Fasthosts to Offshore Support (February 19, 2009) - Budget web hosting provider Fasthosts (www.fasthosts.co.uk) will soon replace its UK customer service team with offshore call centers in Romania and the Phillipines, according to a report by The Register.
According to a Fasthosts statement issued to The Register, up to 38 employees are scheduled to be laid off at Fasthosts' Gloucester, UK headquarters.
The staff handled support for Fasthosts' direct customers, while its reseller hosting customers will continue to be served from the UK.
The web host called the job losses "regrettable," but stressed that offshoring its customer service operation "will further improve customer experience" and position the company "to better serve its hundreds of thousands of customers".
Fasthosts said the offshoring will align the web host with other companies owned by its parent company, 1&1 Internet.
There are also ongoing rumours inside Fasthosts that the web host's servers will also be moved offshore, according to The Register's sources.
The company has not confirmed these rumours, starting instead that it "continues to operate at its state of the art facilities in Gloucester, and does not envisage moving any other operational functions overseas."
Fasthosts has a less than flattering reputation for its customer service after encountering a few technical issues.
Last April, the company suffered a major outage, leaving many of its dedicated servers offline for at least up to eight hours.
Before that, in November 2007 it changed the passwords of its customers without any warning after its servers were hacked, preventing many people from being able to access their sites for several days.
Fasthosts has entered a statutory consultation period of several weeks with the 38 employees whose jobs are being cut.
The company says it will try "to secure redeployment within the group wherever possible."
Fasthosts UK Offers Free Reseller Trial (January 30, 2009) - UK web hosting provider Fasthosts Internet (www.fasthosts.co.uk) announced on Friday it is offering a free six month trial of reseller web hosting, which is worth £300.
The risk-free trial is the latest in Fasthosts' efforts to promote reseller web hosting as an opportunity for individuals and companies to grow their income.
The offer also bares similarties to Fasthosts' US division, which began offering resellers a one-year, free trial when the company launched its services last fall.
Fasthosts' reseller plan enables users to resell web solutions including hosting, domains, email and broadband, under their own brand and earn profit on the items they sell.
"In a difficult economic climate, reseller web hosting is a low risk and profitable way to grow a business," says Steve Holford, chief marketing officer at Fasthosts Internet. "Our 6 month free trial is an unrivalled opportunity for SMEs to experiment with their market and see what difference the new revenue can make."
The company discovered in a recent survey of 793 UK resellers that 80 percent of businesses that begin to resell web hosting on top of their regular products or services earn a profit from the practice within one year.
Fasthosts' Reseller web hosting includes everything entrepreneurs need to retail own-branded web solutions, such as hosting, domains and email solutions.
Resellers can combine white-label web solutions with their own services, such as web design, programming or IT advice, to customize services for niche markets and allow them to charge premium prices.
Priced at £50 per month plus VAT, Fasthosts Reseller package includes unlimited web space and bandwidth, unlimited POP3 email and a range of brandable website publishing tools, website tracking and marketing tools.
Fasthosts provides a range of reseller web solutions including domain name registrations, email solutions, shared hosting and broadband packages.
WHIR TV recently interviewed Holford, where he discussed Fasthosts' recent launch in the US.
Fasthosts Releases SEO Survey Data (December 15, 2008) - UK web hosting provider Fasthosts (www.fasthosts.co.uk) announced on Monday that it has released a new study which reveals that 71 percent of web users are unaware of how Internet search engine results are compiled.
Commissioned on behalf of Fasthosts, the Tickbox.Net-led "Online Search Matters Survey" asked 1,636 UK consumers about their day-to-day use of search engines. The study is released just in time for the busy holiday shopping season, where retailers often use search engine optimization to attract more online consumers.
The survey found that the majority of Brits either have no idea or an inaccurate view of how online search results are determined.
The study also found that consumers today have a strong preference for 'organic' or main search engine results over additional sponsored' links, with 38 percent admitting that they typically ignore these links when they appear.
Some 97 percent of Brits say they frequently use search engines, only 29 percent are aware that search results are generated based on the search terms and optimisation techniques used by the individual website owners.
Additionally, 24 percent of respondents believe that the search listings they use cannot be affected by the publishers of websites listed, while 22 percent suspect that results are ordered entirely according to how much has been paid by the websites listed. Another 19 percent say they have no idea at all how results are compiled, and 5 percent believe that search listings are arranged completely at random.
Another interesting finding is that men had a significantly better understanding of search engines than women, with 33 percent correctly identifying how they work, as compared to only 26 percent of women.
Age also played a determing factor, with 30 percent of over 55 year olds having no idea at all, compared to only 7 percent of 16 to 24 year olds.
"It's remarkable that the majority of Britons rely heavily on search engines but do not understand how they work," says Steve Holford, CMO of Fasthosts Internet. "By knowing a little about how and why results are ordered, users can better determine which content will be of most value to them."
Fasthosts' research also found that British web surfers have significantly more trust in main search results over additional sponsored listings.
Some 33 percent of respondents believe these listings to be 'less worthy' and 'less useful' than main search results, while 66 percent report that they always pay attention first to main results. Additionally, 40 percent of women and 34 percent of men will consciously ignore sponsored links whenever they appear.
Finally, Eastern and central parts of England seemed to have the most sceptical views towards sponsored listings, with 45 percent of Norwich residents and 43 percent of Nottingham reisdents refusing to click on them, as compared to only 12 percent from Belfast.
When asked about their reliance on search engines, 12 percent of Belfast citizens report having never used a search engine to find a retailer as opposed to only 2 percent of more search-centric Londoners.
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