There are tons of different niches in the web hosting business. There are hosts that specialize in specific areas such as:

shared hosting
dedicated servers
Windows VPS hosting
virtual private servers
ColdFusion hosting
hosting in different languages
hosting for realtors

and so on. There are probably hundreds of different ways that a hosting enterprise can separate itself from the competition. So it shouldn’t have surprised me when I came across a web host that I had never seen before with the intriguing name of:

AlcoHol-Host.com

Now whether the ‘h’ in alcohol was intentionally capitalized or whether that was a mistake born of ‘one too many’ is unknown – unfortunately the site is written in a language that I can’t understand.

One facet of this innovative webhost is readable – they apparently rate their hosting plans based on alcohol content. In fact, their main product set seems to be named the ‘’AlcoHol Plan’’ with a starter plan containing ‘’Alcohol 5%’’ up to the maximum legal limit plan of ‘’Alcohol 30%’’.

The website drives home the point that to create a strong market niche is to succeed in the competitive landscape that is the modern website hosting industry – and that is great for consumers. Let’s take two hypothetical web hosting buyers: Mr. Tech and Mr. Novice. Both are looking for reliable web hosting, at an affordable price. Mr. Tech, however, needs much less hand holding that Mr. Novice – so he is content with email-only support backed up with a detailed knowledge base. Mr. Novice needs 24×7 phone support with a service department that has the patience to deal with his novice questions, and he will probably never read knowledge base articles. Two clear niches exist to serve these two buyers: a slightly more discounted brand with email-only support and great online self-help articles; and a full service, high touch web hosting brand with 24×7 phone support at a slightly higher price point.

The above example helps illustrate that web hosting allegiance is not decided based on price – or even technical specifications alone. Consumers are shrewd enough to understand that ‘you get what you pay for’ and actually expect a brand with higher service and more features to cost more money.

So whether you are a buyer or a seller of web hosting services, remember that there are many niches out there – and select the one that best fits your business model and needs.

Tags: web hosting marketing, web hosting niche

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 6:55 am and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.