How to correctly estimate bandwidth requirements

[tarunB]

Hi ,

If someone has done some websites and decided to get into the hosting business as well,so many reseller plans out there and it seems that it has been made quite easy for us little entreprenours.

Everything is going fine, but I was wondering if anyone could give me tips on how to properly estimate bandwidth requirements for a website when offering hosting. I mean as a host you sell packages with limits to almost everything you give right, so how to correctly estimate bandwidth?

Does anyone have any rules of thumb or other advice that could be helpful.

Many thanks to anyone who responds and also to all of you in the community as these forums are really a great help.

[guruji]

Hi,
I'll give plans have b/w = diskspace allowed *(25~100) depending on
your plan options, and charge for extra $ for additional b/w required.
Why u want to estimate b/w for users? Isn't that the users will
determine how much they needed?
guruji
Consultant : Hosting, Web Design, Reseller Hosting, Virtual Servers, Dedicated Servers
www.comforthost.net

[Tom]

Yeah i'd just see what other comparable web hosts are offering and beat that if you can. Then charge extra if/when users go over. It really depends so much on the type of site that you can't really estimate bandwidth requirements for someone elses site... I find that Google and the other spiders are the worst for taking up bandwidth!

[H001]

Take a look at other resellers and see what they are offering. I don't have a forumla for you but I will say this, never over sell your hosting.

I hope to launch a very genrous web hosting affliate in the near future. I am sure the commision levels will be higher than your reseller profits, PM me if you are intrested.

[Donk]

I would say that it is impossible to estimate.

I host several sites: A popular site with a small amount of webspace uses more bandwidth than a small band with many mp3s to download. A wedding site with a few hundred images uses a massive amount of bandwidth for the first month after the wedding but trails off to almost nothing. A site with a database also uses a disproportionate amount of bandwidth to the disc space used.

On a previous thread:

Originally Posted by Aquanuke hahaha call me a miserable old barstead but is guruji just inventing these spammy posts with his mate tarunB to spam his hosting offering

[daveh]

For a reseller just starting out I wouldn't worry too much about it as it will take a while to reach any of the allocation limits that you have.

One of the things you don't want to do though is go too cheap or offer ridiculous too good to be true hosting packages, most people will see it for what it is and simply go elsewhere. You will also run the risk of attracting customers who want everything for nothing and will constantly be in your inbox.