My brother and I are interested in starting a webhosting business that will offer hosting, webservices such as domain registration, site submission, e-commerce setup and general maintenance and support in addition to webdesign.
He wants us to get a dedicated server. I say start as resellers as we do not know exactly what will be involved and we are not extremely experienced with Unix. In fact, i have not used Unix in over 2 years as I have a lot more experience with Windows
I think also we have to consider the financial costs. I think as resellers we can start small and do not have to be extremely concerned if we do not have a lot of sites hosting with us to start as we will have to find people to host with us. And I expect that might take a while.

I am considering Venture's Online as the one to start with.

I would like some feedback as to how you guys got started. Some things to consider. Promotion to get hosters. Package pricing, etc. Whether we should consider the dedicated server or the reselling.

As far as the business part goes, we are already an LLC, with bookeeping setup. We cannot offer 24/7 support right now as we both have other jobs and I also have school.

Also, any recommendations as to good resources to find out exactly what is involved in running a dedicated server would be appreciated. Would we have to install the programs and such meaning we would have to be experienced at cgi, php, etc? Or would we reasonably expect that hosters would know how to use the stuff.

you could hire tech support from bobcares.com

If you're not that experienced with UNIX, I'd say take some time to get comfortable with it. Install FreeBSD or Linux on a personal computer and play around with it. Don't be afraid to try things. As for customers, you should never assume they know anything. Control panel software will make their lives easier, but you shouldn't rely on control panel software to administrate your server. Support is very important, so make sure you can handle it. If you can afford it, start out with a dedicated server so you'll have full control.

Hello,

I would not recommend you to start with a Dedicated Server. First of all, it would not only increase the start-up costs and most of all, since you do not have any experience with Unix and FreeBsds that would also make your life difficult when you would have any problems.

So when you would be on a dedicated server you would not have to hire a professional to sort out the problem but also have to bear the anger of the clients. On the other hand, when you would be a reseller of a good company (e.g; VO), then you would'nt have to worry about any support issues or something else. Most of all, you would learn things as well when you would be a reseller.

And once you have a handful of clients and you think that you would be able to cover the costs of the dedicated server, then it would be good to go for one then only. Even if you are on a reseller plan and need only one or two customers to cover up the cost, don't go for the dedicated server until you start earning some profits from the reseller plan. Because maybe you just might loose 1-2 customers during the transition.

Just a thought!



Salam,
-Omair

I agree. A reseller plan is the way to go where the server is concerned and bobcares offers great plans technical support for resellers. Most resellers offer great support if you have any questions.

Like the previous posts, I would recommend you to get a reseller plan, and in the mean time install the linux in your home computer and play around with it. It is very important that you know administrative task and master it.

You cannot give what you don't have. And if you don't have the knowledge/skill to take care of your server, you won't be able to serve the customer well.

It will usually take a few months to learn the core skill. Also, you may want to think about how will you receive the payment/bill your customers. I've seen some people start with paypal, which is one good option.

Then, you may want to automate your sign up/registration, and you will need to learn php/perl or other language of your choice.

There seems to be a lot of things, but patience and dilligence will pay off in the future. Don't rush into things that you're not familiar with. Do things carefuly (never do rm -Rf /) :)

We have a lot of nice and experienced people in this forum. I'm sure you can learn a whole lot.

Cheers!

Advice for a newbie who wants to start a hosting biz

DON'T

Originally posted by Kulman
Advice for a newbie who wants to start a hosting biz

DON'T

Speaking from experience? :D

Yeah, i would say start with a reseller, if you have any major problems they can sort it out and most give u free tech support so if you are stuck u can ask them (even the dreaded Don do this LOL)

Haha, that's funny Kulman. Would you like to tell why are you stopping this newbie to start their own hosting company?


Salam,
-Omair

Haha, that's funny Kulman. Would you like to tell why are you stopping this newbie to start their own hosting company?
Salam,
-Omair


The guy wanted some advice. He got it ))) And my guess is that this is probably the best advice he's gonna get )))

I'd be interested as to why you're telling him not to do it. You're not really explaining yourself here.

Brian

The best advice I can give you is related to going into business with your brother. I can tell you from experience that this can be difficult. Just be sure to carefully detail out IN WRITING each of your duties and responsibilities to the business. You might even want to agree before hand what kind of buyout will occur if one of you wants out of the business.

Best of luck,


Keith

Originally posted by BrianF
I'd be interested as to why you're telling him not to do it. You're not really explaining yourself here.

Brian

I just thought it was obvious.

There are thousands of hosing companies. Competition is enormous. Price wars been going on for a really long time. Profit margins are really low. I remeber the times when we charged $120 to park a domain, we do it for free now. Blah blah...

The problem with web-hosting is that there are no barriers of entry. Anybody can do it. I mean there are 13 year old kids doing it. There's not a single market thats not taken.

It would be wiser to provide services to hosing companies. Something like develop a control panel or outsource support in India :)

Originally posted by Kulman


There's not a single market thats not taken.



I have a hard time believing that. How about the small businessperson who has yet to even create a web page? That will be an open untapped market inherently. Pound the pavement, meet some other business owners - you would be surprised at what you find. ;)

Jeff

Originally posted by Jeffyt
There's not a single market thats not taken.

I have a hard time believing that. How about the small businessperson who has yet to even create a web page? That will be an open untapped market inherently. Pound the pavement, meet some other business owners - you would be surprised at what you find. ;)

Jeff

I said market, not person.

There is no argument that the industry is growing. What I am saying is that it is much wiser to service that industry rather than try to get into it and hope for success.

There are too many companies servicing web-hosting needs and not enough companies servicing the web-hosting industry. That is a clear opportunity that also has insignificant barriers of entry.

Look as bobcares.com - they cant keep up with sales requests. Look at hostgui.com - the product is not even released - there's a mile long cue waiting for it to come out. Same with virtualcp. I can go on for days.

Actually,
I know someone who tapped into a very nice niche market and is now the organization leader for web design and hosting. Whoever is apart of that organization has their site designed, maintained and hosted by them. That's doing your research if you ask me.

Brian

I'd have to agree that "not all markets" have been tapped. Pound the pavement and get the biz!