"Kiosk Who?" The Review

"Kiosk Who?" The Review by Zamri Nanyan The spotlight of this review is on Kiosk Webhosting. Before we go further, let us understand the fact that Webhosting business is a very competitive business in the online world since the last few years. The competition is getting much more tougher now since there are many more webhosting companies going on board day by day and they are offering many more benefits than ever before. Kiosk is another webhosting company, founded in 1998. This company is privately owned by Therien's family and is based in Ottawa, Canada. The president of Kiosk Webhosting is Joel Therien. The objective of this review is to answer the question of "What makes Kiosk different from other webhosting companies". I believe this company is unique in a few ways that's worth to look at. Let us analyze three of them. 1. Service and Pricing Currently, Kiosk offer 3 packages - Bronze, Silver and Platinum. They are priced at $5.95, $18.95 and $24.95 per month respectively. In my opinion, these package plans are reasonably priced considering that Kiosk own and maintain their own web servers. They are not a typical reseller company that a lot of other webhosting companies are operating. However, if you are into Internet business and are planning to use databases and scripts, I wouldn't recommend the Bronze package. The least that you'd want to subscribe is the Silver package. The Bronze package is a basic plan and it does not have MySQL. But, of course, if you don't plan to use MySQL database in the initial development of your website, then the Bronze package is a nice entry level for you. You can upgrade to Silver or Platinum package once the needs arise. However, it would be nice to see if even the Bronze package gets at least one MySQL database to be more competitively priced. 2. Company support What I like the most about Kiosk is their "fanatical" technical support (as they mentioned it on their website) and a whole different approach in providing support to their clients or members. Majority of webhosting companies have the 24-hour 7-days a-week support, which you can reach by phone or chat online. Kiosk also provide the all round-the-year support, but what's so unique about them is that they have an almost daily web VOIP conference meetings where clients and members can login and talk to the company's president. Having web conference meetings is not a big deal but being able to talk to the company's president directly is something that not many companies are doing. The VOIP web conference is a tool for the clients and members to learn the company, the technical knowledge of running a website and marketing Kiosk for another additional stream of income. MOreover, guests are also welcome to learn more about Kiosk and get any of their questions answered in the conference room before they make any decision whether Kiosk is the right solutions for their online presence. Guests can take a peek at Kiosk's activities by downloading their free web conference software. A full instruction on how to get the free web conference software is here: http://w wkiosk.com/members/profit/conference.html I will say that this feature is a very huge advantage to Kiosk's members and those who want to learn Kiosk's business. 3. Cash benefits Webhosting companies use many different approaches to get new clients and to retain existing members. Among the many approaches are such as offering free hosting, offering lowest prices possible and plugging in affiliate programs based on per customer commissions. Kiosk take a different approach and leverage the power of word of mouth advertising, also known as multi level marketing, to reach more potential clients. They are paying their members for each new customer they and their downline refer to Kiosk. Under certain conditions, their members can also get paid when their upline refer new customers to Kiosk. To most Kiosk customers, it's a whole new marketing concept for a webhosting company. They get to host their websites with Kiosk and get paid for referring new customers. The drawback (or advantage) of this marketing approach is that Kiosk can be looked at as an "income opportunity" company rather than a webhosting company. In my opinion, this marketing approach can be a strong benefit to Kiosk and is something other companies can consider applying. In fact, there's a rather new company, website.ws, adopting multi level marketing concept for their business too. On top of attracting customers who want to subscribe to webhosting service, through their marketing plan, Kiosk are also attracting individuals who are looking for a way to build an online income. Conclusion In conclusion, Kiosk have made a few distinctions among hundreds, if not thousands, of other webhosting companies on the Internet. If you have a tight budget, but want to start building a simple website for your business and your online presence, I'd recommend Kiosk for a start. As web conference meetings are available almost every day, it is a very good idea to join one of the meetings, ask questions and compare with other companies. Kiosk is also a family business and if you attend one of their conference meetings, you could feel the warmth, like you belong to the Therien's family. I give Kiosk 7 out of 10 rating for their overall performance. Bear in mind that this short review covers only a small portion of what Kiosk is all about. It is worth for you to check out the company yourself.