Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Running a Web Hosting Business : The perfect webhost

[Flammable]

What makes a great host, great? What would be the perfect webhost if your budget was not an issue.

Here is a few of my suggestions

1. You rent all your servers at rackspace.com.
2. You have a person on live support 24/7.
3. You have instant setup.
4. You accept paypal, credit cards and as many payment systems as possible.
5. Phone support, <30 min email support.
6. Never oversell any of your space or bandwidth.
7. Make a reasonable profit margin on your web hosting packages so you can reinvest it. If you have wafer thin profits, how will you expand?
8. Use a control panel system with software like WHM AP or modern bill (dont get heated up... only a suggestion)
9. Email your customers once a month and ask them if their service is okay and if they are happy with all aspects. Once in a while increase space and bandwidth, this is a great PR tactic.
10. Dont use a template for your website... if you cant design websites get one designed by someone who CAN... your website WILL be the most important thing for clients whether you LIKE IT or NOT.

There is my 10.

[Jahnx]

Originally Posted by Flammable

1. You rent all your servers at rackspace.com.

And why do you suggest that?

[kevbo89]

probably because they have the most reliable network , not to mention its like having your own team of techs on watching your server and fixing it around the clock. However that only makes them a good host, not people who use them. good suggestions though.

[RSanders]

1. You rent all your servers at rackspace.com.

How about own all of your servers free and clear plus run the datacenter presence they sit in? Renting servers just isn't the same, but it also means you must have good local staff.

I'll take having the key to the building when there is an issue any day over having a phone to my ear praying someone else does their job.

[successful]

I agree with almost every one of your suggestions excluding "1. You rent all your servers at rackspace.com."

I'm sorry but their network, support and servers are just as good as many other providers out there. The only thing differentiating them is good marketing skills.

I've had a server at RS so I can tell you this first hand.

Have you used RackSpace yourself ?

[Plexi_Hosting]

3. You have instant setup.

As long as it isn't automated, and you add "after phone and/or other fraud verification" - that way the other clients in a shared environment don't have to sit on a server with pegged resources and a blacklisted IP.

[Flammable]

Well, i was talking within reasonable bounds... I still think rackspace is the best server provider out there.

[David]

Let's take a moment and tear this to shreds.

1. You rent all your servers at rackspace.com.
When there are other quality providers? As long as you have a monitoring system in place with technicians available to resolve any issues: What's the difference? I've found inhouse techs. to be a lot mroe 'proactive' than any 3rd party or managed provider.


2. You have a person on live support 24/7.

Why? If you have technicians available to answer tickets 24/7 - why need livechat? Issues can be resolved faster if the client isn't requesting "done yet" "still there?", "?" every 3 seconds.
3. You have instant setup.
Yeah, since fraud is a great thing to help grow!
Instant setup doesn't work - never will and has the potential to destroy providers. Always phone verify every order.

4. You accept paypal, credit cards and as many payment systems as possible.
I agree - multiple payment options are nice.

5. Phone support, <30 min email support.
This should be standard for any company - although I personally feel technical issues can be best dealt with via e-mail. Phone is a waste of breathe (just like livechat) for tech. issues.

6. Never oversell any of your space or bandwidth.
As long as budget isn't an issue: sure!

7. Make a reasonable profit margin on your web hosting packages so you can reinvest it. If you have wafer thin profits, how will you expand?
That's a business management issue. Even cheap hosts can survive.

8. Use a control panel system with software like WHM AP or modern bill (dont get heated up... only a suggestion)

What's wrong with an alternate piece of software?
What does WHMap or modernbill provide that another piece of software can't?

9. Email your customers once a month and ask them if their service is okay and if they are happy with all aspects. Once in a while increase space and bandwidth, this is a great PR tactic.

Any decent host will contact the client every so often to request feedback: that's a given.

10. Dont use a template for your website... if you cant design websites get one designed by someone who CAN... your website WILL be the most important thing for clients whether you LIKE IT or NOT.

What does a website have to do with anything?
As long as it is easy to navigate, provides the client with sufficient information and is accessible by most browsers: Who cares if it's a template?

[SoftWareRevue]

Originally Posted by Plexi_Hosting

As long as it isn't automated, and you add "after phone and/or other fraud verification" - that way the other clients in a shared environment don't have to sit on a server with pegged resources and a blacklisted IP.

Right. I've never been a fan of instant account activation.

Spammers, phishers, and script kiddies probably are though.

[Flammable]

Originally Posted by SoftWareRevue

Right. I've never been a fan of instant account activation.

Spammers, phishers, and script kiddies probably are though.

It is convenient for all customers, whether spammers or not. Do you enjoy waiting for? Not me.

[Plexi_Hosting]

Originally Posted by Flammable

It is convenient for all customers, whether spammers or not. Do you enjoy waiting for? Not me.

It may be convenient, but my clients don't seem to mind waiting Seriously, when I go to a fine restaurant I expect to wait a little bit for the higher quality food. When I go to McDonald's I don't expect a very long wait. I also expect to get what I pay for. Seems to go hand in hand in my book, and I'm sure those here without instant activation haven't had complaints. If you stay on top of things and do the verification quickly, you can give your customers the best of both worlds (or at least close to it).

[[graviton]]

Originally Posted by Flammable

3. You have instant setup.

This is a must, to me atleast. I hate waiting for that Email (Your domain blah.com is setup, etc)

[Aussie Bob]

Originally Posted by David

Let's take a moment and tear this to shreds.

How about rephrase that to "Let's take a moment to offer a different perspective"? Seems much nicer.

Yeah, since fraud is a great thing to help grow!
Instant setup doesn't work - never will and has the potential to destroy providers. Always phone verify every order.

Good advice.

6. Never oversell any of your space or bandwidth.
As long as budget isn't an issue: sure!

I'd like to see any host's pricing, using rackspace servers, and not overselling. Those plans would be a tad on the expensive side, that's for sure.

10. Dont use a template for your website... if you cant design websites get one designed by someone who CAN... your website WILL be the most important thing for clients whether you LIKE IT or NOT.

What does a website have to do with anything?
As long as it is easy to navigate, provides the client with sufficient information and is accessible by most browsers: Who cares if it's a template?

I agree. If the site looks good, and is easy to navigate, is full of good information, then it does what it's supposed to do.

[David]

Originally Posted by Flammable

It is convenient for all customers, whether spammers or not. Do you enjoy waiting for? Not me.

If you enjoy having your mail bounce to every provider: Enjoy!
If companies do not verify the orders: They'll be enjoying every blacklist in existence.

Thus resulting in your e-mails bouncing.
Another thing is if a script kiddie gets on the box and sends out an attack - server might get pulled by the bandwidth provider.. etc.

So downtime, e-mails bouncing and a whole slew of other things will occur often.. clients wouldn't like that.

[Plexi_Hosting]

Originally Posted by [graviton]

This is a must, to me atleast. I hate waiting for that Email (Your domain blah.com is setup, etc)

If you've had to wait for that email more than once (or haven't had to more than once), you've been with the wrong host :-) Seriously, wait once and stay forever if you find the right host - then the instant setup will be irrelevant as you are on a stable server with a higher level of protection. Without good fraud detection in place (a lot of which can be automated and the whole process can be lightning-fast), you might as well choose free hosting with instant setup.