Brand Perception

Brand perception is sometimes overlooked or not even considered when a new host is starting up. Many get set up and the only thing on their mind is, how can we get a lot of customers, and how can we do it fast?

That will only get you so far. You need to decide right at the beginning what type of host you want to be. Of course you want to be a host offering responsive support and a robust service. But that is now a de-facto stanfard in the industry.

Many claim superior support, and "fast" servers but there is no telling if they really are or will be a few months/years down the line. With so many hosts popping up every day (we know, we help start a lot of hosts!) chances are the day you start, is a day many others start with the same ideas as you in mind.

As covered in a previous article a niche will help you out, but that's not enough. It's only a portion of setting yourself apart and standing out. Another portion is brand perception - in other words, how will others see your company? What will they think of your company and what will their initial impressions be?

The initial impressions, what people think of your company etc. are what counts. It's what will stick in the visitors mind when he goes looking at the competition. You need to make sure your company is what s/he will be comparing against. You need to ensure no other company provides the same perception and feeling your company does. Make it so your potential customer will feel privileged and special being part your customer.

Obviously, this is easier said than done. Branding is something a lot of companies spend millions every year to get right. And it can be done, and you don't have to spend millions. Re-branding is difficult & costly. If you're new, small then it can be done cheaply.

So here is your assignment for this week. Get a blank piece of paper and write down what you want your visitors to think when they visit your website. What impression do you want them to have? Easy enough? But to make things more interesting, you need omit the following:
- Offering of great support
- Offering of premium service
- Offering of high uptime

Those are basically something all hosts do. Some so cheesy, they say advertise with premium in their ads. So now you have hundreds of hosts, even ones that are 10mins old claiming to be providing a premium service.

That won't set you apart.

Next week, I'll go through how to take the information, apply it and get your visitors perceiving what you want them to perceive.

If you get stuck, need some help or ideas, feel free to drop me a line at rameen [a t] innohosting.com (replacing [ a t] with @ )

Good luck!

InnoHosting Reseller Hosting & End User Support

I'm usually crawling WHT and other web hosting related forums to get an idea on where this industry is going, what are user demands and so on. One thing I have noticed is more and more people opting for a dedicated solution rather than starting small with a decent Reseller Hosting Account.

People tend to jump straight to a VPS or Dedicated because they believe it makes them more of a host. The sound of saying you have your own server may just be cooler? Either way, it becomes pretty worrying with the amount of people jumping in head first without seeing how deep the water is.

What many don't realise, is that you don't need a dedicated solution. You can save money, time and gain some real hands on experience at a comfortable pace from a reseller account. If you go with a reliable provider (obviously such as InnoHosting!) then you don't have much to worry about in terms of technical aspects.

With a dedicated, you have to be worried about the server being up, secure, optimised, patched and whatnot. With an InnoHosting reseller account, you don't, because we do! We worry about the servers being up, we worry about the security and speed etc.

There may be a perception that unless you have a dedicated solution, you're not really a host. This isn't true. We have customers that earn a very decent living just through our reseller accounts alone. No dedicated solution. They don't want the hassle of a dedicated solution. They want to provide hosting that just works.

Web designers wanting web hosting (specifically reseller hosting) often opt for the reseller account route for the very same reason.

What we've done with our reseller accounts, is ensured it is designed for start ups to get a head start, and for existing businesses to get a boost. We supply all the tools you need to get up and running. Free SSL certificate (GeoTrust RapidSSL), domain reseller, legal documents, hosting templates etc. all fast track you to becoming a full web hosting company. Most importantly, our end user support for reseller hosting customers.

With a dedicated solution, you will need to outsource to somewhere such as India to get end user support for a dedicated solution, and even then - quality control will be a problem.

With InnoHosting, all is based in the US. Our end user support for reseller hosting accounts are already quality controlled. In fact, we are so confident in the quality we let you see the tickets and our responses. We've invested heavily in ensuring no other company in the industry is capable of providing end user support like InnoHosting does.

So forget going for a dedicated solution, a reseller account is where you should be starting your hosting company. If you don't have websites which demand a dedicated solution, then really you don't need it. Save yourself a few hundred dollars a month and spend it on advertising or improvement of services.

Ok, I'm gonna stop there before this whole post ends up sounding like a full on ad!