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Review of Third Sphere Hosting: Learn from My Mistakes and Nightmare Experiences

Jay (Jason Van Orden) 33 Comments

One thing we try to do with Internet Business Mastery is to help you find the right services to use with your internet business based on our own experiences. For the most part we have recommended things that you SHOULD use. Well, this time I want to tell you about a service you SHOULD NOT use. I’ll also share some important lessons you can learn from my experience.

When I launched my first information product site I needed a hosting service (or services) that would provide me with:

  • The ability to host multiple sites on one hosting account
  • A shopping cart to interface with my merchant account
  • Email list management
  • Auto responders
  • Affiliate sales management
  • Excellent support

After days of researching and asking for referrals, I settled on using Third Sphere Hosting. They had all the features I was looking for, a very “internet marketing”-centric platform and endorsements from good sources. I was happy with their service for a few years, but since the beginning of this year, things have gone seriously downhill.

The biggest problem is that they don’t have phone support. They have a ticketed support system where you log in, leave your question and they get back to you within 24 hours (supposedly). The ticketed support worked for a long time, but as of a few months ago I never get a response.

Lesson #1: Never manage part of your internet business with a service that doesn’t let you pick up the phone and get quality support right away.

Two days before PodCamp NYC we couldn’t send critical information out to our list, because Third Sphere wasn’t working. I couldn’t get anyone to reply to me. Just this morning I sent and email out to my podcasting list. Thousands of people got nothing but a string of garbled letters from me in their inbox. Why? I don’t know. And I can’t get anyone from ThirdSphere to reply.

Lesson #2: Something will go wrong eventually and it will happen at the most inopportune time. Count on it. Be prepared. This is another reason why phone support is so important.

One of the reasons I signed up for Third Sphere in the beginning was that they had very reasonable prices and lots of features. Compared to the other leading services Third Sphere would save me about 50%. Now, I’m not just a “go with the lowest bidder” kind of guy, but such a good deal with good endorsements led me to jump and sign up.

Lesson #3: Be willing to spend the money necessary to set things up right.

So why have I hesitated to switch services? Why have I given them the benefit of the doubt? One of main reasons is that I don’t want to transfer my email lists over to another service. Any worthwhile email management service is very careful about letting people import lists from other sources. This is to prevent abuse of their system by spammers. It’s also for the sake of their other customers. The more abuse that occurs on a service, the more internet service and email providers will block any email from that service.

I know that in importing my list to another service I’ll probably have to send out an email to my current list asking them to opt-in again. Naturally this will reduce the size of my list. But really, it will just be a “cleaning” of my list. Yes, the total number of subscribers will be smaller, but the ones that stay on the list will be the most interested and responsive readers.

Lesson #4: Don’t be afraid to clean your list. Sure, the “ego-boosting” total size of your list will shrink, but the subscribers who matter the most will stick around.

Here are the services that I recommend and plan to use:

1ShoppingCart (email list management, auto responders, shopping cart, affiliate management and more)

Aweber (email list management and auto responders if you don’t need a shopping cart)

Globat (hosting that allows multiple sites on one account)

I feel like I’ve probably ranted enough, but for those still reading, here’s the list of my other grievances with Third Sphere:

  • When I exported my database, only half the info was downloaded in a spreadsheet
  • I tried everything I could to contact them without a response (support ticket, email, phone # on my credit card bill, etc.)
  • In the last few years they haven’t increased storage or bandwidth limits despite the fact that the rest of the industry has
  • The email system has embedded the wrong first name for a given email in the database
  • They have sent emails that weren’t encoded right leading to garbage hitting people’s inbox with my name on it
  • There system would tell me that a broadcast email had been sent when in fact it had not

I’m not sure what happened to Third Sphere. I was happy with them at one time, but things have gone seriously downhill. I won’t trust my business to a service that does not maintain quality or answer their support requests. Hopefully my experience will help you avoid similar problems.

Lesson #5: If you are using a service and start to see serious deterioration in service quality, jump ship sooner than later. Don’t let “giving the benefit of the doubt” hurt your business.

Lesson #6: Stay away from Third Sphere Hosting.

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33 Comments Leave a Comment


Agreed! I dumped Third Sphere about 2 weeks ago myself. Just so everyone knows, I have been using 1Shoppingcart and Aweber for about 2 years with no problems. I just wanted to say that so you don’t think the are NEW referrals for us. They are fantastic actually. I recently tried out Globat as well.

Sterling

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Jason,
I have to say I once had three accounts over at Globat and became a reseller. I had paid the annual charge for the three accounts. However, their back end control panel was not very good. After a few months, I switched and pulled the domain names to another server. I only used Globat for storage and let the accounts expire at the one year mark. I like cPanel as the backend control panel. My current server has Fantastico installed which automatically installs programs like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and a LOT more. However my host is basically for the storage and not the service. They do not have phone support, just email, and is more for the people who do not need support. The website host I use is http://houseofstorage.com and the one I have recommended to others is http://hostgator.com .
Both of these places use cPanel for their back end system which I have found to be the best and most robust for me.
You guys are awesome!
Thanks,
Michael S. Copeland

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Excellent points Sterling. And I should point out that I have also been using Globat for the the last few years and have been happy with their service. Also Aweber is what we use for the Internet Business Mastery email list.

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Michael,

That is the one weakness I have heard about Globat. If you really like CPanel, Globat might not be for you. But I’ve had no problems with their account admin.

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I started with Aweber, but switched to GetResponse because it was much easier to set up and use. I use DreamHost for hosting my sites (35 and counting!) and has been a dream to use. I plan to use either Webgistix or Acutrack for product fulfillment, I’m waiting for quotes before I decide. Another great combination is E-junkie and SwiftCD.

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Chris,

Thanks for those recommendations. I’ll be sure to check them out.

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Great article!

Thanks for the mention.

We’ve always believed that friendly and skilled phone support is essential to helping our merchants succeed. Everyone hopes that nothing will go wrong, but occasionally it does, and being able to pick up a phone and contact someone should be one of the most basic services any company (especially an online company) offers.

Michael Valiant
http://www.1ShoppingCart.com

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Michael,

Thanks for dropping by. It’s interesting to note which companies are paying attention to what is being said and which are not. If I was Third Sphere I would want to know about this post (especially since thousands of people are going to hear about it on the next episode of the podcast as well).

I’m glad to see that 1ShoppingCart is paying attention.

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@Chris

I have only used Aweber, but I do know several people that dumped GetResponse for Aweber.

Sterling

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Pat

Interesting post, and thank you for the recommendations. If you use 1ShoppingCart for autoresponder as well, then Aweber would not be necessary? 1ShoppingCart’s “Basic” and “Professional” levels list quite a bit of capability.

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@Pat

Well, I used 1Shoppingcart for the autoresponders for a while, but then I had several problems with that part of the system. They seem to be upgrading the autoresponder system, but a mentor of mine told me that it would be worth using aweber as well. The mentor was making several million dollars a year, so I followed his advise. Just last week another mentor of mine said he had several problems with 1shoppingcarts autoresponders not going out in a timely manner or at all, so I’m still going to stick with aweber, as I have never had a problem of any sort with then in over 2 years of service. 1Shoppingcart is the LEADER in the other aspects of their service and most of the big boys use them.

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Good tips! These are the kind of technical details that I, as a novice, really appreciate.

BTW I was curious about the WP plugins that you use for your websites (especially the “sign up” button)

thanks and looking forward to more form you guys!
taural

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@taural,

The email sign up is not a WordPress plugin. That is a form that aweber generated for us.

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I don’t know about Globat. when a Hosting comapny has unbelievable plans like that .Most of the time they are overselling . My websites are too important to me to risk any downtime . I’ve been using site5.com’s Reseller plan to host 50+ sites for 2 years now .

Good luck . Great Show BTW

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@Shelton,

You bring up a valid point. I haven’t had any major problems with Globat on that front. I am not claiming it is the absolute fastest either though. Buying a reseller program is a great way to go, too. I will probably be doing that for myself in the near future.

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Darren

I have been a dedicated Hostgator guy as well as Aweber. I will say that I have gotten some bad results in just trying to get information on setting up an account over at kiosk.ws. I joined their mailing list and for the past 2 weeks been getting emails saying sorry we have to shut down for 20 minutes here, an hour there.

Not to mention, I have submitted 3 Pre-Sale requests to their “contact us” page and I have not heard back yet.

I called, spoke to Oliver, he could not answer any of my questions including the big one, ” How do I transfer 60 sites to you guys?”. His answer was, well I think we can do it for a fee. Not confidence builing for sure!

Its a shame too as I really wanted to give these guys a shot as hostgator gets a tad aggressive with shutting down internet marketers.

Guys, keep up the good work and I look forward to your next podcast!

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Can anyone comment on personal experiences they have had with Blue Host as a hosting company? This marketing blurb sounds pretty good.

“WordPress Auto-Install, 300 GB disk storage, FREE Domain Name, 2500 POP / WebMail addresses, 3000 GB/mo transfer, Host Unlimited Domains on 1 Account, 20 Subdomains, 50 mySQL databases, Free Control Panel, Free Fantastico, 24/7 Network Monitoring, 99% Uptime Guarantee, Mirrored Storage Backups, No hidden fees, Voted Best Support in 2004, 2005, and 2006!” –http://wordpress.org/hosting/

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Marc

I almost went with BLUEHOST back in mid 2006. They gave me a warm-and-fuzzy feeling. However, true or not, I kept getting my confidence in BLUEHOST damaged when I came across posts talking about downtime and whether or not they had enough back-up generators in place, etc. I did like the fact they were based in UTAH, as opposed to disaster prone California. In the end, I left iPower/iPowerweb (note:StartLogic is iPower’s biggest reseller, I hear) and decided to go with INMOTION. I have no regrets, so far. (well, actually there was the one time a CS rep got snippy with me because previously I had found a loophole in their pricing and combined a now defunct 1/2-off coupon with a limited-time offer/hosting plan – apparently my account was ‘noted’ and the CS rep let it slip). Just be sure to dig hard for their somewhat ‘cloaked’ hosting deals on their website, as they are not front-and-center. Another thing to be aware of, these competitively-priced hosts with their larger and larger storage offerings are not really allocating that storage to you right away – you are entitled to it as you paid for it, but most websites barely use any storage and they know this. If you even came close to using the 60GB allowed (as an example) later on the host would be forced move your account over to another server entirely. Perhaps once establishing an new account with a webhost, one should just almost max-out their allowed storage immediately (so that its allocated right way) then perhaps reduce it in later months?

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Sterling and Jay –

Can you comment some on why you chose Aweber as opposed to another email list service, like FeedBlitz?

Peter Beck
http://www.PodcastingForMedicalProfessionals.com

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@Peter,

Feedblitz is very limited. All it does is send an email to the list when you post something new to a blog or podcast feed. You could also use something like Google Groups for free, but you get what you pay for.

With free services you don’t get a number of features like autoresponders, open-rate tracking or click-through stats. With Aweber I can also insert someone’s first name at the beginning of the email or in the subject line which increases response.

I pay for Aweber to get additional features such as that. It’s worth every penny.

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Mike

Thank you for your review.

I have been with Third Sphere for almost two years and just about to drop ship. It’s amazing to me that a web hosting company that gives such a LOUSY support (90% of my emails are ignored or answered with the utmost unprofessional fashion) gets such good reviews on the web.

Third Sphere Hosting has an unacceptable downtime, bouncing emails, database problems and a very unfriendly ticket support.

I should have switched a hosting company years ago. Here’s a fair warning to all of you looking for a reliable host: Third Sphere Hosting is NOT the answer. Stay away and learn from my mistakes.

Mike.

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I wish I would have read this blog before I joined Hostgater.

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Jay and Sterling,

I know that this might sound naive for all of you experts, but why don’t you guys use big vendors like yahoo small business…?

Thanks for the advice, by the way!. I have to send a quote for a prospect tomorrow and I want to send a site link to go with it…which I have never done before!…Any quick tips on how to do something on a transitory basis and then switch if necessary ?
Val.

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@Val,

I’ve worked with Yahoo! Small Business before with a client and I didn’t like it. They were trying to make it so easy (not give you enough rope to hang you yourself with so to speak) that it wasn’t flexible enough for me. Every host has it’s features. I still tend to work with “bigger” hosting names. True they are not Yahoo!, but they still have proven track records.

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John Leonard

Any thoughts on ixwebhosting? I’ve used them for awhile now for personal & high school sports websites – wondering how they might do at ecom.

Thanks,

John

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@John,

I have never heard of ixwebhosting. I use powweb and globat and have for some time now. They have worked out for me perfectly.

Sterling

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Guest

ThirdSpeherHosting DOES indeed suck big time!

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Steve

Hi from Oz Guys,
Thanks for the great info. I am just starting out and I was about to subscribe to ThirdSphere, literally… I had my wallet out… I thought I had better check out some reviews and found your comments. Thanks, big time!
I will follow the advice here. It seems that Aweber and 1ShoppingCart are the go… I have registered my domain and booked hosting with HostGator and I guess I will try them out for the startup phase.
Would you please advise what I should use to build multi page sites. I cannot write code… at all…. and need a simple process. Is CoffeeCup worth a try? Any other recommendations?
Thank you for really valuable information.
Steve von Kohorn, Sydney Australia

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Hi Jay,

I used Globat as well, I was there for 9 months and the service was really bad. I was double charged on one account, luckily I could email the CEO to sort it out.

This service given me hell, it was so frustrating, but I’ve learnt from it and the knowledge so allowed me to do a podcast with it.

I am in the UK, for my blog I use Heart Internet and for podcasts I place these on a separate server on Bluehost.

I found with my blogs on Globat and even your site Jason podcastingunderground.com was very very slow. I am pleased we’ve all learnt from this.

One of the most valuable things I’ve learnt never go for very cheap.

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I only saw one mention of DreamHost here for hosting. IMHO they are in a league of their own. Phone support costs extra, but I’d rather only pay for it when I need it. Unlimited databases, domains, diskspace, bandwidth, etc. It’s employee owned, so even the support staff has a vested interest in creating satisfied customers.

They don’t have cPanel, but they have crafted their own interface over the years that I find even more intuitive than cPanel.

Sign up with the promo code GRANDSTAFF to save $50 on any package!

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Actually you can solve all our problems if you host yourself
with all the highspeed internet out there you can run your own server and still have plenty of speeed to do all the surfing you want at home. All you need ot do is get a static ip address. well you will need two or three, one for your server and one for your regular inenet usage. You can use C-panel or acheaper alternative Directadmin as a control panel, and host unlimited sites with unlimeted bandwidth

It really is simple once it is set up zero problems in five years and i push close to 20 gig of bandwidth per month

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You need to update this review. Third Sphere recently sent an email stating that those with “shared hosting” have to move their site. Although not explained in their email, after contacting them 5 time with no reponse, I finally recieved an email back stating if I don’t have my own server I am considered shared hosting and I need to move my site immediately.
Not too professional.

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Sterling (Jeremy Frandsen) Reply:

In what way do we need to update it? We still think you should stay away and that they are not profession… How is that different then what you are saying?

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