BuyTheGig.com Survey
 

Hey guys.. I'm doing an informal survey for a paid hosting company I am starting - BuyTheGig.com.

The idea is simple -- with BuyTheGig.com, you will open an account and deposit funds via paypal, check or credit card. If using paypal or check, you can deposit any amount you want. With credit card, there may be reasonable minimums and maximums.

All webhosting services will be included at no charge. Those services will be:

- Apache Webhosting
- PHP / Perl / Mod Perl / MySQL
- POP/SMTP Email hosting
- Technical Support

The only thing you will be charged for is the bandwidth you actually use, with a minumum $20 spend, but you will be able to host as many domains as you wish, and as many email accounts as you wish. You could in theory start a whole network of adult sites for $20/month.

Here's the survey part.. given that you will be only paying for bandwidth, and all server maintenence and support is handled for you, what would you be willing to pay per gig, with a committment level of only $20/month.

I am testing back-end code for this project right now, and I expect it to be a go within the next month.

Thanks for your help guys and gals.

awesome idea(i had a similar idea last week :1orglaugh), hmmm per gig... i, myself wouldent pay more than $1/gig(but that might just be me)

however, i think a reasonable price per gig would be somewhere from $1.00-1.50

Give me Cold Fusion and I'll pay whatever you tell me to :)

Well, within reason :)

ColdFusion.. okay... are there other services I could offer that would raise the value of this service to you?

I'll definitely look into the feasability of ColdFusion, but I think it should be doable.

Web based control panels?
Subdomains at no extra charge?
Extra IPs for a one-time (reasonable) fee?
SSH2?

You can go the whole hog and pre-install freescripts like CJ Ultra ect.

Just some ideas.

but good ideas. :thumbsup :winkwink:

Okay okay.. this is awesome feedback. I intend to include unlimited domains and subdomains at no charge whatsoever. I intend to include a web control panel so you can set up your own domains/subdomains/email addresses.

My thought on IP's is that I will provide them given reasonable ARIN justification, but I feel most people will not need them. SSH2.. this is questionable ground for me. I was thinking of doing this a long while back. I'm curious how many would actually benefit from it, and how many would abuse it.

Keep it coming. Any more ideas at per gig $$ figures? Remember, there's no charge for domains/subdomains/emails.. anything.. just for the gigs with a minimum monthly spend of $20. It's practically like having your own server.

I'd rather have something and not need it, than need it and not have it.

You never know when you need a shell account :)

As for prices, I think a max ceiling of about $1.50 is about right.

Awesome.. any input from people who are CURRENTLY looking for webhosting is very much appreciated as well. I'm still looking into the cold fusion stuff.

Hrmm.. I was hoping maybe the night-shift would have some ideas...

We pretty much allready do this.. The only difference is we do have a $2/spent per domain miniimum, so say someone doesn't use $20/mo in bandwidth on their 400 domains.

I would suggest going entirely pre-pay, with an automated system for it. I.e. a pre-paid phone card. This is the #1 problem we have, as in people just skipping out on bills. Bah!

-Phil

This is a great idea, but you're going to get people who pre-pay, use all their gigs, go over and then not pay any more. You could turn their sites off as soon as their balance reaches $0.00, but then you'll get people upset and give you a valid reason why they couldn't pay, etc etc..

You'd need to set up an honor system of some kind. Customers who use a lot of gigs and have been with you for 6+ months are allowed to stay at 0 balance much longer than others, etc.. something like that.

This is exactly what I plan to implement. A single pre-payment will qualify the customer (in my mind) as a potentially on the level client. A brand new client would probably get throttled for a week after running out of credits (damage control), whereas an established client could have another week unthrottle, and then a throttle period, and then a cutoff period.

Naturally, my goal is to provide uninterrupted web service to my clients. I am using this sales model, because it allows me to avoid the credit card companies (visa/mc/american express) who I have come to view as crooked, and difficult to do business with.

I'm currently working on a similar project. Client account login is basically done and implemented, just waited to move a server. :)

Cheers,
Matt