I'm well aware that $9.95/mo. is Giving yours and your staffs' time away, but lately I've seen plans for Much less. When quality providers are fighting for market share as it is, the situation grows worse when hosts are waving $2 plans that boast 10GB of data transfer in front of potential clients.

Let's be realistic, a good portion of the hosting industry visits this board at least once a month; What are we doing???? We can have industry standard pricing much like that of Gas stations if this type of undercutting comes to a close.

Let me ask you something: if you are standing in front of two restaurants, one has a lit sign that reads: "Special - Prime Rib: $1.95" and the other a sign that reads: "Special - Prime Rib: $16.95" where do you eat?

I've probably just had too much coffee, in a different mind state I would most likely realize that low cost provides will sooner or later have to raise their prices or fold.

Your time to read this rant is appreciated.:)

The standard pricing on petrol is usually due to government regulation. I'm not sure of the exact situation in the US, because I'm not from around those parts, although I assume you are, referring to a "Gas Station". If you were to try and attain industry standard pricing outside of government regulation, it would probably be referred to as price fixing, which is illegal...

Industry standard pricing won't work. Unlike gas stations, web hosting business has way too many parameters influencing pricing. And those parameters are always changing. The best way is to educate potential customers. For example, a host can disclose the amount of money it pays to its upstream, this way, potential customer will think twice on choosing a host that oversells.

Thus the: "LIKE Gas Stations" not exactly the same. I am well aware of price fixing and anti-trust laws, but at most places you buy goods, you'll notice very similar prices, unlike this industry :)

Originally posted by Orpheus1539

Let me ask you something: if you are standing in front of two restaurants, one has a lit sign that reads: "Special - Prime Rib: $1.95" and the other a sign that reads: "Special - Prime Rib: $16.95" where do you eat?


Depends, if I see rats exiting the first restaurant because it is too dirty, I eat at the other one :).

Seriously, my wife and I enjoy eating out, and I can tell you that second place, will undoubtedly have a nicer ambience and probably better service. Perhaps the second restaurant is paying for a chef that does amazing things to Prime Rib. The second restaurant might also use a better cut, or better quality meat.

The same is true with hosting...I don't mean to imply that you should choose a web host based on ambience :D, but hosts that charge more money tend to have nicer web sites, better connectivity, and stronger support. That is not always the case, but it seems to be true most of the time.

Originally posted by Orpheus1539
Thus the: "LIKE Gas Stations" not exactly the same. I am well aware of price fixing and anti-trust laws, but at most places you buy goods, you'll notice very similar prices, unlike this industry :)

Yeah, that's the uniqueness of this industry :D. But most of the time, you get what you pay for, as long as it applies, there is nothing wrong with the huge price differences.

Just to support the first post, when refering to prime-rib, most costomers know what to look for (i.e. rodents..lol) when it comes to hosting, i belive that the costomers just look for the cost hard numbers when comparing plans...same bandwith same diskspace, but this one is cheaper...understand..? Also most of these companies are over-selling their bandwith and probably provide lesser service...I feel that in the long run for the hosting buissnes to remain succesful many hosts are going to have to re-consider their profit margin, becuase this is where the real problems are coming from, how could someone with mouthes to feed compete with some looking to make enough money to buy x-box....see my point. Well anyway thats just my 2 cents, and probably dosnt make any sense anyway considering im half awake.

The restaurant industry, the oil industry, etc... have been around MUCH longer then the hosting industry. Consumers have become educated about those industries and what to look for and what to buy. Unlike those industries, consumers are not so educated about the hosting industry and probably will not be for some time to come, so they do not fully understand the ins and outs of what all goes into hosting a site and why $2/mo cannot really buy 30 GB transfer.

So, I think we just need to give it time to level out.

Patrick

I agree with the sentiments of the first poster, we have had problems finding a decent hosting company that has knowledgable and helpful staff. I'm not sure if we have found one but have opted for Brinkster, at $7.95 a month I have serious doubts if they will be in business much longer?

For this fee they offer 1gig of webspace and 30gb a month of traffic.

When you consider their costs:
-w2k3 web licence $300
-1U Rackmount server $1000 (at least)
- Bandwidth ?
- Infrastructure ?
- Staff ?

They will have to squeeze a lot of sites on to one box just to break even, I think they are relying on the majority of users not using anywhere near that amount of bandwidth/webspace. If i'm right the numbers aren't realistic anyways.

Cheers,

P

brinkster are actually a well established web host. they have been around for years and started out with free hosting, not sure if they still offer it, but it means that they more than likely have thousands of customers to provide the income that they pay their staff with

well this is what called buisness. Specially when you have so much of providers no one wants to loose even 1 client and it hence results in lower price and makes the host compromise at other hosts offer.

i faced a lot of trouble due to such low prices and now see even i am compelled to drop our company prices low too to just survive in market.

I agree there should be some standards.but for how long people will keep doing such things.All you need to do is provide better products with better support and better quality and people will even pay more to you.There are still some people who care for quality and not the price.

Well i just spoke my heart i may be wrong somewhere if so please correct me.
Thanx.

Originally posted by vijayonline
i faced a lot of trouble due to such low prices and now see even i am compelled to drop our company prices low too to just survive in market.

Never compromise yourself or your values for the sake of gaining cheap business. Sure you may pick up some bottom feeding clients but you'll never gain the client level you desire competing on price alone and I guarantee your interest in the business will fail before any of your servers do.

Set a target value and do not go below it. Growth may be slower but you'll respect yourself more and in turn the clients you do get will respect you. Doesn't seem like much now but trust me that there's other ways - such as good advertising - that'll get you clients regardless of price.

Sincerely,

-Matt

well i think you are right ....

Want to see something scary? Check out http://www.findmyhosting.com/ and do a search. There are companies that are offering hosting for a DIME A MONTH!!!

But you shouldn't feel threatened. There's enough pie for everyone. The market is segmented, just like the automobile market. Some people want $250k Ferraris, others want $50k Benzes, $20k Fords and $10k Kias.

Brinkster's been around for a long time.

Originally posted by Porkstone
I agree with the sentiments of the first poster, we have had problems finding a decent hosting company that has knowledgable and helpful staff. I'm not sure if we have found one but have opted for Brinkster, at $7.95 a month I have serious doubts if they will be in business much longer?

For this fee they offer 1gig of webspace and 30gb a month of traffic.

When you consider their costs:
-w2k3 web licence $300
-1U Rackmount server $1000 (at least)
- Bandwidth ?
- Infrastructure ?
- Staff ?

They will have to squeeze a lot of sites on to one box just to break even, I think they are relying on the majority of users not using anywhere near that amount of bandwidth/webspace. If i'm right the numbers aren't realistic anyways.

Cheers,

P

Ever heard of low cost airlines?

What is a w2k3 web licence?

Windows Server 2003 Web Edition

Oh, Duh. I even have one. :)

Hmm.. This original thread is more than 2 years(01-28-2002)???

Regards

Originally posted by soontohost
Just to support the first post, when refering to prime-rib, most costomers know what to look for (i.e. rodents..lol) when it comes to hosting, i belive that the costomers just look for the cost hard numbers when comparing plans...same bandwith same diskspace, but this one is cheaper...understand..?

Look what's front and center on the homepages.
Price per month
Megs of this, Gigs of that and a list of features.

Of course that's what the average surfer is going to base their decision on.

The distinction is important between "reason to start" and "reason to stay." The savvy web host, imo, seeks creative ways to leverage the reasons to stay into reasons to start.


Beyond that, if juggling the price, size, bandwidth and feature list isn't producing the new business you want, maybe it's time to add some features your competitors aren't offering.

;-)

Originally posted by cactus
Hmm.. This original thread is more than 2 years(01-28-2002)???

Regards


LOL... good catch. I didn't even notice.

Yep threads can come back from the dead. Scary isn't it?

What's the line from "Animal House" ?

It isn't over until WE SAY it's over!!
Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor??
umm...
Leave him alone, he's on a roll.


;-)

Originally posted by iVersit
Let me ask you something: if you are standing in front of two restaurants, one has a lit sign that reads: "Special - Prime Rib: $1.95" and the other a sign that reads: "Special - Prime Rib: $16.95" where do you eat?

This is why price is only one of many concerns, is the food GOOD? sanitary? is the wait staff courteous? will my glass sit empty for 5 minutes while no one refills it?

I often forego the cheaper places to get better service, the local japanese steak house, 20 bucks a plate for steak/rice/veggies but the dude cooks it right in front of you and if you want anything at all done he'll do it, more sauce, less sauce, etc etc he'll oblige. Or I can go to Waffle House where I can get a t-bone and eggs and hash for like $7.95 but I don't expect near the quality or service as I do if I'm paying more for it.

I drive a Tracker, it's reliable, gas efficient, and terribly cheap, interior is cheap, exterior is cheap, I know it's cheap I knew it when I bought it, but I just needed a decent little reliable car, and that's what it is. My wife has a $25K minivan with leather seats rear air all that jazz, I coulda bought a cheaper car but I wanted something comfortable and nice that we could drive for a longer trip if need be, I wouldn't drive my Tracker to Atlanta (3.5 hours) on a BET but we drove that van to Houston (12 hours) and were quite comfortable.

Choose your market and understand what you're likely to get within that market, yes there's cheap hosts that give above and beyond the accepted level of service, and there are expensive hosts who outright suck mud but for the most part I don't expect help debugging a script for a few bucks a month hosting, but if I'm plunking out several hundred bucks for shared hosting for my e-commerce site I'd kinda expect a little extra IF I needed it once in a while.