Web Hosting Interview - BlueHost.com September 2004

September 2004
Web Hosting Interview - BlueHost.com September 2004

Danny Ashworth, Vice president and owner of BlueHost.com

Danny Ashworth, Vice president and owner of BlueHost.com, shares some tips to his business's success with HostSearch.com

  • HOSTSEARCH: Could you please reveal a little about yourself and your day-to-day role with BlueHost.com
    DANNY: My name is Danny Ashworth.  I am the Vice President and one of the owners of Bluehost .com.  My day-to-day role with Bluehost includes business development, new partner relations, client retention and periodically I will answer customer service phone calls.  I enjoy the marketing side of the business so I try to spend a bulk of my time working on marketing.
  • HOSTSEARCH: Can you give us a brief historical run through of BlueHost.com's development since establishment, and explain the role the company plays in the industry
    DANNY: Bluehost was created in December of 2003.  Our philosophy has always been more for less.  We want our customers to be willing to pay more for our services, but be charged less than if they were using a competitor.  We call every new Bluehost client to welcome him or her to our network.  We have some incredible programmers who make SSH and other features available that are not standard to the CPanel platform.  We give a $65.00 bounty for referrals.  All of this is done for the purpose of offering our clients more for less.  With so many hosting companies to choose from we feel our role in the industry is to offer a quality shared hosting with over the top support at affordable prices.
  • HOSTSEARCH: I see that BlueHost.com has been in business since 1996, which is about 8 years. Since web hosting is a very competitive industry, what would you consider your main strengths to compete with others?
    DANNY: We actually purchased the domain from another company.  We know that you need a name that is easy to remember for branding purposes.
  • HOSTSEARCH: What is best selling products/ services of your company?
    DANNY: Our 2 year hosting plan with the free domain and free setup is our biggest seller.  $6.95 per month with a large number of features is what people seem to want.
  • HOSTSEARCH: Can you please share with us about awards & achievement that BlueHost.com has received?
    DANNY: We were rated BlueHost - Best New Web Host http://www.100best-web-hosting.com.  There are many factors to consider when choosing a web hosting company.  We understand that ease of use and powerful tools need to be combined in a way that advanced users and beginning users can co-exist on the same network without angering one or the other.
  • HOSTSEARCH: Right now the market prices for hosting have been dropped drastically; do you have any plan to cope with this?
    DANNY: Hosting companies come and go.  We are not really too concerned about anyone offering hosting below the $6.95 per month mark.  Running a quality hosting company requires revenues for marketing and re-investment.  At this point with bandwidth costs, and the cost of having an English-speaking tech support staff I don't see how we could accomplish our goal of more for less if the price goes much lower.  We can always offer less for less like the others but I don't see that in our plans.
  • HOSTSEARCH: I have learnt that BlueHost.com has made it a habit to solicit feedback from customers and are very proactive about incorporating user suggestions into their service, can you please share with us some suggestions from customers that you've received the most? And if you already adjust your services/ products to cope with that?
    DANNY: We are constantly working to improve our network.  We have incorporated Fantasico into our control panel to make the installation and setup of scripts and CGI's easier for our users.  Our head support technician Cody Burdick and our head programmer Rob Brown have worked hand in hand to proactively initiate systems, procedures and services which make life easier for our users.
  • HOSTSEARCH: What is the best thing/ experience for working in web hosting business? And working for BlueHost.com?
    DANNY: I receive satisfaction in having a product that people love.  We often receive feedback from customers who cannot believe how far out of our way we will go to make their experience a good one. It isn't about the customer always being right because they often are wrong.  It is more about us doing everything in our power to help them with their issues.  Our customers know that if they really have a problem they cannot solve, even if it is totally out of our realm of support we will do everything in our power to help them solve the problem.

  • HOSTSEARCH: Where do you see yourself, BlueHost.com and the industry as a whole in five years time?
    DANNY: 5 years is a long time.  I see Bluehost continuing to grow at a solid rate over the next 5 years.  The hosting industry will probably see more regulations over the next 5 years as we deal with the large amount of fraud that is taking place online.  
    I see myself always having some involvement in the Internet.  It is an exciting time to live.  I have seen the Internet grow from something quite insignificant to something that we cannot do without.
  • HOSTSEARCH: What is the first website you visit when you turn on your computer and why?
    DANNY: After I visit our hosting statistics page to make sure the system is running smoothly I usually visit www.news.com or www.ksl.com.  I like to see what is happening in the world.  I am also an avid wake boarder so I check ksl.com to see what the whether is going to be like.
  • HOSTSEARCH: Thank you so much!! It's great to talk to you.
    DANNY: Thank you for the opportunity.

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