I want to start shared web hosting business. Can someone give me good advice?

You need to design your site and advertise it in a such a way that clients should know about you. Apart from that you need to buy a server and whmcs license.

If you are new to the field you may also consider getting a reseller account to setup shared hosting accounts.

Theres no need to spend so much in starting out. A dedicated server would ruin your chances in business to get ahead if you start with one. Another problem is most dedicated servers are UNMANAGED and you will have to learn about your server before you start plugging your services.

WHMCS isnt a must as its completely optional. You can always use PHPCoin, Blesta which are cheaper alternatives however WHMCS works best for almost everything.

Make sure you know your market. A host is likely to get more customers if you provide REAL limits instead of Unlimited Disk Space & Bandwidth. They will also see you as a STABLE host.

Make sure your business plan is fool-proof as alot of hosting companies die overnight. Im seeing 2 a day die at the moment and its not good.

You may have some problems to start with as people will generally run a whois search to see how long you have been in business however after say 6-12 months everything should start flowing slowly.

The more reviews you get the best in my honest opinion.

Apart from that if you are a 1 man band its going to be very demanding as the minimum customers expect in means of support the moment is 24/7 ticket support. Its always best to get tickets replied to asap. The best companies at the moment are guarantee'ing that tickets get replied to within 2 hours with a resolve if theres a problem within 4 hours.

Tickets can come at any point of the day.

I hope you found my advice helpful.

Dom

Thanks guys. i have a VPS now with WHMCS... i know alot abouth the hosting...because in last three months i have tried 9 hosts and shared and reseller packages.
I want full control so i bought a VPS and i also bought R.V site builder, Softaculous,Installatron.and planing to buy WHM Sonic and i can make a website...
i have all the equipment to start this business.
But i'm confused....that from where should i start? packages? etc etc...

i have one VPS with 2GB ram And 2.7 GHz processor with 80Gb Storage and 1500GB bandwidth....
What do you think this VPS is good enough to start ?

i know alot abouth the hosting...because in last three months i have tried 9 hosts and shared and reseller packages.
Yes, Though this was on a Reseller account where the servers were managed for you, So you will need to learn more about them :)

There is always a learning point, But their is always place to improve your learning skills. Do not think over the last 3 months you have learnt it all, You will continue to learn as the years progress.

But i'm confused....that from where should i start? packages? etc etc...
This is where you contradict yourself, You know so much about hosting though are not sure where to start.

Starting point I'll admit is always the hardest, Though look at what you have been provided by your webhost, Space, Bandwidth and so on. Work with those specs and work around them and see what you can manage with price.

No point in offering the service at $1.00 for 100GB Space and 1000GB of Bandwidth as you will just tear your business to the bottleneck and destroy your business.

As I said, Work with what the Host has provided you and make your packages and prices from that. You can always attach more if you require it, Just contact your webhost in regards.

If you were offered as you say 80GB Bandwidth and 1500GB then I would say it is an oversold VPS but depending on the prices it might paint a different picture.

Can I ask how much this VPS is?

Sean

thanks for you nice advice. :-) I know at this point i have just learned 30% about hosting. But i am serious about this business. I'm doing software engg so have some intrest in it as well.
in total with all addons it cost me $110/month. Is that ok?
Can you suggest some good support system for this business?

I'm doing software engg so have some intrest in it as well.
Not so much the point, You need to have your head screwed on and have optimistic approaches to your business, None of this "Some interest" does not sound good.

As far as the prices does this include all the additional add-ons of cPanel, WHMCS, Installatron?

To me it sounds a tad oversold, Though this is my assessment of the specs given.

I would recommend a WHMCS Billing System be put in place, You can always obtain CE (ClientExec) aswell but will generally be suite to what you know and what you like the most out of features and flexibility.

You can use a Ticketing System within WHMCS and CE to help and support your clients as well as an optional live chat program such as LiveZilla!

Moved > Running a Web Hosting Business.

The cost of VPS+Whmcs+ Cpanel(with fantastico) is $104/month and i have bought the addons my self.
i have bought R.v site Builder,Softaculous, Instalatron these will cost me 5 to $5 per month.
The best thing about is that i have dedicated 2.7Ghz processor power and 2 GB dedicated ram.

Can Anyone Please tell me how to install FFMPEG on my VPS ?

Im sure that if you do a google search it will tell you how to install FFMPEG via command line ;)

This is the beautiful thing about being a new web host :)

GOOGLE IS ALWAYS YOUR FRIEND... PEOPLE ON HERE CHARGE FOR SERVICES LIKE THAT :(

If you really want to start web hosting business,you'd better start form shared web hosting.
It's much more popular to some small enterprises.And it also can help you form the experience
of managing hosting business.VPS can be added as a supplement but not the leading service.By
the way,have you considered being a reseller?It also works.

In my opinion, you're putting the car in front of the oxes, as a local saying goes.

I want full control

Can Anyone Please tell me how to install FFMPEG on my VPS ?

One gets the impression that you're trying to drive a car without having first passed the license test. "Full control" is good only you can handle it. Otherwise it puts you customers, and your business, at risk.

Before you buy the infrastructure, you need to decide if it is what best fits your current situation. It seems to me that eric_pu has a point there, that a reseller account may be a better fit for you at this stage.

Yes, I too think you should better start with the reseller hosting. Starting with reseller would be good way to get your feet stuck in this web hosting business. When your business will grow you should think to upgrade to VPS or dedicated.

I agree with others. You should start with reseller hosting. You want to make sure you don't provide sub-par support due to your inexperience.

Good luck but be careful.

Hi, I recommend this website: http://www.resellerguide.com

The website has a lot of articles to start establishing a small web hosting business. It helped us a lot during our debut stages. :)

Good luck!

Get good reseller hosting package so that you can resell hosting packages to your clients.