Web hosting services can be costly and time-consuming to set up from scratch. Many small-scale web hosts use reseller hosting instead. Reseller hosting uses the systems and services already in place at established web hosts. The company rents a server or reseller hosting plan and then partitions it into pieces to sell to clients alongside its services, generating supplemental income that may be developed into a sustainable business model.
What Exactly is a Web Hosting Company ?
A web hosting company is a business that offers the hardware and software required to make your website accessible over the World Wide Web. They provide you with a domain name, web hosting space, email accounts, FTP access, security software and other tools required for managing your website.
For example, if you want to start a blog on your computer or share pictures of your vacation with friends online, you will need access to a server to store files and upload them easily. You may also need an email account so people can contact you online. A web hosting company provides all these services for its clients at once.
Reseller Hosting
With reseller hosting, you purchase web hosting in bulk and then resell the service to other businesses or individuals. This might be a good side hustle if you’re trying to supplement your income. Each domain has its own control panel, but all the sites use the same server space. But the number of customisation choices may be limited.
How to Launch Your Own Web Hosting Business ?
The thought of starting your own web hosting business may seem overwhelming. Here is a step-by-step guide to what’s required to get your own web hosting business up and running.
Step 1: Outline Objectives
Is there any point in starting a company? Drawing out a detailed plan can help you achieve these goals. In doing so, you and your client will clearly see the road ahead. Your future business model and procedures may be derived from this phase. A well-thought-out plan with measurable outcomes is the key to standing out from the crowd. Here you can evaluate your potential customers and your company strategy.
Step 2: Find Your Niche
Competition is quite high in the web hosting industry. Although you won’t be ready to take on the industry’s heavy hitters, you may still find your footing by focusing on a smaller but still sizable audience.
Differentiating your business from the competition requires you to provide something special. That might be expanding into new areas, such as web design, a more affordable or innovative pricing structure, or focusing on a certain demographic (like webcomics or homemade jewellery stores).
Step 3: Research Your Competitors
The next step is to differentiate yourself from other hosting services. What you’ll be selling should be unique that it can’t be copied, but in practice, that rarely occurs. Even if you decide to target a very specific subset of the market, you should expect to face stiff competition.
Learn from the successes and failures of your competitors by studying their business models. The surest method to find an edge over the competition is to study them closely.
Step 4: Create a Business Model
Having a well-thought-out business strategy in place is crucial before beginning a firm. This will allow you to assess the commercial viability of your proposal. To begin, choose a product to market and design a distinct logo. Consumers may feel more connected to a company if they can easily recall its logo and values. It’s also important to have a customer-friendly pricing plan. You may also need to list your business’s recurring and fixed expenses.
Step 5: Choose Your Server Type
Before starting your own hosting company, you should familiarise yourself with the many web hosting options available. You should consider your hosting choices to get one that meets your requirements and budget. Reseller hosting, for instance, might be ideal for you if you have extensive experience in the field of web development. Conversely, if you’re starting a business to serve the requirements of small websites, shared hosting may be your best option.
Step 6: Identify the Best Host Provider
If you’re interested in becoming a web hosting reseller, it’s crucial that you investigate the many hosting partners available. Make sure your hosting provider allows resellers. It’s important to research the options and costs before making a final choice. They should also be willing to provide you with constant support if you encounter any issues in reselling. Once you do, you can start catering to your target market.
What Resources and Infrastructure are Required to Start a Web Hosting Business ?
Disk Space
Similar to the storage capacity of your own computer’s hard drive. Simply put, it’s the amount of space on a web host’s server that you’re allotted to save and manage your site’s data. Server space is measured in either megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB) on a web host’s server. How much data can be kept on your server depends on this.
Bandwidth Limit
The amount of data that can be received from your site in a certain time frame is known as its bandwidth. Bandwidth limits are the time you have before your bandwidth is reset, and they are typically about a month long. Similarly, to disc space, bandwidth is quantified in megabytes and gigabytes. Before purchasing a hosting subscription, be sure you know what will happen if you exceed your bandwidth quota.
Speed and Connectivity
The web hosting provider is essential when it comes to how quickly a website loads. The speed with which a website loads is directly related to how fast the host can deliver the webpage’s contents to the user. When a website is hosted by a trustworthy company, it gains popularity and search engine rankings.
Server Hardware
Website owners should test the server’s CPU, RAM, and hard drive. The CPU is the part of the computer that handles all the work; thus, it must be powerful and fast. Owners of websites should go for web hosting servers with several cores. To put it simply, a quicker hard drive equals a quicker-loading website.
5. Uptime Guarantee
The uptime guarantee provided by a web host is the percentage of time during which a customer’s website will be accessible online. For instance, if an internet service provider guarantees a 99.9% uptime, that means the website will be accessible online 99.9% of the time. For this reason, it is advantageous for a company if its web server has a higher uptime guarantee.
Virtual Private Server vs. Dedicated Server
A VPS, also known as a Hybrid Server, is a virtual server with both a physical and a virtual component. It functions similarly to a physical server from the reseller’s point of view. In practice, however, a virtual machine is software that operates on a physical server. As a result of their low cost, virtual servers are a great choice for reselling several hosting packages.
In contrast, dedicated hosting solutions are standalone physical machines that only host one client at a time. A dedicated hosting solution has just one client and provides far more ‘dedicated’ resources than shared or cloud hosting. You can host hundreds of websites on a single high-end dedicated server.
Create a Hosting Site/Create an Offer Page on Your Current One
You may think of the hosting website as a business card for your company. Without a website, you can’t build a clientele base or get recognition in the market. For launching a website, WordPress is the best option. It is the most widely used content management system (CMS) nowadays. You can use any other content management system you choose, so long as you have familiarity with it.
The true test will be attracting visitors and spreading the word about the site. A web hosting service’s website must have some basic components. You’ll have to make the price lists and upload them to the shopping cart using a special link. A service level agreement (SLA), terms and conditions, and a privacy statement are also required.
Set Up Support for Your Clients
While you’ll be responsible for customer support, your hosting provider will handle technical questions and issues. A variety of support levels are available. If a client reaches out to you asking how to set up a database, for instance, you need to walk them through the process in cPanel.
Conversely, if you encounter a server-related issue that you can’t resolve (say, a customer notifies you that their site is down), you can submit a ticket on SupportHost to resolve it.
In other words, you can choose how to respond to the simplest inquiries and then serve as a go-between for your customers and the hosting provider for more complex issues. There will be no interaction between your customers and SupportHost, and no disclosure of your reseller status.
WHM the Heart of Reseller Hosting
After purchasing a reseller hosting plan, an activation email will be sent to you with your login details and a link to your control panel.
The main cPanel account provided with each active reseller account is also endowed with reseller rights and WHM access. The same login information may be used for cPanel and WHM (username and password). After logging into the WHM panel, you’ll have access to its package creation tools.
What is cPanel ?
Control panels for web hosting services are web-based software programs with a graphical user interface for managing web hosting server infrastructure. Web control panels like cPanel and Plesk simplify setting up and maintaining hosting accounts for individual websites.
Most reseller hosting packages come equipped with control panels. It is the responsibility of your server administrator or web hosting company to install and configure your web control panel for you to manage your hosting website.
Use a Billing System – WHMCS
Set Your Prices/White Labelling
You’ll need more than just a server and admin panel to run your reseller hosting business successfully. The most widely used software in this field is WHMCS, designed to automate the process of paying clients for web hosting services. Invoicing, payment processing, and tax administration are just some of the capabilities it integrates with hosting control panels to provide.
Set Up Ticketing System
Any good web hosting company should have a ticket system set up where clients can send queries and complaints. After selecting a hosting provider, establishing an account, ordering a server with a control panel, and installing WHMCS, you can set it up such that when a customer pays for a shared or reseller hosting plan, a cPanel account is automatically created for them.
Why Luxhosting is the Best for Web Hosting Companies ?
LuxHosting dominates the fields of website hosting, domain registration, and website services. All the tools you need to get your website up and operating smoothly are included in their web hosting plans.
Huge discounts are often offered as part of sales promotions. Luxhosting has established a solid reputation because to its dependability and adaptability. They have spent the most on monitoring services for site security and enhancements. Some of the services they provide are as follows:
- Expertise in creating websites
- Domain Hosting
- SSL Certificates
- Email Hosting
- Cloud Backup
How Do I Choose the Best Web Hosting Reseller Provider ?
Examine Crucial Aspects of a Reliable Web Host
Ensure that your web host has more than 99% uptime to prevent losing clients. Also, check that the web host you’ve settled on can accommodate your site’s needs in terms of storage capacity. It’s usually preferable to go with one that offers limitless disk space. A website’s ability to manage traffic may be roughly gauged by measuring how fast its pages load.
Check Reviews
Reviews of web hosts provided by directories might be useful. Experts and customers discuss the advantages and disadvantages of various web hosts. This helps in comparing various hosting providers. A website’s features must correspond with the demands of its owner.
Customer Support
Check that the web host can effectively provide the necessary help at the appropriate time. For instance, if the server goes down, the site owner can immediately get in touch with the web host to discuss the situation and find a solution.
cPanel Administered Servers
When you have a cPanel reseller account, you can worry less about server maintenance. This is because you can control how your hosting firm is run while letting your provider handle the time-consuming and tiresome activities.
White Labelling Permit
By using the white label, you can establish your own brand independently of your host. Choosing a provider that allows you to put your own name on your work is essential if you want to establish a solid reputation for your business. It’s also helpful for clearing any confusion around the hosting provider or resellers. As such, it’s a good idea to check with your web host to see whether you can white-label their services.
What is an SSL Certificate ?
Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL, is a prevalent phrase in this field. It adds an extra layer of protection to each online purchase performed via a browser. SSL can protect sensitive data like a customer’s credit card number or login credentials. When launching a web hosting company, it’s crucial to think about how to keep private and sensitive data typed in a browser and delivered to another system secure.
When a website wants to provide its clients peace of mind by establishing its legitimacy, it may pay for an SSL certificate and identity verification. The majority of e-commerce websites employ them. As opposed to this, free SSL just verifies that you hold a cheap domain name.
What Does IP Address Mean ?
IP is the abbreviation of the internet protocol. A device’s IP address is a numeric identifier that may be used to track its internet connection at any given time. These IPs are often associated with a certain domain. You may either use a shared IP address or a dedicated IP address. The term “shared IP address” refers to a number used by more than one server. Most of the time, these sites also share a server.
On the other hand, a dedicated IP address is assigned to just one website at a time. Having a dedicated IP address reduces the possibility of your website being insecure or banned due to its shared server. You won’t have to worry about SSL incompatibility if you have a dedicated IP address. To sum up, this is crucial information to have when launching a web hosting company.
Conclusion
Web hosts play a crucial role in the smooth functioning of the internet, where the vast majority of business is now transacted. In light of the predicted growth in internet users and websites, web hosting companies seem to be on the rise. This essay is a must-read for anybody considering launching their own web hosting business. If you’re serious about improving your website’s hosting and search engine rankings, you should start your own business now.
