Do you think web hosting companies would be willing to give client sites as examples?

I was thinking most hosting directories list companies and prices.. but when ever we view a web hosting companies website..what do we look for..?

I look at prices, support system and a client list...

doesn't have to be a full list..could just be testimonials..but may include the users url..

I like to check out other peoples sites that are using the company before I make my buying decission.

Do others do the same ? do you think web companies would be willing to list let's say at least 3 client websites with their own listing to be used on a hosting directory site?

just a small sample of say 3 clients sites that are hosted with that company.

so basically it would be a web hosting directory type site but ..with the companies listing would also be 1-3 of their hosting/or design clients.

No contact info or names or anything just the urls. Then the listing would be something like:

123 Web Hosting Company
http://wwwdomain.com
Our web hosting plans are the best and the cheapest and our support is top noch 24/7.
Plan 1: $5/month | Plan 2: $10/month | Plan 3: $15/month
Some Current Clients: www.client1.com | www.client2.com | www.client3.com

Sort of like customer testimonials.. only right in the listing.. of course the web hosting company should get permision from the client first just like testimnials.. but it could lead to increased traffic for the clients...

just a Friday afternoon thought.. well midnight thought now...

yeah and unless it is a required field I doubt if many companies would even bother...

oh well it was a thought...

to many thoughts these days :D

Talk about leverage :D

We have our customer testimonials on our forums and they are very highly regarded and viewed. We don't force our customers to include the URLs, but most of them have. The reviews touch a chord and are most importantly a better way for the prospective client to understand the company and the way it works.

Check out the testimonial link in my sig to get an idea of what we are trying to accomplish :)

Regards,

Have to agree with you there, I don't think many companies would like the fact that even one of their client is listed anywhere, just not right. It could be that other clients might thing differently about the company or other rival companies contacting the hostees to switch over to their services in order to put a company out of business and tactics like that.

Id rather have a forum for clients to post in for their testimonials in as it gets peoples openions out there as well as gets potential clients to look around a bit more...Best way maybe to quote part of the testimonial on a page then link it at the bottom that says "Read more...". I always look at it, the longer people are looking around the more likely they are to buy.

As for design if a company wants to show how professional it is then you would think that they would get the more professional looking site that they could afford, I mean there are loans and credit cards.

I do see the point of some clients not wanting to be listed..

I have a few resellers hosting with me and they want nothing linking them back to me...not even testimonials...

I had a forum setup on my site but nobody was using it.. only a few pre-sales questions and none of my current clients were interested enough to bother posting anything.

So I'm taking the forum down when the re-design is complete later this week.

Thats because they dont want to be known to be hosted by anyone because they are reselling your webspace, if people found out, then obviously they would go with you instead of the reseller, lol