Business owners and companies are constantly looking for ways in which they can expand their business and get additional revenues. If you already provide IT services to customers, it is a good idea to add a hosting service to your existing portfolio. It will allow new revenue streams and bring in more clients for the substantial growth of your business.
Let us first familiarize ourselves with a few terms:
What is Web Hosting?
It is an online service that lets users publish their web applications and website on the internet.
What is Reseller Hosting?
Reseller hosting services refer to selling or renting out white/private labeled hosting services to the clients using your own brand name. Reseller hosting service allows to sublease hosting space to the clients. For this, resellers have to buy a hosting service, like a VPS (Virtual Private Server) from the web hosting provider at a wholesale rate. They can then rent it out to others after configuration, customization and division of the hosting space as per individual client needs.
Reseller hosting allows sellers to sell without actually owning any of the actual property, equipment or without having the technical expertise. This reduces the cost of managing hosting infrastructures and servers.
What Is A Web Hosting Business?
Web hosting business helps customers publish their websites or applications on the internet by renting out or sub leasing space on a server provided by a web hosting company. Clients can keep and store all their website files on this server.
Why start Web Hosting Business?
It provides a two way benefit. Sellers can make recurring income by selling or renting web hosting space to their clients. Whereas clients can get these services without the need of developing their own hosting service from scratch. Tech and cost savvy for both parties!
How to Start Web hosting Business?
We will show you how to start your own web hosting service business through this article. There are five major steps involved:
-
Decide Your Target Niche:
As with the entire business world, competition is fierce in the web hosting industry. One cannot rule the entire industry, but can target a specific niche group and thrive in it. It is necessary to choose and focus on a particular group’s needs whose requirements are not being met anywhere else and provide customer solutions to them. The key is to differentiate yourself from the rivals and cater to the unseen and unfulfilled needs of clients.
To separate yourself from the crowd you can either provide an additional web service like web design, software development, customer support, a competitive or cutthroat pricing plan to customers. Targeting a specific community is also a good idea like aiming to provide hosting services exclusively to bakers or homemade jewelry stores etc.
Whatever your choice is, develop an entire business plan and check it out for its feasibility before taking the start. Plan ahead. This will help save you from mid way failures and jump-start your business for better growth.
-
Perform Competitors’ Analysis:
A good way to outstand from rivals and shine in your niche is to carry out a detailed competitor’s analysis first. It gives you an insight into what they are doing and where there is room for improvement. What are the loopholes where you can take start?
Competitors are unavoidable in any field until you come up with something very rare and that’s rare too! So, even if you are a specialist in your industry, you are bound to have more or less competitors. So the goal is to observe their strategies, analyze their models and see what they are offering and what’s missing.
This help you get an edge when you look for clients, identify markets, apply business strategies and provide services. As the business world is fiercely competitive, it’s important to gather as much information about your working ground as you can to make a successful plan that will provide consistent and sustainable growth.
Relevant article link : What is wpengine?
-
Choose the Server Type for Web Hosting:
The next step is to choose the appropriate server type for your hosting business. There are several hosting companies to choose from where you can buy the hosting service and sell it forward to your clients. Have a look at this blog post best web hosting services to have a detailed insight into best web hosting services providers of recent times.
After choosing the hosting service provider, choose the appropriate server type that best suits your needs. You have several server reselling options to choose from which are as follows:
- VPS:
A Virtual Private Server, also termed as VPS, is an isolated server (cloud or other) that is virtually divided into serve multiple systems. It creates a virtual working setup on a physical server. It is operated by web hosting provider or cloud.
Although its space is limited but it is the cheapest available option and a fine platform to start from for beginners. You can host multiple clients on this system which keeps the overall operating costs low. However, its features might also be somewhat limited than other types.
2. Cloud Server:
Cloud Servers or public cloud hosting, are virtual servers that work just like physical servers. It is run on an infrastructure operated by cloud. It is typically a virtualized server that provides easily available and highly scalable cloud solution that can pools resources from multiple servers.
They are able to process information, store huge amount of data and deliver applications. This is best suited for fast-growing startups that have websites with unpredictable traffic or for small e-Commerce portals.
3. Dedicated Server:
As per name, this server is not shared and dedicated to a single, exclusive client. That is why it is the most expensive of all server types and has extensive features because, a single, non-shared, machine provides all the robust features to the clients together with facilitating with additional security or HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) Compliant Hosting.
4. Dedicated Cloud Server:
A dedicated cloud server is a cloud infrastructure dedicated to a single client. It is useful because you don’t need to scale your server or infrastructure despite of having an unexpected surge in traffic providing consistent performance. Dedicated cloud server is not as pricey as dedicated hosting. It stands somewhere in the middle-range in terms of pricing.
Which Server is best Of All?
The fact is there is no single type that can be termed as best. Each type has its own pros and cons so choose wisely according to your circumstances. You can choose from any one of the above mentioned options that suits your niche and fits in the business model with respect to the finances and customer hosting needs. However, it is advisable not to use shared hosting, as it can hamper your service’s performance, speed, security and scalability which can be baleful for your repute.
-
Develop a Business Plan:
Now develop business plan with the chosen server type. Develop working strategy and allocate resources to each task. Decide your brand name, logo, tagline and domain name. Keep it simple that is easy to recall.
The two most important aspects of business plan here are:
-
Develop your Website:
Website serves as your business’s main storefront. Its quality will represent the quality of your services, so it should be top-notch. It will serve as a testimony of the quality of your hosting services. Make sure it is the best it can be.
Learn how to develop an effective website with our blog post How to Make an Interactive Website? to make it fruitful for your business. Remember that you might have to customize the web hosting interface of your client before you hand it over to them.
Relevant Article Link : what should you consider when developing your website content?
2. Develop Web Hosting Packages:
The second important aspect of your business model is to create web hosting packages. This comes under the pricing plan. Find out the best point between your infrastructure costs and how much clients are willing to pay to determine the best price range for your packages.
Allocate specific resources to each package, monthly bandwidth, like disk quota, max email accounts etc that can be created using the service. Give flexible and customer-friendly package options. So that clients can easily choose according to their need.
-
Launch your Reselling Business & Customer Service:
With these steps you are ready to launch your hosting service business. After it comes customer care support and service. You might not think of it as a basic business formation step but it is essential and a practical necessity. Consider it as a part of business plan.
The thing that clients will not have to worry about the technical issues of the service after its installation is a great assurance to them. Software and hardware tidbits can be frustrating and stressful for users. People rely a lot on after customer care services to keep their websites running without hitch after the launch.
If you ensure them this level of customer satisfaction, they are more likely to choose your services for hosting their websites. Providing customer care service should be top priority of your business.
Final Takeaway:
These are 5 basic steps to follow while establishing your own hosting company. Plan your business, analyze competitors, choose web host partner and server, launch your business and provide after care and customer support. It is beneficial to start web hosting business because of its simplicity and additional revenue. It can uplift your existing digital business to new heights without much incorporation of money and deep technical knowledge. Good luck with your new endeavor!
