Revenue

[mark]

Okay, here's a chance to brag. What's a good goal to reach for a single dedicated server in terms of MULA?

:D

[RickH]

I find it hard to reply. Do you mean, how much does the server generate in hosting revenue or how much revenue do I make from the customers I host. Totally two different numbers by far. I bearly break even on the cost of hosting because I do not overpopulate my server. I do however make a decent amount in selling services to the customers who host with me. If you are just hosting websites, I would want a profit of at least $500 per server per month to justify the work in maintaining it.

[flc]

Very little from hosting - although that may soon change. It is mainly used to backup and monitor sites in another datacenter.

[mark]

Hmm, kind of what I expected, but I'm surprised how many people are putting -$100/mo. I waited until I had several sites running on a cable modem web server before I went dedicated. Now I am trying to hit the small webpage user market like everybody else. Wish me luck.

[fishfreek]

I am still at a point where im loosing money on my hosting server. I have another server thats dedicated to a few websites I run that have banner ads and such that generate enough revenue to pay for the server but when it comes to hosting websites im still puting more money in than im getting out of it.

I blame all those bargen basment webhosts. Its very hard to compete aganst someone offering 10gigs of disk and 50gigs of bandwidth for less than $10.

[Einewton]

Put my server online just to host my LAN's Webpage and Game servers for my LAN Party. So I started to host all of my friends web pages, then all their friends wanted a webpage too, so I charged a couple bucks to help pay for the server, and there where so many people who wanted it I had to setup a site with a auto account maker, It was far back in my head, not thinking it was even a possibility when i started my server. hehe.
But I’m still one of the ones who don’t break even.

*Hides from FishFreak.*

[ferret]

Currently losing money, but its partially my own fault because I haven't really made a push to move beyond providing some basic hosting to some friends for free and running my gaming community. The community donates $75, but that's far below what I'd make if I were actually selling the servers they have to another customer (By my prices, the community has $205 worth in game servers. So I'm technically picking up the remaining $130)

[RickH]

I would think that with all the competition in web hosting, it would be very difficult to make money with just a single server or two. Volume is the only way I can see this turning into a profit making venture.

[Tim]

For web hosting, I don't make any money.....I make money doing the web design and as an added benefit, I can host as well, but it is not my bread & butter.

I mostly do game hosting. For that, I do make a decent profit with the added benefit that I can play on my own servers.

[mark]

Game hosting is my favorite too, but it depends on the game and the ISP, because games like Counter-Strike use quite a bit more than 700 gb a month! That's not affordable unless you are on a cheap Cogent connection, not what Server Beach uses.

[Tim]

Originally posted by mark
Game hosting is my favorite too, but it depends on the game and the ISP, because games like Counter-Strike use quite a bit more than 700 gb a month! That's not affordable unless you are on a cheap Cogent connection, not what Server Beach uses.

It all depends on how you have it set up. I run several CS servers and have never even come close to my bandwidth cap.

[flc]

Originally posted by RickH
I would think that with all the competition in web hosting, it would be very difficult to make money with just a single server or two. Volume is the only way I can see this turning into a profit making venture.
I agree that with just 1 or 2 servers you will not make a lot of money, but depending on your market you can pay a few bills. For example if you provide personal service and do some hand holding for your local market you can charge a good amount for each site.

Unfortunately because of the cost of each IP, my server here at the beach doesn't help me much in my market - ecommerce sites for small business.

[devilspgd]

Originally posted by flc
Unfortunately because of the cost of each IP, my server here at the beach doesn't help me much in my market - ecommerce sites for small business.

I've gotta ask, for small customers which need to be handheld, why do they need individual IPs?

[ferret]

Originally posted by Tim
It all depends on how you have it set up. I run several CS servers and have never even come close to my bandwidth cap.

A 16 player CS server has a maximum usage of around 276gigs, and that's assuming 7K/sec total bandwidth per player for 24 hours a day.

Try UT2K4, its a much larger beast. :)

[flc]

Originally posted by devilspgd
I've gotta ask, for small customers which need to be handheld, why do they need individual IPs?
I need the individual IP for SSL as I don't offer shared certificates.

[mark]

Originally posted by ferret
A 16 player CS server has a maximum usage of around 276gigs, and that's assuming 7K/sec total bandwidth per player for 24 hours a day.

Try UT2K4, its a much larger beast. :)



On a 700 gig plan, 276 gigs doesn't get you very close to your payment. If you could get $150/mo per server that would be profitable.. but you must be running 5 or 6 at like $50/mo and relying on the laws of peak usage times etc. to keep your usage down. Otherwise that gets expensive!

[ferret]

Originally posted by mark
On a 700 gig plan, 276 gigs doesn't get you very close to your payment. If you could get $150/mo per server that would be profitable.. but you must be running 5 or 6 at like $50/mo and relying on the laws of peak usage times etc. to keep your usage down. Otherwise that gets expensive!

Very correct, one reason I'm no longer hosting games at SB. My current server elsewhere is $30 more, but with 1200gigs of bandwidth, 1/10th the overage charge, and a dual Xeon system. The number of CS servers you can fit on a dual Xeon system is staggering, so the profit margin is quite a bit better.

The 275gigs was also a very high ball estimate of 7K/sec per player 24/7, which is technically possible but an average of 5K/sec is more realistic, with maybe 14 hours a day of full activeness for a really good server. 150gigs per ACTIVE server is a more general rule, and in the end with CS you'll find RAM is the most limiting factor (Well, on a dual Xeon system). Due to memory leaks, over about... 3 days of running a CS server can build upwards to 160-200megs of RAM in use. They start up around 70-80megs. CZ is worse, I've seen it approach 400megs.

SB really needs some sort of a dual proc server package. Those things are beasts for game hosting.