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Bro, they invented paragraphs for a reason.
Oh, not a community service by any means :P We've discussed payroll options before... but to be honest it's just really not a priority for any of us. We all have sufficient external income.. as odd as it sounds, "because we enjoy it" is our primary reason. We've hit blocks of "meh, this is starting to suck" before, but found that we'd much rather be innovative than give up :P
Now granted, we do allow ourselves the occasional justified perk. Fran's laptop was about to fritz out, so he build a pretty sweet desktop rig. I got a pretty damn sweet washer/dryer set as a wedding gift, Anthony got his pc upgraded, etc etc.
That being said... Fran's been providing hosting in one form or another for a decade or more now. You could say that by this point, it's his natural calling. The rest of us are along for the ride for our own reasons.. but primarily because of how rewarding the experiences can be ^_^
So now I'm curious - why do you do it?
I didn't think anyone at BuyVM was doing it as a full-time job, much less cruising HostingCon in an Escalade with a waterbed, hookers, and blow. But I figured you guys were make something off the enterprise, because it looks like it's too much work to just do as fun. Building servers and hooking them up and a web site, etc. can be fun, but any hosting company has the hassle of dumb tickets, scammers, law enforcement wanting to see records for someone hosting child porn, and other headaches.
I could see putting money back into the biz to grow it, but as a long-term "we do it as a nonprofit community service"...?
Im curious as well, because Im pretty sure all numbers I have had thrown out there about BuyVM is faulty. None of it makes sense haha.
"We have $200k+ in the bank"..... doubtful.
If a company is relying off their advertisement being posted on LEB to eat, they're doing it wrong.
How about paying for advertisements? So if I do word-of-mouth recommendation for you but not to all my friends and too slowly, you will stand up and blame me for doing it wrong? Which is what this website does. Unless you pay them.
Exactly, with slight corrections ;-)
Nabo,
We do plenty of paid advertisements on various websites. Point is, the return on a LEB post is much more than those advertisements. Ive already found alternate sources to advertise on while watching the community here die. As for other providers that don't find that out soon, I see them in the dead pool shortly.
Ehh, I don't see LEB as free advertisements (yes, I know that's what it actually is).
For me, it's putting LEB companies on display, and then letting the community beat them down. Watching the community tear them apart helps me improve our own business.
Hahaha I love it, so true.
(your quote formatting is horrible >_<). Our finances aren't really any concern of yours either way.. but the fact that we're still around, continuously pushing higher quality gear (and upgrading the old, not just reusing) speaks for itself.
"WINNING"! :P
So instead of re-thinking your advertisement strategy (which is obviously erroneous) you blame the site that is free for you and does even carry in more clients?
So how would've you gotten me as a customer without LEB? You wouldn't have. I guess you didn't pay for the blog entry in LEB. So obviously it was free advertisement. ;-)
@nabo,
Your not seeing the point. My advertisement strategy is not flawed or erroneous. You completely missed the point saying that I do not solely rely on LEB for my advertisements. I was pointing out that most providers here do and will die off.
Also, for me and a few others it is NOT FREE. We pay for ads and banners monthly because the community is strong and is worth it. I will have to re-evaluate that now since the admins are letting it go to hell. Before you go babbling, know all the facts and look at it from all angles.
This will be my new standard response to you for every unfounded claim you make on us
Well, how about I get more out of LEB than free advertisements, then?
Especially LET... I see it as an opportunity to learn how to circumvent problems before they happen.
Unfounded? Pretty sure it was a pretty good source. Everything Ive heard from yourself, Fran, and this person all contradict each other and just makes no sense. At least get everyone on the same page
Edit. Also, didnt we agree to not directly speak to each other?
You're mixing up two things: the blog entries that are free (to my knowledge) and the banner advertisements that are paid. You, however, blamed LEB for posting the free blog entries to slowly. I was pointing out that this is somehow weird as you don't have any losses for that. As far as your paid advertisements are in question, as long as you get the visits you pay for, your contract is fulfilled. But that was not the crucial point of the thread. The OT was about blaming LEB for its blog entries.
So that is your behavior to prospective clients. That's for letting me know.
So why blaming LEB then?
@nabo,
I have kept track and the visits are dropping like flies. Users do not come to the site as much because there are NO NEW POSTS. Its like a big circle. One thing can effect everything eventually.
Maybe you can open your eyes as a business owner and understand this
This has nothing to do with me getting posted. Its just missing the excitement the site used to have. Someone could visit everyday and see something new and get excited about it. That is now gone.
@nabo but IT IS SLOW
There's a lot of unsatisfaction with new LEB, especially among older LEB members which knew better times there.
(I am not taking sides but that's undeniable fact)
Quoting us is a pretty amazing source, yes. Making assumptions based on quotations without knowing the full situation isn't as credible
I really don't see why we shouldn't. I've heard you can be a really pleasant guy away from these forums, no reason to let something as silly as competitive sales prevent camaraderie.
@aldryic,
It has nothing to do with competitive sales as we are on two different levels and do not directly compete. Maybe when we move into EGI then it will be a different story.
????
nabo why did people initially go to LEB? Because it listed providers deals, no deals listed, no reason to care and no reason to visit. So as I said it's a fair trade off and every day a provider has to wait for his deal to be listed is another day he could be losing money. Because other providers, who are listed, could be getting the customers and because any of the potential sales that could be happening in the moment from said listing, wouldn't be. So your definition of free goes both ways, providers deals also help LEB rank in search engines because of fresh content which helps them bring in unique consumers, which helps the get more ad revenue.
Don't get it wrong. I wasn't implying you blamed LEB ;-) I was referring your comment to the answers I gave in my comment: stating that I find it weird to blame persons that do free advertisements for other persons business and doing that to slowly.
Remember: You are speaking about persons that do something for free in their free time. You are not talking about the stock exchange for posting your deals too late or the newspaper for printing your ads too late. If you would express your comment to the last two scenarios, I'm with you. But not concerning the first.
Free means "no obligations". You, however, construct obligations for a service driven by individuals provided for free.
@naob: Ah! I understand now.
Which DC? If you're going for Fremont or SJ, ask for Scott, he's been pretty damn awesome to us.
SJ, already have my guy though
Hah, Coresite then. You should mention you heard about a tech that dryhumps new racks as he installs :P
nabo maybe no contractional obligation, but that's not how you treat companies or consumers for that matter, some have probably been waiting over a month to get listed here. It's disrespectful to them and to the consumers IMHO. LEB makes $500 a month or more because of ads, and the reason providers pay for the ads is exposure to consumers, and the reason the consumers even bothers to visit LEB in the first place is for fresh deals. When there's a breakdown in that cycle someones losing. In this case it's the providers and the consumers, as LEB are still getting payed, guaranteed. My site was not only a solution to that break down, but an enhancement, and unfortunately it was largely ignored even though the traffic has steadily increased. And people told me to help LEB, donate your time, effort, vision, drive, work to LEB's broken model when yours was better yay! Never happening.
I'm actually quite glad your site exists (even though information about our company is wrong). The traffic will come, just give it time.
Damian I contact every provider usually prior and definitely after listing their deal to double check all the information is accurate. If the info on your deal is wrong I either got the wrong information or perhaps I didn't get a response after listing it. Or maybe I got a response and didn't fix it, but that's extremely unlikely as details and accuracy are extremely important to me.
In fact I just checked your company, I listed you twice, so someone must of gave me wrong info if anything is incorrect.
http://cheapvpsdeals.info/ipxcore-2-25-openvz-vps-128mb-in-phoenix/
http://cheapvpsdeals.info/ipxcore-3-82-openvz-vps-128mb-in-phoenix/