Are these free hosting models in use?

[Sitebee]

I have two free hosting models that I have been thinking about today, and just wondering if they are in use / would they work?

The first one being comments for hosting. So in short that entails a the creation of a hosting provider that provides free web hosting on the basis that the hostee`s receive free web hosting for blog comment posting! (Very similar to the standard P2H model)

The idea behind this is that there`s two websites created, one for taking orders on package blog comments (the revenue stream) and a site for the hosting provider with some kind of custom CMS to dish out the blog comments to the people wishing free hosting / continued use of service.

That`s the basic idea, interesting concept I think.

Now the second model, I`m almost certain should be in use by now. It`s the Free VPS game which is increasing in popularity, which I jumped on years ago, but back then it was just not viable as it was too expensive.

So here`s the idea, create a provider. SEO the website for a few months, build up good content, PR & page authority, concentrate on one page (i`ll explain later) once your satisfied launch the website on the P2H model for a free VPS. (min spec)

Now instead of the free vps`s costs coming out of your pocket, invite vps providers to sponsor you a free vps (or more if your lucky) return they get a couple of reviews and a listing back to the providers website.

If you work hard enough on that page you built up, the seo juice would cover the loss of the vps revenue to the vps provider.

Just a couple of thoughts of mine!

 

[Seraphim]

The latter plan has a long history on FWS. It universally results in the person gathering sponsorships getting laughed at, as demonstrated by a few former members here who have tried that approach in order to circumvent a lack of starting capital.

 

[[JSH]John]

The first one sounds interesting, but could be hard to keep a track of who commented where. I know you'll already be thinking of a way to do that

 

[wswd]

The first one is in use as well, though I'm not sure how extensively. I have definitely seen it used for hosting and domains.

 

[theraptor]

I've seen this first one around with several providers, and seems like it might be moderately viable. As for the second, the instances of would-be hosts who have attempted this and failed miserably seem to outnumber the ones who have done it successfully greatly. Of the hosts who manage to get VPS sponsorships to provide to their users, it appears that they must first build a reputation and an attractive community by paying for VPS's to provide with their own out-of-pocket money for some period of time before they can get a sponsorship or sponsorships. Virtual Servers are still at the point where giving them out for free is not exactly cheap - the costs aren't anywhere near what they used to be, but they are still there.

 

[sander k]

freevps.us and many others use the sponsored vpses. I have had a p2h with free vpses for about 5 months. I paid for the dedicated servers my self and lost lots of money with it. So much that I had to quit hosting. It was costing me over €200 a month. It will be hard to find sponsors for that.

 

[Sitebee]

I had a funny feeling they would be use, would have been very surprised if not.

I`m a little surprised the second option does not work or has not worked. I bet it can work with the right planning and strategy. I hoping to launch another provider in the next 2 -3 months, just so damn busy with all my freelance and outsourced work im getting. Atleast it`s making me money

 

[Seraphim]

Wait post2vps was based on the sponsored upstream model? News to me, I thought the only person to get anywhere with a sponsored backend was mtw- and ultimately he fell apart exactly as I had told him he would.

 

[Sitebee]

Wait post2vps was based on the sponsored upstream model? News to me, I thought the only person to get anywhere with a sponsored backend was mtw- and ultimately he fell apart exactly as I had told him he would.

Not fully sure what mean by that dude!

Whats "sponsored upstream model" and "sponsored backend" ? Sorry if I sound a bit dumb, but not really heard that terminology before. I have plans to have a shot at the free VPS game, but I`m sure not going in blind and need to learn as much as possible beforehand. If it`s not worth the shot, then i`m not gonna bother.

Thanks.

 

[wswd]

Sitebee, the problem with free VPS is that the cost per "client" is dozens of times higher than it is with shared hosting. It's almost impossible to make up that amount with ads unless you are running incredibly crappy hardware on the server. Perhaps that's good enough for a free VPS...I don't know.

You have to figure, if you are cramming 60 x 256mb VPSs on a 16GB server (which would certainly be cramming), you're talking anywhere from $30-60/mo. just for IP addresses, and with IPv4's running out, probably on the high-end. You're looking at another couple bucks a month per VPS to cover the hardware costs, so perhaps $3/mo. per VPS, and that's on crappy hardware, where disk I/O is likely going to cause all sorts of troubles. Anything less than that (say 128mb machines), and you immediately double the IP costs, and your disk I/O is going to suffer even more than before.

Can you make $3+/mo. per client? I don't know. With 500 shared clients on that same server, you might only need $0.20/mo. per client. I could put together a machine tomorrow where I would only need half that kind of return (perhaps $0.10/client) to break even. Of course, it wouldn't be a terribly robust machine, but it's a workable model for free hosting.

 

[Sitebee]

Thanks for the great comment WSWD, (+rep) I don`t think you quite got grasp of what I originally mentioned tho, If I was to dip my toe into the free vps game, I`m not planning to hire a server to provision free vpses out of my own pocket.

I would build up a website, and mention providers that offered a min spec vps to popular / regular users of the website. Say min PR4/ Domain / Page Authority / Moz Rank. Surely that would over compensate a paid link costing $20+ per month.

 

[wswd]

...invite vps providers to sponsor you a free vps (or more if your lucky) return they get a couple of reviews and a listing back to the providers website.

I'm still not sure that model would cover the cost for the provider, unless I'm missing something entirely, as all the reviews and links in the world don't necessarily equate to orders. That's one of the main reasons you see all the free VPS sites failing constantly, and providers dropping out.

Secondly, the free VPS market is littered with abuse. The free shared/reseller hosting market is too, but there is only so much damage you can do with a shared/reseller account. The possibilities with a VPS are endless. LOL! It's often not something reputable providers are willing to deal with. I get enough abuse on my paid VPSs. I can't imagine what it must be like on a free VPS.

 

[Seraphim]

Not fully sure what mean by that dude!

Whats "sponsored upstream model" and "sponsored backend" ? Sorry if I sound a bit dumb, but not really heard that terminology before. I have plans to have a shot at the free VPS game, but I`m sure not going in blind and need to learn as much as possible beforehand. If it`s not worth the shot, then i`m not gonna bother.

Thanks.

Some time ago a guy showed up here on FWS with the brilliant idea of getting people to sponsor VPSs to be redistributed via his post2vps board.

But there have been people before who get sponsorships from other providers and redistribute them, and what Sander described as well as another thread that just popped up confirms that yes it is possible. That's what I would call a sponsored backend host, they rely entirely on handouts from other providers and have no equipment of their own.

On the other hand, I did some calculations at the time using real numbers from my shared hosting and found that it is actually possible if you can colocate your own node to do a post2vps solution. But your bottom line will be near-zero, and the abuse rate will probably cripple it.

 

[TaoPhoenix]

Sitebee,
I'll add a note from another angle. Wswd and to slightly lesser degrees Seraphim and I advocate starting projects like this with a more "business" mindset. In any other business, it actually takes a lot of dollars to put some serious oomph behind starting the business. There seems to be among other things a strange honor code going around here where lots of people want to somehow start these projects with "zero money down". I shall especially note your following sentence:

"SEO the website for a few months, build up good content, PR & page authority, concentrate on one page (i`ll explain later) once your satisfied launch the website on the P2H model for a free VPS.".

No. If you're serious that you think you know what you're doing, go work at McDonalds for a week, collect your 250 pounds (Yes, I see you're in the UK!), slam the basics into place and get some initial use capacity up in something like a "Private Beta", THEN SEO your page and see if your idea pans out. Remember that Google is getting grumpy about efforts just like yours, and they have penalized SEO lately. So then if your SEO'd page drifts away, then you wash your hands of the experiment and go home. But waiting "until you're ready with your page" creates all kinds of half-baked vapor-ware scenarios that in fact could then just do you in.

P.S. All you have to do is include a phrase saying "experimental / private Beta. All users who apply understand that there is a risk of data loss and need to make backups." I am all for experiments; just take 30 seconds to label them as such. Instead everyone gets all macho and calls themselves THE next best thing, then they fold, and we just sigh again, 1% more bitter.

 

[ali ashraf]

thanks for information

 

[Sitebee]

To be honest guys, they was only a couple of ideas running around in my head, im not trying to offend anyone here. I do still believe the models are viable, but would require significant time investment, which I do not have right now.