Business idea - website backups

[jimr451]

Hi all,

I'm a programmer by trade, and find myself often making "backup" copies of client sites, just in case. I've been thinking about creating a website where people can pay a yearly fee to have their website and databases "backed up" automatically.

Now, I realize that many hosting providers already provide this, or at least provide the "means" to do it (cpanel, etc.). However, I think there's a market for cautious website owners who want the added security of an offsite backup for reasons such as: (a) the hosting provider loses the site and/or backups, or (b) the hosting provider's response to restore requests is rather slow. I've seen this happen several times myself.

Anyway, I thought I'd post - would any of you site owners out there pay a yearly fee to have your site automatically backed up? I'm thinking the backups would be accessible online, with multiple versions available, etc.

My thought was that the service would cost something like $60-$75 / year / site, including 2 databases.

I'd love to hear any feedback before I take this any further.

-Jim

[Harold Mansfield]

In my opinion, the only reason an outside service would work..would be if it's extremely easy to use and extremely easy to implement the back up. Not all companies offer backups, Go daddy for instance seems pretty sketchy about it. I don't know if it's just my clients that didn't have it, or that they don't offer it at all, but I haven't seen it from them.

I think offering a complete package, PC back up, storage of sensitive files, information, databases, and website back would be worth it more than just $60 a year for just your website because odds are most people still won't see the need or the value in such a service and those that do understand, likely have a decent hosting account that covers it.

So I think you should offer them other security options.

[billbenson]

most people still won't see the need or the value in such a service and those that do understand, likely have a decent hosting account that covers it.

So I think you should offer them other security options.

I tend to agree with eborg that most won't see the need. Why not start a data recovery site or blog in conjunction with this. The idea is to attract people who have lost data as they are prime candidates for customers.

[jimr451]

Thanks for the thoughts so far.

I agree that there'd be a LOT of *education* involved to convince website owners that it's necessary. In fact, one of the main reasons I'm skeptical is that there doesn't seem to be anyone else offering the service.

From my years in consulting, I can tell you that trusting a hosting provider to do their backups is risky, regardless of what they advertise on their site.

My thought was to make it easy from the sense that once it's set up, it would happen automatically.

Anyway, I'll keep mulling it. At a minimum I may set something up for my own clients.

[Harold Mansfield]

The only thing to me is..it's so easy to make your own back ups at home. 500GB to 1TB of hard drive is common now on computers so you have plenty of room to do it yourself...even a 1TB external drive is cheap..you can back up quite a few sites with that.
Now this may seem easy to me because I'm not a novice, but, not being a novice is the only reason that I know the benefits and see the need in doing it.

It's a catch 22..the people that would find the service necessary and useful are also the ones that likely know how to do it themselves.

[KristineS]

I think you'd have to do a lot of building your own market. If smaller companies understand why they need the service, or individuals for that matter, they might be willing to pay the money. I'm not sure, however, the market is already there. That's not to say you couldn't create one though.

[jimr451]

I think you'd have to do a lot of building your own market. If smaller companies understand why they need the service, or individuals for that matter, they might be willing to pay the money. I'm not sure, however, the market is already there. That's not to say you couldn't create one though.

Yeah, trying to "create the market" doesn't appeal too much to me! It reminds me of a consultant I used to know who used the phrase "overhang the market" - which seemed to mean we were building a product that nobody really wanted yet....and might not ever want!

Thanks for the feedback.

-Jim

[Designs&Details]

I would not pay anything for a website backup. BUT...if I did lose data, I would pay $$$$$$$$ to get it back. Ironic?

[jimr451]

Funny - I thought about that, turning the idea on it's head. Offer the backup for free, then charge $$$$$ for a restore when you need a restore. That just seemed a little creepy to me though...:)

-Jim

[Spider]

It might sound creepy to some paranoids. It might sound risky to others generally worried about abuse of their private data. So don't mention that part of it when advertising. Sell your Guaranteed Restore service contract.

Then, when someone buys the contract, get their data downloaded to your servers as part of the process. "Well, of course, we have to have a complete copy of your data - how else can we guarantee to restore everything?!"

IOW - don't sell the backup, sell the restore and let the backup be part of the set-up. You could even charge for setting up the account (and thus get paid for the back up.)

[KristineS]

Selling the restore is an interesting idea. It's really exactly the same service, you're just turning the idea on its head. I could see where this might make more sense to people and might even be an easier sell. It's kind of like insurance. You hope you never need it, but most everyone buys car insurance and home insurance just in case.

[Business Attorney]

Jim, I think your idea of giving the service for free and charging for the restore is interesting. However, pricing that model could be really tricky. If only 1 out of 1,000 clients actually needs a restore, while you might have been able to get $60 a year for the basic service from the 1,000 customers, it seems unlikely that the one customer whose server crashed would pay $60,000 to recover his website. If the website is worth that much, I would assume that the owner would be taking much better precautions against a loss of his data.

[KristineS]

Jim, I think your idea of giving the service for free and charging for the restore is interesting. However, pricing that model could be really tricky. If only 1 out of 1,000 clients actually needs a restore, while you might have been able to get $60 a year for the basic service from the 1,000 customers, it seems unlikely that the one customer whose server crashed would pay $60,000 to recover his website. If the website is worth that much, I would assume that the owner would be taking much better precautions against a loss of his data.

That's a good point. You'd have to find a way to sell the restore while selling other services that generate steady income as well.

[billbenson]

This is sounding more and more like the backup shouldn't be the primary revenue stream on the site. Offer a good product for a good price and use that as the hook to get people to the site so you can get affiliate traffic or sell something else.