OnePoundEmail - History, Updates, Discussion, Questions

MichaelCeeMichaelCee Hosting ProviderOGServices Provider

Yes I am once again following the herd and doing what everybody else does by making a brand discussion thread :smirk: I want to use this thread to post about the progress of OnePoundEmail, any announcements or changes that happen and to get feedback along the way.

To catch you up to speed...

  • OnePoundEmail launched in 2022 as an MXroute reseller, offering SmallEmail for One Pound per month.
  • We slowly grew since then as understandably, I worked on regaining trust in the community having left the industry before.
  • We now have close to 300 registered users and would be happy to take on many many more.
  • In July 2023 I posted about some personal circumstances that led to a lack of attention to the brand. Extra help was contracted for the rest of that year, bills were settled in advance, subscriptions created where applicable, things looked a lot better.
  • In September 2023 I followed up and posted about plans to re-do the website, make the affiliate program better, possibly rebrand, make bigger packages, acquire more customers/brands and add some additional services.
  • I did manage to get most of that done. The website was updated, affiliate program enhanced and a couple extra packages added. On top of that, I reduced annual pricing, added discord and live chat, fixed some pesky issues, simplified the control panel navigation and added Crypto, EUR and USD payments.

We're now over a year after that post and have had a very successful Black Friday campaign, acquiring a stupid number of new customers, and it's time to use the higher number of users to our advantage and improve the service where possible.

Here are some base plans for 2025:

  • Completely fill the entire knowledgebase. I've taken some inspiration and asked for feedback about how to approach this, and have started to section it out. We have categories for starter information, DNS setup, transferring guides and troubleshooting. As well as the usual sales, billing, etc. The plan is to reformat every single article and add images. I've already started the formatting process on a few dozen.
  • On the topic of knowledgebase, each article will have a video equivalent. I do have a OnePoundEmail YouTube channel - it has a few guides on there. It gets 100s of views every month and I haven't touched it in almost 2 years. Time to change that.
  • Again sticking with the theme of documentation, I plan on publishing a full contingency plan. Everything from the potential of MXroute kicking me to the curb to me being fisted with a christmas tree (maybe not). The plan is to be 100% transparent with what would realistically happen in certain scenarios.
  • UK domain management. I started the application process with Nominet, only to realise I am not budgeting for the one-time and maintenance fees associated with that. It won't be worth it, so an alternative option for managing UK domains in the client portal will be implemented.
  • Launching a blog. I had a blog, somewhere. I will be making a new one for more general topics.
  • Rely less on promotional pricing. Black Friday has increased the client numbers by a lot. Discounts will be less frequent and hard hitting going forward to focus on stability and healthy growth.

There's lots more. But it's 2AM. I want to go to bed. Have this for now.

Comments

  • @MichaelCee said:
    me being fisted with a christmas tree (maybe not).

    HO HO OH NO - NOW I HAVE A MACHINE GUN

    Thanked by (1)MichaelCee
  • MichaelCeeMichaelCee Hosting ProviderOGServices Provider
    edited December 6

    I have had some back and forth on livechat about the prospect of EU, and other providers promising an EU location in the future.

    Yes, a lot of people want to be able to choose an EU location (myself included), and I thought about considering sourcing this elsewhere in the future but after some consideration I would like to re-clarify my position.

    OnePoundEmail intends to exclusively be a reseller of MXroute, until the very end. (I.e the day that they kick us off their platform)

    I just don't want to mix and match infrastructure, neither do I want to leave one thing for another.

    I'll make it known if my position ever changes. But that's it.

  • AlwaysSkintAlwaysSkint OGSenpai
    edited December 6

    LMFTFY

    @MichaelCee said: kicking me to the curb kerb.

    Just to curb your 'murican enthusiasm.
    :)

    Thanked by (1)MichaelCee

    It wisnae me! A big boy done it and ran away.
    NVMe2G for life! until death (the end is nigh)

  • @AlwaysSkint said:
    LMFTFY

    @MichaelCee said: kicking me to the curb kerb.

    :)

    2 questions......1) In the signature what's NVMe2G ?
    2) What's LMFTFY [WTH it so big for short form :lol: ]

  • @cainyxues said: 2 questions.

    1, Freebie Virmach VPS
    2. LMGoogleTFY :D

    Thanked by (1)cainyxues

    It wisnae me! A big boy done it and ran away.
    NVMe2G for life! until death (the end is nigh)

  • MichaelCeeMichaelCee Hosting ProviderOGServices Provider
    edited December 6

    @AlwaysSkint said:
    LMFTFY

    @MichaelCee said: kicking me to the curb kerb.

    Just to curb your 'murican enthusiasm.
    :)

    Thanked by (1)AlwaysSkint
  • MichaelCeeMichaelCee Hosting ProviderOGServices Provider
    edited December 6

    Miscellaneous update for https://michaelcee.com. If you had an account at https://my.michaelcee.com over the last few years and didn't use it (no active services, no payments made, no data needed to be kept as far as GDPR is concerned) the following email is on your way.

    I post here because at least 1 user had an email address that doesn't exist (anymore).

    Hi there,

    I hope you're doing well. I’m writing to inform you that your account on https://my.michaelcee.com has been deleted due to inactivity.

    This action was taken to protect your privacy and security, as I noticed:

    No active services were associated with your account
    There was no billing history
    Your account has been inactive for a prolonged period

    Please know that this decision was made with your best interests in mind, ensuring your data is not left unattended.

    I take privacy seriously, and this step helps me ensure that inactive accounts are safely handled.

    Should you wish to access my services again in the future, you’re always welcome to sign up at any time.

    If you have any questions or need assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

    Thank you for being part of MichaelCee, and I hope to assist you again soon.

    Best regards,
    Michael Cee
    Web Hosting & IT Support

    Thanked by (1)Ympker
  • edited December 6

    @MichaelCee said:
    Everything from the potential of MXroute kicking me to the curb to me being fisted with a christmas tree (maybe not). The plan is to be 100% transparent with what would realistically happen in certain scenarios.

    Please don't, 100% is to much. I do not want to know 100% about what would realistically happen if you were to be fisted with a christmas tree. I feel that not even the most seasoned doctor would want to talk about that.

  • MichaelCeeMichaelCee Hosting ProviderOGServices Provider

    @rcy026 said:

    @MichaelCee said:
    Everything from the potential of MXroute kicking me to the curb to me being fisted with a christmas tree (maybe not). The plan is to be 100% transparent with what would realistically happen in certain scenarios.

    Please don't, 100% is to much. I do not want to know 100% about what would realistically happen if you were to be fisted with a christmas tree. I feel that not even the most seasoned doctor would want to talk about that.

    I'm sorry, I've already filmed the video.

  • @MichaelCee said:

    @rcy026 said:

    @MichaelCee said:
    Everything from the potential of MXroute kicking me to the curb to me being fisted with a christmas tree (maybe not). The plan is to be 100% transparent with what would realistically happen in certain scenarios.

    Please don't, 100% is to much. I do not want to know 100% about what would realistically happen if you were to be fisted with a christmas tree. I feel that not even the most seasoned doctor would want to talk about that.

    I'm sorry, I've already filmed the video.

    OK, this sheds some light on what kind of injury might be preventing @yoursunny from making new push-up videos.

    ☰ Probably the best Black Friday storage offersAMD EPYC VDSes with NVMe slices (ref) from 250GB to 4TB and 500GB–10TB SAN disk. / Big HDD storage VPSes (ref) from $2.42/month per TB. / Storage dedis and hybrid VPS (SSD + HDD) are there as well.

  • @DataRecovery said:
    OK, this sheds some light on what kind of injury might be preventing @yoursunny from making new push-up videos.

    No worries.
    We still have more than 30 unpublished push-up videos, including exciting places like Boston and New York City.
    Next year we'll start recording squat videos.

  • MichaelCeeMichaelCee Hosting ProviderOGServices Provider
    edited December 8

    New uptime monitoring set up for OnePoundEmail (and DragonWebHost) using Uptime Kuma on QDE's Christmas special plan.

    https://status.michaelcee.com/status/onepoundemail
    https://status.michaelcee.com/status/dragonwebhost

    It's been set up to ping the Discord channel "status". Join the OnePoundEmail Discord here > https://discord.gg/mZXTGeVK9Z

    Care to see me document this process? Click here.

    Next week: Backups. Backups Backups Backups.

    Thanked by (1)cainyxues
  • edited December 8

    @MichaelCee said:
    New uptime monitoring set up for OnePoundEmail (and DragonWebHost) using Uptime Kuma on QDE's Christmas special plan.

    https://status.michaelcee.com:3001/status/onepoundemail
    https://status.michaelcee.com:3001/status/dragonwebhost

    It's been set up to ping the Discord channel "status". Join the OnePoundEmail Discord here > https://discord.gg/mZXTGeVK9Z

    Care to see me document this process? Click here.

    Next week: Backups. Backups Backups Backups.

    Good Work :+1:

    Thanked by (1)MichaelCee
  • @yoursunny said:

    @DataRecovery said:
    OK, this sheds some light on what kind of injury might be preventing @yoursunny from making new push-up videos.

    No worries.
    We still have more than 30 unpublished push-up videos, including exciting places like Boston and New York City.
    Next year we'll start recording squat videos.

    OnlySunnys

    Thanked by (1)yoursunny
  • MichaelCeeMichaelCee Hosting ProviderOGServices Provider
    edited December 12

    Have never really advertised or guaranteed backups with OnePoundEmail (still don't: "While we make every effort to back up your data, we do not guarantee the availability of backups in the event of data loss.") but I did want to improve the system I had which was automatic on the internal DirectAdmin server and manual when it came to saving stuff remotely.

    A new backup server has been set up in London which now receives daily Incremental backups from JetBackup and rotates them every 7 days.

    Next year I will be getting a backup backup server to then pull those in.

    Note: These are emergency backups only, not for general use.

  • @MichaelCee said:
    A new backup server has been set up in London which now receives daily Incremental backups from JetBackup and rotates them every 7 days.

    If you don't mind my curiosity: Is this a forwarded update from Jarland (so it's applies to all MXroute users) or resellers can do some partial backups in Directadmin for their clients only?

    ☰ Probably the best Black Friday storage offersAMD EPYC VDSes with NVMe slices (ref) from 250GB to 4TB and 500GB–10TB SAN disk. / Big HDD storage VPSes (ref) from $2.42/month per TB. / Storage dedis and hybrid VPS (SSD + HDD) are there as well.

  • MichaelCeeMichaelCee Hosting ProviderOGServices Provider
    edited December 12

    @DataRecovery said:

    @MichaelCee said:
    A new backup server has been set up in London which now receives daily Incremental backups from JetBackup and rotates them every 7 days.

    If you don't mind my curiosity: Is this a forwarded update from Jarland (so it's applies to all MXroute users) or resellers can do some partial backups in Directadmin for their clients only?

    It's not something new to me/resellers, but I have no idea about MXroute end-users ability to use JetBackup

    Edit: Looks like access is blocked off for end-users (at least on my reseller, I'm assuming the same for direct users)

  • MichaelCeeMichaelCee Hosting ProviderOGServices Provider

    Playing around..

    (Also started porting the knowledgebase to video format)

    Thanked by (1)cainyxues
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