Hi!

I've been thinking for a long time. I wanna have a hosting business. But where do i start! I'm completly new to this.

I'm really heading for Reselling Hosting. Which do you think is good.

I'm on a very tight budget so not those expensive ones ;) .

Thx

I won't bother to lecture you about the increased level of stress, lack of sleep, and all sorts of other goodies that come with the job. I'm sure that you have done your research and are well prepared for the sacrifice.
I would start with a small reseller account and work your way up from there. Search the forums, search the directories and I'm sure that you'll come up with a suitable solution.
Best wishes :)

First figure out what your strengths are. Then figure out what you have to offer to individuals. Next start to look at reseller plans (if this is what you want to do). Start off with a small package and see how it goes. Also do a search on business plans on this forum for some of the other issues to consider.

if you aren't a drinker, be prepared to start tipping the bottle :D

get hold of a good market first .. i mean do youir market research well, chalk out the basics on paper ... see if you hae a prospective local market ..
also if you have been in design business previously that would help to gather up clients ...
also do a whole lot of reading on Hosting biz , related books navigate as many sites like these .. user expericnes etc.

My rule:

1) Learn.
2) See no. 1
3) See no. 2
4) Do some research
5) Make a business plan (you need this no matter how small your business is)

It's always good to be prepared. I've recently started my own hosting company and even with all the research and planning done, I still had some hiccups. But the research and planning really helped a lot.

Originally posted by JeremyV
if you aren't a drinker, be prepared to start tipping the bottle :D

LOL! :stickout:

Originally posted by m00ds
My rule:

1) Learn.
2) See no. 1
3) See no. 2
4) Do some research
5) Make a business plan (you need this no matter how small your business is)

It's always good to be prepared. I've recently started my own hosting company and even with all the research and planning done, I still had some hiccups. But the research and planning really helped a lot.

Great advice :agree:

Also, go a couple days without talking to/seeing your significant other(if you have one). If he/she forgives you afterwards, you are both ready - Yes I'm serious; you will most likely end up going days without talking to your family.

And live on coffee, pizza, pop, and suckers for a day or two....

On a more serious note: make sure you have the money and time. If you are going to enter the business, enter it with the intent to be open for business a year from now.

Good Luck :beer: :)

Originally posted by akash


Great advice :agree:

Also, go a couple days without talking to/seeing your significant other(if you have one). If he/she forgives you afterwards, you are both ready - Yes I'm serious; you will most likely end up going days without talking to your family.



I second that :D

There are lots of good articles you can read if you want some background.

The forums are great, lots of useful help and inforamtion.

Then there is support. If you are going to be offering support you can offer the 9-5 kind of support, or you can offer 24/7 suppot.

The 24/7 support is the kind most customers like. For that you can outsource. Lots of places will let you do it for $24-35/USD per month.

But you really should support your clients when you can. (If it's your buss then put some work into it.)

Then see how the business is doing after a month or 2.

Oh don't forget advertising. The local market is the best, but utalize all the resources you can. (Again read forums and articles about this.)

Then after you do all that, you can start to get some sleep again.

Originally posted by beahost
I'm on a very tight budget so not those expensive ones ;) .


Unfortunately those are famous last words, I have seen many New Reseller and Dedicated hosts opt for the cheapest solution they find and they only found bad service. Research is the key to your success, there has been a explosion of new hosts entering the market in the last year.

You have to offer good service or you will not be able to keep any clients long. Two of the newer hosts I talk to regularly have been with 12 different Reseller Hosts between them in the last 8 months. When I asked them why they moved so much their answers were identical, they can’t find a good host and that there are no quality hosts around. When I tried to advised them of which hosts they should try they both said these hosts cost too much.

The old saying that it takes money to make money is still true today in the hosting business. By this statement I mean that you need to go a quality host to be able to offer a quality service. A quality host is going to charge more for their service but in the long run you will make more profits. To many new hosts that statement seems absurd, but I assure you it’s true.

These hosts have lost clients time and time again because of server down-time and slow connections. Both have lost even the clients that they hosted freely by offering poor service. If these hosts would have just started out at a well know quality reseller they would be in great shape today. I took a look at some of the companies that these hosts used an I have to say I was amazed.

The first thing I found interesting is how many of these bargain basement Web Hosts advertise on WHT and don’t even have a website up yet. Another thing I see is that many have their domain names banned on WHT but they offer specials you have to PM or Email to get a link. Why would anyone want to get a reseller account from a host who is banned from WHT when there are so many other hosts? The answer to that question is usually because they are cheap.

Research Research Research Research Research !!!!

I think Sitekeeper makes a good point....to make money, you gotta spend money.

There are a lot of people who get into the business because it appears to be a simple quick way to make money from home. True, you can automate things to a degree, but there's still very much a brick and mortar end to the business. The crux, IMHO, is quality customer service. Make sure you are available for your customers.

Good point sitekeeper. You see a lot of that today on WHT :(

I would have to agree with the last few points here. My first intetions were like most when I first got the notion of hosting. But I read and lurked on these forums for a long time, slowly picking up info and seeing hosts come and go. Then I researched some more, and some more, and some more.

Well, I originally wanted to get a small reselling account and start that way. Sure, its the safest way to not lose a lot of money, but I saw too many of those startups flop very shortly after starting. So, I rewrote the whole business plan and changed my thinking over the course of about 3 months.

So rather than trying to start out the safe way, I took a risk. Spent lots of time and money getting the ball rolling, spent some money for help on web design, looked into purchasing a few servers myself, etc. I mean really, if you are serious about this, why half-ass it?

I think the problem is when people get into this business by only spending a few bucks a month on a reseller plan they fail to take themselves seriously. Meaning when the clients don't come, or their website looks like crap, their 3rd party merchant system is screwing them out of money.. they see it very easy to just fold up shop and look into doing something else. I know there are success stories on how people started small and simple and made it big, but that is the minority not the majority.

So in my opinion, it would be best if you are completely serious about doing this to do it right. When you have many thousands of dollars invested into this idea, I promise you that you will take it very seriously, you will give your customers the best support, and your neck is really on the line. Again, that may not be for everyone, but to really succeed I think that is the best model to follow.

I know personally my hard work and money I have put into my situation is helping tremendously. Especially when playing the local markets. Ranging from free advertising, people refering clients to me, etc etc. So like they said, advertising locally can really pay off, especially to get you started.

That was a big long-winded, but again, its all just my opinion. YMMV. But if you are serious, you really need to examine all of your options before diving in. So take that for what its worth. Good luck! :)