Web hosting is, generally speaking, a critical element to your online endeavors. It allows us to get our website out and to the masses with little to no fuss, it can keep our emails churning, and it can even better the quality of our lives. However, up until now you may have been unaware of just how much money you can personally make from the world of web hosting. In fact, if you’ve never been told, one can make a fortune without hardly dipping a toe into the market.
How on Earth is that accomplished, you might be asking? Don’t fret, we’ve got the details ready to roll, offering the most popular ways you can make money from web hosting, starting now. It’s not a full-proof plan, and you are going to have to work to make your dough, but with a little initiative, any of these are entirely possible.
1. Make Money with Reseller Hosting
Here’s how web hosting works: large companies like HostGator, JustHost or GoDaddy have massive databanks of hardware connected servers that service all of their clients. These servers are each partitioned up into tiny chunks that can be sold individually to new users looking to start a website. When a single server is split into multiple, yet conjoined, units, this is called shared web hosting.
This is typically how most websites are started, and these web hosting companies tend to make a lot of money out of the technology. However, with a reseller account, you can profit from the arrangement as well.
If shared hosting is like an apartment, where the purchaser leases a room in a much larger complex, reseller hosting would be like purchasing a handful of rooms from the landlord to redistribute. You buy a chunk of the hosting provider’s servers, allowing you so much disc space, bandwidth, and processing power to work with. Then, you partition this chunk into exactly as many pieces as you like, before reselling it to someone else.
Essentially, it’s like founding your very own hosting company without having to start from the ground-up, developing a server and then fixing up the technology yourself. An even better way to think about it is as if you’re leasing digital ground. The hosting company gives you the space to work with, and then you build the units on-top at half the cost of a total operation.
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This is a great way to make money from web hosting, particularly if you deal with clients through your own business who need web hosting—this would be jobs like graphic design, web development, etc. Best of all, these reseller accounts are typically pretty cheap, starting around $30 a month. Of course, though, the amount of profit you make depends on how many of your units you can actually sell. There are a couple of ways to ensure you land yourself at maximum occupancy, though, all of which are key.
The first is networking, which is vital to any business. The more people you know in need of web hosting, the better off you’ll be with your reseller account. If you’re somewhat lacking, try placing text and graphic banners on sites likely to draw traffic. Also, be sure to mark up the personal nature of the hosting experience, as it’s what differentiates you from the rest of the pack—and there’s quite a pack, we promise!
2. Join Hosting Affiliate Programs
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However, becoming a reseller host isn’t the only way to make money from the business. Another fantastic method to make some additional spending money is to become an hosting affiliate. Let’s assume you already have an account with a site like WebHostingHub, iPage, FatCow or GoDaddy to host your own website. With a hosting affiliate program, you can take a small portion of your site to add a tiny banner (or a larger one, we suppose) for the hosting company you use. This banner rests on your site, and when users click it, they’re taken to the sign-up page for the company. Once there, if they choose to purchase an hosting plan themselves, the company you’re affiliated with kicks you back quite a lot of money: potentially as much as a couple hundred per sale.
There are a couple of ways you can optimize your traffic for this kind of program. For starters, it’s best to not become affiliated with a multiple companies. Most hosts pay you for the number of users you recruit, making it a better practice to send all your referrals to one location.
| Company | Commission | Products | Sign Up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1and1 | $15-300 USD | Shared, VPS, Dedicated | Details |
| HostGator | $50-125 USD | Shared, Reseller, VPS, Dedicated | Details |
| GoDaddy | $65-105 USD | Shared, VPS, Dedicated | Details |
| InMotion Hosting | $50-100 USD | Shared, VPS, Dedicated | Details |
| Web Hosting Hub | $100 USD | Shared | Details |
| iPage | $105 USD | Shared | Details |
| FatCow | $100 USD | Shared | Details |
| BlueHost | $65 USD | Shared, Reseller | Details |
| GreenGeeks | $50-100 USD | Shared, Reseller, VPS | Details |
You can also write about the host on your blog or personal website. You never know when a reader might be in need of web hosting, and will take your word over anything the Internet says. Word of mouth, in general, is a powerful tool, making your friends and family potential dollar signs, too. All in all, choose the best hosting affiliate program (recommended by WHGeeks team as the highly converting) and start making money without much effort on your part.
3. Create Web Services on a Dedicated Server
Another way to make money out of web hosting is to lease a dedicated server from a reliable hosting company like InMotion Hosting, and then use it to create your own free web service. This could be a free blog, subdomain, email or polling service.
Regardless of what that is, though, make sure it’s something a large portion of users will want to use. The idea is, after all, that you will start serving adverts to your users, making up for the overhead costs you’ve sunk into the dedicated server. This method requires a bit more cash on the front-end, but if you can develop a following for your service, you’ll quickly find yourself making a tidy bundle off the ad-revenue.
Good luck! Feel free to leave your comments below.
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