I read this article today "Windows Hosting Rates are killing developers and students... Is Microsoft aware?" while searching through DZone for things to read. I read over the article and I am going to definitely have to agree with this man. I am just a mild professional developer not making the big bucks, but working on small projects for low pay like Indialantic Fire department. This site is dressed up just like a blog and only the template is static, everything else is what a user can enter in an editor window. I thought it was a nifty idea I thought of before the blog idea came to my head. Getting back on track, I am also hurt by Microsoft's ability to look at Windows Hosting Rates. On Go Daddy alone, it cost more than $50.00 a year for a small time web site and when you own a few domains and don't care for Domain forwarding, well it can add up. It is definitely killing my pocket income. I want to develop and put content out there, but these prices are difficult. I know its $50.00 a year, not much right? well when you have other things to pay for, I wish it was just cheaper. I do know that Go Daddy is one of the cheapest domain hosting companies out there, but my pocket is still being hurt. I love developing, I take pride in my work, I just hope it would be cheaper.
The costs of serving these sites is the only reason why I put ads up on my sites. I would have no need for them, but its how I pay for the service. I just started blogging too, so I am not making any money at all. I'm not complaining, but this is a luxury and luxuries always go first when you get strapped for cash. I just hope I don't give up this luxury.
On a side note: Go Daddy does offer free hosting with banners on top of the page. I have a couple of domains like that, but I have never seen a banner up on the top as of yet. (maybe I shouldn't have said that)
As for Microsoft, I might have to pose this question to them. I don't see why I can't ask this question at the Devconnections conference I am going to this April. On the article itself, they were discussing switching over to a new open source provider just despite the costs. Is anyone else interested in switching to a new framework because of the prices? I love ASP.NET. It would be hard to give up.
