How To Be a Web Hosting Company
Web hosting is a booming industry. The number of websites on the internet has exploded in recent years, with new ones popping up every day. Web hosting companies provide the infrastructure for these websites to exist, providing storage space and bandwidth as well as often providing domain name registration services and other value-added services such as email accounts.
1. Get a domain name.
Domain names can be confusing, so let’s break it down: the first part of your domain is the name of your company (for example, “webhostingcompany”). The second part is typically one word that describes what you do (for example, “webhosting”). You should have both parts in mind when you’re choosing a name for your company. The best websites will have names that are easy to remember and relevant to their business as well as catchy enough to stick in people’s minds. If you need help thinking up good ideas for your domain name, try searching Google Trends or asking friends if they know of any clever options they could suggest.
2. Get a server.
You’ll need a server to host your web sites. If you’re just getting started with the business, it’s best to buy a server rather than leasing one because owning will save you money over time. The cost of running a leased server can quickly add up to more than what it would cost if you owned one outright.
3. Install the web hosting software stack (like Apache) on the server.
Now that your server is ready to go, you need to install the software stack. This is where Apache, PHP and MySQL (PHP-FPM) are installed.
You can find installation guides on the websites of both Apache and Nginx (the alternative web server).
As usual, if you run into any issues during installation, it’s best to consult with a developer or someone who does this for a living.
4. Test it by serving your own web site using your domain name on the server.
Once you have a web hosting company and a domain name, it’s time to test the server. Don’t just go for the cheapest hosting package that meets your needs. This can be an expensive mistake if the service isn’t up to par or doesn’t give you enough space on its servers. If a server is slow and overloaded, then your website will be slow as well.
5. Check your ports
The next step is to check your ports. Make sure that all necessary ports are open, and that security is high and firewalls are in place, but also that you have good bandwidth/speed for serving websites and files via HTTP (web) FTP (file transfer protocol), telnet etc.
Conclusion
As you can see, becoming a web hosting company is not as hard as it seems. It also doesn’t require a lot of money either. You just need to follow the steps and make sure all your bases are covered when it comes time for each one!
