Website Hosting Ratings‘ Query:
I would like to start an online company. My goal is to eventually make six or more figures a year. I have two ideas, first is an interactive type of site, and the second one is a standard online business. I’m not sure which one is profitable.
1. To create website where people can sign up for free, list, buy and sell, trade, and auction off their websites and or domain names. Users would be charged a small fee to post a listing. They could then post info and photos of their site and people can buy the site for a reasonable price, or get entered into an auction. I would set up an account ratings and a telephone verification to help with the security. There is already a site called flippa.com that does everything I just mentioned. The reason why people don’t like flippa is because the listing fee is to high. If I can lower the fee, and implement a marketing plan, I may have a success. Flippa makes 4-5k a day just from advertisements on their site. There are currently pre made scripts available for this type of site, but they are not open source. The problem is, it is not a professional site, and I’m worried about bugs with the script. If I wanted to make this site, should I buy the pre made scripts, or hire an elance person build the site for me, or hire a web design firm to build a top notch site for 10k? I am a teen, so my startup cash is limited.
2. I want to start a web hosting company by reselling web hosting plans. I would join a web hosting company’s reseller program, create a website and promote hosting plans. The company keeps the wholesale cost, and I keep the markup. So if it’s 40 a year and I mark up to 65 a year, I keep 25 a year for that customer. It is recurring income. If I get a modest 2 people per day, I would have 730 clients by the end of the year. That means for the next year, I am making 18k from the people from the first year, while also gaining new clients. So every year, assuming that the client still is hosting with us, I am getting an additional 18k. Thus, tons of money for years to come. I have heard of hostgator and resellers panel which I think has good reseller plans. Resellers panel has great profits and you get unlimited domains, a website to promote your company, 24/7/365 support, have their own site builder and marketing tools. However, resellers panel does not use cpanel though. They have their own control panel system which is a problem for clients who want to use or need cpanel. Hostgator may costs more than resellers panel, but it does come with cpanel. Would you recommend I use resellers panel, or any other hosting company.
Which idea is more profitable. Do you think any could make me six or more figures a year? Thanks.
Website Hosting Ratings’ Answer: Anyone could have a chance to make six or more figures a year even in small start up. It just needs all the right moves and good business plans. Your first idea was awesome. It has a huge potential, very marketable and most of all, it has limited competition. However, you mentioned that your would be business should have a small start up but should be profitable. You may have a problem with this one, because this type of online business requires huge investment from your side. This includes hiring an elance programmer or a web design firm to build the site for you. The second option is more realistic but a bit tedious. It is also one of the profitable online businesses and it needs a small start-up on your side. It maybe good for you as a student for you can work any time you want. However, you can gain a lot of competition because web hosting businesses is blooming. BUT, if you attract people to your site first and they like your plans, you get their sale. Here comes the tedious part, you just need to promote you site and influence visitors to purchase your offered hosting plans. You can select a reseller’s hosting plan below and start now your hosting business.
Listen, I don’t want to pop your bubble, but I don’t think either one of these is that great. First one, what makes you think you are going to out-do the existing sites which you have sorely underestimated (Flippa is just one, godaddy.com does this and so do many others) with a $1,000 or even $10,000 budget? It’s being done well already, you bring nothing additional to the table. Second one is more realistic but your math is probably very faulty – you are not going to sign up two new customers a day. If you think you are, then tell me – how are you going to promote your site where people sign up? That is a highly, highly competitive area when it comes to building traffic.