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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
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    196

    Peaks in customer flow?

    Have you noticed any particular months that you have less customer signups than normally, perhaps summertimes?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Posts
    7,029
    I am not a web host, but I remember one host telling me one time that around Christmas time it drops. As for other months/time not sure.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Posts
    447
    For us January is always quiet, and also July / August it drops of a bit as more people are on holidays and spending time outside, in the sun, away from PC's, cold drinks, on the beaches.... (Grrr I hate them !! )

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Posts
    148
    This WHT thread is about the same topic:
    http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showth...hreadid=395806

    Yangxi

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    1,461
    >Have you noticed any particular months that you have less
    >customer signups than normally, perhaps summertimes?

    Actually no... But of course the amount of orders will constantly decrease as this market is getting more and more oversaturated.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    San Francisco, CA
    Posts
    1,506
    Originally posted by thomas.smith
    >Have you noticed any particular months that you have less
    >customer signups than normally, perhaps summertimes?

    Actually no... But of course the amount of orders will constantly decrease as this market is getting more and more oversaturated.


    Web hosting is like any other consumer product. Closer to holidays, tax season, etc. sales may decrease. If you diversify the markets you target and know how to reach out and pull new customers in, if there is a decrease for you, you can reduce just how much of a decrease there is.
    * GeekStorage.com - Offering awesome website hosting for over 13 years!
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  7. #7
    Late November and early December the advertising orders just flow in.
    Dan Grossman - dan @ awio.com
    My Blog | Affiliate Program for Web Hosts

  8. #8
    December-May is slow for us. Has to do with tax time and holidays where people are away. As a matter of fact, we get a spike in the late summer, when people are tired of the heat and stay home in their air-conditioned houses (a shaky yet plsusible theory ). This year we're starting a marketing campaign that's going to be aimed directly at the summer months (May/June edition of Ping!Zine to start off). May just be a matter of coincidence, but common sense dictates another spike for us this summer.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    London, UK
    Posts
    9,039
    thomas.smith ,

    Dont go on about over saturation again. You were proved wrong by just about the entire community in the last post. Try and stay on topic and not burble false facts.
    Matt Wallis
    United Communications Limited
    High Performance Shared & Reseller | Managed VPS Cloud | Managed Dedicated
    UK www.unitedhosting.co.uk | US www.unitedhosting.com | Since 1998.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2001
    Location
    West Michigan, USA
    Posts
    9,687
    Originally posted by thomas.smith
    Actually no... But of course the amount of orders will constantly decrease as this market is getting more and more oversaturated.
    That's not true at all. We have seen continual growth and increase in orders for the past 8 years. Its only getting better.

    If you sit back and depend on WHT for orders, then that is probably true. However, it also means that you don't have a real good grasp on marketing.

    To answer the OP's question - December/January have always been somewhat slow for new orders. That's generally the time we dust off some killer promotions for our existing orders (call them "Holiday Specials") and generate the extra revenue that way.

    --Tina
    ||| 99.999% Uptime SLA!!!
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  11. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Location
    Australia
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    24,027
    Originally posted by thomas.smith
    . . . Actually no... But of course the amount of orders will constantly decrease as this market is getting more and more oversaturated.
    Yes, the sky is falling, the sky is falling.
    WLVPN.com NetProtect owned White Label VPN provider
    Increase your hosting profits by adding VPN to your product line up

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    1,461
    >Yes, the sky is falling, the sky is falling.

    Not for you... You already "cashed your chips". Easy situation for you. If the industry dies you got your cash. But me...I got nothing !

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    1,379
    Only $10,000 per month. but eh, a bit of deja vu; I seem to remember there being another thread about this exact same argument.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Location
    Australia
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    Then why would I start another business, if I didn't think there was a huge marketspace for my service? I'm not entering a shrinking marketspace. I'm entering a market of massive growth and incredible opportunity.

    If you expect the worst, then you generally move towards that. If you expect the best, then you generally move towards that. It's all about attitude and perception. Fear and paranoia are not meant to be your masters.

    Look out onto the fields - they are ripe for harvest!
    WLVPN.com NetProtect owned White Label VPN provider
    Increase your hosting profits by adding VPN to your product line up

  15. #15
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    My Old Kentucky Home....
    Posts
    1,845
    Hafta agree with the concensus here.....We've been expanding into other markets and they've proven quite fruitful.

    If you believe you're limited then you probably are.
    It's time to kick back, pop in a From Autumn to Ashes CD, and relax.....

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    1,461
    Aussie Bob...wasn't that you who agreed that beeing paranoid in this business is right and who said that you sold your business because you were afraid of all the risks ??? I remember something about you and your wife deciding it was time to cash those chips and not to take any more risk ?? You sold a profitable good business because you were afraid. And now you are ironically telling me that "the sky is falling" ??

    >Only $10,000 per month

    If the industry implodes we will all lose the monthly revenue we make and then I will have nothing but maybe a couple of thousand bucks for years of work and dropping out of university + not leaving the house for months and everything. Therefore I really hope that it doesn`t implode but with everyone selling hosting and telling everyone to do it too the future looks bad.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    1,461
    Quoting Aussie Bob:
    Thomas, you have every reason to be paranoid. Your business could be wiped from the face of the net by a group of persistant hackers, Joe Jobbers etc etc. You'd never catch them, and there's sweet stuff all you can do. There's plenty of folks out there with heaps of motive to be attacking web hosts etc, so each day running your business is a gamble of sorts.

    I remember discussing these things with my wife, when considering selling httpme. I told her that we have this asset worth $xxx,xxx,xx and it could be wiped out very quickly. She got the feeling that it wasn't worth the gamble (httpme = debt free 60 sq home), and I should cash in my chips and leave the table while I'm still winning.

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Oct 2001
    Location
    Ohio
    Posts
    8,535
    I don't know what to say. We constantly get threads on WHT asking if one month is usually slower than the previous. I usually agree, then at the end of the month I realize the it was better than the previous one. I'm so confused!

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Location
    Australia
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    24,027
    Originally posted by thomas.smith
    Aussie Bob...wasn't that you who agreed that beeing paranoid in this business is right and who said that you sold your business because you were afraid of all the risks ???
    No, I didn't sell httpme out of fear. Fear was never a motivating factor. You should not confuse fear with caution.
    Originally posted by thomas.smith
    You sold a profitable good business because you were afraid.
    Rubbish.

    I sold because it was the right thing to do for my family. Many factors were involved, and a small factor was the business could be here today, and gone tomorrow, which I explained to my wife.

    Nothing in life is certian, and that decision was the right thing for my family. Our family home will stand for generations, whereas the future for hosting businesses is clearly uncertian.
    Originally posted by thomas.smith
    And now you are ironically telling me that "the sky is falling"
    It's called sarcasim.
    WLVPN.com NetProtect owned White Label VPN provider
    Increase your hosting profits by adding VPN to your product line up

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Location
    Australia
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    Originally posted by thomas.smith
    . . . If the industry implodes we will all lose the monthly revenue we make and then I will have nothing but maybe a couple of thousand bucks for years of work and dropping out of university + not leaving the house for months and everything. Therefore I really hope that it doesn`t implode but with everyone selling hosting and telling everyone to do it too the future looks bad.
    Things don't look good for you Thomas, especially with the total saturation of the hosting market, given the super low entry costs to get started as a host. Also let's look at the pricing trend for hosting plans over the last 5 years, and project that 5 years forward. Hmmmm, that's a worry. Then there's the legions of hackers/spammers out there who could literally bring you to your knees.

    Plenty of negatives there to worry and stress about.
    WLVPN.com NetProtect owned White Label VPN provider
    Increase your hosting profits by adding VPN to your product line up

  21. #21
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    My Old Kentucky Home....
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    1,845
    Originally posted by thomas.smith
    If the industry implodes we will all lose the monthly revenue we make and then I will have nothing but maybe a couple of thousand bucks for years of work and dropping out of university + not leaving the house for months and everything. Therefore I really hope that it doesn`t implode but with everyone selling hosting and telling everyone to do it too the future looks bad.
    And if the sun goes supernova tomorrow none of us will need to worry about it, will we?

    Seriously though, in the past few years the industry has gone through many changes and will likely continue to do so. It will evolve, and the successful host will see the writing on the wall and evolve with it. The unsuccessful host will maintain their status quo and die.

    Resellers are a part of the industry and no matter how loudly you trumpet against them, they're not going to go away. Not too long ago you yourself first entered the marketplace.....Perhaps the doors should have been closed before you were given that opportunity? At least then you wouldn't have had to worry about dropping out of school or not seeing the light of day for several months.

    These days you see just as many resellers going bust as you see coming online. (A good case in point seems to be BillNathan and his PowerProWeb.com. He came, he saw, and he apparently was conquered. The message on his site still says he'll be back online "tomorrow", April 21.) Some will succeed and some will fail, but sitting on WHT imitating Chicken Little won't do much for your chances at success. Seems more like a recipe for ulcers, strokes and coronaries to me.

    (On a side note, if your company is truly generating $120,000 a year and all you have to show for it is "maybe a couple of thousand bucks for years of work", it might be time to review your business plan.)
    It's time to kick back, pop in a From Autumn to Ashes CD, and relax.....

  22. #22
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    1,461
    >On a side note, if your company is truly generating $120,000 a
    >year and all you have to show for it is "maybe a couple of
    >thousand bucks for years of work", it might be time to review
    >your business plan.

    I am not making much profit because I am reinvesting the money. If I make 10 k in a month I have around 1.5 to 2k fixed costs... And then I use the other 8 k for ads. I have to do this to increase the monthly revenue because with a few k a month I won`t make it anywhere in this dying business... I need at least 50 k a month. Then I can get enough money to live with for the rest of my live within a couple of years. That is my goal... If I have a million bucks I do not have to be afraid anymore. But at present I have nothing and I am afraid...very afraid...

  23. #23
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    My Old Kentucky Home....
    Posts
    1,845
    My goodness.....Such entertainment. And free to boot!
    It's time to kick back, pop in a From Autumn to Ashes CD, and relax.....

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Posts
    1,093
    Originally posted by thomas.smith
    >On a side note, if your company is truly generating $120,000 a
    >year and all you have to show for it is "maybe a couple of
    >thousand bucks for years of work", it might be time to review
    >your business plan.

    I am not making much profit because I am reinvesting the money. If I make 10 k in a month I have around 1.5 to 2k fixed costs... And then I use the other 8 k for ads. I have to do this to increase the monthly revenue because with a few k a month I won`t make it anywhere in this dying business... I need at least 50 k a month. Then I can get enough money to live with for the rest of my live within a couple of years. That is my goal... If I have a million bucks I do not have to be afraid anymore. But at present I have nothing and I am afraid...very afraid...

    When you say hosting, I wonder what you mean....the best way is to hedge your risk instead of investing in marketing hosting, invest it in releasing new products and services...possibly even offshoot businesses, dedicated servers, domains and other value added services like SSL may also be profitable ventures for you...
    ManageMyServices was sold by me in September 2009. I no longer have any affiliation with this company.

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Feb 2001
    Location
    West Michigan, USA
    Posts
    9,687
    If this is truly a horrible business to be in - how is it that both Aussie Bob and myself found buyers who were serious enough to pay a very generous sum to buy us out? Also, how is it that both Aussie Bob and myself jumped right back into the hosting business and took off running?

    Hosting is a very lucrative business, if you know what you're doing.

    --Tina
    ||| 99.999% Uptime SLA!!!
    Plenty of space and bandwidth to fit your needs!
    www.AEIandYou.com - - (WP Friendly - Premium Reseller Hosting and Cheap Dedicated Servers)

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