summerboyd Posted March 21, 2008 Share Posted March 21, 2008 Hello Everybody, I am currently writing my business plan for my webhosting site. Could anyone tell me what is the average sales figures for our industry as well as approximately how many other webhosting business is out there? Its probably better for me to just point out the average monthly sales for our type of business since there are probably countless webhosting companies. any suggestions? I like to plan things first before I get started that way I know exactly where I should be heading. I have been wanting to do the hosting company for a couple of years now, and I've decided to give it a shot. any suggestions would really help. Thanks all! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickendippers Posted March 21, 2008 Share Posted March 21, 2008 There are probably countless webhosting companiesI think you just answered the second question yourself! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
summerboyd Posted March 21, 2008 Author Share Posted March 21, 2008 You're right. I think its more a question of whats the average monthly sales for a typical hosting company like ours that does marketing and has decent or average traffic. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
othellotech Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 No such thing a "average traffic" and without you posting much about your business , no-one can guess what size you are There are hosts turning over £100k/year looking after 30 clients, and hosts turning over £10k/year looking after 2000 clients... Traffic is no use unless it turns into sales, that equates to making sure the pages "sell" as well as qualifying the traffic into buyers and browsers. How many "hosts" - difficult to guess, there are well over 400,000 people *offering* hosting based on a few google searches, the majority are simply resellers of someone else, best guestimates I've seen are based on the 2006 numbers of CPanel NOC Partners, Plesk /Parallels Partners etc from discussions about this very subject over beers at HostingCon, would put it at the 21,000 (ish) actual "hosts" based on control-panel licencing of the big 5 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
summerboyd Posted March 23, 2008 Author Share Posted March 23, 2008 Thanks for the info. It helps alot. I'm actually a small relatively new host. I've been hosting just about 20 sites on my own server for about 2 years now. These are mostly sites of friends and relatives who wanted some kind of site or the other. Initially I was designing websites--no big deal designer-- and I would host whatever site I designed on my server. Now I'm interested in moving from being a web designer to becoming an official hosting company. I am writing my business plan so that I have a sense of direction about what I am doing. I'd rather do this than do designing because the webdesigns are becoming much more dynamic than I know how to do. I am used to designing in html and css. Now everybody wants either flash or asp/php sites, which I am novice at. When you say page "sells" is more important than traffic, you mean that my website is user friendly? Does this mean I have to design a first page? It doesnt seem like this whms comes with a home page design. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex341 Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 WHMCS is not a out of the box web hosting site, you will need to make the site then use WHMCS with it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MACscr Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 WHMCS is not a out of the box web hosting site, you will need to make the site then use WHMCS with it. I think he knows that and his original questions really have nothing to do whmcs and making a site. Summerboyd, I think your questions and concerns are valid, but I really think you need to do a bit of research on your own first. I would highly recommend mainly marketing locally as you will have a lot less competition that way. Plus if your area is anything like mine, the local competition doesn't have much to offer. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WHC - Travis Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 Hello Everybody, I am currently writing my business plan for my webhosting site. Could anyone tell me what is the average sales figures for our industry as well as approximately how many other webhosting business is out there? Its probably better for me to just point out the average monthly sales for our type of business since there are probably countless webhosting companies. any suggestions? I like to plan things first before I get started that way I know exactly where I should be heading. I have been wanting to do the hosting company for a couple of years now, and I've decided to give it a shot. any suggestions would really help. Thanks all! Good luck. http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=web+host&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 33 million under the term 'web host,' and 146 million under here: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&q=web+hosting&btnG=Search So you should try to go after a niche or an emerging technology that doesn't exist, in my opinion that is the best 'business plan' you could have if you are looking to get into web hosting, to be honest. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
columbusgeek Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 I agree with Travis. I am still trying to monetize the hosting side of my site and continue to fail miserably at it. Hosting is a crowded game. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mylove4life Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 If you can design that's a big plus for you.. Go after small designs and offer to host them, that's the best way. I started that way and now host a lot of real estate and lawyer websites. They will pay a premium as well. Look into a market something like that. Go to meetings that they have in the state and talk to them. There is a lot of money to be made if you are a sales closer when you in front of a client. I made 3 fold flyers and that worked great for what I was doing. I don’t mind telling you all this as there is a lot between states. I have about 40 law offices now and that’s all I need to pay the help/myself/bills… and the rest is in the bank.. I no long take on new clients as I don’t really want to go bigger. If you are really serious about doing it right. Go to http://thelogocompany.net and talk to them about it. They are cheap and do great work… 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
summerboyd Posted March 27, 2008 Author Share Posted March 27, 2008 Travis, thanks for the links. It was very helpful. All, I appreciate your advice and input. I find this forum to be the most honest and helpful. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
summerboyd Posted March 27, 2008 Author Share Posted March 27, 2008 mylove4life....great information and wonderful advice. Well noted. THANKS! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jj1987 Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 We tend to cater to clients who have limited technical knowledge, and we find ourselves really offering our support more than our web hosting. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
summerboyd Posted March 27, 2008 Author Share Posted March 27, 2008 I agree. That's how I started doing hosting. Sometimes customers need alot of hand holding when it comes to starting a business on the web. I hope to offer full service solutions and include the sitebuilder, so I don't have to do the sites myself, unless they need help with that too. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MACscr Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 I agree. That's how I started doing hosting. Sometimes customers need alot of hand holding when it comes to starting a business on the web. I hope to offer full service solutions and include the sitebuilder, so I don't have to do the sites myself, unless they need help with that too. A site builder is only an additional incentive for hosting or just for customers that are to cheap to pay for it. Dont think of it as a replacement at all for design work. If your to busy to do it, then at least outsource it to a company/person you can trust. This way the customer still gets taken care of and then of course you get a slice of that pie as well. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanDoNetwork Posted April 13, 2008 Share Posted April 13, 2008 If you can design that's a big plus for you.. Go after small designs and offer to host them, that's the best way. I started that way and now host a lot of real estate and lawyer websites. They will pay a premium as well. Look into a market something like that. Go to meetings that they have in the state and talk to them. There is a lot of money to be made if you are a sales closer when you in front of a client. I made 3 fold flyers and that worked great for what I was doing. I don’t mind telling you all this as there is a lot between states. I have about 40 law offices now and that’s all I need to pay the help/myself/bills… and the rest is in the bank.. I no long take on new clients as I don’t really want to go bigger. If you are really serious about doing it right. Go to http://thelogocompany.net and talk to them about it. They are cheap and do great work… What a great post!! Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I'm in the UK and that's EXACTLY what I am hoping to do, go after a niche and stay with it as best I can, so I don't over complicate things - being creative can be a curse sometimes as I spend more time designing and dreaming about new systems and not enough time running them! After reading your post I am going to start again and do it properly. Thanks again. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ur Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 There are a bunch of good pointers already mentioned, but you will find that if you want to be a successful webhosting company, persistence with a keen sense of business, realizing who your target market is and how to tap into it is the key. You also should never underestimate the importance of being "intimate" with the technology you will be using. Too many hosts go into business without knowing a thing... then at the first sign of trouble, they fail miserably. My advice, get to know a real geek you can trust or go with a company that can manage the box for you. Once you figure all this out, I think you'll be able to write your business plan quite easily. Also, FYI, there are many articles on hosting out there, including industry whitepapers, surveys and more. Problem is these mainly focus on real hosts, that own infrastructure. (see also thewhir, theHN, and paid sources such as Telecommunications Reports, Frost & Sullivan, etc.) Since all your posts suggest you will start out as a reseller, you are probably are not going to shell out a bunch for any tangible hardware, other than what you may find in your office. On the low side, you may find yourself spending as little as $10-20 per month for a reseller plan to $150 for a semi or non managed dedicated server or $300 for a managed dedicated solution. In terms of a business plan, these are expenses. If you budgeted upward of $4000 per year, that's quite a bit for starters. You'll find, with some research, what will best suit your scenario. Maybe this means you run the entire server yourself, because you offer some really unique hosting features or require root access. Or, perhaps you'll stick to the "run of the mill" reseller hosting, but offer hands holding tech support. Or, even better yet, MACscr's suggestion of being the "go-to" local hosting company, or as someone else mentioned, a complete design to hosting solution. Not a bad thing at all! I think a business plan is a great idea, and if it's realistic and you stick to it, you can make some money. Just cover your bases. You're more than welcome to PM me if you want some additional info. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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