Hey Everyone,
So, Andy recently created a post asking about who was interested in hosting
Admittedly, I've had MORE people ask me here than those who have replied to this thread.
Look, I'm not looking to bad mouth "anyone", but as an example, I am fully aware of the downtime at a "certain affiliate marketing platform" 🤣🤣🤣 last week, which as always was simply brushed under the carpet, and again as always, had members proclaiming that "SiteSupport are the best" because they "sorted out" the problem.
Without putting too fine a point on it, they DID NOT sort out the problem (it was created in the first place DUE to the hosting).
Furthermore, and I want you to REALLY THINK ABOUT THIS for a moment.
My two largest websites now receive over 1,000,000 MONTHLY VISITORS between them, so that is a LOT of traffic, and therefore you would think, MORE POTENTIAL HOSTING PROBLEMS than "smaller websites"...
The last time I spoke to my hosting company was 23rd January 2023, so over 18 months ago,
This means I have had NO downtime, NO problems logging into WordPress, and NO hosting issues whatsoever in the last 18 months.
Can you say the same about your hosting? (and NO, telling me that the issue was "sorted" in a few hours is NOT GOOD ENOUGH, I repeat, I HAVE HAD NO HOSTING ISSUES WHATSOEVER FOR 18 MONTHS).
Anyway, Diane, Andy, and myself have been putting our heads together to offer something in terms of hosting, but we also wanted to offer something a "bit better" that could be viewed as a monthly membership to cover many things you currently have covered.
The main idea we have come up with is offering different levels of "hosting service", plus, we're trying to keep it as inexpensive as possible.
So, initially, we are looking at just hosting on a per website basis, and at a guess, most of you have between 1-10 websites, and you are either currently paying $49/month or $99/month (if paying monthly), but you also get "additionals".
So, for those who are JUST looking for hosting, we can definitely offer something far less expensive than this.
However, I also know that many of you have expressed want to leave a "certain affiliate marketing platform" (please be aware, this was NEVER my intention, just because I don't like the place and can see it for what it REALLY is... it's not 2016 anymore... I don't expect others to feel the same), but you are potentially worried about losing out on certain things, FOMO.
So, we have also come up with a few other options too.
Something we're considering is a monthly membership that will have options, perhaps 3 pricing tiers, which will cover hosting X number of websites, PLUS, coaching.
So, as an example, someone may wish to transfer 3 websites over and take up the coaching option.
At the moment, even though we're still discussing it, we have come up with a few ideas.
Firstly, I have a "coaching questionnaire" that I will send you, which will tell me about what you're currently doing, how much time you have available, what you achieve during that time, what your aims are, what you love, what you hate, etc.
Diane would then do an initial check over your website and will point out certain "requirements" that you should have on your website and that are missing, or things that you are doing incorrectly, or shouldn't be doing.
Then, from the questionnaire, I will obviously do a website review, and then based on the information you've provided me, I would create an action plan for the "coming month" on what you need to be doing.
I will then have one or two more mini 30-minute sessions with you, plus Diane or Andy will act as an "accountability partner" for you, e.g. "Here's what Partha has planned out for you for this week, what are you going to do first, how long will it take, I will check over once done, etc."
Now, to give you an idea, if I was to offer a personal one-on-one website review and monthly coaching it will typically cost you MORE than an ANNUAL membership at "a well-known affiliate marketing platform", 🤣🤣🤣🤣
But, at a guess, most people won't want to pay $500ish per month for that service.
Plus, it's NOT all about you (selfish 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣), think about poor me, coaching 50+ people per month and those people expecting me to do all that for $5 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
However, with a monthly membership, it doesn't feel as bad for me, it would basically be a lot of work in the first month, and then simply getting together a couple of times per month for each subsequent month with me giving you tasks, and then Diane and Andy holding you accountable...
In a way, I wouldn't make my "usual fee", but over the course of a year with a "membership", it doesn't feel as bad to me.
So, here's the REAL QUESTIONS.
How many people would be interested in JUST HOSTING?
How many people would be interested in HOSTING & COACHING?
When it comes to coaching, it will be around ONE WEBSITE or ONE SPECIFIC BUSINESS IDEA, if you want coaching on more than one website, this will come at an additional fee.
Furthermore, numbers will be LIMITED for coaching, as I would think for most of you, it's going to take me 8-10 hours in month one, and then probably 2 hours every month thereafter.
So, if I want to ensure that the coaching remains of a desired quality I don't want to be doing much more than about 100 hours per month.
So, in reality, we want to know
HOW MUCH WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO PAY FOR THESE SERVICES?
There are NO right or wrong answers.
You can obviously say that you'd like 3 websites hosted and you'd like private coaching from me and accountability from Diane and Andy, and you'd like to pay $10/month.
However, you would receive a two-word answer to that, the second word being OFF!!! 🤣🤣🤣
So be sensible!!!
We are thinking about keeping the prices in line with "a well-known affiliate marketing platform" 🤣🤣
But perhaps, slightly more expensive for a monthly membership, e.g. $10-$20 more per month MAXIMUM
BUT
Our pricing all comes down to what YOU think is affordable to YOU.
And then we will simply determine what we think we can offer within YOUR price range.
We would probably also start a Private Group (just like the Parasite SEO Course Group) JUST for people with hosting or hosting and coaching here, and this will be a place where you can ask all those "how to" questions, get "SiteSupport" ("The Calvinator" is our Carson), etc.
At least this way your questions are either answered by mself, Diane, or Andy, or other members of the "small" group (none of this clambering to answer as many questions as possible, whether correctly or incorrectly, simply to improve "internal rank".
So, once more, how much would YOU be willing to pay (monthly) for hosting PER WEBSITE and how much would you be willing to pay (monthly) for a joint hosting and coaching membership?
The floor is yours (BE SENSIBLE!!! Anyone who says my coaching is worth $1/month gets punch on the cute nose 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 )
Just to add that myself, Partha and Andy have many years of experience behind us, and we all work from home, making our living online, and we have numerous skills between us.
So, this won't be based entirely on affiliate marketing alone, and we will answer all questions and offer advice based on our own knowledge, and not just send you off-platform with a copy-and-paste answer to figure things out by yourself!
Just to add that myself, Partha and Andy have many years of experience behind us, and we all work from home, making our living online, and we have numerous skills between us.
So, this won't be based entirely on affiliate marketing alone, and we will answer all questions and offer advice based on our own knowledge, and not just send you off-platform with a copy-and-paste answer to figure things out by yourself!
It's nice to know that Diane, because the main business model in my new website won't be affiliate marketing, and I can really use the expertise you guys have.
My WA membership ends in November, and it's very unlikely that I'll renew, so I would definitely be interested in hosting (and coaching) provided that it's cheaper than WA overall.
Now I know that the quality of the coaching you guys are capable of providing is levels above what we get on WA, but I'm honestly at a point where I need to think twice before spending a single penny on my online business endeavours.
Frankly, I've invested thousands of dollars thus far, and I'm so far off breaking even.
It's worth mentioning that I paid for a yearly Premium membership on Black Friday, which works out to be around $25 per month.
I'm not sure if that'll work with you guys, but that's my input.
@ohnoo_not_her Lizzy, I remember you said you're hosting your website on WPX and that it costs you around $25 monthly, is that right?
Are you happy with the hosting? Would you recommend it?
@yusuf I agree with Andy , very happy with the hosting of WPX. I had them create a subdomain as well, no problems at all. I even got some answers from their free chat, when I wasn't even paying for it yet.
At WA, there were several down times per year, sometimes even half a day, and apparently it happened again last week.
Wpx is faster, support is more helpful and quick (if you need it), and they don't leave you waiting with a response like "I will turn this over to another department' , or something like that, not to be heard from again. It was bloody horrible!
I see that there are still people having issues with site comments , when not giving comments through the WA system, but from the outside. I found out that there were issues with that when I was still hosted at WA,when I was giving away Etsy vouchers with a draw. To participate, I made people subscribe to my newsletter and comment on one of my blog posts that I wanted to promote. It was a disaster with people coming back to me to say they couldn't!
Apparently this is still the case, (as I have been pm'ing with someone about this again) until you find out by coïncedince that this still gives certain errors. All these things you don't know about until you need it.
Non of these issues at WPX at all.
Oh yeah, another thing, this silly message people get on their WA sites 'server waiting' or something like that. Have you ever seen that on any other site? It looks sooo suspicious to see this from an outsider point of view, no?
THe 25 bucks per month is for 5 sites, totally worth it.
Lizzy
@ohnoo_not_her Thank you very much.
Yeah, I had the same problem with comments on my chess site. I had someone who found me on Medium send me a PM telling me they really liked my articles, but they were unable to leave comments for some reason.
I tried it, and yes, most comments weren't registering.
That was very frustrating, because not only was it going to be my first ever unsolicited comment on my website, but it also had me thinking that I missed out on many comments because most of the time, the person wouldn't bother sending you a message or an email complaining that they weren't able to comment, right?
Will definitely keep WPX in mind. Thanks again Lizzy.
@ohnoo_not_her Thank you very much.
That was very frustrating, because not only was it going to be my first ever unsolicited comment on my website, but it also had me thinking that I missed out on many comments because most of the time, the person wouldn't bother sending you a message or an email complaining that they weren't able to comment, right?
THIS! VERY FRUSTRATING and a HUGE WASTE OF TIME TO GET IT FIXED! And their speed goes down immensely, once you try to monetize your site with adds, and then Google punishes you again because of the low speed. AND, you can't use a plugin to fix the speed LOL! They block your site with an error if you try to use WP rocket!
I am so happy that I don't need to waste my time on all of this any longer.
Hi Partha,
That sounds great. I actually made my mind to leave in October when my annual membership finish.
Im fed up with so many issues, especially last one took more than half day to resolve. Also, I can't effort to pay the money anymore.
So I found hosting for $3 per month plus domain hosting $10 or $20 per year. Recommended by travel bloggers. I have only one site.
So if you have hosting for this kind of price, I could use yours.
I would think about the trainings in the future as the blog cost me like $3k and I earned $160 in 3 years. 🤦Now I'm on zero traffic due to HCU.
I was even thinking to give up.
I would like to hear the options once you have them available and ready.
Thank you so much.
Clambering to answer as many questions as possible, whether correctly or incorrectly, simply to improve "internal rank" 🤣 🤣
I know a couple of people that do that 🤔
Okay, so the hosting and coaching is what I’d be interested in. 1 website and coaching I would be willing to pay $49 a month. Or less for a yearly fee.
I’m paying £240 ($299) a year for hosting 3 websites and all the training (as irrelevant as some of it is for me now!)
Just a comparison and I know what you’re going to offer will be more relevant than the training offered at “that affiliate marketing place”
I really can´t answer it at the moment. I see that the idea is that hosting is the basic and then whether coaching is necessary.
It is the coaching part that I would be most interested in.
I have big trust in you all (something that normally takes time but I have seen your work and ideology for a long time).
However, I have also been very disappointed afterward about a few important things about WA, and that has hurt.
But at the same time, some things there are very important to me for a while at least, so I would mix them somehow.
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