Free Hosting Business

I'm looking to get in to this business. I've got a few questions though.

1) I'm on a semi-tight beginning budget ($300 approx). I'm going to be using a forum, but I've got the licencse already handled. Will this be a problem?

2) What sites offer good reseller accounts, and what size should I look to get?

 

Well i am offering Unlimited Reseller Hosting for only 10 USD per year. If you wish to start off light this would be a great plan. From there on i would buy a server and see what happens.

 

My recommendation would be to stay away from "unlimited" or "unmetered" everything. If it sounds too good to be true, it is.

Go get yourself a VPS, expect to spend $20 - $30 a month for something low end. With the VPS you'll get all the access you need to setup the server the way YOU need it. Make sure to disable the mail() function and other php based functions that can be abused.

Let me know if you have any other questions, we've been in the web hosting business for a while -- and I'm actually not trying to make a sale here, so I'll give you honest advice.

 

Is that 300 a month or 300 in total? 300 a month is plenty for a dedicated server (low - medium end server that is) and will leave you with extra cash for advertising

 

i would stay away from free hosting, as very few genuine users would choose this option, its mostly students who use and test your servers to limits, if you are ready for that then go for it, it can give you returns, but has equal risk.

 

Thanks, MrRadic, that was a helpful and genuine post. +Rep.

Thanks to everyone else too, I'm still looking for more opinions.

 

I second this, sendmail is abused a lot of times

 

one of my friends been using godaddy's VDS..its almost a dedicated server..

around 40$ per mo with 1 TB of b/w and 100 GB of hard disk..its quite okay..and should suffice i think..

 

I would advice you to disable php_mail and keep safe_mode on. In addition, try to search for a software that could filter phishing and proxy sites on your servers.

Best of luck!

 

Use layered Panel, no .htaccess files

 

Thanks again, everyone

I've bumped my budget up to $600 for this initially, so I hope it'll go well.

 

Get a VPS dude
disable sendmail.
and remember not all people use the alloted space

 

If you can manage the server resources well than free hosting is a great business. I got hundreds of members within days of opening mine, but my server couldn't handle it, so I emailed all the users and told em the bad news, gave em a couple of weeks, and shut it down. I'd like to try again though, but when I have more funds for more advertising etc.

 

id go with hostgator as you can pay $6 monthly via paypal - it's great imo.

 

You really don't know what you're talking about. Free Hosting Business cannot be supported on Hostgator.

 

Yeah, I need to find a host who accepts free hosting on their servers.

What kind of space should I be looking for on a re-seller/VPS? Also, who sells good ones?

 

www.servint.net

Start with a VPS Essential package, that'll keep you going for a month or two. I've been with ServInt for months now and they have really reliable hosting.