Founder David Allen on New Blog Hosting: How the Company's Customers Benefit from Personal Service and Expert Guidance

TL; DR: When David Allen started out in the hosting industry, his mission was to offer insight and guidance to others based on his familiarity with the pain points bloggers commonly experience. Now, as the Owner of New Blog Hosting, David builds on that goal by providing customer service that goes beyond solving problems to teach bloggers how to be successful. A significant aspect of that ongoing education involves tracking updated SEO trends and quickly sharing that information with clients. And David’s team continues to innovate powerful ways to engage with customers and help them maximize the return on their online investments.

David Allen has been in hosting since the earliest days of the industry and started his first company back in 1996. He’s a rare breed — not just a long-time host, but also an industry veteran who’s happy to share his knowledge.

“When I started, blogging was just kicking off. Some people used Blogger and other third-party services,” said David. “Everyone was getting into it, but most people didn’t really understand how blogging worked. We jumped in and started taking bloggers by the hand and telling them, ‘If you need help, come see us. We’ll show you how to do it.’”

Today, David runs New Blog Hosting, a company he bought in 2012, with the same attention to detail and philosophy of customer guidance. He understands that, even two decades later, many people are still stepping into hosting for the first time, and his job is to respond to their needs.

The secret to David’s success is his approach to working with clients. New Blog Hosting specializes in helping those who are confused and overwhelmed by hosting and blogging. And David addresses concerns head-on, getting customers up to speed on the hosting industry’s jargon-filled minefield.

Every support email and ticket that New Blog Hosting receives still passes across his desk. And he answers 80% of the support requests himself, not just because he’s the owner, but because he wants to share the unique insights he’s gained from decades of experience with customers.

New Blog Hosting has an impressively low churn rate. Since 2012, only five of its customers have discontinued their blogs. Of those, three didn’t even switch to another provider — they left because they decided to quit blogging. David’s customer-oriented approach contributes to that loyalty and keeps his business thriving.

Many hosting providers don’t take that same approach because it means offering services well beyond a simple WordPress install. When David’s customers need help with anything, from configuring email clients to working with Google Maps, they know that his wisdom is just a call or email away.

“I’ve been around hosting for so long, a lot of people in the industry call me ‘the Old Man,’” said David. “I’ve seen a lot of things, and I’m always teaching people, so they can have the tools to take what I’ve learned and run with it.”

While New Blog Hosting has a ticketing system, 90% of its customer communications are direct. Clients either talk to David or to a team member who works with him. David has found that his customers would much rather contact New Blog Hosting directly, rather than submit a ticket, cross their fingers, and wait to see what happens. And no matter how they reach out to the team — through Facebook Messenger, email, or any other method — New Blog Hosting always answers.

“Our IT support team does a lot of work for free. People tell us, ‘You should get paid for that,’ but we understand that bloggers aren’t companies. They don’t have the revenue to pay us for that,” said David. “That’s why we give them what they need without adding a price tag, trusting that our support will help them make money off ads and sponsored posts. Then, they’ll want to refer other bloggers to us and purchase additional products.”

And New Blog Hosting offers a wide range of products to help bloggers grow their sites. Its customers can register any domain name with ID protection and free DNS management. New Blog Hosting also offers many WordPress and blog hosting options, including SSD-powered managed VPS, KVM cloud-managed VPS, and managed dedicated servers.

Its private server option includes fully managed cPanel or DirectAdmin, full root access, direct migration, and a variety of additional services. All of these features help lead to satisfied clients who stay with — and recommend — New Blog Hosting.

Over the years, Google has continually added to, subtracted and, and fine-tuned its algorithms and demands of websites for search ranking purposes. Its continual updates often catch bloggers off guard; nevertheless, everyone has to follow Google’s rules.

And today, Google’s list of demands is more extensive than ever. Websites must be mobile responsive, compress and optimize images, optimize CSS code, and more. And novices may find it impossible to know how to please Google’s increasingly complex algorithm.

“Out of every 10 emails we receive, three or four of them relate to Google. That’s why we decided to become a kind of ‘blogging coach,’” said David. “Our team gets together and asks, ‘Okay, what does Google want today?’ Because it may be different than what Google wanted yesterday. We do the research, answer the questions, and tell our customers exactly what they need to do to make Google happy.”

The team’s guidance has helped countless customers, who David said often call in with praise like, “You were the missing piece that we needed.” Whether New Blog Hosting is helping a blogger hone a new idea or just optimize their dashboard’s settings, its strategic coaching helps its customers win.

“What a lot of our competition doesn’t understand is that most bloggers are content creators who are great at filming videos, writing articles, and taking pictures — but don’t know much about how to make Google happy, drive traffic, or make sure their blogs are secure,” he said. “It’s not that they don’t want to know — it’s that they don’t know right now. That’s where we come in.”

New Blog Hosting continues to develop, innovate, and improve its products and services. David cultivates an open office atmosphere where any employee can offer criticism or ideas. In addition, he sends out at least one or two customer surveys each month. And respondents remain anonymous, so they’re comfortable sharing their honest opinions. At the end of the month, the team reads the surveys and uses them to decide what New Blog Hosting should offer next.

And David looks forward to launching new services and products based on the information his team has gathered.

“People are asking us for SEO services and more hands-on help, so we’re looking at ways to offer Zoom and Skype meetings in which we can screen share with clients, and help them in one-on-one tutoring sessions,” he said. “We want to get involved and teach people more about what they can do to improve their own sites.”

It’s all part of the same philosophy that David has embraced since day one.

“In the late ‘90s, I saw a quote on the back of a friend’s door that said, ‘If you don’t please the customer, somebody else will.’ That has only become more true,” he said. “Today, we’re in a world where social media is king and people have plenty of resources. If they don’t get it with me, it’s easy to find someone else who will deliver.”

That’s why the New Blog Hosting team does more than just sell products to clients — it coaches customers to win.