{"id":610,"date":"2025-05-23T18:07:28","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T18:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/?p=610"},"modified":"2025-05-23T18:11:57","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T18:11:57","slug":"starting-a-shared-web-hosting-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/starting-a-shared-web-hosting-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Starting a shared web hosting business?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-668 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/Shared-Web-Hosting-300x189.jpg\" alt=\"Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net\" width=\"575\" height=\"362\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/Shared-Web-Hosting-300x189.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/Shared-Web-Hosting-512x323.jpg 512w, https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/Shared-Web-Hosting.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 575px) 100vw, 575px\" \/>Thinking of starting a shared web hosting business? Over the past decade or so, literally hundreds of new shared web hosting providers have launched operations, no doubt with the highest of expectations only to close shop for a myriad of reasons within their first couple of years online. If you\u2019re an aspiring hosting entrepreneur, there are tried and tested methods and formulas for successfully running a shared web hosting business. This guide touches on those methods and formulas with a focus on what\u2019s minimally necessary to sustain and grow your operations.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_80 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/starting-a-shared-web-hosting-business\/#Planning_is_paramount_when_launching_any_business\" >Planning is paramount when launching any business<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/starting-a-shared-web-hosting-business\/#Starting_with_the_basics_for_offering_shared_web_hosting\" >Starting with the basics for offering shared web hosting<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/starting-a-shared-web-hosting-business\/#Budget_Constraints\" >Budget Constraints<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/starting-a-shared-web-hosting-business\/#The_know_like_and_trust_factor\" >The know, like and trust factor<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-4' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/starting-a-shared-web-hosting-business\/#BROUGHT_TO_YOU_BY_PROLIMEHOST\" >BROUGHT TO YOU BY PROLIMEHOST<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-5' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-5'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/starting-a-shared-web-hosting-business\/#VPS_SERVICES_LIGHTNING_FAST_SSD_VIRTUAL_SERVERS\" >VPS SERVICES: LIGHTNING FAST SSD VIRTUAL SERVERS<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-5'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/starting-a-shared-web-hosting-business\/#DEDICATED_SERVERS_BACKED_BY_A_999_SLA_NETWORK_UPTIME_GUARANTEE\" >DEDICATED SERVERS: BACKED BY A 99.9% SLA NETWORK UPTIME GUARANTEE<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-5'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/starting-a-shared-web-hosting-business\/#ASIA_OPTIMIZED_NETWORK_IMPROVING_CONNECTION_SPEED_AND_QUALITY\" >ASIA OPTIMIZED NETWORK: IMPROVING CONNECTION SPEED AND QUALITY<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Planning_is_paramount_when_launching_any_business\"><\/span>Planning is paramount when launching any business<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Planning is nothing more than taking into account infrastructure requirements and other variables such as price, the demographic you plan to target, the competition, funding, plus you and your team\u2019s business savvy and skills \u2013 which includes marketing, advertising, website design and functionality, customer service skills and time constraints.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of infrastructure, hard choices need to be made which upstream provider to partner with, rather you\u2019ll need remote power management and monitoring, whether you\u2019ll pool bandwidth, offer metered or unmetered bandwidth, go with a reseller plan versus VPS or dedicated servers, offer live chat, phone support or simply a ticket system.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Starting_with_the_basics_for_offering_shared_web_hosting\"><\/span>Starting with the basics for offering shared web hosting<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>How do you finalize which upstream hosting provider best matches your specific requirements and budget? Some of the more critical questions to address would be:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do they offer an upgrade path, such as from reseller accounts to VPS or dedicated servers, or possibly colocation? As your business grows, it\u2019s important that the infrastructure of your upstream provider is in place and keeps pace.<\/li>\n<li>Do they offer live chat, phone and\/or ticket support? Is their Level One support team able to adequately answer level one queries 24\/7 or are simple questions repeatedly referred to Level Two staff during normal working hours? As you gain clients, you can\u2019t afford to wait hours to resolve level one issues. Ask lots of questions upfront and review their knowledgebase.<\/li>\n<li>Do they have ample bandwidth and redundancy? If your upstream provider bogs down or crashes, their pain flows downstream to you. Will you be sitting on a 100Mbps or Gigabit port and how saturated is that backbone?<\/li>\n<li>Are they using their own DNS or a third party DNS such as CloudFlare? Some providers tout <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudflare.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CloudFlare<\/a> to combat DDoS attacks. At a bare minimum, ask what provisions they have in place to keep your services online.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Budget_Constraints\"><\/span>Budget Constraints<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Shared web hosting is certainly one of the few industries that can be started on a shoestring, but sustainability guidelines are no different than other industries, to wit, factor in having at least one year of operating expenses set aside to survive the launch of your new business. Countless firms have gone under because they erroneously anticipated relying on first year gross revenues to keep their operations afloat.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_know_like_and_trust_factor\"><\/span>The know, like and trust factor<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>How do you persuade prospects to know, like and trust your new business? It starts with having a professionally written, well designed website that makes it easy to get from point \u201cquery\u201d to point \u201cpurchase.\u201d Unfortunately, you can have a superbly designed site and never make one sale because it\u2019s never found on the search engines. With brick and mortar businesses, the manta is location, location, location. For newly launched shared web hosting businesses, the key is much the same, only online.<\/p>\n<p>Your business needs to be seen as industry experts on forums like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.webhostingtalk.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Web Hosting Talk<\/a>, Hosting Discussion and WebmasterSun, plus be found on every web hosting directory. I like to compare this to fishing, in that the more hooks and the more appetizing the bait you put into the water, the greater your chances are of attracting and snaring a fish. In shared web hosting, this relates to providing a\u00a0perception of value, which leads directly to sales. If you\u2019re consistently helping newbies on the forums, and responding to or posting threads that set you up as a go-to source, sales and referrals will come. When everyone else is settling for satisfied clients, you should be striving for raving fans. This doesn\u2019t mean giving away the world. Simply going an extra one percent in every contact you have with a prospect or client will set your business apart.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/08\/unnamed-e1408122780935.jpg\" alt=\"ProlimeHost RAID Server Solutions\" width=\"400\" height=\"80\" \/><\/h4>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"BROUGHT_TO_YOU_BY_PROLIMEHOST\"><\/span>BROUGHT TO YOU BY PROLIMEHOST<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n<p>We\u2019ve been in the web hosting industry for over a decade, helping hundreds of clients succeed in what they do best and that\u2019s running their business. We specialize in Virtual Private Servers (VPS) and dedicated servers, with data centers in Los Angeles, Denver &amp; Singapore.<\/p>\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"VPS_SERVICES_LIGHTNING_FAST_SSD_VIRTUAL_SERVERS\"><\/span>VPS SERVICES: LIGHTNING FAST SSD VIRTUAL SERVERS<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h5>\n<p>Our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/ssd-vps-server\/\">Virtual Private Servers<\/a>\u00a0all feature high performance Xeon processors and SSD storage in a RAID10 configuration to optimize your server\u2019s performance, which dramatically enhances visitor experiences on your site.<\/p>\n<p>That speed is backed by unparalleled 24\/7 support, featuring both outstanding response AND resolution times to maximize your uptime.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Now is the time to join the ProlimeHost virtual private server revolution.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"DEDICATED_SERVERS_BACKED_BY_A_999_SLA_NETWORK_UPTIME_GUARANTEE\"><\/span>DEDICATED SERVERS: BACKED BY A 99.9% SLA NETWORK UPTIME GUARANTEE<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h5>\n<p>We only use enterprise-class hardware in our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/los-angeles-dedicated-servers\/\">dedicated servers<\/a>\u00a0and offer a four (4) hour hardware replacement. Throw in IPMI for remote management, support for public and private networks, free operating system (OS) re-installs, and SATA, SAS &amp; SSD (including NVMe) storage. Call 1-877-477-9454 or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/contact\/\">contact us<\/a>. For everything from gaming servers to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/discounted-dedicated-server-deals\/\">cheap dedicated servers<\/a>, we\u2019re here to help.<\/p>\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"ASIA_OPTIMIZED_NETWORK_IMPROVING_CONNECTION_SPEED_AND_QUALITY\"><\/span>ASIA OPTIMIZED NETWORK: IMPROVING CONNECTION SPEED AND QUALITY<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h5>\n<p>Procuring an Asia optimized server improves the connection speed and quality between the server and the users in Asia or China. This can reduce latency, packet loss, jitter, and bandwidth issues that can affect the performance and reliability of the server and the applications hosted on it. For more information, please call 1-877-477-9454 or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/contact\/\">contact us<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thinking of starting a shared web hosting business? Over the past decade or so, literally hundreds of new&hellip;","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10],"tags":[207,199,120,123,43,24,107,113,198,53,106,33],"class_list":{"0":"post-610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-geneal","8":"category-tutorials-tips","9":"tag-ai-servers","10":"tag-amd-servers","11":"tag-asia-optimized","12":"tag-china-optimized","13":"tag-dedicated-server","14":"tag-dedicated-servers","15":"tag-dedicated-servers-usa","16":"tag-gaming-servers","17":"tag-gpu-servers","18":"tag-shared-web-hosting","19":"tag-virtual-private-servers","20":"tag-vps","21":"cs-entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prolimehost.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}