If you read my earlier post, then this post on ipower.com is going to be very similar to the Justhost.com post. I will continue to do a post for each notice I recieve from Endurance International Group. Which I think it is safe to say that Justhost.com is a eig owned site as the notice for Ipower.com is almost exactly the same. until now I have never wrote anything on Ipower.com as a host, unless you read my previous posts on Endurance International Group.
The first email about Federal Trade Commission guidelines was sent to Just Host affiliates.
Dear IPOWER Affiliate,As you may know, The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has strict guidelines that relate to affiliates who offer reviews, rankings, endorsements and testimonials; and we require all affiliates of our CJ program to comply with these requirements.To be compliant with the FTC Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, IPOWER expressly requires you to disclose that there is a “material connection” between you and IPOWER anytime you offer an endorsement or testimonial on our services.
If you provide reviews, rankings, endorsements or testimonials about a service for which you receive commissions from us, you must clearly disclose the fact that you receive such compensation in a clear and prominent place–that is close to your endorsement.
The FTC takes the Endorsement guidelines seriously and has started to enforce them for both content providers like yourself and advertisers like IPOWER.
As an advertiser, IPOWER will monitor affiliate sites to be sure our services are represented appropriately. Failure to comply with the endorsement guidelines could result in removal from our affiliate program and the cancellation of commissions.
FOR MAKING SURE YOUR SITE IS COMPLIANT
To make it easier for you, we’ve pulled together information, based on a recent FTC enforcement case, to illustrate ways you can disclose a material connection between you and your advertisers. Take a few minutes to review this summary at:
Please note: These links are intended to provide guidance only. If you provide endorsements of some type, you should obtain legal advice on how the FTC rules apply to you.
Please take steps immediately to make sure your site is in compliance with these guidelines. Several of our leading affiliates have already posted their disclosures, and they continue to enjoy great success.
Best wishes,
The IPOWER Affiliate Team
So what does this email from Ipower.com mean?
In short if your a review site, and you don’t disclose that you created your site for the purpose of making money they will remove you from the affiliate program. Here are the steps they recommend to be in compliance with the FTC.
Frequent: Disclosures must be available on any page that has an endorsement.
Clear: Language must be easy to understand; don’t attempt to hide the fact that it’s a disclosure.
Conspicuous: Place your disclosure close to your endorsement or review. Differentiate the disclosure’s font treatment from the rest of your site.
Require no action: The user shouldn’t need to click, hover or scroll to locate or understand the nature of your disclosure.
If Ipower.cpm sticks with this, I have to commend them on doing things ethically. I hope they did not start doing this because the FTC contacted them first. I will be sure to contact them should I find any violators.
Be warned if you run a so called top review site, and you have Ipower.
A friend of mine who is a Just Host affiliate sent me a email he got from justhost.com. He runs a blog that is part personal / part business advice. Where he places ads from hosts like Just Host, and other hosts through a rotating script. Unlike the review sites that I go after he does not provide any endorsement for any of the hosts whose ads appear on his site. He engages in a true form of advertising. I for one would not run ads for them as I was not impress with the speed of the server when I had to upload a site for a customer. This was a host that was supposed to have bought by Endurance International Group. Which if true, would be the first of their hosts that I have ever tried. My experience with Just Host can be found at:
Dear Just Host Affiliate,We’ve made an important addition to the Just Host Affiliate Agreement that may impact the way you manage your online promotions.The change expressly requires you to disclose that there is a “material connection” between you and Just Host anytime you offer an endorsement or testimonial on our services. This disclosure is necessary in order to be deemed in compliance with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.View the FTC Endorsement Requirement in the Affiliate Agreement. WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU If you provide reviews, rankings, endorsements or testimonials about a service for which you receive commissions from us, you must clearly disclose the fact that you receive such compensation in a clear and prominent place–that is close to your endorsement.The FTC takes the Endorsement guidelines seriously and has started to enforce them for both content providers like yourself and advertisers like Just Host.As an advertiser, Just Host will monitor affiliate sites to be sure our services are represented appropriately. Under the updated Affiliate Agreement, failure to comply with the endorsement guidelines could result in removal from our affiliate program and the cancellation of commissions.TIPS FOR MAKING SURE YOUR SITE IS COMPLIANTTo make it easier for you, we’ve pulled together information, based on a recent FTC enforcement case, to illustrate ways you can disclose a material connection between you and your advertisers. Take a few minutes to review this summary at:Just Host Affiliate Disclosure Requirements and ExamplesThe FTC also offers a variety of resources to help make it easier for you to comply with the guidelines, including:
Please note: These links are intended to provide guidance only. If you provide endorsements of some type, you should obtain legal advice on how the FTC rules apply to you.
Please take steps immediately to make sure your site is in compliance with these guidelines. Several of our leading affiliates have already posted their disclosures, and they continue to enjoy great success.
Best wishes,
The Just Host Affiliate Team
So what does this email from Just Host / Justhost.com mean?
In short if your a review site, and you don’t disclose that you created your site for the purpose of making money they will remove you from the affiliate program. Here are the steps they recommend to be in compliance with the FTC.
Frequent: Disclosures must be available on any page that has an endorsement.
Clear: Language must be easy to understand; don’t attempt to hide the fact that it’s a disclosure.
Conspicuous: Place your disclosure close to your endorsement or review. Differentiate the disclosure’s font treatment from the rest of your site.
Require no action: The user shouldn’t need to click, hover or scroll to locate or understand the nature of your disclosure.
I have to wonder if I am going to see more letters to other affiliates, if Just Host is owned by Endurance International Group. Here is hoping this is a trend that puts this site off line.
If Just Host sticks with this, I have to commend them on doing things ethically. I hope they did not start doing this because the FTC contacted them first. I will be sure to contact them should I find any violators.
Be warned if you run a so called top review site, and you have Just Host.
Back when I was working on the video that would become the trademark to this site, I was told to look at ixwebhosting.com. There was no site at all at the time, I threw it together in less then 30 minutes prior to making the finale sequences of the video. I was also still in the hosting business running 2 companies starting up a third, and only a year away from the 4th. One of my business partners wanted me to start a blog, and make a post on ixwebhosting.com / featuredprice.com. I never quite understood the point of doing a blog, let alone a post on this host at the time. His reasoning was that the owner of this site operated a company called featuredprice.com, which also had their own review site where they were on top. That is still a post for another day. This post is about something I found back in March when I was looking at a anti-ixwebhosting.com blog. I gave him the idea of looking at the videos. I noticed one problem, and that was none of the sites existed in 2003, or before ixwebhosting.com came into being. Granted there are more details.
First let me be clear before I proceed into what I found out about the these video reviews and give you my opinion. I do NOT think these are fake reviews. The bulk of what I have found are still with Ixwebhosting.com at this time.
Still with Ixwebhosting.com
Here is a list of all the sites in the videos that are still with Ixwebhosting.com
houndsinthekitchen.com – Created Nov 25, 2008 / Updated Nov 18, 2010 – Ohio kellsband.com – Created Jul 21, 2005 / Updated Jul 7, 2010 – Ohio digitaldynamicdesigns.com – Created Sep 16, 2007 / Updated Aug 16, 2010 – Ohio yunbootcamps.com – Created May 6, 2008 / Updated May 6, 2008 – Ohio 1canalgirl.com – Created Feb 26, 2010 / Updated Jan 27, 2010 – Ohio djscolumbus.com Created Aug 27, 2009 / Updated Aug 12, 2010 – Ohio ryanomics.com Created Apr 25, 2006 / Updated Mar 17, 2011 – Ohio fox-counseling.com Created Feb 13, 2009 / Updated Nov 2, 2010 – *privacy protection* kellisautosales.com Created Oct 30, 2008 / Updated Sep 30, 2010 – garbage information entered, at risk of having their domain yanked.
The thing I noticed while looking up whois dates and address information was two things. The oldest site is 2005, and all the sites that did not have privacy protection pointed to Ohio. Which appears to be where ixwebhosting.com is based out of. To be exact the addresses are literary in and around Columbus Ohio. Which is weird because on the page says is:
IXWebHosting is trusted by over 500,000 websites and their owners all over the world.
As I have repeated many times, the number of websites does not equal the amount of customers. But numbers are not the issue here, I have no doubt that Ixwebhosting.com may very well have these numbers if not more. My point is that this page indicates they serve the world, yet all the reviews are one tiny spot of the planet. I am willing to bet all the videos were done by the same crew. Not to mention the videos are hosted on Ixhosting.com, not with youtube.com which could generate traffic. Not to mention they could feed in more customer reviews that are from around the world. Back when my oldest host turned 8 years old we had started to ask for testimonials. When we sent the first mail out asking for them, we did not ask everyone. We asked people from the first year. I did not care that they may have been paying less then $10 a month, I wanted feed back from people that had stayed with us since the beginning as who better to give a testimonial? Made it a point to show case their site, as Ixwebhosting.com has done. Also when they signed up, which Ixhosting.com has not done. Granted these were not video testimonials as Ixwebhosting.com has done. Granted the updated does not always indicate when the dns was changed, but I am willing to guess that most of these customer signed up in 2010.
No Longer with Ixwebhosting.com
esotercdetail.com (no longer exists)
servicemasterelectric.com, Site appears to be under a whois privacy, Updated April 8, 2011
nateriggs.com Updated Mar 17, 2011- Ohio
ast.edu updated May 20, 2010 – Ohio
Here are two video reviews I found on the main page that were not on testimonials page. Which appears to be due to not being with IXwebhosting.com
Mpex.com, while the domain shows a PA address, the site itself has a Columbus Ohio address. updated April 19, 2010.
Joe Cortez, no website listed, but how ever there is a Linkedin.com profile for someone with the same name in Ohio who is a webmaster. However I have no idea if he is still with them or if he left. A bit bizzare considering all the other reviews list a website.
I will try to contact some of people whose sites are no longer hosted with Ixwebhosting to get their take.
Back in April 2011 I missed it where webhostingstuff.com changed their front page layout. I found out just a few hours after doing a post on winhost.com. Winhost.com was clearly not happy about me talking about their relationship with webhostingstuff.com. A discussion that pretty amounted to “what top 25 list?”. Which lead me to get someone to get me a screen shot to see what was going on, after all webhostingstuff.com was still blocking me. Everyone that did screen shots for me told me the same thing, the top 25 was gone.
Got to love it when a host tries to do a rebuttal without any proof they are right. For some reason I am not allowed an opinion, but hosts like this are allowed to do business with sites that claim they are one of the best hosts without any actually use. Regardless of the whole “what top 25 list”, I have tons of screen shots that showed there was one, and I offered to send winhost.com the unedited ones. I don’t post full screen shots of webhostinstuff.com for a very good reason. There is a lot of blank space on the bottom of their site. Below is an example. Perhaps I am guessing they want to give you a spot to make notes if you print it out, that is if you can get past the blocking.
Per usual when I asked for where the ppc (pay per click) was located the discussion ends rather quickly. At first I was told it was like Google, though if it was I would be able to see where the ppc was. Interestingly enough you browse through webhostingstuff.com enough you will find Google Adsense. Which is a bit odd that they participate with Google’s ppc while having their own so called ppc system.
Webhostingstuff.com claimed:
“We are Show casing 25 of the best web hosting companies from our directory of 16,654 web hosting providers.“
Never mind that webhostingstuff.com has never from all the sites I have seen owned by Michel Low used any of the hosts that appear in the top 25. As Softlayer seems to be the only host that webhostingstuff.com trusts for their hosting needs. So now the list is gone…….. Well gone if you consider not refabricating the system into something else. However I feel what Micheal Low has done will hamper hosts ability to have effective so called PPC, or as Jixhost.com put it advertising. Which is interesting as I thought the point of advertising was to reach as many people as possible, like the ads you see around this post. With the new system where it winhost.com appeared on 10th spot so it was on the first page. Under the new system its on 5th page. As it appears there is three hosts per Never mind the chance to be blocked if you do too much research. You buy from those ads I get paid,
Before
After
In addition to changing how the top 25 works, categories have been added such as type of host and a few countries. It seems like a half hearty attempt to deal with other countries as opposed to a focus on U.S. hosts. Though it ultimately ignores several countries that are growing in their need for hosting.
I have to say that this is a victory in a minor sense. But then again the increase in blocking is a victory.
Since November 2007 I have trying to disprove the ranking from from webhostingstuff.com, this is the claim is
HOW does WebHostingStuff rank webhosts?
WebHostingStuff ranks webhosts using WHSRank™ – a powerful ranking algorithm that ranks web hosting companies based on the quality of services they had provided to REAL customers.
The main engine behind WHSRank™ are the verified customer reviews published on WebHostingStuff.WHSRank™ uses these customer reviews to calculate a quality score for each web host.
When customers write their reviews, they are asked to rate webhosts based on service quality factors like:
Uptime and service reliability
Technical support
Customer service
WHSRank™ uses these quality signals to calculate the quality score for each web host. Other quality signals used by the WHSRank™ algorithm include uptime performance.
So how is it that i7net was on the list, as well as other hosts that had no reviews get on this top 25 list if they don’t have any of these factor? Many of the hosts that appeared on that list had:
Unsatisfactory reviews
downtime
no reviews
just started
Which is still going on, but the new system only encumbers those that bid for top spots.
Endurance International Group is back on Webhostingstuff.com?
I suspect even though there is one host (ssa host) on the new front page that is clearly not a top host. Most of the host that appear on the main page have a decent to high pay out affiliate program. I believe that the Endurance International Group hosts are only back up on webhostingstuff.com because they are up for affiliate commissions. Since I am blocked from my home its just a theory as I am unable to actually see if any cookies are put in my browser. I have long suspected the only reason Hostgator.com has been on this list is because webhostingstuff.com is a affiliate and is not getting paid for the so called ppc system.
Webhostingstuff.com is no longer my main focus, but that does not mean there will not be random reviews.
As I stated in my last article, webhostingstuff.com has some pretty serious search engine ranking. More people may know what they are up to, but there are still many that do not. Regardless with how the system is now, I think it best to put my efforts in to other review sites. I am not saying I am no longer going to do reviews on webhostingstuff.com or the sites that appear on them. I am just saying its going to be random. There may be one or more months I don’t cover whats going on, on webhostingstuff.com. I may spend a whole month on webhostingstuff.com. But for now I think webhostingstuff has started what may be the end of their ppc system.
Its been a little over a year since I started a blog on my site to write reviews of hosting reviews sites and the hosts that use them. I want to thank everyone that has inspired me. I also finally start using my mailing list starting with this post. I realize for some of you I have sent nothing out for a year. At this point I think I will be sending out a post once a week or month to highlight the posts I did. As I don’t want to send out more then anyone would want to get, which is part of the reason I have not sent out anything by email till now.
I am pretty sure all the marketing experts I know are going to cringe with my first mail out. 24 hours after this goes out I am sure they will be telling me everything I did wrong. The same people back when I was first starting pretty much drove me nuts on all things seo. Last month one of my previous business partners and good friends found out on webhostingtalk.com that I had yet to actually use my mailing list.
Regardless of having paid him to install it for me, keep in mind it was his idea to install that and the pop up window which asked that for people’s email addresses. I was the one to get grief over not using the mailing list. To deal with my lack of understanding of how mailing list programs worked he migrated my mailing list and installed a new program that would function with WordPress. Plus that annoying popup window is gone. My previous experience with mail outs was I wrote up a customer mail out and gave it to a tech. This truly is my first mail out, and where I probable got every thing wrong.
I wanted to thank the people that have contacted me over the last few months after I was supposed to have been exposed, I think the exposers have exposed themselves. I have gotten a lot of email, which I am still working on addressing. So much so that I have not really had time to write up new posts on review sites and the hosts that deal with them. Plus the work that pays the bills tends to take priority over what does not.
To those that did not get a personal response from me
I apologize for not contacting everyone. I have read each every email that has been sent to me. Some of the questions I was not sure how to respond too. So I am going to take a mass attempt at it. I really hate giving copy and paste responses.
To those that want to know who I recommend as a host
I am sorry to say but I am not prepared at this time to recommend any host. A hosting recommendation especially from a site like this is a huge responsibility. Let me be the first to say that you should still be skeptical of who I recommend, a little skepticism can be a healthy thing. Any host that I recommend would have I would have to actually use, not to mention fully disclose any and all activities. Perhaps in the near future I will be able to start recommending hosts, but no guarantees that I ever will.
Regardless I will be posting tips for finding a host some time this month.
Is there a site that offers reviews that I would recommend?
There are no review sites I would recommend. As every site I encounter are in it for one and one reason only, which is to get paid regardless if the host is good or not. Other sites such as webhostingtalk.com may be a good site to find what people may think of a host, but even the positives as well as the negatives can be faked. I have been contacted by a lot of review sites some asking for me to put my name behind them (or asking me to sell my site). But the biggest problem is they recommend the same hosts as other sites, ones that offer high affiliate pay outs. Frankly to be unbiased review sites should list the hosts that pay very little or nothing at all in addition to the high payout hosts. A simple list of a few hosts does not cut it.
Webhostingstuff.com is no longer going to be the main focus
I have had a lot of hosts and people tell me that webhostingstuff.com is no longer relevant.
Before you say reviews about this site are pointless I would like you to look at:
I for one would love to have the search engine ranking that this site has. With stats like that the site is very relevant. There also a lot of people out there that do not know the truth behind review sites like this.
However things have changed. The drastic changes to the top 25 have become cumbersome for any host that pays to get the exposure they desire. On top of that add the blocking that occurs if you do too much research on companies on any site that appears on webhostingstuff.com. I am now going to limit my reviews to those that appear on the main page. More details on that in my next post. I may even just collect sites that appear and review them every couple of months.
You want me to do a review of your company
I have to say that this is the most mind boggling of requests I get. There are at this time only 3 providers I use and I don’t exactly have nice things to say about them. I stopped using godaddy.com because of the very flaws I mentioned, because I don’t think they are for a long term solution for a serious site. There is no host that I have had a positive review on, here or even on my personal blogs. There are only 2 hosts that I have done a review on per request, only because I found these hosts also contacted review sites to do the same like hostingsthatsuck.com. The reviews were disingenuous, because they did not take into account that the hosts had just started, but clearly the only thing this review site cared about was a commission.
Regardless in the interest of improving my search engine rankings by viable content, I will be in the very near future do reviews for hosts that request it. I am actually in the progress of working with someone to do surface reviews which will be terms of service, support, and design. More details to come shortly. As soon as my new content writer is done redoing all the hosts I reviewed in the past, they can go over your site to find flaws. I will make it clear that the host requested this versus being found on a fake review site. In which case you can see where your site needs to improve.
To the hosts that have given me new leads
While I am not going to name hosts that have contacted me on this post. I want to personally thank you for providing me with details I never thought to look for. When I used the information you gave me I will of coarse post you as my resource, or quote you as a silent witness. I am not going to claim anything as my own, when I don’t deserve credit.
To those that want me to expose their host
Now this does not apply to everyone that wrote me. There are many people that have valid complaints, and actually responding to my email exchange. But there a lot of people that have contacted me to expose a host without giving me a valid argument or nothing at all.
The problem with exposing a host or doing a review is I need reasoning and evidence. I can’t simple go after a host because you don’t like them. This is something I do in my spare time. Spare time being the reason for me getting out of the hosting industry, as I had very little of it when I was running 4 companies. I can’t begin to tell you how wonderful it is to wake up in the morning and not have to go to my desk to make sure other people’s sites are up. Simply wonderful that I can take a cup of coffee and my kindle outside on my back patio to start my morning. Of coarse you can argue I get paid to do this, with $56 last month (meaning no paycheck from Google next month) clearly money is not the reason to do a negative post. You can’t just send me an email and not return my replies and expect me to spend that precious spare time on writing up reviews with little to go on.
One particular person wants me to bust a company because he bought a domain that was too similar to the host, and signed up as a reseller plan similar to what Wild West Domains offers. Which in all honesty he is lucky that having his domain taking away was the only thing that happen. I am not going to defend what amounts brand deception.
Then there are people that have lost all the data because they relied on their host to secure it. I can fault a company for not having quality servers, but being responsible for backing up your data is not something I can hold a host responsible for. Every time I do a post, every time I approve comments, and every time I write a response to comments just for this blog I do a back up. Which then goes to several drives in my house, on my parents computers, and with third parties such as Amazon cloud. My friends refer to me as a data hoarder as I have stuff I wrote in dos back in the early 90’s. I even have a safety deposit box I exchange usb drives with once a week. Either way if this site was to go down I have multiple back ups to bring it back up, I am not going to rely on Media Temple or any provider to be my sole source of back up. If your data is too valauble to lose, you can’t trust a single source for back up. Which I have yet to find any serious host that does not have a clause in their terms of service that they are no responsible for data lose.
There is a phrase that comes to mind that that I always considered an idiot statement, the customer is always right. If you ever have the opportunity to to work a minimum wage job doing retail, you will know how untrue that statement is. During my college days I had that opportunity and worked at Wal-Mart in the pet department for a year. One particular episode comes to mind where I had to accept a refund on a dog chain that was clearly really old as the red plastic was sun bleached white, and the steel was heavily tarnished. The guy claimed that it was defective and he purchased it last week. Regardless of the evidence I had to exchange his old dog chain with a new one. My manager was with me on not issuing a refund up until he started making a scene and other customers started to notice. I have never
What is in the future of hosting-reviews-exposed?
There are a lot of sites that offer reviews in exchange for an affiliate commission. Hosts that create their own fake reviews site(s). Hosts that spam or gain from their affiliates that spam.
For some bizarre reason people have this feeling that I hate affiliate programs. If you saw the post where I get “exposed” on webhostingtalk.com you will see thats what I was accused of.
Never mind there are ads on my site, some how a hypocrisy has been in the works. Have I been using hosting affiliate programs to make a buck by making claims of some host was the best host? Read enough of my posts and you will see that the answer to that is no.
Yes Google occasionally dishes out ads for webhosts, I actually screen a lot of the ads. Never mind that a direct affiliate link will pay out more then what Google will pay me. There are no claims that any host despite having a affiliate program or not are a top host here. But your not going to find any where I say hate I hate affiliate programs. I do point to a lot of affiliate programs that do payout in some cases most of or more of the initial customer payment.
There also a lot of hosts that I have reviewed that have low payouts, or no affiliate program at all. In which case why would I do a review about a host that does not have an affiliate program if I my main focus was affiliate programs. This site is about exposing hosting review sites, and the hosts that use them. Some how I have yet to encounter a so called review site that was no bias. Either they get a paid amount for the 1 – 1o spot. But in most cases they just go to sites like commission junction and pick out different hosting affiliate programs, or go directly to the host (which is what alreadlyhosting.com perfers). I can’t look into the minds of host’s owners and tell you if they created the high payout affiliate programs to create a very saturated so called review industry. I know some hosts like siteground.com and fused.com own their own so called review sites, where amazingly they are the top hosts. It does not take much imagination to see where most so called hosting review sites got their business idea from. In up coming months I will be looking into the ethics not to mention the legality of running a review site
So do I hate affiliate programs?
Truth be told, I like spending money more then making it. I have a huge music obsession, not to mention my many other hobbies. So where does the money come from? While a big part of my income comes from graphic design, part of it comes from affiliate programs from others sites. There is a huge difference in what I do and what hosting review sites do, what I do is advertising. Where you see content you might find ads from Google adsense, or banners for tigerdirect.com, Adobe, and Coral. Companies I actually buy from. I don’t tell you that so and so is the best, unless of coarse I actually use their product. Any recommendations I have would be if I actually use the product, which I do pretty often in my personal blogs.
If you read enough of my posts, I have yet to put my name behind any host. I engage in true advertising. I don’t create a so called top list and claim that any host is a the best host. If you read that post on webhostingtalk.com you will see jixhost.com claimed that they were advertising. If your familiar with Google adsense, as winhost.com tried to say webhostingstuff.com was doing, where is the ppc ads at? Advertising is not what the so called top sites call it. Webhostingstuff.com even claims that the top 25 positions were not for sale. While Jixhost.com (who was all over the place), did not claim they paid for the top 25 spots, they did not deny they were. They don’t want you to know that they are rather bias about who is on that list, and most of that has to do with if a host has an affiliate program or not.
To be honest I am not big on the idea of programs that pay our more then 20% of an initial sale. From a business stand point every dollar you spend on a affiliate commission is a tax deduction. Not every sale is going to come from affiliates, not to mention not every sale that comes from an affiliate in certain circumstances awards a commission. Like for example, if a customer decides to go away from a page they get this pop up window that will knock off 50% off the cost of an order.
When I was a hosting provider I would rather focus on other forms of tax deduction that improved services.
Affiliate programs are not evil
I tend to think of affiliate programs as neither good or evil. But I do blame hosts that do nothing about a top ten site that features their site. Which have no proof a host is number one, or for that matter not even hosted with any of the top 10. Regardless if they turn a blind eye to these sites they are still responsible for their unethical nature.
Lets face it, even without the affiliate programs the people who make review sites would be doing something else regardless of any ethical issues. One review site that most of my efforts into actually has other ventures, which is webhostingstuff.com. Micheal low is actually an affiliate of several other companies that are not even hosting related:
Despite his top 25 being a pay to play system, he seems to be removing it to add hosts that pay out affiliate commissions.
Either way the reform of hosting review sites don’t need to come from affiliate programs, but the hosts that turn a blind eye to their affiliates and how they bring in customers.
Bottomline is I have no issues with affiliate programs, as I am an affiliate.
April is the last month I will be doing a hosting review summary on webhostingstuff.com’s top 25. Partly because some where towards the end of the month the top 25 was done away with and a new system was put into place. The system pretty much depended on how much credits each provider has left and how much they want to bid for each spot.
but more about that in another post.
For April 2011 there were three new hosts, and one host that had 2 of its negative reviews removed.
Hosting review summary for April 2011
When I first wrote up my hosting review summary I found 2 hosts that on the surface looked like they had downtime issues. Another host did not have much on the surface. Frankly if they did not send some unnamed rep the post would have been a pretty dry and stale one. I do appreciate that hosting companies take the time to read my hosting review. I hope that they can take something from it, and that it will discourage them from using fake review sites, and engage in honest marketing. Even still if they don’t agree with me, it often enhances a post. I am willing to let Michael Low comment as well, his counter argument has always been welcome. Because unlike him, I am not going to block him from visiting my site, and commenting on my review of his hosting review site.
This is one of those hosts that I feel will never get beyond being anything more then a small host. There are too many quirky things that will keep it from being a mid level host. For one the allowing comments all over the site, lacks a degree of professionalism. Ordering an account seems to be a confusing process as it is not exactly not up front clear where to go to order, which makes me wonder how anyone can order an account. I suppose you could argue that it cuts down fraud, but not every one likes to contact someone to order, especially legitimate people. The terms of service are buried deep in the ordering process, and not linked on the bottom of every page like most hosts will do. But the hidden terms of service get worse when you find that its broke up in to several parts on other pages, I can only guess this was done to increase search engine ranking as a privacy policy is clearly visible, from what I understand Google is supposed to like those when spidering your site. Every hosting review I see seems a bit forced, not to mention repeated over time.
As I stated before I feel that the reason I found this host on the top 25 had to deal with up time as webhostingstuff.com indicated.
I also get the feeling based on the owner being the only one to respond to comments through various parts of the site that this is a single person operation.
I have to say that this was not a host that I found interesting while I did a review on them, for that matter it seemed pretty dry. The funny thing is the same day, right after I got my screen shots they got a second review. Which is a good thing considering the first one was over a year old, and the domain was expired. But while there was only one positive review on webhostingstuff.com at the time, there were 17 reviews on web-hosting-top.com where 7 good, 9 bad, and one neutral. Though in my opinion its 10 negative as the neutral reviewer migrated to another host because of the issues they had.
This is another of those hosts that use webhostdir.com, and they feel there is no need for you to see numbers, or data of any other kind to prove they are a top host.
I think the most interesting thing about this post was not the post itself but that I got a comment from some unnamed rep from winhost.com. As he/she was not willing to point me to where this ppc / advertising was taking place at. Also that webhostingstuff.com does not claim to be a review site, without an individual customer hosting review webhostingstuff.com would have far less pages. Just guessing but I suspect over 90% of the content is customer reviews alone. As for dealing with clients, I have to wonder how long a defensive measure with customer complaints will serve them. But this was the host that had me going back to webhostingstuff.com to find out what happen to the top 25, and for one page only I got to see from my home location that the top 25 was gone, after going to a friends house I found that there were definite changes that I will cover in my next post.
This is a host where its pretty clear that webhostingstuff.com rounds up on its hosting review(s), despite 2 negative reviews and one positive review this company gets a 3 out of 5 star rating. 9 out of the 10 reviews are negative, and 7 out of the 10 are in regards to down time. Though it may very well be 10 as I did not want to trigger another block by trying to look at each review in detail.
What bothered me with this host was the claim of :
No risk 30 day Money Back Guarantee!
But the terms of service which could easily be found, and in my opinion lacking detail state:
Our 30 day refund policy excludes reseller plans, vps, servers, domains, SSL certificates and plans paid for longer then 1 month and accounts that are suspended or terminated for abuse. We can not refund unused portions of your plan;
Which clearly meant that only on a certain plan, and as long as you did not pay more then a month you got this guarantee. If you found the service not to your liking during the 30 days and you purchased more then a month or a plan not covered by the guarantee (which appears to be only their business plan), your labeled a host jumper. This was explained to me by the a chat operator. Frankly people who I consider host jumpers were more likely to purchase monthly plans then they were to purchase longer terms.
It has been fun debunking the top 25 hosting review(s) of webhostingstuff.
Jixhost.com is my 3rd host review of 3 hosts for April 2011 webhostingstuff.com’s top 25. This may very well be the last host I review on webhostingstuff.com’s top 25. Because Webhostingstuff.com removed the top 25, as you can see if you read the exchange between me and the unknown agent of winhost.com.
More about that in another post. Off the top of my head I suppose I should be reading the positive reviews, but there is only one, and it appears that they changed their dns the same day as the review.
Jixhost.com has down time
Like the first host this host had signs of downtime. Which does not show up on the webhostingstuff.com tracked down time. But its in the reviews. I think its safe to assume that this host keeps its main site separate from its customers, unless of coarse the downtime some how happen in between the gaps of when webhostingstuff.com pings. From March 2010 to Febuary 2011 there are 10 reviews, and only one of them have anything nice to say. Since Webhostingstuff.com triggers a block if too many inquiries are done I can only see 7 out of 9 of the negative reviews complain about down time.
I figured I would go to web-hosting-top.com to see if the same is true. Between January 2010 to present there are three complaints in regards to downtime and I find 6 complaints. But I find myself questioning the legitimacy of the negative reviews. Not because of another host with a Generic Rep that too often states “The above is not a valid review due to the domain and name never being a client of JixHost. — jixhost.com representative“. That just points out there lack of being able to deal with customers on a public forum. Its the broken English, and no not the broken English that happens with many of my posts where I do things in a hurry and not like I did when I was in college and feared bad grades from my professors. Maybe I am wrong and these are non-English Customers. After all I had a lot of customers that went to Google to translate, while Google is great at translating a lot is lost in translation.
But there are two things the reviews tell me to do
See what I find when I search for results on Google – “Search and read about Jixhost.com over the internet just to see how bad is the service“
Try out the chat system because “Live chat = live silence! You“
Chat with Jixhost.com
Chat sessions for me have been a point where I am not sure how to proceed. At some point I hope to have a formula set up when I do chats. But its not always so simple, especially with this host. This is the first chat where I see:
“If you have general questions and would like to chat with our representatives, feel free to do so below.”
But the site did give me a a question to ask.
Benjamin:Am I correct in reading if I purchase more then a monthly plan I will not be eligible for a refund?
Welcome Benjamin! Your request has been directed to the Pre-Sales Questions department. Please wait for our operator to answer your call.
Call accepted by operator JixHost. Currently in room: Benjamin, JixHost.
JixHost:Which plan were you interested in? Benjamin:I am looking at your terms of service Benjamin:which clearly state: 7. Our 30 day refund policy excludes reseller plans, vps, servers, domains, SSL certificates and plans paid for longer then 1 month and accounts that are suspended or terminated for abuse. We can not refund unused portions of your plan; JixHost:correct Benjamin:so if I purchase a year, there is no refund possible JixHost:Correct Benjamin:thats not a very good selling point JixHost:tHERE ARE REASONS FOR THAT JixHost:sorry JixHost:for caps Benjamin:and those reasons are? JixHost:In the hosting industry there are whats commonly known as “host hoppers” JixHost:We prefer to spend our time and resources with serious clients JixHost:this is why we have the policy in place. JixHost:It deters Benjamin:well there are people like me that generally stay with a host until things go wrong, and usually I pay annually or better. But I can’t say this part of the terms of service encourages me that nothing will go wrong Benjamin:and a host hopper is just as likely to jump on smaller terms JixHost:One can choose to go monthly JixHost:We do not require any duration Benjamin:Well thank you for your time, but your reasoning does not convince me to try your program. JixHost:ok, have a good night. JixHost:”try” JixHost: case and point Benjamin:pardon? JixHost:Its works JixHost: JixHost:Is there anything else? Benjamin:No, have a good day. JixHost:You too. Good bye
The chat with Jixhost went a little funky if you ask me
I have been bothered by their guarantee system because on the main page they say:
Just a few of the many reasons why you should choose JixHost as your hosting provider!
Over 5 years in business!
FREE private name servers!
FREE billing system (phpcoin)!
Powerful CloudLinux 4 CPU core servers!
No risk 30 day Money Back Guarantee!
Over 99% uptime track record!
FREE Templates, Softaculous, Fantastico, RV Site Builder PRO and more!
24/7/365 Email, Ticketing & Live Support!
SSL Secure environement!
Complete backups of your data on a seperate drive!
FREE instant setup on all accounts!
FREE domain reseller account with it’s website!
Which is not honest, its only to non-reseller plans and only if you purchase under monthly terms as I clearly showed on what I think is a really weak terms of service. If you pay more then a year and find their service is bad then there is no recoarse. I have to wonder how many charge backs they have incurred because of their anti-host jumper philpospy.
Do they have over 5 years in business?
Well the domain is just shy a few months from 3 years. I would love to hear the story behind that, not to mention why there is a video on Jixhost for Softlayer.
There are other things I have found but I am not sure I would rather repost the links, I looked by just jixhost.com and jixhost.com sucks. I think its safe to say that I have not seen the same results on any other host. Jixhost is on my watch list.
For some time now I have been meaning to write a post in regards to my feelings about affilate payments. So far the general opinion of my critics is I am against them and I am a hypocrite. I think now is a good as time as any to express my opinion on affiliate programs. Last month a review site with an Alexa score of 8,000,000 + created a post on webhostingtalk.com to expose me. For obvious reasons I am not going to point to this site, but I will point to the forum post where I was to be exposed.
Because of this post I have been rather busy communicating to several people, some of which have given me some interesting things to look for that I would never had thought to look for. Which is part of the delay on getting posts out, that and there have been significant changes at webhostingstuff.com. Frankly before this I did not have much reason to communicate on webhostingtalk.com, as I was not sure any thread I would start would be blocked or removed. I found out about the post because of Google Alerts, and I was pretty much going to say nothing until they got off topic. It was some how the opinion that I wanted a government hand out because of some 14 year old I allowed to make a comments on my video. Even though I made it clear by my own comments I did not agree with the poster about having the government provide free hosting level services.
Why I don’t believe in free hosting and domains
Just in case its not enough for me to say that I believe by paying for your service, you are going to be more inclined/obligated to actually do something. Clearly with a hosting bill thats around $2,000 a month I am very motivated to get something out of my service.
Recently I read a post from one of the people that posted on that forum topic above that demonstrates one of the big reasons I got out of the hosting industry, and why I am not for giving out free service.
“I have found in my personal dealings in the hosting industry that the less a customer pays the more they tend to expect out of the provider and the less they understand the provider/client relationship.”
This is from a hosting provider with a little over a 3 years of experience running a host, granted this was in his first year. I can tell you with my 11 years of experience that that it was a fact with my first long term company. When I first started out I was offering packages for $500 or more a month, barely ever heard from these people. Many of them had their own private webmaster, or paid my company for web master services. Webmasters seem almost as rare as blacksmiths these days. By 2005 we started offering a $1.99 package. On average clients that paid $1.99 a month were 6 times more likely to submit a ticket then a customer that paid $25.99 a month, $1.99 a month customers were 14 times more likely then someone that pays $49.99. Its one of those facts my business partners over looked as they sought to compete with cheaper/unlimited markets.
I think it was 2006 when one of my companies started a 90 day free trial, which I can tell you was the start of me wanting to get out of the hosting business. It was not so much that we were giving service away for free, but that these people would make us work for a probable sale only to cancel at the end of 90 days and run off to another company that offered a similar trial, off the top of my head I would say a lose rate of over 70%. Generally if they stayed they did not upgrade to anything beyond the 1.99 month plan. At this point I adopted the theory that at least 5% of all customers were evil, and perhaps only because of good genes I still have all my hair. That or killing the 90 day free trial after 14 months is what saved my hair.
Any way back to webhostingtalk.com
I decided to make a response that was non-aggressive as possible, and I was aware before I posted my first response that this was a review site who lanched a debate against me, and decided not to point that out. I wanted someone else to point that out. By the end of the post I think it became clear how little the person who had started the complaint understood the hosts he had called top 10. His research involved copying someone else’s top 10 list, and that was the sum of his efforts over a 3 month period of time to make a 3 page site. He also was not aware that his host used the same data center as hostgator.com.
“And review sites like mine research, find and then list the best top 10 hosting providers. That way they save their time and able to find the best suitable host.
I guess some Small/mid size hosts do not like review sites because they don’t see their site in the top 10 list.”
By that statement he has clearly ruled out seeing if small to mid size hosts are viable options, which I think was his biggest mistake. What he admitted to only proved why you should not trust his list.
“No, i have not used any host in the list.“
and
“I have taken the list from some other review site“
Doing just as much research on me as the very hosts he claims are top hosts he claims:
1. he is a hypocrite. According to him affiliate marketing is evil but himself making money with adsense and affiliate marketing. you can see banners at his website. 2. He is making his living by bashing others. I am not a regular member of his blog so can’t say how accurate his finding are.
A person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings
Here is what my site does:
Busting review sites that created top 10 lists based off of companies that offer only high affiliate payouts.
Busting hosts who spam.
Busting hosts that own their own top review list, only to appear on the top of their own list.
Busting review sites that take payments under the table to claim a host a is a top host.
Busting hosts that pay review sites regardless if they earned the right to be a top host.
Busting hosts that appear in top 10 sites because they offer a high a affiliate payout.
Busting review sites that have other devious practices of making money, more about that in a later post.
To be a hypocrite, I would have to do what I am exposing.
Now to be clear I have no issues with affilate programs, as I am a member of several, some of which are through Commison Junction (cj.com).
This is where I try shamelessly to encourage you to buy something.
When it comes to the Amazon Kindle I like to think of myself as a walking billboard for a reason to buy one. I got mine as a gift to myself for selling off my first hosting company. Partially because before I got into webhosting I used to read tons of books, some times as many as 20 in a month. But as 2009 came to a close I realized that my most extensive reading came from reading contracts, terms of service, and customer/supplier emails. Customers emails can sometimes be entertaining I will admit, but I had not read a single book by the time my Kindle arrived on November 30, 2009. The first book I choose to try and finish off was Stepehen King’s Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower, Book 4). I had actually bought it in hard back, then paper back, and from another ereader on Dell’s abondoned Axim hand held device. Honestly the first 3 books were the best in that series, the 4th was the worst with its long winded back story. The last three were ok, but I proable would not have finished if not for the first three books.
While I am not back to reading 20 books a month, I have a digital library of over 264 books. I do catch a chance to read. While I can also read the same book and keep my place between my iPad and Kindle, I much prefer to read from the Kindle as the battery life far surpasses the iPad, not to mention I can not read my iPad in the sun.
I recommend the 3g model over the wifi version if you travel like I do. While I have the Kindle2 3g, I got to try out the Kindle 3 with wifi that I got my brother for his graduation. I found it some what annoying to set up the connection. But the print was finer, thinner, lighter then the Kindle 2. I might actually get the 3 later on to have a Kindle to leave in my car. Not to mention the Kindle 3 actually has page numbers where as the 2 does not ( I am not sure why it does not). But I will defiantly purchase 4.
Back to Webhostingtalk.com, do I hate affiliate programs?
The above is an example of actually promoting a product that was actually used. If you need more reasons to actually buy a Kindle I will happily give you more reasons to do so. What I hate is review sites that tell you that a host is one of the top 10 best hosts out there, yet they never tried any of the hosts they recommend. Just like the host that thought they were exposing me on webhostingtalk.com. 10 hosts, and the one host he was using was not on that list. Never mind that the payout for the company he was with was just as big as the companies he had listed. It would have made more sense if he actually promoted them. Granted there are many sites out there that promote only one host, but they don’t really tell you what they actually have hosted unless of coarse its the very site that tells you to host with the host they are promoting. One paticular hostgator.com affilate comes to mind that does nothing more then spew out details about every faucet of what makes hostgator.com, it seems more of a f.a.q. section then a affiliate.
The bottom line is unlike Consumer Reports who tests countless products, the review sites offer no proof that you should trust their opinion, they ask you not to kick the tires so to speak. They throw up a few details and try to tell you they have other reasons that they don’t list. Unlike these sites, I want to compel you to kick the tires and ask questions, there is a point where a little skepticism is a healthy thing. After all if it came to actually buying a car are you going to let the sales person pick the car for you?
Now to be honest I can’t say I get much enjoyment out of making money, but I sure do enjoy spending it. I think affiliate programs can help to promote products. Like say a band that I really love but I don’t think gets enough exposure such as Faithless. If there is anything I hate about affiliate programs is those that payout as much or more then what a customer paid. I actually plan to talk with an accountant about this to see how this effects the taxes a hosting company pays.
On Webhostingtalk.com I was called a hypocrite, is that true?
In order to be a hypocrite I would have to engage in the same activities that I am trying to bust other companies for. While I have Google Adsense and affiliate programs for non-hosting related items up, you are not going to see me put my name behind any host with out actually using their service and a lot of work to prove why. Granted its been a year of blogging and I have yet to find a company I would fully endorse. I am willing to tell people who I use and why they are adaquate and why I am not happy with them (Media Temple, Rackspace, and Theplanet (bought by softlayer)). I’ll even tell you who I have used, and why I would never use them again (Burst.net and Layered Tech).
case and point
I like to think of myself as a walking billboard for a reason to buy one. I got mine as a gift to myself for selling off my first hosting company. Partially because before I got into webhosting I used to read tons of books, some times as many as 20 in a month. But as 2009 came to a close I realized that my most extensive reading came from reading contracts, terms of service, and customer/supplier emails. Customers emails can sometimes be entertaining I will admit, but I had not read a single book by the time my 
. I had actually bought it in hard back, then paper back, and from another ereader on Dell’s abondoned Axim hand held device. Honestly the first 3 books were the best in that series, the 4th was the worst with its long winded back story. The last three were ok, but I proable would not have finished if not for the first three books.
.
. If there is anything I hate about affiliate programs is those that payout as much or more then what a customer paid. I actually plan to talk with an accountant about this to see how this effects the taxes a hosting company pays.
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