HostGator has announced that all of their Shared and Reseller servers are now 130% wind powered.

According to their website:

That’s right! 130%!
We’re not just neutralizing our environmental impact, we’re reversing it!

HostGator has purchased certified Renewable Energy Credits representing 130% of the electricity used to both power and cool every last one of our shared and reseller servers!

HostGator hosts over 1,300,000 websites on its shared and reseller servers and claims that the environmental impact is equivalent to:

1. Removing 444 cars from the road for a year, or
2. Powering 321 homes with clean energy for a year, or
3. Saving 5,654 barrels of oil, or
4. Protecting 551 acres of forest for a year

All of HostGator’s wind credits are generated in their home state of Texas.

One of the problems with reselling web hosting, as in any other business, is the competition. There are a lot of web hosts out there, all competing for customers and all trying to offer the best deals.

How can you, with your new reseller hosting website, hope to compete against the established web hosting companies.

Well, there are a number of things that are in your favour.

Firstly, web hosting is an expanding market, so although there are a lot of competitors, there’s plenty of room for you to set up your reseller hosting business.

Secondly, the big web hosting companies need to concentrate on the general market.

This means that, as in other internet based businesses, concentrating on niche markets can be more profitable, especially if you choose a niche that other people aren’t exploiting.
You can differentiate yourself from all the other web hosting companies out there by offering a different combination of features, or maybe even just by emphasizing different features that might appeal to a particular niche.

For instance, maybe you could concentrate on hosting for real estate sites. Now most cPanel hosting with Fantastico has Open-Realty available for installing. Yet I don’t know of anybody who makes that a selling point for their web hosting.

Of course, you’re not just limited to what comes with your reseller package.

By concentrating on a niche market, you can become recognised as an expert in the field, and benefit from recommendations from existing clients in that niche. It also enables you to concentrate your advertising and marketing efforts into an area where there may be little or no competition.

There are vertical niches i.e. particular market sectors, such as doctors, architects, auto spares, cycle shops, etc, and horizontal niches, such as local small businesses etc, so you shouldn’t have difficulty finding a niche that you can identify with and become a trusted partner in.

The next question is – when am I going take my own advice and which niche am I going to choose for my web hosting business…hmmm.