Things to Consider When Starting a Web Hosting Company

Starting up a successful web hosting company can be quite difficult if one is not properly equipped with knowledge as to how to do it. Think about it, when you start selling web space, in a sea of other people selling the same thing, how do you get customers to get their web hosting from you?

What Makes You so Special?

Most people that are going to be buying web hosting from you are not going to be as technologically savvy as you. So throwing a bunch of stats and numbers at them may fall on deaf ears. Yet you need to tell them things that will make them perceive you as being superior to your competitors. Can you offer 24/7 support? That’s a pretty big deal, and it’s something you’re going to want to mention. Can you offer 99% up time for your servers? It would be a good idea to mention it somewhere on your site. This will show the customers that you are reliable, and they can feel safer getting their service from you. Keep in mind, don’t make any promises you can’t keep. A couple of people with some bad experiences could easily be the demise of your business if word gets out.

What Should Your Prices be?

Pricing may seem like it is one of the harder things to determine, but in reality it’s not. You may be looking at some of the ridiculously low prices that some other web hosts are offering, and cringe in fear, and wonder how they can afford to do so. Often times people that offer web hosting for so cheap, have less than exemplary servers and equipment. Not to mention, people who are looking for crazy deals on the internet for a web hosting service are often times the people who have the least amount of experience and will be constantly harassing you for technical support. Don’t sell yourself short, people are more likely to respect your reseller hosting company if you have a fair and reasonable price around the range of ten to fifteen dollars per month.

Do Your Customers Love you?

This is one of the most important aspects of whether or not you will succeed. Get them excited and proud to use your brand. Give them an excellent experience, and encourage them to want to tell everyone about how great your web hosting company is. Brand recognition is very important, make sure you spend a lot of time thinking of a unique and clever name and logo, and don’t just choose something generic. The more generic your business is, the more you will blend in with everyone else.

In summation, web hosting is a very generic service, and a consumer can be overwhelmed with all the potential web hosts out there. Web hosts are a dime a dozen, and it’s up to you to get noticed. SEO, (search engine optimization) can be your best friend. If you rank high on a search engine like Google, then you have a higher chance of being seen. It doesn’t matter how good your service is, or how many people you have working in your company. If no one notices you, you will not succeed. eLief wishes you all the best of luck out there!

We at eLief offer great reseller hosting accounts to jump start your web hosting business. Feel free to post if you have any questions.

Are you Making Money, or, Building a Reseller Hosting Business?

One very important thing you need to ask yourself is: Are you in this to make some quick cash, or are you doing this to build a long-term successful company? If you are not in it to do the latter, then you will greatly suffer and lose out on long term rewards.

Suppose you would like to start up a web hosting company using a reseller hosting account. You would have to do sufficient research, and purchase all the necessary utilities: a reseller hosting plan with enough resources, web design, billing system (included free on your eLief account), customer support, etc. Completing these first steps gives you a great feeling of accomplishment, since you’re now ready to take the several months of planning and turn your dream into a reality.

The Beginning Stages

This is the part where most hosting companies will fail. After several months, you become so totally absorbed into your new business that you start forgetting about your normal, daily life. When you speak with friends or family, eventually the topic of your business will come up. The first question from them will always be “How’s your business doing?”, and then occasionally “How much money are you making?”

In the early stages, that question will absolutely CRUSH any persons entrepreneurial excitement. This is normal. You’ll need to swallow your pride when you realize that the answer to that question isn’t yet what you would like it to be.

Whether you realize it or not, you’ve now set an invisible goal for yourself. You now believe that in-order to prove to the world that your hosting business is not a failure, you have to show that you have a large profit margin.

You shouldn’t get discouraged if your business isn’t an instant success. Infact, most businesses in general do not usually turn a profit for the first 12-24 months. If you’re counting on being the exception instead of the rule, then you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.

Making Money and Building a Business are Two Different Things

This is especially true for startups. The majority of new web hosts invest copious amounts of time into the startup of the business, and then if they don’t see immediate results, they abandon their business with nothing to show except debt and lost time.

Not seeing the profit and cash flow after the first 6-18 months can be a very scary feeling. That feeling is what will drive many startups to give up or sell their business. This is a huge mistake.

Perhaps an analogy will help; My wife recently has been cooking some amazing food with home grown vegetables. Think of the time and effort put into a reseller web hosting company, as the time and effort put into a garden. If you were to plant a seed and water it, fertilize it, and after a few days or weeks you don’t see any vegetables. Would you give up on it so soon? Probably not, because you can see the physical growth and see your plants slowly developing. With a business, it’s the same idea, except not as easy to see, and is on a much grander scale.

My advice to you: Don’t worry about making money in the beginning stages.

Planning ahead is imperative. It would not be wise for you to quit your day job immediately. Make sure that you have a strong business plan, and are financially secured for 6 months at the very least prior to starting out. Work on the business in your off time, and the business will succeed if the right amount of time, planning, and effort is put into it.

Don’t give up and the next time someone asks that dreaded question, your answer will feel much more admirable. Good luck!

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Look out for the follow-up series of articles coming in the next couple weeks, where we will go into some of the more technical aspects and business strategies specifically related to reseller web hosting, and why an eLief reseller hosting account would be an excellent avenue for you to get started.