KimberlyH
09-04-2007, 07:26 AM
Good Morning,
I said after asking a ton of questions on hosting that I would say who I picked and why.
First I the founder and CEO/Pres of Moms Break Inc. which runs several sites including our main site www.MomsBreak.com free printables, our webmaster site www.easyfreecontent.com and a few other sites. Some of which are not open to the public yet. My company earns around $50,000 a year with me working in a home office, setting my own schedule plus I do not have to pay high gas prices on a daily bases nor do I have the expense of lunch and other office actives we all got pulled into.
I had been with Hostrocket for seven years however their support was getting very bad. I had a dedicated server and would call for days on end and not be able to get anyone. I had trouble tickets go days without answers.
I also found out at Hostrocket along with many other companies that on a shared server you are renting space on a managed host however when you get a dedicated server you are renting a server but it is your responsible to manage the backend of the hosting and pay hourly for help, which is by the hour with no idea of how many hours a fix will take.
Which brings me to why I picked Rackspace, even at the cost, it is worth every last penny to have my site watched and someone else who know what they are doing.
I know the basic outlook of most web hosting companies because 1) I called for days on end and spent a month doing research, 2) I heard it on the phone over and over again, “You need to hire an IT person” then I would says; “I don’t want an IT person here full time because I run my business out of a office in my home” which of course the person would immediately suggest shared hosting.
!! That is the minute the minute I would hang up and mark them off my list!!
Most hosting companies are like car dealerships. They want it to be an old boys club. I even ran into this attitude with IBM. However Rackspace was the only company whose salesman was even more interested when I explained I started my business at home to make some extra money when my son was a teenager and having a very horrible rebellious stage. And his little Mom a foot shorter then himself was the only person he was still scared of. I never meant to start a corporation which has grown to the point I have several other Moms working under me with their own web sites which I draw commission off of. I have H.R. Blocks doing my tax advisers, bookkeepers and some business advising. I about, in my pants, when HR Block National Company assigned me my own my Master Tax Adviser and told me to get a lawyer I need to become a corporation and make myself an employee of corporations.
Anyway I also used Reliable Penguin for my migration company. Which I love them because they give flat rates!! YYYYAAAAA - Now I can buy all those scripts I have always wanted but never could get installed myself and they can give me a flat fee to install them. Honestly, I didn’t even know there where companies that could be hired to install scripts then trouble shoot them later if needed. I am ticked to no end!!
Note: They only reason I did not use a host managing company is I wanted everyone under one roof. I want the hosting company managing my web page.
Other problems I found when interviewing hosting possibilities where:
1) First contact was often a kid who was more interested in his pocket video game than talking to me or could not use a full sentence. I wonder if the company was using a tele-service to field initial phone companies. Not a good sign.
2) If I gave them an example of something needing fixed could they give me a “ball park” idea of the hours it would take to fix it? Nearly no one could. I do not like the idea of something going wrong and the company no give me an idea of how to fit long to fix it. I did not want exact time, just 4 to 6 hours type of answer so I would have an idea.
3) Too many expected blind faith from me.
4) Most host web page did not have any type of agreement I could print and keep for future reference if something when wrong.
5) Most company had a very poor facts or knowledge base.
*** No I do not need shared hosting! If I wanted shared hosting then I would have asked for it. But I will save more of that venting for my women in internet business buddies.
Those are just off the top of my head but my biggest reason was I feel I should be treated with the same respect as any other company, I should not become a lesser person because I “work at home” and am a Mom/Women.
There are many more of us Moms with business web page than you programmers, hosting companies and IT people want to admit. Our numbers are growing in leaps due to more family’s wanting Mom to stay home to meet the kids after school and/or using home school or private school due to the horrible stand of public school system.
That why I picked rackspace, whether the salesman was playing along or not in his interest in my “home” business, he still showed me the respect I earned over nine years I have build me business. * The salesman listened to my needs.
Just my 2 cents
Kimberly
P.S. >> (added) Managed hosting like rackspace is not offering things people do not need in my opinion. Yes, we might not need all they give us however, they are smart enough to catering to a market that needs them. Like myself.
I said after asking a ton of questions on hosting that I would say who I picked and why.
First I the founder and CEO/Pres of Moms Break Inc. which runs several sites including our main site www.MomsBreak.com free printables, our webmaster site www.easyfreecontent.com and a few other sites. Some of which are not open to the public yet. My company earns around $50,000 a year with me working in a home office, setting my own schedule plus I do not have to pay high gas prices on a daily bases nor do I have the expense of lunch and other office actives we all got pulled into.
I had been with Hostrocket for seven years however their support was getting very bad. I had a dedicated server and would call for days on end and not be able to get anyone. I had trouble tickets go days without answers.
I also found out at Hostrocket along with many other companies that on a shared server you are renting space on a managed host however when you get a dedicated server you are renting a server but it is your responsible to manage the backend of the hosting and pay hourly for help, which is by the hour with no idea of how many hours a fix will take.
Which brings me to why I picked Rackspace, even at the cost, it is worth every last penny to have my site watched and someone else who know what they are doing.
I know the basic outlook of most web hosting companies because 1) I called for days on end and spent a month doing research, 2) I heard it on the phone over and over again, “You need to hire an IT person” then I would says; “I don’t want an IT person here full time because I run my business out of a office in my home” which of course the person would immediately suggest shared hosting.
!! That is the minute the minute I would hang up and mark them off my list!!
Most hosting companies are like car dealerships. They want it to be an old boys club. I even ran into this attitude with IBM. However Rackspace was the only company whose salesman was even more interested when I explained I started my business at home to make some extra money when my son was a teenager and having a very horrible rebellious stage. And his little Mom a foot shorter then himself was the only person he was still scared of. I never meant to start a corporation which has grown to the point I have several other Moms working under me with their own web sites which I draw commission off of. I have H.R. Blocks doing my tax advisers, bookkeepers and some business advising. I about, in my pants, when HR Block National Company assigned me my own my Master Tax Adviser and told me to get a lawyer I need to become a corporation and make myself an employee of corporations.
Anyway I also used Reliable Penguin for my migration company. Which I love them because they give flat rates!! YYYYAAAAA - Now I can buy all those scripts I have always wanted but never could get installed myself and they can give me a flat fee to install them. Honestly, I didn’t even know there where companies that could be hired to install scripts then trouble shoot them later if needed. I am ticked to no end!!
Note: They only reason I did not use a host managing company is I wanted everyone under one roof. I want the hosting company managing my web page.
Other problems I found when interviewing hosting possibilities where:
1) First contact was often a kid who was more interested in his pocket video game than talking to me or could not use a full sentence. I wonder if the company was using a tele-service to field initial phone companies. Not a good sign.
2) If I gave them an example of something needing fixed could they give me a “ball park” idea of the hours it would take to fix it? Nearly no one could. I do not like the idea of something going wrong and the company no give me an idea of how to fit long to fix it. I did not want exact time, just 4 to 6 hours type of answer so I would have an idea.
3) Too many expected blind faith from me.
4) Most host web page did not have any type of agreement I could print and keep for future reference if something when wrong.
5) Most company had a very poor facts or knowledge base.
*** No I do not need shared hosting! If I wanted shared hosting then I would have asked for it. But I will save more of that venting for my women in internet business buddies.
Those are just off the top of my head but my biggest reason was I feel I should be treated with the same respect as any other company, I should not become a lesser person because I “work at home” and am a Mom/Women.
There are many more of us Moms with business web page than you programmers, hosting companies and IT people want to admit. Our numbers are growing in leaps due to more family’s wanting Mom to stay home to meet the kids after school and/or using home school or private school due to the horrible stand of public school system.
That why I picked rackspace, whether the salesman was playing along or not in his interest in my “home” business, he still showed me the respect I earned over nine years I have build me business. * The salesman listened to my needs.
Just my 2 cents
Kimberly
P.S. >> (added) Managed hosting like rackspace is not offering things people do not need in my opinion. Yes, we might not need all they give us however, they are smart enough to catering to a market that needs them. Like myself.