18 replies to this topic

[Ash-Bash]

Hello,

As you may know I have been a member here for a while and with all my experience on hosting I decided to make my own.

Here: www.itneed.net

Now I know it needs a logo I am having a very professional one made. Please review the website in every-way possible and tell me if you think its worth doing post to host.

Many thanks,

p.s Negative and positive feedback are welcome.

[Semsem]

Post-to-host = Something that would be great!

However, the site itself...I'd choose a different background...but that's just me.

[rvalkass]

On the front page, you've cut Tux's foot off on the right hand side Just looks a bit unprofessional as the main image that greets visitors, and it's an easy fix. Your capitalisation of text throughout the site also seems somewhat random - for example, "Webhosting", "Site" and "Forums" don't need to be capitalised. The bulleted list on the home page suffers from the same issue.

On the "Hosting Plans" page it looks like the block of text at the bottom has been copied from an original bulleted list, but you haven't made it a bulleted list on the site, so it appears as one large block of unpunctuated run-on text. Separate it out into a bulleted list if possible, to make it easier to read for visitors.

On the "About" page, you state:

Quote

ITneed is owned and run by one single owner though has employed staff. ITneed is a UK based company [...]

If you are a registered company then you are legally required (AFAIK) to put your company number and registered address on your website, neither of which I could find. If you are acting as a sole-trader then it is best to state that, rather than being somewhat misleading with the vague term of "company".

Quote

UK self owned datacenters

If you own your own datacentre, that's great! Put some pictures on there and make this a much bigger feature than you have done. Having your own datacentres and team of staff is a great selling point. Unless you actually mean the "datacentre" is just a computer in a cupboard somewhere, or shared space in a datacentre - in which case you should say so!

Only providing an email address as a contact method would certainly scare me off from buying anything. Having your address and telephone number available adds credibility and gives people another method of contact should they need it.

[mahesh2k]

Quote

UK self owned datacenters

I know this is not the truth for your second attempt at rip-off hosting. But any hosting company with datacenter will not create site like this. For site who has datacenter and dedicated fiber lines will have site much more information and accesile, like say softlayer.com. Now tell me site that owns datacenter deploys ipanel on their billing system ? Not at all. Ever heard of WHM ? anywy, is there any ipanel nulled script running there ? If you own datacenter then it's obvious you should provide lot of information about location, images(original not from some another datacenters). Besides that there is no datacenter so far on this planet owned by single owner with limited staff. If there is let me know i'll invest on such business cause this is good business opportunity for me.

Besides to be honest £1.00/M to 2.50£ is not what you can afford if you own datacenter, trust me. You need to build multiple revenue sources to afford this. If you manage to afford that and purchased dedicated server then i'm sure you'll hardly need to promote your hosting service on any other site or forums.

Quote

The following is included with all ITneed WebHosting:

100% uptime 24/7 support Host unlimited domains Variety of contact methods Money back guarantee Fastest speeds Offers for existing customers Simple control panels Unlimited extra features Latest cPanel Software Installatron Installation Manager Affordable plans Instant Setup Special Offers Free transfer from another host Payments via SMS SSL Secure Client Area Friendly staff The list just goes on...

Check this sales copy. are you satisfied ? If so, let me know how this looks attractive. Take some time and write some catchy sales copy for your hosting service. go to site like elance or fiverr.com and hire copyrighter for cheap.

If any person with english as third language writes something like this then i can understand but if any UK-Native English speaker writes such sales copy then i've to rethink if it's originally written or just copy pasted. This is where site fails for making sell, hard to read the plan and features from this para.

By the way, is there any facility for transferring host data from one host to another for free as mentioned in this sales copy? if that is the case then you're providing too much cheap service to your customers. I wonder if your datacenter/hosting service allows FFMPEG service. Why that is not mentioned ? i mean if it's datacenter then any type of streaming, file sharing and hosting should be mentioned.

and what about warez hosting ? I thought you'll allow that on your own server as they say practice what you preach.

anyway, flaws aside good luck with your hosting service journey.

[aloKNsh]

sorry to say but i dont see anything new i mean its a costly, writting it in gbp dont let you down the price. I was fasicianted by seen 1 but after that i can to know that its not in dollar but in gbp which is costlier than usd. in 1 $ you can get hosted here also. bro try to get your cost hell cheap as you are a starting company bit once you get some customers and outlet gradually increase the amount of your packages. and also please add some more stuff it took me less than 5 mins to go through you full site and i didnt forund any thing unique though its simple and might attract customers having simple sense and not going for some trendy fashion but believe in simplicity is the best.
anyways nice site.

[Ash-Bash]

Thanks for the feedback, No guys I don't hate you I thank you . All sites need feedback to make them better. It would be nice if more members here review it for a much better site. I will be making all the changes once most feedback has been given.

[anwiii]

it's a good basic site ash, but you are competing with a lot of web hosting businesses and yours just doesn't stand out.

there are a lot of problems i see with it that some people mentioned. i think i visited every link you have on the site. i even went to your billing area.

so let me just make a couple suggestions at a time. first, i would indicate what people are actually getting with their hosting other than cpanel and "100% uptime" which we all know is a lie right from the start. other webhosting companies actually list what the webhosting offers. even if it's standard stuff, it's good to list. people aren't going to buy if they don't know what they are getting.

it would be better if you offered domains on your site. i am not too familiar with how exactly domain registration works, but i am sure there is an option to where someone can register a domain with your site even if you are not the registrar.

i absolutely hate the about page where it states you and your staff have a decade of experience. try to be honest but a little more professional at the same time. maybe list what your experiences are?

that's it for now....there is much much more suggestions in my head including trying to think of something that you can offer that would seperate you from other webhosting companies. the low price right now doesn't cut it because people are still under the impression "you get what you pay for"

let me ask you something. you advertise 24/7 support and you also advertise a refund policy. if i were to sign up and i don't get immediate support for any questions or problems, you would refund me?

also, i might want to suggest offering a sub domain for free even if it includes an ad on their free site. let people know what they are getting before they pay for a domain which is hosted on your site.

i also really don't like your site name. for a .net address, i think you could have come up with a better name. that name just doesn't seem like it took too much thought.

like i said, it's a good basic site....but that's all it is. it doesn't stand out. you need to revamp part of it to look more professional and intriguing. it is cheap. that is one thing going for it but only dummies will fork over money for the hosting when they don't even know what they are getting. even the hosting plans could be improved on and given some more thought. it is a good start, but i think you have a while to go when you are competing with the thousands of other hosting companies....

Edited by anwiii, 30 March 2010 - 10:38 PM.

[Ash-Bash]

anwiii, on Mar 30 2010, 11:33 PM, said:

it's a good basic site ash, but you are competing with a lot of web hosting businesses and yours just doesn't stand out.

The site was meant for newbies, Therefore I didn't make a complex hosting template.

Quote

so let me just make a couple suggestions at a time. first, i would indicate what people are actually getting with their hosting other than cpanel and "100% uptime" which we all know is a lie right from the start. other webhosting companies actually list what the webhosting offers. even if it's standard stuff, it's good to list. people aren't going to buy if they don't know what they are getting.

The packages and descriptions will be sorted out later this week, There was a bit of confusion with my Staff in setting that up.

Quote

it would be better if you offered domains on your site. i am not too familiar with how exactly domain registration works, but i am sure there is an option to where someone can register a domain with your site even if you are not the registrar.

I have purchased a domain reseller a while ago just haven't had the time to set it up with iPanel etc.

Quote

i absolutely hate the about page where it states you and your staff have a decade of experience. try to be honest but a little more professional at the same time. maybe list what your experiences are?

Again another mixup this will again be sorted and put on the to do list.

that's it for now....there is much much more suggestions in my head including trying to think of something that you can offer that would seperate you from other webhosting companies. the low price right now doesn't cut it because people are still under the impression "you get what you pay for"

Quote

let me ask you something. you advertise 24/7 support and you also advertise a refund policy. if i were to sign up and i don't get immediate support for any questions or problems, you would refund me?

This policy is not fully completed you must wait at least 4 hours. Just because it is 24/7 support doesn't mean it will be like MSN and instant, We already have a few tickets to reply to.

Quote

also, i might want to suggest offering a sub domain for free even if it includes an ad on their free site. let people know what they are getting before they pay for a domain which is hosted on your site.

This would come under the post to host idea again free things would be given to this.

Thanks for the brilliant feedback all of this has been taken into consideration and will happen in the near future.

-Ash

[anwiii]

well i like simple because it makes things easier to understand and read. nothing has to be too complex so i like that idea in keeping it simple.

i would have suggested to make the changes already in your head and then posting your site for review because if you already had certain ideas, then it's just wasting peoples time in commenting on them or taking the time to review your site.

i have more suggestions, but will wait in what transpires in the changes first. but i would really highly suggest changing the domain name and using your current one as a parked domain. there is a really good website called "justdropped" which allows you to search for expired domains that are available. you can pick up a good domain with backlinks, a domain that already has history, and if you combine that with the google adwords keyword tool to check the keyword popularity of your domain, you can not only pick up a good domain, but one that already has traffic coming to it. with a little seo, you can even probably get in the top with your domain keywords. i only suggest doing this because you WILL be competing with a lot of other established hosting companies so even if you pick up a domain that is already getting 100 visitors a month, that's 100 visitors you would never have had before....

you really have to think about seo when choosing a site name. also you have to consider a good 2-3 keyword phrase in your domain to make seo a little easier for a very competitive market.

so when you're done making changes, bump this thread and i will make sure to review it again if you want an honest opinion.

[Ash-Bash]

Ok today I have had the day off, So I have managed to get on with ITneed, I have set-up new security options to avoid being hacked and installed more addon's.
I have gone through every post here and made a check list what I need to do and improve on.

• Post to host? - Still not sure if I should do this need more feedback on this!
  
• Penguin foot - I deleted the PSD and will just leave, I doubt someone will notice.
  
• Random caps - Fixed up around the whole site
  
• Plans page bullet points - Fixed changes into ticks and made more professional
  
• About us: State we are a sole trader - Stated in about us
  
• “UK self owned datacenters” - Also edited in about us
  
• Provide more contact information - Contact us page has been layed out differently and contains easier ways and more contact ways
  
• transferring host data from one host to another for free as mentioned in this sales copy - Now mention on the front page!

Thanks for all the feedback given I now ask you to re-review on what can be improve and suggestions to get the site rolling.