Host Quote

[jnmhorn]

I am about to start a service like this and I was wondering if you guys as hosts would rather pay like a $20-35/month fee for unlimited use or like $20 for like 30 replies? This would be advertised in like Ping Zine among other magazines making it somewhat popular.

[wisehosting]

we used to be in a couple of host quote databases, trouble was there was so many false quotes asked for - ie 10GB for $1 that most of it became junk email.

We would get loads of request for stupid prices that it became a waste of time trying to weed out legitimate requests to quote for new business. . . . .

[Q151]

Yes, we too used HostQuote in the past and were not impressed. Unless you can find some way to monitor the requests going into your system, I do not think it will be too successful.

[Billbanks rots]

I wound up dropping my prices to try to actually meet the need of all the low-ball requests that came in

[Q151]

I wound up dropping my prices to try to actually meet the need of all the low-ball requests that came inDid it work?

[jnmhorn]

Well,
I was thinking about only accepting hosts and explaining to customers that this site is for *QUALITY* Hosts, so therefore there would be no 500GB bandwidth deals or 1TB diskspace as well. Would anyone be interested if I started this?

[Q151]

Possibly, especially if there was a free trial. Honestly, I'm just quite hesitant to use this form of marketing again, based on our previous results.

[Chicken]

Well,
I was thinking about only accepting hosts and explaining to customers that this site is for *QUALITY* Hosts, so therefore there would be no 500GB bandwidth deals or 1TB diskspace as well. Would anyone be interested if I started this?
I think if you try to control what goes in or out, you're heading towards trouble. Look at how the market has gone. In the relatively short number of years I've followed this industry, it went from reasonable to utterly ridiculous. Of couse there's still plenty of business out there, but I don't know how (or if you really can) you'd weed out the 10,000GB for $3.95/mo. providers or requesters.

Now it's different (though sadly not much so) if these people are researching providers by name on forums and on the web, knowing what they really need, etc. I'm talking about people just coming to a site they don't know well and just entering in what they "need" (10,000GB, heh) and then getting quotes from providers they know nothing about and probably have never heard of. This type of impersonal host acquisition lends itself (IMHO) to the bottom of the barrel.

I know other forums charge for people replying to requests. Honestly I don't think I ever would consider that. It's a tough business already, heh. What I won't do is waste my time being overly concerned about it though. We only have two rules:

1) Unlimited and Unmetered are not permitted.
2) Meet or exceed the request.

Other than that, I wish everyone the best in finding and aquiring customers and leave it alone.

[Chicken]

In the relatively short number of years I've followed this industry, it went from reasonable to utterly ridiculous.
I just wanted to explain this a bit more, just to show you what someone might expect.

:: invites the children to gather 'round ::

Not so many years ago, registrars sold domains, and (with a reseller account), you could even sell them for less to others. Not any more. Plus you could have a small starter package to get people in the door. Well, here's what you get free at one registrar just the $9 domain reg. fee:

NEW! Quick Blog
NEW! Hosting with Web site builder
FREE! Complete Email ($9.95 value)
FREE! Starter Web Page
FREE! Getting Started Guide
FREE! Domain Forwarding & Masking
FREE! Total DNS Control
FREE! 100-Pack Email Forwarding
FREE! Change of Registration
FREE! Status Alerts
AND MORE

"And more" as if that wasn't enough. Used be that there were places that sold blog space, or maybe they provided them for free (and got a few pennies in advertising). Used to be you paid a small fee to get a starter web site, or email services. Even places that would charge for DNS. Not needed.

But you say, "This is all well and good, but if they want a real site (not just a 5-page one created from templates), they will come to me!" Because you offer...

Economy Plan:
• 5,000 MB Space
• 250 GB Transfer
• 500 Email Accounts
• 50 Email Forwards
• 10 MySQL Databases
$3.95/mo
$3.56/mo if paid yearly

And that's the "economy plan" -then there's the...

Deluxe Plan:
• 10,000 MB Space
• 500 GB Transfer
• 1000 Email Accounts
• 25 MySQL Databases
• Forums, Blogging, Photo Galleries
• FREE! Software: Chat, Content Mgmt. and more!
$9.95/mo (less if paid yearly)

-and the...

Premium Plan:

• 20,000 MB Space
• 1,000 GB Transfer
• 2000 Email Accounts
• 50 MySQL Databases
• Forums, Blogging, Photo Galleries
• FREE! Software: Chat, Content Mgmt. and more!
• Includes FREE SSL Certificate, a $29.95 value!
$19.95/mo (less if paid yearly)

Keep in mind, this is provided by a registrar, not a host, who sells domains (for less than you probably can or want to). Of course you could offer everyone 10,000GB of transfer and the majority of them would only use 2Gb a month anyhow, but still...