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  1. #1
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    * The CRASH COURSE for starting a web hosting company with $168

    **This guide is for people interested in starting a cPanel/Linux-based web hosting business.

    ----> The Website ($0-$300+/month)
    Image, presentation, and appearance is everything, I mean your new, what else do you got? Some may tell you reputation and word of mouth is key, while that is true, you don't have that yet. Building a solid, user friendly, and attractive website is where you start--it can make the difference of gaining 1 customer vs. 10, and that is a fact. I would recommend buying a pre-made template from someone off the web hosting forums. Now n' days you can spend just around $100 for a complete unique design WITH INTEGRATION into your billing software! I remember years ago I use to be able to charge $100 alone for billing integration, ah have times changed.

    Web Designer Recommendations:
    www.templatemonster.com - #1 for templates, they aren't unique (meaning they get resold) but a great place to get your first professional website.
    www.freewebhostingtemplates.com - Man times have really changed! You can get wonderful great looking templates completely free!
    WebHostingTalk - http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=56

    ----> The Billing Management ($10-$30+/month)
    Face these facts, you need billing software and you need to look professional. In today's world, its dirt cheap and does more than billing software has ever before! Automate sales, account creation, and more! You can also forget about the previous need of needing to buy a separate software for ticket/support management.

    Billing Software Recommendations:
    www.whmcs.com - The #1 rated billing management software.
    www.clientexec.com - A very close match with WHMCS, in my opinion the design is much nicer and admin control panel is more user-friendly.

    ----> The Hardware ($100-$500+/month)
    I cannot stress this enough, if you want to have a healthy start with total control, you need to get your own server. Not a VPS, not a reseller account--a server. With a server you are in control, you are free to make addons, changes, etc. You don't have to rely on some other company and wonder why your servers are down. Having your own server will improve customer support, performance and give you a fresh start on a clean slate. Imagine you get a nice client base, then decide to upgrade to a server--clients do not like to be moved, you have a potential chance of losing some in the process and issues with transferring websites do happen. You'll also be able to provide reseller accounts and look more professional. Always buy unmanaged servers! Expect to spend $100-500+/month - This of course depends on the hardware you choose to go with, the license/addons you get for cPanel, etc. I personally recommend investing $500+/month on a server with four SATAII/III hard drives/RAID10 on Intel Xeon machines from a reputable data center.

    Datacenter Recommendations:
    www.softlayer.com - Very well known, but pricey. Great support. Located in the USA.
    www.ubiquityservers.com - More affordable and lots of locations to choose from. Great support. Located in the USA.
    www.ovh.co.uk - Known for very cheap servers locations world-wide and growing. Okay support. Located in the Europe & Canada.
    www.hetzner.de - Also known for very cheap servers. Okay support. Located in Germany.
    WebHostingTalk - http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=36

    ----> The Server Admins ($29-$100+/month)
    Whether your a techie yourself or not you need to have server admins to collaborate with. They need to secure your server, perform any tasks you need, bring it back up should the server go down, investigate any compromised systems, etc. All this sounds like you may need to spend some hardcore cash, but you don't! Lucky enough I have found some great server management at a cost you can't beat anywhere. Never use your datacenter for server management! It is a very common practice for data centers to advertise "fully managed servers" and then when you need something installed, they tell you they do not support this and that--blah blah blah! Even data centers that offer "true" managed services might be great, but they usually come at a greater cost. This is why you should go with a separate company that is only dedicated in providing management services--they will do much more at a much less cost and they are another source of advice for choosing/maintaining servers. I have been with data centers whose hardware is crappy or faulty, yet they claim otherwise. Having server management outside of your data center is like having your own team to combat against some of the bad practices data centers might follow. "Never put all your eggs in one basket".

    Server Management Recommendations:
    www.platinumservermanagement.com - I have personal experience with these guys, they will do so much for you you'll be amazed! At $29/month and $19/month for additional servers, you can't beat that pricing. They also have been in business for 10+ years!
    www.seeksadmin.com - Another great company that gets praised all the time for their affordable prices!
    WebHostingTalk - http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=139

    ----> The 24/7 Support ($29-$100+/month)
    Impress your customers and relax by providing them with true 24/7 support. I have found some of the most cheap and reliable outsourced support. You will find that your customers will be very happy getting professional responses in less than 20 minutes! Don't try to be a one man show, you can very easily lose a client that doesn't get a response in under 30 minutes, not to mention how stressing it can be.

    Support Crew Recommendations:
    www.bobcares.com - #1 rated for outsourced support. I give them an all around A+++
    www.outsourcehostingsupport.com - This is the cheapest company and great for starters, $29/month to provide your clients 24/7 support? Yeah, you won't find that anywhere. I give them an A+++ for pricing.
    WebHostingTalk - http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=138

    ----> The Advertising ($0-$????+/month)
    Lets face it, if you are reading this your on a budget and you need some cheap/free advertising. I can only recommend some free/cheap sources, it is up to you to use your imagination and plot advertising schemes. Find web designers, work with them, contact friends, local business, etc.

    Advertising Recommendations:
    Google - They are always offering free coupon vouchers ranging from $25-$100+, free advertising!
    Yahoo/Bing - It may take some searching, but you can sometimes find free vouchers as well.
    FaceBook/MySpace - The same goes, do some digging to find free vouchers. They do not always offer them.
    www.hostvoice.com - People looking for hosting submit to this company and you can buy these referals. This requires a budget of at least $100+ and time. You need to fight for referals (I believe they get sent out to 5 people per person) in emails, giving them the best offers and customer service. You need to be very proactive if you wish to maximize the use of this service.
    WebHostingTalk - http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=45

    GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR WEB HOSTING BUSINESS!

  2. #2
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    Thanks for the information information.
    Something you should note is that while $100 Google Adwords credits are easy enough to come by, they usually require a credit card before you can use that $100 credit, and they might still charge you.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by shovenose View Post
    Thanks for the information information.
    Something you should note is that while $100 Google Adwords credits are easy enough to come by, they usually require a credit card before you can use that $100 credit, and they might still charge you.
    The one great thing is Google won't charge you, they will just annoy you with emails for awhile about low or no balance. FaceBook will charge you if you run out of credits. I'm not too sure about Yahoo/Bing and MySpace though.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by LuckyAnonymous View Post
    The one great thing is Google won't charge you, they will just annoy you with emails for awhile about low or no balance. FaceBook will charge you if you run out of credits. I'm not too sure about Yahoo/Bing and MySpace though.
    You sure about that? I tried to redeem the $100 credit HostGator sent me but they wanted my CC info which I simply refuse to give Google because I don't trust them...

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by shovenose View Post
    You sure about that? I tried to redeem the $100 credit HostGator sent me but they wanted my CC info which I simply refuse to give Google because I don't trust them...
    You don't trust them? I'd rather give them my card than Bing or Facebook by far...

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by shovenose View Post
    You sure about that? I tried to redeem the $100 credit HostGator sent me but they wanted my CC info which I simply refuse to give Google because I don't trust them...
    Yes, I recently claimed a $100 coupon and they will not charge your card unless you check a function to do so. Facebook however, I had to watch like a hawk.

  7. #7

    Thumbs up

    Great topic. The support staff part was very insightful. I never knew there were such cheap solutions. I thought I would have had to go with a VA with server skills. But thank you I know a better and more cost effective way.

    Thank you LuckyAnonymous.

    I just have a couple follow up questions if you don't mind:

    Are there any other data centers/providers you recommend? It is difficult to separate the reliable 100% uptime reliable ones and others.

    I feel as though I am spoiled by doing a pingdom 1-minute test and only have a handful of minutes downtime each month. 4 outages and 8min last month. Or should I expect this from most quality data centers and I just need to figure out which ones they are?

    You mention never to go with a managed company. What about for those top of the line "managed" providers like LiquidWeb, HostDime, Rackspace, etc? Would you consider going with them if you had a deal that wasn't far off from a similar spec'd non-managed server from like a great WHT deal? Or are the costs uncompetitive when you stick with them and need to handle future growth (extra RAM, HDD, HA solutions, etc)?

    Thanks in advance.

  8. #8
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    You will only find out how good a provider is when the going gets tough

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by dotHostel View Post

    Actually, AFAIK currently all OVH data centers are located in France.
    France is in Europe.

    They are also working on a data center in Canada.

  10. #10
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    I setup an adwords account just to use one of these vouchers, it was a while ago I don't think it was even $100. The account is still sat there with no money in. About 6 months ago Google stuck $100 in, which I used and still haven't paid for any Google advertising at-least not on this particular project

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by DBWebDevelopment View Post
    Great topic. The support staff part was very insightful. I never knew there were such cheap solutions. I thought I would have had to go with a VA with server skills. But thank you I know a better and more cost effective way.

    Thank you LuckyAnonymous.

    I just have a couple follow up questions if you don't mind:

    Are there any other data centers/providers you recommend? It is difficult to separate the reliable 100% uptime reliable ones and others.

    I feel as though I am spoiled by doing a pingdom 1-minute test and only have a handful of minutes downtime each month. 4 outages and 8min last month. Or should I expect this from most quality data centers and I just need to figure out which ones they are?

    You mention never to go with a managed company. What about for those top of the line "managed" providers like LiquidWeb, HostDime, Rackspace, etc? Would you consider going with them if you had a deal that wasn't far off from a similar spec'd non-managed server from like a great WHT deal? Or are the costs uncompetitive when you stick with them and need to handle future growth (extra RAM, HDD, HA solutions, etc)?

    Thanks in advance.
    At the moment I have no other data center recommendations. If you feel the ones I chose aren't suitable to your needs, I would go look in the offers section for a data center you might like. Then use the search function to get feedback/reviews about them. LiquidWeb hosts WebHostingTalk, so you might want to check them out as well.

    I would not worry about 8 minutes of downtime at all from a datacenter. I would only start to question them if it exceeded an hour in one month, perhaps 30 minutes.

    Regardless of the credibility of a data center's managed plans/servers, you are still often paying a premium price where you could be paying much less and get better management from another company. This also goes back to "never put all your eggs in one basket".

  12. #12
    Ahh I got this nice tutorial on skype..Always great to be the first kid on the block. Wish I had followed it. But after mistake followed it to the letter and everything working just fine now. Super post

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by makii71 View Post
    Ahh I got this nice tutorial on skype..Always great to be the first kid on the block. Wish I had followed it. But after mistake followed it to the letter and everything working just fine now. Super post
    Thanks!

  14. #14
    Dear LuckyAnonymous,

    Many thanks for your guideline. i have a question... why we need " Support Crew " again?

    Are not their job covered by " Server Management Company "


    Thanks.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by HostingWheel View Post
    Dear LuckyAnonymous,

    Many thanks for your guideline. i have a question... why we need " Support Crew " again?

    Are not their job covered by " Server Management Company "


    Thanks.
    Server management manages/secures/installs stuff for your server.

    Support crew provides support to your clients for cPanel, issues, etc.

  16. #16
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    Your steps are for those who have advance knowledge about Starting a web hosting company , i would not recommend for someone who hs basic knowledge about hosting my advice is

    Get A Manage VPS to start with minimum investment. You do not want to go broke in your 2nd month in business with a dedicated servers. why on earth you want to get a unmanaged servers and have all the problems

    Get Partners / Friends who are willing to invest.

    5 Investors including you $100 each
    Total : $500 a month of investment money

    And if you can get 4 other people to invest in your ideas you might as well get a Manage dedicated servers instead of a manage VPS

  17. #17
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    Thank for very informative guide!
    MultipleCloud - Multiple location hosting provider
    200+ worldwide location | different server | different ip owner | best for pbn
    BigfootComputing - Dedicated A/B/C class ip
    100% no bad neighborhood | private name servers

  18. #18
    Support crew provides support to your clients for cPanel, issues, etc.
    So i think i can use their phone no.. as support hotline. Is it ok.

    AND, one more thing, who check the fraud activities ?

  19. #19
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    How about business licenses/taxes/legal fees? I would certainly say those things are required, particularly for hosts in the US.
    Frank Laszlo - Developer
    Franksworld Solutions, LLC

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by tytusonline View Post
    Your steps are for those who have advance knowledge about Starting a web hosting company , i would not recommend for someone who hs basic knowledge about hosting my advice is

    Get A Manage VPS to start with minimum investment. You do not want to go broke in your 2nd month in business with a dedicated servers. why on earth you want to get a unmanaged servers and have all the problems

    Get Partners / Friends who are willing to invest.

    5 Investors including you $100 each
    Total : $500 a month of investment money

    And if you can get 4 other people to invest in your ideas you might as well get a Manage dedicated servers instead of a manage VPS
    Its very clear you didn't read everything in full.


    Quote Originally Posted by FrankLaszlo View Post
    How about business licenses/taxes/legal fees? I would certainly say those things are required, particularly for hosts in the US.
    You only need to do your taxes, any tax prep service can get this figured out for you. In most cases your startup won't cost you a dime in taxes since you won't be making a profit for some time.

  21. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by quantumphysics View Post
    You don't trust them? I'd rather give them my card than Bing or Facebook by far...
    I would avoid providing Google or Facebook with personal information. But don't share anything with Facebook, by all means. Unfortunately, most people make that mistake.

  22. #22
    Im sure there are $25/month reseller accounts out there you could start out hosting with and them grow as you need. And at some point expand into higher end services like dedicated servers (and even get a reseller account with discounts from some dedicated server providers out there) so you could get started for $25/month and grow from there.
    Kevin Boyle- Hivelocity- Account Manager
    Bare Metal Servers. Colocation. Private Cloud.
    Customers in over 130 countries. Privately owned and operated data centers.
    Exclusive Flat Rate cPanel Provider

  23. #23
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    Great resource, however people, don't get the idea that the above is all that's needed. One major aspect that needs to be done is planning, never overlook thorough long-term planning!

    Prior Planning and Preparation Prevents Poor Performance!

  24. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by Exerox View Post
    Great resource, however people, don't get the idea that the above is all that's needed. One major aspect that needs to be done is planning, never overlook thorough long-term planning!

    Prior Planning and Preparation Prevents Poor Performance!
    If only all web hosting startups did that, then we wouldn't see so many companies close down only after months of operation.
    NewYorkCityServers.com - Specializing In Dedicated Servers and Financial Hosting
    True Enterprise Service, Tier 3 Manhattan Datacenter, 100+ Gbps Network, 100% Uptime Guarantee, 24x7 Support - Email, Tickets, Phone and Live Chat
    Bandwidth Graphs, Remote Power Control, Automated OS Re-installs, Secured IPMI+KVM Included With Every Server

  25. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by Exerox View Post
    Great resource, however people, don't get the idea that the above is all that's needed. One major aspect that needs to be done is planning, never overlook thorough long-term planning!

    Prior Planning and Preparation Prevents Poor Performance!
    "Crash Course" says it all.

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