Think you got the next big web site idea?

**CGM** · 04-29-2010 09:44 PM

Hey everyone,

I haven't been on here much lately as I have been busy working on Surmounted.NET , which is my soon to launch web hosting company. Our initial focus is our own local market, doing web work and hosting for local businesses, but of course our doors will be open to our online customers as well.

Our official launch date is May 15th, however I would like to help some fellow Young Entrepreneurs out who think they may have the next big web site idea!

If this sounds like you, then how would you like FREE web hosting? Not for a month, not for a year. But for as long as you want to remain a Surmounted.NET customer!

Obviously I can't host everyone for free, but I can host a few. If you already have a website that is growing in popularity, or you're developing one that you believe will be big, then tell me about it.

All I would ask in return is a simple link back to Surmounted.NET somewhere on your website. It doesn't have to be a banner, nothing like that. Maybe a little "Hosted by Surmounted.NET" in your footer.

Let me tell you first about what we can offer you as a client.

We do NOT oversell or overload our severs. Many hosts oversell their resources, while this practice alone isn't necessarily 'bad', it isn't necessarily 'good' either. Overselling your resources is when you add more clients per server than it can realistically handle. For example: A 100GB HD could realistically support one-hundred, 1gb hosting plans. HOWEVER its common knowledge in the hosting industry that most websites require less than a 100mb. So, what does the host do? He has 100 clients on his server, all with 1gb plans but still the server is only half full! He will then double or triple up the amount of clients on that server.

It makes sense if you want money, obviously. But it does create a poorer service for the end client. During peak times you may find a slow server, high server loads, etc.

Serious websites needs serious webhosting, and that is all we have to offer. We absolutely do no overselling, and have realistic hosting packages to suit the needs of both the individual wanting to host a blog, and the resource hungry mega site that can't function well on your typical shared hosting environment.

Anyhow, our official launch is still a good two-weeks away, but I would like to add up to three Young Entrepreneurs to our servers and help your online presence grow.

Our hosting packages are as follows:

Plan 1: 250mb of space / 1,500mb transfer
Plan 2: 1gb of space / 10gb transfer
Plan 3: 3gb of space / 30gb transfer
Plan 4: 5gb of space / 50gb of transfer.

All plans come up with 99.9% Uptime (Currently running at 100% since monitoring the server began on April 21st.), 24/7 Support (limited until launch, I will try to help you out as much as possible!), supports PHP, MySQL, CGI, Perl, Python and Ruby on Rails (RoR). Also optimized for ffMpeg and imagemagik for those of you who wish to run video oriented websites.

The plans featured on the website may change slightly, however I can create you a plan that fits your needs.

How to qualify!
Simply respond to this or shoot me a PM. Please tell me about your website, and send me a link to it if it is currently being hosted elsewhere. Tell me what you plan to do to promote it, and what your estimated hosting needs are (Diskspace, transfer, emails, etc). As mentioned, I can create you a package that is unique to you and you only, so long as their is a need for it!

**AmbitionLab** · 04-29-2010 11:35 PM

Kudos for explaining the practice of overselling & overloading. I hope you don't mind a few questions? These are questions that I think it would be cool to see answered in your FAQ sometime down the road:

- Do you have any stats to demonstrate how fast your hosting is? I'd love to see a hosting company post monthly speed tests to their blog.
- How client-oriented will your customer service be? Is it a ticketing system? Will you offer phone support? Is the support handled in-house or outsourced? Rackspace, for example, has succeeded by making customer support their big thing, even though they're not particularly cheap.
- What about cloud hosting? Some people say it's all the rage. Having used it for a while myself, I think the hoopla is bupkis. What do you think?
- You say you offer daily backups... how long are those available? i.e. if someone hacks my site & I don't notice symptoms until 6 days after the fact, am I safe or am I screwed?

**Lambo** · 04-30-2010 10:19 AM

interesting concept, i never even thought of how hosting services can overload servers and sacrifice quality

**CGM** · 04-30-2010 12:37 PM

- Do you have any stats to demonstrate how fast your hosting is? I'd love to see a hosting company post monthly speed tests to their blog.
Here is a screen shot of our current server load: http://surmounted.net/images/April30thserverinfo.png

I'm working on creating a 10mb and 100mb test file that can be downloaded. Alternatively, you can test this IP: 173.236.33.58

Our network monitoring can be seen here: Overview: Surmounted.NET Although it should be noted that the monitoring began on the 21st, so it doesn't go back too far.

- How client-oriented will your customer service be? Is it a ticketing system? Will you offer phone support? Is the support handled in-house or outsourced?
Customer service can make or break a host. I sampled a few of the 'popular' hosts out before I decided to start my own, and learned a lot about how and how not to handle support questions based on the quality (poor) of support I had received in the past. We want to be as friendly as possible, and as helpful as possible. Its no secret, I will be handling the majority of the support myself during normal hours. We're small, and I personally can't afford to hire a staff around the clock. So, while I am out of the office the support is in fact 'outsourced' to an American support company who should be as helpful and friendly as possible.

The support system will include a LiveChat which is already on the website (although only maned by me, and since we haven't launched yet I am on there sparingly). There will also be the normal ticketed system, where a user logs into their account on our website and can submit a ticket. I am toying with the idea of having phone support as well, but I would like to stress it as an emergency support option as it would be my personal cell phone

I think as we grow, I would definitely want a 24/7 phone support option. But at this time its unrealistic to think it could work as a means of general support. Our goal is to answer the tickets as quickly, clearly, and thoroughly as possible.

Truthfully though, my big thing is trying to please clients. If this means installing a 3rd party script that isn't featured in Fantastico Deluxe (Script installer), i'll do it. If this means helping them choose the right domain name for their website, I got the time. Its the little things like this that can make a host great, I think.

To go further on how client oriented we will be, it has been my intention since day 1 to do a little more than whats typical out of a host, little things like a personal phone call asking each client if they were able to access their cPanel and get everything set up properly, and I would like to do a bi monthly or so "Newsletter" of sorts, mailed (not e-mail) that discusses promotions we may be having, highlight our services once more, but also talk about web site promotion, tips and tricks, etc. Even if you don't read it, someone else might! So little things like this should really help with brand awareness and a newsletter that is physically printed is more likely to be seen by more than one person.

- What about cloud hosting? Some people say it's all the rage. Having used it for a while myself, I think the hoopla is bupkis. What do you think?
Personally, I have no real experience with it so I can't comment much. It seems to be new still, and from what I understand still has issues that needs resolved. On paper, it sounds great. But its my understanding that they need to implement I/O and MySQL based restrictions, as CPU restrictions isn't enough. But as I said, I have no real personal experience with Cloud Hosting. Its definitely growing in popularity though, so I should probably learn more about it.

You say you offer daily backups... how long are those available? i.e. if someone hacks my site & I don't notice symptoms until 6 days after the fact, am I safe or am I screwed?
Yes, we'll be doing daily backups. These backups replace the backups from the prior day. BUT we also do weekly backups, which would also replace the week before.

So, if the problem is caught early enough we could simply replace the data with data from the day before. If not caught before then, we could replace it with the backup from previous week. I personally suggest also doing your own backups for important websites, its something I did for mine when hosted elsewhere just for peace of mind. In any event, we'd work with you to try to resolve the issue, whatever it may be.

Hope that isn't too long of a read, but I wanted to answer those points the best I could.