ViUX Systems, a privately held North Carolina Corporation established in 2003 – with the mission to provide individuals and businesses of all types and sizes with the Web/Internet Technology and Software Solutions, has been on fire lately. During the last month, the company added a DomainsBot API to help find premium domains on SEDO, announced an Affiliate program & commission structure, and a few days back, enabled SmarterTools API for the instant provision of license keys.
With so many recent developments in a short span we were seeking an opportunity to interview Mr Jonathan Smith, President, ViUX Systems. Read below, as Mr Jonathan talks very frankly about the reason for launching DomainsBot API, having a successful affiliate program since more than a decade back (with no commissions), the upcoming developments in the company, his vision for the future and the company’s love for its customers. By the time you finish, you wouldn’t help but agree with the company’s tagline: ViUX Systems: Vision, Understanding and eXperience.
The ViUX Affiliate Program was not released with the mindset of what “sets it apart from others”… Instead our first purpose was to “love the one your with.”.
– Jonathan Smith, President, ViUX .
Q : What is your name and position with ViUX?.
A : Jonathan Smith, President..
Q : Tell us in brief about ViUX?.
A: Our standard answer to that question comes in the text found at the bottom of our home page at www.viux.com … “ViUX™ provides Web Hosting, “Software as a Service” (SaaS), “Infrastructure as a Service” (IaaS), and Internet Technology (IT) solutions to individuals and businesses of all types and sizes around the world – Since 2003! Our primary SaaS / IaaS / IT offering is Web Hosting in the Cloud, of which we offer a variety of services, from: Shared Cloud, to VPS / Cloud Servers (Private Cloud), to Dynamic Dedicated Servers, and Reseller Hosting… all within multiple secure geographically dispersed Data Centers – deployed upon our state-of-the-Internet Cloud Hosting System for High-Availability with 99.9% Uptime Guaranteed.”.
VIUX is a small Web Hosting provider with BIG plans for the coming year. We have a small staff of highly skilled employees and contractors that are set up to work remotely, and we are well positioned for large growth in 2013. We started on our current growth path in 2011 with our efforts resulting in ViUX being named the Parallels Partner of the Year for “Excellence in Shared Web Hosting Services and Parallels Plesk Panel” for 2011/2012. We are now in a migration phase to get existing customers moved over to our new Cloud Hosting System; and we are rolling out several new services and enhancements to existing services, as well as, our first serious advertising campaigns in 2013.
Q : You have just launched new Affiliate Program, can you tell us what sets it apart from others?.
A: The ViUX Affiliate Program was not released with the mindset of what “sets it apart from others”… Instead our first purpose was to “love the one your with” to coin a phrase from a popular song. ViUX has customers dating back to 2003 (and some as far back as 1997 under our former name). To be with us that long, they obviously love our services, and for most of that time up to now, almost all of our new customers came from referrals from existing customers – and they received nothing for their referral efforts. It was long past time for that to change, and a recent update to our Hosting Automation System (Parallels Business Automation Standard) allows us to release an Affiliate / Referral Program that is highly automated (as with everything we do) and thereby provides a means for our existing customers already with us for years now – to benefit from referring additional customers to ViUX.
While very important, but still secondary to rewarding our existing customers for new referrals, the ViUX Affiliate Program is also well positioned to attract general Affiliate Marketers and Web Developers/ IT Professionals that may not want to become actual Independent Resellers of ViUX – as the Affiliate System provides ease of use, many professional marketing banners, a large service / product mix, and high commissions of either fixed amounts or order percentages that are paid out quickly as real cash via PayPal… all from a provider with over a decade of award winning excellent service and support as our foundation..
Q: Can you tell us more about your DomainsBot API that your company announced in December (Note : We would like to know your client’s response & how they are utilizing this API)..
A: During 2011 / 2012 we noticed an uptick in the number of new Domain Registrations submitted on ViUX.com; however we still see many instances of customers registering their new Domain Names with GoDaddy, and then coming to ViUX for Hosting of that same Domain. This was puzzling to us, since in many cases those customers were even eligible to register the Domain with ViUX for FREE and could then easily manage it within the same control panel interface as their Hosting with us, instead of having to go back and forth between the systems of two providers..
Surveys of many of those customers found that they were either unaware that ViUX offered Domain Registrations and just naturally associated that service with GoDaddy (a testament to the effectiveness of their advertising message, and our lack of the same); or they liked the GoDaddy system for Alternate Domain suggestions and Premium Domain listings based upon their searched keyword(s). Therefore it was obvious that we needed to do more to get the word out about our Domain Services, and that we needed to enhance the functionality of our own Domain Search function on ViUX.com… integration of DomainsBot API was the first step of this process..
We have already seen customers registering some alternate Domain Names and additional Domain Extensions since the DomainsBot integration, and we have gotten inquiries about purchasing Premium Domains now presented on our site via DomainsBot / Sedo.com… although we have not yet completed our first Premium Domain sales since the new search feature went live in December. Through better marketing awareness to both existing and prospective customers and additional improvements to the Domain Search function still to come, we expect 2013 to be a record year for new Domain Registrations at ViUX.com.
Q : What all new services are you planning to launch in 2013?.
A : ViUX is a Parallels Gold Partner, since 2006, so most of the services that we offer now and will launch this year are in some way based upon a Parallels software product. Our Hosting Automation System is Parallels Business Automation Standard (PBAS) and there are many updates planned for this system in 2013, and some critical updates were just recently released. Those updates of PBAS will allow ViUX to utilize Parallels Cloud Server to further enhance the feature set and reliability of our Cloud Hosting System. We will also be releasing Parallels Plesk Automation to allow more robust Shared Hosting using an interconnected distributed system of: Database, Web, E-mail, and other special purpose servers – to form a seamless platform. During 2013 we will also be releasing a Cloud Backup Service, Web Application Monitoring and Reporting Service, etc… as well as, integrating many third party software products into our existing offerings. For instance, we are now testing CakeMail APS Package deployment within Plesk 11 to possibly offer this E-mail Marketing Solution to our Plesk Hosting customers.
Q : How do you see the future of the hosting industry?.
A: Consider the changes in the world in the decade from 1993 to 2003, and then again from 2003 to 2013… the world we’ll live in by 2023 will little resemble that which we live in today – socially, politically, and most of all, technologically. In the decade to come, any business that is still in business or any new business will need a website, as everyone will have a broadband mobile device in their pocket that is connected to at that time whatever is better than 4G now – and the Internet will be everywhere in our lives even more than it is today. I therefore think it’s not a bad position to be in to own a Hosted Services business now, since use of Internet Technology by an ever growing number of people will not likely translate into understanding how that technology works and how to manage it – for most people. Businesses like ViUX are thus critical and will remain so for making the complex simple, reliable, and cost effective for those of whom the provided services and management / support will be essential to their business success.
