Hey!
How's everyone doing? It's been quite a while since I posted here, and well, since this is basically the best place to learn so much (and also have a good laugh) about the hosting industry, I came here to ask advice. I'm going to explain my whole situation, and whoever feels like it can give me their two-sense on this k? :D

Allright, my name is Ruben, I'm 19 and I'm the webmaster of http://www.worldofbritney.com . I will be acquiring a dedicated server with TechoHosts hosted at Globix in less than a week.

Here is the server info:

Pentium III 1 Ghz
512 MB RAM
40 GB Hard Drive
Windows 2000
PHP, SQL, ColdFusion, ASP, SSI, ASP
Microsoft Multimedia Extensions
Real Media Extensions
1000 Gigabytes of Bandwidth/Month

I will be putting World of Britney.com which is about 1 GB in size and eats around 200-300 GB of bandwidth per month (site traffic, around 5 million impressions/month or 15,000 unique visitors per day)

Now, in the future, I am planning on launching a Fan Network where I will offer free hosting to quality entertainment sites, like, music sites, movie sites and so on, and have them display my banners on their sites in exchange for free hosting. TechnoHosts has told me that I will have 24/7/365 support and direct contact with onsites at Globix in case I would have any problems.

Now, I was going to start my own hosting company about 6 months ago by being a reseller for Ventures Online, I purchased the domain (http://www.hosting2day.com) but never got anything done because of lack of time. But I'm really good at marketing, promotion, layout design and good business ethics and with the experience that I've gained from my Britney site I think I'm ready to start with my own targeted hosting company for entertainment sites.

My question is, what do you think will be better for me? To offer the free hosting and in exchange get banner impressions, or should I sell accounts like a hosting company for a fixed amount of money each month? Also, what would be a good deal? Since I'll be doing this with perhaps 2 other people, and customer support and satisfaction is such an IMPORTANT issue, I was thinking about going with BobCares.com who offer support for hosting companies for 175 dollars/month. Now, can they be trusted? And would I have to give them access to my dedicated server? I will be using Hosting Controller for the server, is a good program and is it easy to use???

I was also thinking about getting a merchant account with Revecom, since their deal seems to be kickass. Now, I've never really ran a hosting company before, I just did some research for 2 months on the whole basics, but starting a hosting company from scratch takes a lot of sweat, luckily, I already have an audience of about 15,000 visitors per day who I can use to get a head start. But what I should I watch out for? What are the things that I need to be careful with, and most important of all, what I do need to focus on first in order to not screw up and have unhappy customers?

I know this is all a huge business and competition is everywhere, but I know that I'm gonna be able to create something pretty unique and succesful here because when I set a goal I always get there.

Any feedback or info would be nice. Also, would anyone be interested in being a part of this? Both support wise or financially wise would be cool, we could work something out. It's going to be a Fan Site Network.

Hit me back !!!


Best Regards,

Ruben Garay
Webmaster/Founder
World of Britney.com
Sweden

:rolleyes:

Nobody?

I'm a slave forever!!!... I love her...

NEways that is a lot of bandwidth you are getting there

Originally posted by WoBber
:rolleyes:

Nobody?

Ever hear the old saying K.I.S.S? I was all eager to reply...and then I lost interest when I saw that you wrote a Tim Greer-ish type novel of a post. :D

--Tina

My question is, what do you think will be better for me? To offer the free hosting and in exchange get banner impressions, or should I sell accounts like a hosting company for a fixed amount of money each month?why not do both?Also, what would be a good deal? Since I'll be doing this with perhaps 2 other people, and customer support and satisfaction is such an IMPORTANT issue, I was thinking about going with BobCares.com who offer support for hosting companies for 175 dollars/month. Now, can they be trusted? And would I have to give them access to my dedicated server? I will be using Hosting Controller for the server, is a good program and is it easy to use???i'm not sure about this one, but in my opinion i wouldn't outsource support. i think knowing your support team and being able to communicate with them about how the clients are doing and other key points are needed to keep your business doing well. you never know, whomever you outsource from could have some really snobby or rude support people.. but how would you know if you didn't hire them personally? what i would do is keep the 2 people you have now, when you continue to grow, hire more people.I was also thinking about getting a merchant account with Revecom, since their deal seems to be kickass.using a third-party service does have it's ups(+) and downs(-).. i'd suggest searching on the topic for more comments. getting your own merchant account is another option that you should consider.Now, I've never really ran a hosting company before, I just did some research for 2 months on the whole basics, but starting a hosting company from scratch takes a lot of sweat, luckily, I already have an audience of about 15,000 visitors per day who I can use to get a head start. But what I should I watch out for? What are the things that I need to be careful with, and most important of all, what I do need to focus on first in order to not screw up and have unhappy customers?there are many things you need to be careful with, but this depends hugely on the policies of your provider and your own policies of abuse. there are alot of frauds, host-hopers, system abusers, etc. out there.. my only advice is to keep an open eye at all times and deal with these situations as they arise promptly. to keep your customers happy all you need to do is make sure your system is running perfectly all the time, when issues arise deal with them immediately. when a client asks for support, prompt relies that are informative (not canned) are best. always follow up with a client who has had problems to make sure that everything is ok with the service they are recieving. if you do all this, most likely your customers will remain happy.

my overall advice is just to work hard and don't give up. if you need help or advice, come here and ask for it.

it looks like you already have a pretty good start on promoting and advertising with you britney site, so good luck! :D

I would suggest that you do some research. Basicly graph out which one will make you more money.



<<
Now, in the future, I am planning on launching a Fan Network where I will offer free hosting to quality entertainment sites, like, music sites, movie sites and so on, and have them display my banners on their sites in exchange for free hosting. TechnoHosts has told me that I will have 24/7/365 support and direct contact with onsites at Globix in case I would have any problems. >>


What type of ads? Ads that promote your site or ads that make you money. If you use ads that just promote your site, do you make enough money from ads yourself so that this will eventually even out? Basiclly do what you can get the most out of, because asking for 1k gigs is a lot, and adding on the extra work of a hosting company is hard.

Originally posted by AffordableHost


Ever hear the old saying K.I.S.S? I was all eager to reply...and then I lost interest when I saw that you wrote a Tim Greer-ish type novel of a post. :D

--Tina

K.I.S.S. = Keep It Simple, Stupid ?

:D

Am I allowed to reply ruben.... :)
No marketing. I'd just like to reply to your questions... :)

Have a great day:)

Regards
Amar

Yo what up BoB ! Yeah yeah, why are you asking me that? Of course you can reply lol, it's a public forum!!

And Davidb, I will be using ads from DoubleClick, I also get a lot of short term promo deals from movie companies or record labels, where I run campaign with them for a month or so and that usually brings more money than with regular ads.

And Dahlia , in regards to the merchant account, I think that it's best to begin with Revecom and then if I get into serious business, I can purchase a merchant account, cause I know those are sooooo expensive :D.

But yeah, I'll keep you guys updated on my progress and I'll appreciate all the help I can get. You people ROCK !!!!!!!

-Ruben :)

Thanx Ruben,
I had asked the question because I did not want to go and say how good I am to you.... :)
Anyway given below are the answers to your question.



Allright, my name is Ruben, I'm 19 and I'm the webmaster of http://www.worldofbritney.com .


It is a wonderful site you have. and Britney is good. Though I am personally sightly older. I would have preferred worldofRoxette instead. But I'm sure my tech team would prefer britney... :)


I will be acquiring a dedicated server with TechoHosts hosted at Globix in less than a week.

Here is the server info:

Pentium III 1 Ghz
512 MB RAM
40 GB Hard Drive
Windows 2000
PHP, SQL, ColdFusion, ASP, SSI, ASP
Microsoft Multimedia Extensions
Real Media Extensions
1000 Gigabytes of Bandwidth/Month

I will be putting World of Britney.com which is about 1 GB in size and eats around 200-300 GB of bandwidth per month (site traffic, around 5 million impressions/month or 15,000 unique visitors per day)


I would suggest a Linux based server. It would be cheaper and easier to maintain. Technohosts offer both win and Linux based servers. I guess in the long run and ease of use Linux is better. It is also more reliable. It's just a personal opinion... I would not like to create any conterversies here on the Microsoft world and Linux world.... :)


Now, in the future, I am planning on launching a Fan Network where I will offer free hosting to quality entertainment sites, like, music sites, movie sites and so on, and have them display my banners on their sites in exchange for free hosting. TechnoHosts has told me that I will have 24/7/365 support and direct contact with onsites at Globix in case I would have any problems.


This is a good thing. 24 hours support is a must.


Now, I was going to start my own hosting company about 6 months ago by being a reseller for Ventures Online, I purchased the domain (http://www.hosting2day.com) but never got anything done because of lack of time. But I'm really good at marketing, promotion, layout design and good business ethics and with the experience that I've gained from my Britney site I think I'm ready to start with my own targeted hosting company for entertainment sites.


Targeted hosting is a lovely thing. With what we have seen this sells the most.. :)


My question is, what do you think will be better for me? To offer the free hosting and in exchange get banner impressions, or should I sell accounts like a hosting company for a fixed amount of money each month?


I would suggest a monthly fee is the best thing to go with because music and art sites are very graphics intesive. If many ads are put in them it a real turn down. They still are many guys with dialups who like Britney and the gang.. :)



Also, what would be a good deal? Since I'll be doing this with perhaps 2 other people, and customer support and satisfaction is such an IMPORTANT issue, I was thinking about going with BobCares.com who offer support for hosting companies for 175 dollars/month. Now, can they be trusted? And would I have to give them access to my dedicated server? I will be using Hosting Controller for the server, is a good program and is it easy to use???


No comments here except that we can be really trusted. We have some ethics and we'd never mess that up...
Also, presently we support only Linux and the UNIX world. (it is impossible to give a 6 hour gurantee for Microsoft servers even by Microsft... :))




I was also thinking about getting a merchant account with Revecom, since their deal seems to be kickass.


Since you are not based in the US. I would suggest Worldpay.com . I do not know about revecom. However have used worldpay and in my opinion they are good. Later as you have mentioned you can go for a merchant account.. But this advice is only because I know worldpay is good. The other group may be good too...


Now, I've never really ran a hosting company before, I just did some research for 2 months on the whole basics, but starting a hosting company from scratch takes a lot of sweat, luckily, I already have an audience of about 15,000 visitors per day who I can use to get a head start. But what I should I watch out for? What are the things that I need to be careful with, and most important of all, what I do need to focus on first in order to not screw up and have unhappy customers?


Be honest, fast, warm and reliable and it would really help in this industry... :)

I know this is all a huge business and competition is everywhere, but I know that I'm gonna be able to create something pretty unique and succesful here because when I set a goal I always get there.

I'm sure you would.... I wish you all the best here... :)

Any feedback or info would be nice. Also, would anyone be interested in being a part of this? Both support wise or financially wise would be cool, we could work something out. It's going to be a Fan Site Network.

Hit me back !!!


Best Regards,

Ruben Garay
Webmaster/Founder
World of Britney.com
Sweden



Have a great day :)

Regards
Amar

Dude thanks !!!! I like you, you seem cool !! ;) I'll get in touch with ya in case I decided to use ya for support ! But ya better tell your whole staff to be patient cause they'll be dealing with people ages 15-20 !!!!!! :D

-Ruben

Cool Site Dude! I'm impressed! :)

-Kyle

Type "www.technohosts.com" into your browser right now and see what you get.

Ok well...
Shared hosting is so different from Dedicated Hosting, and yeah, I've heard about all the stuff regarding TechnoHosts, yet, I signed a contract with them for a dedicated server and it states that there is a 30 day Money Back Guarantee no questions asked. So in case they would screw up, I will get my money back and go back to my old host.

I promise you all VERY DEARLY that I will keep you updated on every single detail and progress that I make with my stay at the new TechnoHosts dedicated solution.

-Ruben

Dude thanks !!!! I like you, you seem cool !! I'll get in touch with ya in case I decided to use ya for support ! But ya better tell your whole staff to be patient cause they'll be dealing with people ages 15-20 !!!!!!

-Ruben


Thanx... Actually the most happening people on the net are between 15-20.... We are used to it... We tooo were that age some time back... Now however the youngest in our team is 21...

Have a great day :)

Regards
Amar

I haven't read all the post, but how about trying rackshack.net they offer that and cheaper with 300GIG transfer. And if you need help PM me I will be more willing to help.
Technohosts again? This is getting scary, seems to me a way of them advertising all of this.