How to start a hosting company?

[ITzzJake]

I know the basics, but could you explain to me how I would start this up?

ITzzJake Reviewed by ITzzJake on 7th Apr 2011. How to start a hosting company? I know the basics, but could you explain to me how I would start this up? Rating: 5

[Terror]

1. If it's your first time in the hosting industry, buy a large VPS or a small dedicated before you go throw heaps of money away.
2. A good domain, try to pick something that's easy to remember and sounds good.
3. A design, spend a few hundred on it, a design is what will bring your customers in, if it's all easy to access you'll have the potential of turn them into paying clientele.
4. No ads, don't put ads on your site they look shit.
5. A good billing system, something like WHMCS would do the treat, make sure you pay for it .
6. Advertise on web hosting talk, digitalpoint and other major marketing forums. If you want to provide good quality, I'd advise you not to post on here as then you'll be sticking to the warez niche.

Hope this helps.

[SuicidalMedia]

Depends, do you want to run an illegal wannabe hosting company, or a real hosting company. Which would really require a lot of money. But I guess you want to know about the first option.

Basically, you need to do the following things:

• Rent a dedicated server.
• Get an cPanel license.
• Get a professional design for the main site. (When I say "get" I mean on the "rip" it too)".
• Get a separate hosting for the main site, in case if the server where you host your clients go down, so they could complain about it.

Ok, now, seriously. You'd have to register your web hosting company as "Internet services", you'd need an office, at least 4-5 workers. Best thing is that you don't have to offer web hosting only, main product of the company can be web design, as it all gets in the "Internet services" category.

[ITzzJake]

Thank you very much, Terror and Jason.

And Jason, I want to run a legit hosting company, but not anything like HostGator or something like that.

Approximately how much money do you think it would cost to set up one that I suggested above?

+rep btw

[Maze]

Minimum $500.

[ITzzJake]

Okay, any way to start out cheaper? Like buying reseller or something?

[PA$$!oN]

m8 first u open a ... Shared,Reseller,Master,Alpha if you hosting company work good... u are getting profit every month more than 50 or 60$ so .. than u start selling vps also ... and from vps u are getting profit more than 200 or 300$ so start dedicated server.. its good.. as i am also starting a hosting company will laucnh in 1 or 2 week !

[Cory]

Well my advice would be "Don't" for the simple fact there's too many competitors out there and if you don't have much money to begin with, I'll give a way in a sarcastic way.

• Buy a Reseller, VPS or Dedicated
• Steal a Hosting Template or Buy from themeforest.com
• Download a NULLED version of WHMCS
• Download a NULLED version of vBulletin (Forums) - If wanted.

I don't condone downloading anything NULLED, just being my sarcastic self, The companies advertised on my signature everything is paid for by me.

Cheapest Way:

• Buy a Reseller from Hostgator.com
• Buy a Domain that is simple and easy to remember.
• Once you have hosting and your domain is pointed to Hostgator servers;
• Goto, http://whmcs.com/hostgator/ type in your hosting domain (Recommend use a sub domain, like clients.yourdomain.com or billing.yourdomain.com) and you will have a free license of WHMCS provided by Hostgator.
• Hostgator offers free hosting templates or still I recommend using themeforest or hire a designer.
• Download and Install LiveZilla (Free Live Support)

Why am I recommending another hosting company? I'm not greedy and I can't offer all those things for "FREE" especially if you're starting out for about $25 per Month (I think) you can get all of that. Keep in mind, If you upgrade to a VPS or Dedicated you will have to buy your WHMCS license. (License is changeable, you won't loose anything)

[Maniac_]

If you are from Ohio, as you profile states, i recommend you go and ask at the state office or whatever the name is.. The place where you ask questions about legal stuff.

I live in Greece. I run a company without an office, something like a licensed independent businessman. I have my checkbook where everything i sell goes on, i pay an approximate amount of $400 per 3 months, this is some kind of insurance, and also being taxed at 23% of my earnings. But this is here and this is there. Bottom line, if you don't know what you are doing and you don't have a strong client base and connections to a steady cash flow income, then just do it illegally (black).

That's why legal hosting prices are very different from the black market. If i rent a dedi for $200, half of my earnings go to the gov.. Meaning i cant sell hosting for 2 or 4 dollars!

[edwart]

Start a web hosting company can be easy and difficult at the same time. There are so many different web hosts out there these days that the industry is flooded with them. The main things you will need are:

1.) Reseller Hosting, Dedicated Hosting or VPS Hosting.
2.) Experienced server admin or the knowledge to administer your own server.
3.) Experienced Sales/Support Team.
4.) TIME...TIME...TIME...TIME
--

That is just the beginning, if you want to talk more about it i will help you out. Message me on yahoo messenger under the name "technihost" if you have msn add me "[email protected]" and i will assist you further in your conquest of becoming a "webhost". I will not assist you in become a web host that scams people or is just looking to make a quick buck. There are to many of them out there now. You have to be dead serious with this subject. In saying that, if you are interested, message me on yahoo and i will assist you and answer any question(s) that you have.