Hi,
First of all an apology, this newsletter is exceedingly late (even by my standards) and there are a couple of reasons for this. Given my policy on BetterWebSpace being an honest company, I’m going to be completely honest with you about them!
Server Transfers
The transfer to the new Dumbledore did not go as swimmingly as we expected, the intial test move of data took far longer than expected and the team we had brought in to make the transfer couldn’t do it in an agreed timescale. Their planning made it likely that many of you would lose upto 24 hours email. A risk I was not willing to take.
The server transfers were therefore done by myself over a period of several days. Most went perefectly with many users not even noticing. A few others suffered minor problems, whether that be related to their internet provider storing old data, or them accessing the wrong server when making updates (Please use the fftp address as the hostname (e.g. ftp.domain.com) and NOT the IP address. Thank you for your patience during that time.
NOTE: If your sites were on Dumbledore (IP: 69.56.243.90), please check them before the 22nd of October. After this date we will be retiring the old Dumbledore and all original data will be lost.
Support
I’ve found myself answering the same questions many times in recent months, and the support forum remains quiet with many of you prefering direct contact with us. As such I’m investing in a ticketing system (which will suggest solutions before you even submit your ticket!). I hope to launch this during the coming week – so be ready for it as the support email address will no longer be the immediate point of contact.
Myself
Some of you are already aware of this little problem, others may find it a shock – I was diagnosed with Testicular Cancer last month. I’ve had an operation and I embark on a course of Chemotherapy soon. During this testing time, I hope you can appreciate that at times other people will be at the helm of BetterWebSpace and may take a little longer with Sales and Support information than normal, I apologise for this and assure you that I’m doing my utmost to minimise disruption to the business (hence the new support system!).
People Make Prizes
I watched two users come surprisingly close to taking money off me in this event (you were only two away guys!), but we only had one person take any serious money from us. This user has asked to remain out of the spotlight (a less shy member appears below) but a cheque for £100 is on it’s way to you for signing up 43 hosting accounts (mind you several of them were for themselves!). Congratulations!
Member Spotlight: Simon Carter
Simon has been a reseller with BetterWebSpace since early 2004, and I’m sure he won’t mind me telling you that he is one of our more successfull resellers, so we caught up with him for a chat!
Simon is originally from Swindon, but now lives in Welton, a small village just outside of Lincoln and works from his office in the City of Lincoln. Simon has always offered website design, and a website hosting business seemed the next natural progression. Dealing with lots of small businesses Simon provides the full package (not just the hosting) from an initial consultation to the finished article, along with a friendly voice at the end of a phone line to answer any questions. Simon aims to provide just the right balance and be able to offer small businesses almost any IT-related product they need (You can find all of Simon’s products and services at www.scisuk.com).
What we have noticed about our more successful resellers (and I’m hoping the next person I’ve approached about having the spotlight on them will agree with this!) is that they target a niche market. Much of Simon’s clientbase are home users and small businesses, he does a lot of work offline – visiting peoples homes and workplaces to overcome their IT issues. Working late into the evening is nothing unusual and he’s been known to go out to a farm house in the middle of nowhere at midnight, to fix a crashed PC with the couples information on that they needed for their wedding the next day!!
When I asked Simon what he’d got planned for the future he was honest – he doesn’t even have time to think about that at the moment – he’s just taken someone on to ease the workload somewhat and wouldn’t mind getting a bit of sleep in the future – but the odds are more likely (after watching Simon’s recent successes) that he will take on even more customers!
Simon’s lucky, he loves his job! He knows the hours are long and stressful (18 hours+ some days), but he has one message “keep at it!”, he tries to take weekends off but even just recently he’s found himself working 6 hours on a Sunday – now there’s determination for you!
Simon, we wish you the best of luck, and some sleep when you get a chance!
If you’d like to tell us a bit about your website and services, and what you do – get in touch!
Until next time!
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