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Web Hosting 101 - neverforget98 - 08-23-2011
Web Hosting: Keep a Variety of Packages
A good way to start off/keep a web hosting company, is to ALWAYS keep a variety of packages. If your a completely-free web hosting company, you should have one or two packages, a starter and a beginner maybe, but you might want to be a Post2Host Web Hosting Company, and provide 1 free-trial package, and multiple Post2Host Packages. You want to try and be able to provide Reseller Packages, so make sure you at least get a Master Reseller, unless you just want to start out small, and gradually get bigger.
If you want to be a paid host, your better off providing more paid packages, a few Post2Host packages, and a free one. This way, it gives your web-hosting company more variety. Remember, you should NEVER give much space and bandwidth to free packages, and don't give them any emails or email lists, because that leaves a high-risk of spam, and email abusers. Always remember to keep a high-eye out on those accounts!
B. Arsenault
Web Hosting: Start Out Small
When you start a web-hosting company, you're better off starting out small, because you won't be big in a matter of days, unless your merging with another community or company. You should start off free, with a little mixture of Post2Host packages, and than once you get bigger, provide paid packages, and remove some of the free packages, that way you have a nice variety of packages. Then, focus on keeping the staff focused in on the community. If they have other commitments, try to have a replacement to be on-duty for them. Start off with a small team, and then grow the team, by placing ads out, and announcing applicants will be accepted to the community.
After you start to get bigger, make sure you start to use the ban hammer when needed, and make sure your clients are following your Terms of Service, and the community rules. Start putting advertisements out, and look into gaining revenue from the company. Start expanding your services, and look to get some other communities to merge with you, (once your big enough, and really are ready for it), to get more clients. Get your staff to refer you, look for reviews, find advertising services, and do everything you can. After you get big enough, sit back and relax, but dedicate a time to the company.
B. Arsenault
Web Hosting: Background Checks
Before you choose a host to be with, and stick with, you need to do some background checks, get some client reviews, ask them for uptimes, and server specifications. Don't go with a host that you have bad doubts about. Don't go with a host because they SAY they have good reviews. Don't go with a host, because of what you see on the webpage. I've learned this from experience. STICK WITH AN ONSHORE HOST, IF YOU CAN. Offshore servers are extremely unreliable, as so many people abuse the services, whenever they can. If you get an offshore server, don't go cheap, and don't resell cheap...
The host I started my big company with, was terrible. They looked so professional, but they didn't make their clients stick to the Terms of Service, and our account being the only account following the Terms of Service, the whole server got banned, because most of the abusers were hosted by that account. You need to find a good host. Do some searches for top hosts. Ask some friends. Or just look at ads, and the comments. Don't choose without a background check!
B. Arsenault
Web Hosting: Stick The Rules
When you start off your community, you don't need to throw down the community guidelines so much, but you really need to keep the Terms of Service stuck on them. You can't let customers abuse the services, because then they think it's just funny. If they abuse the services, and break the Terms of Services, I say flat out ban them, because then they know you were serious, and then you get a better reputation for not letting freaks and rude service-abusers ruin it for everyone else. Once you get 50+ members on your forum, you need to really start enforcing the community guidelines, because you can't let it get out of hand.
Make sure you release a STRICT amount of community guidelines, once you get to the 50+ members count, and before you even open, you need to have an extremely strict, but flexible Terms of Service. Don't let the clients kill you with kindness, and don't unban them or remove a warning because they're "sorry". I've seen it all, they'll just do it again. DON'T LET THEM RUN THE COMMUNITY INTO NOTHING, YOU RUN IT, YOUR WAY.
B. Arsenault
RE: Web Hosting 101 - MyDigitalpoint - 08-23-2011
Really good tips to keep in mind whether starting a hosting service or signing up to a new one.
I may add a tip that just remember yesterday when I was seeking a new paid hosting provider and found an appealing offer for a low price.
If the company pass the background check and there is enough review evidence that you are dealing with a reputable hosting service, be aware of the sign up process to detect it might not be all what you learned about.
This company asked me to subscribe via Paypal so I did, but in the process they asked me to email the domain name I wanted to setup.
They didn't ask any personal or desired account information, just to subscribe an email separately the domain name.
When I did it, yes, I got my account, but the specs in the welcome email have nothing to do with the advertised package so a word of caution.
When a hosting company states that they will set up manually your hosting account for any given reason, or ask you to follow non-standard processes to sign up, something might be wrong with the hosting offer or the service itself.
RE: Web Hosting 101 - neverforget98 - 08-23-2011
(08-23-2011, 02:51 AM)MyDigitalpoint Wrote: Really good tips to keep in mind whether starting a hosting service or signing up to a new one.
I may add a tip that just remember yesterday when I was seeking a new paid hosting provider and found an appealing offer for a low price.
If the company pass the background check and there is enough review evidence that you are dealing with a reputable hosting service, be aware of the sign up process to detect it might not be all what you learned about.
This company asked me to subscribe via Paypal so I did, but in the process they asked me to email the domain name I wanted to setup.
They didn't ask any personal or desired account information, just to subscribe an email separately the domain name.
When I did it, yes, I got my account, but the specs in the welcome email have nothing to do with the advertised package so a word of caution.
When a hosting company states that they will set up manually your hosting account for any given reason, or ask you to follow non-standard processes to sign up, something might be wrong with the hosting offer or the service itself.
Thank you for that extra bit of information! It will be great for anyone looking to start a company!
RE: Web Hosting 101 - MyDigitalpoint - 10-20-2011
Another bit of information I want to contribute this time is pay attention to the server specs.
A regular user may not find any difference and even feel confused reading about server processor, memory swap and the like, but for the experienced webmaster or developer this is a must, as it is find (or ask to pre-sales support) if they are running Apache or LiteSpeed.
Once again, this can't make too much difference for a regular client, but those who need to run specific scripts may find noticeable performance differences or even incompatibility.
LiteSpeed is supposed to be faster and more reliable than Apache, but there are some applications that needs expressly Apache, for instance Elgg, the social networking script, which can't handle mod_rewrite efficiently if an Apache extension is not enabled.