Liam Eagle: LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

We have certainly discussed the notion of adding services around the basic Web hosting function as a way for hosting providers to add to their revenue while making their overall offering more attractive to customers.

No doubt, we have discussed that notion frequently, and at length. And rightly so, I believe, because at this point there is no issue more central to the Web hosting struggle than the question “how can I craft my offering to give my business the best opportunity to succeed?” And the answer lies absolutely in building a broad suite of services around a basic technology solution.

Value-added services, as they were once most commonly called, have evolved from a Web hosting strategy into a central tenet of the successful hosting business model. Competing in this business is not just about competing for customers, it’s about making the most of each customer.

With this issue, we set out to explore that notion of maximizing customer relationships. If there is a service you could be providing to customers, that service is more than likely one you should be offering. Every service you deliver to a customer makes their business more valuable to you, and it makes you more valuable to them – at any level of Web hosting complexity.

In a feature examining this philosophy form the perspective of the dedicated hosting business, WHIR contributor Dennis McCafferty discusses how dedicated hosting providers can combat the commoditization of their business by moving into managed services. Adding monitoring and management to the services they provide can increase the revenue they generate from each machine, while making them a more essential part of their customers’ businesses.

On the shared side of the hosting market, up-selling is key to doing business. Regular WHIR contributor Esther M. Bauer delivers a feature on the modern shared business model, in which hosting providers guide customers from basic, discounted shared Web hosting offerings through a set of value-added services in order to create a profitable relationship.

Not always the focus of the hosting business’s attention, the shared hosting market has become, particularly in the last year, a business now watched attentively by industry observers and outside investors. In a feature on the shifting shared hosting landscape, WHIR regular Wayne Epperson describes how a series of recent acquisitions and investments have created a new tier of large-scale shared Web hosts, poised to battle for the vast small-business market.

Automation, acquisition, virtualization and many of the other ongoing threads in the hosting business have led toward the current era of the tried-and-true business model. Getting the most out of every customer relationship is paramount to success today.

And it is my hope that reading this issue of the Web Host Industry Review will help you to develop a system for maximizing each of your customer relationships.