All TPS reports require cover sheets.
Written by Douglas Hanna on April 3, 2009 – 11:53 am -
If you’ve ever seen Office Space, you most likely know that all TPS reports (that’s “Test Procedure Specification” for the uninformed) require cover sheets. The painfully ridiculous incident in the movie has become both a critical fixture of anti-corporate culture and a quintessential example of the eccentricities of bureaucracies of corporate America.
At HostGator, there are no TPS reports and cover sheets aren’t required to be put on anything. However, we do keep track of quite a few numbers and metrics and one of the metrics we do watch closely is chat volume.
The graph below is an average of the number of chats we completed per hour on any given day and at any given time throughout the month of March. The numbers are averaged, meaning that every Monday at 1 PM was averaged together to create a collective Monday at 1 PM metric. Our week-to-week variation is usually pretty negligible, so what you see on the graph is a fairly good representation of our chat volume for a given day. Note that the Y-axis starts at 30, meaning we never average less than 30 chats completed per hour.
(Click to see the full size version.)
The graph is a fairly normal distribution and makes it quite clear that we’re usually busiest right around noon central time on Mondays and Tuesdays. Our slowest times (on average) tend to be during the very early mornings on the weekends. 2 AM on Sunday is almost always dead and weekends in general tend to be fairly quiet when compared to the busy weekdays.
Keep in mind that all of these numbers are averages and they have to be taken as that. At the time of writing this post, things are actually slower than usual here. This morning was much busier than our typical Thursday morning and we only guess what tomorrow will be like. Our data indicates that it will be fairly busy for most of the day, but it could also end up being unusually quiet.
The hosting industry is an industry characterized by some amount of unpredictability. We do our best to staff our live chat and phone support departments according to the volume we’ve seen, but there are always going to be days when we’re overstaffed and days when we’re understaffed.
Unpredictability in a constantly changing industry like web hosting and at a constantly changing company like HostGator is a fact of life and much to the disappointment of the executives at Initech, not something that a cover sheet on a TPS report can mask.
Posted in Customer Service | 3 Comments »
Google AdWords Coupon Promotion Code
Written by Chad Bean on March 16, 2009 – 12:46 pm -10/12/2009 Update: The Google AdWords Coupon code for HostGator Shared clients is now $50 (used to be $25)! Reseller coupons coming soon.
Ever run a Google search and notice the “sponsored listings” around the search results? Ever click one of those sponsored links? It’s likely that you have already visited a link that was advertised through the Google AdWords program and now HostGator is giving its shared web hosting customers the opportunity get started with Google AdWords by giving them $25 $50 in free marketing credits*.
HostGator has partnered up with the Google AdWords pay-per-click (PPC) advertising program and is now offering an AdWords Coupon voucher good for $25 $50 in credit with all Hatchling, Baby, and Business shared web hosting plans.
What is Google AdWords?
Google AdWords is a pay-per-click advertising program by Google. With AdWords, advertisers can promote their website’s products and services on Google.com’s search results in the “sponsored links” section. Quality ad text and relevant keyword buys will give you an edge over your competitors. And with AdWords, you can set your own budget and change your campaigns at any time – there are no commitments or spending requirements of any kind.
We at HostGator currently use Google AdWords for our own internal marketing efforts, and we truly believe that most businesses can benefit from the highly targeted traffic that this program can yield.
Great, how do I sign up?
New and old HostGator customers on qualifying plans can redeem the coupon code by visiting their HostGator control panel, navigating to the “Google AdWords Offer” link on the left hand side and clicking the “redeem now” link. It’s as simple as that.
If you don’t already have a HostGator web hosting account, take a look at our Shared Web Hosting plans, sign up today, and get started promoting your site!
* (the fine print our lawyers asked us to include): To read the terms and conditions as well as to learn more, visit the HostGator Google AdWords Coupon page.
Tags: adwords, marketing, SEO
Posted in Promotions, Shared Hosting | 28 Comments »
Bad Economy, Good for HostGator?
Written by Brent Oxley on February 6, 2009 – 5:34 pm -We may be calling it prematurely, but so far, this year is off to an amazing start for us ‘Gators. In January, we surpassed all of our previous sales records! We have a new record for sales on both a single day and for an entire month. I wish I could be more excited, but we are having one very serious problem.
STAFFING. Or rather, the lack of it.
Every day I wake up to read about thousands of Americans being laid off of work. Unemployment is hitting new highs in America and yet I’m being forced to, once again, slow down HostGator’s growth due to the lack of qualified employees.
It’s almost as if America’s recession needs to be a full blown depression (If we’re not already there), in order for us to find the employees we are in desperate need of.
If you are a qualified Linux or Windows system administrator in America, on unemployment, and fail to apply for a job with HostGator, you should know that you are a leech on society. There are millions of Americans out there doing everything that they can to find a job and keep themselves from starving to death while we are here begging for you to apply with us!
If you are too lazy to fill out our online job application (doesn’t take long at all), then post a comment and I’ll personally get in touch with you. If you live in another state, we’ll even provide up to $5,000 for relocation assistance to our office in Houston, TX.
The United States of America used to be the land of opportunity, but we have now become the land of bailouts and handouts. A couple days ago, I had to go to the county tax collector’s office and I couldn’t help but notice that the line wrapped outside of the building. A few months ago, I went to the Department of Motor Vehicles and it ended up taking three hours to get to the front of the line. It has been a while since I’ve been to a post office, but I can’t recall one time in my life the line wasn’t at least twenty minutes.
How is it we have millions of people who are either under employed or unemployed and every time I need to get something done with the government I usually end up waiting hours? I paid thousands at the tax collectors office and the DMV sure doesn’t do anything for free.
What about the millions of Americans receiving checks without having to do any work at all? Call me crazy, but I believe some of those people should be put to work for the money they are getting paid. I was in line with over fifty tax payers for about three hours at the DMV. If you added up how much money we all made per hour you would find that the government wasted thousands of dollars worth of our time. The DMV could even make some type of priority line that charges an extra fee. I would have gladly paid $10 bucks more to cut the line. This would create more jobs, more revenue, and saved me from wasting hundreds of dollars of my time.
There was a former HostGator employee, we’ll call him Derek. He worked part-time for us at around 20 hours a week. One day, when things got busier than normal and we asked him to stay a bit later to help out. Derek quickly said he was unable to and made sure to leave on-the-dot. This made sense when later we found out that he was collecting welfare checks and if he worked over 20 hours he would have made “too much money” to where he wouldn’t receive his welfare check!
Millions of people are out of work and everyone is saying how bad the economy is, which I won’t argue. Yet, it’s close to impossible to get someone on the phone and when you do it’s usually a fifteen minute hold. HostGator’s hold times aren’t what we hope for them to be at the moment and that’s why were hiring!
Bank of America recently announced that they will be laying off 30,000 to 35,000 employees. I went to a local branch two days ago to do a wire. The wire cost me $25 and I had to wait 40 minutes to be helped. The time before that I went to a different branch and I waited about a half hour for service. In fact, I can almost guarantee that any time I walk into a BOA, I’ll be waiting about a half hour. It seems to me they should be hiring instead of firing. But that’s not how it works when CEOs and executives pillage a company blind. The little guys get screwed while the big time crooks live the good life.
Bernard Madoff, the man who stole over $50 BILLION from charities, business owners, and now bankrupt individuals, is currently under house arrest in his $7 million dollar Manhattan apartment. What the government need to do is a public hanging and then broadcast it on TV. We should all be rioting in the streets that he is still living a life of luxury with stolen money. We need more accountability in America and that’s never going to happen with bailouts and handouts.
Posted in Jobs | 75 Comments »
Google SearchWiki Kills SEO
Written by Chad Bean on January 2, 2009 – 7:09 pm -In October of 2008, Google announced a new feature known as SearchWiki. SearchWiki allows anyone with a Google account to change the order of search results and make notes about each result in Google.
Once logged into a Google account, you’ll notice that the search results have two small icons next to the listings that can be used to promote or remove a result. By promoting a result, you can bring the site above other results on the page.
You can learn more about the SearchWiki by watching the Google SearchWiki team’s video.
Now, this is hardly news to many of you out there. We covered Google’s Promote Feature in early December.
What is interesting though, is the idea that Google’s index of results will be swayed by user input on the SearchWiki. On Google’s Official Blog announcement for SearchWiki,it mentions that: “The changes you make only affect your own searches.” While this is true directly, it’s not hard to imagine that Google will collectively use user input to influence search results and page ranking.
Currently websites are listed in order on Google’s web page according to their super-duper secretive algorithm. Those in the search engine optimization industry have been trying to figure out this algorithm for very obvious reasons. If you can cheat the search engines and get a website listed on the front page for certain keywords, than you are able to get more traffic to your site, which generally equates to more revenue for web site owners and businesses.
Microsoft’s search engine, although behind both Google and Yahoo, has something similar setup known as U Rank. Microsoft is also researching a system known as BrowseRank – which measures page importance by the number of visits made to a page and the time spent on each page by a user.
I predict that Google will, in fact, use information gained by SearchWiki to calculate how web sites are ranked in the future. It’s easy to see how showing users web sites listed in order ranked by other users, with similar browsing habits and interests, would be beneficial. Overall, by taking in user feedback, Google should be able to provide more relevant information to its users.
It will be interesting to see how this affects the search engine optimization industry, who has built itself around tricks and techniques to rank websites higher in the search engines.
Tags: google, search engine optimization, searchwiki, SEO
Posted in SEO | 19 Comments »
Twittering All The Way
Written by Douglas Hanna on December 31, 2008 – 9:59 pm -
I’ve known about Twitter for a relatively long time, but could never see myself using the service. I just couldn’t grasp the idea of saying something meaningful in 140 characters or less, but as I started working at HostGator and our social media outreach programs, I found myself thrown right into the Twittersphere (if that isn’t a word already, I just made it up).
A couple of months later, though, I’m happily Twittering from the web and from my ever trusty BlackBerry. A majority of our presence on Twitter is aimed at addressing customer concerns and feedback in what is essentially real time, but our presence on Twitter is also about reaching out to customers through a different medium and in a unique way. We already reach out to those who blog or post about us, so Twitter seemed like the next logical step.
So far, it’s been incredibly successful. We have over 275 followers on Twitter (the number increases daily) and I have personally reached out to and helped a lot of existing and potential customers through Twitter. We’ve also gotten some great ideas and some excellent feedback that we’ve taken seriously.
To get an idea for yourself, check out our favorites and see what people have been saying. Some excerpts:
LOVE LOVE HostGator! Have hosted at many places. Couldn’t dynamite me out of HG! – WordPressWizard
Thanks for awesome customer service, that’s how it’s done. Will remember when someone is asking for a hosting company. – KatjaPresnal
Your help today convinced me to sign up for 2 years of hosting. Thanks again! I’m uploading now at ~1400kbps. Amazing! – steelopus
I REALLY appreciate that you care about your customers, even on twitter though. Impressive! – BenTremblay
I appreciate your presence on Twitter. It’s more convenient for me to read your tweets than it is to go to your site. – keithgoode
Well, Madame or Sir HostGator, you sure know how to solidify a customer with service that spoils. Major thanks! – Rich_Arnold
Of course, our own Twitter stream can serve as another example. You’ll mostly see me reaching out to and responding to customers, but you’ll also see some other personal tidbits and web hosting related thoughts as well.
Here are some other things you can look forward to seeing on HostGator’s Twitter stream in the near future:
- Survivor: HostGator Manager Editor. I am going camping for the first time with a group of my friends very soon and if my BlackBerry still works (which I am really hoping it will), I will be providing updates over Twitter.
- More quotes and interesting thoughts. I tweeted that it was time for our Twitter followers to see my inner-nerd (because I obviously conceal my inner-nerd well by working for a web hosting company) and I think interesting quotes and thoughts from some equally interesting people is a good way to show it.
- Web hosting tips. I’m going to begin posting some tips (technical and not) about how to get the most out of your web hosting account right on our Twitter account.
Check out our Twitter stream and if you like what you see, consider following us. And of course, if you have any suggestions for what we should do with our presence on Twitter, don’t hesitate to let us know.
Posted in Around the Web, Customer Service | 10 Comments »
