I recently started a web hosting business. I am confident that I can provide a good stable service since I have been working with unix based web servers for years.

I would appreciate any suggestions you can give by going through my site to help me improve my service.

http://www.bunfire.com

Your feedback is greatly appreciated!

Hello Giuseppe.

You really want to start with yourself.

What am I offering that my competition is not?
How am I different from other hosting companies?


Business Plan

Looks good, did you start with a business plan?

I took my time researching the competition, pricing structures, offers, server performance from several hosts.

The only thing I can offer that I can think of that sets me asside from most hosts is that I wont oversell. I find if I can make a good profit without overselling, I will just buy another server. I have carefully calculated profits to resource ratios. I found that I can make $100 per server without overselling server resources.

I really think it is important that the customer gets exactly what he pays for and even if there are a lot of free resources on the server, it is good because it will ensure a very fast, responsive site.

I may not know a lot about the tricks of internet marketing, but I know very well on how to keep my servers running at their peak performance!

I know i might sound a little harsh here but the only problem i see with your site so far is:

1. Using a template (or at least i see that type of design around alot). I would take some money aside and either hire a designer or learn a little photoshop/basic HTML and create something that will make your visitors remember your site. Many hosts use these kinds of templates, some get business some dont but im almost sure you will stand out more with a custom designed site.

2. Prices are extreamly cheap, which is not a really bad thing, but i would up the prices and try and provide something totally different. Selling 100gb transfer for 20$ per month is well im not going to say overselling because you have already stated that you can make money without overselling.

Thats about it, and im by all means not bashing here :) i wish the best of luck to you.

- Eddy

Well, I appreciate the honest suggestions. The best way to improve is to get honest feedback so keep it coming :)

Hi giuseppe,

Although your price is relatively lower than other, it doesnt mean that ppl will sign up. Some are actually quite fearly of "what is installed for them, with that kind of price tag" Get what I mean.

I got a good suggestion from one of the members in WHT , one of the post saying something like , "do you want to support 100 customers who pay 2 dollar , or 10 customers who pay 20 dollars".
20 dollar paying client definitely have a reason for choosing to pay 20 dollars.

Today, you can find web hosting easily. Just type "cheap affordable web host" and google will give you so much headache results. Can someone make a choice bcos the search engine spider goes thru it for you?

Just a few cents. Keep the change. =)

Joshua

With your website I would move the Help Center Live button in the upper right hand corner and maybe put it in the middle at the bottom of the page so people will notice it more.

IMHO - $100 profit per server is not going to be worth it - the customer support fees, the countless hours spent updating your machine... $100/server strikes me as a little low.

Just my $.02

PS - You may hear this alot - but don't compete on price, you may offer $2.99 but someone else will offer $1.99 - soon they'll be giving money to hosting customers :-D

So basically my low prices make people think that our support will be bad? Correct?

I am also working on setting up a customer care center, where customers can view invoices and submit tickets, etc.

I guess if I raise the prices, customers will be more confident in our support services and give the impression we are not running no shotty server.

Thanks very much for the feedback.

I can't guess what visitors or customers will think of your prices, but from a realistic point of view, you can't think you can be well-off making $100/mo per server - givin unexpected expenses, you wont have any money to grow or put to other things - and that assumes you fill the server and make the $100/mo

From a customers stand point, if they want to make a smart purchasing choice, i'm sure they will second guess how long a company can stay afloat from $2.99/mo customers.

If you are confident in your linux abillities, then you are already 1 foot ahead of 99% of those other hosts who come here asking how to block an IP with iptables or how to reboot their servers... focus on your strengths and find a market.

Again, just my $.02

Prices are extremely cheap, work more on the web design. I suggest you hire a web designer, the website looks like one more template.

My $.02 is that I think it looks great; however, as a copywriter, I'd honestly suggest you pay somebody to rewrite your page copy. It's rather stilted, which is bad when you've obviously put a lot o work into looking professional.

Also I would be careful when using other companies' images (i.e. the AlienWare computers.)

Some customers prefer a 30 day money back guarantee.

I haven't read the entire thread, but I saw the mention of $100/month per server. Theres no way you can survive on profits that low! You want to try and make at least $500 after server and licensing costs. You need to keep in mind it could be 4-5 months before you fill up a single server, depending on your marketing of course.

Do you have a business plan? That is, a document that outlines all of your expenses and includes long-term growth? $100 profit per server is going to be the death of your business.

At that rate of profit, you're planning on having 1 minimum paid tech support person handle approximately 12 servers worth of customers all by him or herself. That's insane.

--Tina

I have taken all your suggestions into consideration. I am working on a new site concept.

So far I made the main page and the about us page: http://www.bunfire.com/bd.html

Can you please give me some honest feedback on the layout and the new pricing structure.

Thanks!

great design, but aren't the alienware images copyright?

I am doing away with that design. Have you seen http://www.bunfire.com/bd.html ?

Okay I am looking at your site. A few things that throw me off when looking at it.

1. Name BlazingDragon Internet to me right there would make me not want to host with you. Now this might just be me though :).

2. The site is simple, and really I like that about it :). I do not like searching for prices, ect :).

3. Prices seem really low to me, but it is your business so you can set them as you want :). Though for me I want to at lease make $1000 to $2000 per server profit :).

4. I would move the Help Center Live button to the left side or where it stands out more better :).

5. I love the blue color that is used on the site :)

6. The yellow kinda throws it off for me personally (but it might for others).

7. The yellow arrow and the blue check marks just seem to big maybe? Just what I think.

8. I do not like how the prices are on the front page. It just seems like an odd shape...

9. Over all it is okay :).

Originally posted by giuseppe
I recently started a web hosting business. I am confident that I can provide a good stable service since I have been working with unix based web servers for years.

I would appreciate any suggestions you can give by going through my site to help me improve my service.

http://www.bunfire.com

Your feedback is greatly appreciated!

Originally posted by giuseppe
I am doing away with that design. Have you seen http://www.bunfire.com/bd.html ?

Okay new page looks like a game site. The older one look better :).

Business designs typically shy away from white text on a dark background. Try making the box in the middle lighter instead of darker than the background, with black text. Kind of looks like a template, too. I'd say you'd be better off modifying the first design.

Your site has bandwidth for shared hosting accounts at;

Bandwidth 10000MB - Basic

25000MB - Value


50000MB-Plus


70000MB-Premium


100000MB -Supreme


http://www.bunfire.com/shared.html

This is a crazy amount of overselling and would put some customers off.