[consulting] question about selling subsites

Fri Mar 5 16:30:23 UTC 2010

My approach is a Service & Support plan (paid quarterly) which covers up to
X number of hours and/or X incidents per month.  Additional is billable per
hour.  Ours start at about $250/month.  If you streamline a feature set and
automate things well enough you can justify free initial customization,
though many clients want more than the kit that's easily offered to them so
you charge a flat rate upfront too.  It's a hybrid approach.

Of course, when you've got a really compelling set of features (see Drupal
Gardens and Buzzr) and an automated machine to attract many hundreds and
thousands of customers, you simply offer a great product with great
documentation and community support and you can then justify lesser income
per customer because each customer's costing you less.

I'd venture you start with the former, make your way to the latter.

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On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 11:13 AM, Sam Cohen <sam at samcohen.com> wrote:

> Thanks Cameron.  From a technical perspective I think I've got things
> covered.  Though technical tips are always appreciated.
>
> I am looking more for advice and experience on the business end of doing
> this, such as what people are charging and how they are handling support.
>
> The idea of taking on hundreds or new clients and providing including
> "free" support is a bit daunting.
>
> Sam
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 11:04 AM, Cameron Eagans <cweagans at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> You mean something like Drupal Gardens? (not that Gardens is super
>> limited, but you get the idea)
>>
>> Should be pretty easy. Put together an install profile, bring up an Aegir
>> installation, and just insert new jobs into the Aegir queue when you need to
>> spawn new sites. For something like this, I'd say it'd be a pretty good idea
>> to use Aegir because, aside from the fact that it can generate your sites
>> for you, it will also help with updates and running cron on all those sites,
>> too.
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Sam Cohen <sam at samcohen.com> wrote:
>>
>>> To clarify, this would be a locked down site where site administrators
>>> are limited in what they can do.  They won't have ftp access or be able to
>>> install modules or themes.  They will be able to add a banner and customize
>>> their theme, blog, add pages, menu items,blocks, photos.  If new features
>>> are added, they would be added across the system.
>>>
>>> I actually currently do this for a client who has subsites across the
>>> country, but these are really independent sites, where the client can have
>>> modules added and any customization they want.  In that case it's not very
>>> different than normal practice.
>>>
>>> What I'm talking about is the possibility of hundreds of subsites where
>>> the client would charge a pretty low monthly fee.  It's like using Drupal to
>>> build a "website tonight" like product and admins would be seriously limited
>>> in what they can or cannot do.
>>>
>>> Sam
>>>
>>> On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 10:48 AM, nan wich <nan_wich at bellsouth.net>wrote:
>>>
>>>>  I have a reseller account with my hosting company so that I can host
>>>> some of my customers' sites. I charge for that.
>>>>
>>>> How do you see this as being significantly different from my common
>>>> practice?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> *Nancy E. Wichmann, PMP*
>>>>
>>>> Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. -- Dr. Martin L.
>>>> King, Jr.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  ------------------------------
>>>> *From:* Sam Cohen <sam at samcohen.com>
>>>> *To:* A list for Drupal consultants and Drupal service/hosting
>>>> providers <consulting at drupal.org>
>>>> *Sent:* Fri, March 5, 2010 10:38:41 AM
>>>> *Subject:* [consulting] question about selling subsites
>>>>
>>>> This list has sure been quiet lately.
>>>>
>>>> I'm in negotiations with someone who has a website with a large user
>>>> base who wants to produce and sell Drupal subsites on scale to his users.
>>>> In other words this person would be offering their users a Drupal site for a
>>>> monthly fee.  The site would be pre-configured and customized to serve the
>>>> needs of this audience.
>>>>
>>>> I'm curious is anyone else here has done something like this or knows of
>>>> anyone doing it.  I'm not talking about a project like Open Atrium, as this
>>>> would be hosted (a subsite)  and would also include support.
>>>>
>>>> Anyone know of anyone else doing this?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Sam
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>
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