Hardest Part of being a web hosting provider

Hello all! I was looking for a little guidance. I'm going to work my way towards doing web hosting provider as a full time business.

After doing it for many years with another company I think its time to start my own and really just take things to the next level.

I was wondering if anyone had insight on what the biggest hurdles for you as a full time web hosting provider were or things to watch out for.

Any info would be really helpful!

Thanks!

One of the hardest part is getting the customers which also tends to be one of the basics of having a successful hosting company.
since there are so many different hosting companies out there and almost all are identical/provide the same services (or at least claim to do so).
The competitive market makes advertising and SEO very expensive therefore reaching customers harder which is why web hosting forums are have been on the rise. Forums allow for true respected users to leave trusted reviews and also allow for cheaper/free advertisement.

I hope it helps

Hi Longneck,

Congratulations wanting to start your own firm.
I would say the biggest hurdle to begin with is generating business, as Luxin said this is a very competitive market, many people have no idea what they are doing but still think they can get rich quick from starting a hosting company and many of these shutdown a month later. If your serious about this it's going to take time and huge amounts of effort. As you have already worked for a hosting firm you should have no problems getting everything up and running.

My advice to you is stop thinking and start doing, everyday your not operating is a day of potential customers you have missed out on.
You can start with your own colocated hardware or a VPS from a good provider but I would suggest a humble reseller account to begin with to keep your operating expenses as low as possible as it might take you at least a year to turn a profit.

I am not a web hosting provider but I feel the hardest part of a web host is getting customers and increasing sales for their sites. A web hosting company needs do many tasks like marketing your products on more sites, forums, social networks, ad networks, having good reviews, expand their brand name..etc.

I met web host companies on forums and forum marketing seems a great source to get targeted visitors to their hosting sites and covert into sales. Beside, they can use advertising to increase sales for their sites by buying ad from Google or Forums.

longneck said:

Hello all! I was looking for a little guidance. I'm going to work my way towards doing web hosting provider as a full time business.

After doing it for many years with another company I think its time to start my own and really just take things to the next level.

I was wondering if anyone had insight on what the biggest hurdles for you as a full time web hosting provider were or things to watch out for.

Any info would be really helpful!

Thanks!

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I have never been a web hosting service provider but I have a couple of real close colleagues that have been and we had discussed many things on many occasions.

They both told me that the hardest part is getting new customers to try out your services and also to keep them as customers. They said that because there are so many different hosting providers out there that it's extremely hard to find and keep growing the customer base. Too many people want to stick with or go with the big brands that they have seen or heard of so it's harder for new providers to get their client lists growing.

So as long as you can get new customers coming in and keep the ones that get there then half the battle is won.

If you do decide to do it then I wish you the best of luck and hope that you will be able to achieve what you set out to do.

Luxin Host said:

One of the hardest part is getting the customers which also tends to be one of the basics of having a successful hosting company.

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I know that but what will happen if some small hosting companies sell hosting services with cheap price to get more customers, It could maintain the quality of a web hosting service?

Luxin Host said:

The competitive market makes advertising and SEO very expensive therefore reaching customers harder which is why web hosting forums are have been on the rise. Forums allow for true respected users to leave trusted reviews and also allow for cheaper/free advertisement.

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I agree forums are great sources for free advertisement and it is an effective channel for hosting providers. I bought hosting packages from offers on forums.

A good team with required mix of skills.
Attractive web design for your site.
High quality servers.
Competitive prices.
New clients.


These are some of the things that needs hard work.

Dedication is key to running a successful hosting company. Look at the competitors and see what they're offering, offer better so the potential clients that visit your website can become interested.

Web hosting has gone beyond just providing Web space and uptime.
We now talk of 24/7 support which includes Tickets, Livechat and even Phone calls.
Then you have to go beyond mere hosting, handling clients novice questions with 3rd party software

You will need to have knowledge of popular and commonly used scripts like wordpress, Joomla.
It is not obligatory, but if you can't handle such for clients when it comes up, you give a negative perception to clients.

Then the hardest is in getting the clients, and not only having them, but making them stay, and be able to recommend your service to others.

The hardest part of been hosting provider?
We believe that the hardest part of the game is to be loyal to your customers.

Getting your first customers is hard but nothing impossible .. if you are new on this .. you will need some time , you will sit down and work and do some basic marketing strategies , SEO etc etc. You will have some endless nights , litres of coffee and energy drinks but you will success on this.

Taking care of support/issues/bugs and security is something that anyone can do and if you can't resolve it yourself you can call more experienced IT specialists team to resolve it (in case your team can't resolve it)..

Having live chat or phone call support is not that important or anything fancy for your business partners (customers). McDonalds have live chat and phone line nothing special with that.

After all, if you advertise that you are providing 99.99% uptime then your uptime will have to be 99.99% not 99.97 not even 99.98%. If you can't provide it then don't mislead your potential customer. This is something that you CAN'T HIDE!

If you are saying that you are providing unlimited everything don't use sneaky tricks to hide the reality . And the reality is that YOU ARE providing nothing unlimited. Because claiming that your customers will have unlimited storage and stating something different in your 52 pages of ToS is a pure scam!

Don't claim that you are cloud hosting provider just because you have two nodes in a cluster . Just because cloud is the next sexy ... don't do it.

If you know nothing about WordPress or any other CMS or you don't know how to code 2 lines in PHP don't claim to offer Managed WordPress Hosting.

Don't set unrealistic low prices just because HostGator (EIG) has one penny shared hosting plan. EIG is not banking only as hosting provider.

In order to do all that you have to be honest with yourself and your customers. And is hard because you can't be honest & loyal and advertising myths.

Nowadays people have more technical knowledge they do know that you can't provide unlimited everything for 2$ or 5$ /mo. And those who don't know that will run away from you with the very first notification they receive from your side.

If you want to success like we did you have to be loyal and honest with your offers, customers and your resellers.

Loyalty is something that you can't outsource .

The beginning is not easy , never was and will never be. Stay motivated and you will success!

Am a web hosting provider and I can confirm that everything said is true.if you have your firm running reach out to your target and the fact is it isn't a piece of cake finding clients for your services.You are going to put more efforts to start off.
Thanks.

Definitely customer acquisition and retention. You have to do this the right way and there are no cutting corners. Mostly marketing and support.

as i know business , the hardest is to be Patience have ur budget money every month , at start maybe u will work hard for first 3 month and start get ur first customer maybe its take year .. and so ...
u have to work very hard on ur business think twice before u start
1- the name of ur domain-company
2- design ur special website and reviews
3- a special offers thats not up any where else ( add ur own language - add a important articles )
4- make promo and special deals ( abut hosting u can add new services like -> 5g ssd etc and design ur website free - or setup ur wordpress free etc )

thats what on my mind

been in the hosting industry since 1997 When your just starting out focus on your local market first personal service you will be able to have better profit market margins and grow your brand by adding your own local services on top of your hosting most important follow up with your customers from time to time it show you care and value there business and you get more business this way

The hardest thing is finding the right people to work for your company and the right partners so always ask for references to be sure they can do the job your brand and services

follow the advice here its awesome
great advice every one

hope this helps you
you have any questions just ask welcome to world of hosting

The Hrdest part is having the right skills to defend your customers agains attacks and having the skills to save them when the s hit the Fan lol :lol:

I would call it "the start"
Buying the server, designing the site, installing everything, it's the easy thing. The hard thing is to get the clients. When you get the clients then you need to watch out for the scammer who like to use your service but they also like to chargeback. :diablo:
Also getting a good team to work with you.

As you can tell by the length of this thread, there is a lot to it!

Hardest Part of being a web hosting provider

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There not being 4 of me

Serious, getting customers is the hard part, and you would need lots of patience to grow your business.

All the best!