In need of advice

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Posted by gregnoir200, 01-08-2010, 02:28 PM
Hey, I am in the process of designing and building a small web hosting business based in the UK built at first on reseller accounts. And so forgive me as this is my first i am relatively inexperienced. I was initially going to use Hostgator and at first their lowest reseller package. $25(£15.50) 50GB space and 500GB bw. To me this is quite reasonable, and i have heard good things. But is it a good idea for a UK based web host to use a US mother host? Personally i cant see a problem with this, but its quite likley that im missing a major point. Looking at other web hosts they offer "unlimited" web hosting for £2.50 or so. Now i know that there is a serious compromise here to acheive this "unlimited". But i feel that most clients looking for a good web host would pick up on this go for them. This worries me because if i offer genuine 1gb space and 10gb bw for £5 a month. Who are they more likley to go for? Is £5 a decent starter package price? What are the common downfalls of small web hosting business's starting up and how can i avoid them. Also i find most websites have a terms of service document you can agree to. Where can i get one of those as i am not legally trained. Is there any advice or reseller hosts that you can recommend to me please? Thank you all
Posted by djshades2004, 01-08-2010, 03:33 PM
They do say that you should use a server in your own country for seo purposes. But I'm from the uk and use U.S based servers, unfortuantly I find british hosting solutions are alot more money .
Posted by njoker555, 01-08-2010, 03:42 PM
Shouldn't be a problem at all if you have US servers and you're in the UK or vice versa. as for people offering unlimited for so little, I'd recommend you stay away from them because they are heavily overselling. As to avoiding downfalls, always be professional, honest, and always think before you act. It'll save you a lot of trouble.
Posted by gregnoir200, 01-08-2010, 04:21 PM
Thank you both Well i can understand why US is cheaper, mainly because their net backbone is far better than the British so they get bandwidth far far far cheaper. Can i ask what SEO stands for? Thats good advice, il be honest always. Im just looking to make a small amount of money and not have any losses and gain experience so i have nothing to lie about. Your input is very much appreciated, thank you both again
Posted by djshades2004, 01-08-2010, 04:28 PM
Search engine optimization, how well you rank in search engines. e.g a co.uk domain will normally rank better in in a uk search engine then a .com
Posted by gregnoir200, 01-08-2010, 05:14 PM
Really? I didn't know that And so i guess il have to put links everywhere to my site? But thank you sir
Posted by ldcdc, 01-08-2010, 06:20 PM
Most reseller hosting providers will let you use and modify their own terms of service document if you're their customer. I recall that hostlegal.net was selling templates as well and there might be similar providers out there. You should still have the document reviewed by a lawyer if you want true peace of mind. A lot of UK hosts have started out using US based providers and did just fine. I suppose this is still quite possible. I'm not sure how sensitive your target market is to servers' location though. If a good number of them they will want UK based hosting, you should have that, at least as an option.
Posted by gregnoir200, 01-08-2010, 06:47 PM
Wow i really didnt know that resellers will let you use their terms of service. Although il probably double check with hostgator first. Thats very useful indeed And im going to provide generic web hosting so i dont think il have an issue. Considering it takes about 60-80 ms to reach an american server from here i dont think my clients would have any speed issues. Thank you very much sir Thats very helpful input indeed
Posted by HostXNow_Chris, 01-08-2010, 07:31 PM
60-80ms is not bad. 15-25ms would be much better though.
Posted by njoker555, 01-08-2010, 07:33 PM
That doesn't really make much of a different with websites. If you were hosting gameservers VoIP servers, that's another issue. That's where low ping really matters.
Posted by HostXNow_Chris, 01-08-2010, 08:04 PM
I thought the same until I actually tried different UK/US servers. Content loads up from my website a lot quicker when using UK servers. My email doesn't take 5 years to come through either. The faster the speed the better especially for those impatient kind who wouldn't even wait for 3 seconds for a page to load.
Posted by njoker555, 01-08-2010, 08:20 PM
If you have enough stuff, it'll take 3 seconds to load even if the DC is a block away. But once stuff is cached, the few milliseconds still wouldn't look very different. I've tried servers in UK, East coast and west coast USA
Posted by HostXNow_Chris, 01-08-2010, 08:35 PM
Faster website speeds results in much lower bouncerate, which is really important for any type of site. xD
Posted by njoker555, 01-08-2010, 08:37 PM
I agree, but I wouldn't say it's the same for a few milliseconds difference. If there was a 300ms difference, then that's another story.
Posted by HostXNow_Chris, 01-08-2010, 08:47 PM
45ms isn't a few ms. There are many good reasons to go with a UK provider if your targeting customers in the UK. It's the same with any country. For more info, see this thread: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=915122
Posted by njoker555, 01-08-2010, 08:51 PM
Depends on how you look at it. I see it as 0.045 Seconds. But anyway, we have our own way of looking that things.This is how I look at it and you have your way of looking at it
Posted by gregnoir200, 01-08-2010, 09:01 PM
Haha well now i feel abit silly for the ping speeds comment :$ But im glad that you all agree it wont be a considerable difference I guess the only downside to using US servers would be support, but i guess that wouldnt be too much of an issue if they are 24/7 with email support. and thank you HostXNow for the link, i guess it will affect my SEO but considering im only aiming to be small i dont think it would matter so much. But if it were to grow id definatly consider UK based resellers. But at this time i dont have much to invest so il have to take advantage of the best economic soloution i have. But its definatly something i initially overlooked so im really glad it was pointed out to me. Thank you HostXNow, njoker555, ldcdc, and djshades2004 for all your input. Its all extremely appreciated