3 - Ping! Zine Web Tech Magazine

contents 

7.5 

PING! ZINE 

026 035 

038 041 

046 

026 

web hosting’s 

ethical dilemma 

The web hosting industry (hosting) has been around 

long enough now to be declared a reasonably mature 

industry. That’s not to say that there aren’t a lot of 

changes coming that will make today’s hosting tools 

and practices look archaic in the not-too-distant future. 

But let’s face it – when an industry leader is buying 

Super Bowl ads to tout their wares in a relatively obscure 

manner, respected analysts are reporting on the 

industry, and several industry leaders have gone public 

- the industry has reached a fairly noticeable milestone 

in its life cycle. 

054 

051 

035 

webhosters: join or die! 

038 

webhosting is changing? 

041 

hostingcon 2009 wrap-up 

046 

close your affiliate program? 

051 

10 reminders for web hosting remotes 

052 

Ping! Zine Service Directory 

054 

professionals of merit 

004 | Ping! Zine magazine

BITS & BYTES 

7.5 

PING! ZINE 

012 014 

016 018 

019 

012 

HOSTINGCON 2009 EXHIBITOR AWARDS 

014 

THE FIRST DOMAIN SOLD 

LICENSING AGREEMENT EXTENDS 

016 

YAHOO! PUTS FOCUS ON “Y!OU” 

Botnet Causes Click Fraud 

018 

Gov 2.0: FBI Official Fills In As Acting 

Cybersecurity Chief 

019 

TWITTER OR FACEBOOK? 

020 

CARPATHIA NAMES NEW VP & CMO 

CODERO TO OPEN NEW DATA CENTER 

022 

EvoSwitch Appoints Eric Boonstra as 

Managing Director 

020 

023 


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Publisher Keith Duncan 

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Ping! Zine Web Hosting Magazine © Oct - Nov 2009, 

Published and Copyrighted 2009 by PINGZINE, LLC, P.O. Box 

516, Denham Springs, LA 70726. All rights reserved. 

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056 Host Gator 


Ping! Zine magazine | 009



its & 

bytes 

HOSTINGCON 2009 

EXHIBITOR AWARDS 

HostingCon this year was great. We visited many booths and made lots of new friends. All of which, 

may I say, were very creative. Because of everyone’s tremendous efforts to outdo the other booths, 

our team at Ping! Zine decided to issue awards. We simply based the award categories on the 

most unique booths and swag giveaways. To top it off, we created plaques to send to each winner 

(Obvisously the most prestigious award in the Web Hosting Industry). 

Congratulations to our winners. We are looking forward to seeing everyone’s booth next year. 

cPanel 

Most Delicious 

cPanel won this award for their delicious cookies that were baked fresh at their booth. 

COMODO 

Most Fire Power 

COMODO provided just about everyone at this years HostingCon with a Nerf Gatlin Gun. Many 

eyes may have been poked out because of this. 

REALTIME REGISTER 

Best Dressed 

You may have thought the guys at REALTIME REGISTER were the outrageously dressed, but we 

at Ping! Zine give them props for their very stylish metallic silver pants. Where can we get some 

of those? 

FuseMail 

Best Swag 

By far the coolest swag given away this year was by FuseMail. They gave away remote control 

helicopters like they had a limitless supply. 


RACKMOUNT SPECIALISTS 

Smallest Racks 

Small racks are not always a bad thing and RACKMOUNT SPECIALISTS proved that to us by 

demoing their new Gemini Twin Servers. 

Black Lotus 

Best Gamers 

Black Lotus set up an arcade at the entrance of the exhibit hall that featured multiple televisions, 

gaming systems and chairs. If you needed to chill, this was the place to do so. 

bobcares 

Most Original Swag 

bobcares usually brings some pretty unique swag every year, and this year was no different. 

Though I’m not quite sure what it was (maybe a mail holder), it was hand-made and very different 

from any other swag in the exhibit hall. 

InstaCarma 

Most Bling 

Bling! Bling! InstaCarma gave away gold! 

iWeb 

Best Travel Container 

This was a category made up by one of our editors. He found the iWeb water bottles to be a very 

handy container to put all his toiletries in for the flight back home. 

Parallels 

Coolest Booth 

Parallels booth this year was big, loud and in your face. It also featured an oxygen bar that was 

very popular with many guest and exhibitors at the convention. 


its & 

bytes 

LICENSING 

AGREEMENT EXTENDS 

SmarterTools and Microsoft Patent 

Licensing Agreement Extends 

(Gawkwire.com) A recent licensing agreement between 

Microsoft Corp. and SmarterTools Inc. extends Microsoft’s 

patented Exchange ActiveSync technology to more than 

15 million end users through the latest version of the 

SmarterMail mail server. The agreement provides a patent 

license to SmarterTools for this industry-leading technology 

and allows Microsoft to expand its reach to include 

SmarterTools’ robust customer base, which encompasses 

hosting/service providers, enterprises, and small to 

medium sized businesses. 

THE FIRST 

DOMAIN SOLD 

(Gawkwire.com) On March 15, 1985, the Internet officially became 

active with the registration and use of the Symbolics.com domain 

name. Now, nearly 25 years later, there are over 180,000,000 

registered domains in use. The Symbolics company continues to 

operate, but the domain asset has been sold to XF.com. 

Symbolics.com, widely known as the first and oldest domain name, 

has changed hands for the only time since its original registration in 

1985. XF.com Investments, based in Missouri, has purchased the 

unique Internet address for use in their business. 

“We are extremely excited to own the Symbolics.com domain 

name,” said Aron Meystedt (29), CEO of XF.com Investments. “Since 

our core business is Internet investments, we really pursued the 

purchase of the original domain name, Symbolics.com. For us to own 

the first domain is very special to our company, and we feel blessed 

for having the ability to obtain this unique property.” 

The original Symbolics company pioneered computer development. 

Symbolics designed and manufactured a line of Lisp machines; 

single-user computers optimized to run the Lisp programming 

language. The Lisp Machine was the first commercially available 

“workstation” (although that word had not yet been coined). 

Symbolics also made significant advances in software technology 

and offered one of the premier software development environments 

of the 1980s and 1990s.** 

XF.com says they have plans for the domain name, and are creating 

something special for the 25th anniversary of this URL. “On March 

15, 2010, Symbolics.com will celebrate its 25th year,” Meystedt says. 

“This is a special milestone for all of us. The Internet has changed 

the face of business and entertainment, and to celebrate the 25th 

Anniversary of the domain that started it all is very special.” 

“We are pleased to work with SmarterTools to provide 

Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to SmarterMail users,” 

said David Kaefer, general manager of intellectual property 

licensing at Microsoft. “This technology is being sought out 

by our partners and competitors alike because it enhances 

their value proposition to their customers, and we believe 

that to be a testament to the innovation taking place at 

Microsoft.” 

Microsoft has been licensing the Exchange ActiveSync 

protocol for mobile devices since 2003, and SmarterTools 

joins a growing number of companies licensing the 

Exchange ActiveSync patents for implementation on a 

server. 

Under the terms of the patent licensing agreement, 

SmarterMail 6.x users have the ability to synchronize 

emails, calendars, contacts, and notes between mobile 

devices in real time using Exchange ActiveSync’s Direct 

Push technology. 

SmarterTools has packaged the SmarterMail 6.x 

Exchange ActiveSync add-on differently than other 

providers, resulting in a yearly subscription priced well 

below competitive solutions. In addition, SmarterTools 

allows customers to add Exchange ActiveSync to only the 

mailboxes that need the technology, making adoption of 

the add-on easy and affordable for small to medium sized 

businesses (SMBs) and the ISP/hosting industry. 

Scalable and easy to manage, SmarterMail 6.x features: 

a rich Webmail interface, reporting, events/notifications, 

throttling, message archiving, intrusion detection/ 

prevention, advanced synchronization with Microsoft 

Outlook, over-the-air support for BlackBerry, iPhone, 

and Windows Mobile devices and optional add-ons 

for Exchange ActiveSync and Commtouch Antispam. 

Enhanced antispam, antivirus, and security features 

provide superior protection out-of-the-box. 

SmarterMail is available at the SmarterTools Web site and 

through authorized resellers. 


Kayako 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kayako.com 

 


its & 

bytes 

YAHOO! PUTS 

FOCUS ON “Y!OU” 

(Gawkwire.com) Yahoo! Inc. is asserting its place at the center of people’s 

online lives. The company announced today that it has realigned all aspects 

of its business around simplifying and enhancing the Web experience for 

people throughout the world. To underscore its commitment, Yahoo! is 

launching a global brand campaign to celebrate its connection with people 

and communicate core product enhancements. 

“Today the Web and your world are inseparable,” said Yahoo! Chief 

Executive Officer Carol Bartz. “Hundreds of millions of people use Yahoo! 

® to get the information they need, connect with friends and family, and 

be entertained. We are about creating online experiences people find 

meaningful, relevant, and fun.” 

The brand campaign launched on September 28 in the United States and 

October 5th in the United Kingdom and India, and extends into 2010. It will 

reach major and emerging markets worldwide, including Brazil, Canada, 

France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, and Taiwan. 

“Our vision is to be at the center of people’s online lives—to be at the 

place where their world meets the larger world,” said Elisa Steele, Yahoo! 

executive vice president and chief marketing officer, speaking at the IAB 

MIXX Conference and Expo in New York City. “Our new branding will focus 

on people—the power and promise of ‘you.’” 

“This is much more than an advertising campaign,” added Steele. “It’s 

about how Yahoo! delivers its promise to the market in everything we do. 

Our brand strategy shows our commitment to delivering personally relevant 

online experiences.” 

Extensive consumer research led to Yahoo!’s brand campaign. Input from 

millions of Yahoo! users all over the globe emphasized the importance of 

simplification and personal relevance. 

Botnet Causes Click Fraud 

(WebHost Blog) The Bahama botnet, so coined from Click 

Forensics, has found a means to mask their clicks and traffic 

as legitimate clicks and because of this click fraud will be 

seeing a surge. 

It is really an elegant solution. First off its a botnet, so these 

clicks are coming from a variety of IPs which gets past the basic 

click fraud filter (too many clicks from the same IP automatically 

gets flagged as fraudulent). Second the botnet masks the source 

of the clicks. So instead of the PPC networking seeing the clicks 

come from some non-disclosed location in the Bahamas, the 

network sees the click as coming from a university, government 

office, or even libraries. Thirdly, this is not a strong arm tactic, 

the intervals between fraudulent clicks is interspersed, thus the 

network could click an ad then wait an hour to click it again or it 

could wait six minutes or 38 minutes, whatever. 

The means by which the infection spread was also equally 

elegant. Remember not too long ago that the New York Times 

was tricked into putting a malicious ad on their web site. That 

had a hand in this. Also the Facebook virus scare dubbed Fan 

Check likewise had a hand in this. The malware used in the virus 

removal kits for the Fan Check “virus” and the malware used 

with the Times ad are eerily similar to the malware used with the 

Bahama botnet. 

The problem with an attack like this is, its very hard to determine 

what is fraud and what isn’t. I would liken it to spam. Some spam 

is very easy to catch just like some click fraud is clumsy and 

easily found. Its when the fraud begins to mimic normal human 

patterns is where you have the difficulty and if the code for the 

Bahama botnet becomes more refined it may be nigh impossible 

to separate fraud from truth. 


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its & 

bytes 

Gov 2.0: FBI Official Fills In 

As Acting Cybersecurity Chief 

(Information Week) A Department of Justice official has stepped in 

as acting White House Senior Director for cybersecurity, Federal 

CTO Aneesh Chopra said today during a meeting with reporters at 

the Gov 2.0 Summit. 

Chris Painter joins the White House on detail from the Federal 

Bureau of Investigation, where he has served as Deputy Assistant 

Director of the cyber division since last year and has worked for 

years on cybercrime and cybersecurity issues. 

Last month, then-acting White House Senior Director for 

cybersecurity, Melissa Hathaway -- who had led the 60-day 

cybersecurity policy review that recommended the creation of a 

federal cybersecurity coordinator position -- stepped down amid 

speculation that she was being passed over for that position. She 

also told the Washington Post that she felt she wasn’t empowered 

to drive change in federal cybersecurity policy. 

It is unclear how long Painter will remain at the White House, 

but Chopra says the White House is “on track” to name a federal 

cybersecurity coordinator, a position President Obama announced 

in a widely covered speech in May, in the “not too distant future.” 

Chopra said he has been actively involved in the hiring process, 

and has interviewed a number of “top notch” candidates. However, 

he declined to name any of the top contenders for the job. 

It has been more than 90 days since President Obama outlined 

his cybersecurity strategy and announced the imminent creation of 

a cybersecurity coordinator position, and no appointee has been 

named. That delay, and reports that some of the government’s top 

choices have turned down the job, have dampened expectations 

for the post by some observers. 

Others, however, remain convinced that the cybersecurity 

coordinator will play an important lead role in cybersecurity. Phil 

Reitinger, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland 

Security for the National Protection and Programs Directorate 

and director of the National Cyber Security Center, said late last 

month that he expects the cybersecurity coordinator to be the 

central locus for cybersecurity the President had in mind when he 

announced the position. 


TWITTER 

OR FACEBOOK? 

Study finds Twitter Used More Frequently 

in Email Marketing Than Facebook 

(Gawkwire.com) MailChimp recently analyzed more than 1 

billion emails sent since January 2009 to track the inclusion 

of links to Twitter and Facebook. The data shows an 84% 

increase in email campaigns that include links to Twitter 

compared to a 66% increase in campaigns that feature 

Facebook. In 2008, neither site was linked in many email 

marketing campaigns - a mere 0.49% of users included any 

social media links in their emails. 

What may be more interesting about the study, however, is 

that social media and email are being used to complement 

one another. In a 2008 survey by MarketingSherpa.com, 36% 

of respondents predicted that social media would gradually 

replace email as the primary way businesses communicate 

with their customers. Instead, MailChimp’s research shows that 

the two are working very well together, with each adding its 

unique benefits. 

“We find Twitter, Facebook and email all serve very different 

purposes in our marketing strategy,” says Candace McWhirter 

of 7 Stages Theatre. “We use Twitter for short messages, 

Facebook for networking and email campaigns for in-depth 

information and updates.” 

Twitter was founded in 2006 and quickly grew into a socialmedia 

powerhouse, allowing people to share updates, links, 

photos and more. Unlike Facebook, where friends must 

mutually agree to share information, Twitter’s public publishing 

platform allows businesses to monitor what their customers are 

saying about them. 

MailChimp offers several tools marketers can use to integrate 

Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites into their email 

campaigns and online marketing strategies. Auto-tweet and 

URL-shortening features automatically shorten the links to 

users’ email campaigns and then post to Twitter for them as 

soon as their campaigns are sent. Then, MailChimp will track 

how many times the campaign was tweeted and retweeted and 

by whom, adding the data to users’ reports dashboard. 

MailChimp has also released a special Twitter email template 

within their application. In the Twitter template, the right 

side-column displays the sender’s Twitter information as 

well as their most recent tweets. The user can then edit the 

main column to include their regular newsletter content. This 

template allows MailChimp users to fully integrate Twitter into 

their email campaigns, and further promote their social media 

presence. 

“At MailChimp, we’ve always rolled our eyes at n00bs who 

proclaimed that instant messaging, then RSS, then blogs, then 

mobile, then “myfacetwitter” was going to kill email,” says Ben 

Chestnut, Co-Founder of MailChimp. “What’s important here is 

that they’re *all* great tools for businesses to stay in touch with 

customers. And with MailChimp, you can mash up all those 

technologies into something even awesomer.” 


its & 

bytes 

CARPATHIA NAMES 

NEW VP & CMO 

(Gawkwire.com) Carpathia Hosting, the leading provider 

of enterprise managed hosting services for government 

agencies and businesses, announced today the addition of 

Brian Winter to the Carpathia management team as Vice 

President and Chief Marketing Officer. 

In his new role, Winter will be responsible for the 

company’s overall marketing strategy with a focus on 

growing awareness of the company, expanding its 

presence in the federal sector and maximizing the recent 

acquisition of ServerVault. Winter will report directly to 

Carpathia Hosting CEO, Peter Weber. 

“It is an exciting time to join the management team at 

Carpathia Hosting,” said Winter. “Strong, profitable, organic 

growth over the last five years, coupled with the recent 

acquisition of ServerVault, puts Carpathia Hosting in a 

strong industry position. I look forward to partnering with 

the rest of the Carpathia Hosting management team to 

build on our success and accelerate our growth.” 

An experienced sales and marketing executive, Winter 

has led global sales and marketing teams inside Fortune 

500 companies as well as built successful sales and 

marketing teams for high-growth technology firms such as 

SevenSpace and USWeb. 

“Brian’s extensive experience and long track record of 

delivering results within the high-tech industry make him 

uniquely qualified to lead Carpathia Hosting’s marketing 

initiatives. His addition to the team further reinforces 

our commitment to establishing ourselves as one of the 

leaders in the hosting industry,” said Weber. “Beyond his 

marketing expertise, Brian will be a key member of the 

Carpathia management team and will play an active role as 

we continue to build on our extraordinary growth.” 

Prior to joining Carpathia Hosting, Winter served as Vice 

President, Global Virtualization Software Sales at Sun 

Microsystems and as Vice President of Marketing for the 

Services business unit. Winter’s responsibilities included 

the overall strategic direction and day-to-day management 

of the global services marketing organization including 

product marketing, go-to-market programs, field marketing 

and marketing communications for the $5 billion Services 

division. 

Winter is an active member of the technology community, 

acting as a spokesperson in the industry and has 

presented on a wide variety of information technologyrelated 

topics in over 20 countries worldwide. 

CODERO TO OPEN 

NEW DATA CENTER 

(Gawkwire.com) Featuring high-performance connectivity, 

advanced power systems, and multi-layered security, Codero’s 

newest data center promises to take server and hosting reliability 

to the next level. Located in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, the 

22,000-square-foot facility will house 8900 dedicated servers 

-- along with space for offices and provisioning -- upon its 

completion in November 2009. The Phoenix data center also 

places a premium on physical security, power conditioning and 

backup, staff expertise, critical systems monitoring, and best-inclass 

network technology to ensure uptime and a fully redundant 

IT infrastructure. 

“As our customers’ hosting and server demands continue to 

grow, we welcome the challenge of staying ahead of the curve to 

meet their needs through our data centers,” says Shawn Hashmi, 

Director, Operations for Codero. “That means complete power 

redundancy, on-site security, SAS 70 certification-- whatever 

it takes to fully support small- and -medium-sized businesses 

online.” 

Codero’s Phoenix data center features advanced technology, 

power, security and networking capabilities: 

24/7 staffing by experienced data center technicians and 

engineers 

Card access control at all interior/exterior doors and round-theclock 

interior surveillance 

All utility power backed by uninterruptible power supply (UPS) 

systems in the event of outages, with every server receiving 

conditioned UPS power 

On-site diesel generator backup should extended power outages 

occur 

HVAC systems are redundant -- remaining units will absorb the 

additional load in the event of a primary system failure 

Only fully redundant, enterprise-class routing equipment 

Dry-pipe, pre-action double interlock fire suppression system with 

a Pre-Action Sprinkler backup system 

Regular facilities monitoring, testing and servicing for all critical 

electrical components, environmental systems, and security to 

ensure high availability and reliability 


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its & 

bytes 

EvoSwitch Appoints 

Eric Boonstra as Managing Director 

(Gawkwire.com) EvoSwitch, the carrier-neutral data center in Amsterdam that operates fully CO2-neutral, has appointed Eric 

Boonstra (44) to the position of Managing Director as of 1 September 2009. He was initially hired as Commercial Director at 

the beginning of 2009. His promotion is related to the expansion of EvoSwitch 

Since its establishment at the beginning of 2007, general management duties at the energy-efficient data center have been 

handled by one of the owners of EvoSwitch. Due to the international growth ambitions of EvoSwitch, the parent company, 

OCOM Group, decided to transfer general management responsibilities to Eric Boonstra. Practically speaking, this will result in 

a major expansion of Boonstra’s responsibilities. 

Boonstra was hired by EvoSwitch in March 2009 as Commercial Director. In this position, he was given the responsibility 

of further expanding EvoSwitch’s existing client portfolio, with a focus not only on the Netherlands but in particular on the 

international portfolio. In his new position as Managing Director of EvoSwitch, he will also be responsible for the operational 

side of the data center. He will be supported in this regard by an Operations Manager, who is yet to be appointed. 

Data Center USA 

“I am of course quite pleased that the owners of EvoSwitch have demonstrated their confidence in me in this manner,” says 

Managing Director Eric Boonstra. “My new position will enable me to effectively coordinate the operational and commercial 

aspects of the data center and ensure that our sales team can respond optimally to our clients’ wishes. In addition, the new 

position provides a solid basis for realizing the international growth ambitions which have been defined by the parent company, 

the OCOM Group. As a result, the owners of EvoSwitch will be free to realize the desired international expansion, and I will be 

able to focus on further upgrading the professional excellence of the organization.” 


“It is no secret that our long-term ambition is to expand our presence at various international locations,” explains Boonstra. 

“Our growth ambitions also target the US market.” 

Enterprise Data Center 

EvoSwitch still has a great deal of capacity for expansion in the region of Amsterdam, not only in terms of the square 

meters of floor space available but also in terms of further expanding the power capacity. Nevertheless, EvoSwitch 

thinks it is already necessary to look for external expansion opportunities. Boonstra: “We serve large clients such as 

Wikipedia and Koninklijke Joh. Enschedé. These enterprises and other clients with international sales markets often 

wish to satisfy their data center requirements at various geographical locations, due to the need for redundancy or in 

order to reduce latency effects. We aim to satisfy these needs.” 

Market conditions for expansion are favorable at present. Boonstra: “EvoSwitch is a financially sound company 

exhibiting strong growth in the present economic recession, and it has promising future growth perspectives. EvoSwitch 

has a strong brand name which stands for innovation in the area of cooling efficiency and energy savings. Multiple 

clients in the US and England are very familiar with EvoSwitch and know what we can do for them. In addition, present 

market conditions in combination with the good solvency of our own organization offer an excellent opportunity to invest 

in further expansion under favorable conditions.” 

Boonstra previously worked as Branch Director at Alfa Delta Compendium, where he managed a business unit which 

provided purchasing process support and advice to various companies, including banks and insurance, IT and logistics 

companies.



Y ROBERT WRIGHT 


WEB 

HOSTING’S 

ETHICAL 

DILEMMA 

The web hosting industry (hosting) has been around long enough now to 

be declared a reasonably mature industry. That’s not to say that there aren't 

a lot of changes coming that will make today’s hosting tools and practices 

look archaic in the not-too-distant future. But let’s face it – when an 

industry leader is buying Super Bowl ads to tout their wares in a relatively 

obscure manner, respected analysts are reporting on the industry, and 

several industry leaders have gone public - the industry has reached a 

fairly noticeable milestone in its life cycle. Despite this maturation, and 

perhaps because of the way the industry has evolved, the predominant web 

hosting infrastructure model has led to some ethical dilemmas for hosting 

providers. The varied response from hosting providers to these ethical 

issues has directly and indirectly resulted in notable customer satisfaction 

issues and frequent customer migration within the industry. 


Industry Background 

To understand the core ethical dilemma, one needs to first look at how the industry evolved. Early hosting providers, the 

pioneers of the industry, typically had to be technology-savvy. They would often manually set up web servers and install 

websites for customers, or would build custom tools to automate many of the common setup tasks. As increasing demand 

for outsourced hosting drove rapid industry growth, a critical mass of providers was achieved that justified a market for 

superior third-party automation tools. Control panels (e.g. cPanel , Plesk), billing systems (e.g. Modernbill ) and other tools 

offered hosting providers the ability to automate some of their common tasks, and enabled customers to service themselves 

for many basic needs. The convenience of getting these best-of-breed automation tools without in-house programming led 

many hosting providers to adopt the third-party solutions. In addition, the web server of choice quickly grew to be the "free" 

Linux-based Apache option, with Windows being a less-popular second alternative. Other web servers quickly grew out of 

favor (from a market-share viewpoint). 

As hosting providers continued this technical evolution, a relatively standard menu of hosting services became common 

across most vendors. The hosting infrastructure typically included either the Linux or Windows operating systems, cPanel 

or Plesk control panels, and one of a few common third-party billing systems. Combined with common hardware platforms, 

the offerings across industry providers became markedly similar. From a customer perspective, this evolution led to the 

appearance of a commodity market. 

C 

M 

Y 

CM 

MY 

CY 

CMY 

K 

The Web Hosting Commodity 

As common tools and platforms reduced the apparent differentiation among hosting providers, another driving force further 

accelerated the industry towards a commodity market. Third-party companies began offering pre-configured web hosting 

servers for-rent in secured, managed datacenters. Some of these companies were datacenters that added this service to 

gain a share of a growing new market. Others were third-party companies that leased space in existing datacenters and 

then re-sold it to web hosting intermediaries. The combination of relatively standard third-party tools and managed hosting 

platforms significantly lowered the technical and financial barriers to entry for new web hosting companies, which led to a 

plethora of new entrants to the industry. This growth accelerated the trend towards a commodity market. 

The perception of a commodity market in the web hosting industry put intense pressure on vendors to find a new way to 

compete. A typical reaction in a commodity market is to compete on price, either by offering a lower price for the same 

product, or a higher price that includes more of a given offering (e.g. more features, or a larger quantity of a similar feature). 

In the hosting industry, this amounted to companies offering more bandwidth, disk space, email accounts or other features at 

lower prices than other companies. 

Price is an easy differentiator to match, so a steady downward trend in pricing occurred as competitors reacted to each 

other's discounting. Commensurate with the trend toward lower prices, an upward trend began in the features and quantities 

offered for a given price. Soon, many companies were offering "unlimited" amounts of some features, and incredibly high 

amounts of other features. For example, a quick survey of hosting companies at the time of this article showed a variety of 

hosting companies offering "unlimited storage" and "unlimited bandwidth". 


Profit. With the Parallels Service Provider Partner Program. 

The needs of your customers are changing, fast. Parallels’ Service Provider Partner Program helps you adopt 

enabling technologies — like virtualization and automation — so you can better serve your customers, bring more 

value to your offerings, and increase revenue for your business. 

Learn how you can become a Parallels Partner by visiting 

www.parallels.com/partners. 


Overselling 

Offers by web hosting companies of quantitative features that begin with exciting adjectives like "unlimited" beg the simple 

question: how can a company offer unlimited space, bandwidth and (insert your favorite feature here)? Let's explore this 

question by taking a look at some of the features of a typical high-end web hosting server, as shown in Table 1 (Softlayer , n.d.): 

C 

Item 

Server 

Public Bandwith 

Hard Drives 

Details 

Quad Processor Quad Core Intel 7320 - 4x4MB cache 

2000 GB Bandwidth 

4 x 1.00TB SATA II 

M 

Y 

CM 

MY 

CY 

Looking at the selected server, we note that the bandwidth is limited to 2000GB per month, with 4 Terabytes of disk space 

(some of which will be used by the platform), and four processors. This is a fairly expensive machine to rent or purchase, 

and has more server capacity than many hosting companies currently use. Web hosting companies will often put 50- 

1000+ websites on each shared server (Ratemyhost, n.d.) depending on the resource needs of their customers and the 

specifications of their servers. Simple math shows that none of the customers can truly use much (let alone unlimited) 

bandwidth or space, or the server will run out of resources. For example, if the Web Server has 500 customers on it, and 

the average bandwidth usage is 5GB at any time, the server will go over its limit since the aggregate usage at this point is 

2500GB. Limits can be expanded, of course, but this costs additional money, and when shared hosting accounts are selling 

for less money per month than a premium cup of coffee, hosting providers may not be able to afford the additional expenses. 

CMY 

K 

We could argue about whether Web Host A uses even more powerful servers than this, or Web Host B owns their own 

datacenter, etc., but the point remains - there is a finite limit to the available space and bandwidth for any given server, 

aggregated group of servers (e.g. grid ), or datacenter. It's pretty obvious, therefore, that many hosting companies are 

selling resources that they don't actually have, i.e. they are overselling. 

The Core Dilemma 

Given the vast amount of overselling in the hosting industry, the question arises as to whether the practice is ethical. Before 

making a snap judgment, however, one should consider other analogous industries. For example, electrical utility companies 

typically oversell their product of electricity. They will typically determine potential peak use, in combination with growth rates 

and other factors, decide how much risk of running out of capacity they (or the regulating agencies) are willing to accept, 

and implement the infrastructure necessary to support the chosen capacity. The risk of this approach is that customers will, 

at times (e.g. during exceptionally hot weather), use enough electricity to cause brownouts or even blackouts. To prevent 

these outages completely would require sufficient infrastructure to support a worst-case scenario - all customers using their 

maximum amount at the same time. The cost of this infrastructure would greatly increase the fees that consumers pay for 

service. So the trade-off is clear: choose the lesser evil among "higher prices" and "overselling risks." 


Offer More. With Parallels Automation. 

With the Parallels Automation suite, you can completely automate 

your business and empower your customers, from a single software 

platform. Parallels increases your revenue per user by enabling the 

widest set of automated services including hosted Microsoft 

Exchange with many add-on services, shared hosting, Microsoft 

SharePoint, virtual private servers, SaaS and more. 

Don’t settle for just another plain vanilla solution — give your 

customers more of the good stuff with Parallels Automation! 

www.parallels.com/pas 


The web hosting overselling situation resulted directly from the competitive, commodity-type market discussed previously. As prices 

came down to the point where they couldn't be lowered anymore without risking business failure, many vendors oversold their 

products by greater and greater amounts, in an attempt to show consumers that they were getting "more" for the same price if they 

chose a specific hosting company. To some extent, many consumers helped propagate the overselling situation, by migrating to other 

providers when they saw lower prices or more "features", thereby rewarding the practice. The end result of this competitive spiral is 

exactly what one would expect - offers of unlimited (or unreasonably high) feature quantities at unrealistically low prices. 

Is overselling ethical? We can see from the electrical utility analogy that some level of overselling is necessary in order to keep prices 

reasonable. Similarly, in the web hosting industry, customers have clearly shown a preference for overselling by their buying patterns. 

So, we need to stop looking at the issue as an either-or scenario, i.e. overselling or not overselling, and instead look at the degree of 

overselling involved. Consider the following chart: 

If a web hosting provider were to oversell their available server resources by 10%, it's unlikely that any customers would 

be impacted. In the server example outlined previously, this means that 2200GB of bandwidth use (potential) and 4.4TB 

of disk space would be sold. Since most customers do not use all of their allocated resources, it's highly unlikely that 

the server limits would ever be breached. 

Contrast this with a scenario where the web host oversells the available resource by 200%. In this case, our sample 

server would have 4000GB of bandwidth sold in addition to its 2000GB of capacity, and a total of 12TB of disk space 

sold. In this scenario, it is likely that, over time, resource limits would cause problems. 

Ethics come into play, then when a server is oversold to the point that the hosting provider knows in advance that it 

will create problems for customers later on (we'll call this over-overselling). Where this point is on the above continuum 

depends on many variables, making it difficult to regulate at this point in time. Individual web hosts, however, have a 


good idea of their target market and know their customer base well, so it's quite possible for them to plan resources 

such that overselling does not surpass reasonable limits. 

Some web hosts compound the ethical issue, by overselling beyond reasonable limits (e.g. "unlimited bandwidth"), and then using 

other technical limits (e.g. CPU usage, acceptable use of data transfer policies) in their terms of service to make it impossible for 

customers to use much of their allocation without violating some other limit. 

Hosting companies that do not over-oversell are under increased pressure to do so, as potential customers see more features 

available for lower cost at other companies. Anthony Drimones, Chief Operations Officer of Medicatch LLC states , "We have felt 

increased pressure to raise our overselling percentages over the last few years due to a majority of competitors offering unrealistic 

storage and bandwidth limits to entice customers. However, MediaCatch has resisted this pressure as we believe that our reputation 

for high-quality hosting services is more important in the long run. We feel that the "fine print" limits that competitors offer will do more 

bad than good if we were to match their tactic. Overall, the guesswork that's involved when shopping for a host has really put a heavy 

burden on consumers to conduct thorough research before selecting a hosting company. We suggest that consumers look further 

than the price and core features when comparing hosts to get an accurate picture of where the company stands and to ensure that 

their needs are met." 

While customers might not be directly aware of the over-overselling issue, they can experience symptoms of it when a shared server 

they are using experiences performance problems, or service interruptions. Many performance issues are related to other matters, 

of course, but over-overselling increases the likelihood of these issues over time. In addition, customers using over-oversold shared 

servers may also experience abrupt service interruptions due to violations of the terms of service. These performance issues and 

service interruptions can quickly lead to customer dissatisfaction, which then leads to customer migration. 

Conclusion 

In order to improve the industry reputation, web hosting providers need to limit overselling to a justifiable percentage. In addition, the 

reliance on substitute technical limits to prevent usage of sanctioned limits is deceptive, and should be discouraged by ethical hosting 

companies. Customers can help drive the industry towards overselling limits by asking candidate hosting companies for their overselling 

percentage as one of their buying criteria. With upfront disclosure of overselling percentages and the elimination of substitute technical 

limits, hosting companies have an opportunity to improve their quality of service and increase customer satisfaction. P!


Y david dunlap 

webhosters 

JOIN, OR DIE! 

The concept of Join, or Die; originated a little more than 200 years ago, created by Benjamin Franklin 

and was the first political cartoon published in the Americas. The basic principle is that several small 

groups cannot hope to defeat a larger one as separate entities. In order to be successful, the smaller 

groups would have to unite. This ideal helped fuel the birth of the United States, join together and fight 

as one or die separately. 

This concept is not new, even back then. T’ai Kung in the Six Secret Teachings and Sun Tzu in the Art 

of War both describe how numerical advantages, when used properly, can destroy opponents centuries 

earlier. We can see this is a practical business sense as companies like Google continue to eat up their 

competition. Buying out companies and adding their software and technologies to further the power of 

Google. 

I guess the next question is so what? Well let’s now switch gears. 

As the weeks go by, in fact, we are seeing large companies moving into the Web Hosting arena. Though 

this has happened often in the past, and has failed many times in the past, companies like Google and 

Amazon are making serious attempts to grab at the Budget Hosting, Online Storage, and SMB Hosting 

markets. Will they succeed where others have failed? Hard to say. Though each has already made good 

gains and the current economic climate increases the likelihood of success, they might yet be fought 

back by Web Hosts who focus on providing a quality service. 


What sort of elements 

make up a successful 

Web Host? 

When we think about the complete package for a Web Host we often think of things like hardware (data center, 

servers, network), software (interoperability of the OS, software service packages, etc), support (customer, 

billing, technical), domain name (many of the complete package Hosts provide domain name registration), and 

perhaps extras such as Web site design and marketing. 

So let’s take these elements and move them around a bit: 

■ Data Center 

■ Servers 

■ OS 

■ Software features 

■ Customer support 

■ Billing support 

■ Technical support 

■ Domain Name 

■ Web site design 

■ Web site marketing 

In each of these categories, you have two choices, make your own or purchase it from another vendor. It 

would be absolutely ludicrous to manufacture your own servers for your company as it is also equally insane 

to program your own operating system when several already exist and have software that is compatible. 

Certain companies specialize in providing certain products, certain services. Among these companies are 

those who provide the best products and services. Why would you want to build your own servers, operating 

systems, shopping carts, email collaboration suites, automated billing software, control panels, etc, when you 

can purchase one? 

Taking this further, why purchase products, services, etc from other companies when you can form partnerships 

and alliances that can reduce costs, increase support, and increase opportunities for marketing ventures? 

Making partnerships with other companies augments your strengths and improves weak areas. As an 

added benefit, it makes it possible for you to focus on your business and not on the ancillary details. 

In an economy where businesses are looking to reduce costs and to weather the storm of possible buyouts 

and hostile takeovers now should be the time to seriously consider the words of Ben Franklin, “we should 

hang together for we will most assuredly hang separately.” 

Until next time happy hosting! P! 

Writer’s Bio: Over the past ten years David has been a prolific author of hundreds of blogs, commentaries and reviews found here on WebHostBlog. 

com, as well as WebHostMagazine.com and other sites around the Internet. David manages the daily operations at both WebHostBlog and Web Host 

Magazine & Buyer’s Guide, and as the head editor, David uses his unique analytical skills to ensure that both sites maintain their integrity and tough, but 

fair minded, reputations. Prior to his active career analyzing the Web Host industry, David specialized in networking and communications for the U.S. 

government. David’s expertise in traditional and search engine marketing has helped boost companies both inside and outside of the Web Host industry. 


Y host color 

The Web Hosting 

Business Is 

Changing? 

l 

Sarah, a member of Australian Web Hosting Talk has opened a thread 

in the forum’s “General Discussion “section. “I’m looking at starting 

up my own online clothing store, but I’m not sure which company 

offers the fairest deal. Everyone seems to have a catch, and I’m a 

little overwhelmed. To start with, it’s on a small scale, low budget and 

designed by myself. Has anyone been through a similar experience or 

have any suggestions?”. See how we have responded to the thread in 

order to explain our vision for the web hosting industry. 

“Good to meet you. There are plenty of good web hosts around and 

honestly, I don’t think there would be a big difference between one or 

another. Of course one company has a better network than another or 

its customer support is more responsive. But I think that you might 

need help with the shopping cart and the organization of your new 

online clothing store and this is something you would discuss with 

your prospective web hosting provider. I mean that you should talk to 

them about different CMS and software applications pre-installed on 

hosting account and about any future assistance you might need with 

your website maintenance. Web hosting business is moving from a “web 

hosting service” to a “website platform as a service” or let’s say to a 

Software environment as a service.” 


Rapidly Changing Industry 

Web hosting business is rapidly changing and the 

Cloud computing is accelerating this change. But 

besides the new Cloud approach to computing 

and to web hosting services in particular, there 

are many other factors that work a change. One 

of them is that the dot-com world has become 

too complicated. In the 90’s we had very few 

opportunities to choose from when we needed 

to start building a website. We had a limited 

number of content management systems (CMS) 

on the market and didn’t have any pre-configured 

software to download and deploy. We also didn’t 

have any web development frameworks to use (at 

least not any in term’s of today’s notion of a “web 

development framework”). 

Web Hosting Environment As A Service 

Today we have plenty of choices and many web 

entrepreneurs get confused when they need to 

choose one from hundreds of options they have, 

especially when it comes to Linux based Open 

Source content management systems (CMS) or 

web development frameworks. We can mention 

only very few - MODx, Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, 

TextPattern - from hundreds of excellent software 

anyone might use for their web projects. 

10 years ago, site owners needed pretty standard 

things as a part of any web hosting service - PHP 

and MySQL support, FTP and Email service. Today 

any Linux Shared Hosting service provider must 

offer at least 20 of the most popular software 

appliacations, as pre-installed tools with a 

customer’s account. However this is not enough 

for any hosting provider to position itself as a 

quality web host. 

Tomorrow’s (Why not “Today’s”) web host will 

look much more as a Software as a Service (SaaS) 

provider. Host Color uses term EaaS to outline 

a successful hosting service that site owners 

appreciate. We call it web hosting “Environment as 

a Service” (EaaS). 

Environment as a service (EaaS) means that 

any web host should be prepared to create and 

maintain a number specific web environments in 

order to serve different fields of online business 

activity. That’s what we do, or to be modest - that’s 

what we try to do. P! 



Y dave young 

HostingCon 2009 

Wrap-up 

HostingCon 2009 may officially be over, but the networking and 

business relationships continue to prosper as we move into another 

year of web hosting industry news, innovations, and products and 

services. This year’s HostingCon 2009 brought with it a new owner – iNet 

Interactive – a leading social media company operating prominent online 

communities for technology professionals and technology enthusiasts. 

iNet Interactive’s goal from day one was to develop a program that would 

rival any previous HostingCon shows. To say the least, they succeeded. 

The Setting 

The event was bigger than any previous show with attendance up 10-15% 

over HostingCon 2008. In its fifth year, HostingCon 2009 was held in 

beautiful Washington, DC at the Gaylord National Resort, nestled in the 

newly built National Harbor, MD. National Harbor is a complex of hotels, 

shops, restaurants, and condos overlooking the Potomac River that runs 

through Washington, DC. National Harbor may have been a 20 minute 

drive south of downtown Washington, but well worth the trip and the stay. 

The Atmosphere 

The atmosphere at this year’s HostingCon 2009 show was very different 

than any of the previous years’ shows. Attendance was up, sponsorships 

were booming, and people were excitedly sharing the latest news and 

information on what the prominent companies are launching. People were 

eagerly greeting one another and introducing themselves, exchanging 

business cards, and introducing one another to other industry leaders. 

The Topics 

The hosting industry changes almost as fast as technology changes. 

This year was no exception with cloud hosting and virtualization taking 

precedence over last year’s SaaS buzz. SaaS is still a prominent 

buzzword and hot topic, but cloud hosting and the technology that 

supports “the cloud” and virtualization was blazing the hallways, media 

rooms, booths, restaurants, and the couches placed throughout the 

convention center. Other popular topics include valuing and selling a 

hosting company, going green, and all the software and hardware to 

support “the cloud” and virtualization technology. 

The Technology 

From hardware to software to infrastructure to monitoring and more, 

companies are inventing technology to retrofit data centers into energyefficient 

facilities, developing patented software that can build a virtual 

data center in minutes with self-healing abilities, engineering cables 

that measure energy-efficiency, designing control panels that increase 

productivity and usability, servers that take up less room and boost 

efficiency, and other leading innovations that made HostingCon 2009 a 

conference worth attending. 


HostingCon 2009 

Wrap-up 

The Closing Reception 

The closing reception was hosted on the Gaylord National Resort patio overlooking the Potomac River. Food, alcohol, and 

more partying and networking took place until the reception was shut down by rain. The convention center acted quickly by 

moving the party to a dedicated room inside. Everyone waited patiently in the jungle-like atrium of the convention center 

until the room became available. 

After a few minutes of arriving to the indoor party, food and drinks were being carted in while the DJ was setting up the 

speakers and round table. The night continued with more networking, handshaking, and exchange of business cards. 

In Case You Missed It 

Some of you may not have been able to attend this year’s event. In case you missed HostingCon 2009, check out the Ping! 

Zine flickr page to view images from the show including the exhibit floor, convention center, and the beautiful Potomac 

River: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pingzine/sets/72157621965064176/ 

You can also search via Twitter using hash #hostingcon for all the tweets that took place during the three day event. 

Get Ready For HostingCon 2010 

You may think it’s too early to prepare for next year’s event, but booths for HostingCon 2010 were already being reserved 

for HostingCon 2010 to be held in Austin, Texas, July 19-21 at the Austin Convention Center located in the heart of the 

Texas Capital. You can register for the event anytime, but if you want to exhibit or reserve a sponsorship, act now before 

your competitors do. For more information on HostingCon 2010, visit http://www.hostingcon.com. 


Dozens of industry leading companies flocked to HostingCon 

2009 in Washington, DC this year to announce their latest and 

greatest products and services. Many of these companies 

have established themselves as innovative, unique, and are 

among the top companies people are following. Now you 

have an exclusive insight, all in one place, to what some of the 

most high impact companies announced at HostingCon 2009. 

The following list showcases what 19 leading, up and coming, 

and well established companies are doing to influence the 

hosting market. 

Parallels 

Parallels introduced Parallels Small Business Panel (beta), 

specifically designed for small to medium sized businesses for 

easier control over services including email, FTP, websites, 

and many 3rd party applications such as shopping carts, help 

desk systems and other software applications that small to 

medium sized businesses need to maintain daily productivity. 

Parallels is launching the (SMB) control panel with an initial 

six 3rd party applications with more to be installed as the 

product reaches the market and new partnerships are 

developed. 

Learn more about Parallels (SMB) control panel at 

http://www.parallels.com/products/panelsmb/. 

cPanel 

cPanel, developers of the popular Linux based Web Host 

Manager (WHM) and the end-user control panel cPanel, 

have spent the last two years developing a Windows version 

that’s similar in style to the Linux version, but specifically 

designed for Windows users. The product is currently in 

Release Candidate 0 and is available to anyone wanting to 

beta test the software. Linux version cPanel users will see 

a lot of similarity with Enkompass, except the new Windows 

version’s interface has been designed for better usability than 

its counterpart. 

Learn more about cPanel’s Enkompass at http://www.cpanel. 

net/windows/overview.html. 

Arkeia 

Arkeia is a new player in the hosting market, but has a 

significant track record in developing flexible backup solutions 

for a variety of companies. Arkeia announced their latest 

product, Arkeia Network Backup Version 8.1, designed with 

hosting providers in mind. Arkeia Network Backup Version 

8.1 is available in September and offers extensible reporting 

tools and custom restore objects. Arkeia’s enterprise 

backup solutions can be deployed in three ways including 

traditional, appliance, and virtual for network storage backup 

and enterprise backup solutions that offers flexibility for 

companies of all sizes. 

Learn more about Arkeia at http://www.arkeia.com/. 

CDGCommerce 

CDGcommerce, the leader in merchant accounts and credit 

card processing services, announced their PCI compliance 

to help merchants prepare for the upcoming mandatory 

PCI compliance initiative. With merchant accounts from 

CDGcommerce and their flagship Quantum Gateway 

solution, merchants will be ready for PCI compliance without 

additional preparation. 

Learn more about CDGcommerce’s PCI compliance at http:// 

www.cdgcommerce.com/. 

ParaScale 

ParaScale, a new company specializing in cloud engine 

software, has developed a product that’s self-healing in 

network storage environments. Administrators can remove 

a server and the software automatically adjusts, balancing 

redundant data on the remaining nodes. Contrary to the 

removal of a server, if an administrator adds a new server or 

two or three, ParaScale automatically adjusts, balancing the 

load across all servers. ParaScale makes any environment, 

any software, any platform, completely scalable and flexible 

for administrators. 

Learn more about ParaScale at http://www.parascale.com/. 

DotNetPanel 

DotNetPanel, the leading developer in Windows hosting 

control panel software, announced support for Microsoft 

Web Application Gallery. DotNetPanel is the first control 

panel to integrate with Microsoft Windows Web Application 

Gallery project. Microsoft’s Windows Web Application 

Gallery provides popular web based applications including 

WordPress, Drupla, DotNetNuke, BlogEngine.NET and many 

other applications contributed by developers. All applications 

can be installed and configured directly in the DotNetPanel 

Windows hosting control panel. 

Learn more about DotNetPanel at http://www.dotnetpanel.com/. 

Black Lotus 

Black Lotus, the leader in DDoS protection services, 

announced its latest advancement in defending websites 

and applications against DDoS attacks by accepting Beta 

testers on their new DDoS tunnel service. The new DDoS 

tunnel service allows customers with their own networks 

to use a router appliance provided by Black Lotus. Other 

announcements included white labeling Black Lotus DDoS 

company 

announcements 


protection services and the availability of the new Black 

Lotus router appliance to facilitate the DDoS tunnel service 

by Q2 2010. The new Black Lotus appliance will be offered 

with no upfront capital expenditures. Customers pay a low 

monthly fee to use the DDoS router appliance services. 

Learn more about Black Lotus DDoS protection services at 

http://www.blacklotus.net/. 

Pinnacle Cart 

Pinnacle Cart, developers of the leading shopping cart 

system, is launching their new PCI compliant shopping 

cart system. Pinnacle Cart is the first and only shopping 

cart to meet PCI compliance so customers will be ready to 

meet PCI compliance regulations without having to change 

shopping cart systems. Promoting this certification to 

potential customers reduces the fear a new customer might 

have ordering from a site unfamiliar to them. Ultimately, this 

increases sales conversions for anyone using the certified 

version of Pinnacle Cart. 

Learn more about Pinnacle Cart shopping cart software at 

http://www.pinnaclecart.com/. 

Packet Power 

Packet Power, a new company that has developed a unique 

product and service to gather detailed information down to 

the device level and can be installed within an hour without 

disruption to your power or IT infrastructure. The product 

consists of a cable with a cylindrical piece in the middle that 

calculates and monitors power consumption in your data 

center. Packet Power’s unique product and service provides 

the insight that companies need to reduce their data center 

power consumption. Web based reporting tools are available 

for companies to review weaknesses within the network and 

data center energy consumption. 

Learn more about Packet Power’s energy consumption monitoring 

products and services at http://www.packet-power.com/. 

Rackmount Specialists 

Rackmount Specialists has developed two new servers 

that can be mounted as twin-1U, side-by-side, instead of 

the traditional 1U stacked server. Rackmount Specialists 

servers have been designed to maximize energy efficiency 

and reduce space. Data centers can rack twice as many 

servers using Rackmount Specialists products. Rackmount 

Specialists servers are designed in-house and tested 

thoroughly for reliability and efficiency. Components can be 

upgraded according to customer specifications. 

Learn more about Rackmount Specialists energy-efficient 

custom servers at http://www.rackmountspecialists.com/. 

Sprynex 

Sprynex, developers of Cheetah, a new Linux hosting control 

panel, offered demonstrations of the new control panel to 

those interested in offering the latest in Linux based control 

panel technology. Sprynex opened registration for Beta 

testers to try the new control panel and provide feedback 

on features and functionality. Cheetah provides support 

for a multi-server environment to maximize administration 

efficiency and productivity. Beta testers are encouraged to 

sign up at the Sprynex website. 

Learn more about Sprynex’s Linux based Cheetah hosting 

control panel at http://www.sprynex.com/. 

InfoGenius 

InfoGenius, developers of multiple brands and Internet 

services and products, announced UptimeSafe, a service 

that monitors website uptime for IT service buyers and 

hosting and SaaS providers. Unlike traditional website and 

networking monitoring services, UptimeSafe provides uptime 

certification services to the online service provider's industry 

and serves as a symbol of trust and reliability among buyers. 

UptimeSafe rigorously tests and monitors the networks of 

subscribed service providers to ensure maximum uptime. 

Learn more about Infogenius at http://www.infogenius.com/ 

and UptimeSafe at http://www.uptimesafe.com/. 

FuseMail 

FuseMail, developers of a web based low-cost email solution 

that replaces Microsoft Exchange, launched several new 

services this week including their new hosted email archiving 

solution (available in September), a new hosted Instant 

Messaging (IM) service, and a new geo-redundant email 

hosting solution. FuseMail is designed for companies and 

individual users that do not want to make the transition to 

Google’s Gmail, but want to move from a desktop email 

client to an online email client that has the same feel as an 

Outlook desktop client email. 

Learn more about FuseMail web based email solution at 

http://www.fusemail.com/. 

Bobcares 

Bobcares, a leading outsourced customer support and 

services provider to web hosts since 1999 and managing 

over 3.5 million websites around the world, announced 

the release of their Spanish and German language phone 

support services. Bobcares also released their new Proactive 

Server Management plans where web hosts can ensure that 

their servers are given full service every month including 

monitoring, server administration, and updates. With the 

help of Bobcares, hosting companies can tap into Spanish 

speaking and European markets. During the economic 

downturn when you are concerned about customer attrition, 

this provides a very important advantage over competitors 

Learn more about Bobcares outsourced customer support 

and services at http://www.bobcares.com/. 

Next Year’s HostingCon 2010 

Take a few minutes and visit each of the companies you 

read about in this article. These companies are leading 

the way for the coming year in developing new products 

and services for the hosting, software, and technology 

industries. Consider attending next year’s HostingCon 

2010 in Austin, TX so you can get a first-hand look at the 

representing companies, their products and services, 

and speak directly with company representatives to help 

you improve your business, make some connections, 

and most importantly, boost your revenues. For more 

information on HostingCon 2010, visit http://www. 

hostingcon.com. P! 

Writer’s Bio: Dave Young is a professional writer, marketing consultant, SEO 

guru, and founder of Young Copy, a leading promotional and technical writing 

services firm. Visit www.youngcopy.com to learn how you can boost your 

company’s revenues. 


Being a Webmaster is 

not all fun and games. 

Okay, now it is. 

Make Millions on the go with iNetMania, the only game in town for webmasters on the iPhone! 

For more information go to iNetMania.Com. 

¨ 2008ÊTechPadÊAgency,ÊLLC 


Y dimitar avramov 


? 

Close 

Your 

Affiliate 

Program? 

I realize that almost anyone who’s maintaining a successful 

affiliate program would decide that the author of this article 

has lost his mind or just does not know what he’s talking 

about when they read the main thesis of this article but I’ll 

take this risk. In brief, my suggestion to online merchants is 

to destroy their affiliate programs or to fully revamp them. The 

main objective of such a destructive activity is to increase 

Search Engine rank, website PR, and visibility - a lot; and of 

course, to reach higher conversion rates. Let me explain why I 

make suggestions like these. 

In general, we can say that the search engines (SE) use different relevance methods to determine 

if any website page has to be displayed in the search engine results pages on particular search 

terms. Most site owners know that the linking method was (and actually still is) one of the main 

factors for the SE algorithms to categorize any web page as is relevant to certain keywords and 

phrases. When everyone from a junior marketer to a representative of an entity that has a large 

marketing budget, decided that they should be buying tons of links in order to spam the SE 

algorithms, the search machines changed the way they rank websites. Now, those who buy links 

to get rank higher have a questionable success and the results they get do not depict the money 

they spend on this SEO method. 



? 

At the same time, any organic outbound link to a web page placed as a part of the content of a high 

traffic website is practically priceless for the web address it points to. Now let’s see what average 

affiliate URL looks like, and find out why the affiliate don’t work as well as the organic ones. 

Affiliate URL’s harm to your website’s SEO 

Affiliate links are artificial. They are aimed to count the visit any affiliate sends to the provider’s web 

pages. However, this commercial relationship between two agents has nothing to do with any third 

parties. So the affiliate URL is important only for the commercial relationship between the seller and 

its partners. Anyone else does not need to use affiliate URLs. 

Affiliate URLs are unnatural and because of this they destroy consumer confidence. That’s why the 

most prestigious forums and social networking sites (including the Web Hosting Talk, the largest 

community in web hosting industry) prohibit 

their members using or posting affiliate links 

in threads and posts. 

If you do this 

your affiliate 

program will 

increase its 

relevance 

and return of 

investment in 

web advertising. 

There are different types of affiliate URL’s 

such as “http://www.the-name-of-the-webmedia.com/hosting.php?m=HOSTNAME”, 

“http://www.the-name-of-the-web-media. 

com/go/to.cgi?l=pa_01_HOSTNAME” or 

even “http://www.a-combination-of-lettersand-numbers.com/click-3264231-10356150”. 

The last example is typical for the affiliate 

networks. As you can see, none of the above 

URLs are actual web addresses that say to 

the user where they will go when they follow 

the link. Most internet users who click on 

a banner or text link know where they lead 

because most sellers usually display their 

brand on their advertising creatives, but when 

websites use affiliate URLs, those who click 

on them never go to the original, organic, 

web page address. The users are always 

redirected to the original web address through a URL which is created to track the visit. 

The average percentage of “Productive Visitors” (those who buy services or products) is 

approximately 1.5% to 2% higher for the group of visitors that come directly to the website. 

Compared to the other, its members come from an affiliate URL. This data can be seen in the reports 

of the website visitors’ behavior. These above come from a DoubleClick survey conducted in 2007. 

Let’s imagine that 75% to 85% of the traffic that any website receives comes from such URLs. In 

such a scenario a large amount of website visitors come from non-existing web addresses; ones 

that do not represent any information or content. These visitors may or may not purchase anything 

on the host pages but they don’t work in favor of the website’s Search Engine ranking or its overall 

visibility on the web the way organic URLs does. 

My suggestion to web hosting companies who can create intelligent web statistics and analytics 

modules is to use it as a part of its affiliate program to kill the traditional affiliate URLs. 

It is much better to give your affiliates the original addresses of the web pages you want to use 

to welcome website visitors. Of course you definitely need to build a confidence in your affiliate 

program and demonstrate to your partners that it counts correctly each unique visitor they send to 

you. 

It is not that hard at all to create an intelligent statistical module and to add it to your partner 

programs. If you do this your affiliate program will increase its relevance and return of investment in 

web advertising. P! 


050 | | Ping! Zine Zine magazine

Y mitch keeler 

10Reminders for 

Web Hosting 

Remotes 

So you want to start working as an independent contractor 

to a web hosting company, or you just started your 

first job. Before you switch to working remotely as an 

independent contractor for a web host, here are a few 

things you should remember: 

1 

Most independent contractors do 

not get vacation time. So, if you 

need to take time off, either forget 

about it or expect to not be paid for the 

time you ask off. 

2 

Make sure you read the contract 

from head to toe before you 

sign up to work for any major or 

small time web hosting company as a 

contracted worker. 

3Look into getting multiple 

monitors. Sometimes you will 

need to keep an eye on or do 

several different tasks, so like with any 

job, be sure you show up with the tools 

you need to succeed. 

4 

In the contract, make sure they 

give you a set number of hours 

per week, and a shift each day. 

Don’t let them fool you into being “oncall” 

in any hour of the day. 

5You have to have the patience of 

Ghandi to work tech support at 

times. No matter how big of a jerk 

the customer is, you need to smile and 

do what is best for the company you 

are working for, and not yourself. 

6Be sure you feel at home 

with working by yourself at 

home. While you might have 

the occasional phone call from your 

employer, much of the time you are 

your only company. 

8You’ll need to educate yourself at 

times to extend the types of jobs 

you can cover. Want to help with 

web design or development? Start 

putting together web sites in your free 

time. Experience is the best training 

out there. 

9Get a comfortable chair for 

your computer desk. Nothing is 

worse than being uncomfortable 

all day long. 

10 

Treat it like a real job. Since 

you no longer go to an office, 

you never have that separation 

of home time and work time. You have 

to be able to mix the two together, 

responsibly. 

7 

Get ready for an overly-complicated tax season. 

When taxes are due, be sure you get your 

taxes done by somebody who knows what your 

independent contractor job is about. 

If you keep these ten tips in mind, I am sure you 

will be a very successful independent contractor, 

and any web host around the world would be 

more than happy to have you. P! 

Writer’s Bio: Self proclaimed “media rockstar” of the hosting world, author and broadcaster, Mitch Keeler works at helping both hosting clients and owners 

get the most out of the web hosting industry. Mitch is the executive producer and host of the “one and only voice of the web hosting world”, the Web Hosting 

Show which can be found at WebHostingShow.com 


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Y david dunlap 

professionals 

of 

merit 

I have interviewed people from all walks of life, from 

heads of state to giants of industry, but the interview I 

present to you now, is one of great importance, nay it will 

change your very life and shake you to your core. Never 

have I met someone with such vast working knowledge of 

the industry. Never have I discussed such a wide range of 

topics and had answers shot back in such violent clarity. 

And without further eloquence, I now divulge my interview 

with Dean Cobb, janitorial custodian of Hosting R We. 

"Dean, Dean baby, Deanmeister, may I call you Dean?" 

"Sure." 

"Dean, Dean, Eddie. Eddie can I call you Eddie?" 

"Why?" 

"I like the sound of it more than Dean. Dean is not bad, but 

Eddie has a certain ring to it, an umbral power if you will." 

"If you like." 

" I merely ask because some people are a little uneasy about 

being so deemed. What with nicknames and all and as a 

journalist I am trying to build a rapport." 

"No, no, Eddie is quite fine." 

"Splendid. You may call me Dave if you like, David always 

seemed to be somewhat overly formal." 

"Alright.. Dave." 

"What is the correlation between the use of virtualization 

within the framework of a grid and the development of a 

private cloud system? 

"I'm sorry are you talking to me?" 

Dave: "Is not grid hosting, when designed to fully utilize the 

server resources a form of virtualization without the moniker 

or is it in fact two separate but equal systems designed to 

work in tandem? If that is the case is there any real difference 

between a private cloud and a grid server configuration? 

And please give you're answer... in... real... terms." 

"You do realize that I am a janitor?" 

"Two years ago, Hosting R We was involved in multiple 

lawsuits involving their terms of service which they changed 

more than 27 times in a two month period. Do you believe that 

this was corporate misconduct or do you think the rapidly 

changing technology found in the web hosting industry 

forced Hosting R We to constantly update their usage?" 

"I clean things." 

Can you take us step by step through the Emerson 

Network Power cascade effect for the reduction of 

server power?" 

"I also fix things as well." 

Dave: "Hosting R We uses Twitter and has a corporate 

account that posts random drivel every day. Due to this 

simple fact, only 9 people actually follow Hosting R We, 

8 of which are employees and 1 is the CEO's mother. Do 

you think that Hosting R We should throw in the towel 

on their Twitter escapade?" 

"I replaced the roofing tiles... redid all the plumbing on the second 

floor." 

"With how badly many companies implement social 

networking, do you think that there is a future for social 

activities within the common business world? Will 

knowledge of their use become common knowledge or 

will it continue to be the realm of the marketing elite?" 

"Never really cared much for web hosting." 

"Eddie would you say there was sexism and gender 

specification within the IT work place?" 

"Well I have seen a great deal of gender bias, mainly in the preclusion 

of a hostile working environment between the sexes most notably the 

apparent gap between the issuance of mentorship within the female work 

place. Indeed, when comparing the two, even in working environments 

where both genders are considered equal the females often miss out 

on a sort of master/apprentice relationship that their male counterparts 

merely take for granted." 

"...." 

"I'm getting my doctorate in business psychiatry." 

"...." 

"What?" 

"Oh shut up." P!

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