Hello,

I was thinking about making my own hosting company and was wondering what you guys would think about this:

- I would provide a free package when you purchase a domain for $12.95.
- The free package would include 225 MB of space and 3.3 GB of bandwidth and have all the benefits including MySQL and PHP, etc...


Would that tempt you into purchasing from us?

I'm thinking, how do you plan on making any money? You'll make what, $5/year on the domain. How do you plan on paying for the server, how are you going to support your customers?

very good idea.

Anacrusis, he can always make a money if his site has a good PR and G position: banners,text links... Right?

Nat

Very true, if he decides to show ads on clients sites.

Originally Posted by chain

Hello,

I was thinking about making my own hosting company and was wondering what you guys would think about this:

- I would provide a free package when you purchase a domain for $12.95.
- The free package would include 225 MB of space and 3.3 GB of bandwidth and have all the benefits including MySQL and PHP, etc...


Would that tempt you into purchasing from us?

I think $12.95 is a very good deal if:

it is a yearly cost, no ads/banners/pop ups

Good luck

profit would be easy

with 100 clients you would make $500pa, and need just over 20GB webspace.

with a 1000GB/m server you could fit 300 clients, needing a 60GB HDD...
gross profit = $1500pa
- $90*12=$1080 (Server Cost)
= $420 net profit

with a full server you still dont make a lot of profit, dont forget that you have to consider more costs such as promotion and the fact that Yahoo! have recently become competitive within the domain industry. the aobive prices are based on making $5 profit per domain, although if you have an enom reseller or ETP, you will make more profit. you may also choose to oversell your servers to make more money - in the long run this is a bad thing though

imo - you are better off becoming a webhost, raising your price, or lowering the free resources.

$420/year from 300 clients? Let's assume that you're going to spend only 10mins per client on average for support per year (thats a huge under-estimation probably) that works out as 50 hours work, or only $8 per hour. Assuming you also spend time and money on advertising etc. You're probably better off working in McDonalds or something. The big factor that everyone always forgets is their own time. Make sure you allocate yourself a decent wage.

David is right, you can't support 300 clients on just $420. And phpServers did not facter in any software licenses or transaction fees. Not to mention that there is no possible way to even get 300 clients without advertising, which will cost alot more then $420/year.

Originally Posted by me

dont forget that you have to consider more costs such as promotion

i would have considered other costs but I dont see the point in writing a business plan just to explain myself.

also i am used to working in a team so time is never a problem.

oh and another thing - i did include software licences - i could get a 60GB HDD Server with 1000GB Bandwidth for $86

word of mouth is the best and free form of advertising and if you are active in communities anyway it doesnt take time to advertise.

providing an informative site which explains as much as it can also reduces the support required considerably.

phpservers, you've got me confused. Are you affiliated with the user "chain", or are you offering advice?

Conker

Well good idea but why do you need to talk about hosting company. Offer web site services. Both domain and web space. Do not say you offer hosting when you plan to give it as a bonus to your domain registration services.

Regards
D.