RightBiz Web Hosting Blog

Rather than use the services of a web hosting company to host your web site you could start your own web hosting company. If your business is successful this could provide secondary income and lower the hosting costs for your own site(s).

Basically, there are two ways to start selling web hosting. The first way involves leasing business space, buying equipment, setting up servers, leasing T1 or T3 lines to connect to the Internet, finding clients, and hiring staff to provide 24 hour support. Quite complicated and not recommended for anyone without the technical know-how.

The second way is to become a re-seller for an established host. For a monthly fee you can have an allotment of disk space and bandwidth which can be used to sell to other people. Re-selling is usually anonymous – there is no visible connection to the parent host and you are free to set your own prices and develop your own ‘brand’.

All that is needed to become a re-seller is the ability to pay the monthly fee. All the technical details are handled by the parent company. The re-seller package usually includes everything – even name servers under your own name. All you have to do is to sign up customers and watch the money roll in. Easy – right?

Signing up customers, though, may not be as easy as you imagine. There are literally thousands of hosting companies competing for customers, and making your web hosting business stand out from the crowd is no mean feat. Just think about the process you went through in choosing your own web host. You probably visited several hosting web sites, maybe asked for personal references from your friends or business acquaintances, and then after narrowing down your choices, perhaps did more in-depth research on each of the companies. Or perhaps you just signed up with the first host you saw.

So, in order for your own hosting company to be successful it has to build up a good reputation or be easy to find.  Advertising can make your company more visible, but advertising is expensive – especially in a competitive market like web hosting.

A re-seller account, however, may be ideal for certain situations. If you already have several websites of your own, your monthly costs may be similar to a re-selling account.  For the same amount of money you could switch all your accounts to your own hosting company. Sign up a few friends or associates and you are ahead of the game.

If this sounds attractive, make sure you are going with a reputable hosting company. You will be entirely dependent on them for technical support. This relieves you of many of the headaches of running a hosting company but you are still responsible to your clients if their sites go down.

There are many types of re-seller packages. Some require you to operate under the name of the hosting company while others allow you to set up a shop under your own business name. Pay attention to the billing aspect of the package. Some re-seller accounts have everything you need to get started immediately, while others require you to set up your own billing gateway.

Do you think that because you have a small business you can’t compete against larger companies? If you do then think again. Most small business owners don’t feel that they are in the same arena as larger companies so they don’t even bother to try. This can be a big mistake and one that can cost your company in the long run.

Growing your company takes some competitive moves. Sure, you can continue to operate as you always have but this routine will not get you ahead. There are some tips, however, if you want to expand your business opportunities and compete against the big boys.

Think big. Always have the big picture in mind. Thinking big means picturing what can be more than what already is. The day to day routine can get you in a rut and you can get so hung up on it that you fail to look ahead.

Have passion. Loving what you do can help you get ahead. The passion you have for your business not only helps catapult the company ahead but also helps motivate employees on a daily basis. Passion also translates directly to sales. The passion you feel for your business can be more easily brought to the bottom line when there are fewer employees. Larger companies have to work twice as hard to get the same feelings across to customers.

Think outside the box. This may sound like an old cliché but it really is true. If you can have vision to do things differently you just may get ahead. This is particularly true when it comes to competing with larger companies. Think of ways that your company can provide something better than the large company can.

Think ahead. Instead of thinking about this month’s numbers you should be looking towards the future. Great companies are made by revolutionaries – those who look ahead to the future to see the possibilities. Larger companies may use large telecom services such as OC3 connection. You can use the same technology on a smaller scale by ordering a T1. This state of the art communication service allows you all the same features and benefits at a much smaller cost.

Find your niche. Once you know what your market is you’ll be much better able to cater to it. Larger companies often lose focus and try to market to too broad a group. Instead use your marketing skills to your advantage. Yes, you have a much lower marketing budget than the larger companies do. But you can use your marketing strategies to your advantage if you know your niche.

Use the Internet to your advantage. The web has brought large and small companies to an even playing field. Make sure that you use the Internet to boost your business. Always have a web site presence. Don’t skimp when it comes to your website. You don’t need lots of pages but you do need a professional look. Be sure to put your website address on all your brochures and business cards.

Provide what the big companies can’t or don’t. Look for weaknesses in your competition and use those to build your business. For example, one place where many larger companies fail is in providing good customer service. Small businesses can give better service because they care about each customer. Be sure to use that to help you win business over the larger competition.

When it comes to telephone services there are many choices available to businesses. The choices can be confusing and it may be hard to identify what you actually need. Here are some tips to help you make the best choices.

· Know your business needs. While it may be easier to just guess you’re in a much better position if you have a handle on what your telephony needs actually are. How do you get this information? One way is through what’s called a traffic study. This can be ordered through your current provider and will supply you with a report that details the calling patterns of your business. Another way is through the details on your phone bills. If your bills aren’t detailed you can order more detailed bills. Then you’ll need to scour them to determine the calling patterns and amount of calls made each week or each month.

· Learn new technology. Telephony is always changing. New technology that was deemed too expensive a few years ago may be much more affordable today. One case in point – T1 phone lines. The DSL used to be the standard communication choice until the T1 came along. Now the prices and availability have made it a no-brainer. T1 service is the current standard for business communications. Not only is it cheaper in the long run but it’s also very reliable.

· Shop around. With your needs determined you can now shop for price. Think value and service. Telephony providers will give you what you pay for. Be sure to compare like services and commitments when checking prices. Each company tends to promote certain products or services over others. Always look for the best deal you can get for the exact product you need.

· Review service providers. The newest providers may be the cheapest but may not have the service and provision track record to stand by their products. Look for companies that have been in business for a while and who have stable businesses. Check their Web site for company information about their business history. Make sure that they publish toll-free numbers so their customers can easily call them.

· Read the fine print. All providers will get down to having you sign the contract. Remember that the contract must explain each detail of the plan. The contract is the only true binding agreement, no matter what was promised verbally. Don’t be pressured into signing an agreement quickly for any reason. Instead, allow yourself enough time to carefully read each portion before signing. If you have any questions have your own legal counsel look it over and explain it to you.

· Check ongoing service. It never fails – you’re in the middle of a huge negotiation and the phone system has the only problem it ever had. Bad timing can cause problems but don’t let your company be left in the lurch. Be sure that you have a service plan that covers the days and times that your company works. Also be sure that the plan covers parts and labor and that technicians are available in your area to service the problem if need be.

The death toll of analog technology as a means of data and voice transmission was rung as businesses started venturing out of their regional or territorial strongholds.

As the footprints of the corporate houses started crossing time zones and political boundaries, communication became increasingly important. Not only with clients but also with own employees, who were possibly quite a few time zones away, and supposedly working for the benefit of the organization.

It was not only a case of keeping a tab on the employees and asking them for daily reports but also being able to provide guidance and support at crunch moments.

Connectivity gained a major boost with the advent of mobile phones. Now the person and his phone became inseparable. He could be connected any time anywhere. The need to be at the table or in the office did not exist anymore.

The final frontier was crossed when the World Wide Web opened up the vista of e-commerce! The whole world became available on the desktop and corporate houses just could not wait to conquer it.

The opportunities are there waiting to be grabbed but the communication was proving to be a bottleneck.

The Bell Laboratories were already working at it since they could envisage beforehand that such a requirement was in the offing. They wanted to be ready before the market felt the need for it!

They came out with the concept of T carriers. This was a revolution of sorts in the communication world! The whole concept of analog translation was discarded and the concept of digitization took its place. The voice and data were converted into digitized packets and transferred through optic fibers instead of copper lines.

The speed, capacity and clarity of data transfer increased manifold. A single T1 (the first generation of T carriers) line could accommodate as many as 24 channels. In a lay man’s language it meant that while a single telephone line could support either one voice communication or data transfer at one point of time, a single T1 connection could handle as many as 24 separate conversations simultaneously!

The speed also increased sixty times more than that was till then available over conventional copper wire phone lines.

Everybody thought that the final peak has been scaled; the ultimate in communication technology has been achieved! But nobody realized that e-commerce would become such a vital life blood in world of business. So, the quest for an even faster and better communication channel was on.

The next offering from the Bell Laboratories was T3. It was essentially an improvement over the earlier T1. Well the word “improvement” is really an understatement.

T3 was forty five times faster than a T1 connection and it had the capacity to carry 672 channels. It roughly worked out to the astounding fact that a single T3 line was capable of servicing an office establishment consisting of approximately 4000 people.

But that was also not the end! Now it was the turn of OC3. In fact OC indicates that data is essentially conveyed through optic fiber. Depending on the architecture used, OC3 is also known as STS-3 and STM-1.

Instead of getting bogged down in a maze of capital letters which many of us can not make any sense of, let us try to find out how much more efficient this new variant is.

Well, an OC3 connection consists of one hundred T1 lines synchronized together. Yes one hundred! And the synchronization gives the impact of more than a 100 T1 lines. Please sit on a comfortable chair and try to figure out what a massive communication power has been unleashed.

No good thing comes free. The installation cost of an OC3 connection depends very much on the infrastructure already present at the subscriber’s end.

 T1 technology provides a better option for communication than the technology available over what is these days called POTS (Plain Old Telephone System). The crucial difference between the two is while T1 depends on digitization of voice and data, POTS depends on analog conversion and re-conversion of the same.

Digitization of traffic and use of optic fiber cables makes this new system approximately sixty times faster than the conventional phone system.

The capacity of carrying high volume of traffic also makes this line many times more efficient than the older one. In fact a single T1 line is capable of supporting twenty four simultaneous conversations in place of only one which the older system is capable of.

Moreover, in this new system, the channels are not restricted to any specific telephone. Instead they are considered as a pool and whenever there is a requirement, a particular channel gets busy. The moment it is free it reverts to the pool and is once again to the requirement of another user in the system. Thus a 24 channel T1 connection can service about 100 to 150 users without any of them having to wait for a free line.

This speed and flexibility and greater load carrying capacity make it a worthwhile option of communication in today’s fast moving world of business and commerce.

Another very important facility which T1 long distance service offers is that it can avoid the local telephone provider and can directly connect you to your long distance provider. Long distance dedicated T1 services usually are toll free services. That is, the caller does not have to pay anything for the call. The receiver enjoys this facility by paying a monthly subscription which depends on the usage.

Many business establishments are opting for this new system even though installation of it is a time consuming and costly process and the monthly usage charges are also not cheap!

The current scenario of long distance telephony has become extremely competitive and the rates are tumbling down steadily. So, negotiate to the last penny and try to squeeze the maximum concessions you possibly can from the service provider.

They claim of an extremely high ‘availability rate’ of 99.99%. In simple terms it means that out of 100 hours of usage, you will be able to use the system for 99.99 hours without any breakdown. Do not forget to include in your contract a punitive clause if the service fails to keep up to that level of efficiency.

If you browse the net, you will find that there are many telecom consultants who claim that they can provide you with complete solution ranging from choosing the option which best suits your need to choosing the provider and finally negotiating the best rates possible. They also claim that they can substantially reduce your telecom bills by intelligent choice of schemes and providers.

It is not a bad idea to interact with a couple of them to verify whether they can really cause a difference.