In other words, just like a physical business needs an address, so does a Web site. You can't have a Web site and just "stick it up" on Web. Unless you want to set up your own server, you have to go through a hosting company who gives you that address, including server space and bandwidth, that enables search engines and visitors to find your site.

Let's look at some common problems we often have with hosting companies:

--You can never find an actual person to talk to! They may have a 24-hour customer service line open, but you can never get through to a real person.

--Hosting companies often think that "lowest price" will always get sale, but they fail to realize that what people really want is excellent customer service, servers that are up almost 100% of time, and a variety of services that come with hosting package.

--Many hosting companies don't provide any other functionality other than Web site hosting. They don't provide a "control panel" full of goodies such as PGP secure e-mail, shopping carts, log analysis, database creation, etc.

--Guess what? Technical support people often don't make best "customer support" people. They may be technical gurus, but their main interest lies in their high tech servers and other functionality, rather than solving simple problems of their customers.

I should emphasize that way your customer thinks about you and your products will determine his behavior towards you. If you are not in your customer’s thoughts, it will be difficult for you to be part of his life. Your customer’s perception matters. He must see your product as product of choice. You must realize that your customer’s perception of you will determine what he will say about you to his friends, colleagues and relatives. Some of most powerful advertisement you will ever get may be from people who have never made contact with you, but who have a very good perception of you. They tend to exaggerate when they recommend you to others. Remember, you get best result when you are first to get into customer’s mind in your category.

BE THE STANDARD

When you are able to get into customer’s mind first, and you maximize that position, you become identified with your category as a whole. For example, it is usual for people to say, “I want to buy Coke” when they want to buy a cola drink even if it is not of Coca-Cola brand. Same for Xerox in photo-copying, people want to “Xerox it”