In 2018, I started selling web hosting on WP-Tweaks – a new venture that I got into when I unexpectedly lost a major client. I’ve been hosting my own website at bhagwad.com since 2008, and I’ve switched at least 3 hosting providers, so it wasn’t a new field for me. Since then, I’m happy to report that it’s been pretty successful. And most of it is thanks to Hostgator :) .
Why I Started WP-Tweaks
It’s a terrible feeling to receive bad news while on vacation. Yet this seems to happen to me all the time! I’ve had bad news while vacationing in Philadelphia, India, Maine…and almost always (for some reason) on a Friday. Major buzzkill!
Anyway, that’s exactly what happened in me while I was on vacation in India in 2018. My biggest client unexpectedly dropped me, and I found myself with a drastically reduced income stream. Still enough to comfortably live on in India, but not enough for me peace of mind. So in addition to casting around for a new project, I decided to start my website – wp-tweaks.com. Here, I would compare web hosting provider prices, and receive commissions.
Two years later, WP-Tweaks has done its job. It’s given a very comfortable income stream (touch wood). And Hostgator has been a big part of that.
Hostgator is my Biggest Seller
Out of all the web hosts that I review on WP-Tweaks, Hostgator brings me the largest income stream. I think it has something to do with the fact that other websites try and hide the coupon codes so that people will click on them, whereas I just reveal them for anyone to see, and trust people to click on them. This approach has worked out well for me.
Thanks to a lot of hard work, WP-Tweaks manage to do well for major keywords related to Hostgator coupons as you can see in this screenshot:
But I’m also trying to diversify.
NameHero – My Second Income Stream
I’m keen not to put all my eggs in one basket. So I’ve tried to diversify into other web hosts, but it’s been hard. Most of these are established presences, so I’ve placed my bets on smaller hosting companies that are likely to rise in the future. One such example in NameHero. They’re not very big, but I’m hoping that they’ll get a lot bigger in the years to come. I’ve already started reaping some benefits.
Like I said, this is hard work. I’ve been working constantly on WP-Tweaks for the past two years, through all the ups and downs. Now that I’m in a decent position, my main goal is to stay afloat, and not do anything stupid. As I learned from Table in Anti-Fragile, the first concern should be survival. And a lot of people do stupid things, so I have a good chance of coming close to the top simply by not dying.
Hopefully this trend continues, and allows me to keep a good thing going. Wish me luck!