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LinkSky - Q & A, Straight Talk

"...we put our heads and our accumulated resources together to come up with a solution -- one in which we become that perfect host we had been searching for."

Following is a Q&A with some of the many questions we receive on a daily basis about our hosting service:

Q - I can't tell which account to sign up for at LinkSky. I have a 50MB account with my current host that gives us 5 e-mail addresses, etc. Which account type will work for me at LinkSky?

A - Each of the three LinkSky hosting account types brings you all the features of a high level account typically costing much more per month with other host providers, e.g. up to 1000 independent e-mail addresses, unlimited auto-responders, mailing lists, SendMail, FormMail, SMTP, 48 free high quality site packages/addons, EXCELLENT anti-virus and anti-spam solutions, easy to use web site builders and content managers, shell access via SSH, MySql, PHP4, FrontPage extensions, CGIs that can execute from any directory, multi-domain parking and pointing, etc. all for $5 to $10 per month.

In general, if you plan to put up a mid to large scale e-commerce web site, go with the Extended or ULTRA account for the additional space, email accounts and databases. If you run a small business or want to put up a family or personal site, go for the Standard Feature account. You can always request an upgrade later for more features and capacity. All LinkSky accounts are very flexible in this regard.

Again, each account type is feature rich. We do not offer the (practically useless) cut-rate teaser accounts you will find with other hosts. (See the Account Plans page.) Plainly stated, we run a different kind of hosting service, one which we believe is more in tune with the needs of the customer than any other hosting service on the market.

Q - Do I have to pay a year in advance?

A - No. LinkSky has no long-term contracts. Most accounts pay monthly, however we do accept payments in advance. See our Terms of Service. Accounts paying  one year in advance will receive a $1 per month discount.

Q - What kind of guarantee do you offer?

A - A full 60 day guarantee from the date of signup. The first two months are paid in advance. Afterward we guarantee full satisfaction month-to-month. For instance, if  for any reason you want to move your account elsewhere, just contact us before the end of the current month and you owe us nothing for that month. Of course, this goes for any size account. For customers who have a deposit on account, the entire balance remaining is refunded when their account is closed. No questions asked.

Q - Do I have to put your banners or footers on may pages?

A - No. The only business identities that will go into your LinkSky hosted web site are the ones that YOU put there.

Q - Your charges seem so low. What other costs will I have to pay?

A - There are absolutely no "hidden" costs at LinkSky Value Host. Just the monthly hosting fee is all that is required.

If you want to make the most, and best use of your LinkSky account, you will also need to own a domain name. You can purchase your domain name with any official registrar, or as a point of convenience you can use our LinkSky Domain Center where the common .net, .com, and .org domains go for only $12.95 per year, and less for multi-year registrations.

Q - What about traffic? Or what some hosts call data transfer?

A - LinkSky does not meter traffic or data transfer. There are no fees for this at LinkSky.

Q - Where did you guys get the idea to run a hosting service like this?

A - Good question.

The forerunner of LinkSky Value Host was a company called Paragon3. Paragon3 was a pre-press production and commercial illustration firm (also a web site design and multi-media production firm in more recent years). We conducted business in the greater San Francisco Bay Area since 1988. We have been designing and producing commercial web sites since the advent of the World Wide Web.

For nearly a decade we were on the hunt for "the perfect host" for our clients. We never found one. Either the price was right but the service was poor. Or the price was acceptable but the traffic limits were too low or the servers were too slow. Or the price was too high and everything ran okay until that unbearable 4-month period when there was far too much downtime, etc. Beginning January 2000, we put our heads and our accumulated resources together to come up with a solution -- one in which we could become that perfect host we had been searching for. Our requirements were very high but our goals were basically simple in nature, i.e. to put together a truly consumer-oriented web hosting business.

In order to achieve our goal, first we needed to discard the popular hosting service business model that is in wide use and virtually the only one you can find, e.g. mini teaser accounts with nearly all of the high-end features removed, followed by two or three so-called "business" or "webmaster" accounts, and/or advertising low monthly fees, but charging the most for traffic, or data transfer that is usually very hard to predict for the hosted customer, and usually a (bad) surprise at the end of the month.

The logic we established is simple really:

1 - Come up with a set of straightforward, easy to understand, entirely useful hosting plans.

2 - Offer responsive support that is helpful to both beginners as well as advanced web masters.

3 - Put all the servers on fast networks that are directly attached to more than one trunk (internet backbones), etc. for the best possible uptime.

4 - Harden all networks and servers against attacks and security breaches as much as is technically possible.

5 - Charge the lowest possible price while at the same time assuring good profit margins and thus assuring the future growth of the company.

6 - Offer an unrivaled set of features for EVERY account, such as the capability to put together a multi-featured e-commerce web site as easy as point-'n-click.

7 - Offer referral incentives that give customers access to unlimited free hosting by advocating our service to others. (This keeps our promotional costs low. In turn, this enables us to pass the savings in advertising costs back to the customer.)

Also offered: Expanded support solutions including an on-line support forum, Flash tutorials, fast response email, toll free telephone support, etc. (The full list of our ideal hosting parameters is fairly extensive.)

Once our parameters for this new hosting model were solidified, and after much market research, inspiration, perspiration, the pooling of talents of many creative individuals and the accumulation of knowledge from well over two decades of direct web-related Internet experience, LinkSky Value Host was finally launched in March 2000 and incorporated a few years later.

For general pre-signup / sales questions via email or by phone:
  Administrative@LinkSkySupport.com
  Or please call 1-800-218-5118 or 1-707-540-6111