The Planet Blog

If you haven’t already heard the news, we just launched The Planet Partner Plus Program!

This new program is designed to offer a combination of three distinct partner models, each designed to meet the needs of business that partner with The Planet in different ways. We’ve fine-tuned our Affiliate and Reseller programs for the Partner Plus launch, and in that process, we’ve spoken with many potential partners looking for a different type of relationship. Enter the new Referral Partner program.

Instead of just rattling off details, let’s put the Referral Partner model in context with the Reseller and Affiliate programs. That way, we can better explain which type of partnership will best benefit your business. The programs differ based on the discounts/commissions applied and how much a partner company is involved with the transaction. Here’s a high level look:

Affiliate Program

• Partner Involvement: Affiliates use specially coded hyperlinks to direct potential customer traffic to The Planet. Our system tracks users sent by those affiliate links, and every new customer order qualifies the affiliate for a commission payment.
• Commission/Discount: 100% of the first month’s contract value.

Reseller Program

• Partner Involvement: Resellers often build their business around marketing and selling Web hosting solutions. Whether those solutions are managed, shared, VPS or dedicated, the reseller is responsible for the day-to-day operations of their servers and their customers’ hosting-related support. We never interact directly with resellers’ end-customers because they provide all service, support and billing.
• Commission/Discount: Based on the volume of business they do with The Planet, a reseller partner will get monthly discounts on every server they order and maintain.

Referral Program

• Partner Involvement: Referral Partners function in an advisory role for their customers, and they want us to perform the service, support and billing. Some Referral Partners may completely manage their customers’ environment and choose to outsource the day-to-day server maintenance responsibilities to a trusted partner. Others may simply generate and compare quotes for their customers’ infrastructure solutions. These partners work with our sales team to determine the right solution for their customer and help the customers transition to The Planet as a provider.
• Commission/Discount: Based on the volume of business with The Planet, a Referral Partner receives a percentage of a referred account’s monthly recurring revenue.

Which Is Right For You?

Each of the programs offers you a unique opportunity build your businesses, and they aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. If you provide a mix of hosting and consulting services, it may make sense to for you to sign up for both the Reseller and Referral Partner programs. If you do a majority of your business as a Referral Partner while operating a tech blog for small business owners and entrepreneurs, you may want to include an affiliate link in your blog’s sidebar so you can earn commission on new servers ordered by your visitors … without having to lift a finger.

Our goal with the Planet Partner Plus program is to provide you with a financial model that matches your business requirements, backed up by marketing materials to help you grow. Check out the programs on our partner page at www.theplanet.com/partner-program, and use the online forms to apply or send us any questions. We want to help make you successful because that’s how we define being better than just a partner; we want to be your Partner Plus.

-Lewis

P.S. If you’re attending the Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Miami this week, stop by our booth and say hello!

We’ve been talking about terabytes (TB) a lot – specifically with regard to our newest special, offering 10 terabytes of bandwidth at no additional cost. In fact, today through Aug. 31, we’re offering a deluxe version of the promo: 10 TB of free bandwidth on top of our discounted server prices and FREE setup.

We talk about how great a deal the 10 TB bandwidth promotion is, but what does 10 terabytes of data look like, anyway? We all know it’s a lot… but I decided to figure out just how much it would be in terms of other measurements.

After a little Googling, I learned that 10 terabytes is equivalent to:

• 10,995,116,277,760 bytes
• 87,960,930,222,080 bits
• The data in 800,000 phone books
• 4 billion single-spaced, typewritten pages
• 16,000 audio CDs
• The memory capacity of eight human brains (we’re not saying whose)
• The entire Library of Congress

Those are interesting, but we wanted to come up with our own visual, so we enlisted our calculators: Picture a small craft bead (an 11 mm x 8 mm cylinder), and imagine that the bead represents one bit (1 b) of data. Eight beads would equal one byte (1 B); 8,192 beads would equal one kilobyte (1 KB); 8,388,608 beads would equal one megabyte (1 MB); etc.

To hold the equivalent of 10 terabytes worth of “bit beads,” you would need more than 1.75 billion 10-gallon tanks. If you piled the beads one foot deep, they would cover 84.7 square miles. If they were used to cover Houston’s 579.4 square miles, we’d have a bead carpet 1.75 inches deep within the city limits.

It’s incredible, right?

Let’s think of it in terms of servers: What is a real-world example of what you can do with 10 TB of bandwidth every month? I’m glad you asked.

You can make an MP3 of yourself singing to your dog and make the file available on your server. When it becomes the latest viral phenomenon, your 10 TB of bandwidth would cover about 3.5 million downloads. You’d be well on your way to your own reality show by the time you got your next month’s server bill … where your 10 TB promo server wasn’t charged a penny of bandwidth overages.

No matter how you measure it … 10 terabytes is a lot.

Help us think big: How would you visualize and explain 10 terabytes?

-John

A couple of years ago I wrote a three-part series about the Internet social scene. (”Three-part series” makes it sound very official and important, doesn’t it?) I really enjoyed writing it because … let’s be honest, I’m a social butterfly. And I love the Internet. We’re like two great tastes that taste great together. So when Kevin asked if I could do a follow-up about how the game has changed, I was stoked.

Today, social sites have become a huge part of our culture. They are how we communicate, how we receive information and how we socialize on a daily basis:

• We keep up with friends and acquaintances via status updates and photo uploads.
• News stories spread like wildfire across Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr feeds.
• RSS readers let us know immediately when a Web site posts an update, whether it’s a blog, news source or promotional feed.
• Smartphones are now the equivalent of pocket-size computers that allow you to surf the ‘net, get your e-mail and check all of your social networking sites from anywhere.

It’s a 24/7 information blitz that keeps us plugged in, informed and juiced up on more information than we can process. It’s overwhelming at times … even for a junkie like me.

The social networking landscape has changed a lot in the last two years, the biggest change being its acceptance as a genuine, measurable, and necessary addition to the way people and businesses market themselves. The power of a successful social networking plan is undeniable. For the first time, we had a presidential candidate who embraced new media and used it to elevate his campaign to a level never before seen. Blogs, e-mail blasts, a modern Web site and the use of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook helped his campaign message resonate with a growing social media generation.

I’ve seen firsthand what a great social media strategy can do for a business. Coffee Groundz is a coffee shop/bar/café/hang-out that opened two years ago in midtown Houston. The owner’s dream was to create a community atmosphere that was conducive to both hanging out and business meetings … a place that simply felt like home. To kick off his business, not only did he create a Web site, but he signed up for Twitter and Facebook. He began hosting “tweet-ups” for his “fans” and “followers” that have become huge events. He brings in live musicians, exhibits local art, holds charity events and hosts social networking breakfasts. He built his business as a community – harnessing the power of social media.

As a side note, he also chased a bank robber through midtown and handed him over to police, so he’s sort of a superhero. News of the robbery and pursuit spread via Twitter and Facebook within minutes of his tweets about it – long before any news outlets reported on it. That’s power.

We can’t deny the importance of social media any longer. Turn on the TV and you’ll probably see:

• Congressmen tweeting during sessions and votes
• Advertisers replacing Web site addresses in their ads with Twitter usernames
• Shows like “Entertainment Tonight” covering Twitter stories
• Letterman and Conan often referencing – sometimes cynically – the social media sphere
• CNN constantly posing questions to their Facebook and Twitter followers
• Companies offering Twitter- and Facebook-exclusive deals and promotions

Imagine harnessing all that power for your business. How many people could you reach? The evolution is happening, and if you haven’t embraced it, you’re already way behind.

Do you know what the best part about it is? It’s free. Sure, it costs man power and time, but those are two things you already pay for. When has there ever been a time that an advertising tool was basically free? Who ever heard of free billboards or radio spots or TV commercials or newspaper ads?

Embrace it. Use it. Make it a required part of the way you market yourself and your business.

You know what I do remember? When people thought Web sites were unnecessary and the Internet was just something to “play” on. Ha!

Follow us on Twitter: @theplanet or http://www.twitter.com/theplanet

Join us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/theplanet

Become a part of it!

-Ali

We don’t often post promotions on our blog, but the deal we launched today is worthy of an exception: Until July 31, 2009, almost every new dedicated server ordered in one of our Houston or Dallas data centers will include ten terabytes of bandwidth at no additional cost.

Yes, you read that right … ten terabytes of bandwidth for no additional cost on The Planet’s network.

When you’re evaluating a new server or hosting provider, one of the most important deciding factors is bandwidth. From the hosting provider’s available bandwidth to your server’s uplink port speed — or the server’s bandwidth — to the volume of bandwidth allotted to that server for a given month, the general rule is that more is better … being able to accommodate more traffic at a given second or over a given month without worrying about the additional cost is peace of mind in the hosting world.

This limited-time bandwidth promotion tacks on the 10TB data transfer allotment to our current server special pricing, so you don’t have to weigh our current deals against this offer to decide which will work better for you. You get the best of both worlds.

There are some limitations, of course: This offer is for our standard dedicated servers, and certain models like Monster configurations and ready-to-go servers are excluded, but with the range of servers we offer, you’re still sure to find a model that meets your needs perfectly and takes advantage of this phenomenal deal.

Get all the details here: http://www.theplanet.com/10TB-Bandwidth or chat with one of our representatives, and they’ll get you set up. Remember, this offer ends on July 31 – so don’t miss out.

– John

If you’ve taken the time to bubble in your answers on the 10-minute IT Effectiveness survey to get a report card assessing your IT systems, you might be interested in seeing the overall results the ITEI partners culled for the 2009 Mid-Year Report. With a significant volume of small- and medium-sized business participants, some surprising trends have emerged in the midst of the unstable economic environment.

According to the results – unveiled on Tuesday – almost one in four respondents score a “D” or “F” grade while another 37 percent are barely maintaining their IT operations, scoring a “C” grade. Survey results also show that nearly half the businesses are facing obstacles in implementing new IT projects because of cuts in capital investments, and nearly one-third lack the staff to properly manage their IT investments.

In response to these findings, the ITEI partners provide a series of suggestions and best practices to advise businesses as they approach information technology decisions. A few of these key ideas are:

• Concentrate on core competencies while seeking to explore outsourcing options
• Take advantage of free software and other offerings
• Explore the cost and performance metrics of new technologies and platforms like Cloud Computing and Cloud Storage
• Consider IT infrastructure alternatives to capital expenditures through hosted hardware, software and services

In the Mid-Year Report, these suggestions are explained in detail alongside several other tips for businesses looking to streamline their IT operations and budgets.

During the year, ITEI Partners will issue periodic news as research trends emerge. If you’d like to participate in the survey and receive all of these periodic releases – including the full Mid-Year Report 2009 – visit the ITEI Web site at www.iteffectivenessindex.com.

To keep up with the latest news from the ITEI, you can follow @ITEffectiveness on Twitter for updates, tips and tricks on improving the way your company leverages IT.

-Kevin

When it comes time for a small business to take the plunge into the world of dedicated servers, one of the key deciding factors is price — especially given the current economic climate. Budgetary concerns often dictate which platforms and resources can be incorporated into a project, despite a developer’s comfort zone or personal preference. If you come from a background of doing .Net programming on a Windows 2008 server with SQL Server databases, having a CentOS budget could make the starting part of your startup pretty difficult. But now, there’s a solution.

To cut the cost factor out of the initial decision-making process for new software development companies, Microsoft started a program called BizSpark. BizSpark lowers the barrier to entry for many of Microsoft’s enterprise platforms and solutions like Visual Studio, BizTalk, SharePoint and Systems Center by providing eligible companies with free access to the software for up to three years.

Eligibility requirements, as outlined by Microsoft, are simple and direct. A company must be actively engaged in the development of a software-based product or service; the company must be privately held and in business for less than three years; and it must generate less than U.S. $1 million in annual revenue.

As we announced yesterday, The Planet joined Microsoft in the BizSpark program as a Hosting Partner, so we want to get the word out to everyone about this great opportunity. If you’ve got a qualifying company looking to control your costs while taking advantage of the Microsoft family of products, visit http://www.theplanet.com/bizspark to get details on how we can help you obtain an enterprise-level development platform in no time at all.

For additional information about the BizSpark program, check out Microsoft’s startup program guide. If you have questions about how the program can benefit your company, leave a comment here or get in touch with The Planet sales team, and we’ll get you an answer.

-Mark

A few weeks ago, Russ Capper, one of the co-hosts of The BusinessMakers Radio Show, interviewed The Planet’s Chairman and CEO Doug Erwin for Episode 197 and for a Web Xtra. Since then, we’ve had several business-focused listeners contact us to ask for a broader explanation of what IT hosting means for them, so we put together a few vignettes covering the basics of hosting.

In Episode 203 on Saturday, The BusinessMakers ran the first of six installments in the series, recorded by our very own Web Hosting Evangelist Kevin Hazard. The topic: What business owners should consider when evaluating IT hosting for their business.

The show airs on Houston’s KPRC-AM 950 every Saturday at 8:00am, and Momentum Broadcasting just announced plans for syndication nationwide! Russ does a great job, so if you haven’t listened in, he conducts some terrific interviews with business thought leaders.

-Yvonne

P.S. Kevin says he is available to sign autographs now that he’s as big as Steve Jobs, Fred Smith and Steve Forbes.