Design Perceptive

I’ve started a Hosting Cooperative here at Design Perceptive.  It works like this.  I rent a virtual private server (VPS) from a reputable hosting company.  I then provide a complete web hosting account to people at the for one month’s cost of renting said server.  For them, this covers one year of hosting for that account.  Once the year is up for that account, that person pays the shared monthly cost again.  Because the yearly cost for the VPS is $300 this makes hosting with the Design Perceptive Hosting Coop very affordable and attractive.

To make it even more attractive, when and if the cooperative serves more than twelve (12) accounts, then the individual account’s burden of the cost is reduced and the next time a member re-ups, she only needs to pay the reduced cost.  (i.e. 1/12 times 1/x of the yearly server cost where x is the number of coop accounts.)  For example, if the coop has 22 accounts, then each will be responsible for only $13.63 of the yearly cost the next time they pay for hosting.  Please note that because I can only host so many accounts on the VPS, then there’s a lower bound on the cost.  Twenty-two accounts is the max intended on the VPS.

So, if we get the VPS fully loaded, each account’s yearly cost would be $13.63.  That’s only $1.14/month.  That’s very cheap!

Naturally, this arrangement introduces some anomalies.  Seemingly, those that get in early will pay the bigger costs while those that come along later will only pay the lower costs.  I’m thinking that to offset this, all accounts pay the full $25.00 for the first year and then, when they re-up, they only pay the shared burden.  Any extra monies will be held to ensure that this coop is sustainable.  Monies accumulated over a comfortable buffer may be, but not necessarily, distributed to coop members at the end of the year.  Another option for distribution, if the monies allow, is a free year of hosting for each account.

One upshot of this is that there is benefit to all account holders to spread the word and help bring new accounts online.  The more people we have online, the lower the cost for everyone!

Now, for the most part, each account has a small amount of space (1 GB) and a quota on bandwidth usage (1 GB/mo).  But, I’ve noticed that most of the clients and customers I’ve ever hosted, or for whom I designed websites, do not need very much in the way of storage space.  This observation makes me believe that organizing this coop *is* beneficial to some.  The amount of space/bandwidth provided for each account is more than enough for many people’s needs.  In addition, the hosting software has many features including quick installations scripts for all the popular hosting software.  Further, each account can have up to 10 email accounts, 10 databases, 10 sub-domains, and 10 mailing lists.

So, given that, as steward of this coop, I commit to the following:

• Paying the monthly bill regardless of the coop income (i.e. if we don’t have $25/mo income from coop members.  That’s right.  I’ll make sure that it stays up and running even if we don’t have a new member for the month.)
• Acting as administrator and setting up new accounts, answering questions, etc.

As of 10/1/2009, the Hosting Coop hosts eleven (11) accounts.

The individual account cost is $25.00 for the year.

Tell your friends.