tkalfaoglu Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 It seems very difficult to make a decent living on providing hosting. If you have any tips you can share, I'm sure everyone would appreciate them.. Many thanks, -turgut 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UH-Matt Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 There are a LOT of people making a LOT of money with hosting. If you are new then you need to come up with something value added, you can't compete with the big boys without giving your potential customers something they want and cannot already buy anywhere else with any other hosting company. Nobody can decide what this value add might be for you, you need to find out what it could be and give it a try - to be honest much like any other business. While there are low barriers to entry for starting a hosting company, it is VERY difficult to establish yourself and time consuming. There is no easy or fast way of doing this and nobody is going to give you the answer you seek. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m8internet Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 (edited) Concentrate on your local market, Turkey, or equally Turkish speaking people worldwide Equally, if you are multilingual, which you appear to be, then create separate websites rather than relying on the language facility within WHMCS On visiting your website some translations into English were unusual, others didn't exist Having the separate websites will then resolve the above issue As an example we have a separate website for those from China Expand your services to something you have experience of and can offer to potential customers The most successful are network provision, design, coding, etc If you limit yourself to just "out of the box" then you will just look like any other hosting company / provider Regularly monitor the Stats and visitor patterns Amend the website if required There is no point having a page if noone visits it, or a page that many people visit but then leave There was no "About Us" page, which I would expect for a website that has a copyright notice from 2010 Surely you are not asking this question now after trading for nearly two years? Edited January 12, 2012 by m8internet 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sitepearl Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Word of mouth = the most powerful advertising. We try to set ourselves apart by having amazing support - most tickets answered in 15 minutes with full, respectful, value-adding replies. 100 people will give you 100 different answers - so far you have 3 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mylove4life Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Best way is just word of mouth after you have some customers, but it can take time... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b0r3d Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 Been in it 15 years. It's no get rich quick scheme which many think it is that popup some quick crappy sites. Invest in decent servers, speed is important. Don't offer 100mb plans, people can usually spot out a reseller. In 15 years i've found word of mouth best. I've invested in advertising which don't get me wrong it does work and as of recently i've found a surge of signups from brazil. Offer thoughtful plans. Is giving unlimited email really going to tie down your resources? unlikely, so don't limit what you don't need to. I've found success in offering "Unmetered" <-not unlimited diskspace/bandwidth and unlimited domains, email etc and for resellers simply limiting the # of customers they can sell. Allowing to oversell has it's perks but make sure you have the resources because if you allow 10 resellers that bring in 10 of their own customers each and you have limited space you're up the river without a paddle. This allows your customers to put a cost per head (customer) Other option is to allow unlimited customers but limit space. Anyhow there are many options, one i've found to work well is making business cards and if you get around hand them off places, make deals, sponsor organizations. I sponsor two local car clubs and a few charities. Charities are out of the goodness though since i lost my mother to cancer. Options are endless, but because everyone seems to think they are a web host these days competition is crazy and you end up with pretty demanding customers because they were recently burnt by a previous host. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UH-Matt Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 I would disagree with any unlimited/unmetered comments, but either way good luck 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b0r3d Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 I would disagree with any unlimited/unmetered comments, but either way good luck Why? Unlimited doesn't exist, unmetered is simply as it states. When a server requires more space, you add another hard drive as required. It's part of doing business. We ran an poll among 430 answers a year ago and everyone stated the number one concern. Wishing they didn't have to worry about space being used or if their site goes offline for using too much allocated bandwidth. Unmetered can be very legitimate as long as a web host knows to invest. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UH-Matt Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 Of course people are going to say they want unmetered! That's common sense! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonsoft Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 The best rebuttal for that is simply this. You can get an unmetered / unlimited account from many providers. but when you do realize they will pack the server to near capacity, meaning your quality of service will suffer. I would like to offer you a metered plan because I don't over sell the server, performance is important, make sure you STRESS that very fact... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b0r3d Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 (edited) The best rebuttal for that is simply this. You can get an unmetered / unlimited account from many providers. but when you do realize they will pack the server to near capacity, meaning your quality of service will suffer. I would like to offer you a metered plan because I don't over sell the server, performance is important, make sure you STRESS that very fact... Your rebuttal is a irrelevant when you yourself sell unmetered. Doesn't matter about your small "Disclaimer". Fact of the matter is, it's about experience and how much you bankroll.. I do not put my resellers and regular hosting clients on the same server. I limit each server via WHMCS to a number of signups per server. Your assumption about those who sell unmetered/unlimited oversell is based on just that "Assumptions". If you're in it for pure profits, you'll oversell and rape a server to the bones. Take it from me, someone who isn't a millionaire, using WHMCS rather then coding my own system in the industry 15 years. As long as a server turns a 45% profit you'll always make money underselling rather then overselling. I could probably put a bunch more on each server, but i don't. My servers each run 10 TB and we try to keep a 25% surplus in space for a surge of use at any given time. I'll say it more plainly, those who believe unlimited/unmetered is simply overselling are those who really don't have much invested into their business. We aren't huge, but we do have 7 servers, WHMCS runs them all. 100MB-500MB plans may have worked 8 years ago, but they don't anymore. They look like reseller accounts with restrictions on overselling forcing them to sell based on their own resources. I host a few resellers who sell 50MB for 10AUS and can't figure out what they are thinking but to each their own. To make money you need to spend money <- that is the best piece of advice i can give the OP. If you invest little, the return will be the same. Edited January 17, 2012 by b0r3d 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UH-Matt Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 So you are trying to imply that if a host does not sell 'unmetered' resources they have not invested enough? You sir are confusing and obviously slightly clueless. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m8internet Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 Don't offer 100mb plans, people can usually spot out a reseller I've been offering this for the last 8 years and it is our best selling product I started off at 1000MB but discovered this was putting customers off with smaller websites (typically between 1 and 20 pages), why should they pay for what they didn't want or need As a result I was receiving enquiries if I could offer a cheaper / smaller alternative Equally, the vast majority of customers are not too fussed or even know if the provider is a reseller, they are more concerned about other things; reliability, support, cost, value for money 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFOC Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 unmetered things, soon or later will make big of stress 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b0r3d Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 (edited) So you are trying to imply that if a host does not sell 'unmetered' resources they have not invested enough? You sir are confusing and obviously slightly clueless. No, my comment is to the one stating anyone who sells unmetered oversells. I'm saying if you're going to offer an unmetered service you need to be prepared to invest. To each their own to ofer whatever they want. We've been selling Dedicated/VPS/Hosting/Resellers for 15 years. Started with a T1 line installed in our garage back in the 90's. Part of 3com's development team for their enterprise switches to landing contracts overseas with Siemens, So no, not clueless kiddo. Just don't knock legitimate businessmen because of your assumptions. Edited January 17, 2012 by b0r3d 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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