I have recently stumbled upon a host that, through cPanel, allows me to make it possible for others to have a subdomain under my domain. In other words, i could allow people to access a subdomain without being able to access my domain's files.

So

I started a site that will host projects. These projects will be fansites, support sites, really anything (that i allow ).

So what do you think about the idea itself?

So what web host is this? It sounds like an ok idea to me. If you work at it anything can work. Are you thinking about making a Freewebs type thing (any type of user content), or a myspace type site (focuses around a specific type of site, in this case, communities?)

You would, of course, be able to access theirs, and most people won't want that. With cPanel hosting being the price it is, most people will just buy their own hosting and they then will have the option to have their own subdomains, or add-on domains, and all the email addresses they want, etc.

And email - you'd be able to access their email, too, which is another reason most people will not take up your offer.

Sounds like a good idea on paper, but I doubt it's a goer, if I'm honest.

I think this could be a really good idea if you want to allow users to have a bit of webspace. For instance, if your site was about a fraternity, each chapter could have a subdomain for posting files or photos to link to from other site or from within your own.

Overall, I think this is great. I wish I could do that for my site.

However, you could pretty much do this before with FTP... you could just assign an FTP user to a specific directory (e.g. fraternitysite.com/chapters/texas/ ) ... but a subdomain would be great.

Oh, I misinterpreted the intent here - I thought you meant as a business idea where you would sell this space. Now that my eyes are open and I've had a coffee, I see what you mean - you'll probably get a lot of interest, actually.

Well, there is still a market out there that only want a small display (very basic static) website. I have done this before and I am still developing another one. There are plumbers, electricians, auto shops, etc that will pay about $50 to get a website just to put on business cards. They are not looking for SEO or e-mail. It would only take a couple of hours (if that) to build these kinds of sites.

Now, you won't get rich on this kind of business, but you can use it to fund your other projects if you need it. You charge them $50 for the design, $36 or less for hosting, and have them buy a domain to point to their page if they want. Then you ask them if you can put a Google search on there.

I know this is not exactly what you were referring to, but it's an example of how you can use a sub domain type site to earn a little extra money to buy programs, pay for advertising, even pay for that web development course you've been wanting to take.

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Alpha7
A low calories diet plan does not mean starvation, it simply means know how much you should be eating - Eddie Lewis

Eddie, did you/would you give them FTP access for that or just provide the space and upload a basic business card type page for them? If they don't want private email or have a concern about you having access to their files I can see how that would work. Interesting idea. Well, more than an idea if you've already done it and are planning another.

No, these people are not designers nor do they want any part of the technical side. I designed very basic pages and maintained them. All these people want is kind of like an online business card. In fact, I even created business cards in a word document for some of them, uploaded the document to the server and showed them how to print them off themselves. It's a really simple concept. There is always a market somewhere. You just have to be creative. Like I said, these people are not tech savvy. They just want something simple that they came use and I charged them less for hosting, because the cost is shared.

At one point I had about six pages that I made like that. The domain and hosting cost me about $98 for the year and I made over $500 bucks from those simple sites that took me not longer than a week total to make. Within a year or so, some of them actually bought a fully developed site from me. The others just paid for another year of hosting and some decided they didn't want to pay for another year of hosting. But if they pay, you have to keep that site up for the full year.

The idea evolved over the years, but they were always satisfied with that little service and I never had a complaint.

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Alpha7
A low calories diet plan does not mean starvation, it simply means know how much you should be eating - Eddie Lewis

Nice. Love it...

I think it would also be good for people who just want a website for a short period of time like for a certain event, say like 1 or 2 weeks, but I don't think it's gonna make you rich.