Hello,

How many of you "web hosting providers / designers" have a second job?
How many of you live off the income you make from web hosting?
How long did it take you to become successful and live off that income?
Did you start on a "shoe String" budget?
Do you advertise locally? nationally? worldwide? all 3?

I own a successful web design business / hosting business but I only deal locally. I do quite well but I just had a few questions for others that I have been podering for quite sometime.

Speak OUT!
Thanks,
Matt

Hello,

How many of you "web hosting providers / designers" have a second job?


This is my only job.


How many of you live off the income you make from web hosting?


Have for 10 + years now.


How long did it take you to become successful and live off that income?


From day one.
Certainly not living like a king, but supporting my family.

Did you start on a "shoe String" budget?


Yes, that and a $25k investment 10 years ago. 1 server, 12 dialup modems, a couple office computers and a phone line.

Oh yea, and a 256k frac T1 and Lucent PM2ER... Wow, those were the days.


Do you advertise locally? nationally? worldwide? all 3?



Locally. The rest, word of mouth. 95% of our business has come from outside the US and via word of mouth and or our web site.



I own a successful web design business / hosting business but I only deal locally. I do quite well but I just had a few questions for others that I have been podering for quite sometime.



Matt, thanx for sharing that. Hang in there.. I'm not sure how long you have been doing this, but in time you will generate enough word of mouth to get clients from all over the world. Good luck!

How many of you "web hosting providers / designers" have a second job?

I do, helps me keep my sanity and the work I do it still a self employed position but gets be outside instead of sitting in front of a screen all day

How many of you live off the income you make from web hosting?

Two adults and two felines :)

How long did it take you to become successful and live off that income?

Three Years

Did you start on a "shoe String" budget?

Yes, started with a $65/mo raq3 and no advertising money. Had enough saved to keep the server running for a year, got first customer I believe a month after starting

Do you advertise locally? nationally? worldwide? all 3?

Locally other than signatures on forums and some occasional ad space online which is very rare.

I'm an audio engineer and FOH mixer as my main job, but hosting provides the meat on the side.

How many of you "web hosting providers / designers" have a second job?

This is my only job.

How many of you live off the income you make from web hosting?

About half a person could live off of what my company profits, but most of it goes to budget expansion.

How long did it take you to become successful and live off that income?

N/A

Did you start on a "shoe String" budget?

I saved up around $5k, which is a rather shoe string budget.


Do you advertise locally? nationally? worldwide? all 3?

All Three, locally being the best bang for buck.

Thank you for all your responces!

I actually started designing websites about 9 years ago and I did it for freinds and family but nothing in a business setting like I do now. I started my business with a free reseller account from a freind and my first "real" client was a friend I fished with for a long time.

My advertising tactic was to make cold calls from the phone book and tell everyone I saw about my business. My success since then has blown through the roof! I pretty much started with no money and a tellent I didn't want to go by the waste side. My wife is my finatual advisor / secretary / phone answering girl / everything else that's not design related. My first day "open" I know I called 200 people / businesses in my local area. Out of those 200 people, I got about 5 out of 10 signed contracts. which was wonderful! I never knew word of mouth can travel so fast. The clients I finished thier websites, they told thier friends, then they told thier friends and it's been a chain reaction since then.

I think down the line, I will be able to live off the income I make now. But I don't think I'm ready for that step yet. When I started this, I wrote down "milestones" to take and accomplish and I have accomplished right many "milestones" already.

I design my clients websites and I host them all. So actually I get the client "long term" and make money off the hosting part as well.

Thank You for your responces! It's much appreicated!
Thank You!
Matt

Hello,

How many of you "web hosting providers / designers" have a second job?

This is my only job. I like the fact that I can work from home. We have a farm full of rescue animals ( and a 13 yro Son LOL) and I am here with them and it helps a lot. I can't really work a public job where there is a lot of standing for long amounts of time. I screwed my leg up after falling 12 ft from a ladder and my leg got hung in the rung. I now have enough metal in my leg to set off metal detectors from miles around. So that was my incentive for starting my humble business.


How many of you live off the income you make from web hosting?

We live off my husbands income mostly. What I make is put back into our animal rescue. If there is any left over after the babies are all taken care of. I use it to sink back into my business in one way or another. I fund the efforts for the 18 dogs, 14 cats, 4 horses all rescues.


How long did it take you to become successful and live off that income?

I have had my business for 4 years....it has started to do really well.


Did you start on a "shoe String" budget?

Oh yes LOL.


Do you advertise locally? nationally? worldwide? all 3?

Mostly locally and nationally. Over 1.2 of my clients are from elsewhere in the US.

I own a successful web design business / hosting business but I only deal locally. I do quite well but I just had a few questions for others that I have been podering for quite sometime.

Speak OUT!
Thanks,
Matt