Free Charity Hosting
In my last post, I talked about choosing the right hosting, I also briefly mentioned about a little scheme we are offering right now – free charity hosting. I would like to spend some time today explaining why I think this is a good idea, not just for the charities, but how it benefits us as a web design and hosting business and how we can justify the expense.
First of all, I should point out that there are many web hosting companies offering free hosting to charities. So what is unique about our offer? Sadly, many of these other businesses are using the free hosting as a a way of tricking the charity into a long term hosting plan. In most cases the first few months or year are free, and then the hosting is charged at full price which varies company to company. All businesses need to make money and since we don\’t get funding from the government or general public we need to make sure that everything we do is somehow profitable – it is a sad fact of life.
Where we different from the aforementioned web hosting businesses, is that we are primarily web designers and developers, hosting is a supplementary service we offer to add value to our overall service. We can afford to offer free hosting to charities because hosting is a growing, but still minor part of what we do day to day. Additionally, there is always the possibility that one of the charities might commission us for a redesign or update of their website and the hosting would then pay for itself. There are other benefits too, for example we ask for a link in return for this free hosting which would help build the reputation of our hosting business, through being associated with the charities that we support.
Charities are a good thing. They are a key area that we work with and we are lucky enough to have several of them on our client list. Part of this is word of mouth and marketing, but the other part is the fact that we have always discounted our rates for registered charities. Not only is it a good thing to do for the community, but even in a purely capitalistic sense it is a profitable thing to do because it benefits our business in the long term. That\’s how I see it anyway. I see this new hosting plan merely as an extension to our existing warmth towards charities, something that I want to grow even more.
To the other web designers, hosting companies and businesses reading this, I would ask you to look at your own business model and consider if maybe there is a way you can realistically do some good without stretching your own resources to the detriment of your other customers and your own business. I think it is possible and that it can benefit everyone involved.
