"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.