I have not yet launched my new hosting company, what do people like to see in a host (becides the obvious things like nice features, good prices, etc.)

Comments appreciated :D thanks.

Support has to be the most important thing. If you have it they will stay and recommend others. If you don't....it could be a lonely year.

Uptime, speed, redundancy, and a host that actually CARES whether your site is down or you have problems. A host that's willing to put his own site on his servers. I also think a host should be willing to learn more to assist his customers, and actually take a look at what kind intresting sites his clients have put up and maybe start a community forum.

It doesn't have to be perfect, but you should come to meet certain standards. Good luck! :)

A little small addition people look for is that your not selling 'Unlimited' space or/and bandwidth.

People also like the host to have a few clients, ie.. build up, maybe hosting a few family and friends, or some special open deal to get you started.

Look around, check out various hosting companies and see for yourself.

Three things:

1. Support.
2. Support.
3. Support.

Seriously, make sure you're at least reasonable with your support (24-hour turnaround maximum, and that's only when it's an extremely difficult technical question).

Other things that are important.

1. A 30-day money-back guarantee. I won't deal with a host that doesn't offer one because in my humblest of humble opinions, it shows a lack of confidence in the host's services.

2. Detailed package explanations. Lay out absolutely everything a customer gets with the plan so that there's no grey areas and no confusions. If you go with "40 MB space, CGI, 3 MB traffic, $9.99" for example, you'll probably find a lot of people will be turned off your services.

3. As stupid as this sounds, have a site that are resource-intensive hosted by you. A friend of mine hosted an extremely popular (120 GB traffic per month) cam girls site just to show how powerful his servers were and that they could handle extreme traffic and server resource requests. He ended up retiring at 25 to pursue his lifelong dream of going from casino to casino blowing his money and watching the live concerts. It's a tough life but somehow he manages. :) Seriously, try to do something like that...you may not want to go to that extreme but something of that nature (perhaps a Flash games site or something.)

Having a good professional like design fo your site is important so that customers can easily be attracked and not close the broswer after looking at the home page. You may want something simple so try buying a template from WHT or make your own to start with. Futher on into your web hosting business, if you start to become successfull then you could think about hiring a top-notch designer for a nice load of hosting or money. Your site design counts. :)

Clients may also like to know their in a save position with their design, so offering them some help on designs or redirecting them to a good designer could impress your customers.

Domain register (OpenSRS) is a good idea.

Originally posted by Axel Teflon
Having a good professional like design fo your site is important so that customers can easily be attracked and not close the broswer after looking at the home page. You may want something simple so try buying a template from WHT or make your own to start with. Futher on into your web hosting business, if you start to become successfull then you could think about hiring a top-notch designer for a nice load of hosting or money. Your site design counts. :)

Excellent, I really believe that design matters .. Big time. In today's always-on world, a company's Web site is critical to its ability to compete and succeed. Doesn't matter if you are excellent at services, but if your design is not that good and professional, people won't believe in you. So, It matters. If you were able to attract the people once they visited your site, you have won the challenge!

Have a great day!

PS: Of course there are some companies that I don't wanna name them, however they've got an amazing web design, but at services they are not good at all !

Headmaster is absolutely correct. Our sales doubled when we redesigned our company's websitie.

Originally posted by dandanfirema
Headmaster is absolutely correct. Our sales doubled when we redesigned our company's websitie.

Honestly, I really do love your design.. Clean and easy to navigate.

This is the most important thing, Should be very easy to navigate. And leads the visitor straight away to secure online order page. Doesn't mean that your index.html file should be replaced with https://www.yourdomain.com/order.asp :)

Have PHUN all.