How much competition in web hosting before you quit?

Hmm? With every new host offering 2000GB storage 200000GB bandwith and their sould to boot, how do you you compete?

You go for niche markets. Offer great support. Just do good business.

Target your local market.

and make a big deal that overselling is bad.

Just try to LOCK one market and you'll succeed. Jump the bandwagon with those hosts, offer a lot, but make sure you can ACTUALLY squeeze them all.

Days of 80gb Pentium 4 1gb RAM servers are loooong gone. Invest. and yes, the Local Businesses pay top dollar for FULL MANAGEMENT.

I am not a host.

Looking from a customers point of view. things that are important to me:


Provider that has knowledge of his bussiness
Support
Server speed and transfer
A large knowledge base
Forums with dedicated staff.


Of course these are just general catorgorys. and each one has a list of things follow behind each cat.

I myself would never dream of going into the webhosting bussiness.

I have much respect for all these folks here that have gone into webhosting and have made thier bussiness grow and become proftible.

tumble

Hmm? With every new host offering 2000GB storage 200000GB bandwith and their sould to boot, how do you you compete?


Simple answer is that you don't compete, leave these oversellers to go out of business and deal with more mature customers who don't want things at the lowest cost regardless, you'll get better more loyal customers, less support calls, more sleep, less grey hair and a chance to provide excellent service to someone who's really appreciative of your work :)

Fortunately, not everyone is so shallow chasing the lowest deals.

Days of 80gb Pentium 4 1gb RAM servers are loooong gone.

Hello,

Can you please explain what you meant by that point?


Thanks,


Wassouf
iiPanel.NET

lol, guess whos running an 80gb hd with pentium processor with 1 gb ram;)

Can you please explain what you meant by that point?
I think he means that servers for shared hosting are pretty much crap nowadays. Which is true ;)

Ok how do I target niche markets?
A web server is a web server is a web server. So what difference does it make if my clients are locateed in the same geographic area, or share the same interests with me?

Hello,

Can you please explain what you meant by that point?


Thanks,


Wassouf
iiPanel.NET
Websites become more and more intensive with more and more features.

My 5 Year old's PC is more powerful than that, why put customers on it? Thats all

Ok how do I target niche markets?Work out a which areas of the market aren't being served as well as they could be and work out a marketing strategy to target those areas.

I much prefer a Pentium 4 at ThePlanet to the budgets Dual Xeon LayeredTech, Dual Core Pentium SoftLayer.

It's not all server specifications.

We were contented using pretty cool free webhosts out there.
Until we got impatient about them being down because of upgrades and so forth.
Now we are webhost reseller ourselves and are continuously looking for those who can offer
us big spaces with no downs at reasonable prices.

We are still monitoring free webhosts though, because they are just so nice.

Having recently started in the hosting business, I am looking at some of the offers posted on here for large amounts of diskspace and bandwidth....I was beginning to wonder how I could compete with them!

The packages I offer are not that big, but they are well priced and ample for MOST sites!! - the reason being that I want to offer a better, more reliable service to my customers. I don't want to get so many customers that I cannot cope with the support tickets, or the server becomes overloaded!!!

When the time comes I can then upgrade - employ more staff. I'm in no hurry to sign up as many people as I can in order to make profit.

ok just because a host offers low prices does not mean the service is GOOD,
you need to do the research on the host you have choosen to see how's
there service. Sure they offer 2000 MB of space and 20-GB of data for about 20-bucks but will they be there for you when it counts the most...Think about these things when your ready to join...Right now I have a server provider thats goe's all out for me each and everyday...So what I pay more it's worth it wouldent you say?

Before this provider I got now my old host would not do anything for me
and I mean anything...So I packed up my clients and said see ya, And I would do it again if I had to

Ok how do I target niche markets?
A web server is a web server is a web server. So what difference does it make if my clients are locateed in the same geographic area, or share the same interests with me?The best and easiest niche market to target is businesses in your local community. You need to budget at least $100 per month to advertise locally. Newspaper ads may work ok but you can get alot more bang for your buck if you think outside the box. Join your local chamber of commerce, new members usually get a chance to pitch their bussiness at a chamber meeting after they join. See if the chamber of commerce sells ads in their news letter, or directmail local businesses. Be creative, work hard, provide a reliable service with great support and you will be successful.

Ok how do I target niche markets?
A web server is a web server is a web server. So what difference does it make if my clients are locateed in the same geographic area, or share the same interests with me?
There's some people that run mapping scripts. For those scripts, special libraries need to be installed. Some people run unusual programming languages. Install those and tell the market's community that you have.

niche markets can be basically a goldmine especially if you know your stuff. I work well with local businesses because they know me, I am local and thats is a HUGE bonus for them.

for example: you are big into collecting antiques and you know alot about the business. Target antique dealers, visit shows, mingle around and tell them about your services and you can help their business, before you know it you have a boatload of antique dealer clients.

My niche is gaming and Business clients and people know that when I am in either market that I have it nailed down and know how it's done right.

This is why you should have a marketing group, marketing manager (someone who went to college for it). Let me ask you, do you have any telemarketing in place sabda?

"Let me ask you, do you have any telemarketing in place sabda?"
No!
"For those scripts, special libraries need to be installed. Some people run unusual programming languages."
This seems reasonable. I do not know if competing for local business would be good idea.

Depends on where you live. If you live in a big city, going for the local market isn't a great idea. Someone's most likely already got it covered.