(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Having an online presence is a mandatory requirement for any business, despite the nature of its products and services, size, or targer market. Unfortunately, many small businesses do not have the budget to hire a Web designer to properly design a professional-looking website.
In an effort to address a perceived gap in that market, Yahoo! Small Business (smallbusiness.yahoo.com/) recently partnered with Logoworks (www.logoworks.com) by HP to help these businesses get their websites online.
Now when customers sign up for Yahoo! Web Hosting, they will be able to acceess a relatively low-cost web design service made available through the partnership.
The “Do It For Me Publishing” service provides a five-page, custom-designed website for a flat fee of $299. Businesses can choose from a selection of templates along with two rounds of review and revisions with a Logoworks by HP designer.
In an email interview with the WHIR, Eric Steinle, director of product management for Yahoo! Small Business, explains some of the details behind Yahoo!’s new Web hosting and Web design package and what it can provide to small businesses.
UPDATE: On September 21, after this interview was conducted, Reuters reported that Yahoo!, which has been attempting to sell its Small Business unit, has been asking as much as $500 million for the hosting business.
The WHIR: Who is the target market for this new package?
Eric Steinle: The Do It For Me Publishing add-on service, is targeted to our Web hosting customers only. These are small businesses, usually 0 to 10 employees, service based businesses.
What is included in this new web design/hosting package?
ES: The customer is provided with consultative design sessions via phone, two rounds of site design, access to stock images, and the completed five-page website for the one-time price of $299. They are also given the option to receive continued maintenance and design services from LogoWorks.
What kinds of add-on services will be available with this package?
ES: The service is specific to the consultation and design work. The customer can also choose to continue with ongoing site maintenance and design, or leverage many additional services from LogoWorks, including business cards, custom logo design, and do-it-yourself logo design.
With the recent discontinuation of Yahoo’s GeoCities service, would you say this new package is an attempt to gain back this potential customer base?
ES: This effort is not specific to serving the GeoCities customer base which largely consists of consumers. This is a needed option for our hosting customers that do not have the time or expertise to design their own site. The additional service will provide an additional value-based option to our existing GeoCities customers who decide to upgrade to Yahoo Hosting.
What distinguishes this package from competing web design and hosting packages out there?
ES: We believe that our partner’s expertise, the package’s price compared to others in the market, and the ease of use and flexibility of the Yahoo! Site Solution tool provides a unique value to the hosting customer. They can work directly with a single partner (LogoWorks for all design aspects) at an extremely reasonable price. The customer then has the option to continue with paid maintenance or a transition to maintain their site personally using an extremely customer friendly and easily updatable service in Site Solution.
