By R. Hafsari
With the ever fast growing internet industry nowadays, it is not surprising to see new hosting companies being established every day. Currently there are hundreds, if not thousands, of hosting companies to choose from. You might be wondering how one is able to survive in such industry, surrounded by so many predecessors before him. What makes a hosting company recognizable? What makes a hosting company big? What differentiates them?
With this article, hopefully I can shed some lights :)
First of all, what you need to have is your OWN unique and easy to remember domain name. Notice that the best and the most successful hosting companies have unique names that differentiate themselves amongst others. Names such as: Host Department, 1&1 Hosting, Interland, HostWay, IPowerWeb etc. are easily to remember by us, thus make them easy to "stick" at our minds. Names like MikeHosting, DaveHosting, or yourname-Hosting should be avoided, as they are not representing the uniqueness of the hosting company itself. Try to find something that no one else have thought about.
Second of all, think of your own "catch phrases" or slogan. The better the slogan is, the more easily remember you are. One of the best example I can find is the Host Department's slogan : "To Host and To Serve". By saying so, they are telling us that they are not only hosting our websites, but they are also serving us as clients. Slogans like "The #1 Web Hosting Company" should be avoided at any cost, since MOST of the hosting companies we find in the internet will claim they are the number one. So, find a great and easy to remember slogans.
Third, find the best Reseller Program that's best suits your need (and budget). Why a reseller account, you might ask? Well, with a reseller account, you will be able to LEARN the basics of how the industry works with the lowest costs possible. This is important if you want to spend your time managing your own company in the future. Most of the CEOs of the biggest hosting companies around started out as resellers. So, find the best reseller program out there. When searching for the best program, you will also need to think ahead on how big your company is expected to be. You will need to make sure the program is able to accomodate your growth in the future.
Then, think about your company info. A good hosting company usually has a Mailing Address and a Phone number posted in their website. Why would a true hosting company not willing to give out their information, anyways? Well, you might be surprised to find that most of them failed to see this important detail. So this is also an important detail to remember.
Next, think about the control panel you will be using. Find all pros and cons of the most popular hosting control panels available in the internet. Every one of them has their own advantages and disadvantages. Control Panels like cpanel, H-Sphere, Ensim, etc. have their own interfaces and features, intended for us to manage our hosting accounts easily. When choosing the best control panel, you might want to consider your own market segmentations first. Cpanel is the easiest one to handle, while H-Sphere has a lot of advanced features that no other control panels have. So find one that suits the need of your future clients.
Fifth, think about your products. What will you be offering to the public? What can you give them to gain their trust? My suggestions is to think of an "out of the box" promo for your products. Be creative! There are a lot of things you can offer without sacrificing too much costs on your side. Search around the internet to see the many promos the other hosting companies have.
Last, but not least, think about how you will be marketing your hosting company. A lot of people use what they think to be the smartest and the easiest way to reach thousands of people without an effort, and that is Email Marketing. This method is not effective because MOST people will find it annoying, thus will consider it as SPAM. When you accept such email yourself, will you bother to read it? Nope, just trash it as soon as you receive it! So be creative! While SEO tools will help you in marketing your company, it is not the best way (since a LOT of hosting companies use it before you). My suggestion is to go to (popular) community forums and hosting news websites. Start talking about your hosting company to them. Post your own marketing buzz with them. Let everybody know about your progress. Sooner or later, people WILL come :)
So those are the suggestions on how to start your OWN web hosting company. Start small, by offering your services to everybody you know, then grow bigger by their reference to other people. Think outside the box. Find the right name, the right slogan, and the right products for you. Think how you can make yourself different from the rest of the flock. It's not easy, but it's not that hard either. So learn as much as you can about the industry, and start gaining from the fastest growing industry on the planet :)
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