I want to start creating sites for client's. For example, let say my local pizza place needs a website. I will build it for them and charge them a fee for building the site. Obviously they are going to need hosting going forward. I also assume since they have no technical expertise, they don't want their own hosting account. I can place their site on my hosting account if they wish (great idea since I will be maintaining it from a technical perspective) How much do you charge per month to have the site hosted on your account?
How much maintance do you give them for the $35 or is the $35 just for the hosting? Like for exmaple say they want to make a quick change to the site, do you charge or are quick changes included in the $35?
If the business needing a website can get one for about $100.00 a year with their own domain, why would the client pay $420.00 a year for a subdomain on your site? Q...
Exactly. Clients may fall for such a high price at first... but once they learn they can host their site for $2/month they will be ticked off at you. This is exactly why we do not host our clients sites, we cannot offer them the best price, which we feel would be doing them a disservice not to find the best hosting package for them. Plus, do you really want to be their 24/7 support? What if your server has problems at 2AM on a Saturday night... They are not calling the hosting company, they are calling you! Is that worth it for $5/month or whatever you would charge to be competitive with the $2/month shops like GoDaddy and 1&1, etc.? Then you have to worry about upgrading the server, data security, hackers, etc. All that can be handled by the hosting company for a few dollars a month, and you won't have the headache or responsibility hanging over your head... My advice, stick to building the sites... but leave the hosting to another company. Good luck!
A lot of clients are happy to pay (a lot) more for having a one-stop-shop; one package including everything and one person to call. That *is* worth a lot, especially if you are doing local business; don't get them to arrange their stuff themselves, just offer a package deal and make a nice profit as they *will* call you when something is not ok. On average, if you deliver quality, this will make you a lot of profit. If you start to skim or get overloaded, you can easily go insane, but that is just a question of saying 'no' to even more profit.
That's the idea that I had. That's why I thought it would be a good idea to just use my existing hosting account. Then the client only needs to deal with me as opposed to dealing with hosting company, developer, and possibly even a separate domain registrar. My existing hosting company already does all of the server administration, etc.
True, but you are responsible for it since you are charging for it. If that responsibility is what you want, then go for it. For us, it is not worth the new dollars a month to provide 24/7 support to our clients.
Well. Seems the OP has the right idea; give them one package and sell 'add ons'. If a client shops around to make $10/month hosting into $2/month and gets angry at you, he will not bring you recurring rev anyway as he will do the same with your services. And probably nag a lot too during that time. I have clients that are with me for 10 years, paying Euro 100 / month for hosting for a site they could also host for $2/month and never complaining. Why not? Because the site I made for them is making them money and I deliver quality they can count on. Every company has glitches, but with me they know these are getting solved quickly. And guess how much '24/7 support' I had to give on that hosting? Maybe, in 10 years, 10 hours. If you have happy clients, they won't complain if your quality is constant. Do what you will with it, but I advise the OP to take this road; it will not fail you; nice small webservices with local companies is a 100% solid business if you are willing to invest the time and effort in it. You won't become a millionair (probably), but you will have a steady income for you and your family and occasional business proposals from clients that will make you see the world in a different light.