I just want to know, how much money you get from the webhosting service ?
Is it enough for support your life, buy luxury car, big house, airplane, boat, traveling.... :)

support your life, buy luxury car, big house, airplane, boat, traveling.
yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, no time.

:D

yes, yes, yes, no, no, no time.
:bawling::bawling::bawling:

Me need that airplane because I am a pilot. Me also need that boat because me love to waterski. I like the first guys answer the best. How many clients do you have or need to support that?

yea yea yea.. tell us how many customer do you had until you can bought all that :)

Originally posted by ******
I ...e, buy luxury car, big house, airplane, boat, traveling.... :)



:nuts:

:dgrin:

once you had that money you may not buy all these but more and more servers and yes one laptop to provide support to your customers when you are traveling in
luxury car
O R
airplan
O R
boat

:D :D ;)

yes to all the above alaska style :) except the luxury boat...what the heck do you need one of these in alaska for!

House: 2 story 4 bdrm
luxury car: 4x4 F-150 XCab :)
luxury airplane: Cessna 172 on floats with big engine :)
traveling: when we have time :)

Originally posted by ******
I just want to know, how much money you get from the webhosting service ?
Is it enough for support your life, buy luxury car, big house, airplane, boat, traveling.... :)


Dont think you can get all that after 3 months. You have to be in business for a while. Just letting you know so you dont think that we host are multi millionaire after the first 6 months.

onewebs right, i been doing this for 5 years :)

wait you dont make a million in the first month? Cause this ebook i bought for 49.95 said I was going to..

Hmmm....


Just kidding!

--Brad

no, no, no, no, no, no, :bawling:

no, no, no, no, no, no:bawling:

no, no, no, no, no, no :bawling:

Lucky i have a 2nd job or might i say 3rd :D

so could somebody post how much they make. i'm anxious.

Originally posted by MrLister
so could somebody post how much they make. i'm anxious.

That's a little personal, I dubt anybody will post that

ahhh how about >$1000 or <$1000

Its an impossible ( some might say dumb, but of course not me . . ) question.

Everyone here makes a different amount depending on the number of clients and overheads they have, what any of us make has no bearing whatsoever on what you will make.

If you want to know how much you will make consider your technical and sales skills and put the time in to draft a business plan. Then divide it by 2 ;)

There are a some questions you should never ask people - 'how much do you earn' is in the top three.

Any company making enough money to really support itself won't have people posting here (which makes me wonder, where is *****?)

Originally posted by ShellBounder
Any company making enough money to really support itself won't have people posting here (which makes me wonder, where is *****?)

is that right ? .. We post here, VDI posts here, HR posts here

CI doesn't post here becauase they are too busy ripping off customers.

Don't recognize those names, likely just out of ignorance. :) So much for probability and hypothesis.

Originally posted by CRego3D


is that right ? .. We post here, VDI posts here, HR posts here

CI doesn't post here becauase they are too busy ripping off customers.

I for one am having some trouble believing that not one ***** employee knows or cares about WHT and similar places...

Well I think every hosting company should post here. No matter how much you think you know or how big you are you can always learn more.

Any company making enough money to really support itself won't have people posting here Wow... FutureQuest has put food on our table and clothes on our children's backs for a few years now. It also supports a few other families within the team, and to date it has continued to support itself. To top it off... I'm posting here *gasp* :D

Though the question of "how much" may be seen as "too personal" for those not making enough to go public and release their numbers to the public every quarter...one piece of information I have found interesting is that we made more when we were making less which obviously means that we're making less now that we're making more.

uhhh yes the above does make sense! :stickout

To clarify .. when it was just my husband and I and we had a small amount of hardware sitting in a co-location facility the profit margin per account was higher simply because our expenses were low. Now our expenses have sky rocketed as we grow and the need for our own DS-3s and a staff etc lessons the profit margin. Growth is an expensive side affect of getting where you want to be...

Originally posted by ShellBounder
Any company making enough money to really support itself won't have people posting here
Excuse me, but i don't think you are right. Is that supposed to mean that companies earning enough to hire support techs or have their own servers, etc. cannot post in a public forum? 'Big' companies don't lock themselves up in their office without communicating ...and after all we're all humans. :D

:confused:

After all the owner of RackShack himself posts here and they now have a million dollar data facility.

To clarify .. when it was just my husband and I and we had a small amount of hardware sitting in a co-location facility the profit margin per account was higher simply because our expenses were low. Now our expenses have sky rocketed as we grow and the need for our own DS-3s and a staff etc lessons the profit margin. Growth is an expensive side affect of getting where you want to be...

I took my first customer on Oct 16th. At the end of my first month in business the company is actually profitable (even managed to bring in enough to pay those Rackshack setup fees!). As of this moment my out of pocket expenses for starting the company are all completely paid and some change has even been added back to my pocket (and I do mean change, not many bills yet). At the current rate of customer growth, I will be able to (barely) live off the income in 3-4 months. I felt like I was doing pretty good for a month and 2 week2 in business :)

i make 40.00 bucks a month..

and i order about 4 pizzas a month..

so i am doing good :-)

Originally posted by ShellBounder
Any company making enough money to really support itself won't have people posting here (which makes me wonder, where is *****?)


Wrong. I make enough so that my husband could quit his long-term job last summer and stay home and work on the house full-time (remodeling is so much fun!).

I started my business in 1997 though...so it isn't an overnight "get rich" scheme, if that is what you are hoping for. It's lots of hard work and long hours. Plan on never taking a vacation unless you take your work with you. I swear, I've actually been camping out in the middle of the woods and had to work.

--Tina

Originally posted by Dixiesys


At the current rate of customer growth, I will be able to (barely) live off the income in 3-4 months.

Which is exactly why so many hosting companies fail. You need to have a long-term solid business plan BEFORE you setup shop.

--Tina

Which is exactly why so many hosting companies fail. You need to have a long-term solid business plan BEFORE you setup shop.

My long term business plan is to pay the bills, and grow the business to a comfortable size where it fits two purposes: gets just large enough that I can quit eating bologna and crackers for lunch, and stays just small enough that I don't have to run out and hire a bunch of employees and go "bigtime". I've had my fill of being boss. I'd like to just run my business, support my customers, tinker on my computers, and if I need a break, there's a couple of guys who know more than enough about me and my customers to step in for me for a week or two while I go have fun. The way people around here act, it's a crime that my ultimate goal isn't a hard wood desk, corner office in some new offices downtown while my big time web hosting company goes to pot because all the drones I hired for tech support don't know their tail end from a 10 base T port.

Ok so I don't want to be the next Verio. It could very well mean at some point I no longer take many new customers and instead find a hosting company that I trust and then I refer people to them. Who knows.

Besides I hate plans, they never work out like I planned no how. Seat of the pants baby! No radar :D

dixiesys, I like your attitude and agree to it 100 %.

Originally posted by ASPCode.net
dixiesys, I like your attitude and agree to it 100 %.

I like to chase dollars too, it's just that, when I've caught a few, I'd rather take the wife down to Gulf Shores or up to the Smoky's and chase her for a while than to keep on keeping on chasing dollars non stop! Besides, who's gonna teach my boy to fish and cuss properly when he gets a little older if I'm too busy building megahostcorp inc to make sure he can bait a hook without squinching his face like a girl?

Originally posted by Dixiesys


My long term business plan is to pay the bills, and grow the business to a comfortable size where it fits two purposes: gets just large enough that I can quit eating bologna and crackers for lunch, and stays just small enough that I don't have to run out and hire a bunch of employees and go "bigtime". I've had my fill of being boss. I'd like to just run my business, support my customers, tinker on my computers, and if I need a break, there's a couple of guys who know more than enough about me and my customers to step in for me for a week or two while I go have fun. The way people around here act, it's a crime that my ultimate goal isn't a hard wood desk, corner office in some new offices downtown while my big time web hosting company goes to pot because all the drones I hired for tech support don't know their tail end from a 10 base T port.

Ok so I don't want to be the next Verio. It could very well mean at some point I no longer take many new customers and instead find a hosting company that I trust and then I refer people to them. Who knows.

Besides I hate plans, they never work out like I planned no how. Seat of the pants baby! No radar :D

You need to take a business course. A business plan is not "I want to be successful". A business plan consists of crunching numbers and figuring out how much you have to charge x the number of customers you need to survive. Had you had this in mind ahead of time...you wouldn't be in the situation you are in now. It's only going to get worse for you. Without solid/real information, you're just firing bullets into the air and hoping to hit something.

"Seat of the pants baby" - do your customers know you run your business this way? Is it fair to them?

Without a business plan, you are doomed to fail.

--Tina

$3.95 per account per month
I hear of people putting 200+ domains on a server, I'm planning for 125-150

Let pessimism rule, 125 accounts per server:

125 x $3.95 = $493.75 income per 125 customers and per server.

I hear here in these forums, as well as from my own experience, that around the 500 user mark is where it gets hard to make it a single man operation.

4 servers x 125 users per server = 500 users

4 x 493.75 = $1975 per month

Servers cost me $105.53 per month

4 x 105.53 = $422.12
Toll free line + phone line = $85 per month

$507.12 per month expenses

$1467.88 per month gross profit, my goal is $1200

And, not ALL my accounts are $3.95 accounts! And by all accounts, 125 hosts per server is a _very_ pessimistic outlook on servers. if I pushed it to 167 accounts per server, I could do it with 3 servers. The numbers here are quite literally, worst case.

Thanks for your concern.

Originally posted by Dixiesys
$3.95 per account per month
I hear of people putting 200+ domains on a server, I'm planning for 125-150

Let pessimism rule, 125 accounts per server:

125 x $3.95 = $493.75 income per 125 customers and per server.

I hear here in these forums, as well as from my own experience, that around the 500 user mark is where it gets hard to make it a single man operation.

4 servers x 125 users per server = 500 users

4 x 493.75 = $1975 per month

Servers cost me $105.53 per month

4 x 105.53 = $422.12
Toll free line + phone line = $85 per month

$507.12 per month expenses

$1467.88 per month gross profit, my goal is $1200

And, not ALL my accounts are $3.95 accounts! And by all accounts, 125 hosts per server is a _very_ pessimistic outlook on servers. if I pushed it to 167 accounts per server, I could do it with 3 servers. The numbers here are quite literally, worst case.

Thanks for your concern.

You need to figure in ALL of your expenses. Are you paying taxes? If not, you could be in for a big surprise.

--Tina

Originally posted by AffordableHost


You need to figure in ALL of your expenses. Are you paying taxes? If not, you could be in for a big surprise.

--Tina

$1400 a month in income off of a small business + my wife's salary with our 1 dependant, the amount of taxes I'll have to pay will be minimum. Plus she has her job take 0 dependants out on her so she's over paying a good bit, quite frankly I'll likely get a refund or have to pay a little bit.

Yeah there are other expenses I can "claim" as part of doing business, cable modem, money spent on computers and upgrades. Home office ya know. Oh the paper I buy for my printer, sure when I set down with my tax guy this February he'll come up with all sorts of expenses I didn't even know I had! Hell by the time he's done with me I'll be lucky if I ain't in the hole thanks to all those business expenses! :D

Your concern over my financial well being is most touching, that good old Christmas spriit must be working its magic!

Originally posted by Dixiesys
$3.95 per account per month
I hear of people putting 200+ domains on a server, I'm planning for 125-150

Let pessimism rule, 125 accounts per server:

125 x $3.95 = $493.75 income per 125 customers and per server.

I hear here in these forums, as well as from my own experience, that around the 500 user mark is where it gets hard to make it a single man operation.

4 servers x 125 users per server = 500 users

4 x 493.75 = $1975 per month

Servers cost me $105.53 per month

4 x 105.53 = $422.12
Toll free line + phone line = $85 per month

$507.12 per month expenses

$1467.88 per month gross profit, my goal is $1200

And, not ALL my accounts are $3.95 accounts! And by all accounts, 125 hosts per server is a _very_ pessimistic outlook on servers. if I pushed it to 167 accounts per server, I could do it with 3 servers. The numbers here are quite literally, worst case.

Thanks for your concern.

Well.. but you have the time to do support for 500 customer only you?
Because with that kind of profit you can't hire somebody to do support with you.
Anyway, getting $1400 per month, working (how many daily hours? 16-18? 7 days a week) you're getting $3.0/hour
My time worth a lot more than this.

I have been doing similar estimates like yours. I am assuming you use RackShack since your cost per server is $105 a month. Are you using RAQ's? Or their Linux boxes? Do you have any expenses for backups? billing expenses? Just curious.
I have been focusing more on reselling because by my estimates to provide a server with needed bandwidth and data backup, it would cost $250 to $400 a month depending on the server provider. Now for $1400 income that cost did not sound too bad to me, but $105 a month sounds better! But how do you provide backups? (Not included in RackShacks service).

Thanks!

Originally posted by SO23
I have been doing similar estimates like yours. I am assuming you use RackShack since your cost per server is $105 a month. Are you using RAQ's? Or their Linux boxes? Do you have any expenses for backups? billing expenses? Just curious.
I have been focusing more on reselling because by my estimates to provide a server with needed bandwidth and data backup, it would cost $250 to $400 a month depending on the server provider. Now for $1400 income that cost did not sound too bad to me, but $105 a month sounds better! But how do you provide backups? (Not included in RackShacks service).

Thanks!

Can't give away all my secrets, but daily backup at 5am using raqbackup.sh and some modifications of my own. With 54 domains the current backup is 440 megs nightly. As this grows I'll have to incorporate plan B.

Using a RaQ right now, next up will be a linux box unless Headsurfer makes some deal (as I foresee people bailing on the RaQs as soon as they can) available for RaQs. Billing does eatup some. Except for 2 customers all my billing is auto-recurring. Can't make no money if I'm chasing my monthly payemnts each month. Of course one of those I have to chase (I email him, he sends the money) is a $150 per month account (oh did I mention not all my customers pay $3.95 a month? hehe).

Originally posted by Jedito


Well.. but you have the time to do support for 500 customer only you?
Because with that kind of profit you can't hire somebody to do support with you.
Anyway, getting $1400 per month, working (how many daily hours? 16-18? 7 days a week) you're getting $3.0/hour
My time worth a lot more than this.

Yeah having to answer the phone while I'm watching Scooby Doo sucks, or getting the cordless handset wet while me and the kid are in the pool to tell someone that they need to use "webmaster" and not their username to upload with Frontpage just ruins the whole day :D

Supporting customers ain't exactly being strapped in my seat for 16 hours a day. Cordless phone, cell phone. Check my email once an hour or so. Hell 24 hours a day ain't no biggie, so I get woke up once in a while by a customer.

Yeah if I were in some stinking office while "working" those 16 hours I'd be upset at my pay too. It's just hard to get pissed when most of my day consists of Scooby Doo, Power Puff girls, DVDs, swims in the pool, and walks down to my sister's house to eat lunch with her and her kids or forward the phone and toll free line to the cell phone and go eat dinner or take the kid out on the river.

My life sucks guess I'll go die now :bawling:

If you have to strap your ass into a seat 16 hours a day to do customer support, then I feel for you.

As long as nothing just dies, I can do tech support while I'm out hunting deer this winter. Of course if my cell rings while I'm drawing down on an 8 pointer, someone's account is as good as cancelled :angry:

I'll take my $3 an hour and smile :)

You make it sound a little bit too easy. You will se it gets harder from there...

i want to be like Dixiesys when i grow up! :D

Originally posted by one_web
You make it sound a little bit too easy. You will se it gets harder from there...

Dude, this isn't the first web hosting company I've built, nor is it the second. Both times before I got canned just about the time profitability was reached and the servers were all scripted up and doing automated backups and automated this and automated that where literally a trained monkey could run it (little better than trained monkeys are STILL running them now).

The MISTAKE last two times was doing it for SOMEONE ELSE and now they reap the rewards of all my work and I'm unemployed, not this time baby, this time it's my business and my rewards. My reward is the fact that after I post this message I have to add two more customers into my database and send them their welcome email, then I'm gonna go watch a couple hours of Bugs Bunny and Friends.

It ain't easy at all, I've spent hours and hours setting it all up. And have many hours left of fine tuning every aspect of the service. But hell it's what I like to do, tinkering with servers and making them practically run themself is what I like to do whether I'm working or not.

how are you marketing your company? banners?

Well I seriously doubt your going to get anybody to post actual numbers unless like deb said that their large enough that their reports are made public.

But lets just say we support a total staff of 12 people comfortably :)

Its not necessarily a get rich quick type thing, however, I suppose we could be considered a multi-million dollar company however thats exactly defined. We've been in business for a little over 10 months now, so its possible but only if your willing to give up your life , invest your life savings, have good partners to help you out and have a good busines plan, ALLWAYS ALLWAYS have a business plan, both short term and long term :).

$3 an hour??? People in sweat shops are getting paid more than you. :eek:

Originally posted by archangel777
$3 an hour??? People in sweat shops are getting paid more than you. :eek: People in sweat shops don't get paid while hunting or watching TV. ;)

I'm kind of in the same groove that "grimster" is...if I were to divide my monthly earnings into the actual number of hours I work each week...let's just say sweat shop employment is looking pretty attractive!

What it comes down to is I can pay the bills, live the kind of life I want to, and answer to my customers (and wife) and NO BOSS or clock punching! That's freedom to me, and it makes $3/hour (actually less) worthwhile.

Oh, and I've been doing this for over two years (hosting and site development).

Well lets see here, I just went into hosting about 2 months ago, I read and read and read and came to the conclusion that I could safely fit 235 customers on one of my servers which cost 85 dollars a month, I then charge 6.95 for a light account which is 1 gig and 25 mB I have 350 of these I also have 165 Bonze accounts 30 silver and I think 12 gold customers. I pay 1.50 per gig. To date I have had 7.9 hours of downtime that was refunded to my customers and I pay one other employee beside myself. so after the end of the month I bring in just around $6250 a month after taking out my expenses

------------------------------------------------------
<DREAMING>ME</DREAMING

Originally posted by hurtdidit
People in sweat shops don't get paid while hunting or watching TV. ;)

I'm kind of in the same groove that "grimster" is...if I were to divide my monthly earnings into the actual number of hours I work each week...let's just say sweat shop employment is looking pretty attractive!

What it comes down to is I can pay the bills, live the kind of life I want to, and answer to my customers (and wife) and NO BOSS or clock punching! That's freedom to me, and it makes $3/hour (actually less) worthwhile.

Oh, and I've been doing this for over two years (hosting and site development).

I don't do site design for obvious reasons (I suck at it) so I'll stick to web hosting and a bit of internet access and some consulting on the side.

Finally someone who understands the whole point of all this. What other job could I have where I could nap from 2-5PM in the afternoon in my big leather recliner with my son? Yeah so I can't claim to make big money, when people ask me what I do for a living I just tell them I'm unemployed. Of coure they invariably ask "are you looking for work?" "nah not really" the looks I get, it's all good. I've been around too long to let my ego get in the way of what is really important (slept till 10 this morning got up, setup 3 new customers, argued in the forum a bit, fed the kid, worked some more on my instant signup script for my RaQ server changed a diaper (ew), ate lunch and took a 3 hour nap, got 2 more customers to setup who signed up while I was napping, got a handful of support emails (I updated my DNS yesterday why can't I get to my site? patience grasshopper! and My girlfriend uploaded her web page but it's messed up? try uploading the graphics too!). $3 an hour? Ahh well, ya'll be sure to pity me for being so stupid and having such a lousy business plan :D

Dixiesys,

YOU ARE MY #1 HERO.

Could you like write a book and give inspiraction to everyone

Originally posted by sasjamal
i make 40.00 bucks a month..

and i order about 4 pizzas a month..

so i am doing good :-)

Now that's what I call keeping things in perspective. Great answer. :)

Originally posted by alchiba


Now that's what I call keeping things in perspective. Great answer. :)

I wanna hear more about these $10 pizza delivery options!

Maybe by this time next month I can get one a week or so and quit eating bologna and crackers every day.

Originally posted by Dixiesys
when people ask me what I do for a living I just tell them I'm unemployed. Of coure they invariably ask "are you looking for work?" "nah not really" the looks I get, it's all good ROFL, yeah I've done that a time or two!! The most recent occurence was at Thanksgiving when one of my less-likable aunts was bragging about her son who's in med. school, and then followed up with a conspicuous "And where are you working?" directed at me.

"I've been unemployed for over two years."

LOL, the reaction is golden sometimes! Of course, Mom was quick to jump in and state, "You are not--tell her what you do, Frank!". Guess the good times can't last forever...

;)

Grimster, you rule!

Originally posted by one_web
You make it sound a little bit too easy. You will se it gets harder from there...

Yes, unfortunately. I'm not trying to burst his bubble - but, according to what I'm reading from him, he is in the honeymoon stage of the game. It's going to get too busy for him to handle alone SOON - and there won't be enough income to hire any help.

Yes, in the beginning it was great fun...I could sleep til 10 am, hang out with the fam all day, take a handful of support calls a day. The money was AMAZING because I didn't have to hire anyone else. :)

...then I started getting more and more customers. I was spending ALOT of time taking phone calls (you'll end up with about 1 out of around 50 customers thinking they need to call you for help everytime they do ANYTHING with their account). Not bad, when you only have a handful of customers. When you get into the 100s...it's hard to help them all.

I was also trying to keep up with billing, accounting, setting up new accounts, answering emails, sales calls, fixing server glitches, etc. I was literally starting to work 18 hour days and STILL not being able to get everything done. Luckily I factored in hiring some help. Otherwise, I'd be more insane than I already am! :D

Seriously, to anyone thinking of going into this business...PLEASE, if not for your own sake, do it for your customers. Make a realistic business plan. I'm sure there are many experienced people here that would even be willing to help.

--Tina

Originally posted by hurtdidit
ROFL, yeah I've done that a time or two!! The most recent occurence was at Thanksgiving when one of my less-likable aunts was bragging about her son who's in med. school, and then followed up with a conspicuous "And where are you working?" directed at me.

"I've been unemployed for over two years."

LOL, the reaction is golden sometimes! Of course, Mom was quick to jump in and state, "You are not--tell her what you do, Frank!". Guess the good times can't last forever...

;)


LOL!!! My father can't grasp what I do. I've explained it to him 10 zillion times and I still get:

Dad: So, what is it exactly that you do?

Me: (insert hosting definition here)

Dad: So, this isn't actually something that your customers own or see?

Me: Right.

Dad: ...and you never see your customers.

Me: Right - I never actually see them and rarely ever speak to any of them.

Dad: ...and you never actually see the money.

Me: Right, it goes right into the bank.

Dad: So, you sell something that isn't tangible...to people you never see...for money that doesn't exchange hands.

Me: Exactly.

Dad: Okay, explain it to me again.


:rolleyes:

LMAO, that is hilarious, though I do have a question how do customers repond to the way a site is designed. I seen purple-paw.com and from a design aspect it is stunningly gorgeous, then I look at other that seemed to take 30 minutes and a blind eye. Which works best. I have been a web designer for 4 years and have been a linux sysadmin for 9 months and I can never see why someone would by hosting that wasn't from someone who had a fantastic site design you know first impression.

Just curious

===============================
I have always worked for somebody else and what you guys do really inspire me!!!

Originally posted by jeremiah23
LMAO, that is hilarious, though I do have a question how do customers repond to the way a site is designed. I seen purple-paw.com and from a design aspect it is stunningly gorgeous, then I look at other that seemed to take 30 minutes and a blind eye. Which works best. I have been a web designer for 4 years and have been a linux sysadmin for 9 months and I can never see why someone would by hosting that wasn't from someone who had a fantastic site design you know first impression.

Just curious

===============================
I have always worked for somebody else and what you guys do really inspire me!!!


are you asking which works best? or are you telling us that the "geo-cities" sites work best?

which works best please ?

sorry I tend to ramble,

=============================
I just love to watch myself type :)

I like you should start a thread about that. I have things to say about that and think that it will start to shift this thread on a different direction.

what a long.. thread here..
blame ****** for start this topic !! :angry:

thanks guys for all the reply and inspiration

Yes, I enjoyed reading this rather long thread. :)

-Kyle

P.S.- It gave me thought for when I start mine in 2005. :)

Originally posted by jeremiah23
Well lets see here, I just went into hosting about 2 months ago, I read and read and read and came to the conclusion that I could safely fit 235 customers on one of my servers which cost 85 dollars a month, I then charge 6.95 for a light account which is 1 gig and 25 mB I have 350 of these I also have 165 Bonze accounts 30 silver and I think 12 gold customers. I pay 1.50 per gig. To date I have had 7.9 hours of downtime that was refunded to my customers and I pay one other employee beside myself. so after the end of the month I bring in just around $6250 a month after taking out my expenses

------------------------------------------------------
<DREAMING>ME</DREAMING

Don't know if that is a joke because the <DREAMING> sig.

But.. if it isn't a joke...
I'd like to know how you got 557 customers in two months of business?

Originally posted by Get-Hosted.com


Don't know if that is a joke because the <DREAMING> sig.

But.. if it isn't a joke...
I'd like to know how you got 557 customers in two months of business?

Yeah I thought I was about to get to add a new hero into my oh-so short list of heroes, but alas they were <dreaming></dreaming> :)

I even PM'd offering to wash his car in exchange for lessons from the chi master of marketing! :D
WAX ON
WAX OFF

Ahh... Good.
Thought so.
Didn't bother to check if that was his normal signature though.

Originally posted by Dixiesys
I even PM'd offering to wash his car in exchange for lessons from the chi master of marketing! :D
WAX ON
WAX OFF ROFLMAO

Originally posted by AffordableHost
Make a realistic business plan. I'm sure there are many experienced people here that would even be willing to help.

Tina, maybe time for a new thread?
I think many of the newbies would be happy about that...

Originally posted by netsolutions
Me need that airplane because I am a pilot. Me also need that boat because me love to waterski. I like the first guys answer the best. How many clients do you have or need to support that?

Originally posted by ******
yea yea yea.. tell us how many customer do you had until you can bought all that :)

Enough. :D Seriously, a big part of it is from the webhosting business ...and a large part is from investments, etc. I believe that if you do business right, no matter what kind of business, you can be in the 7-figure revenue ranges after 12 months or less.

Originally posted by Kiwi

I believe that if you do business right, no matter what kind of business, you can be in the 7-figure revenue ranges after 12 months or less.


Agreed. I strongly recommend that everyone here read the book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad".

--Tina

Originally posted by ******
I just want to know, how much money you get from the webhosting service ?

not much, the money we make off webhosting goes to our operational costs then the rest is handed out to several non profit organizations that we support.

You can support a heck of a lot more than 500 customers by yourself and still provide prompt and outstanding support if you are organized and if you automate your operation as much as possible and rely on a solid ticket system. :)

Originally posted by AffordableHost



LOL!!! My father can't grasp what I do. I've explained it to him 10 zillion times and I still get:

Dad: So, what is it exactly that you do?

Me: (insert hosting definition here)

Dad: So, this isn't actually something that your customers own or see?

Me: Right.

Dad: ...and you never see your customers.

Me: Right - I never actually see them and rarely ever speak to any of them.

Dad: ...and you never actually see the money.

Me: Right, it goes right into the bank.

Dad: So, you sell something that isn't tangible...to people you never see...for money that doesn't exchange hands.

Me: Exactly.

Dad: Okay, explain it to me again.


:rolleyes:

Very funny! :)
I think we should have a site where we would post stories like this :)

Originally posted by bert
You can support a heck of a lot more than 500 customers by yourself and still provide prompt and outstanding support if you are organized and if you automate your operation as much as possible and rely on a solid ticket system. :) No kidding?! You must have some knowledgable customers; seems like even with my tiny number of clients, I'm getting a huge number of "simple" requests, like how to set up their email in Outlook Express (even though it is clearly outlined in the FAQs). I must've unfortunately tapped into the AOL market!! :eek:

Originally posted by hurtdidit
No kidding?! You must have some knowledgable customers; seems like even with my tiny number of clients, I'm getting a huge number of "simple" requests, like how to set up their email in Outlook Express (even though it is clearly outlined in the FAQs). I must've unfortunately tapped into the AOL market!! :eek:


Make sure your FAQs are clear. What is clear to someone who already knows how to do something...sometimes isn't so clear to a newbie. I actually had a couple of my newbie customers read over our FAQs and tell me if anything looked confusing. I was surprised that the email and FTP sections were not as clear as I had thought. We re-wrote them and now rarely get questions about it.

Also, make sure that you have a HelpDesk...as opposed to a single email address setup for support. This really streamlines the process and avoids people just shooting off a quick email because it requires very little effort.

We actually have an autoresponder setup when people email support@ - it basically says, make sure your question isn't covered in the FAQ...and then submit a HelpDesk request, if you still need help.

This has DRASTICALLY improved our support system.

--Tina

Tina,

If you don't mind me asking, how many support staff do you have for your hosting clients?

Rehan

All good tips Tina, thank you! :)

I think the problem I seem to be facing is actually getting clients to LOOK at the FAQs!! I have chosen to target mostly my local market, and that has the unfortunate side effect of making it easy for clients to call me up whenever they have problems--and that they do often! I actually get more support calls over the phone than via email. :( Maybe I need to stop answering the phone?! :P

Originally posted by Rehan
Tina,

If you don't mind me asking, how many support staff do you have for your hosting clients?

Rehan


We have 3000+ hosting customers and our support staff includes:

Myself - full-time plus, plus :)

One other full time

One everyday part-time

One "on call as needed" part-time

We do not take phone calls for general support issues (only emergencies). Everything must go through the HelpDesk and is almost always answered within a few hours.

--Tina

Originally posted by hurtdidit
All good tips Tina, thank you! :)

I think the problem I seem to be facing is actually getting clients to LOOK at the FAQs!! I have chosen to target mostly my local market, and that has the unfortunate side effect of making it easy for clients to call me up whenever they have problems--and that they do often! I actually get more support calls over the phone than via email. :( Maybe I need to stop answering the phone?! :P

Whoa I get nowhere near the amount of calls I do email (50:1? 100:1?). Definitely time to start training your customers to use - web page - email (or ticket system) - phone (in that order).

Maybe do like Tina mentioned, no phone calls unless they have an open ticket already!

When it gets to be a problem for me, I'll put in a ticket system and part of the submission process will be a Q&A that attempts to locate a FAQ for them to read.

Originally posted by AffordableHost
Myself - full-time plus, plus :):)

Thanks for the info, Tina. I've seen numbers before of 200-800 customers per support staff, but 1000+ is excellent! You've obviously done a great job in building the business and your reputation. :)

Yes, that is what we have done.

First, they choose the topic of their problem...for example, email. Then it shows them possible problems. For example - 'if your problem is related to not being able to SEND email, click here'

If they click on that link - it will then bring them to the FAQ page for that problem.

--Tina

Originally posted by Rehan
:)

Thanks for the info, Tina. I've seen numbers before of 200-800 customers per support staff, but 1000+ is excellent! You've obviously done a great job in building the business and your reputation. :)


Are those numbers based on phone support or email/helpdesk support? BIG difference.

--Tina

Training my clients to use a helpdesk will be a challenge (some of them are very much typical AOL folks! :( ), but I agree is the only way to go; I will end up killing myself with support issues if I have to handle all of this via phone! I think they are used to it though, because almost all of my clients have only known local ISPs for webhosting, and with my local competition, phoning them is far faster than email support!

I do appreciate all the tips and ideas guys!! :)

Originally posted by hurtdidit
Training my clients to use a helpdesk will be a challenge (some of them are very much typical AOL folks! :( ), but I agree is the only way to go; I will end up killing myself with support issues if I have to handle all of this via phone! I think they are used to it though, because almost all of my clients have only known local ISPs for webhosting, and with my local competition, phoning them is far faster than email support!

I do appreciate all the tips and ideas guys!! :)


Its just a matter of convenience. For many people it is so much easier to pick up the phone and have support hold their hand. If you make them actually fill out a HelpDesk request...which requires them to put some thought process into the whole thing...you will get fewer requests for support overall. Mainly, because it will be easier for them to check the FAQ really quick...before going through the HelpDesk process. :)

We tried phone support, in the beginning. I swear, people would call us everytime they had ANY kind of question about ANYTHING computer related. You can't very well be rude to the customer...so we ended up spending way to much time/money on support that we shouldn't have had to provide.

Streamline and organizing the whole support process...that's the key to making EVERYONE happier. Customers will actually be happier...because you will be able to answer more support requests, in less time. Let them know that you have an emergency phone number...and I would say that you should have it available ONLY for server outages. This will make them comfortable because they know that if they HAVE to reach you - they can.

--Tina

Originally posted by AffordableHost

I swear, people would call us everytime they had ANY kind of question about ANYTHING computer related. You can't very well be rude to the customer...so we ended up spending way to much time/money on support that we shouldn't have had to provide. That is EXACTLY the problem I am having!! I get calls every other day from misinformed clients who ask me for help when they cannot get connected to their ISP!! Sheesh, people, that's a little bit out of my hands, don't you think?!

A large part of this problem is my fault; I have been developing sites for two years before deciding to focus on webhosting more, and all of my design clients are used to calling me up whenever the urge arose. :( Makes for some very unproductive days!

Tina,

I have a really quick question regarding using a help desk versus using your support telephone number.

How do you convince your customers to put in a help desk request instead of calling? This seems like the tricky part!

Thank you.

Scott

Originally posted by DizixCom
Tina,

I have a really quick question regarding using a help desk versus using your support telephone number.

How do you convince your customers to put in a help desk request instead of calling? This seems like the tricky part!

Thank you.

Scott


See how we have our contact page worded:

http://www.affordablehost.com/contact.shtml

I think it's all in the way you word your contact page. :)

We get MAYBE 2 customers a month that don't understand the "not for general support" rule. We politely tell them "This line is for server outages only. You'll need to submit a HelpDesk request so that our techs can get this sorted out for you right away.".

In the 2 years, that we've had this policy, we have had only one guy cancel who didn't like the 'emergency only' rule. Mainly because he couldn't understand that not being able to configure Outlook Express was NOT an emergency. :)

--Tina

Tina,

Thanks for the link. I am in the process of building a business plan and feasability model to see if I am even a candidate for running a web hosting business. I started another thread in this forum about the business plan, and attached a few questions that I am struggling with getting answers to. If you have a few moments, please read the thread "The elusive business plan". You have provided a lot of useful information to me already just by reading your messages. So again, thank you!

Scott

Originally posted by hurtdidit
That is EXACTLY the problem I am having!! I get calls every other day from misinformed clients who ask me for help when they cannot get connected to their ISP!! Sheesh, people, that's a little bit out of my hands, don't you think?!

A large part of this problem is my fault; I have been developing sites for two years before deciding to focus on webhosting more, and all of my design clients are used to calling me up whenever the urge arose. :( Makes for some very unproductive days!

Been there! :)

A HelpDesk can be as simple as formmail setup with a "name, username, server, description of problem and error message" form.

When people start emailing you directly - just tell them you need more information in order to help...please submit via the HelpDesk. After awhile, those emails will dwindle down as well.

As for the people who call, setup a voice mail system until everyone gets used to the new support procedure. Have the voice message tell them to submit to the HelpDesk.

I have been through EXACTLY what you are going through!

--Tina

Originally posted by DizixCom
Tina,

Thanks for the link. I am in the process of building a business plan and feasability model to see if I am even a candidate for running a web hosting business. I started another thread in this forum about the business plan, and attached a few questions that I am struggling with getting answers to. If you have a few moments, please read the thread "The elusive business plan". You have provided a lot of useful information to me already just by reading your messages. So again, thank you!

Scott

That seemed like alot of questions - my attention span isn't that long! haha.

I'll take another look. :)

--Tina

Thank you Tina, you are a wealth of knowledge! :) I am writing some of these suggestions down, to ensure they don't get shoved aside and forgotten before I can implement them!

Thank you!!!

Originally posted by hurtdidit
Thank you Tina, you are a wealth of knowledge! :) I am writing some of these suggestions down, to ensure they don't get shoved aside and forgotten before I can implement them!

Thank you!!!

Ditto, don't need 'em yet, but I will.

Well Grimster, you're about two months or so ahead of me yet...I can see you on the horizon though. :)

Have any of you tried the Paypal help desk method. You're pretty much forced to use the help desk unless your question is really not addressed. http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_help-ext

~ Amanda
Looking to start a web hosting company soon....

This was prolly the best thread I ever read on this forum.. Even though its old..

Dixiesys

Im going to read every post by you I find. You are my role model :)

My mom tells people I play on computers all day! how's that for a job

Wow, old thread. Makes interesting reading with the banter between tina and dixiesys.

So, 4 years later, who was right? Did you find that you needed that business plan after all as recommended by tina or not?

Aamxing thread....I love the threads of Tina and Dixiesys

Tina is the bomb!

I believe, Tina and Dixiesys are still both active on the forum.

I hope the two of them would revisit this thread and add some new input on what has happened over the last four years. This thread was, most certainly, an informative read.

Originally posted by Snipz
I hope the two of them would revisit this thread and add some new input on what has happened over the last four years. This thread was, most certainly, an informative read.

I agree totally...very good read and would love to see their input after so much time.

To find out Tina had 3000+ clients 4 years ago was quite a shocker (I didn't notice the post date until now). Congratulations!

I, too, would love to hear how Dixiesys' laid-back style worked out.

This is like a cliffhanger drama for webhosting nerds ;)

We're doing good - still chugging along, but focusing on bigger needs customers now (resellers mainly) and not so much the tiny hosting packages anymore. I know DixieSys was doing very well, last I heard too.

I still stand by my statement that a solid business plan is really important. :D

--Tina




--Tina

Well I took my kid to my boat this weekend, cranked it up let it run then we sat around catching blue cats for a couple hours (we'da took the boat out but I ain't bought new tags yet DOH! and where I rent my slip at is also where the game wardens' headquarters is so I wouldn't have gotten untied till one of them fellas would have caught me with expired tags). So he's learning to fish, and to cuss but boy my wife ain't happy about that.

Let's see where are we...

92 servers, 5000+ paying customers 15000+ websites, a handful of employees, bills is paid, no debt other than my house and 2 cars and no business debt at all. Could be worse I suppose. I don't advertise, honestly trying not to grow real hard right now.

Revenues for 04 beat revenues for 03 by roughly $60K revenues for 03 beat 02 by $80K and I can't beat that with a stick. Our 02 growth was phenomenal though, thanks to some timely forum posts elsewhere, and things such as the Cyberwings fiasco (July 15th 2002 I had 208 signups in one day when "it" hit the fan over at Cyberwings the week or so before that). I've spent grand total under $500 on advertising my company, ever, total, in nearly 4 years. Sometimes just good old dumb luck, right place right time, and word of mouth can just amaze you.

I work long hours but are they that long? I'm at home so if I start getting burnt I go downstairs and watch movies in my theater or go outside and work on my yard (we got nearly 4 acres now so there's always plenty to do) or I hop in my truck and go to my boat and go fish for a while, or just sit on my back porch and drink beer and shoot my pellet rifle :D So while I'm working a lot a lot of that time isn't spent working either. There's worse situations and there's better, you can spend all your time bitching about what you don't have, and never appreciate what you do.

I never did have a plan my plan was "oh crap I'm gettin laid off what do I do now?" and that was about it :) Probably not the ideal approach to starting your own business but that's just how the ball bounces sometimes.

Amazing to see Tina and Dixiesys both grow after all these years. One had a business plan the other did not. Both are doing well I might add! I think we should all buy Dixiesys and Tina both a drink on WHT bill! ;)

Personally I would rather have a business plan, but if someone does not have a business and it works for them I must say good for you!

Hey Dixiesys do you still have the same house that you showed pictures of a while back? If so did you build more on it or anything? Last time I think you said you where going to be adding to it or building something... :eek: .

We've finished most of the basement and I'm just about done building a 12x24 workshed in the backyard, and just all kindsa stuff going on :)

There's a few pics at http://faith.dixiesys.com/ There some more at www.dixiesys.com/newhouse/ it's all kinda hodge podge.

This is the place when we looked at it to buy:
http://www.dixiesys.com/newhouse/newhouse.jpg

This is last october after we had the trees logged sod brought in, etc:
http://www.dixiesys.com/newhouse/10_22_04/Photo_36.jpg

The "gazebo" pictures in the faith.dixiesys.com gallery also kinda show how the yard is now, that's the biggest improvement, a real yard!

http://faith.dixiesys.com/Gazebo/PICT0008 This pic was took like a week or so ago.

Nice place Dixiesys! Oh and nice truck you got ;).


Originally posted by Dixiesys
We've finished most of the basement and I'm just about done building a 12x24 workshed in the backyard, and just all kindsa stuff going on :)

There's a few pics at http://faith.dixiesys.com/ There some more at www.dixiesys.com/newhouse/ it's all kinda hodge podge.

This is the place when we looked at it to buy:
http://www.dixiesys.com/newhouse/newhouse.jpg

This is last october after we had the trees logged sod brought in, etc:
http://www.dixiesys.com/newhouse/10_22_04/Photo_36.jpg

The "gazebo" pictures in the faith.dixiesys.com gallery also kinda show how the yard is now, that's the biggest improvement, a real yard!

http://faith.dixiesys.com/Gazebo/PICT0008 This pic was took like a week or so ago.

Originally posted by AH-Tina
We're doing good - still chugging along, but focusing on bigger needs customers now (resellers mainly) and not so much the tiny hosting packages anymore.
I'm moving in the opposite direction, away from the reseller scene, into the smaller end of town. :D
. . . I still stand by my statement that a solid business plan is really important. :D
I agree, although I never had one with HTTPme, and things turned out wonderfully there. Although I do have a business plan with my current venture, so I see value in planning for success. :)

Interesting book I read called "Want to make God laugh, Show him your business plan." While they aknowledge the vaule of having a plan they reality of it is that in business these days things change so fast in order to stay up and keep your business on the grow you have to change, those that stick to the business plan sink those the move fast and react survive.

I know when I started, my business plan looks nothing like where I am today. In fact my business had a total different idea on making it, more along the lines of design and custom soultions. Never woulId have figured at this point that we would be in 4 different areas of the business and have over a 100 servers. As oppertunites presented themselves I took advantage of them some things I wished I had not done others I wish I had moved faster on.

Either way a business plan or not it is important to keep your ear to the ground and shift your focus to where the industry and customer dictates.

As Gary said lots of it is luck, being in the right place at the right time and being willing to take a chance when that little voice says yeah this looks like it might work.

Now I am thinking of buying land and rasing Alapcas for a while.

Originally posted by Aussie Bob


I agree, although I never had one with HTTPme, and things turned out wonderfully there. Although I do have a business plan with my current venture, so I see value in planning for success. :) [/B]

i read somewhere that Bill Gate didn't have business plan but just believe taht one day pc will be everywhere and the writer explain that Microsoft can't really have a business plan since technology shift and change in a very rapid pace thus you can't really stick with your business plan but rather a goal like Bill Gate believe everyone will own a pc and working toward taht goal or something like that. i can't recall where i read it.

That's a very interesting thread. It was very interesting to read and compare your progress now and 4 years ago. Keep the good work going! ;)

The problem with starting a hosting business now compared to back in 97 or 98 is it's to over crowded now a days, There's to many people starting them and being like o wow ill make a quick few thousand if i do this! Then when someone who actually plans on offering a good service and knows it isnt about making a quick buck it makes it that much harder for them because theres to many get rich quick hosting companies. From what I've seen in the past 2 years that I've done it thats what people want is to get rich quick.

Originally posted by BluTechnolog
The problem with starting a hosting business now compared to back in 97 or 98 is it's to over crowded now a days, There's to many people starting them and being like o wow ill make a quick few thousand if i do this! Then when someone who actually plans on offering a good service and knows it isnt about making a quick buck it makes it that much harder for them because theres to many get rich quick hosting companies. From what I've seen in the past 2 years that I've done it thats what people want is to get rich quick.

I'm the first to admit I had -several- extremely lucky breaks that resulted in an enormous number of sales. Some had to do with pure dumb luck, some had to do with right place/right time, some had to do with contacts left over from my old jobs from when I was still an "employee" someplace, and some had to do with good old word of mouth, and a little bit even had to do with making use of Ebay when it was still quite lucrative selling hosting on Ebay, before the everything for nothing crowd invaded Ebay and made it pointless.

I doubt I could start from scratch today and end up as well off in 4 years as I am today, who knows really.

Originally posted by Dixiesys
. . . I doubt I could start from scratch today and end up as well off in 4 years as I am today, who knows really.
You probably could, as you'd have the experience, and probably some more capital to put behind your business. It's doable, but not without its challenges.

Originally posted by Dixiesys
I'm the first to admit I had -several- extremely lucky breaks that resulted in an enormous number of sales. Some had to do with pure dumb luck, some had to do with right place/right time, some had to do with contacts left over from my old jobs from when I was still an "employee" someplace, and some had to do with good old word of mouth, and a little bit even had to do with making use of Ebay when it was still quite lucrative selling hosting on Ebay, before the everything for nothing crowd invaded Ebay and made it pointless.

I doubt I could start from scratch today and end up as well off in 4 years as I am today, who knows really.


Maybe its the progress of technology and how easy and cheap it is to become a hosting provider. Well the environment is changing and we would have to gear up for its changes.

Maybe if we stop reseller hosting and that everyone has to have their own server and be under a contract by the ISP that binds them for X number of years, then we would see all those "I wanna get rich quick" people dissappear from the scene. Because ROI gets longer to generate and initial investment is larger.

But well that is not going to happen... ...

Originally posted by Dixiesys
I'm the first to admit I had -several- extremely lucky breaks that resulted in an enormous number of sales. Some had to do with pure dumb luck, some had to do with right place/right time, some had to do with contacts left over from my old jobs from when I was still an "employee" someplace, and some had to do with good old word of mouth, and a little bit even had to do with making use of Ebay when it was still quite lucrative selling hosting on Ebay, before the everything for nothing crowd invaded Ebay and made it pointless.

I doubt I could start from scratch today and end up as well off in 4 years as I am today, who knows really.


I think you would be able to get where you are. Though most likley you would have to work harder to get there. Also you would have to try other methods on getting clients (no ebay really, ect).

comment on market, eventually technology will make anything become commondity like PC and Dell's business model put them at the advanatage of that.

i think you have change and adapt when market changed.

I love WHT for threads like this, that took awhile to read...
woo....

and who is "******" ? cihost?

Not to change the tone of this great thread, but I forsee the future of "small hosting" turning to personal website serving with a home computer. With the increase of broadband technology, the stability of home computers it is all but inevitable. I am not going out to say everyone will host their websites on their home system. However, anyone with a site that is less than critical will take this route in my opinion. Will it happen a year from now? No, probably not, but you may begin to see the effects in two years or so. How do hosting companies begin to adapt now to this forseeable change in the market? Thats a good question!

Originally posted by Ackoo
Not to change the tone of this great thread, but I forsee the future of "small hosting" turning to personal website serving with a home computer. With the increase of broadband technology, the stability of home computers it is all but inevitable. I am not going out to say everyone will host their websites on their home system. However, anyone with a site that is less than critical will take this route in my opinion. Will it happen a year from now? No, probably not, but you may begin to see the effects in two years or so. How do hosting companies begin to adapt now to this forseeable change in the market? Thats a good question!

maybe that will come in when IPv6 is more widely in use or have replaced IPv4.
But still, I don't think everyone would want or have the capabilities of running their own webserver at home let alone support its running.

I will reply, but I hope I am not hijacking this thread and I am continuing on a similar train of thought.

I see where you are going with this and let me try and offer a few potential shifts in the current market. Consider first that the speed of broadband continues to increase as it has for the past few years. Then companies like Apple and Microsoft and Linux providers realize that the speed of broadband has increased drastically and then they basically build the OS to be capable of easily supporting the delivery of web content. The Mac OS is already setup with apache and dragging and droppping files into the directory is all that is needed outside of a static ip or dyndns.

The only way that I forsee this not happening within a few years is cable companies not allowing for it to happen or microsoft or apple to not realize the potential. Otherwise, I feel that it is inevitable.

However, I want to stress that I am not saying everyone and their dog will be hosting their sites from their local system. Although, I believe, where you have seen a spike in interest for personal sites on the web lately, these sites will slowly migrate to the home system as users see the potential ability to save money and have their site at their fingertips. And, with that, you will see the first "bubble burst" of the hosting industry.

Just my speculation.

Very interesting thought, never thought of that before.

Originally posted by ******
I just want to know, how much money you get from the webhosting service ?
Is it enough for support your life, buy luxury car, big house, airplane, boat, traveling.... :) NO NO NO NO NO NO but lucky that I own an other online business where I can support that all....:gthumb:

Originally posted by Ackoo
Not to change the tone of this great thread, but I forsee the future of "small hosting" turning to personal website serving with a home computer. With the increase of broadband technology, the stability of home computers it is all but inevitable. I am not going out to say everyone will host their websites on their home system. However, anyone with a site that is less than critical will take this route in my opinion. Will it happen a year from now? No, probably not, but you may begin to see the effects in two years or so. How do hosting companies begin to adapt now to this forseeable change in the market? Thats a good question!
I would agree with your sentiment there.

Originally posted by Ackoo
How do hosting companies begin to adapt now to this forseeable change in the market?
There may be less demand for "small hosting" in the future but there will be an increase in other services. The good thing is that there is time to adapt and current hosts are in a prime position to move into new markets as conditions change. So if you want to continue to "support your life" you need to keep your eyes open and be ready to change when needed.

The good thing is that it may be the end to the all-for-next-to-nothing market.

I don't see very much "home hosting" coming up, for several reasons.

#1 MOST people ain't gonna want a computer running 24x7 just to host their web site, they don't want to screw with setting it up, keeping it up to date, and dealing with the (inevitable) hack attempts and attacks

#2 MOST isps will not tolerate servers and aren't about to start tolerating them, just wait till the first DDOS or slashdotting of a home based web site and you'll find yourself without service quicker than you can say "D'OH!"

Sure the geeks (like me) are liable to do this but let's face it, the hardcore nerds make up a small percentage of the potential business out there.

The big problem I see right now is web hosting being diluted by too many kiddie hosts and newcomers who seem to think the $99 per month they pay for their dedicated server is the only expense they have and that shoving 500 "5 gigs space 50 gigs transfer per month for $2.95 per month" customers on one machine is a profit making goldmine.

The big problem I see right now is web hosting being diluted by too many kiddie hosts and newcomers who seem to think the $99 per month they pay for their dedicated server is the only expense they have and that shoving 500 "5 gigs space 50 gigs transfer per month for $2.95 per month" customers on one machine is a profit making goldmine.

I agree completely, totally and wholeheartedly with that statement, right there. Well said Dixiesys!

Originally posted by will7
The big problem I see right now is web hosting being diluted by too many kiddie hosts and newcomers who seem to think the $99 per month they pay for their dedicated server is the only expense they have and that shoving 500 "5 gigs space 50 gigs transfer per month for $2.95 per month" customers on one machine is a profit making goldmine.

I agree completely, totally and wholeheartedly with that statement, right there. Well said Dixiesys!

Very very true; but dont discount "Kiddie Hosts" who are very business wise and know how to work in the business.
"Kiddies" who know the importance of customer satisfaction and not just profit and having fun. (me ;))

Originally posted by Flubber99
I agree completely, totally and wholeheartedly with that statement, right there. Well said Dixiesys!

Very very true; but dont discount "Kiddie Hosts" who are very business wise and know how to work in the business.
"Kiddies" who know the importance of customer satisfaction and not just profit and having fun. (me ;)) [/B][/QUOTE]

That wouldn't be a kiddie host then, that would be a "young entrepreneur". Kiddie host doesn't necessarily have much to do with the AGE of the person running the webhost, it's more a matter of how mature is their business sense, and there are plenty of 30+ year old kiddie hosts out there :)

The big problem I see right now is web hosting being diluted by too many kiddie hosts and newcomers who seem to think the $99 per month they pay for their dedicated server is the only expense they have and that shoving 500 "5 gigs space 50 gigs transfer per month for $2.95 per month" customers on one machine is a profit making goldmine.Obviously, since I'm not a host, I might not have the best grasp on how things work from a host's point of view, but I would say that these kiddie hosts, while hurting the customers and giving a bad name to the hosting industry, do in fact serve as a "bad guys" model, and make the customer be more appreciative when he finally settles with a good host. The customer that's been burned before will stick longer with the good host.

The danger are not the kiddie hosts, but the huge corporations selling "one fits all" cheap hosting solutions backed up by huge advertising budgets. They actually have the means to promote the idea that "very cheap" is the way hosting should be.

All just IMO.

apartment rent have gone up a bit and yet share hosting is decreasing in price and increase on bw and hw.

Originally posted by ldcdc
Obviously, since I'm not a host, I might not have the best grasp on how things work from a host's point of view, but I would say that these kiddie hosts, while hurting the customers and giving a bad name to the hosting industry, do in fact serve as a "bad guys" model, and make the customer be more appreciative when he finally settles with a good host. The customer that's been burned before will stick longer with the good host.

The danger are not the kiddie hosts, but the huge corporations selling "one fits all" cheap hosting solutions backed up by huge advertising budgets. They actually have the means to promote the idea that "very cheap" is the way hosting should be.

All just IMO. Maybe you're not a host, but it's a very good observation.

Not that us hosts mind the other hosts who charge bottom-of-the-barrel prices. The problem is more with the endusers, who come to expect the same service at the same price of the huge firms such as 1and1 from the smaller providers.

As someone else mentioned maybe people will host from home pc's more down the road as it becomes more popular but I see it in such as way like you look at a mechanic, heck I can replace that alternator myself probably but for a few bucks more I would rather pay a mechanic and rest assured that things will probably go smooth.

Also the main thing I see blocking ISP's from allowing hosting right now is being attacked, some big dos attacks would cripple many ISP customers and the way I see it is until they find a way to totally block the bad guys (won't happen) then there will always be a place for web hosts.

great thread!

Originally posted by OKI-Paul
As someone else mentioned maybe people will host from home pc's more down the road as it becomes more popular but I see it in such as way like you look at a mechanic, heck I can replace that alternator myself probably but for a few bucks more I would rather pay a mechanic and rest assured that things will probably go smooth.

Also the main thing I see blocking ISP's from allowing hosting right now is being attacked, some big dos attacks would cripple many ISP customers and the way I see it is until they find a way to totally block the bad guys (won't happen) then there will always be a place for web hosts.


You make good points like I can change my oil in my car my self (I have a oil pit in the shop), but I have other people do it for me. Not sure if it is because I am lazy or what. Though I am willing to spend $30.00 for a oil change. Errr that reminds me I need a oil change (over 6,000 miles over due :eek: ).

Originally posted by Dixiesys
Yeah having to answer the phone while I'm watching Scooby Doo sucks, or getting the cordless handset wet while me and the kid are in the pool to tell someone that they need to use "webmaster" and not their username to upload with Frontpage just ruins the whole day :D

Supporting customers ain't exactly being strapped in my seat for 16 hours a day. Cordless phone, cell phone. Check my email once an hour or so. Hell 24 hours a day ain't no biggie, so I get woke up once in a while by a customer.

Yeah if I were in some stinking office while "working" those 16 hours I'd be upset at my pay too. It's just hard to get pissed when most of my day consists of Scooby Doo, Power Puff girls, DVDs, swims in the pool, and walks down to my sister's house to eat lunch with her and her kids or forward the phone and toll free line to the cell phone and go eat dinner or take the kid out on the river.

My life sucks guess I'll go die now :bawling:

If you have to strap your *** into a seat 16 hours a day to do customer support, then I feel for you.

As long as nothing just dies, I can do tech support while I'm out hunting deer this winter. Of course if my cell rings while I'm drawing down on an 8 pointer, someone's account is as good as cancelled :angry:

I'll take my $3 an hour and smile :)

I'm with Dixiesys all the way,

I rather earn £3/hour (won't get nothing for $3 in uk lol) and spend time with my family then making £10 and be in an office 9-5 , sleep 12-7, and be miserable and tiered when i'm with my family. Money is not everything.

if Dixiesys is happy with what he gets for his time then he is one of the richest people in the world.

we are all familiar with the phrase "its never enough"

Originally posted by tonyolm
My mom tells people I play on computers all day! how's that for a job

lol i get the exact same!

I'd rather make $80 an hour AND spend time at home with my family. I don't see being self-employed as a compromise. ;)

--Tina

I dont make much because I put what I make back into my company. It is only part time.

Originally posted by saghir69
I'm with Dixiesys all the way,

I rather earn £3/hour (won't get nothing for $3 in uk lol) and spend time with my family then making £10 and be in an office 9-5 , sleep 12-7, and be miserable and tiered when i'm with my family. Money is not everything.

if Dixiesys is happy with what he gets for his time then he is one of the richest people in the world.

we are all familiar with the phrase "its never enough"
I think Dixiesys is making a little more now:) . But I agree, he seems to have things in perspective.