Marin Heideman’s BLOG

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.