Krystal Hosting featured on the BBC

Beansprout · 9 May 2006 at 13:12

Just saw this on Working Lunch...

Also on Tuesday Russell meets 21 year old student Simon Blackler who has been running his own domain name business since he was 17. We find out how he copes with tax returns, employment law and red tape whilst maintaining a student lifestyle.

Nice to see the people behind one of these many hosting companies run by folk like me. He seemed a nice enough guy

I wonder why they decided to feature them. Time for me to write an e-mail.....and my kitchen is tidier than his

(though I'm in a gap year, not a student house, so perhaps an unfair comparison

)

You can (or should be able to) watch the programme on its website if the BBC's servers aren't sleeping still.

Immsy · 9 May 2006 at 13:22

Yeah I saw this too. Went to have a look at their site too, nice layout.

daz · 9 May 2006 at 14:31

Nice PR - he must know someone who knows someone.

Al Vallario · 9 May 2006 at 19:13

daz said:
Nice PR - he must know someone who knows someone.

I don't know about you, but I don't think having the fact that your "professional" web hosting business operates out of a grotty student house with staff who like the job because it doesn't require dedication broadcast on national television is the best PR move to be honest!

He seems like a nice chap, but looking at his website I wouldn't describe him as a revolutionairy, much less an entrepreneur. Just your average kid (well, not so much now) running a web hosting operation in his spare time...

daz · 9 May 2006 at 19:19

Fair point, but I'm sure they've had quite a few hits since it aired, and probably a few new customers out of it too.

Beansprout · 9 May 2006 at 19:42

Al Vallario said:
I don't know about you, but I don't think having the fact that your "professional" web hosting business operates out of a grotty student house with staff who like the job because it doesn't require dedication broadcast on national television is the best PR move to be honest!

He seems like a nice chap, but looking at his website I wouldn't describe him as a revolutionairy, much less an entrepreneur. Just your average kid (well, not so much now) running a web hosting operation in his spare time...

True, but all publicity is good publicity

MossyUK · 9 May 2006 at 20:04

Is there much money in web hosting operations like this or is it mainly a second income type scheme? Im not trying to muscle in by the way, its just out of interest - i have my fingers in other pies at the moment

Conrad11 · 9 May 2006 at 20:12

MossyUK said:
Is there much money in web hosting operations like this or is it mainly a second income type scheme? Im not trying to muscle in by the way, its just out of interest - i have my fingers in other pies at the moment

Market is overly saturdated at the moment with the type of 1 manned operation, it is my understanding that its more the professional expensive hosts, that spend a lot of money and get the big companies, that have more chance of success....

Beansprout · 9 May 2006 at 20:27

MossyUK said:
Is there much money in web hosting operations like this or is it mainly a second income type scheme? Im not trying to muscle in by the way, its just out of interest - i have my fingers in other pies at the moment

There sure is, if you invest and jump to the rent-datacentre-space part (ask Adz for one), but there's also a reasonable amount in shared hosting, though most money comes from additional services and cross-marketing (such as us offering design services, etc).

Adz · 9 May 2006 at 20:39

There's no money in shared hosting unless you sell lots of it or sell other services off of the back of it. Both of which are quite possible but it's not really something you can make money out of 'as a sideline' unless you have a niche market of clients who will pay £400/year for a £20/year account as some of our reseller/dedi clients seem to

.

Dedicated server/co-location hosting is profitable but only really at the higher end. We sell the low end (£99.99/month) stuff primarily for economies of scale to make the high end managed services (£500/month+) even more profitable. 90% of our turnover is derived from 10% of our client base.

zetec452 · 9 May 2006 at 20:52

Adz said:
Both of which are quite possible but it's not really something you can make money out of 'as a sideline' unless you have a niche market of clients who will pay £400/year for a £20/year account as some of our reseller/dedi clients seem to .

Who would that be then

Adz · 9 May 2006 at 20:56

We've got customers who do even better than you! 10 low usage sites per high end server and they're still making a 500% profit on top of what they charged for the web development. It's all about marketing...

zetec452 · 9 May 2006 at 21:03

Adz said:
We've got customers who do even better than you! 10 low usage sites per high end server and they're still making a 500% profit on top of what they charged for the web development. It's all about marketing...

Darn, im going to have to try harder.