Hi,
my company doesnt normally offer sub domains, bu i have a client who needs the feature.
What is an acceptable monthly price for a subdomain

thanks.

Ronnie
Sys Admin
Daslweb.com

What do you mean the price for a subdomain?
Do you mean for them to add subdomain on to their own domain in their account?

what i mean by mothly price ios the amount that shoud be added to their monthl invoice. In the past ive seen hosting companies offer X number of subdomains on each account, that is not a feature that i generally offer.
The service that my company offers is a managed service, so it would be myself adding the subdomain on their domain on their account.
thanks

ronnie

I dont think you should charge them to simply add a subdomain onto their account.
it will take you a few minutes at most to add a subdomain, you shouldnt charge a setup fee just to do that, and I dont know why you would charge monthly for adding a subdomain to their account.
The subdomain is still using their resources, its not like an extra account which has its own space/bandwidth etc. unless you set it up like that.

Do you offer a control panel?
If you do, its more than likely they will be able to add the subdomain through their control panel.
I dont think adding a subdomain onto an account is really much of a hassle, and not something that should be charged for

id do it for free.

The reasonable price is 0.:spiny:

Fair enough, thats the info i was looking for.
Since this is not a feature my company offers, i was unsure of wether this is a chargable monthly feature or not, looks like it isnt.
thanks allot

ronnie

Well, if the company doesn't offer subdomains, then it does become chargable. Most people give away subdomains, but that doesn't mean you have to. People may not like paying for them, but if they haven't seen a lot of the competition, I'm sure a small fee for them wouldn't be too out-of-the-ordinary.

Yeah but what you have to think about is if there is any reason to charge for that.
I dont think thats very fair to the customer to charge them for something that takes a minute for you to do and its not exactly using any extra resources on your server, its all part of their account.

I wouldnt charge for entering the name of a subdomain and a command or clicking a button to create it.

Also, why would you charge monthly?
Thats like a hosting company charge $9.99 for a shared account, plus another $1 monthly for the setup fee :eek:

A subdomain should be free.

Originally posted by gghosting
A subdomain should be free. But he doesn't allow subdomains, therefore giving them a monetary value.

Originally posted by DanX
But he doesn't allow subdomains, therefore giving them a monetary value.

Subdomains should be free. At least one.

Andrew

Its so common now, its almost expected. I would never host with anyone that did not provide free sub-domains, at least 5.

It should be all about your buisness plan and your market. The WHT market dictates that subdomains should be free addons.

why dont you just give your customers unlimited sub-domains, all addable via a control panel they can use themselves (cPanel for example)

I would charge a setup fee between $10-25. Monthly fee would depend on how much additional work/time/resources/ssl are needed to keep every thing running.

I would do that for free

Greetings:

"A subdomain should be free."

I didn't know people run businesses to break even or as a charity <smile>.

On a serious note, we charge $1 per month with zero complaints.

Thank you.

It is not obvious to me that a subdomain should be free.

It could take you longer to set up a subdomain than a regular account, especially with automatic account creation. Sometimes a subdomain is used as a separate web site. Would you charge for a second site? Actually, I have most often created subdomains as a separate account, only sometimes as a sub-directory of another account. In any event, their use can change the statistics of your resource use.

About statistics: We all use statistics in the management of our resources. It is too inefficient not to. For example, consider the telephone companies. Even though clients pay to be able to use the phone at any time, if everyone tried to make a long distance call at the same time they could not. The statistics of "telephone-calling" are used in the design/selection of the trunking resource. Also consider this: The phone company combines our voice signals onto a single carrier for transmission over a microwave link. These voice channels share the available power. However, in the design of the microwave link the statistics of voice were relied upon. The gaps and pauses in our speech means that the voice channels don't all demand their portion of the transmit power at the same time, thus permitting more voice channels per link. Along comes the data modem. Modems continuously send an analog signal even when there is no actual data, and some people stay connected days at a time. The statistical use of the telephone-carrier resource changed. In some states the phone companies tried to charge extra for data because the service was more costly to provide.

I would think that a subdomain would represent additional activity. If so then the statistically based demand on our resources would change. In my opinion, a charge would be appropriate but might still not be advisable, just depending upon marketing and your business plan.

Greetings:

In my opinion, when you run a business, if you provide the consumer a value, the value should have the option of having a price associated with the value.

If an owner decides to charge for a value delivered, then that's fine. And if another owner decides not to charge for the same value delivered, that's also fine.

However, when providing value, I find it interesting when people state things "should be" free.

Thank you.

Hi, I tend to agree with vantasticman7 that "sub-domains are so common now". It is pretty much an expected feature that hosts offer these days. We offer 2 sub-domains on our base package.
If adding the sub-domain only takes a few minutes of your time do it at no charge. The client will appreciate your efforts.

kinda off-topic but applicable: Went into Radioshack today to exchange a bad TV remote. The product only had a 90 day warranty and I was 20 days over this period. The store manager agreed that a remote should last longer than 90 days and gave me a free replacement. Will I return and buy more goods there? You bet. Would I have gone back if he wanted to charge me for a new remote? No, just on principle I would shop elsewhere.

Chris

Greetings:

"The product only had a 90 day warranty and I was 20 days over this period. "

So if the store manager stuck to their principals that 110 days is greater than 90 days, they would be the bad guys?

Thank you.

I disagree it should be free..
You don't see places charging for C-Panel or software management programs.... or people charging for a email account?
"Come buy from us <company> Great price $1 a month, but when you read the fine lines email +$5 subdomain +$5 control panel $5"
I don't see the difference with a subdomain. Kind of ridiculous in my opinion just like you these so called "professional designers" charge for images on your site <im src="" alt="" /> how hard is that?

Greetings:

The issue is not how difficult it is to do something.

The issue is the value provided and the value perceived.

Also, if some person who is just learning system administration charges $25 per hour, and takes eight hours to do a task; and then some one who has 5+ years experience takes only 15 minutes, should the 5+ year experience person only charge 1/16th of the total price that the newbie would charge?

I think not.

Thank you.

lol, I offer free unlimited sub-domains that can be added by the user with their cPanel account. I can't believe you would charge for sub-domains!

Greetings:

I use H-Sphere which has auto account provision for adding new hosting plans, domains, et all.

Should hosting therefore be free because it is automated?

The issue is value.

Thank you.

at least 5-10 Free subdomains

Kind of ridiculous in my opinion just like you these so called "professional designers" charge for images on your site <im src="" alt="" /> how hard is that?

Not very hard really, but setup isn't always everything.

Consider the web development work you just did not charge for would have cost you the following:
1. 2 minutes reading the email / saving the file
2. 2 minutes editing the image so it can be publised on the web at a reasonable size
3. 2 minutes adding the image code to the HTML code
4. 2 minutes working our the code your just wrote didn't work and adding the "g" in img
5. 2 minutes uploading and re-testing

The client then sends you further batches of one image to add because you didn't charge the first time. It doesn't have to be a huge expense, but a small token charge sometimes makes a point with web development work.

Also, if some person who is just learning system administration charges $25 per hour, and takes eight hours to do a task; and then some one who has 5+ years experience takes only 15 minutes, should the 5+ year experience person only charge 1/16th of the total price that the newbie would charge?
=
Bad example.
Setting up a subdomain doesn't require 5yrs of expertise, and its repetitive work unlike programming where experience would matter.

Greetings:

The concept is value.

If we go by the logic espoused in most of this thread, then everything should be free; and hosting providers should do it for charity.

Thank you.

Originally posted by dynamicnet
Greetings:

The concept is value.

If we go by the logic espoused in most of this thread, then everything should be free; and hosting providers should do it for charity.

Thank you.
Providing space is costing you money, providing sub domains doesn't. Giving your customers free sub domains just adds value to their hosting plan. SUB DOMAINS SHOULD BE FREE :)

Originally posted by dynamicnet
Greetings:

The concept is value.

If we go by the logic espoused in most of this thread, then everything should be free; and hosting providers should do it for charity.

Thank you.

lol, yes we should charge for some things, but not sub-domains. It's like McDonalds charging for napkins and straws, yes there is a percieved value but they should be given for free.

Just use cPanel or something, and let the user setup their own sub-domains, this is 2004 not 1995 when sub-domains were a cool extra feature ;)

Providing space is costing you money, providing sub domains doesn't. Giving your customers free sub domains just adds value to their hosting plan. SUB DOMAINS SHOULD BE FREE

now this is how hosts should be thinking ;)

I realise some of you are going to say:

Oh, but sub-domains can be used for seperate sites!

But this is how I look at it. You are providing your user with X amount of bandwidth and X amount of disk space, they should be able to use it all on one site or between more that one site.

Each to their own ;)

If we go by the logic espoused in most of this thread, then everything should be free

Who said EVERYTHING should be free? I believe the topic here is sub-domains, not everything ;)

Greetings:

Cost and value are completely separate issues.

Thank you.

Originally posted by gxhosting
Providing space is costing you money, providing sub domains doesn't. Giving your customers free sub domains just adds value to their hosting plan. SUB DOMAINS SHOULD BE FREE :)

Most hosts charge for anything above and beyond what is listed in their plans regardless of their costs. I don't see hosts giving away their unused space/transfer because that would really add some value to their plans and it wouldn't cost them a dime.

suprising logic.. (for a few mouse clicks too create a subdomain)
e.g food industry
fee for using knife, fork, spoon when you goto dinner oh don't forget the air conditioning, napkins, sauce, waiter costs, cleaning, cook, food.... when you ONLY Buy the Food and if you asked for a spoon or a extra napkin they should charge u a fee for "using the waiters time and you occupying their precious time too serve another customer" or even if you dropped the spoon(clean spoon, waiter fee)..
Nice logic? Just because subdomains won't be familiar with the average Joe means you can exploit it unless you feel a few clicks labor requires a fee."Cost and value are completely separate issues."

" I don't see hosts giving away their unused space/transfer"
- that is a bad example the client already purcased the space and bandwidth its not giving away they still have limitations.... and if he is gonna go over good news for you hes gonna upgrade... if your overselling you would probably have a problem with this..

why charge for trivial things? what if everyone adopts this logic.. god help us.

Originally posted by dynamicnet
Greetings:

In my opinion, when you run a business, if you provide the consumer a value, the value should have the option of having a price associated with the value.

If an owner decides to charge for a value delivered, then that's fine. And if another owner decides not to charge for the same value delivered, that's also fine.

However, when providing value, I find it interesting when people state things "should be" free.

Thank you. Absolutely agree.

Also to the thread starter, you should research YOUR MARKET and have a look at the opposition before you jump in with a “price” ;)

Originally posted by Velociraptor
why charge for trivial things? what if everyone adopts this logic.. god help us.

Because space and transfer is not the biggest expense in running a real hosting company. Time billed for man power is.

Greetings:

God does help us. He gave us brains to use et all the more.

There are those who compete on price, and there are those who compete on value.

When you compete on value, the keys are value --- not time involved, no automation, not cost -- value.

Thank you.

I still can't believe you would charge for sub-domains, you may aswell charge per FTP transfer, per ticket submitted, for every hit the site gets, hell, why don't you charge $1000 a month and cover it all :D

Originally posted by daveman
It should be all about your buisness plan and your market. The WHT market dictates that subdomains should be free addons.

I read through this whole thread and felt this comment to be the most appropriate part. As I read down through the comments people it seemed to keep forgetting that just because all the advertisements in the offers forums give unlimited subdomains ... that's the WHT market.

Just because WHT members offer subdomains for free, doesn't mean in every market they should be free, and as daveman states, it goes back to your business plan as well.

Originally posted by mwalters
I read through this whole thread and felt this comment to be the most appropriate part. As I read down through the comments people it seemed to keep forgetting that just because all the advertisements in the offers forums give unlimited subdomains ... that's the WHT market.

Just because WHT members offer subdomains for free, doesn't mean in every market they should be free, and as daveman states, it goes back to your business plan as well.

The reason why you can get away with charging for sub-domains in other markets is because people don't realize their being ripped off ;)

Greetings Bub Host:

"The reason why you can get away with charging for sub-domains in other markets is because people don't realize their being ripped off"

That's an extremely harsh statement; don't you think?

If a customer believes they are receiving a value -- if a customer IS NOT tricked into believing they are receiving a value -- then how are they being ripped off by paying for the value they are receiving?

Does that mean if you charge for anything, YOU are ripping off your customers?

Thank you.

Originally posted by dynamicnet
Greetings Bub Host:

"The reason why you can get away with charging for sub-domains in other markets is because people don't realize their being ripped off"

That's an extremely harsh statement; don't you think?

If a customer believes they are receiving a value -- if a customer IS NOT tricked into believing they are receiving a value -- then how are they being ripped off by paying for the value they are receiving?

Does that mean if you charge for anything, YOU are ripping off your customers?

Thank you.

No thats not what i'm saying. Basically, I think it's ridiculous to charge for sub-domains, espicially per month. If the customer new they could get it for free, they would. Your basically charging for sub-domains because you know that your market won't think twice about paying the fee, whereais WHT members would never pay for something as standard as a sub-domain.

I might sound harsh but we all know that sub-domains are standard and charging for them seems far fetches in my opinion, I've never seen another host charge for them in my life, but thats just me :D

Just include say 1 sub-domain in your lowest plan, 2 in your middle plan etc. Charging per domain for some reason seems a little unethical, it reminds me of how banks charge all sorts of fees.

Greetings Bub Host:

"If the customer new they could get it for free, they would."

Untrue.

Bub, we have a customer that was paying WHT prices for hosting to the point where hosting was as close to free as they could get.

Today, that same company is paying well over $5,000 per month for hosting because next to free did not cut it.

If your overall value provision to the customer meets and exceeds their demands, then customers are not going to nit pick because of one very small portion of the value proposition.

Meaning, that if they are 100% happy with what they get, they are not going to nit pick because we charge more for subdomains than another party when the overall charge for subdomains is less than 1% of their total fee structure.

"Your basically charging for sub-domains because you know that your market won't think twice about paying the fee, whereais WHT members would never pay for something as standard as a sub-domain."

You are right that most WHT members might not pay for a subdomain. However, WHT represents only a small fraction of the market.

Each industry is separated by market layers. It is uncommon for entities within one layer downward without dramatic shifts in the entire market place.

This means that unless there is an entire shift in the hosting market place, it would be uncommon for companies that are not in the WHT market place to shift down towards the WHT market place.

Thank you.

lol, I understand where you coming from, however charging for sub-domains reminds me of how a bank charges fees whenever they can. Each to their own :D

Originally posted by Bub Host
The reason why you can get away with charging for sub-domains in other markets is because people don't realize their being ripped off ;)

It's not ripping them off though is the thing. It's catering to the market. You might charge them for subdomains, but not charge them for something that another host would.

You seem to be missing the idea here ... or are just fighting this to fight it, heh.

lol, I just like voicing my opinion :D

A bank isn't going to stay in business just by giving away everything for free. There are costs involved and they are passed along to the consumer. Many banks now offer free checking, however those accounts don't always include all features that a bank offers. For example, my bank offers free checking for personal accounts, but doesn't give you an ATM card, Visa/MasterCard debit card or online banking. They're the only ones in my town that offer free checking.

You drive down the road a bit and you are in a larger city. Banks there have free checking with lots of perks. They're a different market.

I'm paying more for my business account here in town than I would with a business account with other banks in town and quite a bit more than some in a different place altogether. However, I have received nothing but excellent service from my bank and I have a personal relationship now with them. I can make a call on the phone to get something done and they know who I am, so I can get things done over the phone that I would have to physically go to a bank if I were with someone else. I go to the drivethrough or inside and they all know my business and I by name, from the teller to the loan officers to the president of the bank.

I can get things I pay for there for free or lower cost elsewhere. However, they are a bank that I know I can rely on. That is a value that I am willing to pay the cost for. They are certainly not ripping me off in my eyes because of those things, though someone that is using another bank with all kinds of free stuff may think just the opposite.

I am educated on what else is out there. I know what other banks charge, but I know that my bank is the best value that I can get because of what they have always delivered.

Same goes for hosting. There are different values for different markets. Let's look at what you offer for example. A 70 cents per month plan... around $8 per year. I personally can't imagine even bothering with an account for less than $10 a month, much less actually supporting someone for less than $10 a year, even if it were 5 KB of space and 2 KB of transfer. That's 365 days that someone is expecting my company to be readily available to them for two pennies a day. Two trouble tickets, emails or phone calls within a year and I would most likely be taking a loss.

In addition to the company in my signature, I have another division that charges much more than the business I advertise on these forums and is much more successful. Then there are other company segments that specialize in other areas. They each cater to completely different markets. Different markets bring different values and are charged accordingly.

lol, I'm changing it so that all 70 cent plan customers don't recieve support, how does that sound, LOL?

accept they can still use the tutorials and recieve help from other users on my forum :)

That might be a good idea, but I certainly wasn't dismissing what you offer. You're new to the industry and a small low cost plan might help get your name out there. However, on loss leaders like that, I personally would be more inclined to offer a very low cost monthly plan for "x" amount of time.

Just a suggestion. :)

And chances arey you'll still be taking a loss.

"x" amount of time as in support time?

I think he was meaning a trial period. As in, they'd receive regular service for x month's at $.70 then after x months it will cost $4.95/mo or whatever.

Originally posted by mwalters
I think he was meaning a trial period. As in, they'd receive regular service for x month's at $.70 then after x months it will cost $4.95/mo or whatever.

sounds like a good idea :)

I think you get to charge whatever you want for the subdomain. Forget about control panels for now. Without them, you'd have to set it up, you'd have to test it, you'd have to make sure the config was liked by the customer, and then you'd have to change bits. chances are there'd be support issues with it later on. Overall time with no cps for a competent individual running standard stuff is an addition of a zone, virtual host, nds reload, hup apache. That's probably 20 minutes from the time you get the email from the client to the time it's done, counting ssh connect times, etc... It's A-OK to charge for that stuff even if you're already connected via ssh because YOUR CLIENT ISN'T. The whole point is he is paying you to do stuff he could do if he had the time to host himself.

now about control panels. Yeah they make everything take almost no time. what about those of us who spent months of coding time writing our own? I'm pretty sure it doesn't cost 32 grand to build a lexus. But it cost millions to design it. What if you didn't write your own cp? Well you still pay for it monthly.

Personally i don't like the a-la-carte approach where you need to buy everything separately. but for a lot of hosts that seems to be the only way to be able to write on their site, 'OMG HOSTING FOR %.02/MONTH!!! ALMOST FREE WE ARE GOOD2GOOD!!11ONEONE.' And they need to do that because there are so many people looking for the good deal who don't understand that there are other aspects.

And what if they nab someone who's looking for the good deal and turns out to be happy with the service and understands it might be worth more? Do you suddenly start charging them more for the base account you are providing because they'd still be happy paying a little more? You can't do that. What you can do is simulate that by charging for addons that don't cost you anything that customers will sometimes need after they've matured a little. Maybe by the end of it u'll be charging what you should be.

I guess what i'm saying is that YOU pay for the cp that makes it ez (if you have one). YOU are the one who knows how to config it if you don't have a cp. YOU are the one who probably isn't charging as much as you should be in the first place. So charge what YOU think is fair considering possible support issues.

Originally posted by telnettro
I think you get to charge whatever you want for the subdomain. Forget about control panels for now. Without them, you'd have to set it up, you'd have to test it, you'd have to make sure the config was liked by the customer, and then you'd have to change bits. chances are there'd be support issues with it later on. Overall time with no cps for a competent individual running standard stuff is an addition of a zone, virtual host, nds reload, hup apache. That's probably 20 minutes from the time you get the email from the client to the time it's done, counting ssh connect times, etc... It's A-OK to charge for that stuff even if you're already connected via ssh because YOUR CLIENT ISN'T. The whole point is he is paying you to do stuff he could do if he had the time to host himself.

now about control panels. Yeah they make everything take almost no time. what about those of us who spent months of coding time writing our own? I'm pretty sure it doesn't cost 32 grand to build a lexus. But it cost millions to design it. What if you didn't write your own cp? Well you still pay for it monthly.

Personally i don't like the a-la-carte approach where you need to buy everything separately. but for a lot of hosts that seems to be the only way to be able to write on their site, 'OMG HOSTING FOR %.02/MONTH!!! ALMOST FREE WE ARE GOOD2GOOD!!11ONEONE.' And they need to do that because there are so many people looking for the good deal who don't understand that there are other aspects.

And what if they nab someone who's looking for the good deal and turns out to be happy with the service and understands it might be worth more? Do you suddenly start charging them more for the base account you are providing because they'd still be happy paying a little more? You can't do that. What you can do is simulate that by charging for addons that don't cost you anything that customers will sometimes need after they've matured a little. Maybe by the end of it u'll be charging what you should be.

I guess what i'm saying is that YOU pay for the cp that makes it ez (if you have one). YOU are the one who knows how to config it if you don't have a cp. YOU are the one who probably isn't charging as much as you should be in the first place. So charge what YOU think is fair considering possible support issues.

I was expressing my point of view if you DID have a control panel. If you don't then charging for a sub-domain seems reasonabe, however in this day and age you really should invest in a control panel (cPanel for example) as it is becoming expected that customers can add things when they like.

Tada :D