Hello,

I have competitors selling at say... $ 2.00 / month for 100 MB of webspace, $ 7.00 for domain names, and around $ 9.00 for over 1 GB of VPS with WHM and Fantastico..

These guys are really killing the market, and its impossible I can compete with them, they dont own a company, and dont even have an office, there contact numbers are there cell phone and email....

sad to say, people buy them....

Any suggestions on how to scrape these guys?

Scout

The answer is dont even try, what you should be able to do however is beat them on service and network quality, if you cant do that however your in the wrong business, yes the 2 dollar hosts will take some business but guess what its crappy business to start with, anyone who is looking for bottom dollar hosting without taking into consideration all the other things that make hosting work like a network and the people to run it are not going to have long running websites nor will the hosts that cater to them be around for the long haul. So the answer is build a business based on quality of service and a rock solid network then charge what is appropriate to give you the margins you need to operate, anything less is suicide and hosts will be needed when the bottom dollar people loose their shirts and their customers need a new home :)


Steve

Very well said Keeg...

I'm also having a problem with competing, but mainly in WHT only. There are many hosts and resellers of these hosts that give too much for too little. You will need to assure quality in the service up to your own standards and your prospective clients' standards and stick it out. The only real concern a host should have about "these" hosts is the effort and time it takes to start making a profit. I'll give myself 3 months before I can see money that will go to my pocket instead of going out. You will just need to operate outside of WHT and not depend on just one source of clientele. Patience and faith might have something to do with it too ;)

Don't compete in the same low level market if you do not need to. There are customers out there who are looking for quality hosting and they know that everything comes with a price.

The low end market customer based are usually children or people who may insist on the world but are unwilling to pay for it or just really newbies who occupies most of your support time and are unwilling to pay for it. Personally, I do not see a reason to compete in that market.

Thanks, that is what I thought so too...

I guess the biggest challenge is educating the customers, and letting them know that they will always "Get what they payed for"...

Originally posted by Scout
Hello,

I have competitors selling at say... $ 2.00 / month for 100 MB of webspace, $ 7.00 for domain names, and around $ 9.00 for over 1 GB of VPS with WHM and Fantastico..

Scout

If they are your competitors, then you are in the same category as them.

And what are you implying?

"if you can't beat them, JOIN THEM" :D

BTW, if your client base from WHT then you're pretty much DEATH. :cool:

I laugh when hosts think they need to compete on price and have to be the cheapest. Anyone can have dirt cheap hosting plans. Doesn't take much skill to build a client base from that. There's some hosts on this forum that have expensive plans and they're extremely successful.

The cheaper the hosting plan, the more chance that the consumer is going to be delivered a lesser quality service. That's a given. :)

Carve out your own niche. Try to block out what's going on around you with host's and their pricing etc. I blocked them out long ago and have been all the better for it. I don't see other hosts as competition. They're doing their thing and we're doing our thing. The market is HUGE enough for any quality provider, to carve out a good sustainable business. :)

Thanks Bob, I actually have an account with you. Great service. :)

If they are your competitors, then you are in the same category as them.

And what are you implying?

Haa haa, he was just playing with you. Actually, it was the choice of words you use. A Competitor is someone who is in the same class as you fighting for the same customer pool.

So to say that a $2/mth web host is your competitors means that you find them a thread and thus meaning that you are in direct competition as them thus putting you in the same league.

I don't try to compete. When I see a request for something I can provide, I'll respond. Yes I hate it when someone comes by and offers twice what I did for half the price, but such is life. What I hate even worse is when they go with someone who offers less for more (and I don't mean they're going with a higher-quality host, either).

Originally posted by VNPIXEL
. . . BTW, if your client base from WHT then you're pretty much DEATH. :cool:
That's so true. When I was an Ad Forum Moderator, we would inform hosts when they break the rules, and sometimes their forum account would get suspended. I had hosts reply to our emails to them, when we suspended their forum account, in absolute desperation and panic, because they said the WHT Ad Forums were their only chance of getting clients. Pretty sad.

Does posting AD in WHT really work? I mean out of a thousand AD impressions... how many does one get?

Originally posted by Scout
Does posting AD in WHT really work? I mean out of a thousand AD impressions... how many does one get?
Banner ads here are IMO, good for branding. They're not good if you need an instant return on your ad cost. It's the kind of campaign that you would run over 12mths, and this would build a brand.

I see.. I see.... Thank Bob.

Originally posted by Aussie Bob
because they said the WHT Ad Forums were their only chance of getting clients. Pretty sad.

This is indeed sad. I looked at the Ad Forums and it definitely seems depression at the stage things are going. I sure wished that it is possible to ship all these web hosts to business boot-camp to learn the basics. They all seems to be struck by the Get-Rich-Quick-Schemes and the trouble is, they think that it can be done without good old business frameworks in place.

I've seen people looking for $5 reseller's account and hoping to compete in the industry head-on. I've also seen web site administrator who do not know a clue about how to administer a server or set up an account. I've seen so many eager college kids wanting to start a web hosting business but do not have the finances or have a clue what a business plan is. I've seen those started with that wonderful dream but ending up 'prostituting' themselves to such a level that it makes me shake my head in disgust. What is this industry leading to ?

But for the rest who are prepared would definitely reap the fruits of their labor soon enough. It is a difficult business and you need to plan long term.

All you have to do is wait, here is a classic scenario:

Guy needs hosting, comes to WHT, posts a requests for a reseller plan, scam artists (thats what they are) post 200GB space and 10000GB bandwidth only $1 per month, guy takes this hosting, i mean what a fantastic deal.
2 months later guy comes back to WHT and posts "i got ripped off"
Now that same guy is looking again, only this time he is no longer looking for the cheap deals but the RIGHT deal.
Just wait, as long as your service is good you will get and retain clients.

Scout, in regards to domains and forgetting about hosting for a moment, looking at your website whos primary business seems to be domain names. To be honest i think even if you could provide top class 24 hour a day support, you're still going to find it very very hard with the prices that you have.

Registrars like godaddy and namecheap, are becoming more popular everyday not only because they have a good price but also (mostly) good service.

Gone are the days when people would find it impossibile to register a domain for less than $10 a year, i'm sure if you made a poll here you'd probally find it very difficult to find anybody that is paying more than that for their domains.

Hosting is a different story, but the domain market has changed a huge amount, and i think that anybody still charging more than $15 a domain is going to have a real hard time, regardless of how good their service is.

Originally posted by jablunka
All you have to do is wait, here is a classic scenario:

Guy needs hosting, comes to WHT, posts a requests for a reseller plan, scam artists (thats what they are) post 200GB space and 10000GB bandwidth only $1 per month, guy takes this hosting, i mean what a fantastic deal.
2 months later guy comes back to WHT and posts "i got ripped off"
Now that same guy is looking again, only this time he is no longer looking for the cheap deals but the RIGHT deal.


Well, that would be a nice scenario but it does not always happened in reality.

You probably get the same guy coming back saying he got ripped off and starts long threads about it and come back requesting for the same deal or lower.

Seen it happened quite a number of times.

My advise is don't go after this market as it would probably be more pain than benefits.

eddy2099 you are right that in reality it does not allways happen,first time,
After they have been burnt more than once i would venture to say that the vast majority would not entertain cheap hosting deals offering silly limits.
I would suggest that first time a majority change their outlook and after a second time the vast majority do, and i maintain that if you wait and have a good service the clients will come.

Originally posted by jablunka
I would suggest that first time a majority change their outlook and after a second time the vast majority do, and i maintain that if you wait and have a good service the clients will come.
I have seen the same in the free hosting arena, they keep looking, getting burned, try the next wannabehost, get burned again, then they decide they will try a paid host, and look for the cheapest alternative to free. Whoops, got burned again, and again and again. :rolleyes:

Those that have a halfway decent site that they want to stay online will pay that bit more for a quality servece just for the assurance that their site will be viewable at all times (give or take a few minutes)

Offer a quality service and you have all the cheapo wannabe hosts beaten. After all, you want to succeed, they just want money for Maccas and there is a 75% chance they won't be your competitor next month ;)

Originally posted by eddy2099
This is indeed sad. I looked at the Ad Forums and it definitely seems depression at the stage things are going. I sure wished that it is possible to ship all these web hosts to business boot-camp to learn the basics. They all seems to be struck by the Get-Rich-Quick-Schemes and the trouble is, they think that it can be done without good old business frameworks in place.

I've seen people looking for $5 reseller's account and hoping to compete in the industry head-on. I've also seen web site administrator who do not know a clue about how to administer a server or set up an account. I've seen so many eager college kids wanting to start a web hosting business but do not have the finances or have a clue what a business plan is. I've seen those started with that wonderful dream but ending up 'prostituting' themselves to such a level that it makes me shake my head in disgust. What is this industry leading to ?

But for the rest who are prepared would definitely reap the fruits of their labor soon enough. It is a difficult business and you need to plan long term.

well said eddy2099

Originally posted by Scout
Does posting AD in WHT really work? I mean out of a thousand AD impressions... how many does one get?

Honestly, I haven't received even one client from WHT ;)

I respond to requests, and post ad's, but I don't offer the unbelievable (and that is exactly what they are) rates that some hosts offer there. We bring in enough business outside of WHT to not really need business from it.

Will I continue to respond to requsets and post advertisements? Of course, I'll take customers wherever I can get them, I'd be foolish not to, and this is basically a $0 investment excluding the time I spend doing it. But I learn/share a lot here too, so it's not like I come here just to advertise.

The bottom line is, don't compete on price which has been said over and over in this thread.

How to beat Really Cheap Competitors?


With clubs? ;)

(j/k)

Regards.
-Darrell

Be original.

Thanks Guys, never thought this thread would be so related to everybody, I mean everyone has got there own story to tell.

Xeromedia... With regards to my site, that isnt really my official web hosting site, that site is operational, but I do plan to lower its prices soon, its not yet even advertised.. I'm just having trouble with my local market here in my country. Sales were kind of lowering down on the hosting department thanks to these "fly by night" companies.

And YES, come customers would call me up about getting ripped off... sad to say there still looking for the same Cheap deal...

I am barely surviving and making ends meet thanks to my current hosting clients, web development clients and programming clients...

I guess I 'm just desperately seeking a solution to solve this Monthly "Too Close for Comfort" scenario.

Thanks for all the useful tips and insights, I'll work on a new strategy with a new perspective. "Sie Sie" (Thank You in Chinese) :)

I've been lurking this m/b for the last few days, and I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your experiences. It's good to see that there's so much confidence in quality of service; I've a feeling I will be relying on this in the near future. Unlike some of the services being described, I'm not looking to get rich by any stretch; I want to set up a basic hosting service in order to have the maximum level of control over the support my clients recieve and more than anything, I want to avoid killing myself in the process.

The perspective and shared experience have been great, and I look forward to continuing to read your posts in the future.

Thanks!

Originally posted by centrahost
Be original.

C'mon. That was original. :D (At least in this thread).



Best Regards,
-Darrell

Originally posted by Scout
Hello,

I have competitors selling at say... $ 2.00 / month for 100 MB of webspace, $ 7.00 for domain names, and around $ 9.00 for over 1 GB of VPS with WHM and Fantastico..

These guys are really killing the market, and its impossible I can compete with them, they dont own a company, and dont even have an office, there contact numbers are there cell phone and email....

sad to say, people buy them....

Any suggestions on how to scrape these guys?

Scout
Well, just sell hosting for $1.00/mo for 500mb space. :crazy:

Seriously though, love the little WHT cpanel world, makes me chortle to myself. :D

Use Plesk here and we are doing so extremely well that I feel like belittling people all over WHT......

Originally posted by Scout


Xeromedia... With regards to my site, that isnt really my official web hosting site, that site is operational, but I do plan to lower its prices soon, its not yet even advertised.. I'm just having trouble with my local market here in my country. Sales were kind of lowering down on the hosting department thanks to these "fly by night" companies.


We sell domains via a PDQ site like yours for $14.95 and sell domains every day to our clients without question. Last time I looked, we have about 3 grand in there. All automated, no support, just builds.

I cannot honestly say I see this practice outside of this community.

If you plan to get your customers from this forum then well... you have no right to really complain.

Whoever said Im getting customers from this forum? I already said I have my own local market.

I do not market towards generic web hosting consumer.

My little company serves a niche market and hosting is only part of the package

Price is always an issue, but the quality companies seem to survive and thrive.

:).