ThinkHost is one of the up and coming web hosting services today. Being relatively obscure up until more recently, ThinkHost has been operating since 1999. What has lead ThinkHost to such an overwhelming growth rate?

Simple. Green Marketing. It’s the latest trend in Web Hosting, every web host from Hostgator to DreamHost has been “going green”. At the speed many web hosts are suddenly deciding to be environmentalists, one might even suspect that “going green” has simply become a smart business decision that leads to greater profits, rather than an attempt at a good deed.

Not so with ThinkHost. ThinkHost prides themselves on their stewardship of the environment, even going so far as to call their company “progressive”. ThinkHost donates to many other causes they believe to forward their same ideals.

ThinKHost even has a new marketing approach for their green web hosting service that other web hosts can’t compete with. ThinkHost claims to have no debts or shareholders to pay. The significance? First, while some other web hosting companies might have “gone green”, the “corporate fat cats” who fund those competitors are most often are not environmentally concerned. They may be running other companies that pollute, or they may simply not care. Other web hosting companies may have been decided to go green simply for a marketing edge and to boost their profits.

Not so with ThinkHost, the profits are divided among the employees or given to charitable organizations. To quote one of ThinkHost’s press releases directly, “Essentially, all of [ThinkHost's] profits are poured into social change work, rather than advertising or lavish perks”. ThinkHost claims to be a web hosting company which’s goal is not just to make a profit, but to make the world a better place.

To that end, ThinkHost goes further than any other web hosting company, rolling up their sleeves and getting involved in environmental and social issues. Aside from donating the majority of their profits into efforts for environmental and social change, the employees at ThinkHost themselves are expected to follow those same ideals. For example, for every customer who signs up with them, ThinkHost employees will personally plant a tree.

With such a bizarre marketing approach, rather a non-approach, can ThinkHost carve up a slice of the web hosting market? Only time will tell if letting their sincerity, hard work, and charity self-market itself can defeat the traditional marketing and business methods in the web hosting industry.