Web Hosting Interview - DemoWolf June 2013

June 2013
Web Hosting Interview - DemoWolf June 2013

Rob Moore, Owner of DemoWolf

We are talking with Rob Moore, Owner of DemoWolf - the company that provides the most extensive and most up-to-date library of support tutorials for the web hosting industry.

  • HOSTSEARCH: Rob, thank you very much for giving us an opportunity to talk with you today. Can you please tell us briefly about your background?
    ROB MOORE: No problem at all… I’m always happy to talk to people about DemoWolf! My background is a little unconventional in that I didn’t originally set out to work in the web hosting industry… but I suppose in 1992, who did?? I have a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA in Finance and Computer Systems. I worked 7 years in the HVAC industry as a sales engineer working with consulting engineers and contractors. Then in the mid 90s when the internet was getting popular, I took an interest in designing websites, and started making them for friends, family, and eventually turned it into a small part-time business. I then changed my focus to web hosting, and within a year of establishing a hosting business I left the engineering field to work on my own full time… as a web hosting provider.
  • HOSTSEARCH: Can you please tell us how you established DemoWolf? What was the inspiration for the idea of creating flash tutorials for the web hosting industry?
    ROB MOORE: I started DemoWolf shortly after selling my web hosting business. As a hosting provider I learned how important it was to provide quality and timely support… have as much support available to end users as possible. I hired an outsourced support company to help answer questions when I wasn’t available, I had a ticket system for submitting support tickets, and I also setup live chat and a toll free number. All of those things are great in providing help to clients, but they all cost time and money… because someone has to be there to answer the calls. It would be great if the clients could get the answers they need themselves, with a sort-of self-serve system of help topics. A knowledgebase is good for this, but sometimes it’s better to just SHOW someone how to do something rather than try to explain it… and that’s where video tutorials come in.
  • HOSTSEARCH: DemoWolf has been in the business for over 7 years now, what are your company strengths?
    ROB MOORE: Our main strength is the size of our tutorial library, and also our focus on the web hosting industry. Over the past 7-8 years we’ve built up a significant library of over 6,000 support tutorials. The tutorials we create are done in such a way so that they can be used by virtually any hosting provider, since we create them with no branding. That way, when a hosting company buys them we brand them with their logo so it looks like they’ve created them.
  • HOSTSEARCH: Could you give us an overview of DemoWolf's services?
    ROB MOORE: Absolutely. The main part of our business is in the rebranding of our ready-made tutorials for web hosting companies. Any hosting company that wants to make our support videos available to their end users from their website, can do so very easily. Our system is completely automated too, so that when a host buys, they simply have to upload their logo, and a few clicks later they’ll be downloading their newly purchased, CUSTOM-BRANDED support tutorials which they can then upload to their own website. Our tutorials are available in non-voice (silent) and voice narrated versions, all of which are available in Flash, Video (YouTube-ready MP4) and Text (with images) formats.

    The other part of our business is in producing custom videos for clients looking for something other than what we have in stock. We can produce demonstrations, presentations and tutorials for virtually any application or website, based on our clients specifications.
  • HOSTSEARCH: As your company focuses on web hosting tutorials, do you have any plans to make tutorials for other businesses?
    ROB MOORE: We have no current plans to actively expand to other markets, since the web hosting industry is what we know, and where our clients come from. Having said that, we do produce custom videos for a wide array of business types.
  • HOSTSEARCH: Can you please tell us more about Demo Builder and how it is different from the other Flash Demo?
    ROB MOORE: DemoBuilder is the application we use to create our tutorials. Back in 2005 when I started DemoWolf, I researched several different software applications, and balanced the pros and cons of each. I think the main reason I chose DemoBuilder in the end was its ease of use. Initially it only created screenshot demonstrations instead of full motion video, and that was really all we needed to create simple how-to videos. Using screenshots instead of full video also resulted in videos with much smaller file sizes which was a plus. DemoBuilder now has the option of recording in full motion, and we occasionally do that… but for the most part we still use their screenshot capture tool so we can keep the size of the files as small as possible while still maintaining video clarity.

    Many of our custom clients end up getting a copy of DemoBuilder as well, since they can use it to alter or make future edits themselves if they wish.
  • HOSTSEARCH: As the owner of DemoWolf, what new technologies do you think has big impact on hosting industry today?
    ROB MOORE: I think video will continue to grow in its popularity and use in websites. We initially started out creating Flash tutorials, but have since evolved to include full video. With today’s ever increasing bandwidth, it’s no longer a problem embedding videos on websites, and I think we’ll see more and more of this.
  • HOSTSEARCH: Well, we are looking forward to see your success in the coming years. Thanks again for giving us an opportunity to talk with you today.
    ROB MOORE: Thank you for the opportunity to talk with you. I always love sharing my story and talking about DemoWolf. All the best to you at HostSearch!

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