The Web Hosting Manager (Paperback)

by Christoph Puetz (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
"The Web Hosting Manager" is the one-stop business guide when starting a new web hosting business. This book is also targeted at existing web hosting businesses that are lacking customers and need to pick up "steam". Jumpstarting a new or existing web hosting business with the knowledge from this book is easy. This non-technical book guides the reader from the very beginning of starting a web hosting business to implementing highly sophisticated marketing strategies. This book is invaluable for the beginner and the pro.

From the Author
This book covers the business-side of running a web hosting business. The extensive marketing section makes this book a great resource for new and existing web hosting businesses.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Lulu.com (October 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1411653149
• ISBN-13: 978-1411653146
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #910,568 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Maybe 20 percent useful info, the rest you already know, March 30, 2007

By	CyberCrone (Dead Cat, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

I agree with reviewer Maggin and am astonished at the number of great reviews for this book. The author's friends? Any adult could write most of this book off the top of her head. Where to get funding: personal funds (DUH!), the bank (DUH!). How to fire an employee? Sigh. This is generic stuff, most is not about web hosting in particular. Same with suggestions for advertising. Maybe if you are a person with zero business experience you will benefit from some of the generic advice, but you'd do just as well with a book from your local library about starting a business in general. I returned this book in the next mail.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read! The New Industry 'Bible'!!!, December 4, 2005

By	Daniel JB "- Daniel" (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews

I considered The Web Hosting Manager to be a fantastic book, especially for those just beginning in the web hosting business - or for those who need to remind themselves why they're in the business. The information does not get too technical (I consider this to be a good thing), and grammatical errors run rampant (I consider this to be a bad thing. Ok, so I'm a writer and kind of freak out about that - most folks probably wouldn't notice.). This book holds a great wealth of information.

The book starts off by detailing the costs for getting started, and the exact actions to take. It does a superb job of guiding one along from wanting to start a business to actually getting the startup process done. Everything is covered here - from legal to reseller accounts and more. One thing I liked about this book was that it did not detail one hundred different ways to start - i.e. reseller account, dedicated server, own data center, etc. - Christoph Puetz, the author, realizes that most folks reading this book have limited funds and so want to startup as quickly, easily, and inexpensively as possible. Therefore, the book assumes that the reader will go with a reseller account, and everything from the beginning forward is based on that.

This book evaluates typical competitors and typical customers, and also details financing, employment, pricing, and more. This section was extremely useful to me, as it helped me cement my business plan and actually feel comfortable with it when I was finished! Again, it does not go very in-depth into any of the subjects, but there is also not too much of a need to do so, in my opinion. I found the section about employee motivation to be particularly useful, as I am getting to the point where I will need to hire some folks, if I go after VC funding.

The last section of the book deals with marketing. It is filled with many quite brilliant marketing techniques, and includes sections on business cards, AdWords, local marketing, and other proven techniques. Even if you buy the book only for this section, it is still very much worth the $20 or so you will pay.

All in all (grammatical errors aside), this is an excellent read, and I highly recommend that every web host purchase a copy. It is the only book written wholly for the startup/small web host, and perhaps the only book that would enable these smaller hosts to become larger. It is the industry's one true "bible", and I recommend getting your hands on a copy ASAP.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Verbal Self-Congratulations, February 8, 2007

By	Elliot S. Maggin "Elliot S! Maggin" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Essentially the point of this book is to assert that hosting web pages for yourself and your friends creates its own secondary income streams. This book, for example, which the writer self-published and marketed through Amazon. It's encouraging to learn that self-publishing is actually a relatively worthwhile pursuit here in the twenty-first century, but it's not terribly useful to someone looking for a nuts-and-bolts account of web-hosting -- which is ostensibly what the book is about. Rah, rah, Chris; thrilled to hear it's working out so well for you, but I've got a life too. See you around.