Every other day, a new web-host joins the race. The numbers are kept in control, only by the fact that there are others who quit, or who are acquired by another company/person.

New hosts find it harder to succeed, given the monetary investments and expertize it takes to succeed. The most lucrative part of Hosting business is the repetitive nature of the income.

Add to it, the additional/related services that can be rendered, which gives more profit margins. But the problem is that the market is highly competitive, and even the big players find it difficult to keep up with the budding hosts.

That implies, smaller players have the advantage – The advantage of being small.

What are the key skills one should possess?

Primarily it’s the business acumen, that decides the success of a newcomer. To make it more simple, we can break it into a set of abilities, apart from the investment.

The sales/marketing skills

Technical backing

A lot of commitment and customer focus

A bit of creativity and luck!

Where to get all this?

A solid plan that should work, takes the route :

Affiliate program > Reseller > Host

Wannabe Host > Affiliate

An affiliate plan should get you started in the industry, where you would mostly be working in the Sales and Marketing area. Your role has the advantage that you would not be investing much or handling customers(but just prospective ones!).

And once they become a customer, they are off your head.

This is the time when one could work on aspects like designing a promo, or perform Search Engine Optimization etc. The time is better used while building methodologies that would evolve, and leave you in a position where you do little work for running your affiliate show.

Affiliate > Reseller

Next comes the Reseller role, which involves the additional head-aches of handling the customer, and a bit of technicalities. This additional work comes with a very lucrative aspect of repetitive income and profit. Yes, the profit reaches you month after month, year after year!

You would have very little investment, and hence very little risk involved as well. You would soon be able to handle customer’s and help them through with the customer focus they rightly deserve! Technicalities wouldn’t bother you much, as they are kept in store for the next stage.

Reseller > Host

The moment you become a host, you would be investing much more into this business, and facing it with much better skills and confidence. A bit of creativity and luck, wouldn’t do harm!

After all, Internet is still growing and options are plenty, in this world of hosting.