One of the first things we need to take into account when creating a site is the server it will stay on. Chosing the perfect solution is pretty hard and there are many ways one can lose money out of this deal.

1. You get the biggest plan possible.

I had many clients who were “shocked” to hear I won’t host their small presentation site on a dedicated server. It took me minutes to convince them it’s better to start small since I can always increase resources and they’d pay more when they’d actually need to. Yes, I am that kind of a web hosting provider. I don’t want them to jump on the biggest plan since all they’ll do is waste money on something they don’t need.

All hosting companies have many solutions for your online project. Try to chose the smallest one and make sure you can immediatelly upgrade. You can pay many months the smallest price, get a revenue maybe on your ever growing site and then, when needed be able to even pay the new hosting bills with that money. I always thought that a site that requires a bigger bill on hosting should be able to self-sustain itself when it comes to these costs.

2. You pay for 5 years upfront on a site that won’t be “alive”  in 6 months from now.

Another issue: people who try to grab some of the hosting companies offers and jump to pay for many months upfront. OK, do you really know you’ll have this site in 12 months from now? Will you renew the domain name? If you’re just testing waters, why jump to pay for 10 years when you can’t really say if the next month you’ll still be interested?

In my case for instance this “pay for 2 years upfront” might be a good idea .. I will run sites for many years to come and my 35 sites do need a place to stay. Not to mention my clients’ projects. And still I like paying every month. Becase I might not like my hosting provider the next month and I’d love not being tied up to anyone. I had bad service from some of the most renowned companies, it was good to be able to leave their servers in a hear beat.

3. You have individual plans for your sites.

The moment my network was 5 sites big it was clear to me I lose money by paying for 5 separate hosting accounts instead of a very small reseller plan. Back then my bill was something like 5 USD/site and the reseller plan was 10 or 15 USD. Yes, it’s 10 USD I saved each month, but still a saving.

Not to mention on my new reseller account I was able to give some hosting to some web design clients I had or friends and ask for a small price. In few weeks I was paying my hosting with their money, so getting on a reseller plan wasn’t that bad afterall. You can host tens of sites and be able to cover your costs pretty easily. Maybe even get a nice profit from it.

Should you have more ideas about this, please comment and share them.

Filed under: Web development by ramona