o matter who you are, it's direct one-on-one contact person?
time to start a web hosting This will give you some
company of your own. indication of how well the
Starting your own web hosting company can respond to time
company can prove to be a very sensitive issues.
good business decision. Go
- The platform and control
through the following steps if panel: Does the web hosting
you wish to start one. provider offer powerful and
Step 1. Choosing the simple control panel
platform Unix is an open source features?
program that makes it less
- The company's
expensive than Windows and is reputation: See if the
more stable environment. Most company has a customer forum and
programs run on both operating signup so you may ask other
systems like perl/cgi, PHP, and clients what their experience has
Flash. But only Windows can been like with the company.
support ASP, .NET, MS SQL etc.
- Years of experience in
UNIX or even Linux.
providing hosting: The longer
Step 2. Choose your web the better in this case.
hosting provider. This could very Incompetent web hosting companies
well be the most important will fail within the first year;
decision you can make in starting many come and go in even less
your web hosting company. Make time.
sure your hosting provider
Step 3. Set up your web
qualifies with the following hosting plans and decide on
criteria:
monthly pricing. You will want to
- Customer Support: Do offer a range of plans from
they have live 24/7 phone simple smaller plans, to medium
support? Or do they have email plans, and high end web hosting
support with no way of getting a plans. You can offer between
three and four different
Step 7. Set up a
plans.
support helpdesk. This is simply
Step 4. Choose the a way for your clients to
control panel you want to use. communicate with you about the
Control panels vary from very support they need. Preferably
simple and user friendly to find a control panel or platform
complex systems. Chose one that that has this feature built in.
is simple to use but at the same Also, A FAQ section on your web
time is rich in features.
site or knowledgebase will be
Step 5. Develop a useful. You can also consider
business website If you want allowing your customers to call
people to buy web hosting from you for live phone support.
you, in the first place your site
Step 8. Set up your
should be of top quality. Spend a client billing. You will need to
lot of time on this. Make it select some kind of billing
simple, easy to navigate but software and/or Merchant Gateway,
filled with all necessary preferably one that is integrated
information. If you are not into your control panel
comfortable in designing your own system.
site, hire a professional. It's
Step 9. Create a
worth spending some money here. business plan. Before you start
Avoid using a template. Have a marketing your web hosting site,
unique design.
prepare a proper business plan
Step 6. Make your site and write email messages, welcome
e-commerce ready to be able to letters etc...
accept payments for web hosting
Step 10. Market your
accounts; you'll want to set up website. While time consuming and
the following: An SSL sometimes costly, effectively
certificate, a merchant account, marketing your website is an
and a payment gateway.
invaluable tool that will keep
visitors coming to your site and google_alternate_ad_url =
improving your chance of sales. "http://www.isnare.com/adsense-al
You may consider the following t-728x90.php";
ideas: Current business contacts,
friends and family. Search engine google_ad_width = 728;
optimization. Paid advertising.
Affiliate programs. Newsletters, google_ad_height = 90;
etc...
These are the initial 10 steps google_ad_format =
to start a web hosting "728x90_as";
company.
google_ad_type = "text";
border-color: #FFFFFF;
background-color: #F5F7FB; google_color_border =
border-left: #BAC9FF 1px solid; "F5F7FB";
border-right: #BAC9FF 1px solid;
margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: google_color_bg = "F5F7FB";
10px;" valign="top"
align="center"> google_color_link =
"0000FF";
type="text/javascript">
type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndica
tion.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
About the Author:
Russell Blanc is an expert in the web hosting field and manages http://www.iWebHostingPlans.com, the ultimate resource for learning about web hosting.
Article Tags: hosting, web, company
