Supplement Your Income by Hosting Web Sites

Becoming a web host can be a part-time endeavor that provides a few hundred dollars a month in extra cash. For many people the Internet is similar to television in that you turn it on and look at what's on the screen. Others are more involved and either create the content delivered on the Internet or are instrumental in its distribution. The web sites that we visit are located on computers running special server software. These web servers are normally located at large data centers in a controlled environment and belong to various medium to large hosting companies. These hosting companies then offer hosting plans to individuals and organizations which need a place to "host" their web content.

A popular offering from hosting companies is called the reseller plan. These plans vary greatly but the basic premise is offering a share of the server's disk space and bandwidth combined with a reseller control panel. The control panel is a software interface that allows new hosting account setup in just a few minutes. For example, a reseller plan may offer you 50 gigabytes of disk space and 500 gigabytes of bandwidth for $25 a month. As a reseller, you could offer 50 hosting accounts of 1 gigabyte disk space and 10 gigabyte bandwidth for $6 a month and make $275 profit each month from that plan.

Things you need to know.

The really technical stuff regarding the server is something you never get involved with. There are, however, a number of basic things that you would need to be familiar with but not an expert.

Domain registration process - a domain name is essential for every site and the host will often need to help new clients with registration.

Basic HTML programming - Hyper Text Markup Language is the language of the internet web browser. Don't let the word "programming" scare you off. It's fairly easy.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) - A multitude of free or cheap programs allow file transfers between your PC and the server using this standard method. A simple but essential tool used by webmasters and hosts.

Name servers and DNS - DNS is the backbone of the Internet but is not understood by most clients. A little reading will teach you what you need to know in 15 minutes.

Starting out

In addition to some basic knowledge and a place to host client accounts, you need your own domain name and web site to display your hosting offerings. Your first web site design could be one of the many free templates available from various template designers on the Internet. An appropriate template and a little HTML can produce a pretty decent site to start out with.

The most important things to know

Without a doubt the most important things a small host can offer are excellent customer service and good communication. The big hosting companies spend about $40 in advertising for each new customer they obtain so you think they would take good care of them. As a small host you can actually offer better service than the big boys in most cases.

It may take a month to get your first customer who will undoubtedly be a friend or relative. Word of mouth advertising kicks in and once things get rolling you may get one or two new clients a week.

My personal notes

This article came from the experience of having been there and done that. My first hosting customers were acquaintances who needed a place for their collecting hobby web site. I soon signed up a couple of new web designers who were very good and I hosted all their new web sites. They had appreciated the time I spent teaching them the basics of DNS propagation, name servers, and other details that weren't taught as part of web design training. If they ran over their bandwidth allocation I just slipped in a little more to cover it and didn't feel a need to even mention it.

After 3 years of this part-time hosting business, I reached a point where I either had to quit my full-time job or stop taking new hosting clients. Without any advertising the business had grown to almost $400 a month profit with about an hour or two a day of my time but the rate of growth was exponential and I was changing to a new job that required a lot of travel. It is possible to compete with the big hosting companies by giving personal customer service and prompt communication.

This article is a mere introduction to the topic and I have started Beginning Host which will hopefully grow as an information base for new part-time hosts and aspiring full-time hosts. Feel free to participate in the forums and I am known there as "coastweb".