Bootstrapping My Daydream into a $20K/Month Business
Hello! What's your background, and what are you working on?
Hi, my name is Austin Ginder. I'm a web developer in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I run Anchor Hosting, which provides hassle-free hosting for WordPress professionals. I do this by using other managed hosting providers, like Kinsta, and bundling in what I like to call the essentials of WordPress maintenance, meaning the basic maintenance services that every WordPress site needs. No more, no less.
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Great business Austin. A very smart and sounds like steady idea. I have been looking around a bit to buy a hosting service to add to our existing business. If ever interested in buyer or investor let me know! Congrats on a great success
Congratulations, Austin for building a successful business! I have read about Anchor Host in the past as well.
Kinsta is rock solid hosting provider and is backed by a fantastic team! We use Kinsta for all our business websites and love it!
Even when building client sites at our WordPress agency, we recommend Kinsta.
Thanks Puneet. Likewise congratulations on your work with PowerPack. Just read through your recent interview.
great share! I am just begin...now get $100 per month from phreesite.com but I invest $300 per month...
Wow, I can't express how happy this makes me Austin! 😄
From one entrepreneur to another, bravo. 👏 It also really goes to show everyone that WordPress users really do want quality when it comes to hosting and are willing to more than a measly $5/month for it.
Keep up the amazing work, it's truly inspiring, and we are proud to have you at Kinsta. If there is ever anything you need, just let me know.
Thanks Brian and huge shoutout to the whole Kinsta team. You guys rock 👍. I've been reselling other managed host providers for over 10 years and I've never been so impressed with everything the Kinsta team is doing.
So inspiring :) amazing work keep going!
Thanks!
Great execution, Austin. And thanks for taking the time to share your story and your success.
Question: I'm wondering what you have in your toolbag for things like billing, helpdesk/support, and managing all those gazillion WordPress websites.
Thanks!
For billing I'm using WooCommerce Subscriptions along some custom code. For support I'm just using doing emails, nothing fancy. I do use Missive which allows me to connect multiple email mailbox into a single view (personal/work/support).
Fantastic read, Austin. Happy to hear you're doing so well, especially for someone so close by.
Howdy neighbor 👋. Next time you are in Lancaster, let's grab a coffee ☕.
Great interview Austin!
Do you provide the support to your clients or Kinsta? As a one person team how do you provide round the clock support?
Most of my customers aren't very technical so they prefer to work directly with me for support. I don't offer 24/7 support. A few of my more technical folks do have access to Kinsta's portal and can reach out directly if they need to.
Thanks for the response :) What is the protocol in case of an emergency (host down, white screen of death, etc) when you are not available?
Kinsta does monitor site outages 24/7 and does a pretty fantastic job handling server related outages. That said there are plenty of outages outside their realm relating to bad customer domain renewals, etc. I run my own site monitor and respond as needed. I don't make any guaranteed on my responsiveness however I do a fairly decent job getting emergency handled fairly quickly. Any potential active breakages, such as my weekly WordPress security and plugin updates, I run during a timeframe when I'm at my computer and can step in if need be.
Hi Austin - just curious, what is the value that you are adding when you are simply reselling Kinsta. I mean how do you convince people to join you?
Thanks in advance
Reselling hosting is a way that I can efficiently provide basic WordPress maintenance services without having to charge an arm and a leg for it. I don't convince people to host with me. I mostly work with other web designers and agencies which end up recommending my services to their customers. I'm very clear in how I do hosting and what I provide on top of that.
That leads me to another question - Kinsta doesn’t have a reselling option. How do you go about it then?
Correct Kinsta doesn't have a reselling option but even if they did I probably wouldn't use it. I like being one level in between the host provider and my customers. That allows me to use whichever host provider I want and not be locked-in to anyone. I just happen to use Kinsta because I really like them.
I have a single custom enterprise plan with Kinsta which covers over 900 sites. I then offer hosting plans directly through my own WordPress site.
Austin, Just a heads up that you've been a constant source of inspiration in our business. We do something very similar to you. But just have way fewer clients. Since day one we've been impressed with your tools, and consistency. Kudos on this great interview. Can't speak more highly than I already do about Anchor Hosting and Austin in general!
Thanks David for the support! That makes me really happy 😁.