[Opinion] Launching new hosting service

[Chatmaster]

In recent months my business Belateral has undergone certain major changes. From just being a business presenting workshops in Online Marketing, I have now got 4 partners and registration with the EDTP SETA in process and now also decided to launch a new hosting service.

My smallest package starts at R750 per annum and includes 10 FREE POP3 Email addresses, ASP CMS with an Access database. For a once-off fee of R950 I will do the look and feel and you can add your own content. An example of the site is expertselling.co.za.

The CMS is very limited but designed to be very user friendly. You can add pages and decide to include it in a sub navigation or main navigation. It has an article section and an photo gallery, content are added by means of a WYSIWIG editor.

The questions I have is the following.

Will this offer be attractive to you as a business owner?

I have been worried that due to the low price the response might be to overwhelming for us. My other problem is that the CMS is part of a bigger plan and will in time be expanded to a very comprehensive package with additional features added on automatically as we develop the system further. How would a user feel about paying for a system that is gradually expanding automatically.

Further I need user input and experience to truly make it worthwhile for future development (therefor the low price), but how do I incentivize customers for giving me feedback?

Then the biggest question: How do I keep my marketing small to ensure that I do not experience problems with to much demand? Any input would be appreciated.

[Dave A]

The price is middle of the road from what I've seen for hosting packages. Your marketing will have an effect on take-up, I'd guess. And you could always bump up the price if a flood arives

What interests me is the CMS. Apart from looking at the onsite SEO (am I surprised - not ), I'm wondering why you've got that space reserved to the left of the content.

[Chatmaster]

From my point of view, a website requires conversion factors. The space on the left are reserved for that in the case of expert selling, we are still in consultation and planning the integration of conversion factors. (You will also note there are no images on the site) However the CMS are designed by default to automatically create it's subnavigation either on the left or the right, the design is versatile though so these are things that can be changed.

You say R62-50pm is mid range price? What would qualify as a buzz creating price then. The research I did, showed nothing remotely priced below R100pm (comparing apples with apples offcourse.

[Dave A]

Remember you are talking a 1 year hosting deal. Siteground and Hostgator have pretty strong packages at the $5-$7/month mark. Bullfrog, a member here, has a R50.00 deal too. All the above have fantastico available.

Siteground won't support an Access database.

Local hosting is another story, but the tracert I ran on your linked site had the server offshore.

[Chatmaster]

In my mind this is a long term project whereby I will continue developing the CMS to become a super marketing CMS. Automated Article submissions, Press release submissions, Automated directory submissions etc. The concept I am working on is to automate online marketing as far as possible. At the current moment I am already offering these services but they are not yet automated from the user's side.

In terms of the hosting services, I have a reseller package with webafrica for both local and the US, I also have a standalone server in London,which will be dedicated to the php CMS. My research has caused me to completely ignore .net as the programming language for the CMS as .net is slow loading and renders very poor HTML pages. I also feel that there is a stability issue with .net as it is very resource intensive on any server.

[Dave A]

I think it is your optimised CMS that is the differentiator here from the typical deals out there. The price is entirely reasonable. People are selling plenty of hosting at higher prices too (hence my middle of the road comment).

I reckon the R950.00 to set up and style is absolutely worth it to the typical business owner, too.

[duncan drennan]

Some questions,

1. How much bandwidth per month?
2. How many GB of space?
3. Local or offshore?
4. What kind of support will you offer?
5. Are there other databases available, and how many?

Just some of the things that I think people will ask to "compare".

[SilverNodashi]

The question is, are you selling hosting, or are you selling a product (turn key perhaps?) which includes hosting as one of it's features?

I would also suggest you clearly state on your website what the end user will get for the money he's paying.

[Chatmaster]

OK, here is what I was talking about, you can have a look at www.hosting4africa.com and tell me what you think. If there is any info I must ad please let me know. I will make a post 2morrow sometime to announce the TFSA special offer on the website.

[Dave A]

I see your TFSA special is on that website. Thanks for offering a discount for TFSA members, Roelof

[IanF]

I see your TFSA special is on that website. Thanks for offering a discount for TFSA members, Roelof

Roelof,
I had a look and saw a google ad on your page offering website hosting at R19 PM. I sometimes wonder whether it is a good idea to have these ads especially when your competition can get business from your site.

[Chatmaster]

Well in a way I do not mind, at least it means someone might click on the add, They do offer a good deal, but it is not remotely what I offer, so I really do not mind.

[Dave A]

Oh for goodess sake - It's down to R9.99 already