by Abdillahi Abdillahi
Are you ready to start your own web hosting company? The best way to start your own web hosting company is to get a reseller hosting package from a hosting company and start your web hosting company instantly without buying or installing any softwares.But When buying a reseller hosting package, there are many things to consider . So today this article lists the six main things you should consider before buying any reseller package .
1: Control Panel and WHW(Web Host Manager)
This one is ranked number one I guess. Make sure you get a control panel , Cpanel is the best and widely used control panel for any reseller and non reseller accounts.WHM(Web Host Manger) lets you easily manage your customers and hosting business.It lets you set up , delete , monitor web hosting accounts.
I heard that some companies which offer reseller hosting packages set up accounts for you . You shouldn't go with such companies because You want to manage your customers and Your customers want their own control panel where they can manage their sites. So you need to make sure that you get Control Panel and WHM with the reseller package you get .Also any account you create should get its own control panel without paying any extra $$$.
2: Private Name Servers and Dedicated IP address.
These two are very important if you want to keep people from knowing the original hosting company.If you don't have a private name server then you will be using the original hosting company's name servers ,e.g. ns1.hostingcompany.com and ns2.hostingcompany.
You don't want people to make a who is search and find out about that the original hosting company . In order to hide the original hosting company you must be able to make your own private name servers. Most of the times companies that offer reseller packages give you that but sometimes you need to ask them before making any payment .
Why do you need a dedicated IP address for your site and the sites you are going to host? Well here is the answer . When you get a reseller hosting package , you don't get a dedicated IP address instead you will have to use the shared IP address which the company is using .Even though you can hide them with your private name servers but it will be easy to find them if the IP is resolved.
There are many tools out there that can be used to find out such things, so wouldn't it be better if you were using an IP address that your site and the sites you host will be using instead of the one which the company and millions of their shared hosting customers are using? I'm sure it would be.But getting a dedicated IP address can cost you like $2-$5 per month and as you can see it worths .After all you don't want potential clients to go the the original company so make sure you get those two ready for your new hosting company .
3: Quality Customer Support
Well here comes another important one . Once you start a web hosting company , it can be very stressful. Clients keep opening tickets . So for that reason and many other reasons you will need efficient and friendly support from the company which you are buying the reseller hosting package from .
They must be there for you 24/7 to assist you with any questions you may have. And make sure they don't charge you any $$ for offering support to your customers because Some companies do charge extra $$ for offering great 24/7 support for your customers .
4: Branding
They should allow Cpanel and WHW branding. What is this?Well let me try to explain it. Cpanel and WHWM branding is customising them with your own graphics using the branding function in WHM(Web Host Manager).
The reason of why this should be considered before buying any reseller hosting package from any hosting company is that you might need to use your own graphics for your cpanel and the cpanel of your accounts so for that reason and many other reasons it is better to make sure whether or not they allow Cpanel and WHW branding.
5: Established Data Center
Well most of the time web hosting companies have well established data center . But still you should check and read their network and data center information, e.g where it is located , security facilities they use, and any other thing that is needed to know about the data center .
After all you don't want to host your site and the sites of your customers on a server which is in the living room of someone
6: Acceptable Use Policy(AUP) and Terms of Service (TOS)
This one is also important.You must read the AUP and TOS of the company and see if they mention anything about resellers.Sometimes companies providing reseller packages will make you use their AUP and TOS , which means your site and all the other sites that you are going to host will accept that policy. So if you want to set up your own AUP and TOS then being with a company that doesn't allow such thing will be a big problem .
There are many reasons which you should consider this , lets suppose the company which you are going to get the reseller package doesn't allow adult hosting on the server but you want to host adult sites ,anysite, for just building a great client base so as you can see that policy of not allowing any adult material on the server will lose you many clients and also will make you look for another company. I think that is one enough reason to read and triple read the policies of any hosting company that you want to get a reseller hosting package from .
Conclussion
There you go , These are the six main things you should consider before buying any reseller hosting package . Now that you know these main things then you should start searching for the best hosting comapany that will meet your needs and your client's needs.
About the Author:
Abdillahi Abdillahi is a web designer, founder and president of http://kooshin.com , a company providing affordable web hosting and web design solutions to small to medium sized businesses and individuals. For more information , please visit http://kooshin.com
This article is reprinted with permission from www.WritingCareer.com
Copyright 2004 Ed Zivkovic
Does GoDaddy really suck?
I am in the process of registering more and more domain names so it seems natural to look for the best pricing deal.
Registering multiple domain names can add up quickly, especially if you register both the NoDashVersion.com and Dashed-Version.com names.
Each domain name represents a new site concept which will in most cases involve the selection of a web hosting plan.
It also makes sense to pay a little less for web hosting right? After all, all these new projects add up.
How much do you really save?
The answer to this question depends on how much value we place on our time, and our ability to determine what other software tools are required to run the type of website we have in mind.
In other words, if we think that our time is valuable, we will not mind investing an extra $50-$400 per project per year, especially if there is a lot of value added services and software tools included in the price.
What's the point in saving 50 bucks a year on some bare-bones web hosting if our time gets wasted with support issues or we need to buy additional products and services in order to run our site effectively?
Example of Web Hosting Hell:
http://www.godaddysux.com/web_hosting_hell.html
I do not know about you, but after I read one of these bad web hosting reviews, I start to become very cautious about that company. In this case, it is GoDaddy.
Research your new Web Host or Domain Name registrar
I remembered that GoDaddy has been mentioned a number of times in some of the Internet Marketing courses and SEO books that I own, so I decided to check GoDaddy out. By check them out, I do not mean just visit their web site, swallow their sales pitch and click through to the checkout patting myself on the back for a job well done.
I did a search at Google.com for the term godaddy review, and discovered some interesting results.
After reading a few of the results, I decided to search for the term "do not use godaddy" (this string was searched enclosed with "inverted commas"), and discovered even more negative feedback not only about their web hosting services but also their domain name registration and associated services.
Is it all about Price?
No way. Do we *really* save? On one hand it looks like a saving but on the other hand the saving can be offset by extra costs elsewhere.
As a result of this little study, I have no desire at this time to change my domain name registrar or my two web hosting companies that I use just to save a few bucks.
At the moment, I enjoy the following benefits from my web hosts and domain name registrar:
- Everything works to my satisfaction 99.99% of the time
- Very little support needed in the first place
- Support queries attended to quickly
- Support queries always solved to my satisfaction
- I never suffer from emotional disturbance as a result of dealing with rude support staff
- I am never accused of being the problem
Example of excellent support
I created a new directory and installed a PHP script on one of my sites. All the file permissions were set correctly and the files were uploaded in the correct format.
So I edited the HTML user interfaces and tried to upload them to this new directory. For some reason I was denied access to this new directory. Permission Denied!
I emailed my web host with a description of the problem and within a few hours my web host sent me an email saying that the problem has been fixed and that I can now proceed to upload into that directory. Wow!
A good Web Hosting and Domain Name service is worth it's weight in Gold
Who really wants unnecessary dramas with web hosting and domain name registrars? Nobody does! (except those that cannot survive one day without chaos)
The peace of mind for a few extra bucks a year buys is priceless.
Besides, even if I select some of the platinum (no extras to buy) web hosting deals out there, it still only costs about 10-30 bucks a week to run a business on the Internet.
Imagine that, for a few extra bucks, I need not worry about: Content Management Software, web design, domain name registrations, expensive keyword research and SEO tools, search engine rankings, and the list goes on and adds up *real* quick.
Compare this to a regular bricks and mortar business where you pay thousands a month in rental fees just for a bit of floor space.
Sometimes it pays to do the sums. It might *appear* to cost more money at first, but does it really cost more after you calculate the out-going dollars over the whole year?
When I was in the process of building my first web site, I would not have had the capacity to answer that question because I had no experience. But you know that old saying:
"When someone with experience meets someone with money, the one with the experience ends up with the money and the one who had the money, ends up with an experience"
As a result, I have ended up spending thousands of dollars on eBooks, software, scripts, courses, private memberships, DVDs, VCDs, MP3s in an attempt to complete the Online Marketing mystery. This is all now part of my experience.
Conclusion
When we go looking to buy a car or a house, we do not base our decision on price alone. Otherwise we would all be driving around in smokey old $200 bombs. We look for features which we then translate in some way to benefits.
So why waste time looking for cheap-as-chips deals for the very important job of setting up an Online Business? We would do much better to look beyond price when buying services on the Internet.
The author, Ed Zivkovic is based on the Gold Coast in Australia.
Contact details are available at his web site along with many helpful webmaster articles: http://www.ezau.com
This article is reprinted with permission from www.WritingCareer.com
Copyright 2005 Arun Pal Singh
With plethora of hosting companies offering services, choosing a good web host seems an intimidating task. The technical jargon is hard to decipher and that makes it difficult further. It is better to prepare beforehand and then search for offers rather than acting otherwise.
What is web hosting? If one compares the web to land hosing is the place where your office or website will be placed. Server is the computer which stores your website files and allows them to be viewed on clicking the link to your site.
With free hosting out of question for business and dedicated hosting being too expensive, shared hosting is the only and good option for home business. As the name suggests, in shared hosting your site is stored with many others unlike dedicated hosting which stores only your site.
Now let us discuss other features:
•Disc or Server space:
This is the space on hard disk of your server that will be allotted to your site. Without graphics a typical web page occupies 40 – 50 Kb. Now 1000 kb = 1 MB. Allowing space for graphics too and need for any future expansion anything between 50 -100 MB should be good enough if you are not running a flashy website. Many companies offer space up to 1 GB (1000 MB) but if you do not require, do not fall for the offer.
•Bandwidth:
A very important aspect and often overlooked. This is the amount of actual data that can be transferred from the web server that holds your website. It is directly linked to the number of visitors to your site. If you have 10000 visitors per month with few downloads you will require anything between 5 -6 GB per month. More downloads means higher requirement. As your business grows you will need more. For starting 10 GB should be good enough. That leaves you with extra margin.
•E- Mail aliases:
This lets you formulate an e-mail address on your site address e.g. anything@ your sitename.com where anything can be support, live support, help, info, subscribe etc. Anything! This makes your business look professional. Look for you needs but anything around 10 is good enough. Many companies offer unlimited aliases too.
•Watch for these too:
If you plan to accept payment on your side an access to SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption is must. If you want your site to be interactive you would need to install cgi(Common Gateway Interface). So better to look for a host who supplies you your own cgi bin.
If you wish to create your site in Microsoft FrontPage then check whether your host provides FrontPage extension. If you plan to run a site with database then MySQL should be a desired feature.
Your host should also provide you free access to your server. You should have free access to log files and statistics of the traffic your site receives. If your host offers referral programme it is better.
•Customer Support:
This matters a great deal to your business. You will need this help whenever you run in trouble. If your host is not supportive or is not prompt enough then it could mean loss in your business. See that you are provided a good and meaningful support. Send them a question or two. Study the response. Find out if they are available on phone in case you are in emergent situation.
Make sure that this service is free and they will not charge anything in name of customer support.
Finally, you will have to find what matches your business needs. Search before you settle for a deal. Narrow down your choice to a few prospective hosts. Look for their reputation. Ask them examples of sites hosted.
Check with their existing clients and find how satisfied they are. Most good business hosts are available between $ 15- 50 with few differences that could matter to the individual.
You can start small and upgrade later provided your host gives you this option. Select the one who allows you to expand if the need arises.
Just two words before you go. “Select carefully”
Arun Pal Singh runs a successful business from home at http://www.homeforprofits.com. He is also publisher and editor of Home for profits’ income course, a free newsletter with hundreds of tips for home business which can be subscribed by mailing to homeforprofits@getresponse.com
This article is reprinted with permission from www.WritingCareer.com
