April 5, 2007
Web hosting space is cheap. A lost sale isn't.
Back in the Internet's youth, site owners were charged huge amounts for downloads. I recall being asked to pay $1,200 a month extra because my site's discussion forum was widely used. I switched sites. My download charges fell to zero.
I am sure that hosting service is out of business or under different management.
Back in that era, sites with high download rates could be expensive to maintain. So, site owners started using zip software to speed up downloads (at 56k) and to lower their use charges.
Today, anyone with money has cable or DSL. These people want fast service. They want uncomplicated service. Yet sites are still zipping files.
They become dependent on third-party suppliers of unzip software. Except for Adobe Reader, it's foolish to become dependent on any third-party supplier.
Some people don't have unzip software. Others don't know how to use it.
Recently, I came across a site with an information product I wanted -- several, in fact. The site had a great sales ad. I ordered the $97 product.
I could not use it. It was zipped. I canceled the order. If they bill me, I will contact Visa and complain. I told them within 2 minutes to cancel the order.
How many orders do they get, anyway? Here is an obscure site that gets few hits and even fewer orders. What are they thinking of? Zipping files to save money? What money?
They made life more difficult for me. Why? To save . . . what?
The seller had better make life easy for the buyer. The buyer is in control, not the seller.
Never zip a file. Never.
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