Keeping prices low, while still making some money

J

JamesCWilson

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With the current economic climate, it has been getting harder and harder to keep prices low and still be able to pay your bills. And of course there is also the issue that if your prices are too much higher, you may find your customers defecting to another host. What have you done to be able to keep prices low?
 
Automation Automation Automation :)

The beautiful thing about the web is that you can automate so many tasks. No longer do we spend hours configuring new servers - that's now done within 15 minutes. Upgrades of components on server software are updated via shell scripting too.

And while this doesn't save any money (it actually costs more) we added a couple of new techs to our family here. This helps streamline the ticket flow and live chat allowing even more work to be done with marketing and networking. Having a solid foundation of support means quick answers to issues, which in turn means the customer stays with you for another month (usually).

Costs on the web are definitely changing. What we used to pay for a server ($400/month) we can now purchase for just over $270/month. So we've been removing older hardware from our network and moving customers to newer machines. Reduces overhead, and thus saves money so we can compete a little better.
 
Automation is a biggie! It's all about managing your ROI, from management to support and marketing.
 
With the current economic climate, it has been getting harder and harder to keep prices low and still be able to pay your bills.
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Why would that be exactly? In the short term at least, we're dealing with deflation, which means that most costs should start to come down.
 
Yeah, we're definitely getting better deals on hardware costs TODAY than we were LAST YEAR or even a few months ago.

With datacenters all fighting for your dollar, prices come down, but support SHOULD remain as it was (or better).
 
The hardware costs are reducing and all the hosting providers are getting a better deal from the data centers, however, one the biggest problems is the fact that some of the web hosting providers try to attract customers by offering cheap hosting services and claiming that they can provide unlimited disk space and bandwidth.

Due to this reason, some of the customers feel that why should they opt for a hosting package with limited disk space or bandwidth when they are getting unlimited (which is not possible).
 
That's a good strategy. I myself keeps lowering the price, so that when it's implemented, the greater demand will it be.If you will not lower it, there will be less customers back to your site and products.
 
What I have found is that its hard to really make profit in the hosting industry. If you want to make money you need to collocate servers and rent them to clients.
 
Hi !

This is a very good question and in the current scenario, its a genuine problem for the host too. Its not possible to keep the prices low for long. Its going to be hard to afford with all the bills.
I agree with "*********". Colocation is a good way to make money.

Regards
Walter Burke
 
Even if you were a known billionaire and just wanted to give away professional hosting service for free (as a very unique charity kind of thing), wouldn't your clients subconsciously still wonder whether they want to trust with their content and hard work to a company that loses money doing it?
 
HostEase said:
Don't blindly pursue low price.
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That seems to happen with bad shoppers who get nasty deals with so so places, and the same goes when a hosting company does not pay attention to what they need and what they want - both are different. You need certain things, but its still okay to want them too, just make sure you can afford them. :)
 
ldcdc said:
Why would that be exactly? In the short term at least, we're dealing with deflation, which means that most costs should start to come down.
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Eventually maybe, but I have actually been seeing prices on many things continue to rise. Also you have to factor in that since less people can afford to pay their bills, you are also likely to lose some customers who can no longer afford a webhost. Some web hosts have been able to hold their old price point, but I have seen others rise in price to counteract the loss of customers brought on by loss of jobs and bad economy etc.
 
shockym said:
That seems to happen with bad shoppers who get nasty deals with so so places, and the same goes when a hosting company does not pay attention to what they need and what they want - both are different. You need certain things, but its still okay to want them too, just make sure you can afford them. :)
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We need to be careful if we're dealing with the "bad guys". Especially in web hosting deals which were not promising, you could easily get victimized by the "bad guys".

Always think twice before dealing with the suspicious ones.
 
The services you offer to your customers also makes a lot of difference. If you are offering good quality support and services, customers don't worry about a couple of pennies as they are well aware of the fact that they are actually out of the hassle due to the good quality hosting services provided :)
 
Henry Leed said:
The services you offer to your customers also makes a lot of difference. If you are offering good quality support and services, customers don't worry about a couple of pennies as they are well aware of the fact that they are actually out of the hassle due to the good quality hosting services provided :)
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You're right Henry. It depends on how good quality you are in terms of customer service and support. But as I said earlier guys, we should always be careful in dealing with the suspicious ones, as their offers are not promising, except those web hosting programs who are proven by experienced customers.

Cheers!:smash:
 
Treating your customers well should always be a top priority for any good web host, and often customers don't mind paying a little more, when they know that they are dealing with a caring and reliable host.
 
JamesCWilson said:
Treating your customers well should always be a top priority for any good web host, and often customers don't mind paying a little more, when they know that they are dealing with a caring and reliable host.
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And I've heard this quite a lot on LiveChat from new clients (from hosting providers we've bought) with support issues - "I just want to know that there's someone there who cares"
 
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