Top Web Host For Entrepreneurs

After using 4 or 5 of the “top hosts” over the past couple of years, it has become blatantly obvious that one hosting company absolutely blows its competitors out of the water.

When speaking with other entrepreneurs and business owners there is one company that continues to pop up in most conversations…GoDaddy. I like to ask, “so why did you chose GoDaddy for your host? or Why are you going with GoDaddy?”

The response rarely has to do with features, thresholds or service. Actually, the response usually consists of three words, “I don’t know.” “Let me guess, you saw their Super Bowl commercial.” The common phrase, “sex sells,” has never been more apparent than in GoDaddy’s racy campaigns. The company is gaining popularity at a rapid rate (not necessarily on account of its product offering).

GoDaddy is definitely not the top web host for entrepreneurs. So who does Marketing Mavens recommend as the top web host? Hands down the award goes to BLUEHOST!

This post isn’t meant to be a moral slam against GoDaddy, so I’ll keep my opinion of GoDaddy’s Marketing & Advertising strategies to myself. BUT, a quick look at the raw thresholds will show you that what GoDaddy offers in the form of scandalous women, requires you to sacrifice in service.

That’s right. Those girls don’t come cheap. A decent portion of what you pay GoDaddy goes to ginormous advertising budgets as opposed to a better product and service.

BOTH: Unlimited external domains, subdomains, FrontPage, WordPress, Joomla, PHP, Python, Java, Ruby on Rails, and CGI.

BlueHost offers a live demo of their products prior to purchase.

GoDaddy also lets you test their products. Some benefits to GoDaddy is that they are an ICANN approved domain registrar, there are no long term contracts, and they offer discounts for 12, 24, or 36 months.

Here’s the biggest deciding factor for me though: in addition to a free domain for life and unlimited thresholds, BlueHost offers CPanel 11 (incredibly intuitive and user friendly) while GoDaddy offers their own heavily customized version of Plesk that is far more restrictive.

Take a look at how simplistic yet robust BlueHost’s CPanel is…

When making changes anywhere in BlueHost, updates are seen instantly. When making changes in GoDaddy, I would often wait hours for their systems to recognize the update. This just killed productivity.

There are even more arguments as to why BlueHost is the top host, but I need to get back to work – and so do you!

Best,

Jarrod Morris

While wrapping this up I want to be fair and open about other great hosts. Here are a few others worth mentioning: Host Gator, Lunar Pages, Host Monster, IX Web Hosting, Green Geeks, Just Host.

Staying Organized Inside Infusionsoft

Reason for this post: Many clients have been asking us why Infusionsoft is the platform of choice when building marketing solutions and automated follow-up systems for entrepreneurs and small businesses. After all, there are numerous solutions out there, all claiming to do the same thing.

The simple truth is that they don’t do the same thing, and probably never will.

So instead of jumping into another long explanation with our readers, I’ll try to keep this as brief as possible. While working as a consultant at Infusionsoft, one of the key things I would try and help customers do is map out their business processes.

I would try to help them take a step back and look at their business as a system. Take McDonalds for instance, it’s has one of the highest employee turn over rates. But it is also managed by teenagers for the most part. Even today, it is still considered to be the premier franchise in the market place.

What did Ray Kroc do that so many hamburger joints did not do? He systematized his business model. Now I’m not suggesting we should go to the extent of developing a manual for “How to Fill up a Coke” (like McDonalds), but when it comes to creating systems that are scalable and repeatable, we must focus on ORGANIZATION.

Inside the Infusionsoft Application there are many moving components. When trying to set up tags, categories, webforms, action sets, templates, follow-up sequences, etc. – I recommend you don’t jump in with both feet until you’ve put some forethought into something as simple as your naming convention.

Remember, you’re not setting this application up for your immediate needs only. You’re planning on having this machine work for you for years to come, right? That means you’ll eventually have hundreds of tags, numerous webforms and follow-up sequences, and if you’re using it for order processing – a ton of products, subscriptions, orderforms, shipping options, shopping cart links, promos and up-sells.

I was recently referred to Chris Wise, an expert on business credit and leveraging credit to build wealth. When I was first going through his Infusionsoft application and trying to understand the current processes, I felt like I was traveling in a New York subway. It was complete chaos.

Even the business owner himself had a hard time knowing what happened when and how. So as I developed a new process and came up with the best method for accomplishing what he was trying to do. I mapped it out for two reasons:

1. So 6 months from now if he needs to do a similar thing he can follow a map and set it all up very easy.
2. To make sure all the t’s where crossed and i’s where dotted. In other words, there are so many times we build condition based marketing, and it’s easy to forget a step.

Just that one missing step can create chaos and confusion – or worse, lose us money. Imagine setting this simple scenario: Prospect is added to a 10 step follow-up sequence. Goal of sequence is for prospect to 1) click on link and 2) fill out a form to download a new report. Once the prospect clicks on the link he needs to be removed from the initial sequence, tagged properly and then added to a “clicked but not downloaded” sequence with unique messaging based on his action of clicking.

Then, when the prospect actually downloads the new report he needs to be removed from the “clicked but not downloaded” sequence, tagged properly and then added to a “clicked and downloaded” sequence with unique messaging based on his action of downloading. This goes on and on as we lead our prospect through our various sales funnels.

Now, can you imagine storing all of that in your head? Of course not! We didn’t even talk about how these steps should be applied to customers and fulfillment.

Returning to my first paragraph, why does Marketing Mavens lead with Infusionsoft as THE BEST solution for most businesses? Take another glance at the process map above. There are close to 50 things that can happen in this funnel. Because of Infusionsoft it is all AUTOMATED!!! If you know of another system that has these same bells and whistles all under one roof, please make sure you add a comment below.

Are you tired of prospects and customers falling through the cracks because of broken systems and follow-up failure? Then get Infusionsoft. Do you have Infusionsoft but you’re limited on time to implement the systems above? Then get the Marketing Mavens Admin Package.

Check back often – we will be releasing blog posts like this at least once a week. We will also be launching the Marketing Mavens Membership soon. You won’t want to miss it.

Best,

Dustin Lunt

Infusionsoft Unveils New Pricing Model

Here’s the 4-1-1, hot off the press: After record breaking growth, Infusionsoft launches new website to bring award-winning software to mass market.

Up-front fees used to range from $2000-$6000, preventing many entrepreneurs and small business owners from using Infusionsoft. These fees have now been removed. In addition to ditching up-front fees, this Arizona based company is now offering a 15 Day Free Trial and a Money Back Guarantee.

They are removing any and all risk so that ANYONE can try and use this killer app. I have seen hundreds of businesses first hand fix their follow-up failure and double their sales using Infusionsoft. They truly are revolutionizing the way small businesses grow. The question is, will you be part of the revolution?

To find out more, visit the new Infusionsoft Home Page.

Best,

Jarrod Morris