When it comes to side hustles, it seems like everybody has one these days. This means that there may be a lot of competition in certain sectors that make it difficult to make money.
The trick is to find something that not many people are thinking about, or if they do consider it will give it a pass as they think it’s too difficult. One of these ideas is to build your own server and then start hosting websites. If you find the right way to find clients, you can have a recurring income every month for little work.
If this sounds like an idea that you can get behind then you need to understand some of the basics. In this article, I will go over several things to know when it comes to hosting websites on your own to make extra money.
Have a business plan
Even if you are only looking to make a few extra dollars a month, you should have a business plan. After all, you are asking people and companies to trust you with their websites or data storage. For them to trust you, you should have a roadmap of what you hope to achieve and actually take your business seriously.
Come up with a plan to make money, on how to structure your business and any plans for growth for the future. This is going to make sure that your idea has staying power and people can count on you.
Related: 22 Best Online Side Hustles for Teens: How to Make Money Online as a Teenager
Figure out a budget
Starting out you will need to spend on equipment and networking hardware that can add up quite a bit. Then, you will need to spend money on the maintenance of the server and electricity. If you have a large server that handles a few terabytes of memory then this is going to use a lot of energy.
Make sure to understand how many clients you will need per month to be able to make sure that you get back into the black very quickly. Come up with different pricing plans for what the clients may need so you have a better idea of how much you can make per month.
Find a niche
To be able to stand out from the competition, you will need to specialize in something. People have hundreds of hosting companies and cloud storage apps to choose from so you have to give them a reason to choose you.
This is easier to achieve when you have a certain niche that you operate in. The best way to go is to target a specific community and get the word out there. For instance, you may want to be the guy that hosts dentists’ websites. Or, something fringe like artists that sell their works online. It doesn’t matter what you choose as long as there are enough people in the community that will pay for a local host. Then you just need to get the word out to them with the right marketing to small businesses.
