Do you think a one-time payment of $5 for a free domain and WordPress blog would work

Well, I was thinking that I could open a blog hosting company, where I'd have all the recent posts/blogs created on the sidebar, you know, how every other system works. But, what I also wanted to do, to raise some money for the hosting costs and so I don't have to put ads on everyone's pages, is to charge everyone a one-time fee of $5, this would include the following:

- A free domain (.com, .net, .org)
- 5 GB of upload space (for pictures, podcasts, etc)
- Unmetered site transfer rates
- FTP access (to customize/upload your theme)
- The ability to add plugins
- bbPress included
- DoFollow friendly
- No ads

Do you think that would attract the right people? Like, I want people that want to use it for SEO purposes and then for others that just don't want to pay monthly for webhosting.

 

at first glance it looks good ... BUT it only needs a few to misuse it and get your servers IP addys banned from search engines then you are stuck.

Would need a LOT of hours policing it, so depends what you think your time is worth per hour ?

 

That is really, really, really cheap. You'll hurt yourself in the long run.

First, with that much space you will have to oversell. Overselling will jeopardize your server, especially with so many Wordpress installations running at once. And also, users will have to update their WP constantly, old installations will get exploited and the server will suffer stability.

On the other hand, how will you accept payments? Credit card and Paypal fees should be considered. Paypal will take at least $0.50 from every transaction. Credit card merchant account will take even more, per transaction fee plus a monthly fee.

How will you work and offer support to a lot of customers if you are not making any money? You'll be working for $0.10 a month per customer, offering unlimited support.

 

I'd try to get a few really big reputable blogs on there for free - to establish yourself. Then, charge $20 or more for your services, and carefully screen who you will accept. Become the 'Private Members Club' of Blog hosting....only the best are accepted

 

Well, that's why I would make a TOS, explaining that automatic blogging and illegal activities aren't allowed. I don't do much, so I think I'd be able to handle the work hours.

a 1TB dedicated server is pretty cheap these days, I have one for one of my sites and it's only $20/mo. WordPress now gives you the ability to update inside the installment, it would be up to the user to press update.

Now, the no ads part would be that the blogs themselves won't have ads, but I'd be placing Adsense and textlinks inside the platform itself. Not so much that it'd interfere with the user's ability to use the software, but enough so I can afford to pay my bill and make profit that way. I know that PayPal takes a percentage off, and I have a business account with them already.

 

Will there be possible for the members of your site to put their google adsense ads on the site?!

Thank you.

 

Yeah, that's what I'm wanting to allow. I'm just going to have my own on the control panel.

One thing I'm going to require is that people post regularly, if after 30 days I see that a blog is lacking posts, they'll be deleted with no refund.

 

Do you know how many times that magical update corrupts the entire upgrade?

Good luck with that. Keep you info with the BBB updated so they can forward all the complaints.


How do you plan to deal with Paypal chargebacks? How much support will you be offering?

 

so you will sell a domain and a blog for $5.00????
Since domains are at least $8 each, you are already losing money, plus whatever time you spend setting them up. I see this as a total losing effort

 

Thank you! Part of business planning should be Math 101.

 

I haven't had any issues with the automatic update yet, and I've tried it using three different servers.

I'd just forward PayPal the TOS documents they agreed to.

My hosting company that I use charges me $1 per domain. I'll have to specifically say that they can't move them off unless they pay a $200 fee like I've agreed to on my hosting plan. If not, they'd just have to settle with changing the name servers.

I'd be using WordPress MU, so a lot of it will be automatic, but I'd just have to get payment before they'd be set up. I'll somehow integrate it in.

 

Umm $1/domain? What hosting company are you using!!

 

SPHosting. See, I'm not going to say, "Oh, no, you can't know that!" I'm honest, and they have reliable support and hosting! So, I would trust them with my site.

 

Well, yes, you would definately get a lot of customers, mainly seeing as the domain price is so low. I think you'd have to agree some terms with your clients, mainly that you took care of the domain on your own account, at least then your user can't change the nameservers and just get $5 domains every time by signing up under a different IP address.

You then also have to think, you're effectively charging $4 for lifetime hosting and wordpress installation. Can you cover this cost? How many clients will you need to get until you start hitting profit, and can you even get that many clients without overcrowding the server and going over your bandwidth limit? I think it'd be a wise idea to put ads on users' sites, at least this way you get something back, especially if you're getting hundreds of clients but only a cent or so profit per month

 

You will definitely get clients but I think this would do more harm than good. A $5 one time fee is very cheap and what if a client's blog suddenly becomes popular and gets the digg effect. What if they end up using 100GB of bandwidth and you only have 1TB. You just need 10 clients doing that and you'll be in a lot of trouble. Your better off offering realistic requirements instead of unmetered bandwidth and you should charge money to be on the safe side. If not, just do free hosting and put advertisements on their blogs to make money.

 

But how many sites realistically get the Digg effect? I only have one blog that gets the 100GB effect.

 

that really doesn't seem like it would be a good idea, unless you are living in some really poor 3rd world country. The domain name will still have to be renewed each year. you will loose money

 

Hm, I think this could work but the potential for abuse exists much less if you use wordpress multi user. It it what wordpress.com uses, the users still get a blog but everything is controlled environment. You are the only one who can upload themes/plugins. They can still upload other things, just via the post command.

 

Well, yes, I'm going to be using WordPress MU, but I'm allowing them to add their own stuff. Maybe I'll just let them edit the one theme? Like, they have control of all the CSS files and header, footer, index, etc?

 

Well, it's better to be safe than sorry. Honestly, if you plan on being in the business for a long time, it would definitely be recommended to take as many precautions as possible.