Target Market for Web Hosting Business

Web Hosting is probably now one of the most saturated internet business these days as new providers are making their companies daily. So thats makes it hard for the newer to compete against the "already established" companies out there. I would like to start a discussion about those who are new to this business, and lets us all share how do we start promoting our web hosting websites, choose proper target market to gain more customers.

 

the best market for you are the people who want to have a site, but dont' know what or how to do

all they see is mumbo jump such as wordpress, mysql etc etc.

start step by step, teach them how to work, give them a free website on YOUR hosting, and from next month, start sending them invoices for 1-2-3 $ a month
and steadily increase invoices, with new features etc etc.


in other words, the ones who are already established, and know about hosting, wont' choose a startup, as its a very commodity business now.
i routinely sell 5-10 hostings a month now with this method.

 

I have a feeling this thread would be very interesting for everyone. I am not staff nor owner of any web host company but I have a dream to provide solid host for local peoples.

My idea to develop web host is very simple:

1. Set lower price but keep the quality. Lowest price is not good idea as it may compromise with the quality. Quality is the first priority.
2. For anyone whom order a hosting, give them two option:
   a. Let us build the site (only for popular CMS such as Joomla, WordPress, etc)
   It mean the staff would help clients install their favorite CMS. The company would only give One day full technical help (if necessary).
   Once CMS successfully being installed, Client have full responsibility to take care of it.
   b. Let them do it by themselves.

That's it. Quite simple plan. I write it based on what customer want when they purchase a hosting.

 

Thank you both for joining the discussion.
@competent123: I think you are an Indian too. Nice to know many Indians around here. I would like to ask you, when you started the business you got most of the clients from outside india, or you just focussed mainly in the local market?
@Arick unirow: I agree with with about the quality, as I have seen many of the business starters using cheap reseller plans from unreputed companies, which is not worth it. Some Auto installation scripts with hosting would be a good idea to make it easy for the clients to make websites.

 

i cannot reveal my exact marketing tricks that i use, otherwise i will have a headache to find a new marketing trick.

my clients are world wide. i have no preference anywhere.

all i can say is, i get clients sitting here at computer only.
you just have to know where to look.

 

Thank you for your reply. I hope I will have to do some research on it first.

 

a bad move, i tried that thing a couple of years ago, it bombed badly for me.

1- if you fight on price thing, you will never be profitable, eventually you will lose interest in it. and clients are toooo sensitive on price, if you try to increase price by 1 cent, they will migrate to someone else, who can offer them a better deal.
2- believe me or not, once you start this support road, you are giving them unending support, for someone who pays 1-2$ a month!

 

I love to learn many things while keeping my opinion in a journal. I always write my opinion, questions, problems and also scenario to solve the problem in a private journal (it just a note with too much sentences, lines, table and graphics which are really hard to read and other people call it 'gibberish books').

I remember writing in 'my useless journal', a scenario to keep the price of hosting always at lower price while keeping the quality at maximum.
To reduce the price, I think it is possible if we had our own equipment. Being reseller from another company is good but I always think it is better to setup our own host/company. This is why I learn and make deep research on shared hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting and then Dedicated server (I didn't want to talk about Collocation server/datacenters, not yet in my dream).
If we have to provide hosting, it is best to start from VPS hosting (manage and create packet by ourselves). When the business growing stable, purchase Dedicated Server. It is as simple as like that. However, I already aware it would not going to be that simple in 'implementation'.

Speaking about VPS, actually I was looking for a VPS for my sites. been looking for almost a week but couldn't find any great offer. I know few reputable web host owner in this forum but I don't think contacting them is good idea.

I think you were right. Maybe I am too excited in helping others. I only think helping client to setup the site is necessary. I know there is 'auto-installer' which can be used to install the cms. However, first time user may think it is quite hard. Staff should help them install the CMS along with Add-on/plugins and the clients ready to sue the site. The support is until the site successfully being installed and only for single day (only site installation, hosting related stuff never expire). An I clearly aware it could be 'never-ending support' that will take almost our times.
This is just idea and I know my idea isn't that good.
Don't think too much about my comment. I am not an expert in hosting industry.

 

Dont' you think someone like hostgator would have done that already, and factored in their business?

how do you think they sell hosting for 3$ a month, yet be profitable enough to be sold for 225 million dollars?

1- the cheapest vps i found is about 20-25$ a month, it includes cpanel, plus its managed( very important, as one of many major issues you will have is your server getting hacked, constant support issues ( which require live chat or phone support)

the best way for you to start is to get a reseller first, then move to managed vps, then move to managed dedicated then to self managed vps then to self managed dedicated and then to cloud hosting.

Real money in hosting business is not the hosting itself, its the paid support that you provide( moving sites/website designing etc etc)
one additional income that you can have is real work, REAL optimisation, for ex, i can make wordpress 6 times faster using existing tech provided i get root access.

how much profit you think you can get with 1-2$ a month customers?!

think about it.

 

Well I don't think any new provider would like to compare with Hostgator, Bluehost etc at the beginning, as they start with maybe a powerful VPS, or 1, 2 Dedicated servers for their business. Hostgator is in a position where they have several server rooms of their own. Yeah, it maybe true that that started small too, but at this moment they are unbeatable without proper strategy and a strong team, But thats not the question is it? Better to focus in our own business, promote hard, rather than thinking of beating others.

 

And I am really agree with you. It is better focus on satisfying clients rather than thinking to beat the others. If you keep thinking like that, Once day you would be great company just like the other established business.