As reported here at The WHIR and around the Internet, Rackspace has filed the preliminary paperwork with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to issue an Initial Public Offer of stock (IPO). The complete S-1 documents can be found here and make pretty interesting reading for anyone who has a business involving web servers or large scale hosting.

Assuming that the IPO is issued, and that Rackspace becomes a New York Stock Exchange traded stock - this is great news for the web hosting industry. Here are the main reasons why:

An IPO at this time indicates that this sector is growing like crazy despite the specter of a U.S. recession - While there has been a pull back in a number of high visibility stock market sectors (think: housing markets, mortgages, banking, consumer durables) there is actually an acceleration in web hosting going on. This is driven by the growing acceptance of the web as the place for any and all data and applications. We are witnessing the transference of data from the desktop to the 'cloud'. Rackspace is riding the crest of this wave and pointing the way for the entire hosting industry.

Rackspace is an almost pure play web hosting company - Anyone, either within the web hosting industry or outside, can now have much greater visibility into the specific metrics that make web hosting a great business. Many investors are reluctant to invest in a sector or industry which is complex or laden with technical jargon. Rackspace will educate the market on many of the terms and realities that accompany web hosting operations. This will benefit other web hosting companies seeking investment in the future.

A successful IPO will create demand among investors for similar companies - Once Rackspace reveals the money to be made in web hosting, the larger investment community will seek out web hosting investments. This will mean more money available for web hosting companies in every niche of hosting. In essence, the business model will be vetted and the mechanisms for profit better understood.

The publicity surrounding the IPO will generate buzz for 'web hosting' - Just by submitting the S-1 documents, Rackspace has already created a substantial buzz around the investment and Internet communities related to web hosting. As of this morning, there are over 111 references to Rackspace on Google news. Over 35 of those posted in the past few hours, and all related to the IPO. Web hosting buzz and publicity enriches all those in this industry.

I wish everyone over a Rackspace the very best of luck with this exciting new venture, and on behalf of the entire web hosting industry I offer a heart-felt, ''Thank You''.

This content provided by HostMySite.com.

For anyone who doesn't follow Internet news very closely, I'll update you on an interesting web hosting story the is currently playing itself out. Microsoft is trying to buy Yahoo. The thing that is really difficult to understand is this: Yahoo doesn't want to sell.

This is a very important story to the web hosting industry because both of these players are pretty huge in hosting. Microsoft has developed an entire set of software and servers that only run under the Windows paradigm and then licenses that technology to web hosting companies. They have also dappled in hosting accounts directly, first with bCentral, and now with Office Live. Microsoft also practically owns business email software with Outlook and Exchange server. Yahoo on the other hand has stayed mainly in search, although the company made the decision to get into web hosting several years back - and has since been competing against its own advertisers (other web hosting companies that advertise on Yahoo or through Yahoo Search Marketing).

What's so puzzling is this: Yahoo was valued by the Wall Street at a total market cap of $25.7 billion before Microsoft's offer. The offer from Microsoft almost instantly boosted the market cap from $25.7 to $38 billion - an increase to all shareholders of $12.3 billion. So why on earth wouldn't Yahoo sell? Well, according to an open letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer reprinted in today's Wall Street Journal, Yahoo thinks that its three year projections are so rosy that Microsoft is undervaluing the company.

Huh?

So let me get this right - all the SUPER smart Wall Street analysts, hedge fund managers, mutual fund managers, and smaller investors were totally miscalculating the value of Yahoo before the offer? And now Microsoft - even though they are willing to pay a $12 billion premium over the market price - are STILL undervaluing the company?

No way.

If the growth plans of Yahoo are so great, shouldn't they be buying back their stock at what is effectively a BIG bargain? Shouldn't all those really smart Wall Street investors be buying it up as well?

The truth - though it hurts for Yahoo to hear it is this - they should immediately make a deal with Microsoft. If Yahoo is so certain that they are going to make a TON more money in the next three years, then they should make a deal that includes lots of Microsoft stock. That way, when the Yahoo piece of Microsoft outperforms, Microsoft stock will go up.

If this deal does get done, it will be interesting to see what Microsoft decides to do with the current Yahoo web hosting customers. It will also be interesting to see if Microsoft and Yahoo together can accomplish what they haven't been able to do separately: offer an impactful pay per click advertising alternative to Google for web hosting companies trying to attract new accounts.

This content provided by HostMySite.com.

Why doesn’t Google rank me higher? Well, not me exactly. A website that I work on. I set up a site for a friend of mine and helped get it groomed to rank well for its search terms in Google.

Here are the basics that my friend and I have going for the site right now.

* It has been online for over 5 years at the same URL.

* The URL is a .com and has some of the keywords in it.

* The title tag has the keywords in it.

* The home page has the correct keyword density and keywords on it.

* Over the years we have been fortunate to get great links back – many with the exact keywords in the link.

So here is what is so frustrating to me:

2 days ago we ranked pretty well for one of our key search terms at Google (top 10 Google ranking). Today I checked, and we have dropped to page 5 for the same term. I could understand if we just didn’t fit the Google algorithm or criteria for the term and we hadn’t reached beyond page 5 yet. But how in the world does it make any sense whatsoever that we rank on page 1 two days ago and page 5 now? This term is simply not that competitive. Here is what I am thinking about regarding this ranking:

Theory #1: Google randomly “bounces sites around” in the rankings once in a while to introduce confusion into the optimization process, thereby discouraging “gaming”. This fits the circumstances, but it would yield poor search results and potentially randomly rank top sites poorly. This doesn’t fit the “relevancy” standard that Google surely has.

Theory #2: The site is being penalized for aggressive optimization techniques. This doesn’t make any sense to me either, as we haven’t done anything at all unusual for this particular website or search term. As I stated, it isn’t that competitive – so we began to rank well for it quite naturally. This was even before we groomed our site content and title tags (as I noted, the keywords are in the domain name).

Theory #3: All of a sudden, the landscape for this search term changed dramatically – with new players entering the rankings and pushing the legacy websites further down the list. Okay, no way. This term is not that competitive. Plus, there aren’t any really new players on the scene for this term.

Theory #4: A very authoritative website that was linking back to us dropped our link, or changed how they linked to us. I guess this could be the case. But we haven’t bought or even traded or asked for links back to this term. Also – I’m not sure that even if a site like that was linking back to us, would just one site, or one link matter that much to drop us like a rock in a couple of days?

Theory #5: Google changed something in how they calculate the rankings for this term in the last 2 days – while everything we offered on the site and all our inbound links remained the same. This is the only explanation I can think of that fits both the circumstances and common sense. We simply haven’t changed anything in the past 2 days. So I think that Google (or more correctly the Google algorithm) has changed somehow for this term – yielding lower search rankings for our site. Some sources are reporting that Google uses over 150 different pieces of data to rank, so even a minor tweak in one or two of these for our category / search term could have pushed us lower.

Whatever the exact reason that we have dropped in the search rankings - I just keep wondering, why doesn’t Google rank me higher?

If you have any ideas, I’d love to see them in the comments below.

This content provided by HostMySite.com.

Whether you are a website developer, small business with an ecommerce website, or are running a web hosting company - there always exists the possibility that your good website will go bad. And sometimes they go very bad.

The specific issue that I am addressing is the unfortunate reality that there are malicious and exploitive hackers out in the world who amuse themselves by taking control of your precious website.

Case in point: I run a small forum website - mostly I run it to understand the underlying content management system - vBulletin. So one day I type in the URL of the site, expecting to see how many visitors are on the site and which forums have newly updated posts. Instead, to my disbelief, I see various crazy colored text that looks to me like maybe Arabic lettering. After trying the URL several more times to convince myself that I am, in fact, at the correct web address I come to the inevitable conclusion: my site has been hacked.

HACKED!!! Me - I mean, MY WEBSITE. CRAP! Now what?!?!

After I calmed down, I presented a trouble ticket to my webhost. They took a look at the log entries and determined when the changes had been made. Then they simply rolled back to a previous version of the site from their backups. The entire fix took about 5 minutes after they processed the trouble ticket.

Here are the things that I recommend you think about as a web hosting customer with regard to malicious activity:

1. Make sure you have local backups. Locally backup your data to a disk and keep it up to date. When you make any significant changes to your website, update the backup file.

2. Make sure your web host has backups. Check the plan that you are on and determine how often your site gets backed up. It's not unusual for a quality business hosting plan to offer daily backups.

3. Keep up to date with software versions and patches. This was my problem with vBulletin. A totally simple flaw was identified and circulated around the Internet during that time. vBulletin offered a simple patch for the problem, or I could have easily updated my version to a more robust state. Don't make this mistake, take a few minutes to read, understand and act on any security information sent out by your software companies.

4. Use robust usernames and passwords. Examine your logins and make certain that they contain non-standard characters - like these: $, @, ! and that you have enough characters to make them hard to break. Guess what the most popular password is? PASSWORD. Duh. Don't do that.

5. Select a web hosting company that has proven security in place. This means both physcial security and virtual security. Look for a good description of the security procedures on the hosting company website. A truly aware web hosting company can often prevent malicious activity before it happens - saving you valuable time and money.

There are many more safeguards that one can undertake. The more, the better. However, these steps are a great start to get your awareness up. The best defense against an easy and obvious exploit is simply to arm yourself with awareness and knowledge. Keep your website safe. We don't want it turning bad.

This content provided by HostMySite.com.

As many of you now know, I was recently appointed Vice President of Marketing at HostMySite.com. It's always envigorating to join a new organization and observe the inner machinations of a class operation.

One of the more interesting and unusual things that I have been watching is the Official website of the Mike Huckabee Presidential campaign. The site is entitled, 'Mike Huckabee for President' and can be found at www.mikehuckabee.com.

It just so happens that a great developer client of HostMySite.com, GSL Solutions, specializes in political websites. GSL Solutions created the 'Mike Huckabee for President' website, and it is hosted at HostMySite.com.

The really interesting thing about the behind-the-scenes view of the website is the incredible amount of effort required to keep up with a site that has grown from almost zero traffic to an Alexa 10,000 site. This traffic increase has occured in just the last several weeks - as the campaign has heated up with all the Presidential Primary activity. Here is a graph of the Alexa traffic report for www.mikehuckabee.com

Inside the effort at HostMySite.com is a great communication network that observes the activities of the candidate - particularly television appearances such as 'Larry King Live' or a Presidential debate. The team also notes when major media outlets mention the site with a link, such as happened last week with the New York Times. Each of these media mentions is noted and the team briefed, in order to stand ready to scale up bandwidth or other server resources if needed. Thusfar, the site has been rock solid - and a crticial component to the Huckabee Presidential campaign.

Michael Gaines, President of GSL Solutions described the importance of the website, ''I spoke with the Governor after the debate about the website and he acknowledged how important the site has been to their ability to interact with supporters and sustain his campaign for President. The anticipation is that the growth of traffic and supporters will likely double leading up to the final primary votes. Our company has been working with HostMySite.com for the last 6 years and we have thoroughly enjoyed the relationship and support. This particular site and its momentum are unlike anything we've experienced. I know many of the HostMySite.com technical staff have been working hard to help keep this site up over the past few days.''

Needless to say, HostMySite.com realizes the importance of free and fair elections in a democracy - as well as the free distribution of the candidate's views and opinions - in order to help voters choose the next President. It has been a priveledge to assist in that process with the 'Mike Huckabee for President' website.

So, remember that the next time you plan on hosting the website of a major Presidential candidate, you watch the major media outlets - and have your finger on the bandwith trigger!

This content was written by Derek Vaughan, and is provided courtesy of the dedicated server hosting specialists at HostMySite.com.

WebmasterWorld's Search and Internet Marketing Conference entitled PubCon will be held this year from December 4^th – 7^th at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The show will feature an unbelievable array of search engine marketing talent and a speaker list that reads like a who’s who of the search engine universe. There will also be plenty of web hosting and webmaster discussion as well – and expert panels featuring a broad range of topics.

I caught up with the show’s founder and organizer, Mr. Brett Tabke, to get his take on this year’s event. Mr. Tabke directed me to the speaking agenda where I found out that among this year’s speakers are:

The founder of Craig’s List – Craig Newmark
Leader of the Google search engine rankings spam team – Matt Cutts
Venture capitalist and author – Guy Kawasaki

Of course there are the panels of experts on a variety of topics. I will be on a panel that will discuss web hosting and search engine optimization. I’m also on another panel on “tools of the trade” – this will reveal what specific tools I use to help with search engine rankings.

There is also a reprise of the “Google Reception with the Google Engineers”. This was a very popular event last year. Essentially, Google makes their engineers that are experts in various aspects of Google search available to answer questions – while there’s a giant party going on in the background. This is a great opportunity to learn tons about Google – even if you don’t have any specific questions. I learned quite a bit by simply listening in on other people’s questions and answers.

Mr. Tabke mentioned that he expects “a couple thousand attendees and 50-75 exhibitors”. When I pushed Brett to weigh in on what a “must see” item was at this year’s show he said, “Guy Kawasaki is back this year and hosting a panel himself. He is widely regarded as one of the top panel moderators in the business today. He is hosting a session with techs for the big four search engines”.

Be sure to book the date if you need to rub shoulders with the best of the best in the search engine and webmaster community.

In this final look at the recent ISPCON show in San Jose, we’ll hear from the exhibitors themselves on what the show meant and how things went.

ISPCON consistently draws a number of web hosting and hosting-related exhibitors to the show floor. This year’s fall event was no exception. Here is the brief list of the companies exhibiting and a brief description of the products promoted:

AT&T Wholesale – Largest provider of communications services the U.S. Network, data, and IP solutions were featured.

CrashPlan PROServer – Cross platform enterprise backup solutions.

Everyone.net – A leading SaaS messaging solution for service providers.

groupSPARK – A leading provider of hosted SaaS solutions. Featured Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, and Dynamics CRM.

HostMySite.com – A service-oriented web hosting provider. Featured developer solutions, managed servers, and VPS products.

Hostopia – Wholesale private-label, web, email and application services.

NaviSite – IT hosting, outsourcing and professional services.

Roaring Penguin Software Inc. – Specializes in email filtering and fighting spam at the mail server.

SWSoft – Advanced server development company offering control panels, virtualization software, billing software and hosting automation software.

Tucows Inc. – An Internet services provider for hosting companies.

Web Host Industry Review – Yes, The WHIR had a great booth manned by the staff you know and love!

Here are a few comments heard at the exhibit hall this year:

James Bird, Manager, Strategic Solutions with Hostopia – ‘’We’re happy with the traffic we’ve seen so far.’’

Ravi Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer, groupSPARK – ‘’It’s been intimate. The sessions were all intimate with 2 to 3 speakers per session. This allowed the audience to lean more from each speaker. There was also more time on the Q&A side.’’

Stacy Griggs, Vice President of Sales, HostMySite.com – ‘’ISPCON is a great show. It’s always good for companies to get together and exchange ideas and best practices. The sessions were informative and of a high quality.’’

Candice Rodriguez, Director of Business Development & Marketing, The WHIR – ‘’There are many more web hosting vendors. There are more companies who want to get their foot in the door with larger web hosting providers.’’

That’s the exhibitor wrap up. Look for more comments and trade show coverage in the near future.

 

Last week’s ISPCON Fall 2007 in San Jose, California at the McEnery Convention Center offered a look at a number of web hosting initiatives and strategies, as well as great educational sessions for those running a web hosting business. Here is a brief overview of the event, with another installment to come shortly.

Although the foot traffic and attendance at the show was perceived as lighter than last year, the quality of the speakers was outstanding. Two of the highlights from the show were the keynote addresses. The first keynote was delivered by Mr. Dave Shaeffer, the Founder and CEO of Cogent Communications Inc. The company was founded in 1999 as a deep fiber and IP data-only network. Mr. Shaeffer described what Cogent currently sells as a “commodity”. He also pointed out that the Internet is the lowest cost network – and as such, it is deflating the other networks (lowering prices). Mr. Shaeffer launched into a very knowledgeable discussion of the current state of access network providers, and his take on the future of content providers and distribution networks. It is also impressive to note that Cogent handles a full 15% of all Internet traffic with just 450 employees.

The second day’s keynote was presented by Mr. Douglas J. Erwin, Chairman and CEO with The Planet.com Internet Services Inc. Mr. Erwin began his comments by reminding the audience that he has served just 500 days in his current position. He also declared that the “shared hosting business is under fire”, while pointing out that web hosting valuations have skyrocketed. Mr. Erwin also viewed that current data center climate as one of data center shortages. According to Mr. Erwin The Planet is looking for acquisitions, and also talent. Mr. Erwin noted that there is also a talent shortage in hosting at the moment. Another revealing piece of information: The Planet will spent $30 million in Capital Expenditures in 2007. A portion of these expenses are presumably related to the brand new worldwide headquarters being built in the former Houston Convention Center. This is to create an environment and culture where people run to work, and others want to join, according to Mr. Erwin. Overall a great and thoughtful keynote and one well worth attending.

Other notable web hosting presenters during the conference were: WHIR blogger, Mr. Tom Millitzer, President of New Commerce Communications. Mr. Millitzer built a fantastic presentation from his opening premise regarding selling an Internet company. He said, “Rule #1 – Be honest. Other than Rule #1 – there are no rules”. He also mentioned his 5 minute rule (does that mean there is more than 1 rule?) which essentially says that a CEO or other decision maker must make an informed decision RIGHT THEN – when considering a purchase (within 5 minutes). Tons of great tips and things to think about. According to Mr. Millitzer there is one thing that tanks deals, greed.

WHIR blogger, David Snead, Attorney at Law, W. David Snead P.C. delivered a virtual classroom session and free law lessons while delivering his presentation entitled, “Negociating the SaaS Minefield”. What struck me about Mr. Snead’s session was the concept of “risk assessment” – and how each and every activity of a business can be reviewed and considered in light of its potential for litigation. He also delivered invaluable tips and information on what to look for in contracts and looked at hyperlinked Terms and Conditions. Basically a free hour with a high-powered web hosting attorney – well worth getting up early for!

Another WHIR blogger and favorite of the ISPCON audience who presented this year was Mr. Lou Honick, CEO of HostMySite.com. The topic of Mr. Honick’s presentation was how to increase your bottom line through strategic use of customer service. One of Mr. Honick’s core messages focused on the concepts of a “Product Oriented” company versus a “Customer Oriented” company. His examples of companies that fall into these categories – Microsoft (Product Oriented), Apple (attributes of both orientations), Amazon (Customer Oriented). Mr. Honick also drew in the audience by incorporating topical headlines from the day’s USA Today newspaper to illustrate his points. This was a well liked presentation judging by the attendance and also the vigorous Q&A session afterward. Great information that will grow a business.

In part II I’ll describe the exhibit hall and leave you with some comments from the exhibitors and attendees. Look for it soon!

Accomplished WHIR bloggers, Mr. Lou Honick, CEO with HostMySite.com and Mr. David Snead, Attorney at Law, with W. David Snead P.C. will be among the considerable cast of presenters who have ties to the hosting industry at this year’s ISPCON conference and exhibition.

This 14th edition of ISPCON is entitled, “The Internet Industry Event,” and will be held at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, CA, from October 16 – 18, 2007. The show is designed to help service providers “get real” about the future of their businesses and will focus on the industry’s hottest Internet services and technologies.

Lou Honick will present, ‘Leveraging Great Service to Improve Customer Satisfaction and Your Bottom Line’. The session will dissect two famous examples of customer service -- the horrendous and the heroic -- to illustrate exactly how a company can make a difference in their service philosophy. Additionally, audience members will have the chance to pose customer service challenges to Lou Honick and get valuable feedback.

David Snead will present, ‘Negotiating the SaaS Minefield’. Mr. Snead’s session will cover upstream, downstream and corporate liability issues associated with acquiring, using and distributing SaaS products. The session will focus on questions to ask vendors, mandatory and optional contract provisions, and methods that are crucial in evaluating your risk tolerance.

Web hosting will be well represented at ISPCON, with a conference track specifically devoted to hosting topics. Additional hosting luminaries scheduled to present are: Mr. Jeff Stibel, President and CEO of Web.com, Ravi Agarwal, Chief Executive Officerof groupSPARK, Jack Brandt, Business Development Manager at Register.com, Douglas J. Erwin, Chairman and CEO with ThePlanet.com Internet Services Inc., Douglas Johnson, Director of Hosting Marketing at SWsoft,  and Ken Schafer, VP Product Management and Marketing with Tucows Inc.

To learn more about ISPCON please visit: www.ispcon.com.