At 3DPixel.net, we’ve never used traditional advertising and our experiments with online advertising (Google Adwords etc.) have generally been brief. We’ve always felt that our customers are our best marketing tool because they give honest and frank assessments of what we’re like as a company.

Word of mouth is therefore our primary source of new business, and yet when we sit back and look at our efforts to improve on this area and make it easier for our customers to rant and rave to their friends, colleagues and customers about how fantastic we are; we realise that we’ve been paying it somewhat of a lip service.

You probably don’t know it, but since early 2006 we’ve run a referral scheme that rewards customers with a free month for each customer they successfully refer to us. Customers could include a link on their website that looked something like “http://3dpixel.net?referrer=mylogin” which would automatically record who referred them so that we could apply their reward. However, we never really pushed it, and only a very few customers reap the benefits of the system.

We’ve spent the last week upgrading our systems so that they will automatically track referral links in any form. So now, a link to any page on our website from your website(s) that results in a sign up will generate an automatic 1 month extension applied to your hosting package (not domains I’m afraid).

Additionally, as thanks for linking to us in the first place, we’re giving you a 10% discount on all your renewals with us, including domain names. Our systems will monitor all websites hosted by us for our link, and flag your account to receive a 10% discount when you renew domains and hosting accounts.

To take us up on our offer, simply include the following code on the front page of your websites:

<script type="text/javascript">document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + document.location.protocol + "//3dpixel.net/link.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><noscript><a href="http://3dpixel.net" title="UK Web Hosting">Web Hosting by 3DPixel.net</a></noscript>

this will generate a simple link that looks like this:

Webhosting by 3DPixel.net

If you want to take us up on our offer but are unsure how to implement the changes, just drop us a support ticket and we’ll make the changes for you.

This offer is not available for Business, VPS or Dedicated Customers.

Web designers and web hosting providers often go hand in hand. The reputation of a designer can be raised or critically damaged by the quality of the web hosting provision behind those new snazzy sites. It’s critical therefore that a designer chooses a web hosting provider with care.

A few questions a designer should ask themselves.

1. Where in the world are the mainstay of my clients, and which geographic location are their sites targeting, if any?
2. Is cost of hosting a critical issue or are you trying to sell an upmarket product in the ‘quality over quantity’ guise?
3. Do I want to support my clients’ web hosting issues or do I want to focus on what I’m good at?

Let’s look at these points in a little more depth.

With regards to geographic location and today’s focus on rich media (Video, interactive applications), the location of the physical web hosting servers can make a massive difference. For example, to a UK broadband connection, a UK hosted server should provide a ‘ping’ response of anywhere between 10ms and 40ms. A US hosted server will provide that same UK visitor with a ping of anywhere between 95ms and 180ms. Now we’re talking ‘milliseconds’ here; a thousandth of a second, but it makes a difference with today’s application demands.

Of course, the location and response time of the server matters little if the hosting platform is overloaded or running on poor hardware making it slow. Like so many things in life up to a point, you get what you pay for in terms of web hosting. This boils down to a cost issue for you and / or your clients. A cheap, low cost hosting platform may tempt you in with ‘unlimited’ space, traffic, domains, all for the equivalent of a Coffee Shop Latte a month, but consider the stress, complaints, and most importantly reputation if the hosting platform is up and down with any kind of frequency.

This leads on to the support issue. If, for whatever reason the client has an issue with their hosting, even if it’s bog standard support issues like the infamous ‘my email doesen’t work’, do you want to support them? Do you have the desire, drive or resources to support them as your client base grows? Did you charge enough money to support them?

Different companies seem to go different ways on this depending on the style and size of the web design firm in question. Some simply instruct the client to purchase hosting with a provider directly, and obtain the settings to publish the site on that hosting. This means that the web designer has no involvement in the hosting support side of things. It also means however that the web designer has made no money from the web hosting side of the equation.

Some companies purchase reseller accounts with web hosting providers meaning that they support their clients, and deal with the billing of those accounts themselves. It means that the designer can deal with the hosting provider with a single invoice, and potentially generate an additional income stream from the hosting.

Web design companies who offer bespoke solutions to their clients may find that a reseller account does not fit their needs as essentially, they are still locked into the shared hosting provision of the hosting provider. This means that any specific modules or server settings may not be available. This additional complexity means that the web designer has to go for a dedicated server, that they control wholly and exclusively.

One second. The web design company controls this server? Does that mean I have to ‘operate’ this server somehow? Make sure that you have a server administrator if you go down this route as you need someone to ‘manage’ the server for you unless you’re familiar and confident enough to look after a webserver.

Sounds like a lot of hassle? Well maybe, however the profit margin you can make from stepping up the ladder to reseller and dedicated hosting may make it worthwhile long term. You can fit many more domains and websites on a dedicated server than you can any reseller account. Essentially you’re cutting out the middleman on each level by stepping up the ladder. It also means that unlike shared hosting, nobody else can affect the speed or the reliability of your hosting platform.

As with all things in business, it’s a risk versus reward system. Research your web hosting providers. Ask them about their physical location, recent uptime statistics, their server hardware. After all, it’s your reputation on the line.

All the team here at 3DPixel.net would like to wish you all the best for a good Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Our staff will be looking forward to a break too, but that doesn’t mean we stop altogether. We will continue to take all payments for renewals and new orders. We will also still offer our e-mail support through the ticket system with the following conditions.

1. Normal operating hours until 12.00pm Thursday 24th December (Christmas Eve)

2a. Critical Issues Email Support (shared hosting 3D500,3D1000,3D2000): Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Sunday 27th December, Monday 28th December.

2b. Critical Issues Phone Support via Business Manager (Business, VPS, Dedicated): Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Sunday 27th December, Monday 28th December.

3. Reduced Response Time Support: Tuesday 29th December, Wednesday 30th December.

4a. Critical Issues Email Support (shared hosting 3D500,3D1000,3D2000): Thursday 31st December, Friday 1st January.

4b. Critical Issues Phone Support via Business Manager (Business, VPS, Dedicated): Thursday 31st December, Friday 1st January.

Full Normal Service resumes Monday 4th January.