I need some insight here - we're a tiny company that makes websites. I looked through some threads and providing hosting seems like a very profitable business but what is it like in reality? I'm thinking hostgator, whose reseller accounts start at like $25/month. We have about 100 customers now with maybe 10 new each month- it seems like a really good idea to offer them hosting services as well when we make their webiste. Can someone here tell me how profitable this business is, and how hard you have to work to keep it up. I guess what I'm trying to ask is, is it worth it?
Many users will like one company doing the whole website for them. From design to hosting all under the same roof. If they like your current work they will want to stick with you guys. If you can keep satisfying customers there will always be more business. Otherwise you will just fall into an already saturated market.
Goran thanks for your response. I also thought that users would like the ease of only having to deal with one company for their website needs. If we were to do this, we will only contact existing customers and the new ones who come to us to get their websites made. I wonder if it's a sustainable business, as we wouldn't be promoting our services to the public at all.
How about your current business? If it's good enough, I would stay and focus on it. You can, however, sign up a reseller account, to provide hosting for your web design customers, as an add-on feature in your service packages. Or sign up with a hosting company, direct your customers there, and get commission.
Hi There, I have been developing my own websites for a while and have just recently looked at expanding my services that I am offering my customers to include domain name registration. I have come across this opportunity and have presented it as an opportunity to help my customers use the net as another source of income. Because I allready offer a refer a friend program to them. This opportunity works inline with what I am offering and covers me for my hosting, web development, including the registration of domain name. I can offer it to my clients for 7 days risk free at no cost to them, then it only costs $10.00 per month there after any ways go and check out the site. Honestly I find this a very profitable part of my business. You be the judge and check out the link in my sig
gate2vn, seeking freedom, Thanks for your posts. I think might give this a shot as it requires very little investment and looks like it can bring in some extra revenue if we play our cards right. Do you guys know a reseller better than Hostgator? They seem to be pretty popular on DP..
If you go first to act like a reseller, and spend some time with the network, then start your own company. You can kill two birds with one stone.
I was profitable when there was not a lot of competitors,to start a hosting company you need a lot of staff,you will get a lot of questions from your clients.
HG has mixed reviews. Some bad, some good. You will need to ask yourself, if you need that much, or you will use less space, bandwidth with better quality. $25/month for 24GB disk space + free billing script + free site builder. If they do not oversell their system, they cannot get profit. If I were you, I would not put my business to risk.
If you want I can offer you unlimited bandwidth and space at a special price for you at $1/month per user. I can also do it at $20/month for 50gb of space and 25 gb bw. Anyways selling hosting can be very profitable but also very time consuming. For me it is hard to find customers but if you say that you get 10 per month then you can earn upwards of $25/month.
I can tell you that layeredpanel.com moved away from HostGator as an upgrade provider and have another Affiliate in place with better rates. It seems HostGator failed to pay affiliates with a bunch of pre-made excuses to justify that.
If it's just Hosting Alone.. that is a very saturated market so I doubt you can make good money from that. But if its an all-in-one kind of company.. starting from the design, hosting , seo, internet advertising and other things every website owner needs.. that's awesome! If i ask your company to do my website design and knowing that you can take care of other important stuff for me.. I'd definitely give it a go.
I have owned a server company, its a tough business. You have to try and get the initial base of customers which is really tough. You need to have competitive prices, but more then anything 100% uptime.
Keep an eye on support costs. When you provide hosting for your own customers that you have developed for, this isn't typically an issue. The problem starts when you start bringing in outside customers. Support costs, both real and time, can become a very large strain on what little resources you have on the near term. While you may be able to cover most of this within a small 2-4 person group, all it takes is that one customer who expects the world delivered on a solid gold platter for the low rate offerings. Once disgruntled, they leave telling all their friends about how bad you are (when you are not). As with any business, plan it out and try to think of every cost - money and time. Build your strategy around it, and you should have success. -Bing
Well since you are a web designing firm you will be able to get some extra dollars by selling hosting with in a design package i think go for it.
I did ask hostgator directly one time and they said they do not oversell their reseller accounts only their shared hosting accounts, this came directly from them so you can take if how you want. I have a dedicated server now but when I was with hostgator they were always very responsive and easy to work with. John