I was thinking of starting an Offshore webhost.

[Whitey]

Hey

I've been with a lot of offshore hosts in the past and all of them have let me down somehow in one way or another. So I got thinking and thought, why don't I rent a nice beefy dedicated server and start my own hosting. That way I have complete controll and have a nice little income maker.

I was just going to start out with basic shared hosting in the begining, and when I get bigger offer reseller and maybe even dedicated servers.

My question is, is there still a market for this, and is it profitable? I have a few good places where I can promote and get a few clients, and I have a few tech-savvy friends that can help me out (one with a WHM licence:happy.

Thanks:happy:

Whitey Reviewed by Whitey on 13th Jan 2008. I was thinking of starting an Offshore webhost. Hey I've been with a lot of offshore hosts in the past and all of them have let me down somehow in one way or another. So I got thinking and thought, why don't I rent a nice beefy dedicated server and start my own hosting. That way I have complete controll and have a nice little income maker. I was just going to start out with basic shared hosting in the begining, and when I get bigger offer reseller and maybe even dedicated servers. My question is, is there still a market for this, Rating: 5

[Lease]

If you plan to do this, I'd recommend try contacting the hosts or companies that resell servers to the smaller hosts.. not sure how or where you can get the details, but by renting directly without any middle ties, you'll pay a lot less..

I'd say there's always a market for anything, just as long as you stick by this, provide excellent support, downtime kept to a minimum and basically offer high quality services, for a reasonable price.

[Golden Falcon]

It's a hard job if your doing it by yourself... and if your providing off-shore hosting, where do you live?

[ganesh.rao]

First, "do you home work well". Keep this phrase in mind and you can do great things! I promise...

So, your friend has a WHM license? Everyone can have one! Is it internal (controlled by a web host) or external (buycpanel.net or directly from cPanel, Inc)? Do some googling and see what I meant by these 2 types of licenses. WebHostingTalk is of a great help in these terms!

Where are you going to get your IPs from? APNIC charges 1500~ USD per year for their minimum membership plan, thats about 512 to 1024 IPs (given only after you use 64 IPs and provide justification).

Where are you going to colocate your server? Which data-center? Which country? If it is not the country where you live, stop dreaming and get on with your warez site. Thats because its very obvious that you will buy a server from your computer store and ship it to this 'offshore country' - now your server will be held at the customs for duty charges. Doomed...

Suppose you rent a server. Your charges will be so high that you will inturn charge extremely high prices to your customers... you need to make a deal with your DC if you want to get through this obstacle.

So if you want to hear my story, here it is...

Basically, I have 25+ servers with Shinjiru. All are used to backup VPS hosting servers (and shared/reseller hosting servers). So I got into a special deal with them.

I now get servers on a separate cost, IPs on a separate cost, bandwidth on a separate cost and to the fact that I even one router setup just for myself. Now if you like switches, routers and IPs and you are a CCNA you can do wonders with a simple router.

I'll give you a hint... "do you know HostFresh and InterCage?" See if you can read my mind with this phrase. If you can, you too can make a great firm!

Now that has been pushed out of the way... what about sever management? If you are going to host warez sites, you are sure to be attacked annually once atleast. Then let alone remote network attacks, your going to be attacked inside by your own customers via PHP shell, anything you know that can stop them? Secure!

Then comes billing. Most of the warez webmasters make payments 2-3 days later than their due date. You need to have a knack to see which webmaster you are going to allow even after overdue invoices or which ones deserve suspensions. More like a public relations!

Then if you are going to become a full time service provider (like me), where are you going to get staff from? Its going to cost a hell lot. Where is your office going to be? Will it increase your end users' price?


But sad part is that if you start a hosting biz, you will loose interested in your other sites. This is a 100% and you can't help it even if you want to. So if you think you can change this, think again!

:zthir6:

[Lease]

Very good post ganesh!

[ganesh.rao]

Very good post ganesh!

Sure

Its "could" be easy to start something... keep it going on the same pace over a month or two is just that much difficult.

[Lease]

keep it going on the same pace over a month or two is just that much difficult.

Quite true, sometimes it gets all the more tiring you just drop it, as it's just not worth your time.

[Whitey]

Haha, you certainly gave me a lot to read there

Looks like I still have a lot of research to do, and a lot to learn

Thanks for your comment mate.

[DeXTeR]

ganesh is right whitey it's a lot of work and he is almost ALWAYS available for support issues probably giving him no real life of his own. I am hosted with infinite and customer support is the reason i will remain hosted with him. It simply cannot be beaten.

[TippiE]

well first of all,they probably let you down because it's such a hard job keeping these offshore servers up without any hassle.
I've been in the offshore hosting business for more than a year now and I've had some police cases and some datacenterr trouble,such problems cost you your profits and hard work