Let's build a web hosting business on a shoestring

Find a reseller web host or lease/rent/buy a server with a web control panel included or as add-on.

Finally we're getting to the good stuff. We will sign you up for a reseller web hosting account. What is a reseller hosting account at all?

For you as the newcomer a reseller account is your way to break into this industry without having to know any system administration or how to fix a web server. A reseller hosting account allows you to create your own hosting accounts under your main account - meaning you can take on customers and set them up with their own web hosting account for their domain. You will have a certain amount of bandwidth and disk space available and can split it into small pieces and resell them with a profit. Compare it to wholesale/retail business. You will buy web hosting in wholesale and sell it to clients as a retailer.

The major advantage of reseller hosting accounts is that you need almost no technical knowledge to start out with. The actual web host you buy your reseller account from will take care of all technical issues and the system administration for you. You take on the support request from your client and pass it on to your web host. He takes care of the issue and let's you know. You then go back to the client and tell that the issue has been taken care of. The client does not even know that there is another company in the background.

The second major advantage of this business model is - you will learn from how your reseller host quite a bit. Every support ticket or issue is a learning experience for you. You will gain superior technical knowledge in no-time. Of course it will help if you already know some stuff - but if you're starting out you always have someone in the back who takes care of everything you don't know.

We recommend a reseller host who also has a customer forum for support and to build a community. You can chat with others in the same situation and learn from them, too. It has never been that easy to build a business in a new industry by following a path like this. You're risk is minimal. All you basically need to take care of is customer service and billing. How easy is that?

The following businesses have been evaluated by us. We even used these companies at one point ourselfes in the past. They might not be the cheapest option out there, but as a newbie you will want world-class backend support and these companies provide it.

http://www.httpme.com

http://www.voxtreme.com

http://www.site5.com

The cost factor of this step is a monthly fee. Use your credit card to signup and be dedicated to this venture. From this moment on you have to be certain that you want to try this. The risk is small and monthly fees are acceptable and if you work for your business it will be easy to make up for the money.

Cost associated with this step (max): $35.00 per month

Money spend so far (one time): $9.87
Money spend so far (recurring): $35.00

Continue to Step 8