I would like to know how long each of you been in the hosting market?

Also, how many customers do you have? How many new customers do you get a week? :) How many do you lose? :bawling:

Especially the $30/year hosts... how long and how many?

I currently host 4000 domains (separate IPs) since 1997.

4000 separate IPs? Doesn't that cost a fortune in IPs?

David

thats a lotta IP's. i got into the biz in 1999, but never fully finished it, so i let it go.

He also sells dedicated servers so that most likely makes up a majority of the IP's

Originally posted by davet
I would like to know how long each of you been in the hosting market?

Also, how many customers do you have? How many new customers do you get a week? :) How many do you lose? :bawling:

Especially the $30/year hosts... how long and how many?

I currently host 4000 domains (separate IPs) since 1997.

i would like to know that about your site :)

how many customers do you have? How many new customers do you get a week? :) How many do you lose? :bawling:

actually, I offer dedicated servers, but have 0 dedicated customers. The 4000 accounts are all shared. I lease 5 Linux servers from www.olm.net for all my shared accounts. Each server costs me $1100. I store around 600 domains per server so my cost comes out to be around $1.80 per IP. I also still have some individual reseller accounts I purchase from olm which I pay $8 for. Expensive yes, but the reason I have them is because that is how I got started. Once I was able to afford dedicated servers, I started to fill them up. I am still in the process of moving the $8 accounts to my dedicated servers.

On the average I get about 3 to 5 new accounts per day. I also get about 3 to 5 cancellations per day.

Is 4000 a lot of customers? Or do I still have a lot of work to do?

Still, no one has answered the post…

how many customers do you have? How many new customers do you get a week? How many do you lose?

I must say I am very impressed with your openness and honesty. You can't believe the BS that piles up here on actual numbers. It is nice to see an honest host post here.

Are you collecting some data for survey?

Wow.. A person who tells real numbers not BS numbers,, Welcome to WHT.. I would think 4000 is a pretty decent # if I was you.. As for us we have 247 customers as of now on shared hosting and about 25 resellers, we operate 3 dedicated servers 1 for shared hosting 1 for resellers (newest) and one raq for all the old school people who dont want to use Ensim. We get from -5 signups a day and loose on average 1 customer ever 1-2 months (usually due to finding a cheaper host) we have been in business for about 2 years total including the time we used a couple reseller accounts to sell hosting which was a branch off of our local pc repair shop we ran back in January we purchased our first dedicated server.. well thats us..

Well as a newbie here is our numbers. Since opening the doors about 7-9 days ago we had 11 people signup for accounts. So we are averaging about 1-2 signups right now, but it doesn't include our local customers (we are targeting a majority of local businesses) we have 4 in the oven, but my partner is still working on designing their site. We see you can make a bigger profit with the local clients, we charge them $100/month but that includes my partner maintiaining and adjusting their site.

I'll let you know how many we actually lose, since we do not invoice clients for 15-days (15-day free trial) and see how many of those accounts are actually bogus :)

Originally posted by combs
Are you collecting some data for survey?


I would just like to know what type of hosting companies are posting to the forums.... large or small... quick buck or long haul.

It helps me decide whether or not their comments are valid. If someone has a large customer base, they obviously are doing something right.

It seems to me that the hosts that offer $30/year hosting are just trying to build a customer base. I don't see how they could still be in business and offer dependable customer support for $30/year. But I am sure the $30's won't be revealing their numbers.

Also, the reason I was interested in the $30 host is because I was interested in maybe lowering my prices... I wanted to see if anyone was getting a flood of orders? Does anyone still get a 'flood' of orders like back before the year 2000 during the rush?

Also as for being honest with the numbers… wasn't this forum designed to help each other? :uzi: Liars can leave

I think the reason people are afraid to post their real numbers is because the people spouting BS are very capable of making legitimate numbers look horrid.

I, for one, avoid posting numbers for that very reason. When you get a bum rush of BS'ers telling you that you suck because you don't have 99% retention over your 4 years of business, it can make a company look bad.

One often overlooked factor in cancellations (after you've been in business long enough to see the entire industry reinvented) is technological change. It is very difficult to keep on the cutting edge and often isn't practical. You may be on the cutting edge one month and the next month you're considered out of date or out of style. As soon as you're off the cutting edge, you're going to lose the "technology hoppers" (as I like to call them).

When you get back on that edge, you'll grow at a faster rate, but the damage to your percentage of customers retained is already done.

Over time, regular churn will cause your percent retention to fall (albiet slowly) even though your total number of customers continues to increase.

The only time that rule fails is during periods of rapid growth, but that is a false indicator of customer satisfaction since nobody has had a chance to determine if they're satisfied or not. I'm sure you've all read threads about Cyberwings.

We've been in this busines long enough to know that there is usually more damage than benefit in publicly releasing real world numbers. They do little to help you gain/retain customers and can be used as ammunition by less scrupulous competitors.:uzi:

I'm about to be starting up, and I'm going to be writing a business plan sometime soon so I can apply for grants and hopefully get some.

I'm wondering when you guys who host started out, what was your customer growth like in your initial months. Also what kind of prices did you set and what marketing did you do? If you also don't mind, what technique you used do you think gave you the best growth in customers.

This will help me (hopefully) to form some conservative estimates and expecations.

Best regards,
- Kurieuo.

PS. If you don't want to write publicly, PMing is good.

I host near 900 domains (this doesn't mean 900 customers), and we opened on may 2001, I get 6-8 new accounts each week, but things has been slow since the incrementation of cheap host, (I used to get 3-5 daily signups) althrough sales has been slightly picked up since we put our new design online

I lose 1-3 customers per month too. :bawling:

Jedito, who designed your site? Looks like Pixelbrick. Do you mind revealing the cost of your new site?

dique7.com designed it, but if you don't mind, I prefer to not reveal the cost in public :)

We sell 1GB space / bandwidth accounts for $30/year (starting at $30). We are hosting 1,400+ domains and we started 8 months ago (it's our first year).. We get about $100-$700 in sales (and bandwidth upgrades) per day so we add about 5-10 accounts per day.

Originally posted by NiceRsx2002
We sell 1GB space / bandwidth accounts for $30/year (starting at $30). We are hosting 1,400+ domains and we started 8 months ago (it's our first year).. We get about $100-$700 in sales (and bandwidth upgrades) per day so we add about 5-10 accounts per day.

How can you offer 1 gig disk space accounts for $30/year? Even if you had a 80gig hard drive installed to a server, your revenue would come out to something like $150-$200/month per server. That doesn't seem profitable. How many servers do you host the 1400 accounts on?

Is your company in the positive? What is your domain name if you don't mind me asking? ;)

Well for example we have a 60GB hard drive on our Plesk server 44% is used, we are hosting 700+ accounts on that server alone. Clients don't really need that much diskspace they just think they do and like room to grow (at least that's what I think). I have made quite a bit of money thus far about $25,000 in 8 months :). I'm still in college and hope to make this a full time job. We have 3 servers 700 on one 600 on one and a new one with only about 70.

so you're charging them for a 1000mb site and only giving them about 80mb per site? That just doesn't seem right. :confused:

What happens when eventually the customers do start to fill their space and the serevr become overloaded?

We'll upgrade the hard drives, simple enough I mean me mainly host small sites and there isn't much you can store that's 1GB (that we allow on the server). WE DO give them a quota of 1GB they just don't use it.

Originally posted by davet
I would like to know how long each of you been in the hosting market?
Since Dec 2001.
Also, how many customers do you have?
226
How many new customers do you get a week? :)
About 10+ now.
How many do you lose? :bawling:
Haven't lost an account for a month or 2. [seriously]

Originally posted by Aussie Bob
Haven't lost an account for a month or 2. [seriously]

That's much more impressive than other statistic I've seen in this thread so far... you are clearly doing something right -- congrats Bob :)

Originally posted by tribby
That's much more impressive than other statistic I've seen in this thread so far... you are clearly doing something right -- congrats Bob :)
Once you enter, I hastily lock the door behind you and hide the key. Mhuhahahahahahaha :D

Hey I know! You all give me your customers and I live happily ever after :P

A couple of points:

Originally posted by tribby


That's much more impressive than other statistic I've seen in this thread so far... you are clearly doing something right -- congrats Bob :)

Churn doesn't really get felt until you are in business for a few years. I do not care what people say and how much BS they want to lay down, no one can escape the 1 - 4% monthly churn averages the industry sees on shared hosting. Until you get into the thousands of customers and a few years in business, you will not understand. Our first year we had 1000 customers. We lost a handful. We thought we had the answer. But over time, the percentages catch up. While 95% of our closures are due to non-payment or just stopping hosting all together, few come from moving to other host. And this includes the fact our lowest plan is $10.00/mo.


How can you offer 1 gig disk space accounts for $30/year? Even if you had a 80gig hard drive installed to a server, your revenue would come out to something like $150-$200/month per server. That doesn't seem profitable. How many servers do you host the 1400 accounts on?

davet, you will find that most host who come to these boards have no business sense. They are people who treat it as a hobby, not a business. Of course $30.00/yr will not be sustainable over time. Commen sense dictates this. My challange has always been to find a host who has been around longer then a few years who charges under $5.00/mo and gives away the farm (ex .. 1 GB of space or a lot of bandwidth). You just won't find any. Even with the low cost of entry to this business now days, there will always be a bottom line.

People who have frequented these boards have seen this time and time again. Host closing doors because they had no clue, or host who started with stupid pricing, finally woke up and started to raise rates to make money to sustain.

I have seen this analogy posted a few times. Anyone can go buy $50.00 worth one $1 bills and sell them for $.75. Sure you wilkl sell them quicker then the next guy, but eventually you run out of dollar bills and have nbothing to show for it. Like a shooting star. And I have seen my fair share of shooting stars in my almost three years of coming here.

Originally posted by UmBillyCord
You just won't find any.

I think you mean "many" :). Your points are very valid, and some will only come to find this out the hard way unfortunately. We are well into our third annual rebilling with some hosting clients and the second with development/maintenance. We lose a few each month now, nearly all of which are from closed down sites, but that's no problem.

Cheers

Gary

I think you mean "many" .

I can maybe change it to "hardly any - at all. " :)

I know that some people in other countries can certainly servive off a much lower income and salary is not as high. So many vs. any would be better. However, even in other countries paper thin margins will not work once you get a few thousand customers.

Certainly. The results are right here. WHT covers a very broad spectrum. A bit of comic relief between support tickets sometimes.

Gary

over 5500 domains (over 3000 are hosting, and then you have resellers accounting for around 2000 domains).
12-20 signups per day for hosting or reseller
a dozen cancellations a week roughly

First customer was Oct 24th 2001.

I don't understand the "paper thin" margins of under $5 a month hosting. Our margins is around 30-40% after all expenses, I'd call 5500 sites "a few thousand" and our lowest priced plan is $19.95 a year, most of our signups are $3.95 a month. Of course I have to say the monthly (only) reseller plans REALLY does a lot for the bottom line and there is less tech support per server full of resellers than there is server full of web sites. And there's more than a few customers paying much more than 3.95 for a month, with one site paying over 100 a month for their web space.

Hell I couldn't be more pleased with it.

Dixie,

I am impressed. That's great. Nice to see it's working out nicely for you.

a dozen cancellations a week OUCH LOL

Man... I don't understand people saying how people selling low priced accounts will fail. Let's lay things out here:

You can buy a server from rackshack for $100-200 per month.

You can add about 600-1000 domains per server (since we are hosting small sites) load times are still .5-3 even on a server with 700+ domains...

Let's do some math here:

$30 per year per account X 700 = $21,000

Total cost to rent the web server is about $1000-2000 per year) so that's about $20,000 profit on one server........ Anyone tell me what doesn't work with that ????

Originally posted by NiceRsx2002
........ Anyone tell me what doesn't work with that ????

You're overselling like a mad man, that's the only way that you can get profit from your plans.

From my point of view, its very dangerous, but, who the hell I am? :)

Well if people don't use it should I just let it sit there? I mean almost no one needs that much space, how is this dangerous I don't see it...

Depends on the accounts you're selling on those servers, 100 megs space and a gig transfer each and you're overselling by a factor of roughly 1.9 (not quite selling double what you have) on bandwidth and say 700 x 100 = roughly 70 gigs space on a 60 gig drive (call it 55 the OS takes up space) isn't horrendous overselling. Probably safe enough.

Of course that's not what most of these guys are doing, they're advertising GIGS of space and multiple gigs of bandwidth and they're still putting 600 and 700 accounts per server, overselling by 10 fold what they have, dangerous to say the least.

Originally posted by Dixiesys
are doing, they're advertising GIGS of space and multiple gigs of bandwidth and they're still putting 600 and 700 accounts per server, overselling by 10 fold what they have, dangerous to say the least.

He said in a previus message that he sell 1GB Space for $30/year and he put 600/700 accounts per server.

Very dangerous to me.

Originally posted by NiceRsx2002
Well if people don't use it should I just let it sit there? I mean almost no one needs that much space, how is this dangerous I don't see it...

Yes, you have to leave some space just in case that some of your customers need it, you'll have bigs problems if only the 30% of your customers use 500 MB.

Just to show you an example, my main site (downtownhost.com) use near 300 MB, you may ask how? well, I have some old files that I forgoted to delete, I moved old designs to a folder and I keep all the htmls and graphics there.
Also, I have 3-4 pdf, and nothing else :)

Also, you have to take in mind Mysql, some forums can use 600-1 GB space in database space + emails + + + + + + + + +

I would upgrade the HD, $19 per month for a 60GIG HDD no big deal..

There are several other costs as well. Not everything is hardware related :)

Support and transaction costs.

Heck..just the transaction for a $30/ year account would probably be 5% of the total order.

How do you solve the support? Are you a one person company?

A regular email support ticket (with staff answereing) is worth about $1.50 per answer.

As long as you are one person, and do not have any employees, it might work.

There are so many factors to running a successful business and it's not about the number of clients you have etc. Being debt free, cashflow positive, growing and happy with your life is right up there too. :)

I worked out a business deal with a support company, they are helping with the support desk, they setup the accounts and they backup the servers.... So that's not an expense we just give them free hosting in exchange for the work.

Originally posted by Dixiesys
over 5500 domains (over 3000 are hosting, and then you have resellers accounting for around 2000 domains).
12-20 signups per day for hosting or reseller
a dozen cancellations a week roughly

First customer was Oct 24th 2001.

I don't understand the "paper thin" margins of under $5 a month hosting. Our margins is around 30-40% after all expenses, I'd call 5500 sites "a few thousand" and our lowest priced plan is $19.95 a year, most of our signups are $3.95 a month. Of course I have to say the monthly (only) reseller plans REALLY does a lot for the bottom line and there is less tech support per server full of resellers than there is server full of web sites. And there's more than a few customers paying much more than 3.95 for a month, with one site paying over 100 a month for their web space.

Hell I couldn't be more pleased with it.


Your business really just started when you started using these boards. Read your first post around here, you will see what I mean. Also, I hardly call getting Cyberwings customer a big success. Thats just me.

If you do not see that $3.95/mo is paper thin, then you do not know business. Bottom line. I also challange your margins right here also. There is no way you are getting 40% off a $19/yr OR $3.95 account. Everything has a bottom line. With technology and a few other things, you can lower it, but you will still always have to answer to profits. You maybe happy over-subscribing on lower end boxes and if it works for you, great. However this is not our model for success, and I have yet to see a long term success story.

The only thing I can say is we will see you in time. In three years of coming here, I have NEVER seen someone under $5.00/mo make it. I see the same old story though.....

[Guy comes here. Has low prices. Grows quick. Releaizes not making money does not work. We never see them post again.]

I can name handfuls of these businesses that came and went.

I am happy you can pat yourself on the back for 5000 $19/yr and $3.95/mo domains. Good luck with it. Only time will tell if it really works.

That really seems like a good deal for you. :D :D :D

To be honest, i think that seems a little weird.

Originally posted by NiceRsx2002
Let's do some math here:

$30 per year per account X 700 = $21,000

Total cost to rent the web server is about $1000-2000 per year) so that's about $20,000 profit on one server........ Anyone tell me what doesn't work with that ????

To each his own. If you like supporting 700 clients on one server, and making $20k per year off of it, then great. If you live at home, eat Ramen noodles, have no expenses, and you are the only worker, then it is a living, and could be a decent one if you fill up a few servers. [Note sarcasm]

So, 2100 clients will bring you around $60k per year. When do you take a vacation? What happens if you are sick? If you hire someone, you'll need an office. You'll need computers, furniture, etc... Plus you have to pay a salary. Takes quite a chunk out of the profits. Not to mention the larger # of support requests to manage 2100 clients.

I am not saying it cannot be done. I am not even saying it should not be done. Just that with bottom of the barrel prices, making a sustainable living on your own, having employees, and trying to make a profit after salaries becomes quite a challenge (Unless you have tons of venture capital).

I prefer to average $21,000 per month per 700 clients, which makes supporting them a whole lot easier. :D

- John C.

Originally posted by JohnCrowley


To each his own. If you like supporting 700 clients on one server, and making $20k per year off of it, then great. If you live at home, eat Ramen noodles, have no expenses, and you are the only worker, then it is a living, and could be a decent one if you fill up a few servers. [Note sarcasm]

So, 2100 clients will bring you around $60k per year. When do you take a vacation? What happens if you are sick? If you hire someone, you'll need an office. You'll need computers, furniture, etc... Plus you have to pay a salary. Takes quite a chunk out of the profits. Not to mention the larger # of support requests to manage 2100 clients.

I am not saying it cannot be done. I am not even saying it should not be done. Just that with bottom of the barrel prices, making a sustainable living on your own, having employees, and trying to make a profit after salaries becomes quite a challenge (Unless you have tons of venture capital).

I prefer to average $21,000 per month per 700 clients, which makes supporting them a whole lot easier. :D

- John C.

I back that up :)

Originally posted by NiceRsx2002
Man... I don't understand people saying how people selling low priced accounts will fail. Let's lay things out here:

You can buy a server from rackshack for $100-200 per month.

You can add about 600-1000 domains per server (since we are hosting small sites) load times are still .5-3 even on a server with 700+ domains...

Let's do some math here:

$30 per year per account X 700 = $21,000

Total cost to rent the web server is about $1000-2000 per year) so that's about $20,000 profit on one server........ Anyone tell me what doesn't work with that ????

Pssssttt.....

There is more to running a business then fuzzy math. Do some research. Every heard of taxes, salaries, finance charges, insurance, etc.....

Originally posted by JohnCrowley


To each his own. If you like supporting 700 clients on one server, and making $20k per year off of it, then great. If you live at home, eat Ramen noodles, have no expenses, and you are the only worker, then it is a living, and could be a decent one if you fill up a few servers. [Note sarcasm]

So, 2100 clients will bring you around $60k per year. When do you take a vacation? What happens if you are sick? If you hire someone, you'll need an office. You'll need computers, furniture, etc... Plus you have to pay a salary. Takes quite a chunk out of the profits. Not to mention the larger # of support requests to manage 2100 clients.

I am not saying it cannot be done. I am not even saying it should not be done. Just that with bottom of the barrel prices, making a sustainable living on your own, having employees, and trying to make a profit after salaries becomes quite a challenge (Unless you have tons of venture capital).

I prefer to average $21,000 per month per 700 clients, which makes supporting them a whole lot easier. :D

- John C.


This is an excellent post. People never realize this stuff. Sure a one man show can support 3000 *domains* and eat noodles for years. But after while you need more.

"While I grow, I will hire a $2000 tech for every 3000 domains." Great. After 15,000 domains you will need a billing clerk on top of that. Where does that money come from?

You raise your prices :)

Originally posted by NiceRsx2002
You raise your prices :)

Meaning your business fails at its current run. I have seen many host build a big customer base and raise rates. That is business. But those guys always had the intent to raise prices knowing they would never survive at their current offering. They wouldn't be the ones here telling you it could work, because it didn't work for them. ;)

Raising prices is a good thing, but the base you build in the early stages dictates how a price raise will actually work.

Offer hosting for pennies, and when you turn those pennies into dollars, the penny pinchers will go somewhere else. If your core business is centered around price, then raising prices is like McDonalds saying they are only going to sell Hot Dogs now...You are taking out the core business offering, which is never good for business.

Better to build your business around support and features, combined with a realistic price. Then when you raise prices *slowly*, people accept it a lot easier as they are paying for service, not cheapness.

Sure, you'll lose a few, but if the price increase times the # of remianing clients is equal to or greater than the lost revenue from those that leave, you are golden!

- John C.

Well right now i've been making plenty of money so there is no need to raise them, once things start to go downhill I will make an adjustment.

Hey RSX what is your url? I would like to take a look at the pricing structure of your other plans.. I am figuring you must have some other plans besides the yearly for $20..

Originally posted by NiceRsx2002
Well right now i've been making plenty of money so there is no need to raise them, once things start to go downhill I will make an adjustment.


lmao, i seriously can't believe some of the business practices of some hosts. what kind of mentality is that? is that what you tell your clients?

"uh, lets see how much longer i can hold out, if the business starts sucking, tell us, and we'll make an adjustment"

business is business, making it a get rich scheme demeans its purpose.

Could you imagine if the automotive industry did this?

You would be able to buy a Porsche for about $500, but unfortunately it would only go 15mph :eek:

Careful, jayjay might pop up and say you suck at analogies. :D

For the record, I liked your analogy.:)

but i guess the airline industry does this too... they overbook flights... but this doesn't make the customers happy :bawling:

some people really forget about taxes and other expenses,
espically taxes

lets say

2100 clients with 3 servers (700 clients)

making $60,000

Taxes 35-40%

So your making only $35,000 a year

Unless you forgot about advertising, and anything else,
you'll be making around $30k a year.

I think mcdonald managers also make $30,000 a year.
why go through all this trouble when you can work stress free directing burger flippers at the same amount?

2100 clients is around 100 tickets a day.
Good luck answering 100 tickets for 5 hours a day :)

Haha I love these threads.

My business doesn't have much to do with WHT however I do have some happy customers who hang out elsewhere that do drive a massive amount of traffic my way.

As for those Cyberwings customers, I'm quite glad to get them, I've found that their money is the same shade of green as anyone else's. Spends the same too, can't see how they're tainted, if anything, many of them have learned a valuable lesson about when cheap is too cheap.

My outlook is simple, as long as I can pay this month's bills with last month's money then it'll be ok.

Can't wait for that first recurring YEARLY payment to show a little "2" in number of installments billed.

I could post numbers backing up my 30-40% profit margin but hell it ain't really any of ya'lls business now is it, so just take my word or don't hell it don't really matter to me none, if I had any sense I'd be agreeing with you going on and on about how hosting for less than $5 a month is absolutely gonna fail, market is crowded enough and here I am egging on potential competition :D

Originally posted by mrbling

making $60,000

Taxes 35-40%

So your making only $35,000 a year

Unless you forgot about advertising, and anything else,
you'll be making around $30k a year.

I think mcdonald managers also make $30,000 a year.
why go through all this trouble when you can work stress free directing burger flippers at the same amount?


They don't make $30k AFTER taxes your logic is flawed. They make about $30k before taxes and around here, it's more like $22K before taxes, I can't even bring myself to figure up what that is after tax.

Originally posted by mrbling
why go through all this trouble when you can work stress free directing burger flippers at the same amount?

Maybe you just like doing it :stickout

Originally posted by Dixiesys
My outlook is simple, as long as I can pay this month's bills with last month's money then it'll be ok.

Can't wait for that first recurring YEARLY payment to show a little "2" in number of installments billed.

There's a hint in there that many don't pick up on. At COB last month, you need sufficient cash reserves to ensure that you can sustain operations right through until that number 2 does appear, not just your next months' overheads.

Cheers

Gary

I could post numbers backing up my 30-40% profit margin but hell it ain't really any of ya'lls business now is it, so just take my word or don't hell it don't really matter to me none

If it is none of our business, then why did you post it on a public forum. No I don't believe you. I think you have no idea what your real margins are.

I hope you succeed. You have always been fair and honest here. That is hard to find. However, your 40% margin on $19/yr OR $3.95/mo accounts is seriously flawed. Think about it. You have not found some holy grail. If you can make 40% margins on $3.95 then the market would drive to that level - even lower.

Take care.

Originally posted by mrbling

2100 clients is around 100 tickets a day
Good luck answering 100 tickets for 5 hours a day :) [/B]



2100 clients around 100- tickets??? per day? :eek:

maybe if they're selling more than they have.

I host 4000 and only receive maybe 30 inquires per day, maybe because we don't over-stuff our servers...

I guess if I were to oversell my resources, I would probably get 3-5 times more tech problems.

I am interested in how many support problems the $30 host get per day compared to the $100-$200 hosts…

Originally posted by Editor


There's a hint in there that many don't pick up on. At COB last month, you need sufficient cash reserves to ensure that you can sustain operations right through until that number 2 does appear, not just your next months' overheads.
ah yep. :D

Originally posted by UmBillyCord


If it is none of our business, then why did you post it on a public forum. No I don't believe you. I think you have no idea what your real margins are.

I hope you succeed. You have always been fair and honest here. That is hard to find. However, your 40% margin on $19/yr OR $3.95/mo accounts is seriously flawed. Think about it. You have not found some holy grail. If you can make 40% margins on $3.95 then the market would drive to that level - even lower.

Take care.

I said margin is 30-40 as a whole, those 19.95 a year plans are definitely not generating that much, if that's all I sold I'd be eating bologna and crackers :D 19.95 a year hosting isn't viable in my situation, not by itself, but taken as a whole the 19.95 a years mixed with all the rest, it works out very well.

I am interested in how many support problems the $30 host get per day compared to the $100-$200 hosts…

Since 1st June (reloaded the helpdesk):

Total Tickets Closed: 499
Average Answer Time: 2 Hours

It is possible to keep prices low, not oversell or overload servers, and hang around for 4 years without any major complaints.

Cheers

Gary

If your only getting 30 queries a day from 4000 clients, that just means you are not adding too many clients a day to your customer database,

must inquiries come from new clients.
And 30 queries a day from 4000 clients is impossible, you will probably get 5-10 cancelation a day from 4000 clients, and 30-40 pieces of spam.

30 queries? not likely.


Originally posted by davet




2100 clients around 100- tickets??? per day? :eek:

maybe if they're selling more than they have.

I host 4000 and only receive maybe 30 inquires per day, maybe because we don't over-stuff our servers...

I guess if I were to oversell my resources, I would probably get 3-5 times more tech problems.

I am interested in how many support problems the $30 host get per day compared to the $100-$200 hosts…

Originally posted by Editor


There's a hint in there that many don't pick up on. At COB last month, you need sufficient cash reserves to ensure that you can sustain operations right through until that number 2 does appear, not just your next months' overheads.

Cheers

Gary

It's quite worrisome to know that if you don't signup any new business you can't pay the bills. Which is why when I introduced reseller plans in Jan I didn't offer any yearly plans for that very reason, monthly income wasn't near enough to pay the bills at that point so those plans are only available by the month. 300 resellers later, that monthly income is enough and I feel a lot better about it.

Originally posted by Dixiesys


I said margin is 30-40 as a whole, those 19.95 a year plans are definitely not generating that much, if that's all I sold I'd be eating bologna and crackers :D 19.95 a year hosting isn't viable in my situation, not by itself, but taken as a whole the 19.95 a years mixed with all the rest, it works out very well.
If it's working for you Gary, and your cashflow is truly positive, you are happy, your clients are happy, then more power to ya. :D:agree:

I would say you've got more chance of survivial than someone that jumps in with 1M in VC etc....

Originally posted by mrbling
must inquiries come from new clients.

Not in our experience. An epic long Welcome email keeps clients busy enough to get everything up and running. It covers every aspect of their account, and points to online resources for anything it doesn't.

We generally don't get any enquiries from new clients...maybe 1 in 5 if that.

Cheers

Gary

It is possible to keep prices low, not oversell or overload servers, and hang around for 4 years without any major complaints.

Just out of curiosity, what was your domain name before 4/1/01? I went to archive.org to check old pricing and it only goes back one year.

About help tickets, since June 14th, 2100 tickets. That's roughly 1100 a month roughly 40 a day.

Yes new business is where most of the requests come from.

overselling the servers does not increase support tickets if your server is stable.

The only way there can be a difference is if you target the experienced market instead of the completely newbie mom and pop sites.


On one of my servers I have over 1250 domain names

This is my load:

root@dmc:~# uptime
1:01AM up 72 days, 9:38, 2 users, load averages: 0.78, 0.85, 0.71
root@dmc:~#

Maximum profit margin while being 100% stable.

Originally posted by Editor


Not in our experience. An epic long Welcome email keeps clients busy enough to get everything up and running. It covers every aspect of their account, and points to online resources for anything it doesn't.

We generally don't get any enquiries from new clients...maybe 1 in 5 if that.

Cheers

Gary

Anyone else just have the urge to signup for a month just to get a copy of that Email? :D

well mrbling, just telling the truth...

I have no reason to exaggerate

Don’t get me wrong, some days I am there all day..

Somedays I'm at the beach

But on the average… a lot is automated

Originally posted by Dixiesys
Anyone else just have the urge to signup for a month just to get a copy of that Email? :D
*whistles* :D

I'll sell it to ya for half price. ;)

the 100+ number includes the spam and all the crap emails, sales questions etc.

Originally posted by UmBillyCord
Just out of curiosity, what was your domain name before 4/1/01? I went to archive.org to check old pricing and it only goes back one year.

You could try editgroup.com.au, but we initially started out with editgroup.aunz.com on the private ISP network we joined.

Cheers

Gary

Originally posted by Dixiesys
Anyone else just have the urge to signup for a month just to get a copy of that Email? :D

I'll send you a copy if you want Gary. It's no big deal. It just seems to allow 99% of new signups to get up and running with varying levels of past experience. We give the same general template to Resellers to use and we're lucky if we ever hear from any of our resellers.

Cheers

Gary

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Editor
[B]

I'll send you a copy if you want Gary. It's no big deal. It just seems to allow 99% of new signups to get up and running with varying levels of past experience. We give the same general template to Resellers to use and we're lucky if we ever hear from any of our resellers.


I would like a copy please dave@interactiveonline.net

same here pleas Gary :) jorgec@downtownhost.com

I'd love to get a copy as well just to compare with our Welcome Kit template.

karbon1 AT hotmail.com

On its way.

Cheers

Gary

Thank you very much Gary :)

as to one of my original posts...

"I would just like to know what type of hosting companies are posting to the forums.... large or small... quick buck or long haul.

It helps me decide whether or not their comments are valid."

now I know who I am dealing with :kaioken:

Originally posted by Editor


I'll send you a copy if you want Gary. It's no big deal. It just seems to allow 99% of new signups to get up and running with varying levels of past experience. We give the same general template to Resellers to use and we're lucky if we ever hear from any of our resellers.

Cheers

Gary

Sure, sales@dixiesys.com I'll send back one of ours, not that it's all that great :)

I started this post because I would like to see what type of Welcome Kit or Letter you send to your customers when they activate an account.
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=70592

Originally posted by davet
as to one of my original posts...

"I would just like to know what type of hosting companies are posting to the forums.... large or small... quick buck or long haul.

It helps me decide whether or not their comments are valid."

now I know who I am dealing with :kaioken:

You're dealing with a mix of hosts, and lots of strong opinions and some differing outlooks and some things nearly everyone agrees on.

I tend to read WHT to garner as much info as I can on how to do things, what to watch out for, good ideas, bad ideas, etc to help myself, and I tend to try and offer my own input when I can. If I can learn from others' mistakes and triumphs then maybe I can avoid the holes and learn what does work and what approaches don't work.

I keep an eye on the ads forums to see what's being offered elsewhere, and shake my head when I see outrageous offers that even I won't try to match (cyberwings comes to mind).

hey gary can you send me your welcome letter too, time to make improvements....

support@marhamat.com

Gary, if you have a minute I'd appreciate a glance at it too - I thought we had the welcome email aspect pretty well covered, but we get more queries from new clients that you do :)

Matt

On its way Matt (via WHT mail).

Gary

[delete]

Heck... now I'm really curious. Can you send a copy to mlightner@site5.com Gary?

Thanks much. :)

Wow Matt, take a look at your post number !

The number of the beast :)


Site5-Matt
Rabid anti-dentite

Registered: Sep 2000
Posts: 666

lol... I didn't even notice. I'll make a quick pointless post (like this one) in order to avoid bringing any weird curse upon myself. :D

Originally posted by Editor
On its way.

Cheers

Gary
One for me too please Gary. :D rob@HTTPme.com ;)

Well -- while you are at it ;) -- PM me too!

and while you're at it Gary, could I have your WHT spam list. Mine is getting old and out of date. :D ;)

Too late. I sold it 5 minutes ago. ;)

Gary

Originally posted by Editor
Too late. I sold it 5 minutes ago. ;)
Damnit Gary. You promised that list to me. :D What's this world coming to if there's no honour between spammers. :eek: ;)

I too would like to take a look at that :D

Can you please PM me a copy of that through WHT.

Thanks for your time.

Regards

Thanks Gary. That's quite a welcome email. I can see how your customers rarely have any questions. Keep up the good work!

Yes it is, our welcome mail is a subset of that baby but it sure contains a bit more info I'll definitely draw on it to improve ours.

Can you PM it to me too?

Thanks! :)

I opened ServerSonic early this year and signed on the first client in April of 2002. Right now I'm hosting roughly 50 clients (just over 100 domains total). I average about 1 signup every day or two now with no more than $20 spent on advertising all together:) I'm proud to say my customers are all to anxious to refer new clients to me.

As far as support goes, I get about one new support request every day or so. Some days there is nothing, some days I get a few emails. Most requests come from new clients.

I am proud also to say that even though my business is very small, we have been profitable since our second month of operation, have no debt, and could continue operation for 6+ months without any new income (meaning even if our existing clients stopped paying, and there were no new sign ups).

Also, we do sell hosting packages as low as 4.94/month which would qualify me as a 30/year host (actually less). I can tell you that those accounts add up:) I also don't oversell my services. Storage is a bit inflated on higher packages but I have also made sure that if that storage was needed it would be available.

Sure I could make the same if not more at a McDonald's or a grocery store but I have several reasons not to:
1) I have no boss, I have complete freedom to run the company the way I feel that it should be run. Luckily this has proved to work in my favor.
2) I love this job.
3) There is much potential for me to expand this business beyond what I could do at another job.
4) Running a business opens doors. Do I expect my company to continue operations for a year, two, three, more? Yes. Do I expect it to be my ONLY field of business in the future, no. This is just a beginning.

http://www.aussiehosts.com/welcome_template.html

Regards

Gary

lol, looks like Gary got smart:)

I was waiting for a bill from WHT for the PM bandwidth... ;)

We got a buyout offer from someone instead.

Gary

Originally posted by Jedito
dique7.com designed it, but if you don't mind, I prefer to not reveal the cost in public :)


yea but too bad you freaking ripped your reseller section right from www.100megswebhosting.com

http://100megswebhosting.com/resellers.html

http://www.downtownhost.com/resellers.html

notice that both contain the lines:
We provide a Reseller Webhost Manager that allows you to setup and completely manage your hosting clients. Your clients will also have access to a control panel for managing their web site. See our Cpanel Demo. These tools alone have a $125.00 a month value.


I used to be hosted at 100megs and they are a great company. the fact that you ripped those lines disgusts me.

Originally posted by JimDog



yea but too bad you freaking ripped your reseller section right from www.100megswebhosting.com

http://100megswebhosting.com/resellers.html

http://www.downtownhost.com/resellers.html

notice that both contain the lines:
We provide a Reseller Webhost Manager that allows you to setup and completely manage your hosting clients. Your clients will also have access to a control panel for managing their web site. See our Cpanel Demo. These tools alone have a $125.00 a month value.


I used to be hosted at 100megs and they are a great company. the fact that you ripped those lines disgusts me.

Ummm I would suggest you find some info to back up your statement before you go around bashing hosts.. especally being a n00bie.. How do you know that 100megswebhosting did not rip off downtownhost.. Jorge has been around here a long time and is highly respected around here.. It digusts me that you would make such a claim without anything to back it up..

Originally posted by JimDog



yea but too bad you freaking ripped your reseller section right from www.100megswebhosting.com

http://100megswebhosting.com/resellers.html

http://www.downtownhost.com/resellers.html

notice that both contain the lines:
We provide a Reseller Webhost Manager that allows you to setup and completely manage your hosting clients. Your clients will also have access to a control panel for managing their web site. See our Cpanel Demo. These tools alone have a $125.00 a month value.


I used to be hosted at 100megs and they are a great company. the fact that you ripped those lines disgusts me.

Ohh.. too bad that you're talking **** without know the facts.

I suggest to invest your time in find where this text come from instead of try to make you look like an idiot.

Just to prove my point

July 11 2001 Downtownhost
http://web.archive.org/web/20010715130603/www.downtownhost.com/Plans/reseller.htm

July 11 2001 100megswebhosting
http://web.archive.org/web/20010711034427/http://www.100megswebhosting.com/resellers.html

BTW, this text its originally from VO, I requested permission to Pat to grab some text from their site.
I still have his email allowing me to get it, just in case if you're interested about it.

Originally posted by Editor
On its way Matt (via WHT mail).

Gary

Could you please send me a copy of that welcome email also?'

Im new around here and would like all the infomation possible to help me succeed at this :)

Thanks :)

Matt

Originally posted by Editor
http://www.aussiehosts.com/welcome_template.html

Regards

Gary

Just saw this post.. Great email. Thanks for sharing with everyone :D

That's nice of you Gary ;)