March 2004

The Webhostingreport.net website went live. I was able to get visitors to the site by using my forum signature in different online forums for advertising. The first advertising income was generated easily and things looked promising. At the end of the month I also had the first paying subscription member. It was now up to me to create more content for the website as well as to get the domain name listed in search engines and business directories.

I started by searching for web hosting related websites on the Internet and to see if they offered directory listings or link exchanges. Back links are crucial to a website’s success and so it kept me busy to advertise my new website.

On the web hosting part itself - I had yet to see a payment from the new owner web host of my former clients. The high number of complaints also worried me. Part of the deal was to offer the new owner a redirect from my main web hosting website to his to make the transition go smooth for the clients. Well, smooth was the last thing this transition of business was. As the buyer had not sticked to his part of the agreement I decided to take back control of my domain name. I made all necessary arrangements - including setting up the DNS servers for the clients to still point to the old DNS servers so that their sites would not be affected. I then informed the new owner of my decision. He complained a little bit but did not really had a point to make. I was still surprised how unprofessional he acted. He had done a really great job in playing a certain role to me when negotiating the deal back in fall of 2003. Maybe he should rather move to Hollywood and make a career out of acting?