Web hosting companies help to power the internet by providing an essential service. These companies use dedicated servers in which website content is stored. If you would like to invest in this space, there are many opportunities you could exploit.
Starting a web hosting company is easy if you have the tools required and skills to run such an enterprise. If you have been thinking about starting a web hosting company, we have compiled some steps to follow to accomplish that.
1. Define your Brand
A single search online with the keyword “web host” will give you thousands of results, and in these results are hundreds of web hosting companies that provide services similar to those you intend to start offering. So, how will you separate your business from the pack so as to appeal to buyers and get more people to trust your company?
This is where brand definition comes in. You need to know what your market branding is focused on. Define your target market and come up with a name that reflects this niche. Also enumerate the categories of hosting services you will be offering (e.g. reseller hosting, shared hosting, VPS hosting e.t.c.).
2. Choose a Dedicated Server Partner
The second step is choosing a dedicated server partner, and this impacts your success by a large margin. Your clients will be skeptical about migrating if they discover you are using a data center that is not trusted, and this alone might deny you business.
The cheapest dedicated server is not always the best choice and might end in disaster. There are many dedicated server partners that give you value at an affordable price, 24/7 support, protection against DDoS attacks, a solid reputation backed by positive reviews, and suitable hardware like RAID-10 and SSD.
3. Launch Site, Support Channel and Billing System
After setting up dedicated servers, next thing you need is to build a website, create a support channel, and a billing system.
A website serves as the face of the business and this is what you will need to sell your services. The site should include cPanel/WHM, a popular control panel that users will need to deploy their apps.
For support, you can rely on an external helpdesk like Zendesk. You can compare sites owned by hosting companies to know where to start. Borrow ideas from this great comparison of the best UK web hosts.
4. Getting Clients
With the setup complete, the next big task is getting clients for your hosting company. This stage involves marketing, and this could be done through channels, word of mouth, or even advertising.
After getting the first customer, focus on giving the best so as to inspire positive reviews. Facebook and Google Adwords are good places to advertise, and you could also use local print and banner ads.
5. Scaling Your Company
Lastly, you need to scale the business to achieve growth. Come up with solutions to new problem and keep adding features that users need. The idea is to retain the clients you get and to also increase the number of new signups.
Web hosting plays a vital role on the internet. Web hosts provide repositories in which sites can save their files. This is one of the areas you can invest in by coming up with a web hosting company. Above I have provided a walkthrough to help you set up a new web hosting company.
