Low-end customers are typically very price-conscious. Mostly, you'll find individuals looking for bare-bones hosting and very small "mom and pop" type businesses, who aren't looking to do much (if any) business online but do want people to be able to find their business contact information on the Web. They may be looking to upgrade from a free web hosting service that offers them more flexibility and better support. This group will typically be somewhat more accepting of a certain (limited) amount of downtime or connectivity problems (since they aren't paying much). Also, this group's resource (disk space and bandwidth) usage will be modest. However, you are also much more likely to need to provide very basic support to this group. They may not be familiar with how to create web content or how to get the content they do have onto the web, and they will turn to you for help.

If you host low-end customers, you can often pack several hundred accounts on a single mid-range server, and you'll probably need to, because you're not going to be getting much money per customer. It may also be helpful to offer a site building program of some kind because that will directly fill a need many customers in this category will likely have (see Chapter 10 for more information on some site-building programs that work with cPanel).

Mid-range customers are less price-conscious and typically more concerned with reliable and flexible service. Resource usage is going to be more. This class of customers includes small business owners, and individuals with more popular websites or more complex needs.

Basic support costs are likely to be less, since users in this category typically have some experience already with putting content on the web. However, these customers will probably be looking for more advanced features and assistance. They may request things like remote database access, additional functionality from PHP and Perl, and advanced mail handling. These customers are going to look for a certain amount of uninterrupted service and are going to want to know what you plan to do if service drops below that percentage.

High-end customers are going to primarily be concerned with reliable service and top-notch 24/7 support, preferably via multiple methods of contact (phone, e-mail, live online chat). Basic support needs will be almost nothing, but they will expect fast and flexible service, and plenty of available resources. Support requests from these customers are likely to be complex when they do come. They'll want access to advanced services like SSH, FXP, SFTP, and WebDAV, the latest versions of PHP and Perl, and perhaps even additional languages like Ruby on Rails or ASP.

High-end customers include small to mid-sized businesses that cannot afford their own server, individuals who have very popular websites, or who are programmers and looking to design or run web services. Price isn't going to be an issue, but you'd better be able to provide the service and resources to back up the higher prices. These customers often outgrow shared web hosting, and may come to you looking for VPS or dedicated servers. It will be harder for a small company to attract these sorts of customers, but if you have the skill and resources to provide properly for these customers, their business can be quite lucrative for you.

The importance of good support cannot be underestimated. Even if you are a seasoned server administrator, you need to make sure the company you work with has support policies that meet your needs. Remember, even if you don't think you'll need much support, it's unlikely that you will have physical access to the hardware, and you'll need to have someone at the data center reboot your hardware or check for hardware problems occasionally. In those instances, you definitely don't want slow or sloppy support.

The problem is that every company promises top-notch support. So how do you figure out which companies are the best at support? One good way is to watch what customers say about the companies you are interested in. You can see this at some of the sites mentioned above. Some companies also have public forums that you can visit. Of course, people are more likely to complain when there is a problem than they are to praise a company when everything is going well, so you'll want to take such reports with a grain of salt. Still, if you see many complaints about a company or if you see clients complaining about negative forum posts being removed, then that isn't a good sign.

In addition to that, it is important to understand what sort of support you can expect, and what it will cost you. Many companies offer some free support, but what that support covers varies. Does the company offer support by phone, e-mail, or live chat? Is the support available all the time or only during business hours?

If a company tells you that a VPS or dedicated server is self-managed, this means you can only expect the most cursory support for free. You are expected to handle your own server. If you need assistance of almost any kind, expect to pay (probably lots of money) for it. Self-managed servers tend to be cheaper, but the costs for support if you need it can quickly wipe out any savings.

If a company offers managed servers, this typically means that some amount of support is included for no additional charge. Every company is going to have a different definition of what sort of support is included. Be sure you know what kinds of support are covered for free before signing up, especially if you are new to dedicated server hosting. Managed free support could include server reboots, setup assistance, software installation assistance, general hosting assistance, service monitoring, administrative time (this typically refers to anything that requires an employee of the company to access your server that isn't covered in other categories of service), hosting account transfers, and security scanning and consultation.

Lots of companies offer cheap deals on VPS and dedicated servers. Be sure you understand the terms of any deal before you give a company your money. Often the cheapest deals don't include important software (like cPanel/WHM) or skimp on the hardware (a slow Celeron processor with 512 MB RAM and a 20 GB hard drive, for example). Some companies will allow you to upgrade your server later, but be sure you know what the options and charges are.

On the other hand, some companies will throw in extra hardware or software to attract more customers. Make sure you know what you are getting and what, if any, limitations there are on these extra products. Don't forget, when comparing deals between companies, to factor in what it would cost you to purchase these extras separately, if you didn't receive them for free.

Look for data centers that have multiple connections to the Internet through various large providers (MCI, Level 3, AT&T, etc.) and lots of well-maintained networking equipment. Sometimes, a single bandwidth provider will have problems, so it is important to host in a data center that has more than one major connection to the Internet, or people won't be able to access your server. Make sure that the data center can survive a major power outage in their area and that the interior of the data center is carefully temperature controlled. Lots of hot servers in close proximity without good temperature control are a recipe for disaster.

While the physical location where your VPS or server will be located isn't as important as the quality of the data center in which it is hosted, it can make a difference. Generally, a server hosted in a data center that is close to the bulk of your customers will perform more quickly than one that is many thousands of miles away. However, a high quality data center thousands of miles away from your customers may still outperform a local data center that doesn't have as many or as good connections to the Internet. Most companies will offer test links if you ask them, so that you can measure the speed of service from their data center to your location.

Billing costs and times should be clear. Do you get charged for your server on the anniversary of the date that you first paid for the service or does billing always happen at a particular date? What happens if you are late with payments? Do they offer a grace period or do they disconnect your server immediately? Is there a fee to reconnect your server if it is disconnected due to late payment? How much does additional bandwidth cost if you go over your monthly allotment and how and when does it get billed?

Even if you are thrilled with the company you choose, there may come a time when you need to cancel a server. What is the company's policy on cancellations? Is there a money back guarantee if you cancel soon after signing up because you don't like the service? How much notice are you required to give before the next billing cycle so as to avoid further charges? Are there any additional fees for cancelling the service? Are you required to pay for a server for a set period of time (a contract) or can you cancel whenever you like?

The company you choose should have all of these items clearly articulated somewhere, or at least be clear about the policy when you ask. If a company doesn't answer to your satisfaction, you may want to look elsewhere.