3-95.com (http://www.3-95.com/)

Pretty much says it all.

Feel free to post or email any questions.

Nice deal. :cool:

Ya that is a good deal but what uptime and support do you offer for that price?

I don't presume to make guarantees on uptime. If the server crashes (hardware) I'm at the mercy of Rackshack (aren't you hosted there as well netsolutions? Do YOU guarantee any sort of uptime knowing if your harddrive dies it could take a few hours to get it changed, and who knows how many hours to get it restored?), I never place a guarantee on another company's service. As for software problems the servers are backed up daily to (currently) one offsite location. As soon as the customer base grows a bit more, a second server (probably at Rackshack also) will be added and then crossover backups will be the norm (plus an offsite backup every few days). I don't presume to offer 99.9999 uptime no more than I presume to offer unlimited <insert claim here>. About all I can say is "if it goes down I'll fix it as fast as humanly possible". I've ran apache servers for years and have compiled custom versions of it on many dozen occasions, I'm versed in sendmail (good lord can anyone truly claim to be a master of it?), and the rest of your forte' of web hosting softwares. So downtime shouldn't be a worry. Before I became "employment challenged" I worked for companies where 24/7 was just expected so I know what it takes to keep dozens of servers alive and well, and heck, we've only got 3 little bitty servers, only 1 of which has customers on it so it's a piece of cake compared to 37 linux boxes, 7 bsd boxes, and 23 Solaris boxes (with Oracle, ugh). Oh and 1 hour of downtime means you have to have 999 hours of uptime to give a 99.9% guarantee of uptime, 999 hours is almost 42 days of uptime each 9 you add basically multiplies that number of days times 10, 99.99 would be nearly 420 and 99.999 would be over 10 years of uptime per hour of downtime. What uptime guarantee do you give? Once I've been up long enough to make it matter I'll keep a tally of "uptime we've supplied since we started" since that's really the only ruler to measure your uptime by anyway, your past uptime.

Support is via phone (toll free) or email or ICQ or MSNM or Yahoo if you ask, so far most of my clients have been happy with email, have a couple that like to call instead, it's all good. I have an 888 through Ureach but I've had complaints that it doesn't always transfer properly so I found a thread here on WHT about 800 numbers and signed up for a second 800 through another company last week, that came highly recommended by a few people in the thread (and beat Ureach's prices by a LOT). Of course the toll number works flawlessly. Not here to toot my horn. You could read my Ebay feedbacks or talk to current customers, but of course I could just be supplying you with ringers (aka friends) so how could you know?

As a new company a reputation hasn't really been established yet (I registered 3-95.com in .. Nov I think and Dixiesys.com in .. August I believe) so there's not much I can do but support those customers I have and those willing to gamble on a new host with an unproven track record. I guess I could post any of several "thank you" emails from current clients, however I haven't asked their permission to share their emails to me, so I wouldn't do that.

So to those interested I guess the only thing to say is "we kick ass but we can't prove it to you unless you sign up since we're new" Hey, at least there aren't any threads around here about how bad we suck!

Thanks

Okay, if you think it's going to work then go ahead. If you read a lot of the threads in Running a Web Hosting Business you will see a lot of the guys are against hosts like you but if you can make it work then I think that's great and I'm not going to stand in your way.

Originally posted by netsolutions
Okay, if you think it's going to work then go ahead. If you read a lot of the threads in Running a Web Hosting Business you will see a lot of the guys are against hosts like you but if you can make it work then I think that's great and I'm not going to stand in your way.

Hosts "like me"?

Like me as in 11 years of experience with managing and supporting networks and users?

Like me as in "used to FTP to Linus's ftp account at college to download the boot/root images of pre-alpha linux"?

Like me as in already built a successful web hosting and internet access business for "someone else" only to get canned because the damned servers were TOO stable and the man paying the bills figured the idiot assistant admin could run the show? (he was right, the boy did just fine, all my hard work and scripts keeps that freaking place going to this day)

Like me as in already profitable after 5 weeks? Granted it ain't much money but I went from "deep in the hole" to "paying the costs of the business plus putting some lint in my pocket" in that time, every customer I add now is pure profit.

My goal here isn't 1000's of customers, I need enough customers to pay the bills. About 400-500 will do that, less if I can add a few premium customers along the way.

Oh wait, you mean "like me" as in offering hosting below the precious $10 a month barrier to entry? Well let's do the math shall we?

RaQ $105.53 x 2
We'll call that $210 a month
1-800# and phone, another $85 so we'll round it to $300 per month expenses. I run a lean ship, no frills. No advertising (can't find none that truly works better than word of mouth after you get a nice crop of customers).

After 5 weeks I'm at the point of $197.50 in yearly paid customers, and $344.35 in monthly charges. Hell I'm covering costs and making some cash already. No not rich yet...

Now let's see, my server is at the point of "little or no" usage. I hear report after report of people running over 200 domains on them. Let's be pessimistic, 150 domains.

At $3.95 per domain, I can put roughly another 100 domains on my first server (the other server is rented lock stock and barrel to a customer). That's an additional $395.00 a month in revenue without increasing my cash output. 3 full servers (450 customers) and my wife and I are comfortably paying the bills (she works full time and has no desire to quit the job she loves). Oh and did I mention I get to stay home with my son all day? What's that worth?

If that bothers someone, then maybe they need to be bothered.

I'm already making money, I ain't losing a dime doing this.

I don't "think" it's going to work, I'm sitting back and _watching_ it work already. And you're hardly in a position to stand in my way, the worst you can do is stand on the sidelines shouting how "this can't be working" when it already does.

I tried to access your web sites to see what you've got going on, but other than your bass fishing site I couldn't get the others to come up...

Besides, it ain't the other "web hosting companies" I gotta impress, it's my customers.

Originally posted by netsolutions
Okay, if you think it's going to work then go ahead. If you read a lot of the threads in Running a Web Hosting Business you will see a lot of the guys are against hosts like you but if you can make it work then I think that's great and I'm not going to stand in your way.

I think people are just more wary of these individuals who think they can make a lot of money overnight, through webhosting.

Dixiesys is obviously not one of these people, and I wish him best of luck in hosting.... :D

<<Netsolutions, this is the ad forum, kindly drop it>>

Having worked with gary recently i can concur that he is indeed a consumate professional and very talented. Even though we will soon be in indirect (we have a slightly different market place) competition with him i have no problems in reccomending him.
Do you feel it nessecary to criticise fellow hosts just because they undercut you ? are you really that bad in business that the only way you can stay afloat is to falsely discredit competitors ? pull the toys back in the pram and get upstairs, its obviously well past your bedtime.
And as for the numbers. lol. having business experience myself i can say that hosting does make money and deals like gary's may have a lower cut then im planning on he will still make money. law of diminishing return etc. leave him alone unless you have a justifiable concern or question.

Friends,

I think pricing is a matter of personal priorities; it is possible to position a product that's worth only 3$/mo at 9$/mo and then spend a lot on marketing or brand building [I'm not talking of hosting here; any product like Coke or Wrigleys or something]

As far as web hosting goes, it is as I said what the owner feels he wants. I have a very good job as a software project manager but I hate the inhuman hours and I was paid close to 100K in Melbourne which I quit and came back to India because I wanted to be with my parents.

Now I am planning to set up a webhosting business and have 250-300 customers in 18 months and then buy a farm and spend my time with my son and daughter and wife and grow trees & organic food...

It's not a good business per se [low margins, high competition and a lot of competent players] but it gives you a lot of freedom and you are your own boss - again a question of priorities.

As for competition, I think there is enough and more market for all web-hosts [it is growing by the day] - it is customer gets customer and service that wins in the end. [like the tortoise and the hare]

Anyway I am an old man and it's not for me to comment on you youngsters who want to rule the world before sunset!

Good luck Dixiesys and netsolutions

Cheers
Balaji

Dixiesys good luck in your new venture and sorry about the off topic discussion, though I will say you handled it well. I'm not loking for hosting, so ummm... that's all I have to say, heh. Ohhh, and welcome to WHT :D

Good show, Dixiesys. I too have had most of my business, do to customer loyalty and referals by existing end users. If you treat them right (basically how you would want to be treated), they in turn will reward you with their business.

My two cents.

-Darrell Buckhaults

Originally posted by theprimehost
Good show, Dixiesys. I too have had most of my business, do to customer loyalty and referals by existing end users. If you treat them right (basically how you would want to be treated), they in turn will reward you with their business.

My two cents.

-Darrell Buckhaults

You're right, one thing I learned a long time ago. A good name is earned slowly, a bad name is earned quickly. If you piss off one person, they'll tell 10, if you treat 10 people right, hopefully they'll tell 1.

I'm starting to get customer referrals, slowly but surely, and several people who signed up early were apparenlty "testing the waters" as now I'm getting several customers signing up additional domains after they've been with me a few weeks.

One lady has 7 now, she's 10% of my user base at this point! haha.

Good show, Dixiesys. I too have had mosy of my business, do to customer loyalty and referals by existing end users. I fyou treat them right (basically how you would want to be treated), they in turn will reward you with their business.

My two cents.

-Darrell Buckhaults

I do not like this attacking to anyone method that is being started in webhostingtalk.

People can think and no need to attack to others.

Dixesys is obviously a professional. At least as a technical man.

I wish complete success for him.

<Comment>
But personally, I do not like RAQ and Cobalt servers very much. Managing them is difficult and they are very bad with running scripts and MySQL that become standard of big websites step by step.

But I think this man will be able to both manage it and make it profitable.
</comment>

Mac

Hey Dixie,

I like to read your optimistic messages. I'm confident your business will be really profitable soon. Anyway, that's what I hope.

It's true that other companies will try to knock you down using false claims, but if your product is OK and your plan works out, then hell... why not !? They are the ones making some very bad promotion...

Look, people. There are billion-dollar-companies that have no human interaction, that only act like machines. This 'little' guy here does speak with others, is honest about the numbers and knows what he's doing. I don't know him, and don't have an account with him, but from what I read here, I would recommend him.

Good job, Dixie.

I wanted to throw in my .02.

I've been in the process of moving my web site over to Dixiesys's 3.95 hosting. He's been very helpful and has been able to answer any question I've needed answered. He's also setup multiple MySQL DBs and setup PHPmyadmin for me without any problems.

I feel I've already gotten my $3.95 worth. I can't ask for much more for the money. Speed is good, support is thus far excellent and price can't be beat.

Mark

Good luck Dixiesys. I too started reselling a couple of months ago and finally got
enough customers for my first dedicated server. My inspiration came from GordonH, the
owner of HostRoute (http://www.hostroute.com) who posted here on some thread how he got started and made me
get off my butt and give it a go. Best thing I ever did.

This is a good place to get advice and find out lots of things about the business side of
web hosting but some "know it all" types like to show off and cut down anybody with a
different type of business plan. The way I see it, if your customers are happy and you're making
money you're doing it right. As for uptime guarantees anybody without their own data center
and physical access to their servers cannot make them. Look what happened with VDI
back in April. Many hosts got burned because there was NOTHING they could do except pack up
and leave or wait it out. Either way they experienced considerable downtime.

Well, I wish you the best of luck.