If you've ever wanted to resell Web hosting, but weren't exactly certain how to get started - here's your opportunity.

We’ll outline the five basic steps necessary to create a Web hosting business through reselling accounts that are provisioned in a reseller Web hosting data center. While there are many details that are required to be successful in any business, these five steps should get you started, and with some diligence and persistence - you may become a sizable Web hosting venture.

Reselling Web Hosting - Step 1: Get an Exceptional Domain Name. It may be obvious to you, but having the proper domain for your Web hosting venture is critical to your success. Why? There are two basic reasons: branding (recall) and search engine optimization. In order to sell Web hosting to your prospects, they first have to be able to find you. That is, they have to know that you offer Web hosting accounts for sale.

The most common form of online research is the ubiquitous search engine.

There are really only 2 that matter: Google and Yahoo! In order to come up on the first few pages of any relevant search for Web hosting related keywords, it is imperative that your domain name contain some form of that keyword phrase. You can prove this to yourself by conducting a search for the keyword, ‘hosting’ at www.google.com. You will notice that many of the top results contain the word ‘host’ or ‘hosting’ in the domain name. It simply gives you an advantage in search rankings.

So where to get such a name? You can go to a good domain search site like, www.whois.sc (use the domain explorer tab) and see if there is a name that has not yet been registered. The chances of a great, short, memorable name being available is low (but not zero) - so you can increase the odds of getting a great name in two ways: get a domain that is expiring or buy a name from the current owner.

There are many great names that are expiring each day - that is, the current owner has not renewed the domain by paying the yearly registration fees. In fact, around 20,000 expired domains come back into circulation each day. Sometimes the owner forgets, sometimes they lose interest - in any event, you can snag a great name if you are willing to do some research.

Alternatively you can simply buy a domain name from the current owner.

Sites such as www.sedo.com can assist you in finding eager sellers for a wide variety of domain names. Okay - now you’ve got a great domain name - let’s move to step 2.

Reselling Web Hosting - Step 2: Finding and Setting up a Great Web Hosting Reseller Account.

Unless you want to set up your own domain registration process, get connectivity from major bandwidth providers, and have a warehouse full of high end computers - you’ll want to get a reseller account from an established supplier. A good reseller account will offer tools (control panel) to manage multiple domains and accounts from one central location. That way, you can log in once and check the billing and provisioning status of all of your customer accounts.

According to Brent Oxley, founder of Web hosting reseller HostGator.com, here’s what to look for in your reseller account.