This latest installment in the “Meet the Resellers” series features Amy Armitage, Director of Business Development at Lunarpages.

Amy Armitage, Lunarpages
James McNally (JM): How long has Lunarpages been doing business and what are all the services you offer to your customers?
Amy Armitage (AA): Lunarpages Web Hosting launched in 1998 providing free Linux web hosting. In 2001, we began charging for our services, providing a personal web hosting plan and domain name registrations via OpenSRS. As we saw growth and a demand for more services, we launched Business hosting, then Dedicated, VPS, Windows, and even a website-builder and hosting plan all in one, Quicksite.
We host the biggest and the best in the industry, utilizing the knowledge that has made us one of the largest web hosts in the world. We tailor each web hosting solution to fit the unique needs of our diverse clientele, ensuring that webmasters at every level can build, design, and launch their businesses and projects with our help every step of the way. We really try to cater to every customer.
JM: Any interesting stories from your company’s history?
AA: I think our beginnings are very interesting. Lunarpages started in the recreation room of our CEO’s house, and our first two servers were housed in a wardrobe! The wardrobe was actually built by our CEO’s son, so he often jokes that he “built” our first data center. ;)
After a few months of providing low-resource free hosting, the demand for bigger and better plans grew, and we started charging for our services and gathering staff to support our customers. And of course we eventually had to move to a new data center!
Today we have servers in three data centers and we employ more than 100 staff and remote contractors from all over the world. And we made the Inc. 5000 list in 2008!
JM: How did you personally get into the Internet business?
AA: I was looking to learn how to build a web site, so I signed up for free hosting with Lunarpages. As a customer, I lurked in their forums for a few weeks before posting my questions. As time went by, I started helping other new webmasters with their questions based on what I had learned myself. The Lunarpages founders asked me to administrate their forums, I recruited customers as moderators, and when we finally started charging for the service, they employed me to work in the support department. From there, I then employed my moderators and built out our support team.
After running their remote support division for a few years from Australia, they asked me to relocate to California to head up Business Development and I’ve been living here for four years now!

Tomorrowland, Disneyland Resort, Anaheim, California
JM: Where are you located and what makes it such a great place to do business?
AA: We are located in Anaheim, California. I think the fact that we can utilize the bigger local data centers and facilities is one of the principal advantages to doing business here. Having the technical resources and large scale partners close to us (and a central location) makes it easier to provide lower cost and higher level services. Plus being in a big city makes it much easier to find qualified system admins, network engineers, and support staff.
JM: Are you sure that proximity to Tomorrowland had nothing to do with it?
AA: Well…we did base choosing our central office location on its mileage from Disneyland…and yes, we do take our lunch breaks to ride Space Mountain…and maybe sometimes our CEO comes in late because he was taking pictures with Mickey Mouse…but we think that’s pretty normal. ;)
JM: How long have you been an OpenSRS Reseller and how has your partnership with OpenSRS helped your company succeed?
AA: We have been partnered with OpenSRS since the beginning actually, so almost 10 years now! OpenSRS is such a fantastic partner for us. They are knowledgeable, professional, and offer a full arsenal of services to help grow our business.
They offer us a high level of communication and support and many ideas to increase revenue and opportunities for our clients.
JM: What can we do to make the relationship stronger?
AA: Bring us more t-shirts, cows, and yo-yos ;)
If you’re a reseller interested in sharing your story with our readers, get in touch with me (jamesmATopensrsDOTcom). We’d love to hear from you!
Special thanks to Flickr user Joe Penniston for making his image available under a Creative Commons license.