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We use it to subsidise our hosting fees and time to keep things up to date. It's often more convenient to control the website when doing online marketing work.

We use it to subsidise our hosting fees and time to keep things up to date. It's often more convenient to control the website when doing online marketing work. Changes may be a flat monthly fee, free as part of a larger retainer (if simple) or ad-hoc pay as you go based on amount of work. It's not a lot and doesn't form a big part of the business but helps provide an all-in-one solution for clients who typically have no idea where to go next. One thing we are winding down and I urge you to avoid is email support. It's simple to set up but you can quickly get overwhelmed by the amount of support involved. Email is often a fundamental to business, depending on industry, and it should be treated as such. We suggest clients use Gsuite. This leads to my final point. You are not a hosting company, unless you pivot that way. You are not an email provider. You are a web design business and you should not let hosting overwhelm the core of what you do. Be ready to cut it off if it distracts too much from your core.

CharlesW 9y ago
> You are a web design business… Another way to look at this is that you're not a web design business (your perspective), you're a "solve my online problem" business (customer perspective). Yes, you're designing a web site, but in the service of increasing sales, improving discoverability for their potential customers, etc. It seems like you intuitively know this, in which case the "extras" are potentially a distraction, but also an opportunity to bundle services into an ongoing "subscription".
- jwdunne 9y ago
  Yes. The thing with hosting and email is that it adds overhead in an area that may not be a core competence. You could spend a few hours fixing someone's email because they decided to bulk mail using your servers. That or they get hit by malware that does the same. Those few hours would be better spent building websites. It's a good complementary service but my warning was about drawing the line when it starts to encroach on what you do best. We have learned this the hard way.

CharlesW 9y ago

> You are a web design business… Another way to look at this is that you're not a web design business (your perspective), you're a "solve my online problem" business (customer perspective). Yes, you're designing a web site, but in the service of increasing sales, improving discoverability for their potential customers, etc. It seems like you intuitively know this, in which case the "extras" are potentially a distraction, but also an opportunity to bundle services into an ongoing "subscription".

jwdunne 9y ago
Yes. The thing with hosting and email is that it adds overhead in an area that may not be a core competence. You could spend a few hours fixing someone's email because they decided to bulk mail using your servers. That or they get hit by malware that does the same. Those few hours would be better spent building websites. It's a good complementary service but my warning was about drawing the line when it starts to encroach on what you do best. We have learned this the hard way.