Dathorn's Business Structure

[earthandspace.info]

At this time, I'm still making a business plan for web hosting. Of course, the best place to start is using reseller accounts. I've noticed that Dathorn appears to be 4 years old according to the copyright statement. Several questions I do have is:

1. How did Dathorn start out?
2. Was a large amount of capital used? Or, was the business built from scratch?
3. At what point did Dathorn started turning profit?
4. Also, how many current clients are there?
5. And what is the average client retention?

If I do things right, my business should be quite similar in size to Dathorn in 2 - 4 years. The main difference is I will be doing shared hosting along with web site services.

Having a data center: I did some good research on this one. You need a VERY LARGE client base to justify having your own data center. For most Hosters, the best way to start is using reseller accounts then move up to dedicated servers.

[Anthony]

I was a Dathorn client since the very beginning (knew Andrew beforehand).

I doubt he'll give out the information you're looking for. It's not something a privately owned business has to do.

Andrew worked very very hard to make Dathorn work. He started it during the webhosting boom. If you start now, you'll have alot of trouble acquiring clients based on the simple fact most people look at price first, quality second. That's been my experience at least...

As for my own shared hosting, I have on average 250 clients per server. 9 servers only. It was hell to get 100 clients. After that, you should be good with word of mouth...

Also look at webhostingtalk.com to do more reseach

[earthandspace.info]

Pricing

One thing to avoid is pricing the service too cheap. To get the first 100 clients, I'll probably give one month's free service for two months paid service first. And, also have a 7 day refund policy. Basically, don't allow a free ride on the system. My theory is let these customers experience "bad site hosting" before coming to you. I've been on WHT and even seen these people lose their websites only to shop for even cheaper service. Some don't learn their lessons LOL! Beyond running a startup promotion, I will not engage a price war. One will only lose by doing so.....