I came across a blog a few days ago that listed my YouTube video, what I did not realize was here was someone that had proof that many so-called hosting review sites were deleting negative feedback.
It had always been my suspicion they were doing that for those that paid them. After all years ago I had confronted them on this, and when I did they deleted my positive feed back and choose to slander me. I came up with the video and this site hoping to convince at least one person not to use the review sites. Not to mention it was a great way to blow off steam. But soon forgot I would forget about it. I did from time to time check the comments on my YouTube video but I did not think of putting as much time as I plan to do now. From all the comments on the video and forums and blogs that mention my video I can clearly see that I had been swaying more then one person. During my retirement from the hosting industry and coming up with new forms of income Google contacted me. I was a little surprised that they were contacting me to get me to use adsense. Not exactly something that I have encountered before. But unlike other sites with similar levels of search engine ranking there was nothing for sale on it before.
Did I mention I got a offer for $250 from the same country as where webhostingstuff.com is located( Singapore) soon after to sell my YouTube account as well as my website. Strangely some weeks later after Google contacted me, I received this offer from an anonymous buyer. Perhaps I am getting to them. Seriously if I was going to sell out on my principles its going to take a lot more then $250.
Sadly the blogger that did the top 25 comparison content rarely blogs. However if you look for Hostgator on his / her spread sheet you can clearly see that those negative reviews back in September 2008 are gone in May 2010. HostGator.com had a 80% approval rating back in September 2008. While other companies that I owned or other people own that I looked at in the past still have negative reviews. I have no proof that positive feed back has also been deleted. But its not hard to come to the conclusion they are doing that if they are deleting the negative feed back for those paying to be in their top 25. Time on reviews expiring is not a valid excuse if they decided to use it. Clearly these bastards are deleting the negative reviews for those that pay for their positions. I also notice now based on their rankings its nothing like those listed in the above link. There were 7 people with 50 – 0% rating back in September 2008. Now there is only one person with less then a 80% rating. All of the sites have reviews. Clearly still the rankings are not based off of customer ratings.
When I started this video it was to inform people that host review sites were a scam. Over the years I have received emails and posts on the multiple spots that I have posted this video. One of the most baffling explanations / excuses is that just because hosting companies have the money to get them into these top spots on hosting reviews they must be good. Clearly these people have not been paying attention to the current global finical crisis. Those with the money created the problem. Worst of all they gambled on risky investments, none existing items, or things they did not have money to cover. What makes you think these webhosts are not going to need a bail out of their own? Better yet what makes you think that your webhost will not disappear over night. I have seen it happen, every time I see a massive influx of customers, chances were it was a hosting company that went belly up and the people in the company are no where to be found. Some of the companies that were in webhostingstuff.com’s top 25. Much like these hosting review sites like webhostingstuff.com have a finical interest in who is at the top. They are faking the numbers just like the banks that made toxic loans. Webhostingstuff.com does not care if your webhost is around tomorrow, all they care about is the payments they get from webhosts.
Unless you are under a rock, we have an oil leak (did I say leak, I mean flood) that has been going on for 37 days now, the safe guards that could have prevented it were left out to save money. We have yet to feel the devastation of this leak. Do you ever ask yourself when buying hosting from companies listed on these sites what is being left out to protect you? What is being left out to ensure you get optimum hosting? Will they be around tomorrow? Will they keep your site up if you exceed 1 gig of space? Often I can tell you customers do not ask these questions.
Having the money does not mean that a company has your best interests at heart. I am not saying a webhosting review company can not be done for profit. I have several ideas of my own to make a profitable webhosting review sites. But simply putting rankings 1 – 25 up for sale to the highest buyer is not the solution.
While I am not in the business any more, I still feel I have a responsibility to point out the flaws of these review sites and the hosting companies that choose to use them. I
Your responses to my posts are welcome, even if you are the company that I have a rant against. That includes even webbhostingstuff.com, and others of your ilk. That does not mean just because I allow your response to be posted that I accept or favor your response as the finale word. I am not saying I will not screen comments, having other blogs I am well aware that you can not simply allow comments to flow free, especially since most are spam. I don’t believe every comment that is posted about a company on the world wide web is necessarily fair. I have been the victim of vindictive customers myself. One such customer was a bastard that thought it was okay to spam on my servers, and felt entitled to a refund when I shut him down. Despite the fact I had fought his dispute on PayPal and won, he made it a point to visit every company that he could to post negative feed back.
I plan to take up on a regular basis what the above blogger did on a monthly basis with webhostingstuff.com as well as other webhosting review sites that have reviews for profit.
Hosting companies that use companies such as webhostingstuff.com to promote your company beware, if you are listed with a reviews for profit company you will be my target for reviews. I will be looking for any kinks in your armor and I will point them out. My advice, now is the time to conduct ethical business.