1
I'm keen to get thoughts and feedback about the website, whether the problem and idea is clear, and get a guage gauge on the demand. Do you share this problem? Are Basecamp and Pivotal tracker letting you down?
Many thanks for your time, Ollie Rattue.
I feeling itchy and want to build another SAS web app. Instead of going for the build it and they will come approach, I have decided to get some early validation of my idea.
I worked at web agency which always had problems with client hosting billing. I often found clients on the server who hadn't paid anything for years. Now most invoicing web applications have recurring invoices but with lots of clients and websites it becomes a faff to track the payments. So I'm wondering if there is space for a a super simple client hosting billing web app for web agencies.
1. Enter you client name, domain name, monthly / yearly price.
2. Client gets an email and sets up recurring payment via PayPal.
3. If payment fails you get a notification and can manually take action.
I also run a web app called Flaregun (http://getflaregun.com) which monitors domain name expiry and SSL certificate expiry. It's like an insurance policy for web agencies. These features would be included as 'perks' to make it stand out from other general billing / invoicing tools.
If you charge clients for hosting it would be great if you could answer a few quick questions and share your thoughts on the idea:
1. How did / do you bill your clients for hosting? Do you use software or raise invoices manually?
2. If you use software which do you use? Is your solution satisfactory?
3. Is online recurring payment a major benefit? I presume the pain of sending out individual invoices for client hosting is that you then need to track and chase payments which is time consuming.
4. Do you bill monthly or yearly?
5. Would you pay for the above automated billing system? If so how much? If not why not?
Thanks for your time,
I am really keen to build a for sale web app, having developed a couple of successful free products. Instead of going for the build it and they will come approach, I have decided to get some early validation of my idea. Yesterday I asked HN about Silo (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2556658) a SSL certificate management web app. A HN user pointed out that there may be major trust hurdles to overcome with this product, but he expressed interest in the expiry notification concept. This got me thinking.
A little while ago two major, yet easily avoidable problems occurred, resulting in downtime, lost revenue, stress, and unhappy clients:
1. I get a phone call from a client who tells me their websites and email is down. I run some checks and find out that the domain name had expired. My client registered and manages the domain name so this downtime is his fault. However my client is not particularly happy when I tell him this. He was of the opinion that I looked after his domain and hosting so should of spotted and warned him about this. Clearly doing this manually for all my clients is impractical. The domain went into 'holding' and an extortionate release fee had to be paid, which I bore the cost of as a gesture of good will. With lots of clients and domains registered by myself and clients this is likely to happen again.
2. I get a phone call from a client who tells me that some of his visitors have reported that their e-commerce website is coming up as insecure in their browsers. I check the website and see that the SSL certificate has expired. I spend the next few hours getting a new certificate re-issued using my clients Enom account. My client is annoyed as his customers have complained and he suspects he has lost revenue as a result.
Step in Flaregun. Flaregun (http://getflaregun.com) is targeted at people who look after domains on behalf of their clients. You enter all your domains and it looks up the whois information. A notification email is sent out a week before the domain expires to ensure you have time to warn your client and renew the domain. Similarly SSL certificates are added and expiry notifications are sent out a week before to ensure you have enough time to renew your certificate.
I have put up a holding page (http://getflaregun.com) with price plans. I am reaching out to the HN community to see how the idea is received and whether you would be willing to pay for this product. Thanks for your time.
I am deciding whether to go ahead and build Silo (http://getsilo.com), a little web app which safeguards SSL certificates. The idea came about after I ran into the following annoying, yet easily avoidable problems:
1. Real - I make some changes to a client's web server and restart apache. Apache demanded a pass phrase for a SSL certificate on one of the domains. I don't know it. Without it apache won't start, meaning all websites are offline. The regular sysadmin is away. I email / phone anyone who might know this key but as expected no one knows. A panic vhost disable of the SSL domain, and all websites are back up except the secure one which is down. More panic server changes to setup a self signed SSL certificate. Then I go through the process of buying a new SSL certificate. Time lost, money spent, website glitches, and unhappy visitors complaining when their browsers say the website is not secure. All because of an unknown pass phrase.
2. Real - A visitor emails expressing their concern that their browser is telling them that our e-commerce website is insecure. I take a look and see that the SSL certificate has expired. I buy a new one and go through the process of verifying domain ownership. E-commerce website looses customers, and therefore sales, for 2 days till the new certificate is active.
3. Hypothetical (hasn't happened to me) - The web server dies and there are no backups of the SSL certificate, private, public keys, chain and vhost config. I now need to go back to the various companies that sold the certificates, login to their management areas, download the certificates and go through the process of getting the SSL certificates setup correctly using their various setup guides and documentation (often a somewhat trial and error process).
Silo would store your SSL certificates, keys, chain files, pass phrases, and send out SSL renewal reminders to solve these three problems. From my own experience I know this product would of saved me time, money, and stress. I am interested to hear if anyone has had similar problems, whether people 'get' the idea of Silo, and finally would be willing to pay for this simple product (pricing at http://getsilo.com/plans).
Many thanks for your time, Ollie Rattue