Have you noticed any particular months that you have less customer signups than normally, perhaps summertimes?

I am not a web host, but I remember one host telling me one time that around Christmas time it drops. As for other months/time not sure.

For us January is always quiet, and also July / August it drops of a bit as more people are on holidays and spending time outside, in the sun, away from PC's, cold drinks, on the beaches.... (Grrr I hate them !! ;) )

This WHT thread is about the same topic:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=395806

Yangxi :cool:

>Have you noticed any particular months that you have less
>customer signups than normally, perhaps summertimes?

Actually no... But of course the amount of orders will constantly decrease as this market is getting more and more oversaturated.

Originally posted by thomas.smith
>Have you noticed any particular months that you have less
>customer signups than normally, perhaps summertimes?

Actually no... But of course the amount of orders will constantly decrease as this market is getting more and more oversaturated.

:rolleyes: :smash:

Web hosting is like any other consumer product. Closer to holidays, tax season, etc. sales may decrease. If you diversify the markets you target and know how to reach out and pull new customers in, if there is a decrease for you, you can reduce just how much of a decrease there is.

Late November and early December the advertising orders just flow in.

December-May is slow for us. Has to do with tax time and holidays where people are away. As a matter of fact, we get a spike in the late summer, when people are tired of the heat and stay home in their air-conditioned houses (a shaky yet plsusible theory ;)). This year we're starting a marketing campaign that's going to be aimed directly at the summer months (May/June edition of Ping!Zine to start off). May just be a matter of coincidence, but common sense dictates another spike for us this summer.

thomas.smith ,

Dont go on about over saturation again. You were proved wrong by just about the entire community in the last post. Try and stay on topic and not burble false facts.

Originally posted by thomas.smith
Actually no... But of course the amount of orders will constantly decrease as this market is getting more and more oversaturated.

That's not true at all. We have seen continual growth and increase in orders for the past 8 years. Its only getting better.

If you sit back and depend on WHT for orders, then that is probably true. However, it also means that you don't have a real good grasp on marketing.

To answer the OP's question - December/January have always been somewhat slow for new orders. That's generally the time we dust off some killer promotions for our existing orders (call them "Holiday Specials") and generate the extra revenue that way.

--Tina

Originally posted by thomas.smith
. . . Actually no... But of course the amount of orders will constantly decrease as this market is getting more and more oversaturated.
Yes, the sky is falling, the sky is falling. :D

>Yes, the sky is falling, the sky is falling.

Not for you... You already "cashed your chips". Easy situation for you. If the industry dies you got your cash. But me...I got nothing !

Only $10,000 per month. but eh, a bit of deja vu; I seem to remember there being another thread (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=401220) about this exact same argument.

Then why would I start another business, if I didn't think there was a huge marketspace for my service? I'm not entering a shrinking marketspace. I'm entering a market of massive growth and incredible opportunity.

If you expect the worst, then you generally move towards that. If you expect the best, then you generally move towards that. It's all about attitude and perception. Fear and paranoia are not meant to be your masters.

Look out onto the fields - they are ripe for harvest! :gthumb:

Hafta agree with the concensus here.....We've been expanding into other markets and they've proven quite fruitful.

If you believe you're limited then you probably are.

Aussie Bob...wasn't that you who agreed that beeing paranoid in this business is right and who said that you sold your business because you were afraid of all the risks ??? I remember something about you and your wife deciding it was time to cash those chips and not to take any more risk ?? You sold a profitable good business because you were afraid. And now you are ironically telling me that "the sky is falling" ??

>Only $10,000 per month

If the industry implodes we will all lose the monthly revenue we make and then I will have nothing but maybe a couple of thousand bucks for years of work and dropping out of university + not leaving the house for months and everything. Therefore I really hope that it doesn`t implode but with everyone selling hosting and telling everyone to do it too the future looks bad.

Quoting Aussie Bob:
Thomas, you have every reason to be paranoid. Your business could be wiped from the face of the net by a group of persistant hackers, Joe Jobbers etc etc. You'd never catch them, and there's sweet stuff all you can do. There's plenty of folks out there with heaps of motive to be attacking web hosts etc, so each day running your business is a gamble of sorts.

I remember discussing these things with my wife, when considering selling httpme. I told her that we have this asset worth $xxx,xxx,xx and it could be wiped out very quickly. She got the feeling that it wasn't worth the gamble (httpme = debt free 60 sq home), and I should cash in my chips and leave the table while I'm still winning.

I don't know what to say. We constantly get threads on WHT asking if one month is usually slower than the previous. I usually agree, then at the end of the month I realize the it was better than the previous one. I'm so confused!

Originally posted by thomas.smith
Aussie Bob...wasn't that you who agreed that beeing paranoid in this business is right and who said that you sold your business because you were afraid of all the risks ???
No, I didn't sell httpme out of fear. Fear was never a motivating factor. You should not confuse fear with caution.
Originally posted by thomas.smith
You sold a profitable good business because you were afraid.
Rubbish.

I sold because it was the right thing to do for my family. Many factors were involved, and a small factor was the business could be here today, and gone tomorrow, which I explained to my wife.

Nothing in life is certian, and that decision was the right thing for my family. Our family home will stand for generations, whereas the future for hosting businesses is clearly uncertian.
Originally posted by thomas.smith
And now you are ironically telling me that "the sky is falling"
It's called sarcasim. :emlaugh:

Originally posted by thomas.smith
. . . If the industry implodes we will all lose the monthly revenue we make and then I will have nothing but maybe a couple of thousand bucks for years of work and dropping out of university + not leaving the house for months and everything. Therefore I really hope that it doesn`t implode but with everyone selling hosting and telling everyone to do it too the future looks bad.
Things don't look good for you Thomas, especially with the total saturation of the hosting market, given the super low entry costs to get started as a host. Also let's look at the pricing trend for hosting plans over the last 5 years, and project that 5 years forward. Hmmmm, that's a worry. Then there's the legions of hackers/spammers out there who could literally bring you to your knees.

Plenty of negatives there to worry and stress about. :nervous:

Originally posted by thomas.smith
If the industry implodes we will all lose the monthly revenue we make and then I will have nothing but maybe a couple of thousand bucks for years of work and dropping out of university + not leaving the house for months and everything. Therefore I really hope that it doesn`t implode but with everyone selling hosting and telling everyone to do it too the future looks bad. And if the sun goes supernova tomorrow none of us will need to worry about it, will we?

Seriously though, in the past few years the industry has gone through many changes and will likely continue to do so. It will evolve, and the successful host will see the writing on the wall and evolve with it. The unsuccessful host will maintain their status quo and die.

Resellers are a part of the industry and no matter how loudly you trumpet against them, they're not going to go away. Not too long ago you yourself first entered the marketplace.....Perhaps the doors should have been closed before you were given that opportunity? At least then you wouldn't have had to worry about dropping out of school or not seeing the light of day for several months.

These days you see just as many resellers going bust as you see coming online. (A good case in point seems to be BillNathan and his PowerProWeb.com. He came, he saw, and he apparently was conquered. The message on his site still says he'll be back online "tomorrow", April 21.) Some will succeed and some will fail, but sitting on WHT imitating Chicken Little won't do much for your chances at success. Seems more like a recipe for ulcers, strokes and coronaries to me.

(On a side note, if your company is truly generating $120,000 a year and all you have to show for it is "maybe a couple of thousand bucks for years of work", it might be time to review your business plan.)

>On a side note, if your company is truly generating $120,000 a
>year and all you have to show for it is "maybe a couple of
>thousand bucks for years of work", it might be time to review
>your business plan.

I am not making much profit because I am reinvesting the money. If I make 10 k in a month I have around 1.5 to 2k fixed costs... And then I use the other 8 k for ads. I have to do this to increase the monthly revenue because with a few k a month I won`t make it anywhere in this dying business... I need at least 50 k a month. Then I can get enough money to live with for the rest of my live within a couple of years. That is my goal... If I have a million bucks I do not have to be afraid anymore. But at present I have nothing and I am afraid...very afraid...

My goodness.....Such entertainment. And free to boot!

Originally posted by thomas.smith
>On a side note, if your company is truly generating $120,000 a
>year and all you have to show for it is "maybe a couple of
>thousand bucks for years of work", it might be time to review
>your business plan.

I am not making much profit because I am reinvesting the money. If I make 10 k in a month I have around 1.5 to 2k fixed costs... And then I use the other 8 k for ads. I have to do this to increase the monthly revenue because with a few k a month I won`t make it anywhere in this dying business... I need at least 50 k a month. Then I can get enough money to live with for the rest of my live within a couple of years. That is my goal... If I have a million bucks I do not have to be afraid anymore. But at present I have nothing and I am afraid...very afraid...


When you say hosting, I wonder what you mean....the best way is to hedge your risk instead of investing in marketing hosting, invest it in releasing new products and services...possibly even offshoot businesses, dedicated servers, domains and other value added services like SSL may also be profitable ventures for you...

If this is truly a horrible business to be in - how is it that both Aussie Bob and myself found buyers who were serious enough to pay a very generous sum to buy us out? Also, how is it that both Aussie Bob and myself jumped right back into the hosting business and took off running?

Hosting is a very lucrative business, if you know what you're doing.

--Tina

I don't have the time necessary...

>Hosting is a very lucrative business, if you know what you're
>doing.

Let's talk about that in 10 to 15 years... I don't know how old you are but I'm 23 and if my business dies there may be like another 60 years I need to have cash for. I really do not intend to go to McDonalds and flip burgers.

Then why did you drop out of university?

I fail to understand what you're complaining about...

Are you looking for a job that brings in the money that you don't have any risk in? Don't run your own business then. You should have stayed in Uni and gone to work for another company.

Or are you wanting to be an entrepreneur? If so, why be afraid of risk of one business failing, you should be looking for more businesses to setup and run, hedging the risk of each one failing...

My goal is to make a million bucks before the end of 2008. Something that I could not achieve as a lawyer... With the current growth everything seems to work out so far. But my plan must be bullet proof or I won`t feel comfortable.

Originally posted by thomas.smith
My goal is to make a million bucks before the end of 2008. Something that I could not achieve as a lawyer... With the current growth everything seems to work out so far. But my plan must be bullet proof or I won`t feel comfortable.
You won't make it to 2008 if you keep worrying about the little things like you do. Stress levels as high as yours cause burnout and heart attacks. Calm down, create redundancy plans, create emergency plans, and if something does happen put them into place. Whenever you need a friend to help you get through hard times, Mr. Daniels is always around.

Originally posted by AH-Tina
. . . Also, how is it that both Aussie Bob and myself jumped right back into the hosting business and took off running?
(a) We're both as mad as cut snakes.
(b) We're suckers for punishment.
(c) There's a good market there to tap into and make a good living from.

I'm going for a bit of all the above, but mainly (c) :D :emlaugh:

Originally posted by thomas.smith
. . . I need at least 50 k a month. Then I can get enough money to live with for the rest of my live within a couple of years. That is my goal... If I have a million bucks I do not have to be afraid anymore. But at present I have nothing and I am afraid...very afraid...
I kind of feel sorry for you, with that fear attitude, seriously.

Thomas, get some positive motivational into you. Maybe some Tony Robbin's CDs or something. You don't have to live in fear, no matter how poor your parents were. Your attitude determines what you get in life, and you're focussing too much on the negative, and you'll end up getting that.

I'm a very positive and upbeat person, but that doesn't mean I ignore the negatives. I just don't obsess with them, and focus and push towards the good things in life. :)

But even if you had a million bucks, it's not going to last you for the next 60 years. Capital is one thing, but cashflow is another, and both are equally as important, imo.

It would probably grow in fall or spring. Cause winter has all of those holidays. Maybe it would just be random.

To get back on topic... we've been around since 2003 and so far have found that spring (April-June) are the busiest times. It really goes in spurts.

Sorry to jump off topic again, but I just did some math and even at his current rate of supposed growth, $50K a month minus his level of expenditures will still leave thomas.smith well short of his expected $1M by the end of 2008.

And let me state that one million dollars really doesn't last very long unless you were to curl up in a hole in the wall and become a hermit for the rest of your life....At 26 or 27 years old you'll still have another forty years or more to look forward to. That's only 25K a year to live on and while you might be able to survive on that now you likely won't be able to in another ten or twenty years.

Looks like you might want to start planning on flipping burgers at McDonalds....

>Sorry to jump off topic again, but I just did some math and even
>at his current rate of supposed growth, $50K a month minus

I was thinking of 50 k profit (taxes and stuff already taken away)

>And let me state that one million dollars really doesn't last very
>long

Don`t forget that you can invest the money, buy houses, let the bank pay interest and so on. 5% interest per year = 50 k per year you can spend without getting any poorer.

:topic:

Thomas, if you want to discuss you, please open a new thread.