Well, the hosting industry is really bollocks at the moment, with all it's overselling, so I'm going to leave for the while, I've put my clients on a reseller account, and I'm going to stay like that, and do really smal-time hosting.

I'm leaving mainly because of all the overselling, and crazy prices.

It's been fun though.

Oh come on, don't leave for that :) The overselling companies don't survive anyway once all their customers use the bandwidth & space they may use.

Nah, I'm sticking to small-time hosting, I'll be making a little profit, and the clients aren't newbies at it either, so I wont need all hours support.

I might go back to public hosting later on in the year, but for now it's goodbye to all my servers, and hello to multiple reseller accounts :)

Well, it's certianly your decision to do that. Feels like stepping backwards though, but it's your life.

You mentioned the reason for this was "because of all the overselling, and crazy prices". Couldn't you find your own place in the hosting landscape? Were your costs of your servers becoming too much of a burden?

I think the hosting industry as a whole can be a large burden for those that aren't prepared for the sheer weight of it Bob. There are a lot factors involved and you have 3 types of people (in my opinion):

A. The ones that think they know it all and in the end don't really know anything. They crash and burn.

B. The ones that know what they're doing but lack the motivation/resources and are crushed under the stress of the hosting biz.

C. The ones that succeed. No real need for an explanation here.

I'm sure you can interpret what I said in different ways and disect it, but this is my personal opinion not fact. What makes it difficult for some people is they might go weeks or even months with little to no new clients signing up. Then, they come here and they see that every inquiry is about all the cheap hosts.

I think they fail to realize that the ones that do want the $1 a year plans don't represent every single person on the forum/in the industry. There are many people out there that are willing to pay good money in return for a fantastic service. You, yourself have been in the business for years Bob and you provide a fantastic service. People have recognized this and you wouldn't be as popular as you are now if all those kiddie hosts were successful.

Anyway, I rambled a little bit so I'll end this post here.

Well, it's certainly your decision to do that. Feels like stepping backwards though, but it's your life.

You mentioned the reason for this was "because of all the overselling, and crazy prices". Couldn't you find your own place in the hosting landscape? Were your costs of your servers becoming too much of a burden?

Overselling is like an art, any painting I made was abstract, I can only draw stick figures.

I was paying out enough, and receiving enough, but I'm fed up, not stressed, fed up,.
Fed up of coming here and seeing people wanting lots for little, I'll be moving my clients to another place, and it's their own choice to keep the service with me, but I'll be only doing shared hosting, the resellers who are with me are already moved to a VPS, and the shared customers are being moved to reseller accounts.

I'll close my doors to the public, and possibly when I want to get back in the game, I'll come back.

1stStrike, I'm probably a modified B. I know what I'm doing, I spent money, but I refused to oversell, and I'm a stupid, stupid man for not doing it so I could in turn -
- Reduce prices
- Get more clients
- And possibly be a little competitive

But, that's the industry. I wasn't expecting to go as far as I did, and I'm being recognised my Aussie Bob, which made my day.

It has been fun however, and I'll never quit for real, just for a little bit. Until then, ResellerZoom can handle my support queries, and the public can wait for a new Swizi, in a couple of months I expect to be back in the game, with the same aim in the game.

I'm going to back off a little, get my lost money back, and come back in at a speed and charge around the same prices and only do it small-time.

I'll be reading WHT every day and helping users all the same.

Overselling isn't the problem. Improper targeting of your desired customer base is.

If you don't oversell, then you are making a fundamental mistake if you target your advertising to people who don't know anything about web hosting. They won't know the difference and will always choose the cheaper host.

However, there is another market of customers who are happy to pay $99+ for very basic web hosting as long as they know 100% that they have a person to talk to, reliable service, etc... these customers are much harder to find, but they exist.

Rather then give up, why not refocus and keep going?

It has been fun however, and I'll never quit for real, just for a little bit. Until then, ResellerZoom can handle my support queries, and the public can wait for a new Swizi, in a couple of months I expect to be back in the game, with the same aim in the game.

I'm going to back off a little, get my lost money back, and come back in at a speed and charge around the same prices and only do it small-time.

I'll be reading WHT every day and helping users all the same.



IMO, sounds like a good plan for you and I certainly relate. People can post on and on all they want about the huge "oversellers" that are out there and how they wont last but what happens is for every one that disappears, another 5 or so appear so its a never ending battle. All the while the industry degrades abit further. Very frustrating, especially when all those over-blown hosts that "sell" plans that equal a gig space, etc. and the client ends up using 100MB...and lord know what happens when some DO reach a tad near their allottment. They come crying.
Wishing you the best :gthumb:

Overselling isn't the problem. Improper targeting of your desired customer base is.

If you don't oversell, then you are making a fundamental mistake if you target your advertising to people who don't know anything about web hosting. They won't know the difference and will always choose the cheaper host.

However, there is another market of customers who are happy to pay $99+ for very basic web hosting as long as they know 100% that they have a person to talk to, reliable service, etc... these customers are much harder to find, but they exist.

Rather then give up, why not refocus and keep going?

I said I'd quit for a while. I'm happy with the customers I'm with paying $5.00 plus for under 100MB.

I have no problem. I was targeting the right market - people who are willing to pay more for less, the "veterans" of web hosting, or in less words, people educated in the area with experience.

It's all about volume. And none of us can get volume. I want to know what "business" would penny pinch on something as cheap as $5 - $20/mo? I mean even having download access to bank records (Wachovia, Quickbooks access) is $15 a month. So something as critical as hosting should "Feel" like it would cost more to them.

Drew

Swizi:

I understand your woes and can further understand your decision to leave the scenes for a while. There are many companies overselling these days that create a washy market for customers to choose from. But, I presume that the longer you can stay in the market, the stronger you can prove your viability.

Well, the hosting industry is really bollocks at the moment, with all it's overselling, so I'm going to leave for the while, I've put my clients on a reseller account, and I'm going to stay like that, and do really smal-time hosting.

I'm leaving mainly because of all the overselling, and crazy prices.

It's been fun though.Without looking at any other explanation within this thread, to me, this would be like a restaurant owner closing a nice restaurant because he didn't like the fact that McDonalds sold $2 burgers.

I guess you need to make whatever decision is best for you, but I don't believe for a minute that the massive overselling market in any way threatens the non-oversellers. But it's up to the individual business owner to ensure that they're not positioning their businesses against oversellers based on resources alone. This isn't really that hard to do...if you truly have something more to offer than disk space and andwidth.

I don't know if the OP has had problems I'm unaware of but if i can add my honest 2 cents to this - what do you actually gain from closing doors to the general public? If you were spending a huge fortune on servers and not bringing in enough clients to remain profitable - then there was something wrong with your business plan. Going back to those reseller accounts is a good idea, you can reinvest the money you were wasting on monthly server rental somewhere else but I still don't get why you want to close business to the general public...

All I can think of is that by making a post here you've probably generated some much needed attention :)

*hugs OP*

Well obviousy I'm going to be changing bits of my plan here and there, but for now I've closed down to small servers with the clients I have, and making a nice profit.

Anyway you all have your views, and it's not just a post to say bye, I'm leaving, it's a post to see what other people thing about oversellers, and non oversellers.

Funnily enough, your original post only mentions you leaving because of overselling and crazy prices. Nothing about an 'overselling' discussion :)

Anyway something tells me that the extent of your advertising / target market is this forum - would I be correct?

You must not operate a serious business or be dedicated towards it if you can 'shut up shop' so quickly. Furthermore your slogan is unoriginal and plagerised.

I recently saw a post in another forum about how many new free hosting providers had added their website to the forum. I dont recall the forum name but the figure was quite scary = 65 new hosts in just three days. LOL

:nuts:

I don't think you need to beat up on the guy... he runs his business how he wants to run it. There is nothing wrong with what he is doing. He is not abandoning his current customers, or taking the server down without moving their data to the new one or not giving them a backup or anything.

People do things differently. Just because he isn't doing it your doesn't mean you need to pick apart what he has said or pick on his slogan.

But, I presume that the longer you can stay in the market, the stronger you can prove your viability.

Proving viability is all fine and dandy, but even after 8 years of being in the business, we still struggle with the issues that the OP mentioned. Being in the industry a long time doesn't increase your value to a client unless you've learned from it and managed to grow big infrastructure during that time.

We've tried it all ways, but have found that higher prices with fewer orders allows us more time to work with customers individually.

We sold a lot of accounts when we tried the low-priced host approach, but the customers we got during that period tended to be quite jittery. It's like they were strung out on speed or something. There would be a 10 second blip at their ISP (not even our network) and we'd get an email from them full of expletives, exclamation marks, they'd get angry when we asked for their name or some other way we could identify their account with us, and the next day we'd have a cancellation from that customer or they'd simply stop paying their bill. It constantly amazed me how those people even existed. They should have been in a fatal car accident years ago. They must propogate like rabbits to still be around. Those genes just won't quit.

At any rate, I certainly understand the OP's need to take a break from it. I've been at this 8 years now and every day is a challenge for us to stay current with the industry and try to present a level of value that is compelling and believable. There've been days that only my wife's constant support and encouragement has kept me in this. My family has been pushing for years for me to sell the company and "get a job." I keep reminding them that I have a job except my job is more complex.

OP, I hear you. I wish you well. I'm probably even a tad envious. I haven't had a real vacation in 8 years, but I'm keeping my eye on the prize: a stable, cash flow positive, profitable company that I can hire people to run for me - and then I get a vacation that involves more than 3 days at home doing house maintenance.