This week I’ve been thinking a lot about bad web hosts. There are a lot of them and I ended up thinking back to my bad experiences, here are a few of those. Enjoy but please don’t have nightmares!

Infinology

When I bought my first domain name this is where I went. An American based hosting company that was affordable for me at the time and I thought it would be a great place to start, and it was! For a while…

What once was a good deal soon became sub-par and I realised it was time to upgrade and choose a host on the same continent. I’d sent a couple of e-mails to their support over about a period of few months on various problems and had no reply; They weren’t important so I let it slide. Without warning I got hit with a charge for a years hosting (which I wasn’t expecting but should have seen coming), I sent an e-mail to support to plead for a refund but again no reply came so I decided to do some digging.

I soon found that the user support forum was flooded with people who not only couldn’t get hold of anyone but also had trouble canceling their accounts. It felt like we’d all been falsely imprisoned and the guards had all just left. Our domains were trapped and it wasn’t until one of our counterparts found a hidden domain control panel that we all managed to get control back and jump make our breaks for it leaving some false payment details in the control panel so we couldn’t be re-billed.

A couple of months after we all broke free I got an e-mail from a gentleman who had bought out the company (poor sod). He was a very nice bloke who listened to my problems and apologised, he seemed so full of hope for his new company and hoped one day I’d return (although didn’t give me my money back). I wondered if Infinology were still going, whether the gentleman had made a go of it and transformed it into some kind of Garden of Eden of hosting, I took a look and it hasn’t changed a bit. I mean not one bit, it’s exactly the same! The hosting packages, the template, the bad gifs…

Conclusion: You can’t polish a turd but at least you can tell they know it and haven’t tried.

Webfusion

This was once a really great hosting company, then they got bought out by Pipex and it all went down hill. I’m not just talking slower speeds, degrading services and David Hasselhoff adverts either (of which you can relive the horror of below).

The last of the sites under my control left web fusion last year after a huge… HUGE security problem. Basically the site I was looking after aquired a mysterious set of spam links in the code hidden to the viewer with a bit of CSS. First thing I did was check my offline code, it was clean, so I  turned around to the eCommerce platform developers whose software I was using and pointed the finger at what must have been insecure code. They sent me a very calm e-mail back basically saying “We’ve checked and we can honestly say its not us, we thought it might be but thankfully… take a look at this”. If you searched Google for those patterns of spam links there were a ton of them unrelated to the software that was being used.

They went further to point out if you trace back all those sites to a host 9 out of 10 arrived back to the same host. I checked the sites of people I knew who hosted there, the same links hidden in the code. Webfusion had been hacked big time and all they said to my support tickets was “It’s your fault you must have had a virus and leaked your password, change it”. I changed it and hoped the worst was over but it wasn’t, the links were back in a matter of days. This was really bad for the sites business for many reasons and I shut down the site until I moved the host. If you can add spam links you can hijack payment processes and I wasn’t prepared to risk it.

For a significant while no announcement was made on this problem. I would have respected them to tell the truth but all I saw of this problem was a message saying “We’ve changed your password because it’s not compatible with our system change”. Which actually meant “All your passwords were stolen but we’re going to pass this off as a system upgrade”. The fact that a changed password was still bypassed with ease meant there was something on going, maybe even someone on the inside, especially when you saw the scale of its effect and its automation.

Conclusion: This could have caused big trouble if used for means beyond spamming. A little honesty might have stung but transparency would have kept me with them. Mistakes happen, just admit it and fix it… Just stop the lies!

Fasthosts

This one I’ll keep short because we all know… or at least anyone with any real online experience knows. Overpriced and unreliable, here is my favourite example of how bad they are. This story is one I followed over Twitter recently, one of many in fact. Just search for fasthosts and you’ll see.

One of their customers who hires a dedicated server had it go down for three days. That’s bad for business, Google will look at you like you’ve followed through, your clients will think you’ve skipped the country because your e-mail is bouncing and the stress of dealing with Fasthost’s support will age you 30 years in less then a day.

On the third day of calling up support they had finally made a breakthrough. The problem? Now this one is a tough one to fix. The server was switched off! They had a power cut three days previous and no one had switched it back on. When support can’t identify an off machine in less then 12 hours (being generous) it’s time to find a new host, especially when your forking out upwards of £70 a month. Don’t get me started on why this shouldn’t happen in a data centre.

Conclusion: Keep on spreading the word on these guys. It’s hard for people to miss a bad reputation this colossal but it still happens.

Legend Communications

One of the first sites I took charge of was hosted by a small internet provider just across the road from the sites owners. You used to dial into them when they were Bedford’s best (and maybe only host back then) host KBNet. These guys got bought out, then the guys that bought them got bought out and we ended up being hosted with Legend. Check this out for an awesome hosting package:

• 1 catch all e-mail account
• 50mb hosting
• No MySQL (Sold at £50 a year extra if I remember rightly)
• No control panel (not that there was anything to warrant needing one)

That was it… the grand total? £117.50 a year.

I rang them up and asked them if this was right and they told me it was. I told them that was silly and you could get better for free and they told me “That’s what your contract outlines, that’s what you chose and that’s what you have” to which I replied “It’s not my contract, I didn’t choose it and your taking the…”. If you ever have the displeasure of calling these guys and speak to a Martin, ask how long he’s been there. If it’s more then four years, ask for someone else.

I worked my way through various customer “care” employees before I finally found one that stopped trying to make out it wasn’t a comedically high price for so little. As it turned out we were meant to have a control panel so after reciting chunks of the Sales of Goods act they refunded in full and helped us move our domain elsewhere.

Conclusion: Arrogant and unhelpful staff, bad deals and they bought out my favorite ISP Demon a while after. I have since moved to Be Broadband… top ISP.

In finishing…

If your planning on finding a host for the long term do your research, or ask someone who you can trust that has done theirs. It’s easy to spot a bad host, just do a quick Google of there name and an expletive; It will work a charm!

If I had to go back to any of these hosts I’d say Infinology is the clear winner because the website gives me that warm fuzzy feeling of nostalgia just looking at the site. The hosting wasn’t too bad either, it just got sour and now very much stale.

To top my list of never again I’d say Legend Communications take the top spot, I don’t think they were ever set up for hosting and the staff just didn’t get it. As soon as they bought out Demon I jumped ship to BeBroadband who (despite ruining their website design) are in my opinion the best ISP. Really in touch with their customers (actually down the pub with them once a month) but that’s not really on topic. For the record though I’d rather host my own site on an old 9600 modem using a 286 while sitting in the bath with a toaster!

What bad hosting experiences have you guys had? Anyone else out there that was on Infinology when it went bad? Chime in please and don’t forget to follow me on twitter.

Well it’s been a long time since the general public has used Geocities seriously, they’ve evolved to such sites as myspace and discovered that webspace is cheap and the best CMS are all available free and legally. Add this to the ever growing armoury of free or affordable templates then you have yourself a web full of well built and good looking sites… surely!? Well, no… Far from it. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with this approach at all for personal use but when businesses start to adopt this for a serious site it’s bad for the everyone.

I recently saw the website of a local gym, it looked like it had been designed at least six years ago but was still being updated and used. I made a note to drop by and offer my services but never got round to it. A couple of days ago I checked it out again to see that it had been updated to the Joomla CMS but with a very recognizable Rocket Theme template, which as pretty as they are was not a good thing at all for the gym.

The background looked like the Windows Vista default wallpaper and the text laid over it with a translucent background as part of the main feature of the home page was unreadable because of the busy nature. Besides the lack of focus on any real information, the site at first glance you’d think was for IT support, not a gym. Graphics aside this stock approach choked the ability to present relevant information to the sites visitors and so ultimately is no more useful then the last, it’s just prettier.

So what do you all think? Is using stock templates really such a bad thing? I think yes, but I do acknowledge it can be a great tool for those starting out as a stop gap solution when on a small budget. But not to be relied on anywhere beyond the very short term.

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7" />

People give Microsoft a hard time but they are making a genuine effort. It’ll take them a while to dig themselves out of the hole they are in with developers but thank heavens for small gestures.

All that said, for the record I use Safari and Chrome on a regular basis and say go for those over IE if you have the choice. And coders don’t be lazy! Learn to code IE8 and use it as soon as possible. Never leave in a time saver if it’s going to be problematic down the line.

Why would the business card be obsolete?

Reading and listening to the opinions of fellow freelancers I heard enough reasoning to make me believe this was really the way forward for a handful of reasons!

• People just put their contacts into their phones now
• Business cards are a waste of paper
• They can find all the details on your website these days
• No one keeps business cards anymore
• It’s an obsolete format

This reasoning I fully agreed with, why waste my time designing cards and paying for a print run if they weren’t going to be much use? I really felt there wasn’t much of a point with a classic technology-rules-the-day attitude. All reasoning I started to believe was more then a little naive.

What changed my mind?

Armed with a hardline view it all started to come into question when started talking to a person I’ve known for many years but have only ever seen once every 3-4 months at certain social events. Last time I saw him I found out that he ran web servers for a living and so we got chatting. I told him about my freelance web work and he asked whether I had some business cards which of course I didn’t, something he seemed genuinely disappointed with! Here was someone who often got asked if they provided design as well as hosting services and would have happily passed on my details to these people.

I felt a bit stupid after that encounter and wondered why, I had put my points across but with little success. If one person can be disappointed so easily by what I thought was such a small thing then it’s something that would crop up regularly. I started to think about what a business card really meant and came to the realisation that it still holds a lot of weight especially for anyone that has to pitch for their own work.

The business card is still an important tool

When you have had your chance to deliver that well polished thirty second speech with a silver tongue that could charm the pants off Dame Judy Dench * *Shudder* * that doesn’t mean the person you are talking to has the time to stand around, get their phone out and take your details. They may be bad at remembering names, you may ruin your cool by trying to explain that you don’t need a business card if they ask for one. Having a card factors out a lot of potential embarrassing scenarios.

A card can be taken and the details transferred to their phones or computers at leisure later, it has a physical presence that can sit on a desk or even in drawer and act as a reminder when they are rediscovered. The act of handing a card to an interested party is far easier then taking out phones and reading numbers, e-mail and web addresses, something which people can find uncomfortable, especially if they feel like you’ve forced them to take your details in such a manner.

The power of good quality in design and print

A strong quality of the business card is that along with your general appearance and personality it is on the forefront of first impressions. When you hand over a business card it can say a lot about you and your business by its design and quality. We’ve all seen bad business cards and cards with “printed for free by [insert-name].com” written on it. Those cards can end up making you appear as a hobbyist rather then a professional. They are the equivelant of a hotmail address, free, anyone can get them and they can lack and portrayal of the pride and passion you should have in your work.

I really believe that attention to detail in a cards design makes a huge difference. With methods such as spot UV, foil stamping and die cutting you can craft something unique, beautiful and that gets you the attention your business deserves. These methods as well as looking great provide a real physical texture that can be of great benefit.

Handing over a cheap card usually gets a quick glance for politeness sake before being delved into a pocket, maybe to be forgotten until its time to wash those trousers. However if you hand over a card that feels good it’s going to peak that persons interest enough for them to want to look at it which in turn makes them more likely to remember it. If they like what they see they’ll often be keen to show other people and may even ask for more to pass along. If someone feels like they’ve discovered cool they will want to share their discoveries with others. It’s often that simple.

Why you need a card, and why it should be good.

From that first impression with a business card it can really boost your chances that the recipient of the card will consider you for work or recommend you to a friend or colleague. Having an impressive quality card will give the person the image that you are a true pro, know your craft and would be solid to work with, something I believe that has a knock on effect to how they perceive your portfolio. If you give someone a business card printed for free they may search for similar elements in your work, where as if you dazzle them they’ll be more open and keen to be dazzled by your work. My reasoning for this? When someone has a perception of you thats the way they want to see you as people rarely want to admit they were wrong, more so if they’ve conveyed those thoughts to others.

It’s worth remembering though that you still need to talk to people and show them you’re knowledgeable, confident and passionate about what you do. A business card by itself isn’t a magical way to draw clients out of nowhere but it will be a big help in improving your chances after that first encounter.

Share your thoughts

What do you think about business cards? Are you for or against? Does it really warrant a point of debate? Is it frowned upon to refer to Dame Judy Dench in such a manner? I’m really keen to see what people think and to be honest get in touch with you guys that are among the first to start reading my blog. All general feedback about articles, the site or any questions are also really appreciated and encouraged!

Links

Printing

• Taste of Ink Studios – A great place for getting cards printed. Good quote system, well priced and reasonable shipping overseas

Inspiring and good looking cards

• 5 Finishing Options to Print a Business Card
• Cool Business Card Designs
• Cardapult the Business Card Catapult
• 6 More Amazing Business Card Designs

My first real article here is one for freelancers although if your a curious client feel free to read on. This is my advice to start up (and some established) freelancers regarding deposits and should provide information and insight into their importance.

It is fairly well established that freelance web designers love what they do, but most likely hate dealing with the money side of business. It seems to be the way with a lot of creative and media industry freelance types. I’ve known many photographers, sound engineers and designers that when pushed for a price on services will often seem awkward and out of their depth, which of course then makes it very hard for those people to then ask for some of that money up front. It is pretty essential to do this though for a lot of reasons as will become apparent as you read through my three key rules of getting a deposit.

Rule 1: Always ask for half up front

(and include any out-of-pocket expenses)

Always ask for half of what you have quoted as your deposit and don’t forget to add to that any software licenses, web space, stock photos and any other necessities. Some people are under the illusion that because we are professionals and freelance that we are well off, which is rarely the case.

There are two very good reasons to ask for half the money up front as a deposit. Firstly is because from getting a job agreed and signed off to getting the final invoice in is usually a fair amount of time, in between which you need to eat, pay rent and be able to socialise (providing you manage to wrestle the time for such things!). Getting half up front means you have some breathing space and you can relax into the job without the stress of feeling rushed to get that invoice in.

The second very good reason is that its a great method to gauge how your client sees you and how they handle their payments. If you have a client that drags their heels over a deposit, then chances are you have a client that will drag there heels when you put in your final invoice. Remember they’ll be a lot less keen to hurry your payment to you if you’ve already built a site and gone live, putting yourself in a position where you have to chase payment every day until it appears is no good for the soul. However if you’ve had a client pay promptly on a deposit you’ll likely find that they’ll be prompt on the final payment, they respected you and your work from the start and they should respect that still at the end.

Rule 2: Do not start work until the money has cleared in your account

This is an important one to stick too no matter how much deadline pressure is on you from the client, even if they’ve told you the cheque is in the post or that the bank transfer has been sent and should be “with you any day” wait for it to clear regardless. We’ve all heard these things from clients in the past to see nothing emerge, being steadfast on this rule negates the client being able to question trust which is always an awkward topic.

It’s not uncommon that a client may demand that the work be done for say two weeks into the future, if you waited for a deposit you would miss the deadline! So best get started then? No! If the client absolutely needs something that quickly then chances are they’ve made a gross error in planning which is not your fault. You can help, and you can pull out all the stops if they really need it but don’t start until the money is there. If they really need done quickly, the money will appear quickly otherwise you need to explain why the deadline can’t be met. If you fill them in on a realistic time frame they’ll most likely be understanding, and if they aren’t then ask yourself if they are clients you really want to deal with.

Rule 3: Make no exceptions to friends or family

If a friend or family member wants a website and that’s what we love to do then its only natural that you want to help them but you have to be careful. Its a job like any other and it can be tricky enough to give them a quote without feeling awkward. Once your over that hurdle though you should insist on the same conditions as your other clients. If you take a moment to explain it to them your friends and family shouldn’t be put out by the request of a deposit, especially when they realise it can be the difference between waiting a couple of weeks or six months for a site as you have to put it on the back burner so you can pay your bills through other work. Theirs is valid work which makes them valid clients, if they don’t see why you need a deposit up front then tactfully decline the work because work is no reason to lose a friend or break down a family relationship.

Don’t learn the hard way

I recently took on a job contracted to me by a friend and fellow professional who has been working in the industry much longer then myself and knows his stuff to say the least. With the promise of more work in the future this job was the litmus test. I booked the job into my calendar and dived straight in as soon as I got the news that the job had been signed off and the deposit cheque was on the way. Three weeks later I was running on the fumes of my bank balance and being kept in food by my immensely supportive and understanding girlfriend. The money still hadn’t appeared and I had to put the job on hold. What’s more I asked for less then half for the deposit meaning that at the time I was unsure if I had just wasted three weeks of income, but knew that if the money did show I would still be in for some rough times financially while waiting for the final payment due to the time investment.

Yes… I broke all three rules and although it inspired my blog post, my stress levels hit the roof and my work suffered for it. When I told my friend who contracted me the work that next time I would be waiting until the deposit cleared in my account before starting and that I wanted half up front he was so accepting of it that I realised having I said that from the start he would have been fine with it, and that would have saved me a lot of hassle.

Final words of wisdom

Making these rules policy and allowing no exceptions will make it a lot easier to enforce them and if people don’t understand then take the time to explain it to them, they are human and being honest with them should provide a positive response. If they still don’t understand you may be dealing with a client that as promising as they may seem may not be someone you want to deal with. In other words, a deposit keeps you sane, fed and free of troublesome clients.

Wait… your wrong!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this article and that its been of use to you. If you disagree however with any points or have anything to add I’d love to hear your thoughts, so please leave a comment!