Currently I have five active sites, ranging from this to that as far as content matter but I am beginning to look into reseller hosting plans for a few reasons:

I have several websites, it would be nice to have more control over them and adjust to their needs.

But mainly, as person who is trying to be an 'internet entrepreneur', it would be nice to offer hosting.

I'm just wondering if this is a path I should walk down. I know many do, but I have some questions:

I have a great domain name, haven't purchased it yet but its short, comical and easy to remember. If its still available when if I decide to do this, the i'll nab it. I don't think it will be a problem reaching customers, with reseller plans so affordable only a minimum of customers would be needed to cover costs of operation.

What are the demands for smaller hosting sizes? There are so many hosts who offer 'unlimited' hosting for an affordable price (I know, not really unlimited, but still). There are plenty of people who only need a small amount, to host their blog, a personal site, a forum for a gaming clan. Is there a market for 500mb hosting? 1gb? I would offer it for $2 a month. Is it reasonable to think that I could get 20 clients to pay that, which would cover operating costs.

Business wise, you can make more by selling less. And everyone typically buys more than they need, anyhow.

What about you guys? How's business, honestly? What are your plans and prices you offer your customers? How long have you been in the hosting game and how long did it take for you to get on your feet and have a strong web presence? And what did you do to promote your services? It seems that offering rebranded hosting would be a highly competitive area, as your services are the same as a lot of your competitors, yet some people get away with different prices.

I was thinking of also offering free hosting, in smaller sizes. Ad free, but with the option of allowing users to display ads I get paid for, in turn of a revenue sharing program of sorts. I'd have to work out the details of that.

Hosts I am currently looking at:
Surpasshosting. 500gb for $65/mo
Magmahost 100gb for $15/mo X however many I need. I want more than 100gb, though.
Supergreen/JustHost are the same thing I think "unlimited" for $20/mo.

I think Surpasshosting would be reasonable, I read only a few reviews but they seemed positive. Magmahost had mixed reviews, with mainly negative comments on customer service and UK servers not actually being UK servers. I haven't heard of speed or downtime issues for ither one. I hosted 3 sites on Supergreen before for an old client, and it seemed good enough. No major issues, although (and I didn't realize it was such an issue until I saw magmahost threads) the customer service was slow. But I never expect an answer in 10 minutes, so if I wait 3 hours for a response I think nothing of it.

Just trying to understand the reality of, and here stories about what I may be getting myself into.

I would not touch Surpass. About the space you offer, its really a yes and no. Sure, its great that you are wanting to offer that amount of space so reasonable, but are you going to be able to get 20 clients straight up, probably not right away. There is two ways to get clients in Web Hosting, throwing money at advertising, or, taking time and building a personal level of customer loyalty. Here's what I say, start your space and overhead small, and build it when it needs to be built on.

Thanks for your reply, i'll take it all into consideration.

My marketing plan would to be offer incentives to join, just so I could break even. I know the importance of developing a strong web presence, so the first year or so would to be to build trust and client relations.

My overall goal for marketing, since marketing can get pretty costly is this: Offer existing clients the opportunity to get an additional year of hosting for free and domain renewal (if needed) if they could, within the period of their existing plan (6 month intervals) refer 3 other people who became customers. Thats not a bad deal!

But I just want to concentrate at first providing good service, very affordable and with the incentive of refer 3 (or whatever number), get another year for free. Which locks that customer in for another year, and they're out there speaking highly of the company trying to refer others, seems like an effective method of advertising that doesn't really cost anything.

I'll look into more providers, what do you think a good storage size is to start off with for someone with no prexisting clinets?

Small Size- 50 gb or less.

Around 500GB of bandwidth is fine.

The marketing plan you are talking about will work, a little. I would suggest you pick up your local newspaper and take out the classifieds section, and call every business in there offering them a month free and free design, I did this when getting started, and its how I gained many loyal customers.

Originally Posted by SpecHosting

Small Size- 50 gb or less.

Around 500GB of bandwidth is fine.

The marketing plan you are talking about will work, a little. I would suggest you pick up your local newspaper and take out the classifieds section, and call every business in there offering them a month free and free design, I did this when getting started, and its how I gained many loyal customers.

I'm going to have to disagree. Curtis has stumbled upon the largest secret to web hosting... word of mouth. If you can somehow catalyze the spread of your business's name (which it seems you have found a way to do), it will equate to guaranteed success. The more people that are talking about your host, and the more they're recommending you, the more success you'll receive. The market is so saturated that customers aren't just going to fly in by themselves - from reading your website. They need a little incentive. That's where that little referral thing you mentioned could kick in.

Curtis has stumbled upon the largest secret to web hosting... word of mouth.

It certainly can be

Thanks for the responses everyone, all things are to be considered.

You know, I gotta say, I think this is a worthy venture. My only concern is finding a reputable reseller. I've read a lot of reviews, but whereas one person is appalled at the service they received from one host, another one is thrilled with how well the host is. It makes me wonder if its the luck of the draw.

Oh, and from an email response from Magmohost (5 hours later):

You can now take RSR5 which is equal to 2 x RSR4. It is not shown on the website yet - but the bandwidth and disk doubles. The cost is $19.95/month

Originally Posted by Curtis

Thanks for the responses everyone, all things are to be considered.

You know, I gotta say, I think this is a worthy venture. My only concern is finding a reputable reseller. I've read a lot of reviews, but whereas one person is appalled at the service they received from one host, another one is thrilled with how well the host is. It makes me wonder if its the luck of the draw.

Oh, and from an email response from Magmohost (5 hours later):

The experiences of others will never be a reflection of your own experience - with the very same host. You'll need to make the decision yourself. Contact support, weigh out your options, and don't take the opinions of others too seriously.

Like I said, you have to get customers before they will talk about you, that is why you start small and offer hosting in your local area. Always take into consideration the amount of support you receive from the Hosting company of your choice.

Curtis. What you have done (research) is awesome!
Really!
Now you will have reality. And to understand if that or this web host is good or bad for you you will need to try that one at least

Thanks everyone!

I'm not one to just jump into things blindly, and since I don't really, y'know "work", I have all this free time on my hands to figure out what to next.

Magmahost is currently offering me a free month to trial their services. They contacted me, offered it to me, and have been taking care of me. Next month, bounceweb has offered to lend me a month trial (also, they contacted me) to test out.

My game plan as of now is try to find a host to use, and whenever I can actually decide what to use, contact local area businesses. With only 3 or 4 local clients, that will cover the monthly cost of operation.

From what I have read on other forums, it generally takes 6 months to a year to achieve atleast 100 online clients.

I think its reasonable to believe I could get 25+ local clients, as I was born and raised in the area and I do believe those who have no websites and/or reliable hosting would be more likely to support a local business, just as they rely on locals for their businesses.

Also, I own five websites right now that I could advertise for free on, my hosting company. So that would be the initial "banner advertising", but I do believe word of mouth would be much more affective then yet another webhosting banner in a related forum.

EDIT: I'm also exploring particular niches that need tapped into.

Magmahost is currently offering me a free month to trial their services. They contacted me, offered it to me, and have been taking care of me. Next month, bounceweb has offered to lend me a month trial (also, they contacted me) to test out.

My game plan as of now is try to find a host to use, and whenever I can actually decide what to use, contact local area businesses. With only 3 or 4 local clients, that will cover the monthly cost of operation.

I think that could be good idea to taste all web hosts first and then decide which one is web hosting for you.

run your own affiliate of host reseller will be more effective than only do advertising campaign.

If you are affiliate of web hosting company all what you need is web site with good amount of traffic. That's all what you need. And you will do advertising for your own web site not for the web site of web hosting company.

I think that it would be really nice to have a web host outfit that was built on knowing what the real needs of a specific site are and sell only the space and bandwidth that is necessary, with the expectation that as traffic and demand increase so would hosting cost.

In many cases a brand new blog really will use less than a dollar in space and bandwidth. Why should that guy pay as much as a medium sized forum. I think the answer is that they shouldn't.

I agree to James. For your small blog small web hosting account should work the best.

It is a common practice to share a vast host with peers if you have time and technique to manage it, go to ebay to find buyers/sharers, don't waste resources.

Perhaps shared web hosting is enough to host several sites.
You see, I have 4 blogs and I just purchase the shared web hosting of HawkHost to host them. In my eyes, if you don't have sites with high traffic, shared hosting is the answer indeed.

Remember my friend, google is your friend too!

Thanks for the responses.

I'm actually sampling my second reseller host right now. So far, its been pretty standard. However I think I know who I want to go with. For the risk of not sounding like an advertiser, I won't say who But they have an amazing track record on WHT, and all the reviews boast great support (+ end user support for resellers), quality service and good speeds. Its a bit more, but from what I have noticed with my past two hosts is you get what you pay for.

As far as my actually plans go, its going to be like this:
I am going to offer web hosting, and internet business solutions such as web design, logo design, web site management, basic SEO services, and online marketing. I'll do script installation and e-commerce installation/set-up/management too.

The web hosting market is very saturated, which is why I plan on concentrating a lot of effort locally, where a good service like this is unavailable. There are many local downtown businesses and restaurant with no online presence. You may find them in a "business directory" but none of which have a real website or online presence. I want to create, manage, and host these websites for these businesses at a competitive price. Of course, there will be shared hosting packages for the individual, who would be reached via online advertising, referral programs for current clients, etc.

I plan on investing the vast majority of the profits back into the company, so I can:
A) Be sure it will still be around tomorrow.
B) Advertising so I can grow and expand.
C) Upgrading services (VPS, Dedicated, etc)
D) New features to benefit the clients
E) I plan on having a bi-monthly newsletter that I PRINT and MAIL (not e-mail) to every client. It will talk about whats going on with the company, new features or services we may be providing, or specials we have going on. It will discuss how to market your website or increase traffic, sales, etc. Just some relevant content to what the typical client would be interested in. Its an effective form of marketing, because they could easily pass it on (which would be encouraged through a referral program), it helps them remember you. When they think web hosting, through enough interaction between client and host, you will be the first thought in their head when someone is discussing webhosting. Not to mention the letter I want to send (w/ business card) thanking new clients, reminding them of their log in details or account details, reminding them that I work for them and how to reach me/us, and include a business card.

I just want to offer a high quality service with a bit of a personal touch to it. I think word of mouth is the most effective forms of advertising and to get good word of mouth reviews you pretty much have to kick-*** and be on top of things. Thats what I plan to day

I'm in it for the long haul