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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Location
    TO, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    372

    Red face <rant>Why does everyone on WHT expect to get free hosting?</rant>

    I just saw another request for free hosting, and a free reseller account for the person and they want to be able to give out free reseller accounts to all their users!?

    When will people get real and figure out that hosting isn't unlike any other legit business!?

    Things cost money, employees need to be paid, server bills, overhead, advertising, etc ,etc, etc......

    Why any company would give out free accounts these days is just beyond me. I think companies shouldn't give them out because more and more people just expect hosts to bend over backwards for their $2.99 month or FREE hosting accounts!

    Don't always outbid the other guy, have some dignity and respect for yourself and own company, suck it up and post what is within your zone.... don't try to sell 90 gigs of bandwidth and 5 gigs of space for $5 month. You will be out of resources faster than you know it and you'll have server bills to pay, but how will you manage with your $25 income from your clients



    Web hosting seems to be trying to turn into McDonalds, get your $1.99 Big Mac and hope to make up profit by selling in volume... Not a smart thing IMO, especially for small companies who can't fork up the resources for all their clients.

    Now I like to stay competitive with other companies and offer good value for money to my clients but how far will you go? When will you draw the line and stop you clients from nickle and diming you for all you have?

    Set rules - and stick to them. Just because there's a post in the Requests forum doesn't mean you need to respond... chances are you won't get a sale from it anyways.

    Be kind - be curtious. You can treat 50 customers much better than trying to treat 500 who pay you pennies per month and you don't have the hardware and staff to manage them.

    I hope hosts smarten up and start charging realistic prices. Just because it's an online service doesn't mean it's free - people actually DO work and work hard at it.

    Would you request a 30 day free trail from your McValue Meal or the Kids Bike at WalMart? Then why do people ask such stupid things when requesting web hosting?

    Would WalMart give you a discount on the kids bike if you put "WallMart Sponsor Stickers" on it to get a discount? No, then why is it different for web hosting ?

    I'm not sure.... I'm just a little fustrated at the outragous attitudes of people, their requests and outlook on online businesses and web hosting in general.

    I hope you'd rather stick to your guns and lose a sale than bend over backwards and make .50 cents profit that month for one more client.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Louisiana
    Posts
    396
    you just saved me alot of typing, i would have posted the exact same thing
    modiphy.com :: Phenomenal Web Design
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  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2001
    Location
    Illinois, USA
    Posts
    7,175
    I haven't read all your thread - just sorta skimmed through it, but to answer your question; it's because 3 years ago it was possible, 5 years ago paid hosting wasn't too popular

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    North America
    Posts
    1,229
    Ditto what TowerHost said.

    Long day...too lazy to type more...
    Lesli Schauf, TLM Network
    Linux and Windows Hosting: Scribehost

  5. #5
    By the way, I'm looking for a couple of free dedicated servers with dual Xeons can anyone help me out..

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Louisiana
    Posts
    396
    i need a 1.7Ghz server with 400GB of transfer. But i cant start paying you for 6 or 7 months until i get enough clients to pay for the server Plz someone OK
    modiphy.com :: Phenomenal Web Design
    modiHost.com :: Affordable Web Hosting


  7. #7
    In general, the trend will always continue. So ranting may help vent some frustrations, but it won't stop the situation. Do things within your control: which is don't offer it. Start from yourself and things within what you can do.

    We never offer free hosting, unless it is a just, non-profit cause whereby we will then consider it or in extreme rare examples, if we think the site can offer us advertising mileage which of course is highly unlikely.
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  8. #8
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    Edmonton, Canada
    Posts
    978
    It's impossible to compare web hosting to a Wal-Mart, McDonalds, or even your neighbourhood supermarket - these are all established industries. It's cost prohibitive for Joe Nobody to open shop, businesses are regulated by a standards authority, and those that want to get involved have to know enough about the business to either do it themselves or hire the right people to do it for them.

    Web hosting is not that kind of business, at least not yet. It's very cheap to get a site w/ server right now and call yourself a host, nobody except the client and your competition suffers when you fail miserably, and provided there's no immediate server failure in the first week you can claim to be super-Linux guru and nobody would really know. Almost a too perfect to be true, no lose situation: either make money or disappear into the night.

    I wouldn't get too concerned. The quick buck crew died in the dot-com bust leaving the big players and those smart enough to net a profit. Same thing applies here; while there'll always be cheap hosts with server providers offering $100 boxes, the real players will eventually grow out of having to compete with them.

    Sincerely,

    -Matt
    Matt Meier, RackNine Inc.
    email: mmeier@racknine.com
    web: http://www.racknine.com

  9. #9
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    Edmonton, Canada
    Posts
    978
    Just to mention, Wal-Mart does sponsor cheap bikes et al. Check out those "Wal-Mart helped my family afford a marriage" commercials you see every once in a while. May not be everyone who gets the sponsorship discount, but it happens.

    Sincerely,

    -Matt
    Matt Meier, RackNine Inc.
    email: mmeier@racknine.com
    web: http://www.racknine.com

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Location
    Kalamazoo
    Posts
    33,412
    If no one would grant these requests, they wouldn't be asked. You can't blame the people for asking.
    There is no best host. There is only the host that's best for you.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Louisiana
    Posts
    396
    Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
    If no one would grant these requests, they wouldn't be asked. You can't blame the people for asking.
    they would still ask but they woulden't get it, on the internet people expect to get everything free, especially software.
    modiphy.com :: Phenomenal Web Design
    modiHost.com :: Affordable Web Hosting


  12. #12
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    CA, USA
    Posts
    1,903
    not consider people would sell reseller plan for $10/month. Common guys.
    ◊ James | sales@vnpixel.com |
    ◊ aim: vnpixel • msn: support@vnpixel.com • yahoo: vn_pixel
    ◊ http://www.vnpixel.com

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Posts
    3,734
    Steve, you need to relax man.

    If WHT is getting to ya, stay away from it. There are plenty of people out there with green money. No need to let a bunch of kids get you down.

  14. #14
    We never offer free hosting, unless it is a just, non-profit cause whereby we will then consider it or in extreme rare examples, if we think the site can offer us advertising mileage which of course is highly unlikely.
    I actually do have some free hosting. There are a few things I like to support and if they fit the criteria I'll host them for free. I can also say that there are only 3 people who fit that criteria currently. I honestly don't think my support of Musicians is going to wreck the web hosting industry. I also don't think that makes me evil either. I can spend my money to support whatever floats my boat..

    On the other hand you won't see me competing in the Request Meat Market because much of what I see there won't be around for very long and those people will be back looking for hosting again anyway. I'll still be around then...

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Mar 2000
    Location
    San Antonio, Texas
    Posts
    3,690
    Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
    If no one would grant these requests, they wouldn't be asked. You can't blame the people for asking.
    LOL...I know Ive said that more than once and its TRUE...especially here.
    HostCaters.com - Quality Web Hosting - Under A Gig! - Since 1999

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Posts
    1,443
    NO such thing is free lunch. The people giving it is just giving away their wealth.
    Synergy Blue LLC
    SonataWeb.net | SynergyBlue.com
    USA should so something about: http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Denver, CO
    Posts
    82
    It seems, in my experience, that the people that want free accounts generally want everything for nothing... not just hosting. They feel the deserve it for some unknown reason. We offer extreemely cheap hosting, and time after time we get requests for the type of support that would only be provided in a managed services environment.

    We have even had customers tell us that we are greedy and unreasonable when we tell them that their $30/year hosting account does not include custom programming, scripting, installation etc, etc, etc... and that if they want these services they will have to pay for them.

    I honestly can't remember a time that I told one of our customers that they would have to pay for custom services that they took us up on our offer.... So, if you are going to bottom feed, I guess you shouldn't complain when you get a little s**t

    On the other hand, we also provide 'real' hosting, and these customers are much more reasonable to deal with, and they recognize the value of the services you offer. Granted, these customers are a little more work to obtain, but in the long run they are more profitable and less a pain in the a**
    --john
    http://www.Value-Site.com
    http://www.raQ-it.net

    Hosting solutions for everyone!

  18. #18
    Can't deny though that the kids demanding free hosting can be humourous at times. Just the other day, someone went around threatening to DDOS hosts (I know because other hosts told me) if he wasn't given a free account.
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  19. #19
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    Sweden
    Posts
    2,059
    There are free hosts out there. They don't offer much, they never do. The best one I used was doing it as an experiment. When hosting became a thing they wanted to do "for real", they started charging people for it. We all knew it was experimental, and when they asked for money, they were very nide, and gave plenty of time to move elsewhere.

    I used to think hosting cost an arm and a leg, because of the prices here in Sweden. With a CC and some more info (from this place actullay), I realised that payed hosting was within my reach.

    Maybe people expect free hosting, because they think that if Yahoo and Tripod can do it, so can anyone. What they don't think about is what they get at those places and what the get when they pay.

    If I'm starving I might get a burger form some nice person. I won't get a gourmé meal at a fine restaurant.
    "Stop flame-wars - Report a post"
    The original Kitty Lizard

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    Missouri
    Posts
    2,504
    Well, it's because people offer it to gain customers.

    We sponsor 6 websites. Sure, 5 are very good friends, but they run high traffic programming sites that are sure to (and have sent us 1/2 our client base to be quite honest) generate a high number of webmasters who need PHP and mySQL mainly.

    There site stays up, we look good. They have our banner on all their pages.

    Apart from friends, we host one site for free. It's a monster @ 6 gb space and 50 gb transfer (and it uses it all). It's a huge picture gallery place. It's ranked on the first page for in google and yahoo for a very common keyword, but I don't want to release it's name for privacy reasons.

    Anyways, we allow him to use us for free if he sends us 2 accounts of $15.99 + a month. If he fails to, he's terminated. Simple as that. All our sponsorships have to beneift us our we do not tolerate them mooching off us. They have actually failed last month at bringing us a sale, but with the downtime at nocster and then relocating I can't blame him for this, only us.

    Anyways, people who want to give away money won't last. While it's easy to startup a "webhosting business" it's not easy to stay around. Once the person hits a few months of no sleep and too many novice users who pay nothing or < $5 a month and want so much support said company cannot sleep nor afford extra support techs or admins they will flop or increase prices ... seen it a dozen times.
    What does one host say to the other? "(HostA) Want to go see a movie?" "(HostB) Sure, can your parents drive?"

    I'm premium, and no, I did not have to pay $6 a month to figure that out.

  21. #21
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Atlanta, GA
    Posts
    1,114
    For some unknown reason the mods here won’t put up a “Free Hosting” request forum even though there has been no shortage of requests that they do it.

    I just don't understand that.

    I've already put in my request looking for clients that will pay double. I've done what I could do.
    SiteSouth
    Atlanta, GA and Las Vegas, NV. Colocation

  22. #22
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    Missouri
    Posts
    2,504
    I started a thread about this last week too mgphoto. I go to the ad forums often (don't post much though compared to most) and maybe 10/40 of the threads are people willing to pay, maybe 3/10 of them willing to pay $10+.

    Just makes it hard to look an try to offer something to the users when you have to weave through a bunch of stuff like that. Just imagine if The Lounge was in another forum ... you get my point.
    What does one host say to the other? "(HostA) Want to go see a movie?" "(HostB) Sure, can your parents drive?"

    I'm premium, and no, I did not have to pay $6 a month to figure that out.

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    CA, USA
    Posts
    1,903
    If they have a "Free Hosting" forum, not many will reply. I guess that is the reason why they don't create it.
    ◊ James | sales@vnpixel.com |
    ◊ aim: vnpixel • msn: support@vnpixel.com • yahoo: vn_pixel
    ◊ http://www.vnpixel.com

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Toronto, Canada
    Posts
    487
    not consider people would sell reseller plan for $10/month. Common guys.
    ◊ James N. • James@vnpixel.com

    Umm I offer a $9.99 one but with minimal space and bandwidth. I offer this so beginners who are just starting out don't have to pay a fortune just to see if they can make a go of it. If they can they'll need to upgrade otherwise it's a small cost for them to fail.

    But I do agree, there should be a seperate forum for free hosting requests. Ppl with money come here and see other ppl getting free accounts and then decide they don't want to pay for it. Makes things tough for those of us trying to make ends meet or actually make a profit from this.

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    Missouri
    Posts
    2,504
    We used to offer a $15.99 reseller. It's going to be $30.99 minimum now. The support for novices to get used to nameservers and WHM just bogs down support. Then you have to consider obtaining IPS (well, us, now w/ arin justifications) and also the amount of domains they're like to host will damper your machine. Under $30 just isn't worth the time to me anymore.

    After offering cheap resellers for about 4 months, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone trying to make a living off hosting. Just my opinions based on my own personal experiences.

    I don't have a problem at all finding people to pay good money for good service though either. They come fewer than when we did cheap hosting, but our support loads dropped, so did server load, and our customers are more loyal than the cheaper people ... works out for us this way.
    What does one host say to the other? "(HostA) Want to go see a movie?" "(HostB) Sure, can your parents drive?"

    I'm premium, and no, I did not have to pay $6 a month to figure that out.

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