Hosting fees and expectations

[tianakaesha]

I am a part-marketing official for Ally's (hubby) new business venture. I am helping them (he and his business partner) that there is more to hosting companies than those who need all the bells and whistles. Their service, while relatively unique by Aussie standards, and a one size fits most for business, does not really appeal price-wise to mamas and micro businesses (of which I am one - and will be a client of theirs).

So I got into a discussion about what WAHMs and Blog-peoples need - both services wise, and price wise.

I told them their "special price" for friends (and friends of mine!!) was too high and they needed to re-evaluate.

So what I wanted to ask was, what would you expect to pay per month for hosting - and what you would expect to get with that?

FWIW, they are a linux server base, with all the the things anyone could wish for with their ISP. To get all the bells and whistles you'd have to pay about $70 per month (but that includes all their tech support and hand-holding that would be needed for a business website)

That's too high for what even I would consider paying them (and I can get it cheaper elsewhere! haha!!) and I explained that WAHMs with ZenCarts, Blogs or small businesses really only want to pay a widdle bit.

anyone care to share stuff? Since I am going to be doing part of the web design for this, and it is hubby's business, I have a vested interest in making sure that they target this right. I'd like to spread the word rather than send people somewhere because it is cheap... :)

[katef]

ok well after much deliberating and talking to others in the small end of the digi scrapping market I am going with these hosts (shared hosting and just the starter package to begin with) to give you an idea of what I am paying and what I am getting...

http://ucwebhost.com/features.php

Probably not the cheapest or even the best hosts out there but I have a had some personal (well via email and web chat but with a real person with personal type discussions LOL) dealings with one of the owners of this company and they are just great people - so for me that was the clincher that I felt like I was dealing with people I could trust.

PBP uses these web hosts with a custom package (cause large digi scrap sites need out of the ordinary things) http://eohonline.com/
Again the reason we went with these guys (after initially starting up with someone else) was because we have had personal dealings with them and we trust them... so I guess for me the price and what I get is important but I also want some personal interaction, and a feeling that I can tust the host. Personally I am not too worried if there is a bit of downtime here or if I am not getting the cheapest or best deal there is... but I want to know that if I need to contact you I will deal with a real person who will be nice to me and take the time to work through things...

HTH

Kate - who just bought her domain names and signed up with ucwebhost now to install WP!

[tianakaesha]

Does whether a company is Australian (with Aussie Servers so Aussie hours) help... would having (or not having) women on the team matter?...

[Leigh]

I run a VPS so I guess I'm not really the target market, so probably not much help.

Are they Australian based servers? It's hard to justify the price of Australian bandwidth to small business and hobby sites that really don't need the benefits they offer.

As for the support, I can understand the added cost for this, some new to hosting don't really understand how it works, and the time involved or what they actually get included.

To me a woman wouldn't matter too much, as long as the guys are nice and friendly in their support.

What sort of service are you thinking of offering, like a hosting with install and support type thing?

[tianakaesha]

The plan is to have a special service for people I refer :D (because I am sooo on the net all the time, I know people, who know people, you know :P)

The idea is you pay a once off fee and they set everything up for you (including zen carts or other ones that people want) and possibly forums or whatever is asked.. and then you have full control over what you want to do (a DIY type thing) for customisation. They will help you out as needed, but if your requirements are too much/too great they will refer to the upscale of the package.. but that's kinda unlikely for WAHMs or Bloggers IMO... we'd probably stick to a basic service.

SSL certs and things will be included in the set up fee as well.. :)

They are aussies, so on aussie clocks, great guys who hold your hand as needed... they are just wanting to know if there is a market for the "Kristie's Referal System" prices where I get people with professional blogs or WAHMs to use the service...

IYKWIM...

[katef]

You know Kristie I think there would be a need for that kind of service. Just in the very limited experience I have had with digital scrappers wanting to set up their own site.. usually they know next to nothing about zen cart etc and don't have the time or motivation to learn.. so someone who could set that all up for them would be awesome. And in some cases having an Aussie connection would be a big help.. especially in setting up zen cart with AUD and DD capabilities and things like that...

[tianakaesha]

they'd have to customise themselves... but the basics would all be set up - and if they had a template already, that would be installed..

I'll let the guys know there is a market out there... next question though, is how much would people be willling to pay?

[Riayn]

Snorsked is offering blog hosting at a very cheap $5 a month. I am not sure if there is a once off fee that you pay to get her to set everything up for you and how much support she offers though.