Spyderhost
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This question is asked all the time along with "is web hosting profitable"? The answer to the first question is only if you have a lot of drive and ambition. 20 years ago you could have started a new hosting company and found customers very easily and made money without much effort. However, 20 years later the market is flooded with web hosting providers of all sizes. The average small web host will honestly come and go within a few months. Why is that? Well to be honest most people who start a web hosting company have no understanding of how it really works and believe it is a get rich overnight business. They completely underestimate the amount of work that is involved building a web hosting business and the money you will need to invest.
So what are some ways you can build a small hosting provider and become profitable. While not everything you need to do this list should help you get started if you really have a strong desire.
Summary
There is much more to starting and running a web hosting company, but this might give you an idea. The question is can it be profitable even in a crowded market? The answer is yes if you are willing to put for the work to make it profitable. It is a job and you have to be self-motivated, organized and willing to work more hours than you might have ever worked before.
So what are some ways you can build a small hosting provider and become profitable. While not everything you need to do this list should help you get started if you really have a strong desire.
- Branding
Your brand will be everything. Memorable brands abound all over the internet. They are what people think about when they are looking for a particular service. Think of brands like GoDaddy, Hostgator, Amazon and many others. Some of the brand names speak to what they offer while others seem odd choices for the products and services they sell. However, it is all about your ability to create a brand that is memorable. Think the GoDaddy girls and well you get the point.
- Website Design
Often this is overlooked and while it is also a part of your brand it is more dedicated to your customers and creating sales. Your webite needs to be easy to get around and laid out easily to encourage sales. Do not make it look childish nor to complicated. Make it easy to find company information as well as promoting your services in a way that makes sense. If you are not a designer you can always use WordPress as your base for your site and buy a hosting theme that is easy to setup from places like ThemeForest.net.
- Local Marketing to Gain Customers not Google Ads
One of the biggest mistakes that many new hosting companies make is trying to go head to head with the big boys. Do not I repeat do not do this unless you have deep, deep pockets or plan on going broke really fast. Web hosting keywords on average can cost several dollars or more per click. Large companies have budgets that allow to spend large amounts of money to acquire each new customer. Most of us do not have that. So what do you do to get started and growing? I am sure that you live in an area that has many small businesses. These businesses have websites and many are hosting with large companies based on the ads they see. When you approach them offer a local person who can give them more personal service and a local number if something goes wrong. Most people want someone they know or can trust and that is easily accessible if a problem comes up.
- Customer Service
This is something that will be a struggle for most in the beginning. How do you offer 24/7 ticket service to compete with the likes of a Hostnine or Siteground. There are some ways you can accomplish this.
- Find a reseller account that offers end user support - This means they handle tickets while you sleep so you don't have to worry about being awake all day everyday. A search for reseller hosting end user support will help you find a few hosts that provide this service
- Outsource your web hosting customer service to a company that specializes in providing ticketing support for web hosts. There are a few that you can find on the web that have excellent records such as Bobcares or Server Sitters.
- You could opt to use GoDaddy or Resellerspanel where they provide you with a website or tools to easily build a website. They will than handle all sales, payment processing and provide your customers with 24/7 phone support utilizing a unique id that identifies your company with your customers.
- Promoting Your Brand Cheap
As you most likely wont be going into this as someone who is already rich you might need to think creatively about how to promote your new web host.
- Join forums related to your business. Read, learn and reply. Do not just start trying to post ads. This is really bad idea because you will be labeled a spammer gain no creditability. I know this first hand as I made that mistake early on back in 2005 on WebHostingTalk. I wanted to be a web hosting owner so bad, but had not idea what the heck I was doing. I got myself banned my first month. After talking to one of the Admins I was given a second chance, but let me tell you this is not the way to do it.
- Create a blog on your web hosting site or is separate and links to it. This can be good too if your blog is not on the same IP address as it gives you automatic linkbacks. In addition if your articles are original and of high quality and get high rankings on google you can drive some serious organic and FREE traffic to your website.
- Post ads on classified sites and web hosting directories.
- Write articles with linkbacks on sites such as Ezinearticles and others.
Summary
There is much more to starting and running a web hosting company, but this might give you an idea. The question is can it be profitable even in a crowded market? The answer is yes if you are willing to put for the work to make it profitable. It is a job and you have to be self-motivated, organized and willing to work more hours than you might have ever worked before.
