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How to Start a Web Hosting Company (Reseller Hosting)

How to Start a Web Hosting Company (Reseller Hosting)

Reseller hosting is when someone purchases an account from a web hosting service and uses their allotted server space and bandwidth to host the websites of third parties. After purchasing the services of a parent company, they can create branded hosting packages and sell it as their own. Essentially, it is purchasing a web hosting package at a wholesale price and selling it to someone else at a higher price.

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Nowadays, everyone is looking to make money through online businesses. Web hosting is a growing industry that holds plenty of opportunity for entrepreneurs. 

What is a Web Hosting Service?

A web host is a type of internet hosting service that provides individuals and organizations with the services and technologies that they need for their website to be viewed on the Internet. 

What is Reseller Hosting?

Reseller hosting is when someone purchases an account from a web hosting service and uses their allotted server space and bandwidth to host the websites of third parties. After purchasing the services of a parent company, they can create branded hosting packages and sell it as their own. Essentially, it is purchasing a web hosting package at a wholesale price and selling it to someone else at a higher price.

What You Should Know Before Starting

If you are new to both the entrepreneurial and web hosting worlds, then you need to study up. Like any other business, you should have some knowledge of what you are talking about to your customers, as well as what you are selling or providing. Find articles (like this one) and online courses from experts to learn about the industry. 

How to start a web hosting company

Research

It is important to research not just your industry, but your competitors as well. Visit web hosting and reselling websites and study them. Learn more about what services you should be offering as well as what your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses are. 

Market research is also important, you can conduct this by going on review sites and searching for your competitors’ reviews, looking at forums, creating a market research survey, and joining groups on social media for keyword searches (words like ‘hate’ or ‘problem’) to see what problems you can try to solve. 

Keyword research is also important in order to learn what people are searching for on Google. This helps with SEO and can help you form your website.

Branding

What will you specialize in? Do you have a niche you want to capitalize on? What will your company be known for? There are a lot of big companies in the web hosting space and countless resellers, so standing out is needed in order to succeed. Branding is how you differentiate your company from competitors, and it is important to think about it early on so you know how to structure and position your company. 

Getting Up and Running

Reseller Hosting Packages

Now that you have decided on a niche and how you want to brand yourself, it is time to pick a package from a hosting company that fits your needs. Do lots of research on the company you are purchasing from, as you want something reliable for your customers (keep in mind that price is not the only factor). 

Your Services

What will you be offering people? The most common are disk space, bandwidth, email accounts/lists, add-on domains, parked domains, FTP accounts, databases, as well as any other tools or programs that the parent company offers or includes in the package you have purchased. 

Your Website

Once you have finished your research, decided on what services you will be offering, found your niche, and purchased your first reseller package, it is time to build your website. As this is an online business, a visually appealing, high functioning website is extremely important. Think of it as if it was a brick and mortar, keep it clean, easily navigable, and provide support when needed. 

Finding Clients

Hopefully from your keyword and marketing research your site should be search engine optimized and customers will be coming to you. However, if you need to kickstart things, here are some tips:

  1. Have your logo displayed on your clients’ websites.
  2. Create content consistently and post it to all channels including your website. Rich educational content is what makes you an authority in your industry and builds trust between you and your prospective clients.
  3. Use PPC ads on search engines as well as social media sites.
  4. Incentivize current clients to refer people by offering them something of value in exchange (i.e. free eBooks, discounted offers, gift cards).

Keep your niche in mind, and do not spend more than you have to trying to reach people that don’t fit your target market.

Building Your Brand

Throughout your business’ growth, you should continuously be trying to improve. Learn from mistakes, continue to do market research as well as asking your clients for feedback. Fortunately for this industry, there is unlimited talent all over the world that can join your organization as it grows, you are not limited to local workers. Take the time to find people that fit in well with your business and align with your company’s goals.


Keep in mind that as a business grows, it is easy to lose sight of the company’s core values. This is the difference between a business and a brand. A brand has a vision, a mission, and an identity, it is important to stick to it. 


Author
Mark Grindey
Group CEO / MD

Mark Grindey is a dedicated professional with a strong passion for cloud computing and a mission to make it accessible to all. With a over a decades experience and a deep understanding of existing cloud technologies, Mark Grindey is constantly striving to improve and enhance these tools, ensuring that their benefits can be leveraged by businesses of all sizes.

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