And the WINNERS are!!!

When the phone rang and the contest representative identified himself, a nervous voice replied.

"I am calling to inform you that you have won a complete makeover of your hosting company." Was the pitch line.

"Could you have at least asked me to sit down first?" was Roger's reply.

Needless to say, Roger Whittaker was please to find out that he became the winner of Ping! Zine's first annual Web Host Makeover contest.  The contest was the brainstorm of Publisher Keith Duncan, who has been in the hosting industry for several years and witnessed countless of good people die in the business.  Most of the time, this was caused from not having the proper tools and also not having the ability to implement those same tools.  Lots of these types of companies work aggressively at building their company but have fallen short while watching others blow by them on the way to success.

"What's in it for Ping! Zine?" asked Robert Bray of Top Line Ventures, an enthusiastic sponsor of the contest.

Beyond possibly documenting a great success story in the making, Mr. Duncan wanted to give a good company the chance to become a great company and knew a worthy person had to be out there.  What came as a surprise was the amount of applicants and the quality of their essays.  "If I had the opportunity, I'd give the grand prize to all of the applicants" said Mr.  Duncan. But since that wasn't possible, Ping! Zine had to settle for one overall winner and nine secondary prizes to be awarded to the runner-ups.  The secondary winners were evaluated on need and a prize was selected to best match.

SECONDARY WINNERS:
Mangohost – Johnny Tan
Angel.com Voice Sites with the Standard Plan to give you your own toll-free number, a professional virtual receptionist, and will even let you extend your web applications to the phone.  Sponsored by: Angel.com  
Banner Advertising for 468 x 60 ad banner, 5,000 Header Impressions.  Sponsored by: W3Reports  

Premium web design and hosting – Glennette Yelverton 
Website Design Template customized for a hosting company.  Sponsored by: BannersMall
Complete Invoicing System to help manage all Invoice and Billing related to Hosting and Domain Registration. Sponsored by: ModernBill  
Banner Advertising for 468 x 60 ad banner, 5,000 Header Impressions.  Sponsored by: W3Reports  

Kentucky Computing – Luke Park 
Selected Flash Tutorials for Web Hosting  Sponsored by: Demo Demo
Complete Invoicing System to help manage all Invoice and Billing related to Hosting and Domain Registration.  Sponsored by: ModernBill  
Banner Advertising for 468 x 60 ad banner, 5,000 Header Impressions.  Sponsored by: W3Reports  

Bliksemhosting – Javier Vidueria
PHP Live! Premium provides Live Sales and Support Chat for you to interact with your customers. One Year License.  Sponsored by: OSI Codes, Inc.  
Private Labeled SiteBuilder to let customers easily create and maintain their own web sites. SiteBuilder Express Service with setup and minimums waived plus a $50 usage credit.  Sponsored by: Topline Ventures 
Banner Advertising for 468 x 60 ad banner, 5,000 Header Impressions.  Sponsored by: W3Reports  

DomainHostUSA – Tina Stone 
Complete Invoicing System to help manage all Invoice and Billing related to Hosting and Domain Registration.  Sponsored by: ModernBill  
Dedicated Direct Admin Server with 2.4 Gig P4 processor, 512 RAM, 40 Gig HDD and 500 Gigs BW per month, leased for 6 months.  Sponsored by: Bocacom   
Banner Advertising for 468 x 60 ad banner, 5,000 Header Impressions.  Sponsored by: W3Reports  

Intrahost – Jeff Link
Complete Invoicing System to help manage all Invoice and Billing related to Hosting and Domain Registration.  Sponsored by: ModernBill  
Private Labeled SiteBuilder to let customers easily create and maintain their own web sites. SiteBuilder Express Service with setup and minimums waived plus a $50 usage credit.  Sponsored by: Topline Ventures 
Banner Advertising for 468 x 60 ad banner, 5,000 Header Impressions.  Sponsored by: W3Reports  

Voxel Hosting – Tonya Mellon 
Complete Invoicing System to help manage all Invoice and Billing related to Hosting and Domain Registration.  Sponsored by: ModernBill  
Shopping Cart and Billing Solution to bill your customers for recurring and one-time services.  Integration into your website and setup fees waived.  Sponsored by: 2Checkout  
Banner Advertising for 468 x 60 ad banner, 5,000 Header Impressions.  Sponsored by: W3Reports  

Chico Hosting – Jeff Sierra 
Private Labeled SiteBuilder to let customers easily create and maintain their own web sites. SiteBuilder Express Service with setup and minimums waived plus a $50 usage credit.  Sponsored by: Topline Ventures 
Complete Invoicing System to help manage all Invoice and Billing related to Hosting and Domain Registration.  Sponsored by: ModernBill  
Banner Advertising for 468 x 60 ad banner, 5,000 Header Impressions.  Sponsored by: W3Reports  

Rockethosts – Robert Bohm 
Directory Advertising including 4 Showcase listings, 728 x 90, 160 x 160 Banner rotations and Text Links for 3 months  Sponsored By: Rate My Host 
Banner Advertising for 468 x 60 ad banner, 5,000 Header Impressions.  Sponsored by: W3Reports  
Ad Banner Designs to match your company theme and marketing plan.  Sponsored by: BannersMall   

Judging was done by a selected anonymous panel of hosting experts that were not under the employment of Ping! Zine and scores were tallied independently.  Each judge primarily based their scores on the essay that was submitted and the combination of the scores generated the top finalists. Each of these finalists were contacted and reviewed to verify the accuracy of their information.  Once the finalists were verified, the top 10 winners were selected and then the fun began.  The easy part was contacting Roger at Active Web Host and saying, "you have won everything".  The hard part was contacting the secondary winners and matching prizes with their specific needs.  After numerous phone calls and faxed forms, the contest was finally over but the work is just about to begin.

The Grand Prize winner will be awarded each of the prizes and a representative will assist and follow his every move.  Ping! Zine will report the good times, the bad times and the not so good or bad times and with this information, educate the masses on what works for him and what doesn't.  Not only that, the secondary prize winners will randomly be checked up on and reports will be made at www.webhostmakeover.com and in the print issues of Ping! Zine Web Hosting Magazine.

So until next time, read all about how the winners use their prizes and get ready for the next contest coming your way!!!