Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!


$4/GB too low for Minecraft Hosting?
New on LowEndTalk? Please Register and read our Community Rules.

All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.

$4/GB too low for Minecraft Hosting?

mnpeepmnpeep Member
edited December 2012 in General

Thoughts?

«13

Comments

  • RAM?

  • what exacly $4/GB? it's RAM?

  • Yes

  • concerto49concerto49 Member
    edited December 2012

    If RAM, Yes. Even the raw VPS is more than $4/GB in most cases.

  • @David_P said: RAM?

    @arieonline said: what exacly $4/GB? it's RAM?

    Yes, it is by RAM.

  • @concerto49 said: If RAM, Yes. Even the raw VPS is more than $4/GB in most cases.

    Please explain.

  • @mnpeep said: Please explain.

    Just look at the number of $4/GB VPS out there. Even if you don't want profit it is very hard to do. Let alone sell minecraft on top for the same price.

  • @concerto49 said: Just look at the number of $4/GB VPS out there. Even if you don't want profit it is very hard to do. Let alone sell minecraft on top for the same price.

    The thing is, minecraft hosting does not need separate IPs for each server, and uses very little disk space.

  • @Nick_A will probably want to explode at you, @mnpeep

  • concerto49concerto49 Member
    edited December 2012

    @SimpleNode said: The thing is, minecraft hosting does not need separate IPs for each server, and uses very little disk space.

    The IP cost is but a minor part of the equation. Whatever that works for you guys. There are also 2GB VPS for $30/year. Who knows.

  • Nick_ANick_A Member, Top Host, Host Rep

    Artificial price reduction does not help the economy. If you aren't selling enough at your current price point, then lower your prices. However, I'm sure that's not the case. $10/GB is a good price these days.

  • @concerto49 said: Just look at the number of $4/GB VPS out there. Even if you don't want profit it is very hard to do. Let alone sell minecraft on top for the same price.

    We're surprisingly profiting quite a bit from this, you just need to find a host with a good price.

    @SimpleNode said: @Nick_A will probably want to explode at you, @mnpeep

    image

  • @Nick_A said: Artificial price reduction does not help the economy. If you aren't selling enough at your current price point, then lower your prices. However, I'm sure that's not the case. $10/GB is a good price these days.

    It isn't a price reduction, it's a different product.

  • Too low

  • @ShardHost said: Too low

    Please do elaborate.

  • HalfEatenPieHalfEatenPie Veteran
    edited December 2012

    @mnpeep said: Please do elaborate.

    Personally, I would consider it a business risk.

    Lets break it down shall we?

    Why is it considered a risk?

    • Statistically speaking, Minecraft (and other game servers generally) are honeypot of DDoS. If this is a VPS service, then it has the potential to knock out the entire server. Not good when there are multiple clients on one server.
    • If you pay for inbound traffic, then suddenly you have to pay a LARGE bandwidth bill

    Many minecraft hosts may have a higher premium, but that's due to the amount of additional risk they also take with it.

    This is simple risk assessment here, and while lowering your prices to 4 dollars per GB may yield profits in the short term, it'll open you up for a bigger can of worms later on (possibly) especially with the quality of customers that sometimes lurks in the LowEnd-Market.

  • mnpeepmnpeep Member
    edited December 2012

    @HalfEatenPie said: If you pay for inbound traffic, then suddenly you have to pay a LARGE bandwidth bill

    Do you mean outbound? Minecraft doesn't take more than a couple of MBits inbound (2-6, if ~500 people are connected)

  • concerto49concerto49 Member
    edited December 2012

    @mnpeep said: Do you mean outbound? Minecraft doesn't take more than a couple of MBits inbound (2-6, if ~500 people are connected)

    The bill for the DDoS attack. Also what do you call profit? The sale price minus payment gateway fees minus cost of the VPS? If that's the business model then ok. People define profit differently. Maybe that's the issue here.

  • HalfEatenPieHalfEatenPie Veteran
    edited December 2012

    @mnpeep said: Do you mean outbound? Minecraft doesn't take more than a couple of MBits inbound (2-6, if ~500 people are connected)

    I mean inbound because that's what a DDoS usually tries to use up (read about it).

    Also I'm sure @mnpeep, you want to make a profit (in terms of actually get a return on your time invested). How do you want to get that return?

    Scenario: INCOME = EXPENSES
    PROFIT: $0.00
    Benefit: Possibly continue to grow your company?
    This is a gamble due to the fact that you have NO money to expand and buy another server without going back into the negatives (as in every time you buy a server you have to invest your own money into it) and this also assumes you have a specific market you can target that will basically guarantee this working. This also assumes you want $0.00 for your time spent)

    Scenario: INCOME > EXPENSES
    PROFIT: $$$
    Benefit: This is what everyone else does (if they're not a summer host). You have money to purchase another server. You have money to expand. You're getting paid for your time. This also increases the rate at which your company grows (leading to increased rate of future profits).

    Scenario: INCOME < EXPENSES
    PROFIT: ---
    Benefit: You learn a valuable lesson about basic economics (assuming you actually think about it)

    @concerto49 said: People define profit differently.

    I define profit in terms of Income > Expenses (In dollar sense) then continually reinvesting that into the company in order to have it grow.

  • @HalfEatenPie said: I define profit in terms of Income > Expenses (In dollar sense) then continually reinvesting that into the company in order to have it grow.

    Great! It's not what I've mostly heard here. I've heard a lot of Profit = Income - payment gateway - cost of Hardware. So many other expenses are neglected.

  • RobertClarkeRobertClarke Member, Host Rep

    Anyone else need some popcorn?

  • @concerto49 said: So many other expenses are neglected.

    Especially when we get into licensing.

    Standard/Basic Costs?

    WHMCS License, SolusVM License, cost of the domain name (unless your trying to sell through an IP), etc.

    @RobertJFClarke said: Anyone else need some popcorn?

    He obviously hasn't thought it through. That's where the problem lies.

  • Most providers aim for $10/GB

  • I would say that the difference would be wanting happy customers, or just having a lot of customers. Then again, I don't have a lot of experience with Minecraft hosting (as @Spencer can attest), so maybe clients don't care about quality when it comes to Minecraft hosting?

  • Thanks @Damian, I would stay away from $4 per GB, hell $6 per GB gives me nightmares. Im sorry client please tell me how your $3 a month MC server is of the upmost importance to use right now as we handle much bigger situations. But in all honestly $6 per GB is lowest I would do.

  • DamianDamian Member
    edited December 2012

    @Spencer said: $6 per GB gives me nightmares.

    @Spencer said: But in all honestly $6 per GB is lowest I would do.

    Additionally, you tell me that you sell out at $6/gb. Why would anyone want to sell for less, just to make less profit faster?

  • @Damian said: Additionally, you tell me that you sell out at $6/gb. Why would anyone want to sell for less, just to sell out faster?

    Yup because MC a lot of the people go for the cheapest host possible, it is a terrible market to be in.

  • @HalfEatenPie said: Also I'm sure @mnpeep, you want to make a profit (in terms of actually get a return on your time invested). How do you want to get that return?

    My margins are about 50% with $4/GB, so 2/3 of the server can be full and Income = expenses.

  • Nick_ANick_A Member, Top Host, Host Rep

    @Damian said: Why would anyone want to sell for less, just to make less profit faster?

    That is my point exactly... Artificial price reduction. It's not like demand is bad at ~$10/GB, but some of these Minecraft hosts are only concerned with how little they can charge. Many of them are not doing this as a "real" job, or at least not to pay their independent living expenses. Thus, they couldn't care less whether they maximize profit or not. They just want to be able to make threads like this and taunt anyone with a bit of economic common sense.

    You can make more money at high demand with "normal" pricing. But saying that to them is a waste of time; they all have their own fixed ideas on how great it is to run the bargain bin. As you can seen, @mnpeep's signature proves that this thread is just a publicity stunt. He knew before posting it that he would be doing $4/GB--just wanted to get us talking about it.

    @mnpeep said: My margins are about 50% with $4/GB

    After how long of an ROI?

  • edited December 2012

    @mnpeep said: My margins are about 50% with $4/GB, so 2/3 of the server can be full and Income = expenses.

    Im not sure what costs are you working with here; however the cost of running a successful Minecraft host are not small. We operate a reasonably large Minecraft brand (4000 active servers) and have not joined the race to the bottom.

Sign In or Register to comment.