The question is: Where do you go or what do you read to keep yourself updated about the web hosting industry?

Do you heavily rely on those sources you study? And, most importantly, when those sources offer industry examples and practices - do you try and implement them for your company as described?

Artashes, I too have the same questions. It's somewhat different to include detailed market research in a web hosting business plan because the information is very scarce or too broad.

I have however visited, www.webhosting.info and they have a neat way of displaying their statistics.

I just checked that source out and I think what they call web hosting statistics is really domain name registrar statistics...

However, they do have some very good articles and information very well organized.

I was auctally thinking of getting a few books about web hosting only problem I don't know any .

You should study books on business and marketing and counter educate yourself with different tutorials or web hosting articles on the internet.

That's pretty much what I have done. I also watch many of the forums for trends and such. I'm well aware that these forums are only a small portion of the industry, but there are things to be learned just from watching general patterns and such. You can at least get an idea.

I study the competition in my space. Because, as far as i'm concerned, they are the only ones that affect my sales. There is no point in me studying a large company - we are a small one which means different demographics, and marketing strategies.

I also use forums to check on trends, i've used webhosting.info to track competition, thewhir.com is helpful at times, sitepronews also tends to be interesting reading in the morning. I use all kinds of sources for my knowledge of the industry, however experience has taught me, there is no substitute for experience

As far as implementing certain strategies I read about - sure we'll do some test marketing, but I generally take such reading with a grain of salt. In other cases, i'll take parts of certain information and combine them into my own strategy. Webhosting isn't a standard industry. It's always being reinvented - so if you're basing your marketing strategy on a couple magazine articles, then you're already a step behind.

On the other hand, the internet is infinitely expandable, and thus, there will always be a market, and niches to settle into. When we began our establishment, it really seemed an impossible feat to gain any new clients - considering there were already thousands of providers out there....and yet, look at us now one year later. 1000 clients and growing - we started using marketing strategies from books, magazines, forums...and found that eventually you dry up the pool of clients available with that strategy....that is the day you need to get creative.

Interesting link.