Dedicated IP Pricing

[TheDrifter]

I just want to know if I can change the price of additional dedicated IP for VPS. A potential client is asking $1.50 I think he'll be needing about 30 IP's for his clients good thing is he doesn't ask much about other specs and most of his requirements fits well on KVM 1 unlike other potential clients of mine that are asking ridiculous questions some ending up buying some didn't but all of them particularly in VPS just lasted less than a week and gets their money back. It's not like I badly needed their money though but the frustration is there you've got the client then a couple of days your back again to square one. If I'm not mistaken $1.50 is resellerspanel wholesale price but I'm still willing to give him the $1.50 if possible doesn't matter if I don't earn from IP sale still I can earn from his monthly hosting fee compared to my clients who ordered a shared hosting plan this is still huge considering this guy is really a genuine one but still if possible I'll try to haggle the price to $1.75 at-least I can still have .25 cent earning.

[TheDrifter]

Ok I've got it case closed I'm not very familiar with the new resellerspanel 3 yet its located on upgrades thanks anyways.

[vrepub]

- $1.50 per IP (retail) is rare so I would definitely tell him at least $1.75. Even $2 is not so common and therefore a good deal. Many hosts these days charge $3 or more and some only let you buy an IP if you are installing an SSL cert on that IP.

Be careful that this guy isn't trying to somehow game you.

- Also, if you set your selling price for your IPs at cost so he can buy them at cost, and then you raise the price to your normal selling price, will he not be charged the normal selling price for new billing cycles? I don't know, I'm just asking.

- Also, I did not know that VPS plans came with a money back guarantee. I thought this was only for shared plans.

Do you happen to know why your customers requested their refunds? Have you looked into their support tickets to somehow get a clue as to why they are requesting refunds?

[TheDrifter]

Yes, I've search the net about the ip price mostly the price are like $2 on almost known hosting but I also seen some offering at $1 each. I don't think raising the price after will work I've read of it somewhere too that the same price will be charge for the next billing cycle I presume and besides it looks unethical to raise the price just to squeeze some more money for a client. My other worries are if I set the ip price to $1.50 I won't be earning on some potential client that are not critical on ip prices not unless resellerspanel will be glad to lower their ip price to $1 so I could have the .50 cents like what they did on whois protection with 33% decreased I suppose the money back guarantee is in work because the moment they purchase a VPS the profits are added in my profit due and the next day it was taken back . About the refund why they requested to cancel I have no idea I've investigated the matter looking for support tickets but they haven't submitted a ticket all of them.

[vrepub]

and besides it looks unethical to raise the price just to squeeze some more money for a client. My other worries are if I set the ip price to $1.50 I won't be earning on some potential client that are not critical on ip prices not unless resellerspanel will be glad to lower their ip price to $1 so I could have the .50 cents like what they did on

Right. I'm not saying that you should raise the price on your client - just the opposite I'm saying that if you set your price at $1.50 wholesale (or even $1.75...whatever) just to sell your client at $1.50 (or 1.75) but then raise the price back up to, say, $2.00 so future clients buy at a profit for you, then I believe (but I'm am not 100% sure) that your $1.50 client *might* be charged $2.00 at the next billing cycle, which will enrage him and he may leave.

But here is my take on the whole thing...

1. I think RSP's wholesale prices are just fine at $1.50. That's my opinion with my industry research thus far.

2. Just because this one guy wants to pay you $1.50 it does not mean RSP's prices are too high...it means this guy is either too cheap or too poor to afford the things he wants. That's not your problem. You are in business to make money, not to offer people things at a loss (if you sell at cost, you are selling at a loss as you have to account for your time).

3. I have been in business for myself on and off for the last 20 years and my parents ran businesses all my life as a child. I can tell you one thing...cheap people/hagglers/people who buy on credit are not really profitable people. These people are best left to the Walmarts of the world. They are not good customers for small businesses.

4. He who wants the cheapest price can never be satisfied AND has the loudest mouth. Few things are more true than that statement.

5. Please beware of people who want to buy a LOT of products/services over the internet right away. The hosting industry (especially) is full of fraudulent buyers. These fraudsters do not usually haggle but some do. Just be careful not to waste too much time on people who want a lot of stuff and only want to pay your cost. Again, you have to make money. This is not charity.

Now on the subject of high rate of refunds...

I suppose the money back guarantee is in work because the moment they purchase a VPS the profits are added in my profit due and the next day it was taken back . About the refund why they requested to cancel I have no idea I've investigated the matter looking for support tickets but they haven't submitted a ticket all of them.

It could be that these buyers actually ended up being fraudulent buyers.

I don't know if they do this for all plans, but when I bought my VPS plan, RSP called me to verify my purchase. Actually, I did not realize they were going to do this so I gave them my Google Voice # and when they called and got no answer, they sent me an email to respond with a # that I knew I would be able to answer. I did and they called with a quick verification call. I don;t know how long they will wait before they would have jsut given up and cancelled the plan.

My point is, maybe this is what is happening to you?

Where are you getting your prospects from? Could it be that maybe you are targeting the "wrong" types of hosting buyers?

And lastly, one word of marketing/pricing advice...

You should be using things like IP addresses as add-ons to increase/augment your profits, not to give away cheap or free as loss-leaders in order to gain a hosting account. That is backwards from the way it should usually be. I'm not telling you what to do, just friendly advice

[TheDrifter]

Where are you getting your prospects from? Could it be that maybe you are targeting the "wrong" types of hosting buyers?

I don't really have an idea where they are coming from the stats from my resellers panel don't show that much they just show you what pages are visited. I tried using hitstats but it seems it doesn't work on the master template. This could probably be some competitors.

[vrepub]

Very well could be. It's a dog-eat-dog business in an over-saturated market with tons of immature "competitors".