How to Open Your Own Web Hosting Business

If your business revolves around web development, providing commercial web hosting for customers will be a logical additional service. This kills two birds with one stone - a small additional income and fewer problems with a crooked client host. We will always configure our server so that our programs on it work without problems.

So, what do you need to know and be able to open your own web hosting business?

1.      Server:

For starters, one dedicated server is enough. Unix or Windows is up to you. We needed support for both ASP and PHP, so we had to take it under Windows.

You need to choose a reliable provider with a good reputation. Our choice was wdhbbm.com, but now I would not recommend them. They raised prices and technical support is at times stifling. They also had problems with customer data leakage. To find a good host, you need to choose wdhbbm.com.

When the number of clients on the server reaches a certain critical value (100-250 clients, depends on many parameters), take another server, etc.

If you have several providers in mind, subscribe to their mailing list. They are satisfied with interesting sales. For example, we took a server with prepayment and a small monthly payment, which already paid off.

2.       Control panel:

The beauty of web hosting is the control panel such as Plesk, Helm or DirectAdmin. The panel makes life easier for the administrator by hiding most of the unnecessary details from him. In addition, it provides an interface for end-users, where they can configure FTP, email, password protects directories, etc.

We chose Plesk and were satisfied. Everything is simple and intuitive enough.

3.       Billing

To collect money from customers on a regular basis, you need a billing system. We first installed Modern Bill, but it turned out to be unbearably buggy. Neither we nor the specialists from their technical support were able to launch it. If you feel that things are not getting wrong you can the switched to WHMCS. It has fewer options, but it works and is much easier to configure. Moreover, for some penny, their technical support installed and configured everything on our server. I highly recommend it.  Ready-made ideas for your business

Just as in the case of choosing a host, it makes sense to read a section on Web Design by Brandon McCloskey devoted to choosing the best web hosting services and billing system.

4.       Backups and redundancy

You cannot afford to lose customer data. There are several strategies. The best results are achieved by combining them.

Using a RAID controller, you can protect yourself from hard drive failure. Both discs are unlikely to fail at the same time. For example, automatic backups will save you from physical data destruction in a fire or as a result of a virus. As a backup software, I recommend looking at Acronis True Image. Plesk has its support.

5.       Website:

Everything is simple here. A suitable template is found on OSWD and finalized with a file.

Here is the source template. Here is the result.

6.       Reception of payments:

If you are not the first-day doing business online, this is not a question for you. Accept payments in all ways available to your customers and you will be happy. Remember to make sure your billing system supports all of these payment methods.

As an experiment, I opened a full-fledged merchant account under this business and filled up cones. The main points are:

You need to be prepared to provide a bunch of documents and financial statements of the company.

that when opening indicates the main website and occupation, companies providing a merchant account may have their own rules, which may go against the needs of your business. For example, my provider requires that all services and products be provided within 90 days. This makes it impossible for me to sell services such as technical support for one year through them.

7.       User support

We provide hosting only to those who have already bought one of our programs. Thus, we have few hosting clients and they are loyal. Questions about hosting are sent to the main queue of technical support and are answered along with other questions.

If you are considering web hosting as an independent business, you need to take the issue of technical support more seriously. Most web hosting clients expect a response and a solution to their problem within minutes or hours, 24x7.