Well surprise to say i am unable to provide a quick fix, an invaluable method for becoming a millionaire or how to gain so many visitors your server explodes.
However i can provide you with a simple checklist of things need doing to start your hosting business, as dumb as it may sound i found writing everything out on paper helps a great amount:
- Finding a host
Well the first thing is to find a VPS or Dedicated server host that is within your budget. You need to consider all the options. Do i use linux? Cent OS, Redhat? perhaps Windows? Also what control panel to use, cPanel? Plesk? DirectAdmin? Webmin? Helm? You cant try to name your business until you know exactly what your going to sell and to whom. This does not mean buy hosting in this instant....just find it :-)
- Naming your company
This is the fun bit, and i mean the ONLY fun bit. Naming your company. You need a name which reflects what your company does, who its providing it to and why its providing it in the first place. Then a suitable domain name to follow.
- Design
Now that you have your name sorted a site of some kind is best to help you. If you are as hopeless at drawing as me thn you will need a template for your site and a logo. On a budget this can be done by visiting some template sites and looking through their hosting section. For the larger budgets then outsourcing or freelancing your sites creation is the best option.
- Other software
You will need other software to set-up your company. An essential is billing software, i myself use modernbill and its indispensible. You also have to think about live support and phone numbers. There is the expensive way to provide this but a clever trick (which i dont use but it works great) is to buy a SkypeIN account with british and american numbers on it, so it looks like you have world wide support, in the comfort of your own home :-P
- Nameservers
Nameservers, thoose very annoying things which confused me no end when i started. Easily solution? Get your seller to do them for you! All major resellers like Enom, Namecheap, 1and1 etc etc will all allow you to create your own nameservers. All you require is your server IP addresses and it will get you ns1 and ns2 for your domain.
- Time-out
So a last minute check before everything is launched. We have a working server with a control panel installed all set-up and ready to create accounts. We have made an account for our hosting site, installed and filled the template we have bought complete with billing software and live support. So now the final and constant hurdle!
- Shouting the message
Its all well and good have the new pentium 9 130.5Ghz processor in your machine, but until somebody knows you have this its pretty much useless. So we need to advertise. I have some good methods in which to do this. Firstly, contact already exsisting sites and offer to host their site for free in return for some ads on their site. Also there is the normal advertisement method. You can write articles about various things and leaving your domain name in the article. An extreme method is to create your own other site and plaster it with your ads, but then you'd need to advertise that site also.
And thats about it. From here on in its your own methods. You have now completed my checklist. :-)
