Name:
Location: Stroud, Glos, United Kingdom

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Credit to a Great Hosting Company

Just a quick post to promote and thank the web hosting comany that I use.

It is United Hosting

As you may have read in the previous post, not only have I been flat out this last couple of weeks but so has the site. Traffic is up massively and not only has this upped the bandwidth but as osCommerce is pretty mySql intensive, the server resources used have shot through the roof.

I got in touch with UH support a couple of nights ago as I was starting to notice the site was reaching the maximum number of mySql connections and throwing up an error message (rather than my beautiful shop) at peak times during the day.

After explaining to them the seasonal nature of the problem and that I can and will look at upgrading the accout next year (but am unable to do anything about it at present) I recieved prompt replies to my support enquiries that resulted in them promising to try and "push as many resources" my way, without effecting the other sites on the shared server too badly, to help out just for the busy couple of weeks. Consequently, today when I have recieved record traffic, record sales and, probably, just overstepped my bandwidth limit for November, there has not been one single outage.

They are a great hosting solution that relies on its reputation (rather than its advertising budget) for growth and it is working for them. They have just recently sent out a feedback questionare to all their users and have stated publically on their forum that they are not actively pursuing any new customers until they have set in place all the requests/suggestions of their current users, as returned from the questionare.

Another big bonus of using United Hosting is their forums. They have a very happy, educated and active user base and this was one of the main reasons for me signing up in the first place.

Anyhow, if you are looking for hosting, I highly recommend them and, no, I am not on commission. They dont need to offer an affiliate scheme, they are growing very quickly through their reputation alone.

2 Comments:

Blogger richandzhaoyan said...

Yep, Gary, you got it, its Matt and Simon at the helm and I just love the hosting.

It just fits with my setup. Along the same lines as my online shop, they are a small company that is not only challenging much larger companies but providing a far better hosting solution, with better support, cheaper prices and a personal service.

The beauty of taking a business online is that you can compete directly with much, much larger businesses on a totally even playing field.

In the bricks and mortar shop, I can set my prices to rock bottom, on a minimal markup but I am still stuck to a relatively small (Stroud!) customer base. Online, I can have the option to undercut the big guys (obviously I lose markup!) but it means I can compete directly and still offer what people want with regards to customer service.

UH do this brilliantly with a great balance - I know they are doing well out of it (they have no reservations about discussing/posting to their forums about new cars and holidays) But why shouldnt they reap the rewards? They Are undercutting the big guys - they dont need to spend thousands on an advertising budget, they do provide a very, very good service, and they are friendly and approachable - Perfect!

12:53 AM  
Blogger JavaRoasters said...

Hi Rich,

I agree that a great host is worth their weight in gold, mine is excellent also. I upgraded this fall to a reseller account and I am loving it. It might be the answer for you also. It not only gives you more space, and bandwidth that you need. It will also give you the ability to have "testing" sites so you are not making changes to your live site. The additional cost is usually around the same as adding a second testing account but the added flexiblity makes it worth while.

Peter

12:58 PM  

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