When I started NameHero in late 2014/early 2015 some people tried to tell me I “missed the boat” on the web hosting boom.
I didn’t necessarily disagree with them, but I felt that there statement was only half-true.
I missed the boat on the “initial” web hosting boom, but not completely.
My Early Days Web Hosting
In the summer of 2003 I launched a web hosting company called The Host Rack.
This was during the initial “boom” of the web hosting industry.
In these early years the Internet was gaining massive popularity amongst many throughout the United States and the rest of the world.
Customers came fairly easy, but many of them knew they needed a website, that included web hosting, but they didn’t know much more than that.
Unfortunately during this time, I was also attending college, and grew the business to the point I had to pick one or the other.
At the time, I decided on college as I wasn’t quite ready to give up the fun I was having :).
[A decision I often still ponder but I sure did enjoy those college years]
2007 – The Best Year To Get Back In?
After graduating college in the spring of 2007 I really considered getting back into the web hosting industry .
I actually spent the first couple months after graduating preparing the business for a re-launch but after discussing options with my brother (and business partner) we decided to focus on another business we had going that required much less overhead.
At the time I didn’t feel like there were any good “reselling” options out there, so just to launch the business, I was looking at a pretty substantial upfront investment.
I decided to put the project on hold until I had more liquid capital to do so.
2012 – I’m Ready To Re-Enter
While I was off pursuing other Internet-based businesses, I kept a close eye on the web hosting industry to see what was happening.
It was my true passion, so I just needed the “right time” to re-enter.
In the summer of 2012 I was scanning my RSS feed reader when I came across the headline stating that HostGator had sold to Endurance International Group.
I had secretly made the decision in my head, if HostGator ever sold, I would re-enter.
Having closely followed HostGator over the years, I knew Brent and company was doing a fantastic job paving the way for the entire industry. I figured a sale to a large corporation would leave a gap in the industry where I could have the opportunity to re-enter.
Unfortunately in the summer of 2012, I was running three other million dollar + companies with multiple offices and employees, so I couldn’t drop everything and move on, I had to wait until the right time.
2014 – The Time Came
In the summer of 2014, we had a shakeup in my businesses where one of the partners was planning his exit from the companies.
Not sure if this would be my opportunity or not, I decided to start putting the wheels into motion.
Given my success with my other companies, I now had the liquid capital to get started, but still had to balance the time with my other businesses.
I took every ounce of free-time I could find to dig into the trenches and work hard getting our platform live.
While running my Internet businesses from 2007 – 2014, I noticed one big thing missing in the web hosting industry.
A fast, reliable, and secure web hosting platform that was affordable for websites of all sizes.
With the cloud rapidly evolving in the late 2000s, it was still unheard of for a shared web host to implement such technology.
Big providers such as HostGator/GoDaddy didn’t start offering it until recent years.
That’s why in 2014/2015 when I started NameHero I wouldn’t even consider a “traditional” dedicated server, regardless the amount of money I would have saved.
2018 – Here We Are
The last three years have been quite the journey for us.
It’s always been stated that “online time” moved a lot faster than “offline time” making three years feel almost like six.
Since 2015 we’ve grown our platform to power over 20,000+ websites from customers across the globe.
Our team works countless hours around the clock to ensure 10/10 customer satisfaction and it’s our sole goal to help power your business into the future.
The Cloud Reselling Platform Of Choice
The “cloud” is a huge buzz word within the web hosting industry and can be also be a HUGE selling point for our resellers to approach their customers.
When reaching out to a prospect, one of the first things you need to ask, “is your website on the cloud?”
If they don’t know, it’s likely they’re not.
If you can explain to them the speed, reliability, and security benefits, you’ll get a new customer fairly easy!
Explain to the customer the technology you have at your finger tips as a Reseller.
Guaranteed resources (CPU, RAM), Solid State Drives (SSD) protected by Raid 10, LiteSpeed Web Server with Caching, Cloudflare with Railgun.
Explain to them they not only have access to the high-speed cloud but powerful features such as free and automatic SSL certificates built in.
I’ve filmed a video where I talk more about the benefits you have as a NameHero Reseller and how you can leverage these to create a very lucrative business:
Ready To Join Us?
When I graduated college in 2007, I would have loved to have found a Reselling platform such as ours that I could get started for under $30/month.
If you’ve ever considered reselling web hosting or if you’re a current reseller, I can assure you I’ve been in your shoes and have developed our entire platform with you in mind.
We’d love to have you join the thousands of our other Resellers with us here at NameHero!
Regardless your decision (or tech experience) I’ve put together the following training resources to help you fully understand how our platform works (they’re all free of charge):
- Reseller Hosting 101: How To Start Your Own Web Hosting Business (Free Course)
- Resell Hero: The Quick Start Guide To Making Money Reselling Web Hosting (Free eBook)
- How To Create A Web Hosting Business With WordPress (Start To Finish Video Tutorial)
You can browse our Reselling Hosting packages here.
Finally, if you haven’t already PLEASE make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel as that’s the first place a lot of my training goes!
Ryan Gray is the founder and CEO of NameHero, one of the fastest growing independent web hosts in the United States. Ryan has been working online since 1998 and has over two-decades experience in Internet Entrepreneurship.
This was a great Article. What a Journey You have been on. I started My Online Business in 2004 and NOW am just getting to the point that i understand how business really works and how i finally after 14 years found a web hosting company like yours who is honest, affordable , and very accessible. Thank you so much for everything you have done for me so far. i have only been a customer since 4/27/18 but i am so happy to be a customer of yours. i did find you on you tube and it was great video. i will be a long time customer for many years. congrats on making it through all the times you went through.
Thanks for the compliments Grant! We’re glad to have you onboard with us here at NameHero!