"HostingCon Quotables"
“I’m always ready to listen about how to make profits.”-Andreas Gauger, CEO of 1& 1 Internet (perusing the HostingCon syllabus on his new iPhone
“The underlying theme of Hosting Con 2007 is Networking. TopHosts and FastServers are putting on a Business Networking Cruise and The WHIR is sponsoring a Networking Lounge. It’s clearly about building meaningful relationships this year.”
-Candice Rodriguez, Director of Business Devt. & Marketing, WHIR
“We’re focusing on new technology that makes it easier to interact and experience technology at a deeper level. We have six demo sessions including one on SaaS. We’ll be showing how to service and enable SaaS and get a sense on how to get started.”
-Kurt Daniel, VP Marketing & Alliances, SWSOFT
“It will be interesting to see where the industry is going. There’s a couple of players entering the market-Microsoft and Amazon.com. I’m interested in hearing what they say and how it’s going to play out.”
-Theo Ivanov Vachovsky, Business Development, DevStart
HostingCon 2007 Highlights
TechPad Holds A Clinic
Web hosts quenched their thirst this morning. No it isn’t what you’re thinking at all. That will happen at the Business Networking Cruise. If you act quickly, you may be lucky enough to scoop the last few spots. Register at www.hostingconcruise.com or swing by the TopHosts Booth #601 (early Tuesday) and get further details.Hosters were thirsty for SEO! Two sessions by Ben Fisher and Derek Vaughan, the highest attended sessions thus far, on Modern SEO and The Future of SEO, generated an hour an a half of Q and A.
Fisher said, intelligent questions on things such as link building and “how not to get into trouble” dominated the session but even the basics on title tags, Meta tags and keyword research were covered. Generating “PR Juice” by submitting press releases and writing articles for sites specifically about Web hosting was one practical tip, identified by Fisher to help with deep link building.
Servermania Unleashed
Yes folks- the Web hosting entrepreneurship board game is now available! No, this isn’t an ad but the savvy marketing of Mr. Fisher should nonetheless be rewarded. The object is to build the most successful Web hosting company and end up with the most cash.TopHosts would be interested in watching combatants like Andres Gauger of 1&1 Internet and GoDaddy’s Bob Parsons go head to head. Maybe TechPad is working on setting this up right now? See them at Booth 200 and investigate.
Rosenblatt: “Web hosting, what’s that?”
The co-founder and CEO of Demand Media delivered the Monday Keynote suitably titled “Next Generation Web: What Lies Ahead For Hosting”. Starting out with the regular jargon such as Web hosting is a commodity and alluding to the fact that services can still be obtained for three bucks and change, Rosenblatt told the audience that to differentiate yourself in this market you must start thinking differently.So what does this mean? Basically start thinking of Web hosting as a vehicle for your customers and your customers' clients. So in the user generation world, it’s not about selling hosting any more but rather providing anything necessary to help customers broadcast to a community or network of friends.
Andy Schroepfer, Founder of Tier1 Research said the keynote, which was only about twenty minutes in length, was “brutally honest.” Schroepfer said that Rosenblatt, didn’t know about hosting yet because he markets it differently, is able to create a big revenue stream. Hosters must think the same way and absolve themselves from thinking in terms of bandwidth and disk space and market hosting as tools that will help you publish, create, or communicate.
Glen Ghomeshi, owner of Siteturn Networks, said hosting companies know they have to change their pitch but there’s no set way of doing that. “We’re not talking resources anymore. As shown in an earlier session with Yahoo! Hosting packages, it’s not about outlining disk space, bandwidth or email addresses but reaching customers who ask: I want to sell online, how do I do that? I want to market, how do I do that? Web hosts have to find a way to cater to customers in that fashion.”
Think Fast: What’s the Biggest Acquisition This Year?
I’m with you if you said Hostway acquiring Affinity Internet in April. Okay IPOWER and Endurance Group is there too as is the Web.com merger with Websitepros.Maybe the issue will be settled in Tuesday’s morning’s M&A session. At any rate TopHosts.com met with Hostway Monday morning and discussed the issue at considerable length while touring the company’s IDC in the Boeing building right here in Chicago. It’s a fascinating facility, by the way. The unfolding of this Web hosting hook-up and what the future holds for the new company is equally fascinating. But it will have to wait. You will have to visit TopHosts.com to get the story.
Enjoy Day Two of HostingCon. See you at Booth 601 and aboard the Mystic Blue Cruise ship at 6 PM sharp.