Space versus bandwidth

[Drunkencelt]

Hi all,

Having recently become a new reseller I'm looking at how best to split up my disc space and bandwidth into packages for resale to my customers - usually after I've built their site.

I've been looking at how others do it by browsing hosting sites and have realised everyone sets different quotas and offers different packages.

I have tried to come up with a simple multiplier to set my prices. For example - 150mb x 0.73 pence per mb = £1.09 for the space then 3000mb pm x 0.73 = £21.90. Add two together to get total = £22.99.

What I need to know is which is generally usually used up first, disk space or bandwidth or are they pretty much the same? I want to add some weightings for the more valuable resource if I can and try to balance them out so the more or less get used up together. Obviously this will not happen exactly as different sites will use up different amounts of their allocated resources but I hope to get as close to the ideal as possible if you get what I mean.

Am I making sense here? If I am able to come up with a formula I will then very quickly be able to quote for bespoked packages if you see what I mean.

How does everyone else do it?

Many thanks for your help

[DPS Computing]

Erm... I think you'll have a problem coming up with a formula as disk space and bandwidth have a tenuous link at best and for the most part it is easier to count them as mutually exclusive.

For example, web site hosting A could have 100mb worth of content (i.e space used) but be an extremely popular web site hosting with millions of visitors a week, therefore using 1000's GBs of bandwidth a month.

Whereas web site hosting B, could have 10x as much content (ie space used) but have only just started up and not been popular at all and only use 300mb of bandwidth a month.

Your best bet, like you have done, is to see what others are offering, see what you can offer, see what you can give extra and what makes your package the one they'd go for over a competitors.

Most of the time this will go much further than simply space and bandwidth but go into areas such as is Fantastico offered? is PHP / scripting offered? What version? Am I allowed to hotlink on the server? etc etc etc.

You want to work out what the cost of your reseller package is and the proportianlly (based on the features of the package) divide your expenses up between the packages then add a bit on top for your profit.

Hope that helps a little - and if you have any more quesitons feel free to ask .

[Drunkencelt]

Thanks very much for your advice David.

I am in a fortunate position really to be able to try things out first before I 'go for it properly' so to speak.

Until recently I have only built a few sites for friends and aquaintences and have decided to learn how to do things properly with a view to carrying on as a business when I retire. I have some time to go really - 6 years - and just want to make enough at the moment to build me skills and equipment and to form a good client base.

I have been buying domain names and host space for the sites from other companies on behalf of the web site hosting owners but have realised that if I am going to do it on a more permanent basis then it would make sense to provide my own hosting and sell domains for the sites I build. If I offer the first year free then the chances are they will renew with me (rather than be bothered changing themselves) and I will then get an annual revenue from the hosting/name renewals as well as building new sites, updating existing ones that don't have CMS etc. i.e the more I build and host etc the more profit.

As such I would not need to compete head on with the volume hosting companies for price as my website hosting clients (thinking of human nature) will probably be happy to pay slightly more for the convenience of having it all done for them - provided I don't charge too high of course.

Once I have cut my teeth so to speak, and gained some experience, I could then look at attracting the volume marked directly off the net.

Does this plan make good sense or am I thinking the wrong way?

Thanks again for your advice. I am really amazed at the 'community feel' those involved in web design / hosting etc cultivate, right through from learning the xhtml/css/php to the hosting and support structure. It's been a long 12 months for me but it is starting to pay off as I don't seem to get caught in so many 'flipping heck! Why's it doing that!' moments.

Cheers

[Site]

to EUK Drunkencelt

[DPS Computing]

Sounds like a good plan - and no problem, always here to help when you need me!