Marin Heideman’s BLOG

For the second time, I went to Webhostingday. An annual 3 day event organized in Phantasialand, Brühl (near Köln, Germany). This event is specially organized for Webhosters and Service Providers. The event consist of different presentations, keynotes erc. Besides that, there is a lot of room for social networking. Not only in the morning and afternoon, but also in the evening.

On the last evening, a part was organized for all the visitors. A nice opportunity to meet your colleagues in a different way

Phantasialand really is a perfect location for such an event. A perfect combination of outside walking and inside presentations.

The event itself was very useful. However, as almost every year, it was all about Cloud Computing (2.0), SAAS, DAAS, IAAS etc. A lot of new names for old services.

If you are a webhoster, I really would encourage you to go there next year. I also advise you to make a reservation for one of the park hotels. You really do not want to drive a few miles after the parties

I made a few good deals and met a lot of interesting people!

I never thought that I would say this, but I really like the style and design of Apple.

It started with me buying an iPhone. I now have the iPhone for one year, and I really don’t want another phone anymore. It really is a very good business buddy and personal assistant. The only, and most important, things I use the iPhone for are:

- Checking my e-mail
- Making phone calls
- Browsing the internet

Sure, some Nokia and Android phones are more open, more technical, have more capabilities and are even more stylish… But for the purpose I use a phone, the iPhone is just perfect.

Apple also has some beautiful notebooks like the Macbook, Macbook Pro and Macbook Air. I really like the design, the controls of the Apple OS and de appearance of the notebooks.

But… the price.. Apple is really too expensive. I mean, why should I pay 1500 euro’s for a notebook? Okay, I am willing to pay us much as 900 euro’s for a good notebook, but 1500 euro?? Are they crazy??

Of course real Apple geeks will say that it really is worth my 1500 euro’s, and that only real geeks can afford it..

But for me, it still is a dream right now…

Social media is not only very important (you can find many articles about that discussion, maybe I’ll even post one myself here soon…), it is also very funny! For Example, I use Hyves, Facebook, LinkedIN and Twitter. I am mostly active on LinkedIn and Twitter. Twitter is funny because it is so easy to send out a short message to the world. It is really as easy as ABC! I have “Tweetdeck” on my pc and “Twittelator” on my iPhone. Both are Twitter clients which make it really easy to send a short “tweet”. From everywhere! When I am in the grocery shop (for example) I can let the world know how beautiful the tomatoes are today. (okay, I don’t know if I gather many followers with that kind of tweets)

When I first activated my Twitter account, I really did not know that I would Tweet that often! Maybe it really is a sort of addiction. I am also very interested in the tweets(also about tomatoes) of the people I follow.

But of course It also has a dark(grey) site. I am a businessman and very active on the internet. Therefore, it is important to keep my tweets “clean”. A lot of people are sending tweets like “I am soo drunk right know”. If my customers would read such tweets, they might adjust there opinion about me

But really, try it for yourself! Right now, wait.. I’ll give you the link: http://www.twitter.com. Go there, make an account and start following me. My screen name is http://www.twitter.com/marinh.

Happy tweet!

Yesterday I had a few appointments in the centre of Amsterdam. Afterwards I had to pick up some people at Schiphol airport. But there was a gap from 2 hours between my appointments and the landing of the airplane. So I went to Starbuck’s at Schiphol plaza. It was not very busy. So I ordered a coffee, settled down, took my laptop and I had a very efficient 2 hours.

The concept is so easy, but so perfect. The location of Starbuck’s at Schiphol Plaza is not at the busiest point but a bit away. That is positive, the atmosphere was very calm and nice. And that is the atmosphere Starbucks wants to create. In a lot of countries, business people often meet in a Starbuck’s where they can meet each other in a good atmosphere and enjoy the very good coffee.

As you know, the world is in a economical crisis at the moment, however Starbuck’s is doing well. In the first and second fiscal quarters of 2009 Starbucks saw a dramatically descent of their revenues and profit. But in the third fiscal quarter of 2009 it had an revenue of 2,4 billion USD which is still 0,2 billion USD lower than Q0308 and a profit of 151,1 million USD. Compared to Q0209 where the net earnings were not higher than 25 million USD. So Starbucks is doing better in Q0309 which ofcourse is very positive at this moment.
So I suggest that Starbuck’s will open up more companies in Holland. I am sure this will do only good to their quarterly results!

Source:

http://news.starbucks.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=213

http://news.starbucks.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=249

I went to Freiburg im Breisgau for work (it is in the very south of Germany). Really I could advice you that because Freiburg really is a very nice city. It is a real student city.

However, I went there by train. My train left from Utrecht.. And that was a nightmare.. (okay, now I am exaggerating a bit, I know) Anyhow, I supposed to travel from Utrecht to Frankfurt and change there on the train to Freiburg. But things went a bit different as a Train heading for Amsterdam was defective. So the Deutsche Bahn decided to stop our train at Dusseldorf and let it return to Amsterdam. So there I was in Dusseldorf.

Luckily I could take another route which went via Mannheim. So I was still on time in Freiburg.

You can see the pictures at http://marinheideman.nl

Thijs Alink wrote an article on ISPAM called “Why hostingproviders should have a blog” According to Thijs, there are 3 good reasons:

- To inform new or existing customers
- To introduce new products or services
- To discuss trends in the hostingbranche.

I think Thijs is right. And this article is not only important for webhosters but for all companies. You’ll keep your company interactive with a good blog or news items.

It is, on the other hand, very important to keep your blog up to date. A blog which is not up to date will have a reversed effect.

On my company’s website, I have a news module. Which is a bit like a blog. It is very funny to see that more people are visiting my website once I’ve updates my news corner . That is also because Google is very sensitive with updates and likes it when a website is regularly being updated.

With the current techniques like wordpress, blogging is made really easy. You could have your own blog in a few minutes.

So, if you have a company, make some time to keep and update a company blog. You will soon experience the positive effect!

A lot of companies are telling their customers incorrect things. For example: I know a company which website tells me that this company is Marketleader in its business. But I really know (because of some simple research) that that is not true. However, a lot of potential customers are trusting on this specific sentence. So, sadly enough a lot of potentials are falling for the lies of this company.

My personal is: “Why fake it? Just make it!. When you just work hard enough, that market leadership or that other big dream may not be as far away as you think. Because when you tell your customers lies.. They certainly will find out the truth one day. And that wil cost you some serious sight loss.

For a lot of smaller companies (not only webhosting companies) it is important to unite yourself. Together you stand stronger and you can make a fist to large organizations. For example: registries.

In Holland we have a few hosting associations. The largest one is the DHPA (Dutch Hosting provider Association) But only very large companies like KPN and Wide XS are member. Besides the DHPA there are a few smaller associations. I am member of IspConnect. It is a small but good webhosting association. You may pick out an association which you feel comfortable with. But please keep the following things in mind:

An association with a very small contribution (less than 100 euro) is probably not a serious association. How could you organize members days and other activities with such a small amount of money?

Look at the other members. Are you familiar with the members? Are the members serious companies? Remember that you will be seen as one with the other members…

Is the association “active”. Do some search in Google. Does the organization appear in the media a lot? Do news websites take the association seriously?

I guess there are plenty of guidelines to think about. But the most important one: Look for an association which speaks your language! You have to feel comfortable with it!

Today, I have seen a presentation about acquisitions in the webhosting branch. A lot of webhosting companies want to take over smaller companies. (mostly student companies, or small starters.) I do think that it is a good thing and it is also good for the webhosting market itself. There are dozens of webhosting companies out there with small annual turnovers and bad support to the customers. And the customers mostly don’t see the difference between an expensive or a cheap company. They Usually look at the pricing and choose the cheapest one. Nothing wrong with that, but when it comes to support, most companies are closed… It is about time that the strongest survive and the weakest are taken over by the strong ones.

Although, there is one problem. The pricing of the products. Most small companies (the “student” or “attic” companies) handle with very low prices. I’ve seen a lot of gigabytes for less than 10 euro’s a year. My hosting company is not the cheapest, but certainly not the most expensive company. But if I want to buy such a small company (with low prices) I cannot heighten these prices to the level of mine’s. Customers would not agree with that. So that makes a lot of small companies unattractive to buy. And that is a pity, cause we really need some cleaning in the market!

It is almost time! A new windows version is coming. Gates is already looking for a new boat which he can buy from the royalties he will become. According to Microsoft, Windows 7 is really an evolved Windows version. It will be a huge relief for Windows Vista users, most people think. However, I think Vista isn’t so bad at all. Vista is working fine on normal hardware. Okay, you can’t run vista on your 386 dekstop. But a lot of people always want the newest versions. The so called “early adopters”. But they are experiencing a setback while Vista is not running on their hardware. And these people are killing Vista in the media. But nowadays, if you buy a new computer/laptop with Vista preinstalled, you would not complain so much. Vista with all it’s updates is not so bad at all at the moment.

Okay, I have to admit,. Vista was worse before the release of the first service pack. But so was XP. So would that be different on “7”? My advice: wait till sp1, don’t be an early adopter.