Exclusive Interview with Boris Mordkovich of HostVoice.net
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The hosting industry has undergone many exciting changes in the past few years. Now more than ever, consumers have so many choices about whom to choose to do business with. Additionally, thousands of hosting companies are faced with a myriad of choices on how to reach their customers affordably. Those choices include Directories, PPC search engines and conventional advertising to name a few.
We have the pleasure today to talk with Mr. Boris Mordkovich, Director Of Operations for HostVoice.net, a company that is helping both sides of the industry.
Tell us a little about yourself Boris.
My name is Boris. Currently I reside in New York City. I?ve been working in the hosting industry for the past 5 years, doing everything from customer support to running the marketing department.
Why did you develop HostVoice.net?
There are several reasons that led to the development of HostVoice.net. One of them being the fact that the hosting industry is unbelievably oversaturated at the moment. It makes it very hard for someone to find a hosting company that fits your needs and budget, without having to spend hours checking out hundreds of companies.
On the other hand, it also makes it very difficult for a small and mid-size hosting company to compete. Even if a company do offers great service and support at a reasonable price, they simply get lost among hundreds of companies that offer the world for $1/month.
The idea behind our business model is very simple. We bring customers and businesses together.
In brief, what is HostVoice.net and how does it work?
HostVoice is a free, no-risk, no obligation interactive service for people that are looking for a new host. It?s a service designed to help them find a company that match their exact needs and budget and usually get a custom deal.
The whole process takes less than 2 minutes. A person comes to our website, goes to the category he's interested in (Unix, Windows, E-Commerce, Reseller, Adult, Dedicated), fills out a questionnaire that consists of about 15-20 questions, mainly about their requirements. Within 15 minutes they receive offers from up to 8 companies. Every one of these hosting companies offer services that the customer is looking for. They will never be contacted by more than 8 hosts and their information will remain confidential, meaning that it will not be resold for any other purposes, other than hosting and related services.
What are you doing to attract hosting customers to you?
Due to the state of the web hosting industry at this point, commonly used advertising techniques such as banner ads and pay-per-click search engines no longer produce quality results. Our main goal is to help web hosting companies gain new clients. In order to be able to offer quality leads, we use various, more effective techniques, such as the ones listed below:
a) Website Monitoring? our company partnered with 3 major site monitoring providers, which cover over 60,000 websites combined. Whenever one of their users receives a notification regarding their site being down, they are faced with a short excerpt inviting them to try out our service and find a more reliable, dependable host.
b) Domain Registration ? we have also aligned ourselves with several domain registrars, which offer their users an opportunity to find a new host through us. This method provides us with an ability to reach both advanced Internet users, as well as those that might need occasional assistance here and there.
c) Partners ? we strongly believe that the key to success online is building relationships others that cater to the same audience, as we do. Every week, we set up partnership deals with numerous webmaster/hosting-related websites, which bring in very quality traffic and users.
d) Local Promotion - considering the fact how crowded the market it online, it?s actually a bit surprising how much room for improvement exists in the local market. We are currently working on launching an offline campaign to promote our services to small businesses and entrepreneurs in the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut area. After a test run within the tri state area we plan to expand throughout other states as well.
How is HostVoice different from the other lead generation services?i.e. like
HostMatch?
The key to understanding the difference between HostVoice and other similar services, such as HostMatch or HostQuote, is the fact that they don?t specialize in this. The services are offered as an add-on to their existing hosting directory, which means that they only dedicate a portion of their time to running and further developing it.
We, on the other hand, specialize in hosting request-a-quote services. That?s all we do, that?s what we do best. We are also able to offer better deals than any of our competitors.
While this might sound a bit cliché¬ we also truly believe that the customer service makes all the difference. For our visitors we offer live support directly on our website, as well as eMail support which gets answered the same day. As for our advertisers ? we make sure that everybody?s happy. We value our current clients as much as the new ones. Unfortunately the current trend is the exact opposite.
Why should I as a hosting company use your service? What is the benefit?
The changes taking place in the hosting industry are obvious. It became very frustrating to have to compete with companies that have been popping out everywhere ?offering the world for $3 per month and less?, overselling, and simply creating a bad reputation for others with their miserable service and support. There are lots of new ?companies? run by bedroom operators on the market. And if that?s not enough, the big companies are getting even bigger, and it?s almost impossible to compete with them using traditional marketing techniques.
What?s different about HostVoice is that we actually give you an opportunity to get your offer heard without being cluttered by a myriad of other proposals. Every single lead that we process on our website comes from a person that is looking for a new host, knows what they want, and are being pro-active in their search. Unlike in a regular pay-per-click search engine where you might have to pay .25c-.50c for a simple click ? whether it results in a sale or not ? with us, for just a fraction more, you get all of the data you need in order to close the sale. You know exactly what the prospect wants, how much they are willing to pay, and how to contact them. It?s not surprising that over 65% of the companies that work with us, renew their contracts.
What changes do you see for the hosting industry in the next year?
I am certain that those companies that have been established a few years ago, have a good reputation, and a loyal base of clients will continue to flourish and grow. It will be much tougher for the new companies to break into the market without being able to offer something unique to their clients. Unless the industry comes up with something revolutionary in terms of services, or new marketing techniques (read HostVoice.net
), the market will be divided among a number of big companies.
Then again, the hosting industry has been growing very fast and it has also been very unpredictable. Considering all of this, we should probably expect the unexpected.
Do you have any major changes or additions in the near future?
Absolutely! We have just released a brand new, custom lead management software that will provide our advertisers with real-time stats capabilities, more options and control over their money and their leads, as well as an ability to reject bad leads, view reports, and much, much more. This has been a two month project and it was definitely worth it.
Additionally, we also are in the midst of launching a request-a-quote service for design and programming. This will make a great addition to our growing network. And finally, we making final arrangements before we begin to conquer the local markets and help small businesses get their presence online through us and our clients.
Lastly, what is your favorite website and most recent book you have read?
I think the answer for this question is obvious ? websitehostdirectory.com certainly got my vote J. Regarding the book, the last one I read was ?Ogilvy on Advertising?, a very good source of great marketing strategies and techniques.
Thank you for your time Boris. With HostVoice, consumers can get a accurate quote from a few hosting companies that compete for their business, and hosting companies receive a high quality source of leads. It is a win-win situation for both sides, and isn?t that what business is all about?
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