Seeing my web designing business in the dark side, i was thinking of starting a web hosting business. Being into web development since 2001, and developing more than 60 websites, i thought adding webhosting and transforming my business to complete web solutions provider would be a good idea. But i am not sure if i can do that easily. Do you think it is the right time for me to start something as such? Considering that im new to webhosting business can i cope up the competition?
I did go with a nice research on certain hosts and their offers. This site really helped me and im thankful to it. On my survey, i came accross two sites that are mostly in preference for many people in here, JodoHost and HostGator. Where JodoHost is known for their lightning fast support, HostGator is for their flexible plans and unlimited domains. Im kinda confused where to go, what to consider. I hope there are people here to help me out. Thanks

Depends on your target market. Are you going to concentrate on selling you design services and offer web hosting as an all in one solution add on service or are you going to try and be a web host first and then sell your design services as an add on?

You have to target your marketing and make a game plan, then you can decide which is the best type of hosting to go for, if you are going to try the hosting as the primary biz then you want the most bang for your buck. Yes you will have to compete with ever other host out there offering somethng for nothing and no it will not be easy. If you are going to market the design biz and use hosting as an add on to that then you want relabitily and fast support as your pirmary concern and be willing to pay more for it.

You have to define you biz plan and then go from there.

Hi, thanks for replying.
Well, i was thinking of targeting both designing and hosting as my primary business, marketing both of them at the same time, offering simple plans that can be a combo of hosting and designing. My aim would be to earn lil more than i do now, and ofcourse: quality, support and satisfaction for my customers. I have a small plan in my mind but i donno how far i can go with it. Recently came across one more reseller hosting provider 'mkoh.com', any idea how they are? I liked their x-reseller plan, im not sure how good they are in support and their site looks a lil unprofessional. Any idea would be helpful.

Sorry can't hep much on the providers other than to tell you to use the search feature and do a google on them.

As far as offering both that is fine but your marketing needs to have an aim a purpose. Scatter shooting and trying to be all things to all people only leads to confusion. Pick a target market and go after it, it is much easier to market your product or service if you know where your customers are. Just throwing a wide net will not gain you that many clients it is the same thing most of the resellers are doing and many of them failing at.

Hello xoail,

Web hosting can be quite profitable when combined with a service like web design, especially when bundled together.

You mentioned you had designed 60 sites to date - now, if you had added hosting to each of those 60 websites, you would have a nice recurring revenue stream today.

Selling hosting on its own is a little difficult - however, if you have a sold value add, I think you will find that there is still plenty of room left in the market - especially if your value add allows you to avoid the entire pricing game.

I wouldn't worry about competition too much. Always a way to get a customer. I see it as "if i can get one, i can get one hundred".
However, don't just look at the business as, getting a reseller account and start selling. You need offer technical support and sales support. It may become difficult juggling both web design and and web hosting at the same time.

If you move onto a dedicated server, then you need to take into account that you will need experience in managing a windows/linux server. If not, your costs will go even higher in getting admins and techs.

And then consider backups and other services, it can quickly become costly.

With the right motivation, you shouldn't have a problem. Just make sure you know what you are getting yourself into...

Thanks for the support you guys are putting in... Well, what all you guys have highlighted proves right to me. As i said, handling these (designing and hosting) all alone would be a difficult task for me also i can’t think about hiring techies for the purpose unless and until i see my business on the moon. So being a rookie, having scared resources and limited knowledge, i planned to go ahead with a webhost with nice support (for me and my clients) and flexible options. I don’t mind spending a lil extra cash for that though. But selecting the right reseller host still remains the pain to me. May be i should sit and do some paper work before selecting one.
Marketing is also another pain, but yes it remains the most important part of the business. My designing business was under the limelight in the year 2003, where i got many clients, that too from referrals. For web hosting i was planning to go with google's adsense and see how far i can reach. How about you guys in here? How do you market your hosting business?
I heard its not good to layout the business plans in public places like this but to keep it as a secret. I totally agree, but i just love communities and i don’t mind if someone copies my plan. After all well learn something new.

It is difficult to wear many hats. Customer support issues take away from creative time, and make designing sites more difficult.

Designating a trusted party with your more routine support issues is the way to go.

I think every time is good to start, if you have already designe more then 60 site, means you have around 60 clients, who need hosting yearly, and you know the 60 clients who know your company, if you start now, start with reseller package and try to convert your design customers in hosting customers also. i think it will give to good start.

Best Of Luck

Originally posted by xoail
. Where JodoHost is known for their lightning fast support, HostGator is for their flexible plans and unlimited domains.

Just to clarify, all our reseller plans come with unlimited domains.

Just to clarify, all our reseller plans come with unlimited domains.But a limited number of free end user accounts. Such is H-Sphere I guess.

Yes of course :) Hsphere is based on the per-user licensing scheme rather than per server. Hence there is a small per user charge HSphere hosts must charge their resellers for account usage (beyond what has been included for free)

Web hosting is a fulltime job, the stress level can get pretty high sometimes. Customers want things done now, so to keep them happy you need to be online all the time. Perhaps a better solution for you would be an affiliate program. Some hosts pay out over $50 per sale.