Going To Offer Free Hosting - Questions

[Solac]

Hi

Ever since I an old site now (now shut down) 2webh started I wanted to do the same, offer free hosting to peopl. Now I am thinking of finally doing it but I have some questions:

1) Do people fail in this area? I mean what is the most common mistake people make causing them to make?

2) What is the best website and cheapest that offer reseller hosting?

3) How do people make a profit and how big a profit do people make?

Thanks

[Scotty Walds]

1) Many free web hosts fail because they either don't get enough accounts to make it worthwhile, or too many and they run into problems
2) I got my reseller account using this post http://www.freewebspace.net/forums/showthread.php?t=65967

3) Free web hosts make their profits by either charging for more advanced packages or by making customers display adverts on their sites

[Solac]

How much prfit do people make and how do people get their free hosting site well known?

[andybuk23]

You dont have to do much to get your free host known, list it in the normal freewebspace sites, free sites etc, word of mouth will soon take over and you will be flooded with signups, of course all depending on how good your offer is and the service behind it. You will also get a mass of signups from the idios trying to put mp3s, porn and stuff so you have to keep ontop of the signups when they pickup.

[post4hosting]

How much prfit do people make and how do people get their free hosting site well known?There a number of sources of income for a free host, 1st of all, do you plan on placing ads on their pages? if so thats one income source, another one is placing ads on your website/forums, which will get you money when your forums become popular, the 3rd source would be from paid hosting, most free hosts offer paid hosting with more specs as another option.

Hope i'v helped

[bryonhost1]

Hi!
I believe the idea of making money with ads is a common one...and not very workable from what I've seen. It seems to me that the best bet would be either:

1) Give them reasons to stay and become paying clients
2) Sell them other things they're likely to need as the website/business grows.

Bryon

[djbob]

I would try an emerging kind of hosting - post for host, instead, if you're just starting. The reason would be because its very hard to implent ads without root access, a feature missing in all but VPS and Dedicated servers. And the lowest price you'll find for a VPS for good quality reselling is $50. On the other hand, post for host needs to root access, and you can make some money just by placing ads on your main forums.

My plan is (was) to start out of post-for-host and then expand to ads hosting and paid hosting, but I just recently discovered the root access requirement... :(

Well, some people had some other ideas, but they kind of messed up, and the people aren't posting here anymore.

You could use my script http://www.freewebhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=958 for auto-integration with IPB for post-for-host solutions ;)

[LSChosting]

My plan is (was) to start out of post-for-host and then expand to ads hosting and paid hosting, but I just recently discovered the root access requirement... :(
Some hosts will allow root access, even if just for a short period of time to allow you to install such modifications to your reseller hosting plans (myself included - http://lschosting.info/)

[LP-Trel]

Some hosts will allow root access, even if just for a short period of time to allow you to install such modifications to your reseller hosting plans (myself included - http://lschosting.info/)

If you have ever given *ANYONE* root access to your server then it could easily be rooted.

You should *NEVER* give root access out to anyone other than a verified security professional or your server provider.

I would highly suggest that you have your server locked down, scanned for rootkits and possibly completely reinstalled just to make sure.

[LSChosting]

If you have ever given *ANYONE* root access to your server then it could easily be rooted.

You should *NEVER* give root access out to anyone other than a verified security professional or your server provider.

I would highly suggest that you have your server locked down, scanned for rootkits and possibly completely reinstalled just to make sure.
My apologies for my partner's badly worded statement (He forgot to check with me before posting here :|) We haven't given anyone root access before, what he *meant* to say was shell access... Still not sure how he got the 2 confused :confused:

Anyway, to clarify, NO, of course we would never give out root access.

[LP-Trel]

My apologies for my partner's badly worded statement (He forgot to check with me before posting here :|) We haven't given anyone root access before, what he *meant* to say was shell access... Still not sure how he got the 2 confused :confused:

Anyway, to clarify, NO, of course we would never give out root access.

That is much different. :D

[LSChosting]

thats for sure!

Dont worry tho, i made sure to slap him the next time i saw him for that error :P

[PresFox]

Also, its very welll possible to display ads without root access, i am currently doing so

EDIT: Although i do have root access, trying to create a signup script wich also offers autoads

[djbob]

Hey PresFox, didn't know you were around here! You told me you were using mod_layout... did you switch? How do you do the ads w/o root access?

[PresFox]

AS you can understand, that is classified information now