Hello December!

In the not so distant past an idea was born to do an online video within the marketing department and the road to production has been one of blood, sweat, and tears.       One of the ongoing debates during the planning sessions was how long it would actually take to go from zero to first video.  I made the bet that it could not be online before 2009.

While I am enjoying my large slice of “humble pie” I would like to introduce to you Episode 1 of LayeredTech TV.

If you have a few moments be sure to help spread the word of this video via your favorite social media outlet. We of course look forward to your feedback and if you have ideas for the show please email news@layeredtech.com and our production team will add them to the growing list of episode ideas!

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Over the past 24 months, the FastServers managed backup product offering has provided our customers an additional layer of protection for their hosted solutions.  As we come to the conclusion of 2008, FastServers is in the process of upgrading its managed backup product offering with a more robust product offering.

This new backup product is based on CDP for Data Centers from R1Soft and will be managed in-house by the administrators at FastServers.Net.  CDP for Data Centers includes all of the same functionality in our current Arsenal Digital offering, and initially our aim is to migrate all customers to the new environment and simply replicate the existing functionality.  After this has been completed, we have some exiting new features coming down the line.  These features include MySQL and control panel integration on Linux environments and perhaps most compelling, bare-metal restore functionality.

You may be wondering what you have to do to sign up for this new backup service.  If you are currently utilizing our Arsenal Digital service, the answer is nothing.  Over the coming weeks we will be migrating all customers to this new backup service.  There will be no change in pricing at this time.  Servers housed in our Cedar Falls facility will be migrated first, with the Fremont and Chicago facilities following shortly thereafter.  Expect to receive an e-mail from our support department when it is time to transition your server to the new backup environment in order to keep you in the loop.

For servers running Linux, no service interruption will be necessary to install to install the new backup software.  For Windows hosts, a reboot will be necessary and one of our technicians will schedule a brief maintenance window with you to install the new backup agent software.  As always, if you have any questions about this process you may open a support ticket through https://pentagon.fastservers.net or contact our support department via phone.

This last week the marketing team of LayeredTech (the parent company of FastServers.Net) has been working to establish a new affiliate program, agent program, and reseller strategies for 2009.

The first major change was the revamp of the current FastServers.Net Affiliate Program, now called The Agent Program.

The History of the Agent Program

Over the last 4 years FastServers.Net has internally provided an application for affiliates and agents.    To date this program has right around 500 users.   The reality is this is not a traditional affiliate program and was more geared towards VAR’s, referral partners, and consultants that wanted the ability to work one on one with our Sales Team and refer clients to us.    The original mix included both one on one engagement with Sales Engineers and some traditional banners.      The payouts for this was a 10% recurring commission. The program will still exist and will be called “The Agent Program“.   We will leave the overall linking in place and as continue supporting this just as we have over the past.      A few minor changes might take place but they will be geared towards helping existing and new agents with marketing of our products and services.

The new “Hosting Affiliate” program has been launched in direct conjunction with our friends at Share A Sale.   This program allows direct access to our two brands under one program.    Affiliates will enjoy a series of banners, videos, text links, and data feeds that will provide them countless opportunities to promote, sell, and earn money based on new customer sign ups.   The major difference will be the focus on providing marketing materials via well know affiliate provider and payouts will become a one time fee instead of a recurring based commission.

To celebrate our new affiliate program we will be working hard in the month of December and January to promote this with some higher payouts, bonuses, new banners, videos, updated data feeds, and both internal/external marketing of this program.

Signing up for the affiliate program takes less than 2 minutes and their is no risk involved.    If you decide to start actively promoting the products and services Share A Sale will want you to submit a simple tax form to get paid.

If you have an interest in seeing what we have brewing for the month of December/January use the link below and sign up.

Sign Up Now

Which program best meets your needs?

If you are are hands on type of organization that wants to refer clients, be part of the sales process, and openly announce your partnership with us - The Agent Program is a good fit.    In the past successful agents either introduced us to potential new business or handled the proposal process on behalf of their client.

Website owners, customers, or bloggers that want to promote via videos, banners, text links without getting involved should use the Affiliate Program.     This program is hands off and results in driving traffic to our site and direct signups without involvement of the referring website.    It is very simple and most importantly very easy to implement.

We look forward to working with you and if you have questions please do not hesitate to let us know by sending and email to: affiliate-manager@fastservers.net

The most important aspect of this blog post is the “PubCon Discount Code”. I happily renamed the blog title from Webhosting Industry Overview at PubCon 2008 to PubCon Discount Code as more important than hearing the self promotion of myself and organization is your opportunity to save 20% on a PubCon registitration.   This willresult in a savings of $179.80 (before Nov 1st 2008) or $259.80 (after November 1st, 2008).

With a few extra dollars in your pocket I wanted to discuss my involvment with PubCon, what PubCon is and what I will be speaking about in Vegas.
Wednesday November 12, 2008 I will be positioned in Las Vegas, NV to speak at PubCon!

PubCon Discount Code : ph-99220

What is PubCon?
WebmasterWorld’s PubCon is an educational conference and industry trade show programmed specifically for web professionals and website site owners. Although our center piece is Search Engine Marketing, Whether your primary role is in web site marketing, corporate IT development, or as a technology business management, you will find something of value at PubCon (aka: Publishers Conference). It is also designed to be fun and entertaining with ample opportunity for quality networking.

Check out www.pubcon.com and www.webmasterworld.com

Brett Tabke happened to moderate a panel at HostingCon that centered around the marketing of hosting services.   Following the panel he recriuted the speakers to bring the show on the road and join him at PubCon 2008.

PubCon will bring a new audience and the focus of the panel will be much different than HostingCon.   Partaking in the moderated panel are 3 superstars all from various backgrounds.

Webhosting Industry Overview (our topic of discussion)
A Web site cannot exist without hosting, yet this has remained a choice that is infrequently researched and the importance of which is often overlooked. This session will review the Web hosting industry and key hot topics such as shared hosting, shared IPs, DNS issues, uptime, speed, reliability, dedicated servers, server farms, redundancy, backup options, e-mail options, and other value added services.

Ben Fisher is a long time web hosting industry marketing guru and Vice President of TechPad Agency. TechPad Agency is the creator of the world’s best game called “ServerMania” which pit’s fellow “web hosting providers” against each other in an all out battle for lower churn and more customers.

Amy Armitage brings some brilliant affiliate marketing and organic growth strategies to the conferance, she is Director of Business Development, Lunarpages Web Hosting.  With years of background in the shared hosting industry she will provide key insights into questions about hosting providers.

Aaron Phillips (that’s me) hails as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for FastServers.Net (A Layered Tech Company) and has been involved with the industry for 10 years.    Aaron has both a technical and marketing based background in managed hosting, dedicated server, cloud computing, and virtualization.
As a moderated panel we encourage you to bring any and all questions you have about web hosting, service providers, search engine optimization, and industry related topics to the 45 minute session and Ben, Amy, and Aaron will work hard to provide you the insight that could make or break you when it comes to partnering with a web hosting provider!

I am sure Brett didn’t mean for this to be included “as is” but I thought it would be good to release it to the public!

You guys are old pros at this, so lets cut to the chase:

Below is a 20% off coupon to PubCon Las Vegas that you can offer your peeps. You earn 10% every time it is used.

PubCon Discount Code : ph-99220

Just tell people to use the coupon code when registering. We will contact you as to where to send your affiliate check after PubCon.

Promote it on your site, your clients’ sites, social sites, Twitter, FaceBook, your forum, or your blog.  Here are some banners, buttons, and promos to help get the job done.

Fine print notes

we do not endorse any unethical activity with our affiliate coupon codes.
coupon works for full conference passes only.
can not be retroactively applied to previous registrations.
can not be combined with other offers.
on any disputes, our word is final.
offer expires Nov 5 at 5pm central.

Hopefully you will enjoy additional funds I have saved you and if you want to learn about web hosting come check us out.

As you know in April of 2008 FastServers.Net was acquired by Layered Tech a leading provider of on-demand IT Infrastructure.   With an expertise and investment in virtualization technologies we are happy to announce the first of it’s kind managed grid platform.

Managed GRID Hosting takes the features of virtualization and adds the layers of FastServers.Net exclusive DEFCON Management Services.   With this new offering hosting applications, databases, blogs, and resellers can enjoy the true benefits of 24×7 monitoring, security patches, priority support, and service level agreements that have only been available to full dedicated servers.

As our engineers have been hard at work to tie in various services the Managed Grid offering that is now available also includes some of our most popular operating systems, control panels, backup services, anti-spam services, and managed DNS services.   This all inclusive product provides a great platform for software developers, reseller hosting providers, bloggers, and is a perfect solution to host 1,000’s of open source applications.

This exciting announcement is scheduled to happen on the eve of BlogWorldExpo in which Layered Tech will be exhibiting.    The introduction of this service at Blog World Expo will introduce professional bloggers with the latest in grid hosting and management services.   Professional Bloggers, Application Providers, and Web 2.0 organizations have great insight into the world of vritualization and this offering will allow them to experience both the technology, customer service, and management services that are needed to run a worry free website.

As part of the Launch Layered Tech will have an exclusive offer for attendees at Blog World Expo. Visitors, exhibitors, and speakers will be able to stop by booth #220 to visit with technology evangelists about Grid Hosting, Management Services, and validate if this offering makes a good match for their application or website.

The Managed Grid Offering is available right now through the month of September with “Free” Plesk or cPanel.   To jump on this offer visit : https://www.fastservers.net/orders/index.php?pid=36.

In the coming months fully managed virtual data centers, consulting, and larger dedicated grid deployments will become available.

If you are an open source provider and have interest in mass deployment or entering into the software as a service realm, please contact me and we can discuss customization of deployment templates and a partnership.