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>kill two birds with one stone. First, don't let orders queue. Customers, particularly ADHD tech types, are very sensitive to shipping delay this is what I do

by lsc 16y ago

>kill two birds with one stone. First, don't let orders queue. Customers, particularly ADHD tech types, are very sensitive to shipping delay this is what I do with my decidedly unglamorous, price-competitive commodity service. It works fairly well. If I don't have space, I shut down ordering and have them email a 'preorder' address (I mail a link to everyone who emaled preorder as soon as I have space.) sure, I turn away some customers, but my god, it's a lot easier than dealing with the customer service nightmare of having someone's money, and having no way to get them the product or service they paid for. > (Every time you open up orders, expect a burst of Twitter/links/etc, as folks try to get in and then lament that they missed it again this actually happens, even for my service, which targets the low end of the market.

petercooper 16y ago
this is what I do with my decidedly unglamorous, price-competitive commodity service. It works fairly well. If I don't have space, I shut down ordering and have them email a 'preorder' address I didn't know your username here but after reading this I knew this had to be Prgmr! I wonder if this means it's a sadly uncommon technique... :-) I'm just confused by the mismatch between your public page and the preorder page. You still have smaller accounts on the main page but all are available on the preorder one. Is this because you want to avoid a flood of new users or because people who order the smaller accounts have lower expectations and you'd prefer more of those?
- lsc 16y ago
  The real problem is that my 'preorder' system sucks. I've got a link that I ask people not to use unless I email them to tell them it's okay. The idea is to give people who have emailed and asked a chance to sign up before I open ordering to the general public. Obviously, the link remains the same, so there's nothing stopping someone from signing up for a bunch of domains I don't have available, or cutting in front of other people in line, but so far it hasn't been a problem; people on the waiting list get a day or two to sign up before I open up the main waiting list. but, then you were asking why I treat ordering for large domains differently from small domains. When I open up orders for large domains, I sell out like /that/ - It doesn't take very many 4GiB sign ups to fill up a 32GiB server. I mean, I can handle a few right now, or, at least I could at that point, but I want to severely rate limit those until I have satisfied the demand for small servers and have a bit of extra capacity. Right now, I'm on the edge of opening orders for large domains. (I've got a 16 core, 64GiB ram, 8 disk monster at the co-lo I'm configuring that will host only 1024MiB and up domains.) and I've got most of two 32GiB, 4 disk, 8 core boxes either online or in burn in ready for smaller domains. I prioritize the small domains over the large domains for two reasons. 1. the small domains are more profitable per amount of hardware I buy ($4 per account plus $1 for every 64MiB ram.) and right now my bottleneck is capital for new hardware, so I'll serve the less capital intensive customers first. 2. I am still focused on the hobby user. At the moment, I think I can serve the needs of the enthusiast market better than the 'serious business' market. I'm trying to change that, but I'm not there yet. I do want to get there, so I do like some of the more adventurous businesses trying me out and giving me feedback, but I want to make sure that I don't serve the business market at the expense of my current enthusiast market. I want to keep that base.

by lsc 16y ago

petercooper 16y ago

this is what I do with my decidedly unglamorous, price-competitive commodity service. It works fairly well. If I don't have space, I shut down ordering and have them email a 'preorder' address I didn't know your username here but after reading this I knew this had to be Prgmr! I wonder if this means it's a sadly uncommon technique... :-) I'm just confused by the mismatch between your public page and the preorder page. You still have smaller accounts on the main page but all are available on the preorder one. Is this because you want to avoid a flood of new users or because people who order the smaller accounts have lower expectations and you'd prefer more of those?

lsc 16y ago
The real problem is that my 'preorder' system sucks. I've got a link that I ask people not to use unless I email them to tell them it's okay. The idea is to give people who have emailed and asked a chance to sign up before I open ordering to the general public. Obviously, the link remains the same, so there's nothing stopping someone from signing up for a bunch of domains I don't have available, or cutting in front of other people in line, but so far it hasn't been a problem; people on the waiting list get a day or two to sign up before I open up the main waiting list. but, then you were asking why I treat ordering for large domains differently from small domains. When I open up orders for large domains, I sell out like /that/ - It doesn't take very many 4GiB sign ups to fill up a 32GiB server. I mean, I can handle a few right now, or, at least I could at that point, but I want to severely rate limit those until I have satisfied the demand for small servers and have a bit of extra capacity. Right now, I'm on the edge of opening orders for large domains. (I've got a 16 core, 64GiB ram, 8 disk monster at the co-lo I'm configuring that will host only 1024MiB and up domains.) and I've got most of two 32GiB, 4 disk, 8 core boxes either online or in burn in ready for smaller domains. I prioritize the small domains over the large domains for two reasons. 1. the small domains are more profitable per amount of hardware I buy ($4 per account plus $1 for every 64MiB ram.) and right now my bottleneck is capital for new hardware, so I'll serve the less capital intensive customers first. 2. I am still focused on the hobby user. At the moment, I think I can serve the needs of the enthusiast market better than the 'serious business' market. I'm trying to change that, but I'm not there yet. I do want to get there, so I do like some of the more adventurous businesses trying me out and giving me feedback, but I want to make sure that I don't serve the business market at the expense of my current enthusiast market. I want to keep that base.