milkyway
January 18th, 2009, 18:03
Whatever happened to the saying, "beggars can't be choosers?" I know it's old, but it's just as relevant today as it always has been. I honestly didn't come here to complain; I came here offer some free service because almost a decade ago I came here looking for a free web host that had Perl so I would have a place to use the scripts that I had written when learning the (awful) language. I was extremely lucky and glad that I was able to find some great providers that helped me back then, even if I was limited to 5MB disk space and 100MB of data transfer - which is the reason I came back here now, to see if I could help anyone else that's trying to learn and build amazing sites and utilities.
I am shocked however, to see the balls that some people have by asking for 25GB+ disk space and hundreds of gigabytes of data transfer. OH, AND cPanel, Fantastico, no ads, no links, no posts / no effort required, plus resale rights. Does anyone understand that not one of these things are free to the service provider?
Lets use a cheap dedicated server for example: in the "Bargain Bin" at a well known dedicated hosting provider, the current cheapest offer is a Intel Pentium 4 3.4 GHz, 512MB memory, 80GB disk, and 750GB monthly data transfer for $99.19/mo. I'm going to keep the free Linux OS they provide to keep costs down, but I will add cPanel/WHM with Fantastico as that is what I've seen the most requests for, which adds $25/mo.
This means that now, for the cheapest dedicated server money can rent, the person you're asking so much from has to pay at least $124.19/mo. plus any taxes, AND a $25 setup fee.
This does not even take into account admin time, such as making sure the server is up-to-date and your data is secure, regularly backing up data, tech support, etc. So now I have to ask, why the heck should anyone paying for the server and doing all of this work for you, for free, allow you to resell the space you receive for profit? Some have posted that they will share 50% with the server owner, and profit sharing may actually be a pretty sweet deal for anyone that wants to sell their server space without the hassle of doing the actual sales work necessary - but anything less than 70% going back to the person whose actually paying for the service is not right in my opinion.
I'm sure that some will respond about how they're not actually asking for much because everyone oversells (or 'overgives'), but why not just ask for what you really need and work out the upgrade path when necessary?
I actually work for a managed hosting company (not the one I used pricing from for my example above, as we only offer managed services) and we always find out what our customers will be doing with us to help them purchase just what they need and upgrade only as they need throughout their contract to help keep their costs down. Believe me, they appreciate it much more when we do this rather than up-selling them on services they will underutilize. It's probably hard for some to see what I'm getting at with this comparison, but please start thinking about whether you would be asking for so much if you were the one actually paying for these services.
I am shocked however, to see the balls that some people have by asking for 25GB+ disk space and hundreds of gigabytes of data transfer. OH, AND cPanel, Fantastico, no ads, no links, no posts / no effort required, plus resale rights. Does anyone understand that not one of these things are free to the service provider?
Lets use a cheap dedicated server for example: in the "Bargain Bin" at a well known dedicated hosting provider, the current cheapest offer is a Intel Pentium 4 3.4 GHz, 512MB memory, 80GB disk, and 750GB monthly data transfer for $99.19/mo. I'm going to keep the free Linux OS they provide to keep costs down, but I will add cPanel/WHM with Fantastico as that is what I've seen the most requests for, which adds $25/mo.
This means that now, for the cheapest dedicated server money can rent, the person you're asking so much from has to pay at least $124.19/mo. plus any taxes, AND a $25 setup fee.
This does not even take into account admin time, such as making sure the server is up-to-date and your data is secure, regularly backing up data, tech support, etc. So now I have to ask, why the heck should anyone paying for the server and doing all of this work for you, for free, allow you to resell the space you receive for profit? Some have posted that they will share 50% with the server owner, and profit sharing may actually be a pretty sweet deal for anyone that wants to sell their server space without the hassle of doing the actual sales work necessary - but anything less than 70% going back to the person whose actually paying for the service is not right in my opinion.
I'm sure that some will respond about how they're not actually asking for much because everyone oversells (or 'overgives'), but why not just ask for what you really need and work out the upgrade path when necessary?
I actually work for a managed hosting company (not the one I used pricing from for my example above, as we only offer managed services) and we always find out what our customers will be doing with us to help them purchase just what they need and upgrade only as they need throughout their contract to help keep their costs down. Believe me, they appreciate it much more when we do this rather than up-selling them on services they will underutilize. It's probably hard for some to see what I'm getting at with this comparison, but please start thinking about whether you would be asking for so much if you were the one actually paying for these services.