Interview with Erwin Yu,
CEO of eHostingBiz.com

AC: Hi Erwin, can you tell us a little about yourself, your company, and how you got the idea to start this venture eHostingBiz.com.

Yu: I was born in HK and came to the US when I was 12. After I came, I study very hard to work my way up to college. I graduated honor from University of California, Irvine with a BS degree of ICS (Information and Computer Science). After college, I worked 3 years in the computer programming industry. The most interesting job I ever had was working in a company call Logicon. In that company, I worked on a mission planning software for the Navy and Army. Although I love computers and programming, I didn't plan that as my career. I love stocks and business! While, working as a programmer, I do a lot of trading. With my mind and goal set, I eventually make my first 1/2 million on the stock market. And with that, I decided to get into business and make use of my capital!

eHostingBiz's first goal is to provide a reliable hosting service with a moderate pricing. The second goal is to provide a simple business opportunity for individual users! The reason why I started ehostingbiz is because I believe the Internet will become a necessity for everyone! Sooner or later, the Internet will become the major source for Media, Telecommunication, work and much more! There is 1 new user goes online every 1.67 second and 1,580,000 new users a month! (eMarketer.com) With the internet being a necessity for everyone, it would definitely drive up the demand for websites. Individual can use the website for their resumes, to connect with friends, and expose and explore themselves! And I believe eHostingBiz is providing all that!    eHostingBiz provides the hosting, the easy to use tools for beginners and an opportunity for people that would like to take advantage of the coming trends.

AC: When did you start your business and how is your business going?

Yu: eHostingBiz was started in June of 2000. The business is running better then I expected. Our revenue and member base are growing at the rate of 200% each month! There are two reasons for this. First, our company has the BEST customer service. Many of our customers give great comments in our forum! Second, other then satisfying our customers' need, eHostingBiz is working extremely hard in building relationships with big companies to create a good branding and exposures. Although advertising is useful, we are trying to focus on partnerships more! We want to find ways to benefit and grow both parties. It is working extremely well!

AC: You also have other companies, including one involving banner advertisements. Business models depending on banner advertising is kind of "out of favor" now in the Internet industry as a viable business model since some advertisers are becoming disillusioned in the effectiveness of banners. What are your thoughts on this?

Yu: Yes, I absolutely agree. My first online business was advertising! It was highly profitable. However, there was a big problem. The problem was that EVERYONE can do it! All they need is a decent website and would be able to get 10 cents each time someone clicks on it.

There are many companies out there that have a network of thousands of different websites. Advertiser would pay and place their banners on these websites. It might seem like a good idea at first, however advertisers begin to see that it has no result! There are many websites that cheat the advertiser by giving fake clicks and impressions. And when you have over 10,000 websites, it is just impossible to catch all of them! Sooner or later, no advertiser will trust these type of advertisements! The only choice that left is to advertise with big company like Yahoo and Amazon. But this means the demand of online advertising will go down and at the same time the supplies go down.  Like you said, "out of favor."

I believe banner advertising is the hardest business I was ever in. We've experienced many times where we receive no payments from our advertisers either because their business was shut down or simply they did not get what they expected from the advertising campaign. There are a lot more bad business practices than most people could imagine. What can you do when a company in Spin refuses to pay you an invoice of $5,000? Suing them might cost you more then that!

Although this is a hard time for my advertising company, I choose to downsize instead of closing down. I am providing a smaller but higher quality of advertising campaign. The company will run it as long as it is profitable.

AC: eHostingBiz.com sounds like network marketing, where one person refers to another and it builds a "network" of people all receiving profits from the sales from their "downline" agents that they have signed up. Can you explain how your business works?

Yu: eHostingBiz is different from many other network marketing companies in a way where our member doesn't have to ask friends to buy shampoos or vitamins. When a member joins eHostingBiz.com, we provide a set of tools to teach the member about internet and internet marketing, instead of how to cold-calling or how to sale. Doing business on the Internet is all about marketing! With our tools, anyone can do it!

Yes, eHostingBiz encourages members to build a network of people! As you can see, it is impossible to make 1,000 or 5,000 sales a day alone with your own efforts! Even eHostingBiz.com itself cannot achieve this. It is not because we are lazy or because we are not good at marketing, it is simply because there are limited of time and resources. As we know, different people work differently and get exposed to different groups of people. With more people working together, it generates more time, resources, prospects as a group! This multiplying effects definitely works! Would you like to work by yourself 8 hours a day? or 8 people each working 1 hour a day for you achieving the same result?

This is how it works, if I join as a member today, I can begin my business opportunity immediately. I would get a personal website and a business website. The business website is already done for you. It works as a professional sales person to close sales for you! You don't have to talk like a professional or be a professional salesperson or a professional web desiginer, because it is all done for you. As you enroll other members, you will begin to benefit from the efforts! As they refer their own members, you will benefit from them was well and so on. We all work as a  team each contribute their effects to achieve huge results. This is definitely a global business opportunity, because our customers are all around the world! It is also a profitable business opportunity be cause there are 1 new user goes online every 1.67 second and 1,580,000 new users a month! (eMarketer.com)

Our website has more features such as a resources center giving you many great information about business and online business. We have a webbuilder wizard where beginners can build a professional website for selling, photo gallery or more.

AC: We've heard both good and bad things about network marketing. Some say it is a very legitimate business. Ex: Amway, while others criticize network marketing ventures as being "pyramid schemes." Some states, and even China, have highly regulated, and in some cases banned, network marketing companies. What are your thoughts on this?

Yu: Our business is definitely not a pyramid schemes. It is a pyramid scheme when there is no actual product involve and members are making money off head counts! eHostingBiz has a product of webhosting service and we paid commissions based on each sales!

Yes, some countries have strict rules on Network Marketing companies. However, all the members should be safe as long as they are promoting our company online. Many of these restrictions are placed on the company itself and it does not affect members that join. As long as eHostingBiz is legal in the United States, all members around  the world are welcome to join and promote it online.

AC: For people who want to try out your business model for themselves, how do they sign up and can they cancel their membership if they decide it is not for them after they try it.

Yu: To sign up, they can simply go to our website and fill out a form and they are ready to go. If members are not satisfy, they can always get a refund within 30 days.