Hello Friends
I am Rajiv Mehta.
I want to lease dedicated servers and start a web hosting company for resellers only and I plan to get 1000 resellers in 6.
I have also joined bulkregister.com for providing my resellers domain at only $13 per month and I will register for $ 10.
1000 resellers basically means if a reseller sells 5 domains and 3 accounts per month then it comes to a lot.

I need a investor or a person who can provide dedicted servers.
Now most of you will ask why people will join me?
1.) Quility support. After a month I will provide 24 hrs. chat support at the site
2.) Billing solution for resellers. I am thinking of tieing up with verza.com to provide billing solution
3.) 20 plans to sell
4.) Can sell our designing to increase there income. I will 20% discount for designing for resellers
5.) Every low prices accounts
6.) E-commerce solutions @ low prices
7.) Nameservers
8.) Resellers can make their own resellers who will get nameservers
9.) Domains @ cheap
10.)Web promotion services which also resellers can provide at their site
11.)If reseller wants to do only marketing then we make the site, handle e-mails and take very low price
12.)Site maintanance services which resellers can sell
13.)Weekly newsletters to increase their sales
14.)Forum to discuss problems and get solutions
15.)Dediacted server to reseller who starts selling over 80 accounts per month.
16.)Resellers can make their own resellers and we will provide the namservers
17.)If a person comes to know that a person is our reseller then it will not affect as we sell only to resellers
18.)Customize plans but at $ 50 set up
19.)It is not nessacary that reseller should have account with us. If he has a site he can just fill a form at start reselling at his site.

If any one is interested in starting a company like this and can provide $ 1000 - 3000 to start. It will be great.
You can post your questions here or e-mail me at rajivmehta1999@yahoo.com
Thank you

Rajiv Mehta

Hi Rajiv,

Not trying to rain on your parade, but you probably aren't going to find someone here who wants to help you start your business, especially if you can't offer any up front cash.

Here are some questions that I would have:

1) Do you have a business plan?
2) How do you expect to get these 1000 resellers?
3) Have you priced servers?
4) Have you checked on advertising? To do what you want will require advertising on some of the big boys which could cost you upwards of $2000 per month.
5) What is your background?
6) How old are you? I know that this shouldn't matter, but some people will have a problem giving that kind of cash to a young kid.

These are just a few. Typically, the best thing to do is to start the business on your own, then when you have several clients ask for investors.

Just my opinion.

I expect to get 1000 resellers from the features I told you and advertisements in host search sites. I will start from $ 500 advertisements and when I start getting resellers and they start selling space. I will advertise on full and then get about 1000 resellers in 6 - 8 months. I live in India. I am 15 years old to be honest. I will not like to start a biz when I am not true. I know 15 yrs. people will think I am not serious and I am a kid but I know I can do it. Yes I have also priced the servers and I am thinking of getting servers from catalog.com or dailtoneinternet.com or rackspace.com

Thank you Sir

Rajiv Mehta

Rajiv, I spoke to you on ICQ. Anyways, your approach to the business is interesting and a little to ignorant. Paying 2000$ for a domain name + one month of d-server cost is kinda expensive. On what basis are you making your projections of a 1000 Resellers in 6months?

I am saying this because of the features I am providing plus low cost plans for resellers and ofcourse the because of advertisements

Rajiv, I've been there done that soto speak.

I've been in this industry for over 4 years now, I started in it when I was your age, 15, working for other companies.

It is not pricing or plans that will attract your customers. Its your dedication and support.

I can promise you those growth figures will take a MINIMUM of 1-3 years to accomplish.

Your 15, which means school, which means your going to miss a big window for business's. Advertising alone does not get you customers, age isn't going to be too much of a factor.

But knowledge will be the greatest factor. How much do "you" know about servers, linux, "i need this special thing done for this customer" can you handle anything thrown out at you.

Contrary to popular myth, the hosting industry is *not* easy. Sure , if your a webpage designer and are a reseller for someone 2 give your design clients a place to host that might be easy.

But when your talking about dedicated servers you bring a WHOLE new round of "what ifs" into the picture. What happens when the server crashes while your in school, or apache dies? Your school teachers going to apreciate you bringing a pager to call and getting paged, then having to rush to the nearest computer to try and get it fixed?

There is MUCH MUCH more to hosting than "plans" or "money".

It takes an ENORMOUS amount of time if you want it to succeede.

Just think about it hard and long.

Also, advertisments do NOT bring clients.

They bring people to your site, after that, its your support and sales email responces and pricing which sells them.

Advertisments are only a SMALL very SMALL part of getting customers.

Rajiv, this must be the 3rd time you have posted something like this in 6 months on various boards. The only problem with your whole plan, is WHY do we need YOU? I realize why YOU need someone else.

Your plan (shall we call it that), is not ground breaking. I have seen you post the plans you'd like to resell. What makes you think that offering 20 PLANS, is something that anyone would want? 20 plans??? I can tell you that as someone who looked at many hosts and their packages, that you don't need more than 5 tops (and I would personally limit it to 3). You can always add on a bit more space for $xxx.00 . Anyway, there is little point to discussing this again, as I commented the last two times you posted.

Bottom line:
You are 15. People with money would be wary.
You don't have a realistic plan.
You aren't going to get 1,000 resellers in 6 months.
You don't seem to have money to put towards this plan.
You seem to be looking for 100% financing.
WHY do we need YOU?

Well, Rajiv is nothing if not consistent (i.e., trying to get a boatload of stuff for nothing). I seem to remember this exact same type of post at a couple of forums in the past few months. Now, just as then, it is pretty far-fetched.

Yep, he is consistant (I will giveum that). Although it is troubling that he has not managed to further his dream towards something a bit more realistic.

Reminds me of the chap who wanted a U.S. host to realize the potential for third world countries by offering $1-$2 accounts that they'd normally sell here (here being not in a third world country), for $5-$15. What a fantastic idea eh? Errrr... wait a second, did I just sell a 50MB 2Gig/mo account for $1.00 ???

I'm sure in his mind this somehow all works out.

Well, like most of the guys and gals :) have already said, it all depends on how much dedication you can give your service, a 100%? 90% 85%? if something below this, forget about it. Wait a little longer and then hit the hosting biz.

I thought like you, about a year ago, when I was 15 :). I thought you could buy a book of the shelf and get into the biz, BUT when some one needs something done NOW, or something unexpected happens to the server, the book is of no or very little help.

*cough**hack*HostSpot?*hack**cough*

Seriously, Rajiv, here are just some sample questions that a customer like me may throw at you (and I'm pretty sure you're sick of me by now ;))

1. Are you going to leave school to provide 24-hour support for your servers? Will you truly be there at 4:30 a.m. in the morning Mumbai time when my site has crashed and the client's losing valuable money per hour?

2. What does /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd/ reload do?

3. How are you going to secure credit card facilities (to accept orders)? The SSL certs need to be registered in your name and your hosting company (NOT the investor's) and Thawte/VeriSign will not give certs to just anyone (much less, under-age people). Quite frankly, they'd be laughing their arses off behind your back. And without a SSL cert, you can't guarantee the safety of your clients' credit card numbers.

4. I seem to recall you saying in HostSpot that you had secured an investor and had gotten things running. What happened to him?

5. Finally, and above all, give me five reasons why I should choose you over established hosts like Hosting Matters, WebExpose, Below $10 Host, Futurequest, Tera-Byte, et. al.

If you can eventually prove me wrong, I'll eat my words. Until then, you'll keep getting scepticism from me.

P.S. (ok, so I was a bit extreme with q.2, but still...)

Originally posted by BC
2. What does /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd/ reload do?


What does this do? Just kidding....I think you threw an extra / in there.

Originally posted by BC
5. Finally, and above all, give me five reasons why I should choose you over established hosts like Hosting Matters, WebExpose, Below $10 Host, Futurequest, Tera-Byte, et. al.


I'm hurt that neither Martie (HostCaters) or myself (WebAuthorities) made it into your list. I think that I'm just going to cry. :bawling:

:D

Heyas All,

I've been reading this board for quite sometimes now and after reading this post, I nearly cracked up and so I just had to register and reply to this post.

Rajiv, not being offensive or anything, but you really need to firmly plant your feet onto the ground.

Currently, I'm a Uni student(Doing 1st year IT and 3rd year Management) with a computer business of my own, selling computer parts and systems, and I was able to make a real profit within 2 weeks of going into business, and I must say that it was not easy during the first 2 weeks in trying to recoup my investment capital. You need to plan and plan really well because there are many factors which needs to be taken into account.

Advertising alone will not get you 1000 resellers within 6 months. Let's Assume that you make $5 gross profit per month from each resellers who signs up, that means that in 6 months, you'll be making $30,000 on that 6 month period from those 1000 resellers (gross profit).

This is pretty unrealistic for most people when they just get into business, especially at the age of 15!! btw, I'm 21.

Currently, I am also interested in jumping into this webhosting business as a reseller, and I've talked to Annette and the people from HostMatters and as well as some others, in order to learn more about this. I'm not very experience in this at all. Probably much worse than Learner, but I'm definitely willing to learn and be realistic about what I can achieve.

so.. Rajiv, do your research first and stop asking people to fund your business. If the bank won't fund you, I don't think any of us are willing to take the risk. For one thing, we don't even know you and so.. why should we take a gamble of $2k or so just on your words alone?. I don't think you've got any major assets! like a car or something.

Start small.. go sell candy or something, I did that when I was 10.

btw, sorry about the poor gramma, English is my 3rd language.
ps: What does /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd/ reload do?

[Edited by Blanket on 09-15-2000 at 12:34 PM]

Sorry Mike, I'll remember to add you and Martie next time. My list of recommended hosts has expanded to about 10-13 hosts, so it's a bit hard remembering all of them at the same time ;)

And yes, I know... But that was quite deliberate, you see... If someone knows Linux properly they'll know that that slash is not supposed to be there! You blew it :bawling: :D

Thanks to every one for their messages and suggestions.
I have decided to resell first earn money money and then start this company. But if still any one interested can contact me and can any one tell me which all programs for resellers and good.

Thank you very much


Rajiv Mehta

I have a domain. I don't have money can any one help me to resell.

Thank you

Rajiv Mehta

Originally posted by rajiv
I have a domain. I don't have money can any one help me to resell.


Hey, great idea!

Ok, umm, everybody! I don't have any money either, sooo can all of you get together and pay for my domain, host me for nothing? Say, while I'm at it I really like those new 800mhz Sony Vaio laptops. But I don't have any money remember??!! Umm, so you'll have to get me one of those too - oh oh oh, and can someone pay for my dailup connection as well please?

And if anyone has a spare 'World On A Stick' so I can get everything for nothing, just email me so I can give you an address. Hell, while I'm at it, gimme everything you own as well....

*Sheesh* You don't get anywhere for free my friend. The world's a big, dark, ugly place full of nasty people. If you want to get ahead I suggest you get off your ass and do it yourself. While TV will tell you everyone will be rich and retired by 19, it's a rare day anyone gets to live that kinda life. This whole net thing is a great way to make a living, AS LONG AS YOU PUT IN THE WORK.

Somehow I don't think the people here are going to give away their hard work too easily when they can sell it to someone you'll make a better deal of it. Reselling isn't expensive if you look into it, but you do have to spend money to make money.

Besides do you have any idea the sort of COOL toys $3000 will buy?

Greg Moore
http://www.akashik.net

Best starting with an agent/referral program to become with, check out virtualis.com

I was in the same position.

However, first off I was gonna use Cobalt RaQ's, have t3 lines in my house and have the coolest setup. Well that failed.

Then I was gonna start reselling for BurstNET. Well that fell through.

Then I was gonna screw selling hosting, and start selling dedicated servers and co-location. I was gonna use another hosting company, and would put the servers in their NOC. Again, didn't work out.

That was last November and December.

Then I was gonna start my own design company, and I'd have hosting for them. Well it didn't happen. Then as the year went one, from December to January and January to Febuary and then Febuary to March...things started to die out. In April and May I got into hosting again. Well, it wasn't gonna work out.

Then as the summer came along, I just wanted to make websites and stuff...well summers over now and I don't want to do anything.

Why I didn't do any of this?

Money and Time

Also, you aren't gonna get anything for free. Go out, get a job, save up. Or just work, but your not gonna get anything for free.

lol!!! isnt the world full of similar ppl!! Eveyone thinks the same!! and ends with the same result.. hehehe.. :D


Rajiv, Chillll.. its time to study my freind.. forget biz for now! :)

Seems like he is taking a beating for little reason. Don't know if it is fear, jealousy, or actually concern, but boy you people are harsh! Your points may be valid, but man, harsh is all I can think

Well if someone deosnt understand something when spoken to nicelly, then one has to be harsh. :)

Originally posted by stat_man
Seems like he is taking a beating for little reason. Don't know if it is fear, jealousy, or actually concern, but boy you people are harsh! Your points may be valid, but man, harsh is all I can think
Don't worry I will be back! I have confidence in Me and I give be back

Thank you again

Rajiv Mehta

Originally posted by SysAdmin
Best starting with an agent/referral program to become with, check out virtualis.com

I think this would be the best idea for someone who has zero capital but a great work ethic!

And if they are successful, they can save up for higher more profitable ventures

later

David

Hi Rajiv,

From the posts made by our other friends here, I realize that you have been <quote>"persistent in your efforts"<unquote>... that is good... very very good!

I also realize that you are just 15 years old so I would only like to encourage you... not dissuade you from your dreams. One can generally succeed in doing whatever one wishes if one *really* wants to do it right... and that is where *persistence* comes in. I always tell my guys "Don't worry so much about failure. Instead, worry about the chances you miss when you don't even try." I also vehementally believe that enthusiasm, persistence, common-sense and hard work are the greatest business assets. They remove all barriers, even beating the strength of money, power and influence... believe me!

So keep up with your habit of persistence. You are too young to realize what is wrong or right now... but don't worry... given time you will learn. I must also commend you on the big list you have started this thread with... because when I see this list which you have drawn up through the eyes of a 15 year old boy... I am very impressed. You are burning with ambition and I hope the fire continues to burn within you. Because the difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but generally in a lack of will.

Now for some advice from your seniors. You will notice that almost all of us have given you some sincere advice in this thread. Some of us have been jovial about it, but nevertheless the advice is still there. BC mentioned earlier that you are from Mumbai... is that correct? If so, remember... you have six more years to go before you are of legal age to open your own company. But you could, of course, have an elder open such a company in his or her name and effectively run it.

I was forced to start out early in life at the tender age of 14 too. My parents were extremely poor and I had to fend for myself. I had to work very hard to support myself and the expenses for my higher education. Recalling my past, I have some little advice of my own to give you... again something I keep on constantly telling my marketing team: "The way you manage your time, perhaps as much as anything else, determines your success or failure as a person."

What I am trying to highlight when I say this is that this is the age for you to study. Study as much as you can... because it is this knowledge that will empower you a few years later and make all your dreams come true. It seems to me that you have already chosen a career connected to computers. GREAT! Study all you can and later apply your knowledge to your career. That is the secret of success for you tomorrow. Lazy people are always wanting to do something, whereas busy people are always doing what they ought to do. And you should keep yourself busy studying all you can for the next few years.

Remember Rajiv, the other members in this forum are only trying to help you by telling you what they sincerely think is good for you. And they are right. We are all saying the same thing... STUDY... STUDY... STUDY... as much as you can now. Because your precious youth will never come back when it is gone. And you have something very useful with you which most of us dont... that is TIME. So make the most of it, my friend... because my experience in life has taught me that misused time, wasted youth and lost fame can never be recovered.

Life isn't as easy... it isn't a bed of roses... and even if you think it is... remember, roses have prickly thorns too. :) I am impressed with the list you drew up above. There aren't many 15 year olds who can think like you... so that is why I am impressed. Though there are a few flaws in your idea - which have been correctly pointed by others before me - I won't be surprised if you wisen up in a very short while... and understand this whole business better.

I have made another post in one of my previous threads today. Do read it to find out where the holes in your idea lie, so that you could make necessary modifications to your plan. Believe me, to get 1,000 resellers is very easy... one could ask the average person to tie up with you without any deposit... and they will!!! But to have 1,000 resellers actually resell effectively so that they bring you worthwile business is extremely difficult.

Resellers are people who should make the life of a webhosting company easier, not more difficult. That means resellers will have to provide technical support to their clients as well. Because of this, it would be extremely difficult for you to garner that many *effective* resellers. Also remember these golden words: "Nothing is so easy out there in the world. If it were, others would have done it before you. If it is, others will do it too and make it all the more difficult... that's who we call COMPETITION."

Also, I am one of those who doesn't think that you are too young to achieve your dreams. One is never too young to dream... and one is, similarly, never too young to try. So if you really think what you are planning will work out... do give it a try. That will, in itself, be a very good learning experience for you. But do try to earn your own money to invest in this instead of asking others for the same. No one will offer you money so easily.

And if you can succeed in earning a good amount of money from, say, programming for others, etc... you could actually start this project of yours within a short time. You wouldn't have to wait until you are of legal age. Should you make a loss later, you will only have actually made a profit from the experience... because as I said earlier... you have TIME (youth) on your side. Because when you do step out into the world of reality, you will receive your share of kicks and bruises. At that time don't holler for the liniment of sympathy. You need kicks and bruises to harden you... to make for poise and power ultimately.

So I wish you the very best of luck in achieving your ambitions, and before I end, I would like to tell you this:
"Education is not the amount of information that you stuff into your brain, which remains undigested all your life. It is not how much you read, but how much you understand and remember, that makes you learned."

Please treat this post as advice given to a younger brother.

Learner

Hi Rajiv,
What you should do is start out by reselling. Once you grow your client base and get big enough you can jump to a dedicated server. Some hosting companies offer resell to a dedicated server plan. When you reach X people you can get a free one.

Don't worry about your age. When I was 16 I started a hosting company as a reseller with a friend. We grew big enough to jump to a dedicated server. Now we have 16 of our own servers and 800+ cleints: virtual and dedicated server clients. We started out with no money and only invested our time. If you can put the effort in then you should be able to do it.


Tcoy~

Continued in Thanks for giving me confidence

Rajiv Mehta

Originally posted by stat_man
Seems like he is taking a beating for little reason. Don't know if it is fear, jealousy, or actually concern, but boy you people are harsh! Your points may be valid, but man, harsh is all I can think

What's harsh about it? He has posted this same thing multiple times over the past several months. Each time he has been given the same advice: study up, get a business plan (any plan - he still has presented nothing of substance), start out with someone who offers referral services, etc. It is not harsh to point out to people that they are presenting the same unrealistic idea over and over. After awhile, it becomes quite clear that the person has not taken into consideration the advice given by others who are more familiar with the way these things work. If someone is going to ignore sound advice, they aren't going to get very far at all. If someone ignores sound advice and continues a course that is simply not realistic (some might even say foolish), and continue to post requests like this in various forums, what do you suppose others think? Makes me, for one, think that this will simply be another bullet in the gun people aim at hosting's reputation, since here's a person with obviously no knowledge of anything hosting- or business-related wanting to dive right in - and hence a much greater chance of simply being another in a long line of bad hosts.

It has nothing to do with fear or jealousy - do you think people here are afraid or jealous of these supposed 1,000 resellers that Rajiv (unrealistically) thinks he's going to have in six months, especially when everyone keeps pointing out that it simply is not feasible? Time for a reality break here.

Hello Stat_Man :)

I don't think Annette, or any of the others here, were being harsh on Rajiv at all. In fact, Annette is the last person to be harsh on anybody. She, like most of the others who have posted in this thread too, have been extremely helpful to all of us junior members in this forum. And from what I hear, in other forums as well.

I think it was their sincere intention to point out to Rajiv the sheer futility of his making such posts repeatedly. And it seems they have done this several times in the past as well in other forums. They could have ignored Rajiv's posts, but they didn't.

You are pretty new to this forum, it seems, else you wouldn't have made such a statement :) If you surf around randomly through some threads here, you will see for yourself how friendly and helpful they have all been. Such people, who take precious time out from their busy schedule to help others they don't even know and will never ever meet, will only be extremely helpful, generous and cooperative people in real life too.

Rajiv, I think you are smart enough for your age to realize that we are all trying to help you out by giving sincere heartfelt advice to you. If you involve yourself in such activities at this stage in your life, you may have a lot to lose out later, especially if your studies get hampered.

We all feel concerned on similar lines, because of your age... hence our posts. We would only be happy to help you out with technical questions regarding hosting in general rather than have you post questions such as you do. That is what you could... and should... be doing in this forum, so that it benefits your ambition in this field.

Learner

Originally posted by Learner
Hello Stat_Man :)

I don't think Annette, or any of the others here, were being harsh on Rajiv at all. In fact, Annette is the last person to be harsh on anybody. She, like most of the others who have posted in this thread too, have been extremely helpful to all of us junior members in this forum. And from what I hear, in other forums as well.

I think it was their sincere intention to point out to Rajiv the sheer futility of his making such posts repeatedly. And it seems they have done this several times in the past as well in other forums. They could have ignored Rajiv's posts, but they didn't.

You are pretty new to this forum, it seems, else you wouldn't have made such a statement :) If you surf around randomly through some threads here, you will see for yourself how friendly and helpful they have all been. Such people, who take precious time out from their busy schedule to help others they don't even know and will never ever meet, will only be extremely helpful, generous and cooperative people in real life too.

Rajiv, I think you are smart enough for your age to realize that we are all trying to help you out by giving sincere heartfelt advice to you. If you involve yourself in such activities at this stage in your life, you may have a lot to lose out later, especially if your studies get hampered.

We all feel concerned on similar lines, because of your age... hence our posts. We would only be happy to help you out with technical questions regarding hosting in general rather than have you post questions such as you do. That is what you could... and should... be doing in this forum, so that it benefits your ambition in this field.

Learner
I know you guys and gals are helping me out that is why again and again I am saying thank you and I agreed to your suggestion and I wanna resell. I will be back with a bounce don't worry.
Thank you again

Rajiv Mehta

In answer to Stat_man, I don't think I was being seriously harsh. Quite frankly, business is harsh. I've worked in a dot.com company, as well as an established B2B company, and if you're not even 99% committed, you're in trouble.

It's survival of the fittest, and to succeed in web hosting you need to have :

1. 100% dedication to world-class customer service, 24/7/365. No excuses. Friendly and polite attitude, "customers are always right", etc. Willing to go out of your way to help customers if required.

2. Servers that are quick and reliable, with tech support teams who know what they're doing if something goes wrong. At least with reselling you get past this nasty little hurdle.

3. Be knowledgeable in systems from top to bottom, and combine your tech expertise with a friendly human touch.


If you can't satisfy these 3 basic principles, you will fail and lose customers. We've seen more than enough examples around this forum and it's not worth commenting further upon.

A final point : as Learner mentioned, if you're under-age, then you legally can not (depending on country regulations) set up a company; contracts can be invalidated because the seller is a minor. Take the case of GXHosting -it's the perfect example of hosting gone wrong and I advise all and sundry to take an extremely close look at it. The link is http://www.tips-tricks.com/ubb/Forum10/HTML/000354.html It's quite extraordinary and brings to mind some of the huge threads we've had here in the past. It's only 117 posts and counting....

And Learner, he's actually based in New Delhi, not Mumbai - my mistake.

That's all I'll say on the topic for now. I do wish Rajiv the very best of luck despite all my scepticism and I hope he succeeds in the future. We need more entrepreneurs like him around the world. :)

:)

Originally posted by BC
100% dedication to world-class customer service, 24/7/365. No excuses. Friendly and polite attitude, "customers are always right", etc. Willing to go out of your way to help customers if required.

Hey BC, you mind if I use your quote in our company's new sales brochure which we are currently redesigning?

Learner

Fire away. I hold no ownership to the phrase, so use it as much as you like.

Thank you very much guys
I am successful and my resellers community will soon be up. I will release the name soon. I will like more help more you guys and gals and more good suggestions. I enjoyed talking to you guys. Please post more messages BC, Chicken, Stat_man and all of you. My all the plans were accepted and I took all your suggestions into consideration and improved my plan. I will soon also release the letter from which my plans were accepted. I need a suggestion for billing solution which company should I tie up??
Pls. help
Thank you my dear big brothers


Rajiv Mehta

Heyas Rajiv,

Since you are 15, and I'm age 21, and there isn't a big difference in age gap.

I'll just make some a list of what you may need to do.

1. Get a job:- Getting a job will allow you to pull some capital in and pay for the monthly fix costs that you'll be facing, such as the Reselling Master Account, and the CC processing service.

2. Write up a Business Plan:- Write a Realistic and Achievable Plan up. I even did it for those Pay to Surf companies and eventually, I'm getting paid around $50US per month from each of those companies without doing anything (coz it's all from my referrals surfing).

3. Search around for the cheapest and most valued services you can find =). Ie, whether it be registering a domain name to anything =). I even found out a place where you can register a domain name for like.. $6.99!. Cheap eh? =). But of course, make sure you understand how to do everything right. =).

4. Everyone keeps on saying, Study, Study, Study, Although I agree that Study is a Must, I'm also saying that Studying will not tell you how everything you need to know. Besides studying, you have to Research, Research, Research (most important). I'm currently studying IT systems and Management in Uni, and trust me, they don't teach you everything you need to know. That's why when you get a job, they train u immediately to catch up on all the things you Really need to know. =). When I setup my Computer business, I had a friend who wanted me to write a Step by Step on how to setup a business and the things you need to do, and he's doing Commerce!

5. Go for Vacation Employment, they sure give you so much experience =). Currently, I'm applying for Andersen Consulting Vacation employment, and hope I get it. =).

6. Learn Marketing and Promotion, important too, =). I've been talking to some of my Marketing graduate friends who are working and it sure helps expand your mind for sure =).

Well, I think that's about it. It's good that you got high goals, but.. a bit unrealistic, if you have said, 200 resellers, or customers in 6 months, then that could be achievable =). Currently, I'm building my own website for reselling hosting and that's pretty much my aim =). But whether I can get 200 customers in 6 months is another story, if I don't achieve it, then I'll researching what I'm doing wrong or etc.

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Rav, temporary billing could be done by a place such as instabill.com (this is a 3rd party type billing solution that does not require you to have your own merchant account). Others are ibill.com and ccslide.com and I think another is worldpay.com . There are quite a few of these and they range from ok, to horrible (as far as actually using them and paying you). You'll have to see the sites for details, since I am not sure if you meet the requirements (age, location in the world, etc.)

I mentioned that I consider these temporary, since you will want a full merchant account. Costs for this vary, and they aren't for people just starting out with no money. Realistically, it would be hard for you to get a merchant account with no funds.

The temporary ones above require no upfront fees, but they do tend to take a whack at your sale. Often there is a 10% fee to process the transaction and a hold back fee of 10% as well (you get this back after a certain amount of time - genreally 1-6 months).

Read the requirements carefully, as you may not be able to use these services.

Chichen
There is another person with me who is big. and we are thinking of partnering one of these companies get a seperate site done and use it our self and provide resellers billing solution

Rajiv Mehta

Rajiv, since your from Delhi you could use the Pay Seal service from ICICI ;)

Heyas All,

I got a couple of ppl asking where to find that $6.99 domain name, so I thought I'll just post it here for everyone to read, saves me replying all those emails.

Here's the website, http://www.dotregistrar.com

But I got mine through a friend who runs a domain name registration service. And believe me, it's Very hard, much harder than hosting. It's wise to do the maths first.

If you get your wholesale domain name at $6.75, and you sell it for $15, then your gross profit will be $8.25.
So that means you'll pretty much have to sell about 1000 domain names just to earn $8250 gross profit. Now with webhosting, if you had 1000 clients for webhosting, you'll be earning more than $8250!. And not to mention, with domain names, it's very competitive because, customers can transfer their domain names to your competitors much more easily than transfering from host to host.

Also, with regards to cheap domain names, there are some korny domain name resellers out there who price it cheap, but then when you decide not to register it, they'll register it for themselves the next day and then auction it. Try talking to BBB if you guys are in that situation or your government's commerce department.

That's why it's always advisable to do your research (as with nearly anything else on the Net) before you buy domain names or hosting or whatever from any reseller or supplier. A good sign usually is the ICANN accreditation, as well as repeated recommendations from different users on forums like these ones.

i use registerfly for domain names

and brinkster for hosting them

regards

chris

Hello Rajeev,

I have been following this forum since it had started. I must say people who have posted their opinions and thoughts are driven out of their experience. Every word of theirs is coming out of what they have faced over years. I am in hosting for last 7 years (do not own a company but host websites for companies I am consultant for) and must tell you, I share the same dream that you do but then I had been serious about starting a business of mine for last 6 months now. I spent 4 months preparing a business plan, offerings, features that will give me edge over others in the market. I am a network and systems administrator and now preparing for RHCE. That will give me that control over the linux boxes and I will not have to depend on others to help me resolve small and weird issues. I am also an architect and design architectures for high availability.

What one need to realise is that it's a niche market out there. Yes, there is plenty of scope for everyone to make a place but then only the serious ones survive and sustain for a little longer.

I remember the saying of Mohammad Ali (Boxer) - A champion must have that last minute stamina which actually makes him a champion.

So if you want to make it big in this industry then you must learn the inside stuff of webhosting. For example: There had been a client of mine who was consuming 3400GB of bandwidth (outbound) per month and was really charged a lot just for the bandwidth. (3400x$2) per month. His business was about to close down and he did not knew how to save on that bandwidth. He had tried compression modules that comes with Apache and it was not really helpful. What would one do? Do you know? I know!! I had to find a solution for him to save him all those money. Not an easy solution but you must be sure that it will wotk. This is what will give you the edge over others. The Supreme of all - Knowledge!

There are two aspects of webhosting:-
1. Technical
2. Non-Technical

1. Technical: This is the heart of the webhosting business. One must know technical stuff to innovate and create new solutions. One should be able to think beyond the unknown to create what others can not do.

Talking of servers, you should at least know what services are? HOw to create backup. How to restart services. Update and degrade packages. Know how mail system works. Learn what it requires to troubleshoot when your client will tell you at 2:00AM in the morning about his inbox not receiving any email. Would know when exactly he stopped receiving emails?

Imagine a client who runs a little ctitical application and it depends on sending and receicing emails from other domains to work. if it stops, what is that you are going to do? Are you just accepting clients without you actually knowing what kind of business impact can they have if your server is not in service for 60 mins?

Now having said so much, what is that I am doing waiting to start a business? --> I am building my own linux distrubution, specially optimised for webhosting environments. It might take couple of months more, but then I know how exactly Apache/MySQL will behave under certain load, cos I will put those parameters while building the distribution. I would say that is edge. Try to get an edge and you will go places.

2. Non-technincal: This included sales, billing etc etc.. Are you sure your billing system will not bill the customer thrice the same day just cos you have never used some billing system in your life? Are you one amongst those who never read the documentation that comes along with a product and just get onto it to make it work?

Rajeev, one must really be ambitious. Without ambitions, one does not go anywhere.

My suggestions for starters like you is --

1. Get a VPS
2. Have linux based offerings
3. Use freely available tools for starting your business (billing, helpdesk etc)
4. Study the business for 6 months
5. Be regular to forums and see what problems are others having.
6. Make a note of new things that you come across everyday (both tech and non tech). Study your notes ones a week and see what you make out of it.

6 months should be able to tell you about your core. That is, your strengths, your weaknesses. Your abilities and probability of your success in long term.

(Those were solely my personal thoughts and I do not mean to put down any one elses thoughts. Please do not take it personally.)

Rajeev, I hope it will help you in some or the other way. One day you must stop thinking and start acting. The more you think, the more time you waste, unless you are making progress in your thought process.

Cheers !!

You may want to note that this thread was started about 5 years ago. Rajiv is probably more pragmatic by now, but I doubt he checks the forums.

Posted in wrong place! :(