Southern Web Hosting

I was listening to the Web Hosting Show Podcast yesterday, trying to get caught up on some episodes I had missed and Ross, the host of the show, mentioned that he was from Texas, I had no idea, but should have known from his accent. He was discussing web hosting companies from the South, he failed to mention Pleth, but that’s okay, here is an excerpt from his podcast:  Source: Southern Web Hosting Discrimination | The Web Hosting Show#comment-29572

Southern Web Hosting Discrimination

October 30th, 2007

Web hosting is not an industry that only belongs to the northern half of the continental United States. I got a lot of grief on this show from time to time about my accent. I’m from Texas and proud of it though – so if that causes me to “talk a little funny” in your opinion then so be it.

There are many great southern people and companies that have made the web hosting business just a little better. So before you claim we are all beer drinking rednecks – maybe you should have a closer look.

Who Are These Southern Hosting People?

One of the most powerful publishers of the web hosting word is from down south. Ping! Zine, the web hosting magazine is based down in Louisiana. One of the biggest hosting providers out there today, the Planet is based in Texas. Another powerful web hosting firm down here in Texas is a little shop called Rackspace. C I Host would be yet another example of a big Texas-based hosting firm.

Now those are just a few of the big names. There are many more smaller names I could list – and this list could go on and on and on. One place where this topic was covered well was back in the March 2005 issue of the Web Host Industry review. If you haven’t seen that issue yet, I would recommend you check it out.

The Web Hosting World is for Everybody!

Do you get the point yet? Now I am not here to say that us funny talking southern people have claim on the reigns of the hosting world either. Truth be told, web hosting is a global market with a whole heck of a lot of funny sounding people.

After reading his commentary, I posted this on his Blog:

Great Podcast as usual! My partners and I own a web development / managed hosting company called Pleth Networks, www.pleth.com. We are based in Batesville, Arkansas, our servers reside at the Planet Data Center in Dallas, Texas.

We have worked hard and built our business on reliability and fanatical customer service for our clients. While we provide more than hosting, in fact almost all of our clients are clients we have developed a website for we have a unique business model in that most folks are either a hosting company or a design company, we are both.

Our customers are primarily from a 200 mile radius but occasionally we will be fortunate enough to pick up a client that is from another region.

I never really thought about it until I listened to your podcast but our client retention, which is pretty phenomenal already, is really strong with clients from outside of our region. Could it be that maybe they kind of like the fact that they are dealing with just “good ole boys” who will shoot them straight and work extremely hard in providing a service? Has me kind of wondering?

We have traveled to different conventions over the years and had the privilege to meet with other hosting companies from various other regions and discuss our business models with them. Out of all of the businesses we have encountered none of them really have the same business model that we have. We are small (less than 500 clients), we do tend to charge more for our hosting rates (we inform our clients up front about this) and we provide unparalleled service.

I guess, all of this to say, if you are a business looking for a webhosting company to host your website for you, look to the south and find you some good ole boys who will go out of their way to take care of you!

Good Job, Keep up the Good Work!