I remember when I started looking for a paid host last year, there was one webhost that provided a bare bones type of service for like $10 a year. There basic premise was that it was cheap enough to get you off the free servers but didn't include many of the perks of more expensive hosts (like dedicated technical support).

First of all, does anyone know of any such hosts? The one I was thinking of I believe was from France. As you can imagine searching for 'cheap hosts' on Google is of no use.

Second, what do you folks think is the market for a service like this? There are too many hosts who are or tried (aka Cyberwings) to provide service with tech support and the goodies but charged very cheap prices...so is it even possible to differenciate the two?

I haven't seen any host like the one you have decried but I have seen a few that do offer a pretty fair deal depending on how big the site your going to move there is. But I have seen a few hosts that if you buy a domain they'll give you hosting for it. If your looking for a host try maxipointservers.net I use them and they've been good so far. You have to get a domain with them but they give you CGI/perl PHP MySQL ASP and a lot more and It like 25 dollars a year and there Tech Support is fast or at least they have been for me. As for a market I'm not sure. But I hope this helps.

despite all the bad vibes about 'bare-bones' hosting, there will always be a market for it and quite a large one too.

As long as you advertise (market) your product to the complete newbie, you'll survive.

Are you planning to get into the business by any chance?

There are quite a few web host that offer inexpensive web hosting packages and still personally reply to your support questions. The ones that come to mind is Sam of Mister.net, Greg of websytz.com and Dimitar of HostColor.com. These guys never fail to reply to my emails eventhough I have never hosted with them!

Don't even think about FREEHOSTINGWEB.COM. It's imbeciles like this that give the web hosting industry such a bad name. gidhelp.com went offline since September 1st and despite 6 support tickets to-date, these retards have not even replied except to state the obvious! I expected this tho, since my 1st year is almost up and they're hoping i move... (that's 'free hosting for life' for you!)

Yes I am JDS. I don't know if I really have the time to market and support it though.

WOW!!!

well, i am glad for you... just don't forget to invite me to your 'opening ceremony' and you are always welcome to advertise here; of course u knew that!

Will do....I have seen my share of 'cheap' hosts die a gruesome death so I'll have to think about it a bit more.

I did snag the domain name I wanted. So its either hosting business or an EBay domain name auction.

think about it, you must!

I did... and i think i'd rather sell 'software' than handle support questions all day long.

I have decided to just lay low for now....