Web Hosting

How to Start a Web Hosting Business from Scratch

The web hosting industry is at the heart of all e-commerce and online business opportunities, as every website online needs a web server to function. Not only does web hosting provide the tools and resources needed to build online businesses in nearly any industry, it also provides business opportunities in and of itself. By utilizing reseller hosting plans you can start a web hosting business from scratch with minimal effort and investment, and absolutely no expertise or experience. While not all hosting resellers will be successful, by following the tips below you may be able to build a web hosting business from scratch.

Choosing a Reseller Hosting Plan

Your reseller hosting plan will be the service that gives you access to wholesale server resources, which can be split up into plans and allocated amongst your customers as you see fit. Thus, it is important to consider the features and attributes of each plan carefully before purchasing one. As a general rule of thumb, the more comprehensive the hosting plan, the cheaper the server resources will be overall. Just as in any other industry, if you purchase server resources in bulk you receive the greatest discounts and will be able to earn the highest profit margins from your clients. It is also imperative to choose a hosting provider that is known for being reliable, as their reliability will reflect on the reputation of your own hosting business.

Creating Effective Hosting Plans and Building a Professional Website

Fortunately, during the process of selecting a good reseller hosting plan you’ll get a good idea of what hosting clients are looking for when they shop for a web hosting service. Put yourself in the shoes of your clients and begin creating hosting plans that could realistically compete with other web hosts. One of the best ways to do this is to distinguish your plans from other hosts’  by offering additional web-based services, and sizing your plans differently than other hosts. For example, if you are a web developer, programmer, or Internet marketer, you can bundle your site creation and promotion services with your hosting plans to solicit more clients. You can also use the robust site builder tools provided within your reseller hosting account to create professional web hosting websites that advertise your services.

Branding and Advertising Your Hosting Services

Reseller hosting plans also allow you to customize the control panel of your customers’ hosting accounts with the logo of your business. This will help you effectively establish your company’s brand and portray professionalism to your clients by distinguishing yourself from the competition. Reseller hosting plans also include free advertising credits for search engines and social networking sites such as Yahoo, Google, Bing, and Facebook. You can utilize these advertising credits to immediately begin promoting your hosting services to targeted audiences via pay per click advertising, which appears on the sides and above search engine results when related keywords are searched for.

HIT Web Design Shutting their Doors

Employees from HIT Web Design were seen carrying boxes from their headquarters in Provo, Utah to their cars on Tuesday, March 8^th. The company was founded as Heritage Web  Solutions in 1999. In 2007, HIT achieved the amazing accomplishment of rising to number 22 on the Inc. 5000 list, appearing again in 2008 and 2009. HIT Web Design was a full-service  web design and hosting provider for thousands of customers.

The liquidation and eventual shutdown of the company comes a year after controversies. During its time in business, HIT Web Design was the topic of 972 complaints at Utah’s Better Business Bureau. These mishaps range from employees not being paid for working to customers claiming the work they paid for was never complete. The company has used a variety of “Doing Business As” (DBA) names over their many years in service. These names include:

• The Heritage Group
• Heritage Web Design
• Heritage Web Solutions
• Yellow Page Partners
• Chamber Partners
• HIT Web Design

In May 2010, the media reported on the shady business practice of HIT. The President of the BBB in Utah was interviewed and revealed that a complaint stems from every single state in the U.S. except South Dakota and Maine. Therefore a total of 48 states had some form of complaint against the company.

When interviewed, the company’s co-founder explained that the web design business is tricky. Since it is a consulting-based industry, contractual and fee agreements between the company and client vary based on the needs of the customer. Therefore, expectations are often misaligned and good relationships can easily turn bad.

At this point, it is unclear whether these many customer service complaints had an relation to the closing of the organization. As of Tuesday, the main phone line has been disconnected with a message from the operator stating, “”Thank you for calling. Our current hosting customer’s accounts are being serviced by Fibernet. They’re a reputable hosting company that’s been around since 1994. Please contact them for more information.”

The web design and hosting business is a cut-throat, tricky industry to be in. Unfortunately if the company does not provide excellent customer service, there is another startup that will. Although this may not be the cause of HIT’s downfall, it surely was a contributing factor. Just a few years ago the company was at the top. With 972 mishaps, this is the end result.

ASP Web Hosting Reviewed

ASP (Active Server Pages) is a revolutionary programming language and platform that facilitates the creation of dynamic webpages that can utilize interactive components and respond quickly to visitor input. Unlike other similar programming platforms that allow you to create interactive webpages, ASP is a complete server-side scripting solution, which means it is much more reliable and stable. An example of components that are commonly amended and programmed using ASP are forms, search engines, blogs, calendars, e-mail modules, newsletters, polls, surveys, hit counters, and any other component of a webpage that is related to or dependent upon a site visitor’s actions. ASP also provides the additional advantage of being fully compatible with all browsers, thereby making it a universal scripting solution.

How to Find ASP Web Hosting Plans

Unfortunately, in order to utilize this unique programming platform, is absolutely necessary to have access to a web server that is compatible with ASP (a specific type of Windows web hosting). However, it is important to note that ASP Web hosting plans are not simply services that lease Windows web servers, as these plans usually already have Active Server Pages technology installed on the server and ready to be utilized. It is also important to realize that, while the majority of web hosting providers claim that their hosting plans are compatible with nearly all programming platforms, this does not mean that support for ASP is provided. Since ASP is such a powerful programming platform, it would be preferable to choose a hosting provider that specializes in this technology.

What Is an ASP Server?

An ASP server is simply a web server with the Windows operating system and the ASP scripting platform installed. Although Windows Vista and Windows 7 carries integrated support for ASP servers, older versions of Windows such as windows XP and Windows and the do not support ASP scripting. However, by utilizing a third-party software known as “Chili” (distributed by Sun Microsystems), it is possible to enjoy the benefits of ASP programming outside of the Windows operating system. Chili is basically a virtualization software that allows you to run ASP on other operating systems such as Linux, Solaris, or AIX. Although it would be ideal to host ASP scripts on a powerful web server (such as a dedicated or VPS server) in order to optimize functionality and performance, this versatile programming language is capable of being run on even a modest web server (i.e. – those offered with a shared hosting plan).

The Simplicity of ASP

Despite its extensive capabilities, the ASP programming platform is very similar to HTML, so even the most novice to intermediate webmasters should be able to easily transition into using this type of scripting language. In fact, even individuals that have no experience with web development should be able to learn ASP as their first programming language. Fortunately, it won’t require years of hard work to become an efficient ASP programmer, as there are many user-friendly interactive applications that simplify the learning curve significantly.

How Dedicated Host Can Enhance Search Engine Optimization Results

The obvious advantages of dedicated hosting are often cited by experienced webmasters when reverting to it as the ultimate hosting environment. A dedicated hosting plan lets you lease private web servers that are solely devoted to the tasks of your websites and online endeavors. Perhaps one of the most crucial aspects of building professional websites and a successful online business is SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Unfortunately, search engine optimization is an artform that can take months, if not years to perfect. Even experienced webmasters that have been optimizing their websites for search engines for years still have to remain vigilant and continuously monitor search engine trends and recently developed algorithms. If you are interested in the search engine optimization benefits of dedicated hosting, you may want to consider the following information.

Dedicated Automation Versus Human Outsourcing

The bulk of the work associated with search engine optimization involves performing simple yet repetitive tasks on a daily basis, in an effort to build a residual traffic flow and a portfolio of backlinks. Search engine optimization must be conducted gradually in order to appear natural, so link building automation must be performed on an ongoing basis in order to create a stable traffic flow. Unfortunately, webmasters that to try to manage multiple sites and perform these tasks continuously often find that the job is simply too time-consuming. Thus, there is a decision to make – use software to automate these processes, or pay human workers to complete them. Ultimately, when used properly, software is simply more effective and less expensive than outsourcing. In addition, the amount of tasks that can be performed by such software dwarf any human efforts that can occur within the same amount of time.

Dedicated Server Resources

Most search engine optimization automation software are capable of utilizing immense amount of server resources, depending on the amount of tasks that are being performed each day. For an online business owner and entrepreneur whose goal is to continually expand their network of websites and enhanced search engine optimization efforts, managing and maintaining multiple SEO campaigns simultaneously can be a difficult task. Fortunately,  many search engine optimization programs are capable of running hundreds of threads simultaneously (each thread performs a different task), gradually posting links on a scheduled basis via various methods. Unlike shared and VPS hosting plans, which utilize load-balancing technologies to evenly distribute server requests across a network of servers, dedicated hosting transmits and receives information directly, thereby expediting automated tasks performed by the server. A comprehensive dedicated hosting plan can also handle more tasks than any other type of web hosting, due to the extensive server resources provided.

Flexibility and Freedom of Dedicated Hosting

Within the shared hosting environment it is not possible to change the configuration of the server. Therefore, you cannot install certain software, or change the operating system. Many dedicated hosting plans give you complete access to the root of the web server, where you can install any type of software or operating system you would like. This also gives you the ability to install multiple operating systems, thereby providing complete compatibility with all forms of software. Thus, by utilizing the dedicated hosting plan you can create a custom hosting environment that is highly efficient and completely compatible with all search engine optimization software.

An Overview of the Pros, Cons, and Types of Managed Web Hosting

Dedicated web hosting is usually seen as the top of the hosting industry, offering unparalleled access to customized Web server resources that are only allowed to be utilized by one webmaster at any given time. The majority of cheap web hosting plans offered by major web hosting providers are operating within the shared hosting environment, which is much less robust than dedicated hosting because you have to share a web server with hundreds of other website owners, which usually amounts to thousands of other websites.

While dedicated hosting is definitely preferable over shared or some types of VPS hosting, not all dedicated hosting types are the same. The enhanced functionality and additional capabilities offered with a dedicated server come with difficult server administration duties that must be performed to ensure optimal server performance. Fortunately, managed hosting provides an all-inclusive solution that does not require the webmaster to be familiar with Web server administration. The following paragraphs provide a brief overview of the pros, cons, and types of managed web hosting.

Partially Managed Versus Fully Managed Web Hosting

There are two main types of managed web hosting – partially managed hosting and fully managed hosting. However, the boundaries that separate these two types of managed hosting are not always made clear by individual web hosting providers. For example, what one web hosting provider may call fully managed, may be another hosting provider’s idea of a partially managed plan. In general, a fully managed hosting plan will include 24-hour customer service, on-site technical support, and fully managed server administration and performance maintenance. On the other hand, a partially managed web hosting plan would only provide services such as routine server resets, and ensuring basic functionality of the server. Partially managed hosting is therefore only ideal for webmasters on a budget that are experienced with server administration. The following are the pros and cons of fully managed hosting.

Pros of Fully Managed Hosting

Perhaps the most appealing advantage of fully managed web hosting is the ability to focus on more important tasks associated with managing an online business, while the managed hosting provider handles all of the administrative server duties on a continual basis. Since you no longer have to update, optimize, and maintain the performance of your web server, you can boost the productivity of your business in other areas, expanding your outreach into more diverse endeavors. Instead of spending several hours of your day trying to fix technological bugs within hosting control panels and performing server maintenance, you can spend the same amount of time soliciting new clients and expanding your business for greater profits.

Cons of Fully Managed Hosting

Unfortunately, for webmasters that are experienced and demand the utmost control over their web server, a fully managed hosting plan may not be the best solution. Along with the simplified server management and included technical support comes reduced freedom over the software configuration of your server. Hosting providers tend to think that webmasters that do not know how to use a Web server should not have full control over it, as they may accidentally cause software errors that will consume the time of the hosting providers employees unnecessarily. Fully managed hosting also tends to cost more than other types of dedicated hosting.

Amazon Web Services adds Static Web Hosting

With the addition of static web hosting, Amazon Web Services now has the ability to host basic websites without the need for a virtual machine. In the past, customer were required to use Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) in conjunction with Simple Storage Services (S3). However, this is no longer necessary to host a non-dynamic website. Instead, websites can be directly mounted through S3.

A Split of Blog Hosting

The Chief Technology Officer of Amazon Web Services stated that the bulk of his personal blogs are hosted on S3 due to the reliability and scalability of the service. On the other hand, applications used to manage user comments, editing posts and serving blog searches are hosted on a low-powered virtual machine using EC2 technology.

Error Documentation

These static web pages are developed using HTML and therefore do not undergo server-side manipulation before being presented to the user. The S3 service will continue to allow users to use HTML error documentation as opposed to the automatically generated XML messages commonly seen on incorrect websites. In summary, this allows for the creation of 404 pages and other 400-level class errors.

Requirement for using this Service

Unfortunately, one of the largest requirements for use of this service is some technical knowledge. The primary users of this service will need to be knowledgeable of the Amazon Web Services console as well as the development kit in order to successfully mount their site onto the server. Other actions include setting access and permissions as well as modified specific parameters to ensure websites are correctly stored in the S3 buckets.

Luckily, each of these tasks can be easily learned for those that lack this technical knowledge. Simply reading through the manuals, tutorials or even asking customer support for help will allow for success.

Expansion of the Size

Another important action taken by Amazon Web Services is the expansion of the maximum size of any object in S3 from 5 gb to 5 tb. This is significant in that it allows for gigantic datasets to be hosted on the server.

Amazon Web Services took on the web hosting industry by storm when they first released their cloud hosting products. In only a short amount of time, they are re-revolutionizing the industry with a more efficient and powerful method of cloud hosting. This segment of Amazon continues to expand and amaze even those professionals in the industry.

Adjusting Product Catalogs and Shopping Carts for Higher eCommerce Conversions

Building and optimizing a successful business website is an ongoing challenge that can be especially difficult for novice webmasters that are not experienced with e-commerce. Ultimately, the goal of an online store owner is to create a user-friendly interface that their customers can use to shop for products or services with minimal effort and maximum convenience. Unfortunately, accomplishing this is not as easy as it would seem, as there are many factors to consider when customizing the shopping experience of your site visitors.

Perhaps the most important aspects are those related to the product catalog and the checkout process, which is facilitated by integrated shopping cart applications. While the majority of e-commerce hosting plans include product catalog creators and robust shopping cart applications that can be installed quickly and easily on your site, most people do not know how to use such tools to improve their conversion rates.

Designing an Effective Product Catalog

Product catalog creators allow you to import hundreds or even thousands of product images, descriptions, and even reviews. However, if the product pages are not properly organized and categorized, the process of finding the right product can be very difficult for your site visitors, even with the use of a site wide search engine. When you add a product to your catalog you’ll have the option of adding keyword tags, which would cause the product to appear in search results if the specific keywords were searched for by one of your customers. Thus, it is imperative to add as many relative tags as possible to your products, to ensure that they will show up in search results when customers search for specific products, or related items. It is also important to enable features such as customer reviews, which will let your previous customers leave feedback about specific items, thereby increasing sales conversions by convincing future customers.

Setting up an Effective Shopping Cart

After creating a robust product catalog that is properly tagged, organized, categorized, and is easy to navigate, it’s time to set up a shopping cart that will allow your customers to purchase multiple items simultaneously upon checkout. Some shopping cart applications will even let your customers use issued coupon codes for purchase discounts, which you can grant to repeat customers for higher conversions and residual business. Shopping carts also give you the ability to accept multiple forms of payment by integrating payment processors such as PayPal, which will accept credit card payments from your customers on behalf of your business in a secure manner. After setting up the shopping cart, you’ll want to do a couple of test runs and proceed with the checkout process yourself to see how convenient it is, and to look for any errors that may be occurring.

Expanding Your Site’s Capabilities

Many shopping carts and product catalog creators are open source applications, which means they can be amended and improved by any developer with the interest to do so. Thus, there are many third-party plug-ins and extensions that can be added to shopping carts and product catalog creators to improve the overall functionality and add new features. If you want the highest conversion rates possible, then you’ll want to experiment with such extensions in order to refine the checkout process and provide the most enjoyable shopping experience for your customers.

Bolt Web Hosting Offers New Shared Plans

Located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Bolt Web Hosting recently announced they will be offering unlimited shared web hosting monthly plans. These will immediately replace the shared hosting plans currently in place. The new unlimited plan will provide customers with as much disk space, bandwidth and data transfer as they need. The previous plan imposed limits on the amount of resources a single account could consume.

Automatic Migration

Current customers have automatically had their accounts changed to feature the new unlimited plan without any fees being incurred. For those who were previously billed at a little less than $4 per month for limited hosting are receiving the best deal because they are getting a significantly larger plan for the same amount each month.

Expansion Decisions

According to the CEO of Bolt Web Hosting, these plans for expansion were made months ago. The change was implemented due to market research that revealed customers favor unlimited shared hosting plans. Therefore, the company wanted to align their monthly plans with what customers want. Pretty simple idea right?

Additional Services

In addition to this change, the CEO also hinted at providing reseller, VPS and dedicated hosting plans. Although there is no official public launch date, there will be an announced within the next few months with customers being online with these new hosting opportunities by the end of 2011.

A High-Quality Product at a Low Price

Due to the extreme competition of the web hosting industry, Bolt Web Hosting has taken it upon themselves to give clients what they actually want and need. Since Bolt was formed in late 2010 by former web hosting customers, the company knows exactly what the masses want. They have taken their experience and skills to provide a high-quality, low-cost web hosting solution.

The founders feel they can offer an excellent web hosting product as a result of their extensive background in technology, web hosting and customer service. The founders also feel they can offer a service superior to most others in the hosting industry.

This company is off to an excellent start as they are offering a service that no other web hosting company is willing to do for the low price. However, it is likely these unlimited plans are going to change the game. Once a single web hosting provide makes a major change, the competition usually follows. Therefore, as the pioneers of the inexpensive unlimited hosting plan, they will have the jump on all other providers.

A Step-By-Step Guide for Changing Web Hosts

There are many articles and guides online they claim to teach you how to change web hosting providers without experiencing site downtime. However, many of these guides do not provide a clear outline of the steps involved in changing web hosts. The following is a step-by-step guide for changing web hosts, while minimizing site downtime, preventing data loss, and finding the best quality service for your money.

Find a Suitable Web Host

The first step in changing web hosting providers is finding a hosting company that offers a selection of services that can accommodate your needs and requirements as a webmaster. It is especially important to review the terms and conditions governing the hosting plan in relation to transferring domain names from one web host to another, as some hosts charge domain transferring fees. If you are unhappy with your current web host for a particular reason, it is best to inquire with any prospective host to avoid similar problems in the future.

Create Backups

After narrowing your list of prospective web hosts, you’ll need to gain a thorough understanding of the hosting transfer process. During the hosting transfer, the data from one web server is transferred to another, thereby causing the websites to be hosted on the new hosting provider’s servers. However, it is possible for data loss to occur during the transfer process if server backups are not created beforehand. Fortunately, within the control panel of your web hosting account you should be able to complete server backups on a scheduled basis, which can quickly and easily be restored within the control panel of your new hosting account.

Transferring Server Data

After you’ve found a suitable web host and created backups of your websites, there are two ways to transfer the server data to your new hosting account – you can utilize FTP (file transfer protocol) client’s to securely transfer the files from one server to another directly, or you can restore the server backup file that you exported from your previous hosting plan. Both methods are equally effective and ultimately accomplish the same goal, however the FTP method may need to be used if the backup module of the control panel offered within the new hosting account is not compatible with your created backup.

Adjusting Domain Registrar Account Settings

After you’ve restored or transferred the data to your new web server, the final step is to adjust the domain settings for each of your websites within the registrar account. To do this you’ll simply need to point the domains to the DNS (domain name system) servers of your new hosting provider, which will be given to you within the control panel of your new hosting plan when you attempt to associate a domain with the account. If your new hosting account includes two IP addresses and allows you to install DNS software on the server root, you may even be able to create your own custom name servers to be used for your websites.

Three Unique Features That Make Reseller Hosting Plans Desirable

Reseller hosting is a unique type of web hosting that provides access to all of the tools and server resources needed to quickly build, brand, market, and maintain a successful web hosting site. By becoming a hosting reseller you can quickly establish your own hosting company with minimal investment, experience, and expertise. In fact, many of the larger web hosting providers that are currently successful in today’s market began their endeavors by purchasing wholesale server resources as a reseller for another large hosting provider. The hosting industry is unique because it is structured in such a way that it is possible for the smallest hosting provider to gradually progress into a worldwide hosting empire. The following are three unique features that truly make reseller hosting plans desirable.

Simplified Site Creation and Business Branding

Perhaps the most desirable attribute of a reseller hosting plan is the simplified site creation, which is facilitated through the use of proprietary website building tools, catalog builders, photo gallery creators, content management systems, and forum building platforms, all of which can be controlled through user-friendly administrative interfaces. With the tools provided in a reseller hosting plan it is easy for you to create your own web hosting site using thousands of predesigned templates that can be quickly applied to every page without affecting the content. Not only is it simple to build the site, but is also easy to supervise, adjust, and brand the control panel interfaces that your clients will interact with on a daily basis in the web hosting environment. When your client logs in they’ll see your custom logo displayed in the top corner of the control panel, so they’ll never know that you are a hosting reseller, but will instead think that you are an established web hosting provider.

Flexible Plan Creation

When you purchase a reseller hosting plan you’ll be given a set amount of server resources, which you have the freedom to split up into personalized plans for your clients. You can allocate a specific amount of web hosting resources to each client, and carefully price your plans in order to maximize profit margins. In essence, you are the master of your own web hosting business with a reseller hosting plan. By having the ability to quickly change the size of your web hosting plans, you can offer to each client as much as they need on the spur of the moment, and you can ensure that some clients are not hogging dormant server resources unnecessarily. This flexible plan creation lets you maximize your profits and the overall efficiency of your web hosting business.

Streamlined Payment Collection

When it comes time to collect payment from your clients, your reseller web hosting control panel will give you the tools needed to set up automated billing via e-mail, and automatically collect payments through payment processing utilities that can be installed on your website with a single click of the mouse. From day one your web hosting site will be able to collect payments from virtually any credit card, as well as PayPal and other online payment processors. The automated billing application included with your reseller web hosting plan can instantly calculate how much a client owes based on how many server resources they’ve used, and then bill them accordingly, after which they are directed to a payment page where payment is collected and deposited to your account automatically.

Three Ways Web Hosting Providers Secure E-Commerce Transactions

E-commerce has been contributing to the global economy significantly during the past decade, as more business owners and entrepreneurs look to build their own online empire. As the Internet continues to grow, and more people start to use the Internet, companies in all industries are beginning to compete heavily for customers on the World Wide Web. This creates a situation in which hundreds of thousands of online purchases take place on a daily basis, with millions (or even billions) of dollars being spent and made in online purchases. However, most people don’t realize that the job of securing such transactions is entirely up to the web hosting provider, who is responsible for utilizing the correct applications, security precautions, and technological advancements to ensure the safety of your financial details and those of your customers. The following are three ways Web hosting providers secure e-commerce transactions.

Advanced Data Encryption

The first line of defense web hosting providers use to secure online transactions is advanced data encryption. When a visitor comes to your site and decides to make a purchase they are directed to a secured checkout page. All data that is submitted by the site visitor through this page is completely scrambled before it is securely transmitted to the web server, where it is unscrambled and decoded using a key that is only generated once, and is only accessed by the receiving server. In essence, even if someone was able to intercept the data as it moved through your website to your web server, they would not be able to understand any of it because it would be completely encrypted. The current industry standard for webpage encryption is SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), which is why it is common to see SSL certificates posted on checkout pages. In fact, some online shoppers will not even place an order if they do not see an SSL certificate, or a checkout page URL that begins in HTTPS.

Instant Suspicious Activity Notifications

Another way web hosting providers keep your e-commerce transactions safe is by providing instant notifications via e-mail or cell phone text. These notifications can be enabled within your web hosting control panel, and are automatically sent out if any suspicious activity occurs. Activities that would cause a notification to be issued may include account detail changes (for example if someone changed the default e-mail address on the web hosting account), or any personal details related to account administration or domain ownership. By having the ability to have notifications sent to your e-mail and cell phone text you can keep a hacker or cyber criminal from stealing ownership of your domains or web hosting account and utilizing the financial details of your customers nefariously.

Payment Processing Technology

Web hosting providers also secure checkout pages by utilizing payment processing technology, which allows your customers to provide their credit/debit card or payment details to a third party online payment processor (such as PayPal). Payment processors are simply financial institutions that collect and accept payments on behalf of web site owners, so that no sensitive financial data can be intercepted by someone that is spying on a secured checkout page. By utilizing a business-class web hosting plan that includes payment processing capabilities you can sure that you’ll be able to accept all popular payment types.