Opinions needed on updated design and what you think of PayPal

denhamd2

I got your opinions on my site a few months back when I set it up and have made a few changes design-wise and in the functionality. Please can you take a look at http://www.prohost.ie and let me know what you think and what you think could do with improving. Also as you can see I'm using PayPal to take orders as I'm currently working on a credit card processing system. What do you think of using PayPal for this?... would many people have PayPal accounts or be put off by this?

I'd really like to hear what you think of it,

Thanks

kjt

I like the website the way it is tbh.
Paypal, well personally I wouldnt go near a 'hosting company' if you HAD to use paypal. There should be the choice. Hosting and secure certs/ credit card transactions, their a big part of hosting/your business.

I think it looks bad that a hosting company doesnt cater for credit cards.

My personal thought, hope they helped a bit
Nice site.

denhamd2

Thanks, I'll definitely get onto pushing through the CC processing ASAP. What do you think of the prices, I'm looking to be as competitive as possible.

kjt

In my opinion its quite expensive.
For the basic package the storage
and especially the bandwidth is very little.

jmcc

denhamd2 wrote:

I got your opinions on my site a few months back when I set it up and have made a few changes design-wise and in the functionality. Please can you take a look at http://www.prohost.ie and let me know what you think and what you think could do with improving.

Just so you know, you are entering one of the most highly contested markets in Ireland. And the trend over the last year or so has been that the big hosters (1000+ domains hosted) are getting most of the business and the small guys are being forced out.

Rather than positioning it at the low end of the market, try develop some more unique selling point - such as webdevelopment/SEO and hosting. You've got a few testimonials from professional type clients so use those to pitch for more business in that particular market.

You are hosting on US IP space. This is not a good thing when pitching to an Irish market because most of your competition is hosting on Irish IP space and will use that as a bonus point when marketing.

Regards...jmcc

mneylon

Stating that you are "Ireland's favourite Web Host" is misleading

Seth Brundle

I followed a link to www.prohost.ie/domains/domain-guide.php and the text seemed very generic.
It seems other sites may be copying your text!!!
www.google.ie/search?hl=en&q=%22In+order+to+ensure+the+highest+value+for+your+domain+name%2C+it+is+important+to+try+to+make+your+name+as+marketable+as+possible.%22&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

mneylon

kbannon - he does say where he got it from at least
We've had some "interesting" experiences in the past with people "borrowing" our content and then denying it

Seth Brundle

Thanks M. I actually didn't spot that.
Apologies denhamd2

denhamd2

Ok thanks I'll defo bear these in mind. I specialise in web design and SEO so I may incorporate that into the packages.

BigArnie

blacknight wrote:

Stating that you are "Ireland's favourite Web Host" is misleading

Worried?

mneylon

BigArnie wrote:

Worried?

Nah

rsynnott

denhamd2 wrote:

I got your opinions on my site a few months back when I set it up and have made a few changes design-wise and in the functionality. Please can you take a look at http://www.prohost.ie and let me know what you think and what you think could do with improving. Also as you can see I'm using PayPal to take orders as I'm currently working on a credit card processing system. What do you think of using PayPal for this?... would many people have PayPal accounts or be put off by this?

I'd really like to hear what you think of it,

Thanks

Your title says "Dublin Web Hosting, Ireland". A reasonable reading of this would be that it is an Irish, host, while in fact it is in the US. This is highly misleading, and may constitute false advertising. Change it.

Your plans are quite alarmingly expensive for the generic-US-host market.

"Our feature-rich UNIX hosting packages represent the best value for money in Ireland." - questionable, and they are of course not in Ireland.

Paypal can process credit card charges.

rsynnott@rsynnott:~$ host DUTEC.IE
DUTEC.IE does not exist (Authoritative answer)

That's from your testimonials page. Doesn't look good.

And yes. "Ireland's favourite web host"?! Who do you think you are fooling, precisely?

Also, am I the only one irritated by webhosts showing pictures of random tower computers all over the place?

denhamd2

Hi, thanks for your reply. I have a few issues with your post:

"Dublin Web Hosting, Ireland" is fine - we don't pretend we offer hosting on servers located in Ireland, many reseller hosts in Ireland offer US based hosting, nowhere does it state its Irish-based. The title refers to the fact that the company is Irish-based and our support is Irish.

"Your plans are quite alarmingly expensive for the generic-US-host market." - Our market is the Irish market, not the US market.

"Ireland's favourite web host" - if Pepsi advertised themselves as Ireland's favourite soft drink would you argue? Its only the opinion of our customers we're not looking to pretend to be the biggest or cheapest (as Pepsi wouldnt either), but our customers have all said they were ripped off in the past hosting with Eircom and others and have been quick to recommend us to others.

"best value for money in Ireland" - again yes its a matter of opinion if its the best value for money (no downtime, all support query emails replied to within 30 minutes, etc, etc.), but more to the point its the fact that its a Dublin-based company.

I'll look at clarifying the wording

Hagar

Ambigous wording regarding the 2Gb offer.
Is it only for the month of January or forever if you register during the month of January?

I must agree with people querying your claim to fame as most popular.
It will undermine your integrity.

rsynnott

denhamd2 wrote:

Hi, thanks for your reply. I have a few issues with your post:

"Dublin Web Hosting, Ireland" is fine - we don't pretend we offer hosting on servers located in Ireland, many reseller hosts in Ireland offer US based hosting, nowhere does it state its Irish-based. The title refers to the fact that the company is Irish-based and our support is Irish.

Does it, now? I find it quite misleading, and I'd imagine that many others would as well.

denhamd2 wrote:

"Your plans are quite alarmingly expensive for the generic-US-host market." - Our market is the Irish market, not the US market.

Your server/reseller package, though, is really more or less only as suited to the Irish market as any other US server/reseller package.

denhamd2 wrote:

"Ireland's favourite web host" - if Pepsi advertised themselves as Ireland's favourite soft drink would you argue? Its only the opinion of our customers we're not looking to pretend to be the biggest or cheapest (as Pepsi wouldnt either), but our customers have all said they were ripped off in the past hosting with Eircom and others and have been quick to recommend us to others.

Yes, I certainly would. "Your customers" != "Ireland". Remember 9 out of 10 cats prefer Whiskas? Which turned into 9 out of 10 cats whose owners expressed a preference in our survey preferred Whiskas? You should at least qualify it to say "Our customers say that it's Ireland's favourite web host" or provide whatever evidence you have.

denhamd2 wrote:

"best value for money in Ireland" - again yes its a matter of opinion if its the best value for money (no downtime, all support query emails replied to within 30 minutes, etc, etc.), but more to the point its the fact that its a Dublin-based company.

No downtime? Goodness! How on earth do you manage that? And if there is no downtime, why do your T&Cs say that you make no representations about uptime? Also, I see that you don't allow blasphemous content (against what religion, precisely?); you wouldn't suit my needs

Is your support Irish-based, by the way?

Oh, and what about your testimonial website? It don't resolve

Also, in sitemap, FAQs has no need or want of an apostrophe.

denhamd2

"Also, in sitemap, FAQs has no need or want of an apostrophe." - ok now youre nit-picking!


"Our customers say that it's Ireland's favourite web host" or provide whatever evidence you have - yes this may be true but come on, slogans are supposed to be short and to the point.

rsynnott

denhamd2 wrote:

"Also, in sitemap, FAQs has no need or want of an apostrophe." - ok now youre nit-picking!

I was trying to be helpful, believe it or not. Dodgy grammar doesn't help your image.

denhamd2 wrote:

"Our customers say that it's Ireland's favourite web host" or provide whatever evidence you have - yes this may be true but come on, slogans are supposed to be short and to the point.

"Not a blatant lie" is also desirable, I believe. Again, it doesn't help your image, and since your testimonials page has only two unidentified persons and one dead site, the visitors will not be convinced that that much of Ireland has expressed a perference. At least in the UK, the ASA has done Nasty Things to companies who make this sort of claim without backing it up.

denhamd2

Look cheers for the advice. Its still only in its infantry so obviously I need to change the wording, making sure not to mislead anyone. Yes some people want Irish-based servers, but I'm not aiming to cater for that particular market (at the moment) and I'm not looking to say that I am on the site. What I want to offer is a fast, reliable hosting service with Irish support, which is affordable and from my experience this is what most businesses I've come across are looking for.

Ok mate, I do appreciate your opinions and I'll be looking to impliment them into the site.

mneylon

denhamd2 wrote:

slogans are supposed to be short and to the point.

Yes, but the the quote you have on your site is misleading. Period.

WhatsGoingOn

denhamd2 wrote:

Look cheers for the advice. Its still only in its infantry so obviously I need to change the wording, making sure not to mislead anyone. Yes some people want Irish-based servers, but I'm not aiming to cater for that particular market (at the moment) and I'm not looking to say that I am on the site. What I want to offer is a fast, reliable hosting service with Irish support, which is affordable and from my experience this is what most businesses I've come across are looking for.

Ok mate, I do appreciate your opinions and I'll be looking to impliment them into the site.

You've posted your site here a couple of times 'looking for feedback' on it's design (otherwise known as cheap form of advertising). If you don't like what people have to say about your site, then don't post

rsynnott

Two points. First, really, what is this blasphemy thing about? Is it a personal thing, or something imposed on you by your host? Blasphemy is legal both here and in the US; in fact the only developed world country I can think of offhand where it isn't is the UK, and that is but a formality, and hasn't been enforced in decades. And what church are you worried about blasphemy against?

You respond to all queries within 30mins? How? I'm assuming that this is a one-man show.

Now, if you want my advice, and I doubt you do, on this, the thing to do is to be completely honest. For every person who stumbles across your site and believes that it's Ireland's favourite or best value hosting, there will be hundreds who've already looked at the sites of the two 800lb gorillas and will be able to see that you're having them on. And stop trying to pretend you're a big company. You're not, and as such, you actually have some advantages, in that you'll be sure to look after what customers you do have . So tell people about it! Better they say "Hmm, they're small, but that has advantages" than "Hmm, they're small, but trying to imply they're big. Best steer clear". And give people details. Tell them what datacenter you're in, and so forth. Better they know, than wonder about why you're not telling them.

Also, have a forum, visible to the public. Assuming that you take care of your existing customers well and they're happy, prospective customers will see this, and it'll make them inclined to trust you. If you don't take care of your existing customers well, of course, you deserve to fail. I wouldn't really consider hosting where the company in question didn't have a visible forum.

mneylon

It's amazing what you can find when you Google ...
The TOS on the site are a word for word copy of other hosts' TOS....

rsynnott

blacknight wrote:

It's amazing what you can find when you Google ...
The TOS on the site are a word for word copy of other hosts' TOS....

Ah, that may explain the blasphemy. It seems to me rather ironic to steal a document which talks of how very naughty copyright violation is.

But bad, naughty, denhamd2. Back to webhostingtalk with you.

Rather worryingly, the privacy policy is also stolen.