Best Way To Get Into Hosting?

[capd]

I'm looking at getting into a bit of hosting (mainly email). What is the best way to go about it? Go with one of the local companies and add a small margin? International company with a bigger margin? My own server – local or international? Would I load cPanel or an equivalent hosting control panel? Where can I learn more about DNS, MX records, etc.?

Thank you.

 

[Thor]

Get a reseller account from domains.co.za

Its fully managed very very very easy to spin up hosting accounts with fully fledged email ability that you can then sell and manage for clients.

Proper spam filter, rules, forwarding, the full nine yards.

 

[capd]

Get a reseller account from domains.co.za

Its fully managed very very very easy to spin up hosting accounts with fully fledged email ability that you can then sell and manage for clients.

Proper spam filter, rules, forwarding, the full nine yards.

Just seems tricky to make a profit if we look at the R829/m for 50GB package, when 5GB email hosting costs R45? Especially if wanting to use IMAP instead of POP where some people already have close to 50GB of emails.

There must be cheaper options out there?

 

[OCP]

Just seems tricky to make a profit if we look at the R829/m for 50GB package, when 5GB email hosting costs R45? Especially if wanting to use IMAP instead of POP where some people already have close to 50GB of emails.

There must be cheaper options out there?

Sure - built yourself a nice server cluster running your preferred flavor of Linux with redundant PSU's, storage and backup power, then host and manage yourself

I can assure you that with the margins that domains.co.za and absolutehosting.co.za are providing hosting solutions you are not going to get cheaper unless you built your own and sell at scale.

 

[capd]

Sure - built yourself a nice server cluster running your preferred flavor of Linux with redundant PSU's, storage and backup power, then host and manage yourself

I can assure you that with the margins that domains.co.za and absolutehosting.co.za are providing hosting solutions you are not going to get cheaper unless you built your own and sell at scale.

Looking at the Domains and Absolute Hosting server options and pricing, if I'm after email-only, it seems better to simply take email-only hosting accounts opposed to a server, where I would need to log in to each client's hosting account instead of managing them all from one server account.

Would that be correct and is there anything I'm missing?

 

[RedViking]

Start a poll with 30 options and we will select Other.

 

[capd]

Start a poll with 30 options and we will select Other.

Please stop.

 

[Thor]

Looking at the Domains and Absolute Hosting server options and pricing, if I'm after email-only, it seems better to simply take email-only hosting accounts opposed to a server, where I would need to log in to each client's hosting account instead of managing them all from one server account.

Would that be correct and is there anything I'm missing?

@Murmaider

 

[OCP]

Looking at the Domains and Absolute Hosting server options and pricing, if I'm after email-only, it seems better to simply take email-only hosting accounts opposed to a server, where I would need to log in to each client's hosting account instead of managing them all from one server account.

Would that be correct and is there anything I'm missing?

I can manage all my hosted email only domains + maul accounts from one account on both domains.co.za and absolutehosting.co.za

For some clients that like to do their own management I had them sign up with provider direct but have a login in case they need me to make changes.

 

[capd]

I can manage all my hosted email only domains + maul accounts from one account on both domains.co.za and absolutehosting.co.za

For some clients that like to do their own management I had them sign up with provider direct but have a login in case they need me to make changes.

Thank you. Which package(s) do you have? Please could you explain how I would manage, say, three clients with email-only hosting from one account, and how it looks (your info removed, obviously)?

 

[Jade @ Absolute Hosting]

Thank you. Which package(s) do you have? Please could you explain how I would manage, say, three clients with email-only hosting from one account, and how it looks (your info removed, obviously)?

Hi @capd

With our Email Only Hosting package you purchase a package for each domain that you want to host and use the client service area to manage each domain and email account linked to the service.

Below are some screenshots to show you.
To answer some of your initial questions, I would stay clear of reselling only mail only but rather build a business that provides email as an addon.

Email support is the most demanding of all and will cost you 90% of your time in comparison to other services, and the margins are minimal.

 

[Web Telecom Services]

Agree with Jade.
Steer clear of email only hosting. Support is more time consuming with email only users, ISPs often do strange things by blocking third party smtp and imap services, user email clients “forget” passwords and then you spend 30 minutes on a call with them to fix the settings and on top of that you still have to scan incoming and outgoing email for spam (a small cost per user if you dont build your own in-house system).
The best way to get started is to sell hosting packages.

 

[shadow_man]

Man - you want to host email but don't understand basics like DNS... You're in for a world of hurt... as are your potential clients. You're trying to run before you even understand how to crawl.

Email is far from simple (to do well).
You need to understand DKIM, DMARC, SPF and a ton of other things like how you're going to handle Malware, AV, Spam, backups, downtime, support when mails don't arrive / go through etc.

The profit margins are razor thin and it's really not going to be worth your time.

 

[Murray@HOSTAFRICA]

"Email support is the most demanding of all and will cost you 90% of your time in comparison to other services, and the margins are minimal."

Too true - mail only, avoid. Hosting reselling, go for it

Here are also some options:

Web Hosting Reseller - HOSTAFRICA

Our Web Hosting Reseller products are completely white-labelled. You can sell the hosting packages as your own product. Get started today.

www.hostafrica.co.za

 

[AntiThesis]

Honestly, unless you're super passionate about hosting things and want to spend 90% of your time answering customer queries, this might not be a good path. As Jade said, maybe look at establishing a business and then adding on email as an optional extra - that way, your margins hopefully are high enough with the other service that you will be able to provide staff and all that stuff. Otherwise, you'll sign up a couple of accounts, hate it, and potentially end up with some really angry clients.

What is the motivation here? To be an entrepreneur? Or to make side cash? Or something else? Note, nobody here is telling you you 100% can't do it and shouldn't do it, we're just cautioning because we've seen similar situations a billion times before.