Results 1 to 25 of 32
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01-26-2012, 11:46 PM #1Aspiring Evangelist
- Join Date
- Feb 2004
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- 385
Big Mistake - Underestimating my webhosting business
Well, it looks like I made a mistake on the packages I set up with my webhosting service. I only had a total of 50gb I could resell. The packages I set up on my site for sale was an increment of
5000mb - package 1
10000mb - package 2
15000mb - package 3
20000mb - package 4
I already got one customer for package 4. Got 2 customers for package 1. Got one customer for package 3. Guess what that leaves me? With basically nothing, in the negatives. Now I have to recalculate and adjust my packages + pricing. Anyone have any advice on the best way of going about in this?“Intelligence is not to make no mistakes, but quickly to see how to make them good.” - Bertolt Brecht
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01-26-2012, 11:49 PM #2Aspiring Evangelist
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- Mar 2010
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- England
- Posts
- 374
How much space are you actually using?
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01-26-2012, 11:52 PM #3Web Hosting Master
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- Jun 2011
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- Miami, FL
- Posts
- 825
5GB Left, not bad...
I would suggest that you don't touch your existing customers yet otherwise they may move on to a more stable host.
Does your reseller account allow you to oversell your space? If so, then I'd say this isn't an issue yet...just keep an eye on your disk usage and upgrade your reseller account as needed.
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01-27-2012, 12:15 AM #4Disabled
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- Jun 2005
- Posts
- 3,455
I would not advice someone new reselling hosting to oversell, I saw this before and once they start to like it, they abuse it so much that eventually its blows them on the face and lose all their customers.
I would better stick with being able to provide the resources, in case their customers needs them. We are not sure if he only sold that or if they indeed are using most of their space already.
Get a second reseller or upgrade the space, and next time make a better business plan. I agree that I would not touch them or you may risk losing them.
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01-27-2012, 12:37 AM #5Junior Guru
- Join Date
- Aug 2010
- Location
- Indonesia
- Posts
- 205
So how much actually your real space?
Are you sure your costumer will keep exist with you?
Is there any correction on your webhosting service?
i suggest you to correct your web hosting services, or otherwise you make a promo to pursuade the costumersResellerid.com
Cheap & Powerfull Reseller Domain
RESELLERID.COM | Affordable Domain Solution
Reseller your domain and making profit
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01-27-2012, 02:40 AM #6Web Hosting Master
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- May 2011
- Location
- New York, USA
- Posts
- 4,019
This is the time when you should offer "unlimited" plans.
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01-27-2012, 03:52 AM #7Aspiring Evangelist
- Join Date
- Mar 2007
- Posts
- 415
Except space, are you in the negatives in terms of expenses/income or not?
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01-27-2012, 03:57 AM #8Web Hosting Master
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- Apr 2009
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- 6,565
How do you make such a big mistake like this? Did you really not factor in the cost of your actual expenses into your pricing?
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01-27-2012, 07:55 AM #9Aspiring Evangelist
- Join Date
- Feb 2004
- Posts
- 385
No, I am not in the negatives in terms of expenses / income. I did a calculation of everything and this first year will make me even as far as costs / expenditures. That's counting registering my business name as well with the state. Existing customers will keep me, they are all clients of mine that I've done business with in the past, they take my word on most things, so I'm not going to touch them and give them what they paid for. I am however going to readjust my webhosting packages and prices, also HEAVILY considering on upgrading to the next reseller package up which is 80gb, so I get about 30gb to play with. As far as space actually used, I would say less than 20gb of that 50gb was actually being used in total.
“Intelligence is not to make no mistakes, but quickly to see how to make them good.” - Bertolt Brecht
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01-27-2012, 09:21 AM #10Aspiring Evangelist
- Join Date
- Mar 2007
- Posts
- 415
If you did not go off budget in terms of expenses/income than think about staying with the current pricing scheme. It seems to be working for you in attracting customers so you may break it if you change your prices and/or services. When you attract enough customers go to a small dedicated server. Your income could pay the price of the dedicated by then. When you switch to dedicated you will have much larger room to grow and from there on you'll be making 100% profit with every new customer.
That's just an idea of course, not a golden rule or something like that. You could go other ways and still be successful.
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01-27-2012, 11:26 AM #11Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- Nov 2011
- Location
- Harrisburg, PA
- Posts
- 2,074
Before you panic, look at your ACTUAL usage, not just the allocated.
Few web hosting customers use more than a couple hundred megs of disk space, and most use a lot less. If your reseller allows overselling, you shouldn't need to worry. Simply monitor your usage and when your actual usage hits a set level -- making up a number, say, 50% of your actual disk space -- then you'll know it's time to upgrade. The same goes for your bandwidth.
And this ties into the benefit of starting with a reseller: Once you get enough money built up through shared hosting, you'll be able to easily afford a VPS (or even a dedicated, which can be partially carved up into VPSes).
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01-27-2012, 03:15 PM #12Junior Guru
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- Aug 2009
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- England
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- 198
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01-27-2012, 03:28 PM #13Web Hosting Master
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- Mar 2007
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- UK
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- 852
Belongs you are breaking even on your current plan spec's then I see no reason to change, with any normal reseller upgrade's are going to become more cost effective. Not double price for double spec, so If your selling well no reason why you can't stay with your current plan's/prices?
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01-27-2012, 03:31 PM #14Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- Feb 2003
- Location
- NY
- Posts
- 11,863
If you're breaking even just consider the current customers as a charitable hosting and move on. Reconfigure your pricing to be in line with what you are comfortable with (in terms of gross profit) and change the website. Easy fix.
Doug
Finance, Operations, and Business Executive
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01-27-2012, 03:43 PM #15Web Hosting Evangelist
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- Sep 2009
- Posts
- 502
Your customers are actually using up 20gb space with that few accounts?
Check again cause that seems awefully high!*~ Shared,Reseller, and Cloud VPS Provider ~*
*~ Check out our site at 24Khost.com ~*
*~ Birchtreelane Gifts, Antiques, Books, Collectibles Birchtreelane.com ~*
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01-27-2012, 08:16 PM #16Aspiring Evangelist
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- Feb 2004
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- 385
Well these are customers that I've already built a relationship with, not random fly by customers who happen to like what they see and purchase it. I simply designate a package I feel they are fit for, they take my word and purchase it in good faith. They are all starting out, either in the process of getting a website built (by me) or in the process of getting their existing site moved completely over to my server. The reseller company is hostgator, would anyone know if they allow overselling? Also, I wouldn't say customers are using 20gb, I have my own personal site there that I know I could trim down a lot if I wasn't so busy, I use about 8-9 gb of that space.
“Intelligence is not to make no mistakes, but quickly to see how to make them good.” - Bertolt Brecht
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01-27-2012, 08:51 PM #17Temporarily Suspended
- Join Date
- Feb 2010
- Location
- Hong Kong
- Posts
- 106
You can just simply send your host a email and you get the direct answer whether your host allow overselling anot.
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01-28-2012, 07:53 AM #18Web Hosting Evangelist
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- Dec 2009
- Location
- Milan, IT
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- 478
You should buy more space from your hosting provider, leave old clients as they are (hoping they don't consume all the allocated space), rethink your plans lowering your disk usage or (as someone suggested) go with unlimited plans and some new rules in your AUP/TOS
Prometeus.com & iperweb.com Hosting Solutions since 1997
We are LIR (RIPE NCC member) and do BGP with ASN 34971 Multiple gigabit/s network capacity
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01-28-2012, 08:10 AM #19Web Hosting Master
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- Dec 2009
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- Greece
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- 802
No point in getting the OP offering unlimited plans,on a limited disk,he won't be able to provide what he offers.
@OP your plans are fine,since you have customers that already are using them,so everything is ok,either upgrade your package with hostgator,or start experimenting with a second reseller account,with a different company.That way your business will grow.
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01-28-2012, 09:29 AM #20Web Hosting Evangelist
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- Dec 2009
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- Milan, IT
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- 478
I was joking with the last suggestion :-)
There is another thread about unlimited plans were you can see what are my thoughts about them...Prometeus.com & iperweb.com Hosting Solutions since 1997
We are LIR (RIPE NCC member) and do BGP with ASN 34971 Multiple gigabit/s network capacity
iwStack.com IaaS Cloud services
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01-28-2012, 10:51 AM #21Web Hosting Master
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02-09-2012, 02:33 AM #22Junior Guru
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- Aug 2010
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- Canada
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Even if you want, you cannot provide unlimited space from a reseller account.
LinkAlone Networks - Canadian Smart Hosting Solutions
Cpanel - CloudLinux - Solid State Drives
+10 Years in Web Hosting Business
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02-26-2012, 12:12 PM #23Newbie
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- Feb 2012
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- 6
Yes, typically I see around 30% usage of allocated space only.
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02-27-2012, 08:01 PM #24Newbie
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- Jan 2012
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- 16
That is rather high amount of disk space for such few customers, you need to check again on the actual amount of space used rather than what you have allocated to your customers.
If your customers are using only a few hundred MB then you have nothing to worrie about just yet as if your provider allows you to oversell you will be able to do this for a short while, Please dont get to comfortable on overselling tho as this can cause you more problems as your business progresses than it is worth
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02-28-2012, 01:39 AM #25Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- Jul 2002
- Location
- London, United Kingdom
- Posts
- 4,455
The time to have set sensible packages and prices was before taking on the clients
Now you need to upgrade your reseller account and reorganise your plans, leaving existing clients with what you promised.
It wont be the last mistake you make on the numbers - take a deep breath and get ready for the next oneRob Golding Astutium Ltd - UK based ICANN Accredited Domain Registrar - proud to accept BitCoins
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