Right, currently guys im hosting everyone on a reseller plan on my website, thus only being able to sale shared hosting. From your experience, should i wait to break even on the reseller, or shall i got straight to a dedicated server and start selling resellers and vps'. Any thoughts would be great.
Are you aware of what is involved when you move from shared hosting to a VPS/Dedicated Server? All the services that are laid on for you - email, web server, database server, dns management, ftp, backup, control panel - will no longer be there for you. You'll need to source the software, install it, secure it, and manage it. It becomes more difficult to do this as a reseller because you need to provide everything your clients currently have. You also need to provide quick recovery in the event of a failure. Your dedicated/VPS company will probably just supply you with new hardware or a re-installed Operating system but file and site recovery will be your responsibility. Then you need to consider any potential downtime as sites are moved and IP's change. I'm not saying it isn't possible, but it's not a simple operation either. If you're not breaking even why do you think you will be able to do it with a dedicated server or VPS? They are more expensive (for a decent one) although you need to be careful that you aren't taking a step down in power (some shared hosting servers are beasts and a VPS could never match if for performance). If you really want to go ahead, and you're happy with your current host, enlist their help. Even if they charge you it's probably better getting the changeover and set-up carried out by experienced admins if you don't have the experience. Alternatively, why not ask your host if there are other solutions available that might suit you better. I know of some resellers that do very very well for themselves using Reseller Plans. If you really want to go ahead, but don't have a lot of experience, get yourself a VPS first and use that to practice on to give you an idea of what is involved. You might conclude it's easy and you want to go ahead, or you might think it's too much like hard work. Systems Admin isn't for everyone, and if you've got another business to run do you really want to get that involved and do you have the time? It's your decision at the end of the day. Just be sure you make the best one for you.
I think you need to not listen to what the guy posted above, it's not as difficult as it seems, a control panel like whm can take care of most of the problems and a few clicks to do mostly anything, it would be good to have a managed server or someone that does managed services so any time you need anything you can have them look at it, or fix the issue, but if you really want to move on with the hosting business and expand, you have to do it sooner or later, it's better to learn now then down the road when you actually grow, don't be scared because that will stop you from ever doing it, just do it!
Depends on how much you want to invest, how much cash you have and how bad you need to break even. Also, some hosts provide full managed VPS hosting (for example hostgator), choose well.
For what hostgator is charging for a vps server you could get your own dedicated server at every other provider, a few hundred dollars a month can get you a nice server, and managed services, and everything going perfectly.
Thanks for all your replys guys! Well i only need another $35 to break even for the whole year. As for money, i have enough off it to invest in a dedicated server. I just wanna know if its worth doing now or when i have a bigger client base. For example having a dedicated server i will be able to sell more services, this will increase sales. OR i can stick with shared hosting for now and invest in a dedicated in a few months.
Then instead of making the other companies money, you should start making the money yourself, invest into a "medium" sized server that is decent enough to run a few hundred sites, yet make enough money and you will be all set, your monthly budget will tell you what you can get.
Well, currently im investing around $20 a month. The max i want to invest with my current client base at the moment is $150 (~£75). With that $150 per month, It would take alot longer for to get my investment back. Its a catch 22 scenario. Say if i do get the dedicated server, theres a risk that my client base wont rise. etc
In that case just grow your client base until you've more than maxed your capability, and switch to a vps/server only when you really need to. Problem solved!
Okay I'm going to offer you the best advice anyone is ever going to get to you and the benfits and downsides to things.. If you really are focusing on this business and you want it to grow you should learn to be on your own, having your own server, learning to manage the basic things(You can pay for the advanced things, which can be a monthly fee or one time fee), sooner or later your going to have to upgrade, and sometimes its better to do it before it's too late, even if it costs you money or you lose money for a few months, normally it takes 3-8 months to profit on a dedicated server, depending how much you spend on it, and what type of server your getting. But if you stay where your at the company could go down and go bankrupt, servers could fail you would have no chance of recovering things, you have no real control over your actual account, they could suspend/close you at any time for any reason not saying it's going to happen but I've see people's huge reseller accounts go down in a matter of days to due company's not paying there bills or just going under. I'd suggest going with a dedicated server if your going to get any type of server, because vps your in the same boat, if they don't pay, your screwed and other reasons, you don't have to spend thousands of dollars a month on a server, you can start out as low as $100 a month to several hundred a month, depending what type of server, the cpu/ram/hard drives. I mean a really nice server could get you going for $125 a month, you own it, you can put 100-200 customers on it, you can make resellers yourself, affiliate programs, configure it how you want to, any many more reasons to own your own server.. I started out with 1 single server lost money for 3 months and now I'm at over 300 dedicated servers myself I own all of my hardware, and co-locate to various places.
Ah! I might buy a dedicated server. I can get a oct core for $150 a month at my current host. Might get one either this month or next. Who knows what will happen.
I would also suggest getting a known TLD, such as a .com, .net, or .org, they sell better then odd named one's. Yeah I see your with hostmist, If your interested in getting a dedicated server, I'll smoke there offer
That probably isn't a terrible price. I could get you a shiny, new Xeon e3-1230 with those specs or a i7-2600 for around that same price. They will SPANK the 3460 or 3440 like it's standing still. Personally I like the 2600's, but that's just me.
The 3400 series and i7 are fundamentally the same processor (there are differences), but while the 3400 is aimed at servers the i7 is specifically a desktop processer and doesn't support Intel-VT, Trusted Execution and Demand Based Switching. The 3400 series support of virtualisation is what would decide it for us.
You also have to remember that i7's i3s i5s and so on are desktop servers that aren't meant to run 24/7, they are suppose to only run 18 hours a day, 5 days a week. VS Xeon 3440's for example which are rack enterprise servers are suppose to run 24/7 365 days a year So you will get a bigger rate of failure upon running the desktop server 24/7 as it's not designed to do that.
Stop over and talk to MARK at Caro.Net Tell him Jason sent you ( IwhiC ) Your needs will be addressed and met. My 2cEnTs Jason