Amy Armitage, Director of Business Development at Lunarpages, discusses the company’s down to earth approach to Web hosting and how her company continues to consistently deliver in ‘one of the most competitive markets in the world’.

TH: Lunarpages has enjoyed tremendous success in the Web hosting industry over the years. What are some of the challenges that Lunarpages faces in this recessionary environment? How well has the company adjusted / responded thus far?

AA: Lunarpages is extremely lucky with regards to the recession—the biggest change we have seen for our company is a rollback in pricing, allowing us to accommodate literally every type of consumer. For example, we added a reduced-cost billing cycle for our Basic Hosting Plan, offered various discounts on our Quicksite and VPS servers and even added more freebies into our services. Basically, the recession just pushed us to give our customers even more for an already-low price.

TH: Does your company research, or sales figures, show that businesses considering the move to dedicated hosting or managed dedicated are postponing the move due to the economic slowdown? How would you characterize current customer interest in shared, VPS, or reseller hosting at Lunarpages?

AA: The recession has not really affected these kinds of customers in our experience, because normally if the customer is hosting in a shared environment and needs to suddenly move to VPS or Dedicated, that means their business is booming! We are very considerate to these customers and do not charge any 'upgrade fees'; instead, we use the money they have already paid for the shared hosting account towards their upgrade. So a lot of times, most of the cost associated with purchasing a VPS or Dedicated server is 100% covered!

Customer interest varies of course, but we have seen a large rise in our Windows and Linux VPS Hosting plan sales, due to some recent additions we added to bulk those servers up. Interest in our Quicksite Hosting plan has also increased, because a lot of customers are really intrigued by the easy 1-2-3 web builder and hundreds of customizable templates.

TH: There have obviously been significant changes in hosting and marketing over the course of the company’s history. What marketing methods have worked best for Lunarpages so far? What are today’s biggest marketing challenges?

AA: Our marketing really does change with the times—right now, our main focus is on our Affiliate Program, because we know referrals of this nature are really what drive our business. Making money just by sending a friend to Lunarpages is just too easy : )

We also have been fortunate to gain television and radio exposure, which has definitely increased our brand image as a reliable and affordable web hosting provider. The biggest challenge is always the same: web hosting is one of the most competitive markets in the world!

TH: Lunarpages just recently signed on with CoreLink for data center services. What usually ends up as the dealmaker or deal-breaker in that decision making process?

AA: For us, it's about safety, security, and redundancy. We have data centers in several locations to ensure that our customers and their websites are protected, secure, and feature 99.9% uptime. Location is also key for us—we like to keep our data centers close to our business offices, which helps us maintain and staff these facilities 24/7.

TH: There is a promotion now for Keepit Online Backup. What has been the customer response so far?