Blog
July 23, 2010
How's Business?
It's been about a year since our last blog. Why? BUSY! Our industry is ripe with terrible customer service and a gaping chasm of need in the website design and internet marketing realm. We've felt the recession but it really feels like it is picking back up now, and gaining momentum. Each year is better than the last, regardless.
So, how's business? I love asking people that question. It's a great ice breaker and there's never a short answer, nor a shortage of people willing to answer it.
Don't use the economy as an excuse to put off your marketing efforts. Resisting a strong marketing effort is the only thing keeping your business from reaching the next level. Also, don't forget to keep up on your blogs. :/
July 12, 2009
Rule #1: Don't Get Killed
It seems that there is a real lack of customer service in the web design and hosting industry. I went to a networking meeting a while ago, and said half jokingly that a good referral for my company is anyone who hates their current web provider. Within 24 hours I got a call from a business associate passing me a referral. I spoke to the prospect on the phone, and the language and imagery he used to describe what he wanted to do to his current web provider would have made Wes Craven say "That's a little much". Joe Pesci's character in Goodfellas was more forgiving. I checked my life insurance policies to ensure they were all paid up, and then engaged in business with this person. I created a new, beautiful website that really rocketed his business' image, attracted customers through search engines, and turned a superfast ROI. He couldn't be happier. I also do this trick where when he, or any client calls me, I "answer the phone". I also do cutting edge things like "return emails" and "return voicemails" "promtply".
Is it really so hard? I'm genuinely perplexed. These people are paying money for services that will enhance their business, their lives and the lives of those around them, and they are treated with disregard?
The story above, sadly (well, happily to me), represents about 75% of our business. There was even one instance where I was asked to write an expert testimony on the incomplete state of a website that I was taking over. The testimony was going to be used in a lawsuit against the prior web guy.
It really is true that a great referral for my company is someone with a website who wants to choke out their existing web provider.
Who would have thought such a geeky profession could come with such extremes?
I am still alive, and business is good.
Is it really so hard? I'm genuinely perplexed. These people are paying money for services that will enhance their business, their lives and the lives of those around them, and they are treated with disregard?
The story above, sadly (well, happily to me), represents about 75% of our business. There was even one instance where I was asked to write an expert testimony on the incomplete state of a website that I was taking over. The testimony was going to be used in a lawsuit against the prior web guy.
It really is true that a great referral for my company is someone with a website who wants to choke out their existing web provider.
Who would have thought such a geeky profession could come with such extremes?
I am still alive, and business is good.
July 10, 2009
Spread 'em
Earlier this month, Rackspace, America's largest datacenter went down for about 45 minutes, resulting in payouts of $2.5 - $3.5 million in credits
Shortly following that event, Authorize.NET, America's largest online credit card processor and provider of merchant accounts suffered a long outage that downed the ability of thousands of merchants to do business.
This is why we never put more than one server in the same datacenter, and why we very much limit the amount of websites and domains we host on each server. Mitigation is the key!
Shortly following that event, Authorize.NET, America's largest online credit card processor and provider of merchant accounts suffered a long outage that downed the ability of thousands of merchants to do business.
This is why we never put more than one server in the same datacenter, and why we very much limit the amount of websites and domains we host on each server. Mitigation is the key!
May 20, 2009
Web-server lawsuit settles for $1.67M
This is why we take hosting so seriously. This is why we diversify our clients among multiple servers in multiple datacenters i multiple parts of the country. read the story and rest assured that our hosting clients will never experience this kind of negligence.
April 04, 2009
When Search Engines Are Not Enough
Our success with high ranking websites has brought us to this conclusion that complacency is dangerous and laurels were not meant for resting upon.
It's easy to get a website to the #1 spot on search engines when its a microniche industry. However, to be found on the search engines, people need to be looking for it. And if they don't know your product even exists, what percentage of those who benefit from it are looking for it? Slim to really slim. It's great that you're ranked #1 on Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc., but keep in mind, this is reactive marketing. And in a microniche industry, you need to spend even more time and money getting your name out there proactively, and gaining your owners equity in the market ASAP.
We have several customers who do no other marketing but be found on the search engines and fill orders, turn prospects into clients, lead into gold, etc. But think of how much more volume we would be talking about if they didn't just rely on that stream of traffic.
Compound your marketing. Get in their face. Push as well as pull. Don't leave money on the table, and don't simply "exist" in the business world.
Be the giant with the shoulders on which others want to stand.
It's easy to get a website to the #1 spot on search engines when its a microniche industry. However, to be found on the search engines, people need to be looking for it. And if they don't know your product even exists, what percentage of those who benefit from it are looking for it? Slim to really slim. It's great that you're ranked #1 on Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc., but keep in mind, this is reactive marketing. And in a microniche industry, you need to spend even more time and money getting your name out there proactively, and gaining your owners equity in the market ASAP.
We have several customers who do no other marketing but be found on the search engines and fill orders, turn prospects into clients, lead into gold, etc. But think of how much more volume we would be talking about if they didn't just rely on that stream of traffic.
Compound your marketing. Get in their face. Push as well as pull. Don't leave money on the table, and don't simply "exist" in the business world.
Be the giant with the shoulders on which others want to stand.
September 19, 2008
Operation: Operation Christmas Tree
We are very proud and excited to announce the launch of the new Operation Christmas Tree website. This project was started by a local man who wanted to ensure that all the soldiers over seas each got a Christmas Tree. The operation grows each year and now they are faced with a workflow dilemma. With several thousand trees and donations expected this year, doing it by hand just isn't productive. We created a payment system, integrated with paypal, that also creates a custom export file that goes right into their existing database system. We also created provisions for the site owners to update the websites testimonials, photo galleries, events and the "number of trees donated so far" ticker at the top of the site. We created what was a bottleneck of update requests to a self-serve on-demand workflow just in the nick of time. This year not only will they ship thousands and thousands of Christmas Trees to our soldiers around the world, but they'll be able to do it streamlined and stress-free.August 09, 2008
It's The Story That Sells you
In 1989 I was standing in the lobby of the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City waiting for a table. I was leaning against the wall when I felt something bounce off my head. It was a guitar pick. It had fallen off a Gibson Double-Neck guitar with a sign on it that said "Led Zeppelin". The pick was a yellow scratched up Fender. The thing about the Hard Rock was that all of their instruments, records, etc. that lined their walls were supposed to be 100% authentic and donated by the artists. So the yellow Fender pick that I has immediately shoved in my pocket, while looking around hoping no one saw me, was indeed used by Jimmy Page to play Stairway to Heaven, Dazed and Confused and any other song for which he used the famous double-necked guitar. I still have that pick, in a glass jar locked up in my house. I've always thought it was a bit of a curse because I really could never sell the pick. Who would buy it? Who would believe me? Then a marketing genius I know told me I should absolutely list it on eBay and tell the exact story of how I got it. People buy the story more than they do the item itself.
I have seen proof of this unfold with some of my customers. Almost all of my clients are small, locally owned businesses and the challenge they have is to make themselves look bigger, but not so big that the don't provide personal attention to their customers. I am finding that a sharp looking and easily usable website provides the image boost, and the personal story keeps them grounded and in touch with the exact audience they want to attract.
Take Tiki's Playhouse for example. How many Kennels are there? How many Doggy Daycare facilities can you find in Maryland? The competition is there for these kinds of businesses. If you surf through various websites for places to board your dog, you'll probably find similar environments described and start differentiating on the price. However, all competition fades to black when you read Tiki's story; a brief, well-written personal story that is not only touching but instantly brings Tiki's Playhouse to the forefront. The inspiration that drove this gentleman into building his life around creating a fun environment for your dogs (and cats) while you're away shows a passion for his cause that leaves you no choice. You'd be crazy NOT to board your dog there. I read it, and I want board my dog there....and I don't even have any trips planned!
Next we have BodyCovers, coveralls for women. Both with insulation and without. Talk about a niche. It was the woman angle that I found so impressive. Anyone can go to any outdoor store or even wal mart and get coveralls. But this product is geared toward women only, and can be shipped anywhere in the world. Again, the owner of this site wanted a story that had a personal touch, about a woman working with horses on a cold Autumn night, and having that "a-ha" moment which led her into being the entrepreneur she is today. It's difficult to read her story and not be compelled to buy a pair of her coveralls. It's like being part of a club. you want to join. I, as a man, feel forever left out of this club. This is how effective a good story can be! Now, even in these hot August days, she gets orders every single day, and does no other marketing aside from letting her website do the talking.
When writing content, don't be afraid to get too personal. In fact, if your content reveals something about you that you may even find a little embarrassing, remember you're potentially reaching out to millions just like you and grabbing their attention like your competition never could.
I have seen proof of this unfold with some of my customers. Almost all of my clients are small, locally owned businesses and the challenge they have is to make themselves look bigger, but not so big that the don't provide personal attention to their customers. I am finding that a sharp looking and easily usable website provides the image boost, and the personal story keeps them grounded and in touch with the exact audience they want to attract.
Take Tiki's Playhouse for example. How many Kennels are there? How many Doggy Daycare facilities can you find in Maryland? The competition is there for these kinds of businesses. If you surf through various websites for places to board your dog, you'll probably find similar environments described and start differentiating on the price. However, all competition fades to black when you read Tiki's story; a brief, well-written personal story that is not only touching but instantly brings Tiki's Playhouse to the forefront. The inspiration that drove this gentleman into building his life around creating a fun environment for your dogs (and cats) while you're away shows a passion for his cause that leaves you no choice. You'd be crazy NOT to board your dog there. I read it, and I want board my dog there....and I don't even have any trips planned!
Next we have BodyCovers, coveralls for women. Both with insulation and without. Talk about a niche. It was the woman angle that I found so impressive. Anyone can go to any outdoor store or even wal mart and get coveralls. But this product is geared toward women only, and can be shipped anywhere in the world. Again, the owner of this site wanted a story that had a personal touch, about a woman working with horses on a cold Autumn night, and having that "a-ha" moment which led her into being the entrepreneur she is today. It's difficult to read her story and not be compelled to buy a pair of her coveralls. It's like being part of a club. you want to join. I, as a man, feel forever left out of this club. This is how effective a good story can be! Now, even in these hot August days, she gets orders every single day, and does no other marketing aside from letting her website do the talking.
When writing content, don't be afraid to get too personal. In fact, if your content reveals something about you that you may even find a little embarrassing, remember you're potentially reaching out to millions just like you and grabbing their attention like your competition never could.
June 02, 2008
Don't Put All of Your Eggs in One Planet
Last weekend (May 31, 2008) a well known server data-center The Planet experienced an outage that caused over 9000 servers and 7500 of their customers to be off-the-air, so to speak, and effectively down. Being that each server can hold several hundred websites, potentially hundreds of thousands of websites could have been down, and still are, as of this post, 9:45pm June 2, 2008.
This is the kind of thing my paranoid mind thinks about daily, and this is why we limit the number of websites we put on a server to well below capacity, and have multiple servers in different data centers, owned by different companies, each in a different region of the country. This is also why we keep 30 day cataloged backups of each and every website (and the data that goes with them) on yet another off-site server in yet another region of the country. It's for our selfish peace of mind that we greatly mitigate any risk of server or data center catastrophe. If we had a server with this company (and we used to), some of our customers would be down, but not everyone. Many of our customers have multiple websites. We even spread those out on multiple servers so in those cases the customer is not completely blacked out with all of their domains.
This is the kind of fanaticism you should look for in a hosting company. Anyone can host your website and email, but they probably don't keep a backup snapshot within the last 24 hours, nor do would they take the effort of minimizing Internet blackout.
Servers are machines. Machines have moving parts and sometimes break. Even keeping redundant machines isn't perfect. I have had experiences with redundant hard drives and servers and found that they just have more layers of hardware and connections, and with that more breaking points. I know first hand, I've seen the data controllers break (when the servers themselves were fine) causing the server(s) to be unreachable on the Internet, and from your perspective... down. The key is to have a fast and accurate recovery plan, not rely on a theoretical unbreakable system. They simply do not exist. If our customers were part of this catastrophe, they would be back up and running regardless of how long The Planet's issue lasted, just in another data center later that day.
This is the kind of thing my paranoid mind thinks about daily, and this is why we limit the number of websites we put on a server to well below capacity, and have multiple servers in different data centers, owned by different companies, each in a different region of the country. This is also why we keep 30 day cataloged backups of each and every website (and the data that goes with them) on yet another off-site server in yet another region of the country. It's for our selfish peace of mind that we greatly mitigate any risk of server or data center catastrophe. If we had a server with this company (and we used to), some of our customers would be down, but not everyone. Many of our customers have multiple websites. We even spread those out on multiple servers so in those cases the customer is not completely blacked out with all of their domains.
This is the kind of fanaticism you should look for in a hosting company. Anyone can host your website and email, but they probably don't keep a backup snapshot within the last 24 hours, nor do would they take the effort of minimizing Internet blackout.
Servers are machines. Machines have moving parts and sometimes break. Even keeping redundant machines isn't perfect. I have had experiences with redundant hard drives and servers and found that they just have more layers of hardware and connections, and with that more breaking points. I know first hand, I've seen the data controllers break (when the servers themselves were fine) causing the server(s) to be unreachable on the Internet, and from your perspective... down. The key is to have a fast and accurate recovery plan, not rely on a theoretical unbreakable system. They simply do not exist. If our customers were part of this catastrophe, they would be back up and running regardless of how long The Planet's issue lasted, just in another data center later that day.
January 28, 2008
Is Your Website Talking Trash About You?
I see a lot of otherwise successful businesses that have underwhelming websites. It's clear to tell right away that the business owner threw it together themselves (or with the free help of their newphew or neighbor), with lots of technical jargon, unsightly layout and zero usability. This says to the browser "This company is cheap and unprofessional".
The user experience is everything. It's like the old retail store philosophy of "as long as we carry what they're looking for, it doesn't matter how the store is laid out". But once certain savvy retailers figured out that an intuitive and easy-flow store design made for an easy customer experience, they thrived while the rest died. For some the lesson was learned too late.
Why put time, effort and money into your website? Because it is fast becoming the face of your business or organization. Keep these statistics in mind:
43% of all retail sales are expected to be influeneced or made on the Internet by the year 2012*
83% of businesses currently use the Internet to research and find potential vendors.**
75% of web users admit to deciding on the credibility of a business or organizations based on its website appearance.***
Here are some points to keep in mind for a website that will turn a high ROI.
Get their attention ....FAST
Even if your browser does not have an attention deficit, you have roughly 5 seconds to get their attention, communicate exactly what it is you do, and entice them to take action.
Don't make them think.
In the design elements of your website, make buttons look like buttons. Make links look like links. Provide clear direction. Don't use cryptic symbols as the sites main navigation.
Don't make them read (if they don't have to).
People generally do not read on a computer screen with the same comfort and patience as reading a book. Paragraphs of text (especially on the main page) usually get scanned or skipped altogether. Bulleted lists are more effective in getting your point across. Providing long content for those who do want to read further, bold the words and phrases that get the main point across like "make more money" and "gain efficiency", etc.
Just as an effective website can invigorate your business and turn a stunning ROI, an ineffective and unusable website can be a detriment to your business and a serious liability.
Sources for Stastics:
* Forrester: "The Web's Impact on In-Store Sales: US Cross Channel Sales Forecast 2006 to 2012" and U.S Department of Commerce.
** Enquiro "Business to Business Survey 2007"
*** Fogg, B.J., Stanford Guidelines for Web Credbility. Persuasive Technology Lab. Stanforrd University, 2002 (revised November 2003).
The user experience is everything. It's like the old retail store philosophy of "as long as we carry what they're looking for, it doesn't matter how the store is laid out". But once certain savvy retailers figured out that an intuitive and easy-flow store design made for an easy customer experience, they thrived while the rest died. For some the lesson was learned too late.
Why put time, effort and money into your website? Because it is fast becoming the face of your business or organization. Keep these statistics in mind:
43% of all retail sales are expected to be influeneced or made on the Internet by the year 2012*
83% of businesses currently use the Internet to research and find potential vendors.**
75% of web users admit to deciding on the credibility of a business or organizations based on its website appearance.***
Here are some points to keep in mind for a website that will turn a high ROI.
Get their attention ....FAST
Even if your browser does not have an attention deficit, you have roughly 5 seconds to get their attention, communicate exactly what it is you do, and entice them to take action.
Don't make them think.
In the design elements of your website, make buttons look like buttons. Make links look like links. Provide clear direction. Don't use cryptic symbols as the sites main navigation.
Don't make them read (if they don't have to).
People generally do not read on a computer screen with the same comfort and patience as reading a book. Paragraphs of text (especially on the main page) usually get scanned or skipped altogether. Bulleted lists are more effective in getting your point across. Providing long content for those who do want to read further, bold the words and phrases that get the main point across like "make more money" and "gain efficiency", etc.
Just as an effective website can invigorate your business and turn a stunning ROI, an ineffective and unusable website can be a detriment to your business and a serious liability.
Sources for Stastics:
* Forrester: "The Web's Impact on In-Store Sales: US Cross Channel Sales Forecast 2006 to 2012" and U.S Department of Commerce.
** Enquiro "Business to Business Survey 2007"
*** Fogg, B.J., Stanford Guidelines for Web Credbility. Persuasive Technology Lab. Stanforrd University, 2002 (revised November 2003).
October 09, 2007
Email Overtakes The Telephone in the Workplace
Seasoned entreprenuers will tell you that the most important people you have are your lawyer and your accountant. Add "web/email host" to that list!
A new study from Dimension Data shows that Email is now the primary method of communication in the workplace. When your email is down, clients and prospects can't reach you. Imagine if a prospect emails you, and gets a bounceback error that your domain could not be found. That prospect will most likely assume you are no longer in business. In today's world, if your email is down for an extended period of time, you might as well be.
Not only is working email important, but quick responsiveness is just as important. With email now being the number one method of communications, you need not only a solid host, but a sharp SPAM control in place. Some companies boast fierce SPAM filtering. Think twice before subscribing to this idea, because the more stringent your SPAM filtering, the higher possibility of legitimate emails will not get to you, and when that happens, you can't respond, which means you're as good as down, which means you're as good as out-of-business.
Email should not be taken lightly, or cheaply, now more than ever.
A new study from Dimension Data shows that Email is now the primary method of communication in the workplace. When your email is down, clients and prospects can't reach you. Imagine if a prospect emails you, and gets a bounceback error that your domain could not be found. That prospect will most likely assume you are no longer in business. In today's world, if your email is down for an extended period of time, you might as well be.
Not only is working email important, but quick responsiveness is just as important. With email now being the number one method of communications, you need not only a solid host, but a sharp SPAM control in place. Some companies boast fierce SPAM filtering. Think twice before subscribing to this idea, because the more stringent your SPAM filtering, the higher possibility of legitimate emails will not get to you, and when that happens, you can't respond, which means you're as good as down, which means you're as good as out-of-business.
Email should not be taken lightly, or cheaply, now more than ever.
August 12, 2007
Avoid Cheap Hosting
The old and familiar term "You get what you pay for" is alive and well in the world of web hosting, as is the term "There's a sucker born every minute".
Hosting should be thought of as space to rent on the internet. Your website is much like a brick and mortar building. You had a webmaster design and construct the site, and you also need a place to put it (the website and your email) on the internet. This is where hosting comes in. Paying for hosting is a recurring expense, and as expenses go, most would like to minimize this one. Web hosting is one expense you do not want to simply minimize without knowing all the facts.
There is an abundance of web hosts out there that charge miniscule amounts to host your web site. Here is why you should avoid them like the plague.
Cheap Hosting = Cheap Service
Most cheap hosting services are completely self-serve. Self-serve is OK if you are competent in web hosting. You decided to go with discount hosting, you got discount service. However, most people just see the cheap price and go for it. They find themselves in a bind when something goes down, or they don't know how to access something, try to call someone and lo and behold, no phone number exists for this hosting company, only an email address! If the reson you need to contact them is because your email doesn't work, this is a deadly catch-22. Now, even if the company has a phone number, the service usually isn't very responsive, because at such a low price, you are at a low priority for them.
Here's my cheap hosting customer service nightmare. When I first started this business I had 8 customers on one very cheap web server. I am of the type that whenever something is down, my anxiety levels are code-red until it is completely resolved. One day, all sites were down. I understand that things do go down now and again, so I went to call my host provider, but found they had no phone number. Anxiety is in the orange stage now. I saw they have a support form on the web site. A little calmer. I fill out the form, mark it "URGENT" and wait for response. 1 hour goes by, 2 hours, 10 hours...12 hours later, I am absolutely furious, and having sent several emails to the provider, turns out the hard drive crashed and they will "work on to fix of this soon". Luckilly I had backups of all my customers data and bit the bullet and got with a more service-oriented hosting provider. I paid a lot more, but ever since, our hosting has been rock solid.
The Overselling Scam
Overselling is a sadly popular method of attracting customers. The basic idea of overselling is that most of the host's clients are only going to use a fraction of the resources available, so there's going to be a lot of wasted/unused bandwidth and diskspace. The host is esentially gambling and selling more than they have under the assumption that the unused portion will provide the insurance. They further this insurance by stating the legal agreement that they can delete your account without warning.
I've seen many hosts offer 300 GIGABYTES of disk space for $9.99/month. To put this into perspective, most servers come with entire hard drives smaller than 300 GIGABYTES. It would be physically impossible to allocate enough (or even ONE) accounts at $9.99/month to even cover the expense of the server, let alone make a profit, or pay technical support people. Simply put, it's a lie. Well, maybe lie is too strong of a word. After all, if you read the host's Terms of Use or Terms of Service, in most cases they will plainly say (in the fine print) that your account will be terminated if your disk space increases beyond a point that they deem too large. Well whats that number? They don't say, and I assure you it is well below 300 GIGABYTES. At this point you may be wondering if you're reading this correctly. You are. They offer 300 gigs, you upload 50 megs (possibly) and your website, email everything dissapears without any warning or backup. You are offline and your customers assume you're out of business. You're in blackout, and they owe you nothing, no money, no explanation, nothing. You're just done.
Your business is too crucial to be in such a volatile situation where it can go away without you knowing about it, and for no reason.
Don't be that sucker. Don't build your most powerful marketing tool on a spoiled foundation.
Hosting should be thought of as space to rent on the internet. Your website is much like a brick and mortar building. You had a webmaster design and construct the site, and you also need a place to put it (the website and your email) on the internet. This is where hosting comes in. Paying for hosting is a recurring expense, and as expenses go, most would like to minimize this one. Web hosting is one expense you do not want to simply minimize without knowing all the facts.
There is an abundance of web hosts out there that charge miniscule amounts to host your web site. Here is why you should avoid them like the plague.
Cheap Hosting = Cheap Service
Most cheap hosting services are completely self-serve. Self-serve is OK if you are competent in web hosting. You decided to go with discount hosting, you got discount service. However, most people just see the cheap price and go for it. They find themselves in a bind when something goes down, or they don't know how to access something, try to call someone and lo and behold, no phone number exists for this hosting company, only an email address! If the reson you need to contact them is because your email doesn't work, this is a deadly catch-22. Now, even if the company has a phone number, the service usually isn't very responsive, because at such a low price, you are at a low priority for them.
Here's my cheap hosting customer service nightmare. When I first started this business I had 8 customers on one very cheap web server. I am of the type that whenever something is down, my anxiety levels are code-red until it is completely resolved. One day, all sites were down. I understand that things do go down now and again, so I went to call my host provider, but found they had no phone number. Anxiety is in the orange stage now. I saw they have a support form on the web site. A little calmer. I fill out the form, mark it "URGENT" and wait for response. 1 hour goes by, 2 hours, 10 hours...12 hours later, I am absolutely furious, and having sent several emails to the provider, turns out the hard drive crashed and they will "work on to fix of this soon". Luckilly I had backups of all my customers data and bit the bullet and got with a more service-oriented hosting provider. I paid a lot more, but ever since, our hosting has been rock solid.
The Overselling Scam
Overselling is a sadly popular method of attracting customers. The basic idea of overselling is that most of the host's clients are only going to use a fraction of the resources available, so there's going to be a lot of wasted/unused bandwidth and diskspace. The host is esentially gambling and selling more than they have under the assumption that the unused portion will provide the insurance. They further this insurance by stating the legal agreement that they can delete your account without warning.
I've seen many hosts offer 300 GIGABYTES of disk space for $9.99/month. To put this into perspective, most servers come with entire hard drives smaller than 300 GIGABYTES. It would be physically impossible to allocate enough (or even ONE) accounts at $9.99/month to even cover the expense of the server, let alone make a profit, or pay technical support people. Simply put, it's a lie. Well, maybe lie is too strong of a word. After all, if you read the host's Terms of Use or Terms of Service, in most cases they will plainly say (in the fine print) that your account will be terminated if your disk space increases beyond a point that they deem too large. Well whats that number? They don't say, and I assure you it is well below 300 GIGABYTES. At this point you may be wondering if you're reading this correctly. You are. They offer 300 gigs, you upload 50 megs (possibly) and your website, email everything dissapears without any warning or backup. You are offline and your customers assume you're out of business. You're in blackout, and they owe you nothing, no money, no explanation, nothing. You're just done.
Your business is too crucial to be in such a volatile situation where it can go away without you knowing about it, and for no reason.
Don't be that sucker. Don't build your most powerful marketing tool on a spoiled foundation.
