Im about to be going live soon with my website i want to try and make sure that i have every thing i need to get started with my hosting company

Here is what all i bought to get started with my hosting company

Dedicated Server
PayPal Account
2CheckOut.com Account
ModernBill(spent 2 week trying to figure it out:eek: )
Fantastico
EdgePanel 2 <- using osTicket until email piping is fixed
Stardevelop's Live Help
Website Template(having design problems with our own, going to be using this until a better design can be made:bawling: )
Tripod Support(Outsourceing Company), using them since this is the only way i can even consider having 24/7 support
2nd phone line

So far i have spent a lot of money and TIME trying to figure out the best way to go at this, im just wanting to start a good company that will give me a good return in the future(when i say a good return i mean having it pay all my bill not in a seance of making me filthy rich)

Business plan?

i got a business plan made up already

A system administrator and support staff.

Originally posted by Dan Grossman
A system administrator and support staff. Tripod Support will handle all of that for me

You in the UK? If so limit your liability (ie: register a ltd company).

Get an accountant (for MONTHLY audits of your books, trust me, doing it monthly makes things so much easier).
Business bank account.

i do hope you've got your marketing plan all set up and prepared.

Depending solely on an outsourcing company might not be the best choice. The reason is that you must be involved in the trade to know the trade. I would suggest you to handle some (if not all) of the customer service support like sales and general enquires. Leaving your outsourcing option for tedious server maintenance as well as emergency purpose.

I am not sure if you also provide domain registration. Probably a domain reseller account might be useful for you in a way. How about proofreading your website content to ensure no spelling errors?

Hope these tiny bits will help.

SELL SELL SELL!

You are well prepared.

wow !!

you have a lot to start !! when i start i only have my two hands :)

good luck !!

you have thought this out a lot better than other startups I have dealt with in the past *cough* teenagers that have no clue *cough*.

good luck mate :)

Just make sure you setup as a limited company, a lot of people dont think this is important, but why build an empire, then if something ever did happen lose it all (whatever you own if your a sole trader) if you get sued?

Oh, also, make sure you keep the TAX man on side. Am a little anal when it comes to the money things, one accountant does my books every month, then I get my friend at JPMorgan to check them :) heh heh.

I also registered a DBA with my county all ready

you have thought this out a lot better than other startups I have dealt with in the past *cough* teenagers that have no clue *cough*. :eek:

^^^ why are you generalising? not ALL teenagers are poorly organised, but yes i will admit some are! but i am still again the generalisation of teenagers.

Looks like you have done your research and preperation, after you tie up a few loose ends i agree with thehostworks...

SELL SELL SELL!

Killian :cool:

I know not all teenagers are poorly organised, I started providing hosting when I was 17, now 20, I got a lot of stick, and generally found it very hard to break the image that a lot of fly by night hosts had created (the majority of which were "teenagers"). So new startups, that are run by teenagers I am skeptical of.

Its really a resentment towards fly by night hosts in general :)

In fact, I withdraw my previous comment about teenagers, and replace that instead with "fly by night web hosts" :)

Target Market?
Advertising budget?
Business Plan?
SLAs/TOS?

sorry, but wha tis fly by night web hosts?

host companies that crash? or what?

from spain :)

Originally posted by pueblosnet
sorry, but wha tis fly by night web hosts?

host companies that crash? or what?

from spain :) No I am not just another fly by night web host, I have spent a lot of money and time trying to figure out the best way of doing the, every thing that i am doing right now is coming out of my pocket, i expect to have all the expanses coming out of my pocket for at least the next 7-10 months, I'm not going through and making hosting plans that are ridiculous, all of my plans are a fair price that will help me cover all of the cost needed to run the business and just enough that i can let the business grow. I'm starting a business not trying to get rich fast.

Fly by the night hosting would be a company that takes your money, doesn't provide the service they advertised, and leaves the customer generally unhappy. Think of it as really low quality.

i know have my site online could someone go through and give me some suggestions? here us the address subhostsolutions.com

Suggestion #1: Finish the design. Fill in the parts that say "YOUR COMPANY NAME".

Suggestion #2: Don't lie. You don't need to make claims about thousands of clients you don't have to be in this market.

Suggestion #3: Make your live support image the correct size so that it doesn't get resized to fit and look poorly done.

Suggestion #4: "Ya'll" is not a word. Don't use it.

Suggestion #5: Either make your plans fit the space in the template or edit the template so they don't run out of the colored area. A different color might be in order for the plan names too.

Suggestion #6: When I click "learn more", I expect a little more than another list of the same plans. Break out the details. Talk about exactly what each account comes with, your data center, your guarantees.

Suggestion #7: Make the "domains" page actually work.

ok going through changing it right now

Yes. Using the Fly-By-Night is more appropriate than stereotyping teenagers as bad webhosts.

On the front page, some of the text areas are light grey text on white, I find that hard to read
Infact, that's right the way through the site...

On the partners page, get the real logos?

In my opinion, a Contact Us link should never be a mailto:
It should goto a page listing some contact details, even if those are just E-mail addresses. A lot of people use webmail now a days, and mailto: is useless for them

Develop a marketing strategy and determin your target market.

ok i got the updates on the site can some one else look at it agin? here is the address agin subhostsolutions.com

thanks to all the other people that looked at it for me

http://www.subhostsolutions.com/index-5.html

on this webpage, you can see the 2CO and I Buddy media text going out of proportion, that shouldnt happen!

Is you support really online? I was there for 1 min still it said waiting for operator, dont have online if its offline (just my suggestion.) thanks

Though there are exceptions to every rule, I would say most generalizations are based on some fact - this being that a lot (most even) "fly by night" hosts out there are run by teenagers, probably unintentionally.

They are mostly run by teenagers but sometimes teenagers outclass their elder hosts. If smart teenagers start from now in a few years they can build up slowly slowly as long as they have good support and enough intelligence to manage a few technical issues.

Originally posted by Yaser
They are mostly run by teenagers but sometimes teenagers outclass their elder hosts. If smart teenagers start from now in a few years they can build up slowly slowly as long as they have good support and enough intelligence to manage a few technical issues.

But as I said as well - they are the exception. Teenagers, I think, are usually trying to run an honest business - I know for sure that I was when I started around 17, running a real business just ends up being too much.

Sorry to change the topic - anyway, I think it looks like you have things much more well thought out then most starting hosts seen these days. I wish you good luck.

RBooth budget your advertising dollars and diversify them over different mediums

PPC engines: Overture, Google. These can be money drainers but worth the cost if you select keywords that define your target market.

Web Hosting Websites: www.ispcheck.com www.hostingcatalog.com

Locally: through social networking and flyers

Word of mouth: great service :D

RBooth -

How has your experience w/ Tripod Support gone so far? Just curious- I'm in my first month with them as well ....

they seam nice, pluse i noticed that Bob does reqular checks on them to make sure that they are doing there job

they seam nice, pluse i noticed that Bob does reqular checks on them to make sure that they are doing there job

Hey - who is "Bob"? I speak w/ Roj ....

You might consider not using a template for your site. I personally (from a corp customer standpoint) would be reluctant to go with certain webhosts as they all use similar templates.

If a company cannot afford their own unique website, why should I send my kit to be colo'd/hosted with them?

Just my two cents, and based on experience/replies I have had from some of my bigger customers. Its good for now, and does the job, but I would recommend as you grow to create your own website, with your own look.

Most people i know who buy from template monster get them changed from Template Tuning. They do a good job.

Enough $$ to finance your business until you reach scale.

It may take a few months unless you have killer marketing.