Hi everyone I am Gabe Wahhab – president of savvy panda. Savvy Panda is a joomla web design and inbound marketing agency based out of Milwaukee wiWe been in business for 11 years now and we work with everyone from small businesses to fortune 500’sIm really heavily involved with the joomla community Co-Founder JUG Milwaukee & JDay MidwestJCM Editor – Business Matters SectionJoomla 3.0 Marketing teamand I am also a Inbound Marketing Certified ConsultantMy background is in computer science I was a programmer by nature but early on in creating my business I realized that functionality was only a small piece of the puzzle and in order to make the functionality we were making successful we needed to get people to the site and we need to design the site in a manner that converted them. And that’s when I got hooked and started becoming a marketing geek and today I want to teach you about some of that marketing geekiness
So lets cut to the chase get to what everyone came for today. Who is the best hosting company?
Guess what your all wrong. It was a trick question. Its not as simple as that. Instead ask who is the right hosting company for me.
Today I am going to give you some criteria so you can pick the right host for you. We are going to discuss different revenue models for hosting and we going to discuss how to price your hosting
Lets first start with the why? Why should you even bother?
You kind of have to. Nobody wants to hear that but we all make websites for a living and the website needs a host in order to work. So in some way shape or form whether you like it or not. You have to deal with hosting.
So if we have to, why not make some profit on it? You can make money on it but its not guaranteed. It’s also a value add for your clients so they can get everything in one spot. They are going to look to you for advice. There are more benefits to like
The possibility of better security. And you will notice I am saying the possibility and as I go through te presentation you will see why.
The possibility of better performance
The possibility of control to your environment or the space ship.
Then of course there is the cons: How much knowledge do you have and how much resources. Sometimes the learning curve can really be frustrating for even those that do have a technical background.
So what are the important items to evaluate in a host?
What are there offerings? Do they offer everything? Do they specialize in shared hosting? Do they specialize in cloud . Do they specialize in server only? How do there offerings meet your clients needs? It’s also good to know that companies that do specialize in niche such as only cloud servers or only vps servers may have more expertise specifically in that area,
Let start with support. So depending on your knowledge level you going to need different levels of support. Some people will need a lot of support while other may prefer no support at all. So some questions you want to make sure you ask about support are:Do they offer support? How does there support match your knowledge level. This is really key. Because you need to compliment any knowledge gaps you have with really good reliable support.Is support phone or email based or both?If phone support is provided are they just order takers?Is support 24 / 7 - 365?Is support 100% based in the US or will Peggy here be providing support?The credentials of support staff? Will a senior tech always be working on my case or do I have to escalate through levels?I have encountered every combination of above explain…You have decide which of the above is important to you based on your knowledge level
Next lets talk about backup. When you spend months working on projects you don’t want to wake up and have months of work just disappear. When the poop hits the fan you want to make sure the data is safe. Don’t assume its safe ever! You think oh company xyz is huge there backus will be solid they will work. WRONGWe have some things go really wrong before always have good backups. How many days of backups do you provide?Are they kept on the same server or different server?Are they kept in the same data center or a different data center?Are they account level backups or server level backups?Can I restore backups or do you have to ?How long will it take to restore backupIs there a charge to restore backup?Is there more than one backup in place?Is it in the same data center or a different data center? Is a raid used on the server?
SSL Certificates: This an are that the hosting company can hold you hostage.Do you support SSL certificates?How much do they cost?Do I have to buy them through you or can I buy my own?If I buy my own do you still charge me to install it?How much do you charge for an IP address?Do I need to host my site and ssl certificate on different IP addresses or will they be the same IP address?
Where is your data center located?How susceptible to acts of god is it?Example of electricity?What specific data center is it in? What kind of security and practices do they use? Look up the DC”s website.Make sure the server is locate din the same continent as your clients users.
What kind of tools do you offer? Cpanel, Plesk, WHMCS, billing tools etc. Dashboards etc. These of course need to fit your skill set as well.
Next we have to learn how to cut through the BS
Hosting reviews and awards don’t trust any of them. They are all BS.they are all fabricated by the companies. Don’t bother with them at all.
All hosts have issues. This uptime guarantee is useless. All it mena sis they might give you a small or 1 month credit for downtime. Is the credt worth the headache of the down time.not even close. Uptime guarantee is not a strong selling point and your site will have downtime at some point..
Joomla hosts. This is all the rage people claiming to be experts in hosting a cms. Do you reserahc test there support. Do they really know what thare talking about
Security. DO they really care about securityor do they care about gettign as many clienst as possibel for the least resources. What version of php and mysql are the doing. Whay are they doing otsecurethe server. Do you hoem work and know whats smoke and mirrors and what is real.
Its really hard work to change your host so get it right the first time. Spend a lot of timing researching and calling many hosts. You will find one that is a good fit. You will be glad you did.
Now lets switch gears and talk about different hosting models
Affiliate Model: Profitability: Lowest | Server Experience Needed: Low The affiliate model has the lowest risk but also the lowest profitability. You simply choose your preferred host, sign up for their affiliate program and each client you refer to them you receive a percentage of the sale. You or your client then will deal directly with the hosting company for support or billing. Pros: Support and server management is provided by the host No need to deal with billing Cons: Minimal control over hosting environment If the client has a bad experience with host it will reflect on you Low profitability
Reseller Model: Profitability: Medium | Server Experience Needed: Low The reseller model allows you to add more profitability without the need of server management. You simply buy a block of websites that you pay monthly for and resell them to your clients at whatever profit you see best fit. Pros: Increased profitability More control over individual accounts Server is still managed by host Cons: Support will fall on your shoulders Billing is handled by you Minimal control over hosting environment
Server Model: Profitability: Highest | Server Experience Needed: Medium to High The server model provides the highest profitability but also requires a vast knowledge of servers and resources to maintain them. The server model can range from going through a hosting company for a dedicated or virtual private server or renting / buying your own equipment at a data center. Many growing businesses end up up in this model without a host that is the right fit or the proper knowledge. This will typically result in disaster through hacked websites or data loss so proceed with caution. Pros: Potential for best profitability Complete control over hosting environment for advanced capabilities Potential greater efficiency for staff Cons: Management of server will mostly fall on you Support will fall on your shoulders Billing is handled by you
