As a victim of overselling (kicked off a host for using "too many resources") and having many friends who were also victims, I dislike it with a burning passion. Whenever I order a hosting plan, I ask the Sales representative how much I actually will be allowed to use before I get kicked off for some BS in the Acceptable Use Policy. What is the point of overselling a server? It's considered harmless business practice because most customers only use a fraction of their alloted amount and because most web hosting customers frankly don't care much. But it still causes problems when someone tries to use the space they have been guaranteed. Because the AUP states that the host can kick someone off at their discretion for overusing, theoretically someone who used 1TB of data at iXWebHosting could stay on while someone who uses 1GB could be cut off from the AUP if the one using 1TB had good standing with the owners or admins. Ridiculous!
The problem is that most customers don't care and look for the most value at eye level (i.e. whichever one offers the most "GB" or "TB", lol) which could explain why a lot of hosting companies give you the amount of space in MB because the number is larger. It could also explain the thousands of cheap hosting companies that offer 1TB of space and 1,000TB bandwidth for $1 and die within a matter of weeks or rarely months because they can't support themselves. Customers come and leave in droves as they realize that they are getting what they paid for.
Would you rather get 25GB of space and 250GB of transfer for $2.95 or 1GB of space and 5GB of bandwidth for $2.95 if the 1GB plan was not oversold and the 25GB plan was heavily oversold? I'd rather the 1GB plan because it is guaranteed. You can still earn profit without overselling...sadly, most customers don't know about overselling, which is why the large companies keep growing and the smaller companies can't use these tactics due to a lack of resources and therefore cannot compete.
I'm hopefully going to be starting a web hosting firm and one of my main goals is not to oversell - ever. The problem is reaching the mass consumer. I don't think that I'm alone in this goal to reach the mass consumer without resorting to undesirable tactics. Therefore, I would like to see what you guys think about overselling, reaching the mass consumer, and other related information.
Do you think that overselling hurts the web hosting business? How do you feel about cheap hosts and large hosts (is there any resentment or are you indifferent)? What's your opinion?
If you are a consumer of hosting - do you look out for overselling hosts?
The problem is that most customers don't care and look for the most value at eye level (i.e. whichever one offers the most "GB" or "TB", lol) which could explain why a lot of hosting companies give you the amount of space in MB because the number is larger. It could also explain the thousands of cheap hosting companies that offer 1TB of space and 1,000TB bandwidth for $1 and die within a matter of weeks or rarely months because they can't support themselves. Customers come and leave in droves as they realize that they are getting what they paid for.
Would you rather get 25GB of space and 250GB of transfer for $2.95 or 1GB of space and 5GB of bandwidth for $2.95 if the 1GB plan was not oversold and the 25GB plan was heavily oversold? I'd rather the 1GB plan because it is guaranteed. You can still earn profit without overselling...sadly, most customers don't know about overselling, which is why the large companies keep growing and the smaller companies can't use these tactics due to a lack of resources and therefore cannot compete.
I'm hopefully going to be starting a web hosting firm and one of my main goals is not to oversell - ever. The problem is reaching the mass consumer. I don't think that I'm alone in this goal to reach the mass consumer without resorting to undesirable tactics. Therefore, I would like to see what you guys think about overselling, reaching the mass consumer, and other related information.
Do you think that overselling hurts the web hosting business? How do you feel about cheap hosts and large hosts (is there any resentment or are you indifferent)? What's your opinion?
If you are a consumer of hosting - do you look out for overselling hosts?