Here’s a guest post from Jason Reis, a great guy I met through fiverr. He’s a serial entrepreneur who loves to help and teach all those around him about the principles of business. Here he talks about “How to start a web hosting company”
Jason over to you….
Many teens have made thousands with their own website hosting company and here is how you can too. All you will need money for is a reseller account which is the type of account that you will need as it enables you to re-sell website hosting. We will start with the most important and most commonly overlooked step.
Step 1)
Think of a theme for your company. Will your hosting company be an earth friendly company? Check out supergreenhosting.com (by the way they also have a reseller account) their servers are wind powered how cool is that.
Are you considered a geek (hey nothing to be ashamed of look at Bill Gates). You could go with a theme like nerdyhosting.com. Ok they don’t have a website reseller account plan but this shows you another example of a theme you could use. You get the point right? Pick a theme any theme you want.
Step 2)
Pick a company name. You need to really brainstorm for a name that is unique and fits your theme so that your chances of the name you want not being register will be better. The name you pick should be something people can remember and also a name that is not too hard to spell.
Step 3)
Ok so now you have a theme and you have a domain name it’s time to find a reseller account. Some hosting companies will even provide you with a domain name for free. One such company I highly recommend is Site5.com. Another good place for a reseller account that is a bit cheaper is lunarpages.com.
There may be other companies out there that may be cheaper but these are the two I highly recommend. Both these places I mention also offer free domain name with an account (at least they did when I looked at their website). So you will save some money by choosing one of the above.
Step 4)
You have your account and domain name and you have a theme for your company so now the fun part begins. We have to setup a website design for your website. Now if you are good at this you can create your own website design. Some good sites to get a free website design is www.oswd.org, stylishtemplate.com, or freewebsitetemplates.com.
No matter what website design you choose remember to be proud of your website and spend time personalizing it. The design should also match your theme. So if you choose to be an “earth friendly” host as your company theme you should try to use pictures on your website that match that theme. Also remember to spell check all your website pages, I recommend having a friend or family member read over your website to check for any errors.
Step 5)
It is now time to setup your billing system. Most likely the company you have a reseller account with will provide you with a reseller account. So after signing up for a Paypal account (it’s free) contact your reseller account provider and ask them how you can access whatever billing system they provide. No matter what billing system they provide you will need to spend a day or two just looking at all the pages within your new billing system. This is so you can get familiar and also comfortable with the system.
After you have looked through all the pages and features you will be ready to figure out your website hosting plans. When you make your hosting plans you should a lot small amounts of storage space and bandwidth. Remember people can always upgrade their account with you so you do not have to offer huge amounts of everything in all your plans.
Step 6)
Ok so your website is all setup you have your paypal account and have setup your hosting plans in your billing system. Your last step before you can open for business is to test your website by ordering a website hosting account. You do this so that you can make sure your order form is all working properly. After all you don’t want to have customers use an order form that does not even work right?
Well those are the 6 steps you will need to take in order to launch your very own website hosting company. If you have any questions you can comment on this blog post and I will reply with an answer. In fact if you read this and open a webhosting company post your
website address here so I can check it out.
Ps: Did I tell you guys he is offering a 12$ / yr hosting deal or 1$/month hosting (if not now you know) exclusively for our readers.
PPs: You will need a coupon code in order to enjoy this great deal. Just sign up for my newsletter on the right of the side bar and you will be sent the Coupon code.
PPPs: The deal ends on May 1st! So hurry
Reseller hosting is an excellent idea and its something I have tried in the past. I had a couple bad experiences, but only because of the company I chose. I did not do enough research and ended up with dissatisfied customers.
I think I will do some research on the sites you recommend and let you know.
Great! Get back and tell us what you think about them.
BTW great blog youve got, did you design it using thesis?
Great! Get back and tell us what you think about them.
BTW great blog youve got, did you design it using thesis?
I think with the growing interest in online business running a web hosting company is definitely a good business idea. Will appreciate if you’ll write more about this.
Home Business Marketing´s last blog ..Are You Using This Innovative CommentLuv Link Tactics?
Great! Thanks, I will inform Jason to expatiate on the subject . Hope you liked it.
I will post a follow up to this article shortly. As reselling website hosting services is a great way to generate an income and if you resell for a good/stable company you can really make a name for yourself. I am gearing up for a 24 hours start up event on April 8th but before I fly out to participate in that event I will write up a part two of this article as which will include how one can get a few customers without spending a dime! That's right their are actual ways to advertise and get customers with zero money down. So stay tuned!
Reseller hosting is an excellent idea and its something I have tried in the past. I had a couple bad experiences, but only because of the company I chose. I did not do enough research and ended up with dissatisfied customers.
I think I will do some research on the sites you recommend and let you know.
I think with the growing interest in online business running a web hosting company is definitely a good business idea. Will appreciate if you’ll write more about this.
Home Business Marketing´s last blog ..Are You Using This Innovative CommentLuv Link Tactics?
Thanks for the comment! I think a lot of people especially teens start web hosting businesses.
I'm (almost) 17 and just recently started a web host with a friend, and actually came accross this site looking for places to advertise with BSA. n nOne point of note on thie article: n nJason recomends getting a PayPal account to accept billing. However, PayPal's terms of service explicity state that you must be over 18 to register an account. So you'll need to have your parent's name on the account if you want to have it legally. n nTo avoid this we're using Google Checkout. They have to complaints about age, and are easier to use. n. . .
. . . nAlso, (from my experience so far) a billing system isn't really needed when you're just starting out. At this point if might be worth the money saved (from buying/leasing the system, or the charge to cover it that is included in you're reseller plan.). As a starting Entrepreneur you're biggest piece of capital to invest is you're time. Corresponding with customers prior to ordering, and billing them by email is fine. It can even help form a relationship which will benefit you both down the road. n nI also can not over emphasize the branding element to you're business that he mentioned in step one. We didn't have a distinct branding when we started, and are now having to define one now; having seen how needed it is. n nDominus Vobiscum nJackson