Many people want to start a web hosting business in this modern technical age, in most cases because people see it as a cheap and easy way to make a quick bit of money - but for those who want to make a success out of their hosting business in the long term, time, hard work and dedicated are needed to ensure that their business turns out to be the success that they want it to be; however, establishing yourself in the web hosting market these days is becoming ever more difficult since most people have had the same idea and also because the main companies within this market are offering good quality hosting at dirt cheap prices - although this might sound daunting, a more competitive market means that you have the opportunity to make the most of your business by trying to promote it and get it out there in front of the consumer as much as possible. For most people, starting a web hosting business is a process which needn’t require any large amount of money, since most existing web hosts are able to provide cheap reseller package which allow you to resell the web space that you are assigned to your customers; some reseller packages also include useful tools which are there to help you get your web hosting business off the ground - for example your reseller package might include a license for a web hosting billing system so that you are able to bill your customers who have purchased your hosting automatically online without the need for any complicated and frustrating paper work. You should only start a web hosting business if you are dedicated to making your business successful, and are able to provide your customers with the necessary support so that they are satisfied with the experience that they have with you, and not if you are in it purely for the money and plan to just abandon your customers after a certain amount of time; this is because great frustration can be caused to customers if the web host that they have signed up with decides to cease existance after a certain amount of time since in most cases it means that the data they have stored within their shared website hosting space that they have purchased is wiped meaning that they are unlikely to retrieve it - on the other hand, if you want to make your business successful then it is important that you provide your customers with a good level of support since it means that they are then highly likely to refer you to their friends and colleagues who might need hosting, and it is commonly known that ‘word of mouth’ can easily help make a success out of any business. If you are completely new to the world of web hosting and web design, then it is important that you do a good amount of research before embarking on setting up your own web hosting business; this is because you will most likely require server administration skills amongst other skills as your business starts to grow - these skills will most probably not be needed at the establishment of your business since you will probably be using a reseller hosting package, which means that the administration of the server on which you are hosted is taken care of by the trained technicians who are employed by your web host. Website design skills would also be a big bonus for you if you were to start a web hosting business; this is because you will need a website on which you can show case your products, although you can eaily purchase a template to use on your website, these are known to turn customers away from web hosting businesses since they interpret it as saying ‘we can’t be bothered to build our own website, so why should we be bothered with anything else’. In terms of money to start a web hosting business, domains and reseller packages are cheap these days which means that you should be easily able to start a small web hosting business for under $50; although that price only covers the basics such as a domain and a reasonable specification reseller package, free or cheap alternatives of other expensive components of a website hosting business such as a billing system or help desk can be easily picked up.

Domains and Business Names

The first thing you need if you are to start a web hosting business is a domain name, so that people are able to find your business and website easily via the use of a search engine; a domain is used so that people can easily access your website from any web browser, at any internet connected location in the world. When choosing a domain that you are planning to use for your web hosting business, you should make sure that it is one which is linked to the subject, so that prospective customers get an idea of the purpose of the business before they actually reach your website; by using a domain name which is relevant to the subject of the actual website, you ensure that customers are able to easily recall your business’s name and its sole purpose - even if they do forget the purpose of the business, they can easily work it out again through the meaning of the name of the business. You should also make the domain which you want to use for your web hosting business short in length, as well as easy to spell; this means that it is easier both clients current and prospective to remember - for example, the sort length means that the word ordering won’t be forgotten easily, and the fact that it is easy to spell means that your current customers can easily refer their friends and colleagues who need web hosting to your business. As is the case with a domain for any purpose, you should always try and make your domain name as individual as possible; this is because it can help your customers prospective and current to remember your website’s address as well as your business’s name - an individual name also means that you are less likely to end up using the name of an existing company or finding that the domain name which you want has been taken for use by somebody else. It is highly important that the name which you have chosen to use for your business is not being used by another person or company which is already in existance, its for this reason that you should always make the necessary checks within your country to ensure that no one else is using the desired name; if someone does find that you have started to trade under their name, and have owned the name or have been trading longer than you, they have the right to sue you to ensure that you stop using the name in question if a dispute over the name does break out or if you refuse the original owners calls t stop using the name or brand. When purchasing a domain from any good domain regsitrar, they will ask the TLD which you want the domain have - the TLD is the ‘Top Level Domain Name’ which in most cases is relevant to the country which you want to aim the website in question towards, for example the TLD for the United Kingdom is ‘.uk’ with variations being ‘.co.uk’ and ‘.me.uk’; you should always ensure that the TLD which you choose to use for your business is relevant to the country at which you want your hosting to be purchased from, if you have no target country in question then you should use the ‘.com’ domain extension. One thing to note is that you can pick up domains cheaply from any good domain registrar on the internet; it is advise that you buy domains from an American registrar since in most cases they work out cheaper than UK based or other foreign domain registrars. Once you have chosen your business name and domain name, as long as it has not already been done so by someone else who is using the same brand, you should register your company name as a trademark to ensure that no one else is allowed to trade under that name; this means that if someone else does try to setup a business which has the same name as yours, they will not be able to since you will be able to sue them since a registered trademark is basically means that you own the name in question and that no one else is able to use it without your prior permission or consent - this is especially important if you are planning to make your business last and if you want to start earning a good income out of your investment - if you don’t then someone could easily come along and start trading roguely under your name, and even ruin your company’s reputation.

Reseller Package, VPS or Dedicated Server

Before you start taking on customers for your web hosting business, you need to have something on which you can host them; there are three choices for you to choose from when you are starting your web hosting business, these are: reseller hosting packages, virtual private servers or dedicated servers. Reseller hosting packages are packages which you buy from an established web host which allow you to sell on the disk space and bandwidth that it assigned to you to your customers - your customers in turn will have their own client accounts which they can then use to manage the domains and websites which they have chosen to host with you; the good thing with reseller packages is that the server administration is taken care of by your web host, which means although you aren’t allowed direct root or administrator access to the server to install the programs that you want to, you don’t have to have any advanced server administration skills since all that work is carried out by the trained technicians who are employed by your web host. Virtual private servers are not real servers in terms of them being physical, but they still provide you with a dedicated environment similar to that which is provided by a dedicated server when you are using it - this means that you can get the same control as you would have with a dedicated server, but at a fraction of the cost; the thing with virtual private servers that sets them apart from dedicated servers is the fact that you are still sharing a server with other people, since there are normally multiple virtual private servers hosted on one physical node - although you are assigned your own guaranteed bandwidth, disk space and RAM, the CPU of the physical node is normally shared between all the VPS hosted on a single node but not equally, but in some cases web hosts will split the CPU between the VPS so that each gets a fair share. Dedicated servers are the most expensive solution for any web host who is starting out in the industry; this is because what you are paying for is a physical server which is not shared with anyone else in any way what-so-ever. Dedicated servers, like virtual private servers provide you with a dedicated environment in which you are able to install any program of your choice, which in turn means that you are able to customize the server to work in the way that you want it to; this means that if you want to focus on a specific type of web hosting which requires for a special program to be installed on the hosting server, then you can - an example of this would be if you wanted to provide ShoutCast radio hosting for your customers via the cPanel control panel, in this case you would have to install ShoutCast and the necessary cPanel add-on which is required to allow your customers to manage their ShoutCast accounts through the cPanel control panel. Your choice of package should reflect which stage you are with your web hosting business; this means that if you are just starting out with your business then you should consider a reseller hosting package since they are fairly cheap and give you lots of room to allow you to expand over time - once you have outgrown your reseller hosting account you can then decide to move up to a virtual private server if you feel the need to and if your funds allow you to, if you have been running your business for a while and have built up a small customer base then you should consider a virtual private server - the same is applicable if you have a large customer base or if you want to provide your customers with a different type of hosting which means that you will need a certain program installed on the server which wouldn’t be available if you had a standard shared or reseller hosting package. If you have a relatively large customer base, but don’t have the funds to purchase either a virtual private server or a dedicated server then you could easily go with a higher end reseller package; this means that as your business starts to grow you can then upgrade through the various reseller plans that are provided by your web host, and as time and money allows you can then upgrade to either a virtual private server or dedicated server as you see fit. If you are starting out with a dedicated server of a virtual private server, then you should consider the resources that have been assigned to you; this is because you might have a server with a large amount of disk space which will allow you to host many websites, but you might not have a high enough specification processor or enough bandwidth to match the amount of disk space that you have been provided with.

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