as I have been posting I am going to be starting a web hosting business (mostley locally for now until I grow more)

though before I trully start I want to go the reseller way, and host my own sites (I have about 8 sites of my own and 4 domains).

I was thinking I can host my own sites and host a few friend sites ( about 8 sites also). Then slowly move to people just a couple to start.

I think this would give me some idea on how it will acually be (then just planning it out over and over). This will also give me an idea of what type of support tickets there will be.

You think this will be the best way to do this?

I want to give people the best service and to do this I have to be prepared..

Hello Torith,

Yes, that should work out okay. Starting up with friends and family is a good idea. They will most likely be tolerant in case you are having problems, but clients off the street won't.

Make sure you pick up a good reseller provider, because it will ultimately determine the quality of service you will be providing to your clients.

Wish you best of luck.

Regards,

Reselling is a great way to get into the business. Just be sure to go through a reputable host that maintains at least 99.9% uptime. (99.9% uptime really feels like 99% sometimes)

I want to give people the best service and to do this I have to be prepared..

If that's the case, I would think about moving towards a dedicated server eventually. Give yourself at least 6 months of reseller hosting so you know how to deal with the customer service aspects of the business, and then think about moving to a server or VPS that you control.

-Find a host that lets you have your own nameservers. It's easier to migrate clients.
-Start reading the O'Reilly books! DNS/BIND might be a good start if you're getting your own nameservers. SENDMAIL, APACHE, and (from another publisher, I forget which) Linux for Dummies are all good. Unfortunately, they won't be coming out with Server Administration for Dummies until they finish Rocket Science for Dummies.

That sounds like a good plan!

:)