To late?

[User500]

Some day I would like to have my own hosting site. But I think I have missed the boat. There is so many hosting sites out there now. Also so many Promotion forums with under 1,000 posts.

From what I hear I have also missed the boat for gaming websites.

 

[Gimgak]

By at least 5 years. There's always room for something unique though. Making the first forum on a new game or franchise is a lot easier than trying to compete with established general gaming forums.

 

[AquaTeen]

Just find something that you enjoy and are well versed in and go for it. You would be best to find a narrower niche though.

 

[User500]

Like Fps games? Or even callofduty? Or Bf3

 

[Mik.]

Well for host sites you can't be so unique because you all use the same scripts. (well most)

Therefore, a lot of people will buy if you're host is cheap and has good reviews.

 

[el canadiano]

Some day I would like to have my own hosting site.

Takes a lot of work. You sure you could do it?

 

[Fergal]

I agree fully with el canadiano, it will be difficult but you can still do it. Try to find something unique that you can offer, that will be of benefit to your customers or try to market your hosting service in a unique way. E.g. how many hosts are directly marketing to local businesses in your local geographic area.

I bet many small local businesses in your area have their hosting through their web designers. You could educate them on the pitfalls of that (i.e. if they have a disagreement with their web designer they could lose their site & using the same supplier for both makes it difficult for them to change designer) and sell them your hosting service.

Other options would be to provide hosting for a specific type of site, e.g. specialise in hosting web directories, or whatever interests you.

 

[AnAccount]

Unless you can think of some unique plans or plans that customers can afford, I don't see this going over very well, because there are a lot of hosting sites out there already, some better than others, some worse than others. So while the fad is still around to make hosting sites, that doesn't mean it's more popular than forums, so you could still do it.

 

[proudbabys]

Believe it or not, though you are never too late, there is always plenty of fish in the sea for everyone

 

[Kevin X Dragon]

Some day I would like to have my own hosting site. But I think I have missed the boat. There is so many hosting sites out there now. Also so many Promotion forums with under 1,000 posts.

From what I hear I have also missed the boat for gaming websites.

Hosting: Yes, there many hosts that been here since early 2000 and offer lot of things at low prices.
Gaming: With new games coming out there always a chance to start site. Also few popular game series that do not have big fan site.

 

[AnAccount]

Believe it or not, though you are never too late, there is always plenty of fish in the sea for everyone

While that may be true, I would say that competition is more fierce in owning a host than owning a forum. You really got to work on being unique in this field, and this often means offering something that no other host has.

 

[Gizmo]

You make what you want. If you work your butt off you will make a very nice forum people will gladly join.

 

[User500]

Ok, But I dont Think any local company's would be willing to change to a new host. How many hours a day would I need to put in?
Thanks

 

[Fergal]

Ok, But I dont Think any local company's would be willing to change to a new host...

They will if they are not happy with their current host or with their web designer (if they got hosting through them) or if you can demonstrate a good reason as to how hosting would help their business.

...How many hours a day would I need to put in?
Thanks

The more you put into it, the more you will get out of it. If you want it to be really successful you will have to work smart, long and hard at it.

 

[User500]

Ok thanks, If I could offer a good price people might switch and if it was easy to switch.
Would just a basic resellers package be good?

 

[Fergal]

User500 if I was you I get involved in a large web hosting / webmaster forum. Start making posts there and learning about hosting - the technical side and what people want and expect from their host. As you learn you will begin to offer helpful support to other members of the forum and you could start a hosting business at that time. To start the business before you are ready and have the knowledge of how to support your clients would be damaging to your reputation.

Please note I'm not saying to sit back and wait, I'm recommending that you get active and take positive action to start improving your knowledge in this area.

 

[Mik.]

I have to tell you that a crucial thing to hosting is tech support. People love it when their questions are answered fast.

I'd suggest install a Live Chat and allow emails which you can answer within an hour. I promise you will get great reviews and customers will be happy and buy.

 

[AnAccount]

User500 if I was you I get involved in a large web hosting / webmaster forum. Start making posts there and learning about hosting - the technical side and what people want and expect from their host. As you learn you will begin to offer helpful support to other members of the forum and you could start a hosting business at that time. To start the business before you are ready and have the knowledge of how to support your clients would be damaging to your reputation.

Please note I'm not saying to sit back and wait, I'm recommending that you get active and take positive action to start improving your knowledge in this area.

That's just what I would do too. Ask questions of people who are more experienced in this field and find out things like how JQuery works, how Cpanel works in terms of running a host, all of that. One of my first years of trying to run a forum, I asked a friend of mine what MySQL meant as I had no clue what that stood for or anything. I don't remember what he said, as this was about 2 years ago, but his answer really helped me out. And my current tech-admin is constantly helping me learn new things all the time, especially about the technical end of running a forum, and a lot of what he tells me is often very interesting, and sometimes they're things that I've never heard of before. So I would definitely have a chat with an experience host owner and find out all that you need to know.