• Howdy! Welcome to our community of more than 130.000 members devoted to web hosting. This is a great place to get special offers from web hosts and post your own requests or ads. To start posting sign up here. Cheers! /Peo, FreeWebSpace.net
managed wordpress hosting

Kiddie Host Accusations

JodoHost said:
The question is can a minor that has to focus also on studies and other activities be available 24x7 to meet that challenge? Can a minor without any help from an older individual with experience in business handling, financial handling, disaster planning, etc be able to build a company with depth? If you have an older partner in business, you can form a very good partnership because while the older partner would exhibit maturity in business planning and be there 24x7, the younger partner can come out with uninhibited ideas that could make the business click with customers
Click to expand...

Finally someone gets it :beer:. Minors, while not being able to provide the 24x7 support etc, can bring fresh ideas to a long stale market, and thus help bring business to the company. I think a 16/30 year old partnership wok wonderfully myself. I know cause I'm in one :p. I saw profit my first month. My own dedicated the second month. I'm still going strong. I thank the wise financial decisions of my co-hort, and he thanks me for the ideas and business plans that have helped make us successful.
 
In Ohio, you can get a job at 14 if you are a citizen, have a permit, and will pay taxes (I think). It varies with your jurisdiction. In the United States, the states set their own rules for the most part.
 
For the record I'm 25....and I know back when I was 16 I surely wasn't mature enough to handle the hosting business reliably. If you guys can, kudos to you but I hope in the end you don't lose interest for the customer's sake.
 
I got employed by a Hosting Website owned by a kid which ofcourse I didn't know that he was a kid and I didn't get paid for 2 months?

whome should I blame?
 
Something thats been bugging me is web hosts who say they are a web hosting company, by definition a company is a large business owned by shareholders in which the majority shareholders are a board of members who have an input into the company. Its a major misuse of the word.

Now I've got that out of the way, some under 18's can run a business very well, while others jump into this market expecting to make a quick buck with no experience and most of the time are not financially capable of running a business.

I started in the whole hosting biz back when I was 16, I don't know if I was a good host or not as only my clients can decide that but I do know that most stayed with me and I still host a majority of what I did back in the day. But if I could get a time machine and travel back in time to when I was 16 I would not have invested my $2,000 in a new PC and the start of a web hosting business as it took up so much time! your basically not a child anymore your a business owner and you have to act like one, you cant just give up on a server problem and go oh well someone else will do it I'm going to my friends place for a couple of hours. You have to sit there until the problem is fixed! you have to provide support. You have to calculate incomings and outgoings etc...

I'm now 18, which is the legal age to be classed as an Adult in Australia and I'm having to do another year of school to finish and catchup on what I missed due to running a business.

While your a child, enjoy yourself! don't be bogged down by work.
 
it matters, of course it matters, for legal reasons, not to mention moral reasons, children shouldn't be infront of a computer long enough to run any sort of business at all, and legally children cannot be responsible for thier actions, so yes it matters.
 
Krak is right.
Say XYZ corp. got an account with you. You advertised backups, security, etc.
You server gets hacked/stolen/burnt/etc

XYZ corp sues you for their lost mission critical content + lost revenue.
You'r a minor. uh oh. mommy and daddy get thrown into this. mommy and daddy have to pay XYZ corp big $$$.
 
Hey guys, I too am 15 (becoming 16) I am selling hosting from the past 1 full year without any glitches. I know a lot of people in this community who HAVE actually called me a "kid" and hence have lost number of clients.

I am not going to mention their names here but if that person is reading this post, I am sure he will know.
 
I guess what many kids here don't realize is that web hosting really isn't the easiest way to make money online. They think that they can offer outrageous plans and the customers will pour in the day after. Personally, I think that even though you can earn stable income from web hosting, there are easier ways to make money online, and ways that won't take up as much time. You just have to open yourself up to these opportunities.

I know alot of kids that are making hundreds if not thousands on a daily basis just from ad programs (PPC, CPA, etc.).

Here's an example:

Kid number 1 earns $30 / day from Google Adsense. All he does is spend a little over an hour each day promoting his site, building his links, and playing around with the ad placement. He still has plenty of time for homework, studying, and hobbies/friends (basically going out and having fun). On the days that he doesn't spend time promoting, the amount of revenue he earns doesn't really change because the traffic is basically organic (from search engines).

Kid number 2 earns $200 / month from 20 customers paying $10 / month. Kid number 2 has to spend hours upon hours each night after he gets back from school to support his customers and to advertise his web host to get even more customers. Kid number 2 starts to develop a habit where he leaves his homework to the last minute before he sleeps and barely has time to study for any tests, or he doesn't do his homework at all either because there was a problem (downtime, etc.) that he had to work on fixing or because he had a whole load of support tickets and queries. Kid number 2 barely has enough time for his hobbies and friends and has to think of excuses not to go out with his friends everytime they ask him out.

So, kids.. who would you rather be? Kid number 1 or Kid number 2?

I know who I would rather be..
 
technojunky said:
Hey guys, I too am 15 (becoming 16) I am selling hosting from the past 1 full year without any glitches. I know a lot of people in this community who HAVE actually called me a "kid" and hence have lost number of clients.

I am not going to mention their names here but if that person is reading this post, I am sure he will know.
Click to expand...

there's no gettin away from it, you're not old enough to run a business wether you make a profit or not, you're not legally old enough to be responsible for your actions.
 
KRAK_JOE said:
there's no gettin away from it, you're not old enough to run a business wether you make a profit or not, you're not legally old enough to be responsible for your actions.
Click to expand...
Well... since you replied. Have to make point to you, that you may be living in the UK. But my country doesn't have a law that states you to be 18 years and above, infact they require you to be 14 to be eligible. And for the kindest information I have that company (Hozter Inc.) registered in my name!

Gayble said:
I guess what many kids here don't realize is that web hosting really isn't the easiest way to make money online. They think that they can offer outrageous plans and the customers will pour in the day after. Personally, I think that even though you can earn stable income from web hosting, there are easier ways to make money online, and ways that won't take up as much time. You just have to open yourself up to these opportunities.

I know alot of kids that are making hundreds if not thousands on a daily basis just from ad programs (PPC, CPA, etc.).

Here's an example:

Kid number 1 earns $30 / day from Google Adsense. All he does is spend a little over an hour each day promoting his site, building his links, and playing around with the ad placement. He still has plenty of time for homework, studying, and hobbies/friends (basically going out and having fun). On the days that he doesn't spend time promoting, the amount of revenue he earns doesn't really change because the traffic is basically organic (from search engines).

Kid number 2 earns $200 / month from 20 customers paying $10 / month. Kid number 2 has to spend hours upon hours each night after he gets back from school to support his customers and to advertise his web host to get even more customers. Kid number 2 starts to develop a habit where he leaves his homework to the last minute before he sleeps and barely has time to study for any tests, or he doesn't do his homework at all either because there was a problem (downtime, etc.) that he had to work on fixing or because he had a whole load of support tickets and queries. Kid number 2 barely has enough time for his hobbies and friends and has to think of excuses not to go out with his friends everytime they ask him out.

So, kids.. who would you rather be? Kid number 1 or Kid number 2?

I know who I would rather be..
Click to expand...
Sir, you have a very valid point there. But its not always true. You don't have to spend that much time to be a web-host. Just offer some hosting plan and you will have some-one or the other to reply for a tech-support job. So I practically don't do all the job myself. I also have some of my school friends to share the work-load. (Except that they DON'T know FWS.)

And who works for money? I though don't. Its just for the heck of it, I do! In fact its the sake of my school. I host my school's website. What more do I want?
 
It doesn't matter what your laws are, primarily you're providing services to countries where you are NOT LEGALLY ALLOWED, selling weed in Amsterdam is legal, but that doesn't mean if you're a drug dealer from amsterdam that you can go around the world dealing drugs.
 
Also, India's laws are dictated by British laws still, they are part of the common law countries, and nearly every sector of your judicial system, be it criminal or civil, is goverened by British laws.
 
I'm really impressed by what people here do at 15, and I couldn't even imagine what they would be able to do at 30.
But one technical question: how payments are done if the company isn't officially registered? Or do you use credit card payment? Don't you experience problems with that?
Another thing is the "kiddie host" topic is frequently discusseв at WHT, why not speak out there?
 
They don't experience problems, because most are using thier parents paypal accounts, and when things go wrong they just shut down and go back to thier homework.
 
I agree. They should just stick to being kids. It's what they're best at.

KRAK_JOE said:
They don't experience problems, because most are using thier parents paypal accounts, and when things go wrong they just shut down and go back to thier homework.
Click to expand...
 
"a company is a large business owned by shareholders in which the majority shareholders are a board of members who have an input into the company. Its a major misuse of the word."
Click to expand...

I am going to comment on this first. A company -- doesn't need to be a large business; what is categorized as a large business? You don't need board members and don't need shareholders!

I own Impact Global Communications, LLC - We are a small company, we have one shareholder - which is me. We do have other employees & consultants that work for me. You are confusing the words company and Corporation. But still a corporation can be a small company as well.

Now to the "minor" hosting companies. I hear all the time from minors - that they are doing this for fun, or as a hobby. Not saying all of them do it for this reason.. But think about this for a minute. The companies or people you are hosting - are they doing it as a hobby? maybe or maybe not. Since I deal with mostly companies and not personal sites - I would say no they aren't. Still even if they are doing as a hobby. How much work and dedication are they going to put into their hobby?

I don't mean any disrespect for the minors that are hosters - but like techy said in this post, once customers heard he was a minor - he lost them .. Why? is the tech support bad? Sites go down? Maybe the reason was he was a minor.

Most of the time minors are not taken serious in the "business world". Sometimes I don't take them seriously - I was once a kid too :) (now 31).

My opinion is that minors don't have the responsibility legally to take care of a business. If you have to run to their parents to get money back or to sue -sorry you shouldn't be running a business. Too many loops customers need to go through. PLUS minors know they aren't responsible(legally) so it seems easier for a minor to "close up shop" and move on to a different "hobby"

Thanks,
Adam
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top