The respones from posting an ad at WHT...

[DCM]

On Friday evening I posted an Ad at WHT (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=171509) looking for a partner for something interesting. It was very open ended as I really don't have anything specific in mind. I thought I might share some of the replies I recieved via PM and comment on things in general.

I ended up with 13 contacts from the ad. About 1/3 were from users that has zero post count to their name. Also, about a 1/3 just included an IM username and said let's talk.

There were a couple obvious cut and paste replies that were more schemes than acutual offers. I didn't even read them enough to see what they really were all about.

Many of the contacts were others looking to get into web hosting but had no cash/resources to get started. Here is a quote from the best one of that bunch. At least he could spell and use grammar.


Hello, first of all I am 16 years old but I have been using the internet for a long time. I already do quite a bit of linux hosting and have some knowledge with the linux os.

If you are planning on doing windows hosting I would be interested in being a partner. Although I have pretty much no windows experience I could pick it up very fast. I am good at talking with customers and have some experience with PHP & MySQL.

Thanks


Yes, I would say many of the contacts were from teenagers. Some were obvious l33t Hax0rs based on the way they typed.

My favorite one came from an established webhost that only offered *nix plans but has customers asking for WinWoes and he thought I could let him use my WinWoes skills and server so he wouldn't have to touch or support it because WinWoes SUX!

Now you might think I ended up with nothing worth persuing. While I asked for some creative thinkers and I ended up with mainly no ideas or just another wanna be webhosts, one person did come through with an offer.

They are looking to move into Windows Server Support and offered me a piece of that. However, after some lengthy discussion, I just didn't see me fitting in. They were already 6 months into their project which included 5 people on 2 continents and 3 countries and had mainly focused on linux servers. I also couldn't get a good feel for their ages either but they had a professional looking website.

I also did make contact with someone that did seem interesting and thinking like myself. He also had posted sort of an open ended ad at WHT too. This person has 100s of posts at WHT and seems to be respected for his thoughts and comments and 100s of posts at another web related forum and also seems very technical and respected.

I spent several hours looking over his posts and decided to IM him. As it turned out, he just turned 14. I had no clue and I am sure most others do not as well. (I promised to not blow his cover.)

So what did my ad do for me? Nothing at this point other than providing a weekend of fun and frustration. What does this say about the state of webhosting (or WHT)? It says there are lots of people looking to jump in and are willing tag onto anyone that has a server.

I was dissapointed that I really got nobody with any original idea unless they didn't bother to sell it and were one of the ones that just send an IM contact with nothing else.

Where does that leave me? Still here and there and around and thinking about what I want to do in relationship to webhosting or some related service niche.

Where do I think the untapped niche market is for webhosting might lie? Well, with RS (Rack Shack) offering $89 Windows Servers, I can see thousands of people getting boxes thinking they are can manage and secure a Windows box and find out otherwise in a hurry.

Maybe offer some incident support at a fair price and maybe some custom server perks/mods/monitoring for a small price. Something I create and is more of a rip and run template for me to install.

I also have an idea for an image hosting site that I think is very unique but it needs a backend and I know nothing about Php programming and such. I am still looking to finding some to partner with on that. However, I don't want to partner with someone that is still learning and those that know it are already out of my price range.

Overall, I enjoy reading the job requests and offers and have one here too. I would like to thank Chicken for having a nice place and the people here are nice. With me still being a novice, I don't always have much to conribute to the topics but have enjoyed the reading and learning.

Thanks for letting me ramble. :baghead:

[David]

Enjoyed reading your ramblings. While it is too bad you didn't find someone it reallys gives insight to the industry. Hopefully you can still find a way to jump in, I know I would offer my help if only I had time.

[Chet]

I am curious to why you think established hosts or businesses would respond.

You do not sound flexible, you have already decided without actually even seeing one in use - on a rs windows box.
You talk about experience, but then add this line. The underlying os while important for security reasons etc, is nothing compared to what is sitting on top it - ensim,php,mysql etc. That is where the tech support questions come from. Having experience in that is 100% more valuable to most hosts.

I don't mean to pick on you, but from looking at your ad, I see nothing enticing. Webhosting is not a business that is so hard to crack into, so those that want to - are. Those who aren't tend to be unmotivated or have no money. So the people who did respond are no surprise and do not reflect the real depth of users on WHT.

Chet

[Robert]

We recieve per day at least 10 people who have "seen us at WHT" asking us for either

[1] Free Hosting because they are so talented and make so much money, yet cannot afford a paid host

[2] To sponsor them and they promise to bring in at least 20 new clients

[3] They hold the secret to the success of our company

[4] They feel our design is bad and can sell us a better for less than what we paid

[5] "Yo! Wassup! Check it mah dawg, I need da hostin for mah site so can ya hook meh up? aiight thanx payce!"

Our favorite ones are the ones that tell US how much to pay them, as if we hired them.. something on the lines of:

"hello, I saw your post at WHT about Cars and I wanted to let you know that I would do support for you for $1 dollar a ticket, but I won't work in the mornings because I have school and sometimes on the weekends either. I also would like my own domain and hosting for free. So send me my information and I can get started! Thanx Buhbye"

[Chicken]

[1] - [5] = ignore list :D

Maybe Chet sees a problem in the request, which resulted in poor replies. Sometimes if things aren't worded correctly it skews the results (read: most polls posted on web hosting forums). I wouldn't give up, just take from this and come back a bit more specific.

[StLHosting]

I would have to say that WHT doesn't work for most people. Although I discovered it a few years ago and never really read it that often and didnt registered till 2002 I think or 2001 forgot now. But in that time, it has proven to be not useful in some areas and some others it has. I guess you have to find your niche for it or the feel for it. I came to hosthide out a few months after it was online and I should spend more time here, as I find this place more useful, just haven't found the time anymore now days.

Sorry your ad didnt work out like you would hope it would but don't give up either. I kept up with the things I wanted to do and a half a year later, I got what I wanted finally, (not hosting related) but close. You will learn from any mistakes you've made as we all have, god knows ive made some stupid posts over there and got flamed for it badly but I keep on :D

But the one thing I have learned... its best to do it yourself unfortunatly. I wish I could take on a partner in my business but in the past its proven to be a dead issue for me. Always an issue with greed, trust, devotion, time and effort, resources and the percentage you put in.

Best to luck in your venture.

[I, Brian]

DCM -

On the one hand, having flirted with the idea of webhosting, I can appreciate your frustration.

However, at the end of the day you have offered very little - not to mention not posting in a targeted manner.

You also stated in your ad that:


Well, I would never close the door on anyone just becuase [sic] you are young or old or never done anything else online before.


and yet here you are complaining that young people and those without great experience answered, when this is precisely what you invited?

I also don't understand why you think post count is important - does the amount of posts a person has spammed the general chat forum really count for technical experience? Does a webhost posting a 1000 replies of "do a search" in order to advertise their sig to seeking clients really count for anything? Do you think that with less than a 1000 posts on WHT, that Headsurfer has not posted enough to demand any form of respect in the web hosting business?

You also were dismissive of those who simply asked to chat about the issue. Personally, I'd wonder how many of those were busy people who didn't have time to beg for my attention, but instead were simply curious as to how both may get along in terms of personality?

You've actually done yourself a disservice here in this thread - at the end of the day you've made comment without vision, and rested almost smugly on the fact that you are an older person - despite that Webhosting is dominated by younger people who often have intensive computer skills.

Certainly there's an obvious irritation that some people will be time-wasters - but you seem to have painted with a very braod brush in your post here.

[hostdime]

Usually I get junk email.. But keep this on the DL. A man in Nigeria is going to let me get 3MILLION DOLLARS. It seems his business partner died, and the laws are strict there. I just have to let them transfer it into my account. Guess I will be leaving the hosting business soon :) Im So Hyped!

[Alex[nl]]

LOL @ hostdime ... BUt what does it have to do with this topic?

[hostdime]

;o

bored

[EasyNetwork]

"It is using a full version Windows server from Rack Shack."

I stopped there ;).

[Escaped]

ROFL ROFL which is why I don't like WHT, all those teenage punks. I found a business partner in May and he didn't live up to the contract, so this month I fired him! I shut his sites down and he ended up becoming one of my customers. ROFL ROFL

*grin*

I don't trust Ultdnetworks anymore and I saw someone call him a 14 year old, so, I believe that's true! He was saying crap like "There are computers in south africa?" and idiotic stuff like that.

And his leet skills aren't that leet anymore.

[UnitHosting]

*all those teenage punks* ;)

[Escaped]

Originally posted by UnitHosting:

*all those teenage punks* ;) Does this look like WHT to you? :D If not, you're not a teenage punk, but if I'm missing something and this is WHT, you're a teenage punk. ;)

[jmweb]

With WHT in control of a big chunk of the web hosting market, I feel that it is not a good spot to get customers. If wht did not exsist and their were 10 forums, with each forum receiving 10% of the people who are looking for webhosting, then our prices would be in a much better position then they are now. Only on wht will you see offers like $10 for 140 GB bandwidth and 10 GB space.

[rusko]

DCM,

please dont take this the wrong way, but part of the problem is yourself.

1. You have pigeon-holed yourself into a windows machine. It may be what you know, but may not be the best fit for the project (the php-driven image hosting site would do better on linux or fbsd). A lot of the 'serious' users look down on rackshack as well, so that contributed to the weeding out of interesting responses and attracted the responses you did not welcome.
2. MCSE - my favourite four-letter word. i have seen more MCSEs in need of a clue by four than you can imagine (this goes for a lot of non-MS certs as well, such as CCNA). I dont discriminate *against* certified people, but i do raise an eyebrow when a cert is used as proof of expertise.
3. we have been on the lookout for qualified windows people for a while and though OS knowledge is good (it is a prerequisite),experience with MSSQL and IIS is not just a bonus - it is a requirement. ie you may know physics like the palm of your hand, but if the nuclear reactor is about to blow, you need some real-life experience to press the correct Big Red Button.

my 2 kopecks,
paul

[rusko]

Originally posted by jmweb:

With WHT in control of a big chunk of the web hosting market, I feel that it is not a good spot to get customers. If wht did not exsist and their were 10 forums, with each forum receiving 10% of the people who are looking for webhosting, then our prices would be in a much better position then they are now. Only on wht will you see offers like $10 for 140 GB bandwidth and 10 GB space.

wht was never meant for customer acquisition, pay for your advertising or dissolve. likewise, hho was never meant for discussions about wht, especially since your post had *nothing* to do with what the OP said.

paul