Offering hosting for 1 cent for the first month

[RH-Jordie]

I'm not saying that you have to host the spammers or anyone who is doing something illegal. Obviously, if someone is spamming, you suspend their service. I'm saying that putting suspicious accounts on 1 server can protect the other accounts with legitimate customers.

If they has a suspicious domain then they would not get past our fraud/security checks, so they would not even get placed on a server.

Yes -- the same is true with us. I didn't say that this is a practice that I follow, but if a certain company is in such a great need of business, this will enable the business to accept these orders that would have previously had to have been declined.

but what you say would just damage your companies reputation anyway.

I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't be so quick to accuse. I don't follow this practice, and I never claimed to. Get the facts out first, then make a conclusion. The attack on my business wasn't needed or justified.

 

[easyhostmedia]

I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't be so quick to accuse. I don't follow this practice, and I never claimed to. Get the facts out first, then make a conclusion. The attack on my business wasn't needed or justified.

I never accused or attached your business, just any business would have their reputation damaged by placing bad apples on a single server as this would soon get around, so if an order looks suspicious to warrant this action then it is simple a case of not accepting the order in the first place.

Yes you will always get hosts that would accept such orders and risks

 

[RH-Jordie]

I never accused or attached your business, just any business would have their reputation damaged by placing bad apples on a single server as this would soon get around, so if an order looks suspicious to warrant this action then it is simple a case of not accepting the order in the first place.

Yes you will always get hosts that would accept such orders and risks

Terry, I apologize, I thought it was meant as an attack on my company

 

[Artashes]

Part of the conversation in this thread that has nothing to do with its topic was moved to this thread.

 

[SwiftHosting]

Definitely the biggest problem with offering penny deals is spammers!

Couldn't agree more! We like to keep our servers free of them because they end up causing more trouble and take up too much time that could be better spent on genuine customers.
But we tend to see more and more spammers get by through adding addon domains

 

[Stream101]

we did run a promotion last year where we offered 'A free month' take note how i stated 'A' and not the 1st month free.

It worked like this

A client signs up and pays for the first month as normal, once the funds have cleared we adjusted the next due date on the system so they got the 2nd month free, this way also cuts down the spammers who look for 1st free month plans so they can use the free month to send out spam and then do a runner.

This is a good idea for hosting environments. Exactly what you stated would happen upon offering the first month free!

 

[hostfly]

Best thing is to run promotion with certain % off. And not like 1 cent

 

[hostinghouston]

I would personally recommend against doing this, it will only attract abuse and the wrong type of clients (IMHO). Sure, some big hosts like EIG brands can offer such deals and market them successfully, but the volume of orders they receive alone is one of the main reasons they can offer such deals and "get away with it".. They have huge marketing budgets, lots of staff, and many, many servers. A smaller host or new startup is just asking for trouble running super low promos. Specially if you only have a few servers. You could be jeopardizing your good clients by filling your servers with bad apples.

My advice is not to try and compete based on price alone, you can not, and will not win.. Instead, ask yourself 'what makes my service better than others, and why would someone pay more money for it?'.. :agree:

Couldn't agree more with this.

I've had experience with budget offers for the first month and it attracts nothing but trouble. I gained 50 clients in a month from an offer like this and lost around 48 of them, had IP's blacklisted, ended up on Spamhaus blacklist and had many DMCA takedown requests. The point I am trying to make is that if your service is truly worth the price you put on it, people will pay that. I wouldn't offer more than 75% off the first month, or even go for a 20% recurring discount or something.

The only thing I would ever offer a free tiral on is something like Shoutcast, not much damage can be done there!

 

[pingpipe]

I think it could lower the perceived quality of your brand and probably wind up costing you more money in labor, etc. dealing with spammers, etc than it would generate in revenue.

An alternative that might start some good viral marketing would be to contact new clients after a few months to follow up, and give them a free month service as a thanks for their business.

 

[Rado_Ch]

In general you can implement a "free month" option several ways and indeed it seems that adding that month to an already paid order would be the best way to work with it...

When it comes to spammers tho, it doesn't matter what kind of promo you offer - you can always attract them and having an efficient anti-spam procedure for all customers is a must. With order monitoring and certain spam filters you can catch spammers in their tracks before they even send their first email and then remove them from your servers :smash:

I personally believe in the method of having a good reasoning about your prices - normal and discounted ones. The employees should be trained and experience the company culture every day so they can defend this company willingly. Knowing your products and their value is a cornerstone to find the right approach for each person. :rolleyes2

As for Host Hoppers - well they all eventually find their perfect host, so treat your customers like you want to be that host for them :agree:

 

[HostingTool]

I have just yesterday started to offer new signups the first month for $0.01. But after reading this thread am not so sure its a good idea, didn't even think of the paypal fee's. It is hard to get customers as a new host, even if you are genuine and not overselling, theres no way of proving this apart from having client's that can prove it.

 

[easyhostmedia]

I have just yesterday started to offer new signups the first month for $0.01. But after reading this thread am not so sure its a good idea, didn't even think of the paypal fee's. It is hard to get customers as a new host, even if you are genuine and not overselling, theres no way of proving this apart from having client's that can prove it.

gave you tried putting a couple discounted plans on ebay, just to start you off with clients

 

[Jump systems]

Offering 1st month discount is a great way to attract new clients but you have to monitor these accounts more closely. Most will continue with hosting but only afew will jump ship after the first month. I have even seen resellerhosting trials. All good for business

 

[nigelb]

Service is the best way to grow a small business and try to reduce customer churn.

 

[micohosting]

Not good idea at all!! You are going to atract fraud clients!

 

[BeltHosting]

I never liked hosts which offer $1 hosting packages. I mean c'mon, something is just not right.

 

[NodePacket]

I personally believe in the method of having a good reasoning about your prices - normal and discounted ones. The employees should be trained and experience the company culture every day so they can defend this company willingly. Knowing your products and their value is a cornerstone to find the right approach for each person.

 

[Rado_Ch]

I personally believe in the method of having a good reasoning about your prices - normal and discounted ones. The employees should be trained and experience the company culture every day so they can defend this company willingly. Knowing your products and their value is a cornerstone to find the right approach for each person.

+1 for that!
Never neglect the sales trainings and a vital part of those is discussing different "tricky" questions the customers may ask them. Especially about pricing! Its never good risking your sales employee to respond to such with a half-thought response like "well, those are our prices - take it or leave it". Good preparation starts from the core :rolleyes2

 

[ughosting]

@jodihost. We came to the conclusion others have. It cannot be free the first month, otherwise there is no payment involved, and in the checkout process, no payment means no fraud check, means possible fraudster, means bad business.

I realise you were just pointing out other hosts offer this, but I'm just explaining our theory.

We've run First Quarter for the price of 1 month etc, before and found that to work quite well.

 

[Richard Leik]

The problem is that people looking for free or 1 cent hosting usually aren't going to convert into paying customers later on. That's why I'm wary of offering any trial services, unless a client specifically requests it.