Arkhold Offers Immortal Web Hosting
By Anastasia Tubanos, theWHIR.com
September 13, 2006 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Web hosts are always looking for unique offers, attempting to attract customers by adding high-end software or free features to packages, or lowering prices to outrageous extents.
Oregon-based Web host Arkhold (arkhold.com) struck out in a new direction with the launch of its new service, which offers Web site creators a way to keep their sites online for generations and eliminate monthly or yearly hosting fees by setting up endowments to fund the Web sites.
Dave Gore, the founder of Arkhold, says the idea of creating an immortal Web site came from a science fiction novel he read, in which the main character needed to get lifesaving information from her late father and found it on a virtual library online.
“It occurred to me that these days you can never just do that because Web sites go down when people stop paying,” says Gore. “In fact, I put a fair amount of energy into my own site and I like the idea that I’ve got these short stories I’ve written, and musical pieces I’ve composed and I’ve got some photographs and stuff that my kids and grandchildren and so on might be interested to see, if nobody else. So I thought to myself, ‘I would like to preserve that and perhaps there’s someone else in the world that might feel the same way.’”
Gore says the process of setting up a site can seem complicated at first, but explains that in basic terms, the client pays $2,500 to Arkhold and out of that $2,500 about 40 percent of it, or approximately $1,000, is taxed and an endowment is set up with the remaining $1,500, which is invested in broad-based stock market index or exchange-traded funds. The return, or yield, from this asset pays the ongoing annual costs of hosting the client’s Web site.
“Conceptually, it’s like putting money into the bank and you get interest and you use the interest to pay the cost of the host,” says Gore. “The difference is when you die, that money you put in the bank is taxed. It’s part of your estate. Whereas if you set up an endowment, then the endowment belongs to Arkhold and so its not taxed when the client dies.”
Gore says it’s still too early to tell how successful this idea will be, but customers can simply ask for their money back within the first year of their contract if they feel unsure about their investment. The contract also says that Arkhold has the right to turn over its responsibilities and endowments to another company if the company has proven it could do a better job.
If Arkhold were to go out of business years from now, Gore says by contract he’s obliged to turn the business over to another company, whether it’s one that offers a similar endowment plan, or a regular Web host that will take the cost of the endowment and use that to pay for its regular hosting plans until the money runs out.
“In that case, rather than an indefinite amount of time, a Web site would last only 50 years or so,” says Gore.
Although anyone can choose to have their Web site immortalized on the Net, Gore believes Arkhold’s innovation is best suited for people with personal sites or even small non-profit organizations that have information they want to preserve to their Web sites, but are unstable and worry that they might go out of existence.
“Our Web site hosting service is designed for artists, musicians, writers and family historians who want to preserve their work online,” says Gore. “A lot of artistry and memoirs end up moldering in someone’s basement. They should be digitized and made available to anyone, whether now or 1,000 years from now. With Arkhold hosting, a Web site can outlast its creator.”
Arkhold currently has a patent pending for its method of financing Web hosting and preserving Web sites online.
