How do I start a web hosting company?

I was wondering how can one set up such a business? Web Hosting. I guess you need to buy Servers or so...can anyone quickly tell me how. thx

The market is saturated. If you are going to enter this arena it is best that you have an established market base. Eg: Webdesigners are very well suited to adding this service. Their customers will need hosting and they are now best suited to filling that need. Anyone without a market base will have to compete with bigger and/or better advertising budgets.

Invest in a large reseller and/or Semi-Dedicated plan first. Be sure to pick a host that offers fully managed scalable services. This way you can learn as you go. Then study server administration, management and security in the OS's you intend to offer. Use the first six (6) months to a year to make sure you want to deal with the issues of running your own business, and/or providing your customers support. When/if you are ready you can make a smooth transistion to your first fully managed dedicated server. As your expertise and experience grows you can move on to semi managed and/or unmanaged services.

There really is no way to quickly describe how to start up a web hosting business. Contrary to popular belief, this isnt an easy industry.

If you're just starting out, I would opt for a reseller account and grow from there...

However, the best advise I can give you is not to get caught up in the pricing game. The market is saturated with hosting providers offering enourmous plans for next 2 nothing. This is 1) a bad way to build your business and 2) is really tough to compete against.

Pay the $'s for a quality provider and build your business on a solid foundation. Also, try separating yourself from the masses and sell based on value vs price - I think you will find this a much more enjoyable and profitable road to success...

Yups, i agree with you cartika, web hosting industry isn't easy.

That's not quite right. You would never want to start with a large reseller plan. And a dedicated server? Don't even dream for now. Trust me hosting is hard as hell to get into. Your going to want to SMALL but QUALITY reseller plan to start out with. One that you can gradually get bigger with. Then, when the times right, you get a VPS (virtual private server). THEN MAYBE if you fill that up you can get a dedicated server, but even then, you may just wan to get a larger VPS.

At any rate, you need to look for a host that isn't selling the world for $2.99 you know? In the hosting business, like many others, you get what you pay for. I can't think of a better example for this saying than the hosting industry.

As for the business startup itself, you don't need a whole lot. A site, MAYBE automation software, a paypal account, a 2CO account. just a few things, other than that, the hosting business isn't that hard to startup. It's staying alive that's the hard part

i have two friends in that business.
About the servers... well, they just rent it... it is somewhere in a datacenter in the US... they live in portugal and have never been in the US.

The market is absoluted saturated online. They have their own base of clients mostly composed by company owners that don't know how to use a computer and would just pay somebody like them to have a webpage online no mmater how much does it costs, or if it looks good, or if its funcitional, etc etc...
Basicly they find clients rather among the neighbourhood than online... thats wise if we think that internet-analphabets don't know anything about webhosting prices.

the market is saturated but if you do it correctly by offering quality hosting you'll make money. just market your hosting company correctly. it isn't something for beginers though.

It is a difficult business to be in, from my experience it is much better to be a designer and have your own hosting you sell to customers, and if you get other sales, great, if not, you're always steadily increasing your customer base anyway through your design customers.

If you have dreams of it being a quick money making industry you will be sadly disappointed, it takes a long time to build up a reputation unless you have funds for a lot of advertising and can saturate the market.

I am not convinced 'quick answers' are going to get you anywhere and it comes across as though you have not even created a comprehensive business plan as a foundation for your desire to start a business, without this you risk becoming another fly-by-night hosting company, and there are already too many of those...

not that I have any experience in we hosting (just from the consumer side), but I sure think the best way tro earn money is through carefuly managed free hosting with banners. SUre there will be all sorts of problems like settng it all up in the first place, self-promotion, spam, etc, but in the end it would be like getting money not just frome one website, but from countless ones. The trick will be setting the right space and bandwith ammount and the inactivity limit. Then simply submit your engine to countless free isp guides like clickherefree.com and you are all set!

kanexpo is asking that question, not asking how to run a web hosting business or how profitable is it, just asking how to setup!

It depends on your pocket money kanexpo
, according to it first decide what type and how you can provide hosting accounts: from your own builded datacenter, leased racks or by reselling..
Then apply for your business.

Reply seems so easy but the qustion also asked so easily too.

When it become about the success, it is not impossible but do not dream any profit at least for the first 2 year.

I am not aware if you run your own web hosting company dolay, but if you do then you will know that there are all kinds of facets to owning a web hosting company, and it is not as straight forward as 'applying for a business name - buying some hosting to resell - build a website - put up a few posters and they will come in millions'.

I don't see that anyone has gone off topic and all replies have offered a lot of advice.

I've been in the same situation, and here's a little advice:

If you're new, start a shared reseller program. You won't intially have to manage the server, and they are very cost effective. You need to shop around carefully for one which offers a plan which could be profitible for you. I can give my host's name if you PM me (I don't want to post it for everyone) They usually run about $20 per month

Next, once you establish a solid client base, I recommend purchasing a server and renting a co-location facility. Colos are connected to internet backbones so they offer you the power of a multimillion dollar facility for a small monthly fee ($60-70?)

Also, find a niche. You need to seperate yourself from the competition somehow.

Develop a business plan. This is more important then you think.

It's also very hard to get your foot in the door if you aren't a web designer, as you will incur a monthly loss until you have enough clients to cover your variable costs.

I can give you more detailed info, but I'm getting tired of typing, sorry...

Just my two cents here, start small and build up. Myself I offer hosting to my clients, as almost everyone who wants a website needs a host as well. Right now I just add them to my plan at my webhost, but once I get some more clients I would like to upgrade to a dedicated server. One that is managed for me, but I have the ability to log into and manage myself if and when I need to.

Honestly, if you're asking how to get into a particular business (any business), you're not ready to get into that business anyway.

Just do whatever you're doing, and then look at things you can do that you already know something about.

If you want to learn about web hosting, simply hit Google and start doing some reading.. then spend a few more months doing more reading.

If you enter any business (even if the market isn't as saturated as web hosting), you're doomed to failure if you choose to enter into it before you know anything about the subject.

I don't think that's really true. I think kanexpo's first step should be to ask people who are in the field (kinda like web hosts on a message board )

I mean, I'd like to get into Real Estate, but because I don't know how to get started doesn't mean I'm going to turn away from it and never look back.

But I think what Axe is trying to say is that if you rush into this, without careful contemplation, you will ultimatly lose money. You honestly need to know a LOT about Linux administration, networking, business, and more. If you don't have any formal training, you'll probably want to at least take a few classes somewhere before you even attempt to host sites.