2 New idea for upgradable hosting

[mobstermind61]

Idea 1 Maybe x10hosting can have a post to host feature for more features and higher limitations for there free hosting account. Like 20 post for unlimited databases or 50 posts a month for the $3.95 hosting plan. That would most likely make this forum one of the top forums on the web and bring in more paid hosting accounts. Also it would most likely bring in double the revenue made just by ad clicking and customer satisfaction.

Idea 2 maybe a referral hosting reward program, lets say a user referrals 20 members then in turn they get 1 upgradable feature added to there person hosting account of there choice, and so on.

Give me some feed back on these 2 ideas

[essellar]

#1 is already in place -- the Community Advocate and higher user groups get service upgrades. See the User Groups wiki page for more information on that part of the plan. No, you don't get "unlimited databases" just for posting, but you do get a greater number of databases at the Community Advocate level and beyond, and at the Community Leader level you get a "real" upgrade (an account on the staff server). It's not just about posting, though -- you need to actually be helpful in order to get the reputation required for the higher levels.

#2 isn't going to go anywhere -- there are already a significant number of new sign-ups every day. Getting a lot more free hosting clients isn't exactly a revenue maker. Getting a significant number of paid accounts, particularly on the business-grade plans (Infinity+ and VPS) might be.

[mobstermind61]

#1 is already in place -- the Community Advocate and higher user groups get service upgrades. See the User Groups wiki page for more information on that part of the plan. No, you don't get "unlimited databases" just for posting, but you do get a greater number of databases at the Community Advocate level and beyond, and at the Community Leader level you get a "real" upgrade (an account on the staff server). It's not just about posting, though -- you need to actually be helpful in order to get the reputation required for the higher levels.

#2 isn't going to go anywhere -- there are already a significant number of new sign-ups every day. Getting a lot more free hosting clients isn't exactly a revenue maker. Getting a significant number of paid accounts, particularly on the business-grade plans (Infinity+ and VPS) might be.

Never said the free hosting itself would be a money maker, but if you set down a good structured well thought out well rounded free hosting service with lots of nifty features, then in turn after they have upgraded all they could but need more it will cause them to want to pay for vps or dedicated servers. Being the number 1 free hosting provider all around is 1 thing that most hosting sites look over and don't understand that being the best equally free, or should i say being the best by being the best giver will return more to the hosting provider by 10 fold in the end. Logic is the key to success

[essellar]

Ah, but making the free hosting package be all things to all people is kind of a disincentive to upgrade, isn't it? There's no point in tiered service if the bottom tier is good enough for almost everybody.

[xav0989]

Thank you for the suggestion. As it has been mentionned earlier, users that meet certain criteria (post count, reputation level and admin approval) are offered different levels of upgrades in return for the services they provide, as those users are more often than not the ones answering and filtering through the support requests. Also, you must keep in mind that free hosting is managed and operated very differently then payed hosting, even within the same company, due to a number of factors, one being the enormous amount of free accounts (compared to a much smaller amount of paying users). Currently we are pleased with our packages and upgrades, but we will keep in mind your suggestion. Remember though that from the start we have never been a "post to host" and that we are not planning in becoming one.

[lonleyanshika21]

nyc idea ....

[Dead-i]

Just to also point out that decreasing the number of posts required to get a free upgrade could encourage users to spam the forums, and obviously this would not be the objective.

[d.307cooper55]

hi
i have a idea for free hosting
u put reward for have more visitor