Comments on: Should You Sell Hosting?

By: free paid online surveys

free paid online surveys — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:24:47 +0000

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Your blog makes for very interesting reading. Im sure others will think so too I look forward to reading their comments……

By: Ken

Ken — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 12:57:14 +0000

I notice from your posts that some people are nervous of the email side of hosting while willing to host the website. We’d prefer to do the opposite as email is what we work at. So if anyone wants to share the hosting with us, we’ll host their customers mail, provide webmail etc, and spam filtering and mail buffering of course, while you host the site.

By: Jason T.

Jason T. — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 03:50:42 +0000

Very great information indeed… I have been thinking hard about this topic, and suffice to say it seems from the above posts, there are more downsides than profit - unless you are well-versed with backend administration, which I am not.

I design a range of small business clients, and while some of them search around and are familiar with the market, there are those other clients who would love nothing better than to have me handle everything. My main concern was making sure I can first, bring enough clients to make a good return on investment, and secondly, making sure I am able to handle those rare but hard hitting problems. I’ll be honest, I was actually preparing and recently purchased a VPS from LiquidWeb, but everyone’s opinions have definitely made me more nervous. I might stick to what I do best…

By: jj

jj — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 15:55:59 +0000

** Also if you part ways with a client and their new web developer comes knocking on your door asking for hosting account details **

I’ve been the webmaster, webdesigner, server manager, web-everything guy at a company for a few years. I found the hosting company, I managed the domains and the hosting accounts, I developed the webiste and managed email accounts.

Now I am trying to leave that company and they are talking with other people to take my job… However… nobody knows a crap. So, even though “web development” companies say they know everything about it, and even though I have given them *all* the passwords to everything (cPanel, phpMyAdmin, etc), I still have to be the one setting up email accounts and domain redirects, etc.

I think hosting is OK, as long as you know what you’re doing (I hate people selling stuff they know nothing about, they’re a virus in the job market), but keep a “plan” for the day you leave or stop offering the service, or those who you are hosting decide to get a new site with a new developer… Have some contract and clearly state that you host the site as long as you manage everything, but as soon as they want to move on, you give them the keys and it’s *their* problem.

By: Jermayn Parker

Jermayn Parker — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:55:53 +0000

I think hosting along with domains names and the website is a nice package. As im in my early stages of my business, the extra from hosting is a nice little softener but handling all the details can get annoying!

Good post and thanks for the other input from others comments.

By: Ben Harper

Ben Harper — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 21:33:19 +0000

This market has changed a lot over the last few years. All of you who are dealing with the “always on call” issue might be benefited by a managed service such as mosso. Mosso offers white label billing and white label hosting. It’s a pretty nice service, when the sites are up!

I also think it has a lot to do with what you want to offer your clients and the type of business you run. I can’t imagine being a freelance web professional and not offering hosting. I think it’s an integral part of the web design process.

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 20:33:58 +0000

I work mostly with small-scale clients. If they ask, I’ll mention that I offer hosting and explain the advantages (I’ll set up everything for them is the big one) and disadvantages (I’m honest that if they consider it mission-critical that their site is always up and need to speak with someone immediately if it goes down, they should look elsewhere for hosting). I’m really picky about who I agree to host, and don’t really look at is a way to make money, but more as a way to improve my customer service. I definitely have clients that just want someone to take care of everything, and they keep coming back because I can.

By: Jean-Francois Arseneault

Jean-Francois Arseneault — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 07:07:44 +0000

I only offer hosting to people I friends/family and people I design websites for. That way, I know what I’m getting into (bandwidth, storage, SLA, QoS, etc) and I can always decline if I think it involves too much risk. I do love the ‘passive income’ aspect, but I will also state I’ve got admin experience with Windows, Linux and OS X, so I felt confortable in offering this service. I also like the fact it makes me a one-stop shop in most cases: design, coding, hosting and domain names.

As mentionned by Gavin, I also ended up helping out anyway, so I might as well get something back for it - and more control, so I know exactly how to install/config my websites/apps.

I’m currently using HostingZoom, on an Advanced Failover plan. 99.6% uptime, can’t complain - great speed too. And tickets (due to a recent massive migration to a new server) are typically answered within 4hrs.

By: fred411

fred411 — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 23:25:46 +0000

I am a one man shop and currently host about 50 sites for all of clients. It does yield a little profit but am tired of the “always-on-call” aspect. I use a top provider and thier service is great and issues are few. But when there is one, clients want it fixed *now*, whether I’m on vacation, at dinner, or asleep.

The only reason I haven’t moved everyone to another hosting company is I fugure if they have trouble with the other host, they’ll call me first anyway.

If you build the web site, aren’t your clients going to think it’s your problem to fix? And is there a webhost out there that won’t blame a developer first before looking at the server

By: Trevor Davis | Blog » Weekly Link Round-Up #11

Trevor Davis | Blog » Weekly Link Round-Up #11 — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 17:19:40 +0000

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