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Monthly fee suggestions - Hosting and Maintenance $?

nfable

nfable

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 9, 2007
179
26
Looking to get a hosting reseller package from justhost.com so I can offer a 'one stop shop' from concept to hosting to on-going maintenance.

I've seen alot of posts here saying to bill maintenance by the hour, but I want to have a 'flat fee' to attract customers. I have theory that 'by the hour' causes images of ballooning unknown costs sailing thru potential clients heads, and they won't be as likely to commit.

I'm constructing contracts to protect myself and the client and will put a clause in to it to the effect of 'If requested website maintenance requires more than a 'x'% content / design change to the existing site, an hourly fee will be applied beyond 'y' work hours' to ensure I don't get burned.

So... the question: monthly fee for hosting with unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth and maintenance per month. These will be HTML for the time being.

I'm packaging domain registration and design in a 'build fee' and I'll sort that on a case by case basis.

Thanks for all,
nf
 
ChicoWeb

ChicoWeb

macrumors 65816
Aug 16, 2004
1,120
0
California
We charge 14.95-19.95 p/month for standard hosting. The thing that you need to push, and that we do, is that we are home-grown operation. When you have a customer service issue, you're not calling another country, you're calling us! People are more then willing to sack up few extra bucks a month for that.

For maintenance we package it at 5 hours per month for $150. It's pretty cheap if they use all 5 hours, but very little clients ever user more then a few hours. It's a win win. It's more like a retainer. Just make sure in the contract that you cover yourself for turn around time (24-72 hours we do) and what is included in maintenance. Obviously dropping in a custom Calender of Events is a tad beyond the scope of updating some content.

My 2 cents.
 
X1Lightning

X1Lightning

macrumors 6502
Feb 19, 2007
413
0
I guess i am way under charging for hosting + maintenance,
If they pay for a year at a time i only charge $550.

I should look at upping that.....
 
nfable

nfable

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 9, 2007
179
26
Thanks for the sugs... I don't think my geography will support $150/mo (southern MS... yikes) and the fact that I'm just starting up.

You're right, Chico, it is a good deal in the pitch and I'm thinking about that and letting clients understand a package deal and the homegrown element you mentioned, that was a point I intended to really drive as well.

Anyone else out there in maybe a smaller, more primitive culture (like Alabama, etc.) Offer some sugs?
 
Melrose

Melrose

Suspended
Dec 12, 2007
7,806
399
SchneiderMan said:
Wow and i thought $80 a year was a little too much bahahaha
Click to expand...
Not at all. We pay $96 a year for hosting our site - we get Eleven2's "Unlimited" plan w/ no bandwidth or space limit - and we use that for our clients if they don't want to have any server access themselves (in all our cases, most just want us to handle everything). We charge $100-$120 (depending on a few things) a year for hosting - cheap hosting is part of our selling point - and still turn a nice profit for very little time other than setup and checking in. If we had bigger clients it would be different but for small to medium-sized businesses it works great and is very smooth.


We can charge more for a premium, up-front service of design & development (which I enjoy more anyway) and catch them with cheap repeat costs & general maintenance. It's the reverse of what other places do which is skin as much as they can on hosting, which takes care of itself anyway for the most part.
 
Cromulent

Cromulent

macrumors 604
Oct 2, 2006
6,802
1,096
The Land of Hope and Glory
Melrose said:
It's the reverse of what other places do which is skin as much as they can on hosting, which takes care of itself anyway for the most part.
Click to expand...

Not really. That is the difference between good hosting and average hosting.

Security generally speaking does not take care of itself. You need to be proactive. Plus what happens if your server gets blacklisted? You need to monitor your email traffic to make sure that you are not hosting any spammers and numerous other things.

Sure you can leave things be if you want, but problems generally appear sooner rather than later.
 
ChicoWeb

ChicoWeb

macrumors 65816
Aug 16, 2004
1,120
0
California
Cromulent said:
Not really. That is the difference between good hosting and average hosting.

Security generally speaking does not take care of itself. You need to be proactive. Plus what happens if your server gets blacklisted? You need to monitor your email traffic to make sure that you are not hosting any spammers and numerous other things.

Sure you can leave things be if you want, but problems generally appear sooner rather than later.
Click to expand...

This couldn't be more true. I have a full time server admin watching all of our servers, making pro-active updates, monitoring up-time, checking the servers at all times. We've been DDOs'ed, hit by Perez Hilton traffic, clients on Today Show, Good Morning America, and a lot of magazines and you have to be prepared at all times to make tweeks to the server.

We also have nightly, weekly, and monthly backups in case of disaster. Webhosting shouldn't be considered something passive. It's vital to the businesses that you host their email and websites on. I hope you are prepared for all worst case scenarios because you can be held liable.
 
7on

7on

macrumors 601
Nov 9, 2003
4,939
0
Dress Rosa
If you go flat rate make sure you have a 'list of packages' that you'll be selling. Just did a website and what started at 10 pages suddenly ballooned to almost 30. I made sure to have a sit down with my boss and told him exactly that, we need PACKAGES!
 
D

dmmcintyre3

macrumors 68020
Mar 4, 2007
2,131
3
MasterDev said:
You're all weak, I pay almost 5,500 a year for hosting.
Click to expand...

If you are paying that, (unless you have 10 servers) you need to just buy the server and send it to a datacenter. I know places that will colocate a server for $50/month or $550/year.
 
nfable

nfable

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 9, 2007
179
26
Wow, it seems like I barely made more than 5,550 last year :)

Great sugs on email backup, Chico... as for spam monitoring; all my clients for the foreseeable future will be in my local region and I will meet face to face, so I'm not worried about signing on any dubious Nigerian princes any time soon.

And 7on, good idea for the packages deal. I might just do a 'starting at $x for y pages' with a break down on a one-on-one basis quote with clients prior to forging a custom contract.

I've started another post soliciting recommendations for a reseller hosting provider, as I'm having second thoughts about who I initially had pegged, the MR thread is here.

Thanks for the insight guys, keep it coming I'm taking notes and hopefully others will stumble on this thread and use this advice too.

nf
 
Melrose

Melrose

Suspended
Dec 12, 2007
7,806
399
Cromulent said:
Not really. That is the difference between good hosting and average hosting.

Security generally speaking does not take care of itself. You need to be proactive. Plus what happens if your server gets blacklisted? You need to monitor your email traffic to make sure that you are not hosting any spammers and numerous other things.

Sure you can leave things be if you want, but problems generally appear sooner rather than later.
Click to expand...

It depends on the size of the client with whom you work. Mine are generally small businesses. And as for hosting looking after itself, I hardly meant it in the literal, absolute sense. The hosting provider handles all the security, all the problems, all the glitches that come up - I don't have to worry about it.
 
ChicoWeb

ChicoWeb

macrumors 65816
Aug 16, 2004
1,120
0
California
dmmcintyre3 said:
If you are paying that, (unless you have 10 servers) you need to just buy the server and send it to a datacenter. I know places that will colocate a server for $50/month or $550/year.
Click to expand...

Co-Lo is the way to go, if you can swing it. I realized awhile back that if I bought servers, rather then leasing them, they would pay for themselves in about 1-1.5 years. Do the math, it made me sick how much I threw down the toilet on leasing. Not to mention your business begins to create assets as opposed to leasing. Better for the write-offs. Make sure you have a qualified team to handle Co-Lo though....You're on your own.
 
C

CloudMac.net

macrumors newbie
Mar 2, 2010
10
0
Los Angeles
Mac Colo

I agree that colo is the best way to go. It is also nice knowing exactly what is happening on the servers you and your clients depend on. I may be a bit paranoid about this but the services I sell to clients need to be online all the time and as stable as possible. The best way I found to accomplish this is to colo our own servers.
 
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