that odd when I first read it. But on the other hand people are getting to the point on the Internet where they think everything should be free... Why? I mean server space, programming advertising all cost money. We run several "free" sites such as e-cards, reminder services, and web master forums and at a cost that comes right out of our pockets with little return.
These guys are offering something for hosts to help promote their business and a small fee.

I would like to have some more information from anyone that says they have been ripped off. I don't try to find faults in people but again I am not wanting to get ripped either.

So far we have not had any problems... If we do don't worry I Will be posting it here. I have no problems taking care of a crook if they need to be taken care of. Even if that means making a personal visit to the company itself.

I am not here to fight with anyone so I would like to hear other thoughts on this program. But for now I have to say I approve of what they are doing.

Andrew seems to be on top of things and went out of his way to fix a few little things that we saw were confusing so if there is a problem send an email these guys seem to want to help.


Robert

with the deal they offer. I read the terms before I signed up and I have NO problems with it and it was right out there easy to see and understand.

The seal is free to my understnding and acts like a BBB thing customers can post their experience with a host and the host can respond, simple, clean, and for the world to see.

If Andrew sends me business I will be glad to pay 15%, heck I pay that to all my clients that refer new customers to me anyway.

Personally I do not understand at all what the complaint is, either you want to join or you don't that simple.

For me it is a idea that works and is something I like being part of, so that new customers can view up front from a 3rd party how I deal with my customers and what my complaint record is.

Monte

Website Rob....

What he says doesn't make sense at all! Im sure there might have been some miscommunication or Rob was simply not taking the time to investigate the service before signing up.

I signed up about a month or so ago and I knew the terms, 15% per month for 12 months for any customer being refered. The Hosting assured is free, but it wouldnt make sense to give that out to people who are not registered at findmyhosting.com.

Im signed up to about over a dozen different hosting directories, and I have to hand it to findmyhosting.com. Its the best hosting index I have seen and i hope they succeed because as they grow, my chance of getting more business through them increases. Its a win win situation. I couldn't be happier. If I dont get any business from them then it is zero $ out of my pocket.

With other hosting index, they are not free. Sure you can register for free but YOU WILL NOT GET ANY BUSINESS unless you pay for a advertising. The more you can pay the better your chances. But with findmyhosting.com. We all pay the same amount for commission, and no advertising. This levels the playing field and allows the hosting companys that are new or dont have much money the ability to compete fairly.

A company has to make money just like the rest of us.

I recommend findmyhosting.com to anyone, I cant see how they have been dishonest, because to me they haven't.

Here is a snippet from the first email i recieved from them telling me about their company:

I've recently started a new business called Findmyhosting.com. We're the first non-biased, non-ad based web hosting directory in the market.

We do not sell advertising whatsoever. It costs nothing to be listed in our directory- no fixed fees. We're completely commission based.

"Says we are completely commission based."

Good luck to findmyhosting.com!

-John

Displayhosting.com

Someone made a post praising the services offered. Someone else made a post stating confusion on pricing for said services. I made a post stating my experience and opinion. That is all.

First off, I have no trouble with any company making an honest profit. If a company doesn't make money, it doesn't stay in business very long.

Secondly, if you are going to charge people for a service, does it not make sense to provide them with "all" the information upfront, in order to make an intelligent decision.

Thirdly, I see Andrew ignored my request to answer 2 specific questions listed in my previous post.

<quote>Secondly, if you are going to charge people for a service, does it not make sense to provide them with "all" the information upfront, in order to make an intelligent decision. </quote>

I agree 100%! :D

I think has beed a good discussion and will benefit everyone.


Robert

Hi again,

I would like to clarify a few more points in reference to websiteRob's comments. But before I do that - I would like to say that I do respect websiteRob's right to voice any concerns he might have. We did take his comments seriously at the time we had an exchange with his company in early April, and we did apologise to him in-case he felt that we did not do a good enough job to explain our business model. We are 100% open to improve our system via constructive feedback.

- It is simply not true that the first mention of our commission model is when you reach the signup Terms & Conditions. We make mention of our business model in numerous places. On the customer side of the site in our FAQ's and also in the tour before requesting a login. In addition - the moment a host logs into the system for the 1st time - we explain very clearly and in detail what our business model is.

- websiteRob mentions clicking through a Hosting Assured seal and not finding such terms. Hosting Assured is not FindMyHosting, but a service of FindMyHosting. Hosting Assured has it's own look & feel, and it's own terms and conditions, which are clearly available on the Hosting Assured site.

No host has ever paid 1cent to be part of Hosting Assured. We did initially have mention on the site of a paid option for non-FindMyHosting hosts, although this "option" was never in fact available. This weekend we removed any text related to that paid option because we decided to keep Hosting Assured free going forward. As mentioned in my prior post - our system is not yet setup to handle Hosting Assured hosts that are not part of FindMyHosting - but once we make the changes in our site to allow for that - Hosting Assured will be available to ANY host regardless of them being a member of FindMyHosting.com

Sorry for the long post! - I am very appreciative of the positive comments in this thread. We are very confident that we have a solid idea and a solid business plan. Like all businesses, we will always have much room for improvement, but we are working very hard to make FindMyHosting a success. A big part of any successful business is the building of trust. We put a large emphasis on that and remain open always to a process of positive and constructive feedback to improve how our business functions - so that ultimately we can create as much value as possible in the hosting marketplace.

Many Thanks

Edit - To further address any accusation that we have ever intended to mislead - here are the links

Customer site FAQ's that explain how we generate revenue
Customer Site FAQ (http://www.findmyhosting.com/faq.htm)

New Host Tour Where we state we are a commission based service
New Host Tour (http://www.findmyhosting.com/tour1.htm)

At the end of the 3 page tour - a host can request a login, which requires company name, website URL name & phone. After login the host arrives at a page that describes the model in explicit detail.

I counted the commission % stated 3 times prior to the link for the terms and conditions, with a 4th time in the terms and conditions itself.

Website Rob clearly jumped directly to the TOS - but he did not join the system, contrary to what is stated in his post.

We are proud of our system & believe it stands on it's own merits.