1. Can you tell us a bit about yourself, and what you do?
I’m a college student who just loves the internet and business. I have been using computers since I was ten and running my own businesses since I was just a little older than that.
2. So what type of businesses do you own? What are your passions and skill set?
Naturally my heart is in the web hosting industry. For many years than I can remember I’ve been involved with web hosting. I wrote my own automation script once upon a time for my friend who ran a hosting company; that’s what got me started in this business and now I wouldn’t change that for the world. I don’t do much php coding anymore, however I still know a few bits, and that goes along with css and xhtml.
3. Well, I see you run EarnersHost.com, how’s that going? Is that a full time job for you? Any plans you can share with us?
EarnersHost has pretty much been running slow (but soon is all about to change); and that’s to be expected from having our site down for many months. The main reason for not relaunching any sooner is mainly just because we’re not ready. We have a large service list and we’re looking to recruit some support officers too. Which is just taking forever to get it all done. We don’t want to launch until we’re 110% finished with our website. EarnersHost you could say is my fulltime job, I go to college during the day and work from my iPhone/Laptop to respond to tickets etc. I usually stay up to early hours of the morning working with clients.
4. I see so many hosting sites around, what makes yours different? Why should I host with you over This* or MT?
I do hosting because I enjoy it. While we have a strong customer base; I don’t think there is a unique reason to join EarnersHost. We’re just like anyother hosting company in terms of excellent servers, uptime, connectivity etc. However we are different in support and making sure our customers are happy with their product. I think if you ask anyone about our business I’ve began to notice that good support is a common positive. We’re just a small business providing solid shared solutions, but in the future we hope to have a few unique products of our own to include with hosting; such as freelancer project management tools/invoicing tools to use also. Which I think will make us stand out in the future.
5. Hosting is incredibly tough market to enter. Any suggestions to someone who wants to have their shot at the market?
Stay clear… Nah I’m just kidding. It’s something I enjoy which is why I think I’ve had some success (tiny compared to other companies) but I think if your heart is in what you do, you’ll go a long way, and that goes for anything else than hosting too.
6. So any chance of some sneak peaks of the new site?
7. Well you seam to have got the hosting section mastered. What about new projects? Any other stuff you have, anything your planning?
I’ve been planning to diversify and open just a VPS business. There is becoming a high demand in VPS hosting and it’s something I’d like to venture into. I also planned to open a business article site offering tips and interviews from business owners on how to start-up your own business; specifically aimed at young people. However, that was a year-ago and still plan to launch it.
8. Young people? Well your pretty young, 18 going on 19. Do you think that in you’re early years being ‘young’ has made things harder for you? How do you think people (12-20) could overcome these boundaries?
I wish I only just got into this now. It has been stressful on my younger years and having so much commitment and responsibility at 12-15 wasn’t right for me. I wouldn’t recommend anyone younger than me to get into hosting; I’m lucky to have a secure financial and experienced (family have worked in networking/IT for years) background to back my business. Younger people starting younger than me, good luck!
9. I would agree with you, I say leave the hosting business to the older people who can dedicate there time to it. What do you think about just the recreational coding, web dev and business management?
Business management has to be the most fun out of those. While I used to enjoy coding and developing things on the web, the way things were a few years ago are a lot different to now and I couldn’t possibly get back into designing or coding again, probably because it doesn’t interest me no longer. But those who do coding and the like good for you! It sure was fun when I did it and wish you the best of luck. Business management is where my heart joins hosting; business means you can do anything you like and get paid for it
Quick Fires (1/2 word answers)
Fav website? (not owned by you)
www.facebook.comTools?Textmate Final Cut Pro
Inspirations?
Aventurehost
What annoys you? (webdev wise)
People who don’t code a website and use their common sense.
Mac/Windows?
110% Mac
IE/FF/other?
FF3 and Safari
Other hobbies/interests?
Vide Editing/ Music Production / Socialising
I’ve got a final two quick questions; If you could speak to the entire web development community, in one place – what would you say? For the next person we interview whats one question you would like asked – remember this could be a designer, coder or developer?
If I could speak to the community in one place I’d ask them why everyone seems to always give negative comments about designs these days, nothing is ever good, in my eyes every design I see is unique and shows passion from the designer, and it’s really annoying to see people put others down, so I’d ask them to stop, and give better criticism, because most of the time they don’t tell them how to improve it, it’s simply just not good enough apparently. I would also raise the issue on pricing in the marketplace and try to get everyone to settle on a sensible price for things; than selling websites/domains for stupid unreal prices.
The next person I’d like you to ask them how on earth they do what they do, how do they fit it in with everything and do they find their hobby/full-part time job takes over their life.