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Need some direction for getting into the VPS game
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Need some direction for getting into the VPS game

Hi there,
I want to start reselling VPSs in the online gaming niche and have settled on a Minecraft VPS service as a good starting point.

After looking at the technical requirements, I've decided to use plain old Bootstrap as a frontend, MongoDB or any other NoSQL db, with LinuxGSM as the gameserver and a custom control panel for subscribers to create and manage their VPS.

I have a few questions which I hope to get answers to:

  • Is it too late to get into the VPS game?
  • What other alternatives are there to LinuxGSM. I know of Pterodactyl, but it seems complex/bloated for my initial purposes and it's relatively new compared to LinuxGSM.
  • Are there any LinuxGSM resources such as customs scripts out there, since I would like to avoid re-inventing the wheel, if I could.
  • I intend to drive traffic to my Minecraft VPS site organically, primarily and I've chosen a domain name to this effect. I've settled on Minecraft since it's supported by LinuxGSM (and just about anything out there), I am familiar with it and it SEEMS to be the easiest route into this, since the base is already there, but would you recommend something else? If so, why?
  • Do you have any suggestions for Marketing my services?
  • Since I will be essentially reselling VPSs, I want to be sure that I provide a well performing hosted service. Is there anyone you can suggest or what should I be looking out for when selecting my own provider?
  • Anything else that would be helpful to know- any other pointers/suggestions, since I'm new to this.

Thank you very much for this resource! I have learned quite a bit in the last few days.

Regards,
Helmuth

Comments

  • Thank you!

  • hkistinghkisting Member
    edited February 2021

    I've got another question that I forgot to include in the first post..

    It seems to me that containers can be a viable option, especially when we look at performance, but is this a good idea? Should I just go with KVM instead?
    If so, why?

    Thanks again,
    Helmuth

  • If your going to be selling Minecraft VPS's you should ask yourself: why should I pick you? What makes you stand out?

    hosting in general is a very saturated market and hosts come and go every day

    ..... so what makes you different?

    If you cant answer then move on and come up with another idea

  • deankdeank Member, Troll

    The end is nigh.

    Thanked by 1chip
  • the vps market is saturated if you want to make any money you'd need to find a unique selling point. such as digital ocean originated the "cloud" hourly vps.

  • If you do this for money then don't. If you want to do this for fun and you have another source of income sure.

    Thanked by 1yoursunny
  • @hkisting said:
    It seems to me that containers can be a viable option, especially when we look at performance, but is this a good idea? Should I just go with KVM instead?
    If so, why?

    It all depends. As a customer I have very few container systems. I don't care for them, but if it is the only option and you offered something I wanted that was not available from anyone else or any other way than I would consider it. I'm sure many potential customers would be happy with containers if it is a good value. As a provider you might be able to sell more with fewer resources using containers and charge less than you would for a KVM.

  • BradyHBradyH Member, Host Rep

    For this I would recommend taking some time and research what is out there already and set up a solid business plan and stick to it. The gaming market is going to be a hard one to pick up traction in but can be done.

    Best of luck

  • verovero Member, Host Rep

    I just wonder if any successful business ever launched started by putting one's intentions in post and asking forum members for an opinion. Just wonder.

  • Starting a hosting business is easy and is basically like printing money. All of these naysayers are just scared you will learn the secret and take all their business.

    If you are on gigabit fiber at home, build yourself a ryzen pc and start your business with it.

  • @vero said:
    I just wonder if any successful business ever launched started by putting one's intentions in post and asking forum members for an opinion. Just wonder.

    isn't BTC started that way? if i am correct... satoshi started it that way.

  • hkistinghkisting Member
    edited February 2021

    @chip said:

    If your going to be selling Minecraft VPS's you should ask yourself: why should I pick you? What makes you stand out?

    hosting in general is a very saturated market and hosts come and go every day

    ..... so what makes you different?

    If you cant answer then move on and come up with another idea

    @SirFoxy said:
    the vps market is saturated if you want to make any money you'd need to find a unique selling point. such as digital ocean originated the "cloud" hourly vps.

    Thank you. I've looked at many different providers and I've come up with some ideas that will set me apart from the average. Nothing groundbreaking though- not yet at least.

    A selling point usually derives from a client or customer need... in this case- if I may ask- do you have a need in this area that isn't being met currently, or rarely?

    Regards,
    Helmuth

  • @marvel said:
    If you do this for money then don't. If you want to do this for fun and you have another source of income sure.

    Thank you. This will be as a second source of income initially, along with a couple of other SaaS ventures.

    Regards,
    Helmuth

  • To rely on opensource tool where there is only one developer without any guarantee of support is a pending disaster. LGSM is not designed for such use case, be aware.

  • @BradyH said:
    For this I would recommend taking some time and research what is out there already and set up a solid business plan and stick to it. The gaming market is going to be a hard one to pick up traction in but can be done.

    Best of luck

    Thank you for the advice! With the global pandemic in full swing, this offers another opportunity into the market. There are markets outside of the US/Top tier countries that can also be targeted.
    In the end, the bottom-line would decide, I suppose.

    Regards,
    Helmuth

  • hkistinghkisting Member
    edited February 2021

    @randomq said:
    Starting a hosting business is easy and is basically like printing money. All of these naysayers are just scared you will learn the secret and take all their business.

    If you are on gigabit fiber at home, build yourself a ryzen pc and start your business with it.

    Thank you for the encouragement! That's gold! :)
    The way I see it is- if I do the legwork- proper research into my market, choose my resources and product carefully as well as my customer service processes (I think this is crucial), I'm sure I can setup a decent business and get a foot in the door of the SaaS universe.

    Planning should be 90% of success guaranteed- that's the way it looks like to me at least. :)
    If I may- are you in the online hosting business currently? If so, how did you get started? What challenges did you have to face?

    Looking forward to your reply.

    Regards,
    Helmuth

  • hkistinghkisting Member
    edited February 2021

    @vero said:
    I just wonder if any successful business ever launched started by putting one's intentions in post and asking forum members for an opinion. Just wonder.

    :)
    Think Musk started out that way.
    I can remember being a member of one of the forums he frequented back in the late 90's. There weren't many of those in Southern Africa at that point, so the world was small.
    I read a past post of his asking for forum members' opinion re paypal some years later, although he wasn't too specific- in addition to asking for help, with what we would consider trivial MySQL issues as he was busy building out paypal on his lonesome at 12:00 in the evening etc.

    I'm sure there are plenty of others. Many successful internet businesses started out ghetto as hell but today they are the standard. That's not me though. This business venture serves other purposes besides success.

    Regards,
    Helmuth

  • HostEONSHostEONS Member, Patron Provider

    Nothing wrong in asking in a forum as asking is also a part of research and it does shows that you are trying to gather as much information as possible before getting into business. Just make sure to have a solid business plan, enough funds to survive or keep your business running at least for 1-2 years without any revenue

  • hkistinghkisting Member
    edited February 2021

    @seenu said:

    @vero said:
    I just wonder if any successful business ever launched started by putting one's intentions in post and asking forum members for an opinion. Just wonder.

    isn't BTC started that way? if i am correct... satoshi started it that way.

    Thanks.
    Yeah many internet businesses satrted that way. I can remember BTC being offered for free as early as 2004 and promotional wallets as well during alpha- way before launch. I didn't take it of course. I mean who would be interested in some bogus/future currency being offered by some guy working away at such a ridiculous or long-shot of an idea in his dorm room?
    Instead I went for reselling a more ridiculous thing- "moon rocks"! :)
    That turned out well...

    Anyway, these days traditional business graduates have cornered the Internet, so there is a conservative tendency instead of just "doing" and seeing what happens.

    Regards,
    Helmuth

  • verovero Member, Host Rep

    @hkisting said:
    Yeah many internet businesses satrted that way.

    Wouldn't though ever this is happening, but there are so many things in the world I have no idea about. Business plan should be something kept private, IMO, and trusting few people in some forum looks even worse. Sure, they can share some precious insights, that may be important. But whole consideration of planning business in such manner doesn't look serious for me (that's solely my opinion, which is subject to change). I think nothing can stop gifted people from creating great things, but for many others even great things won't help.

  • hkistinghkisting Member
    edited February 2021

    @vero said:

    @hkisting said:
    Yeah many internet businesses satrted that way.

    Wouldn't though ever this is happening, but there are so many things in the world I have no idea about. Business plan should be something kept private, IMO, and trusting few people in some forum looks even worse. Sure, they can share some precious insights, that may be important. But whole consideration of planning business in such manner doesn't look serious for me (that's solely my opinion, which is subject to change). I think nothing can stop gifted people from creating great things, but for many others even great things won't help.

    Thanks for the reply. I understand where you're coming from, but the hosting business isn't exactly a closely guarded secret.
    I'm sure most in this thread has it down to a "T" and they're profiting from it or at least getting joy out of running such businesses.

    Where I'm from, such knowledge isn't common-place, so who better to turn to than the people who've done it or are familiar with it, instead of trying to run through everything on my own from a-z. I have a general business and technical plan and I can have this up & running in a week, but there are always better ways to go about doing things and I feel I need to step out and ask. If we don't asked questions, new information don't easily enter the mind.

    Anyway, thanks for the heads up. I'll keep this in mind in my local dealings.

    Regards,
    Helmuth

  • CConnerCConner Member, Host Rep

    If you're still looking for a game server control panel, have a look at https://gamedash.io

  • randomqrandomq Member
    edited February 2021

    @hkisting said:

    @randomq said:
    Starting a hosting business is easy and is basically like printing money. All of these naysayers are just scared you will learn the secret and take all their business.

    If you are on gigabit fiber at home, build yourself a ryzen pc and start your business with it.

    Thank you for the encouragement! That's gold! :)
    The way I see it is- if I do the legwork- proper research into my market, choose my resources and product carefully as well as my customer service processes (I think this is crucial), I'm sure I can setup a decent business and get a foot in the door of the SaaS universe.

    Planning should be 90% of success guaranteed- that's the way it looks like to me at least. :)
    If I may- are you in the online hosting business currently? If so, how did you get started? What challenges did you have to face?

    Looking forward to your reply.

    Regards,
    Helmuth

    Of course I am somewhat joking. Starting something is easy, but sustaining it and making it profitable are a bit more difficult. I have not run commercial hosting, but have run several gameservers over home connections and on VPS. My best suggestion is to start small with a MVP (minimum viable product) which may simply be a pc or two on a fast home Internet connection. Experiment with setups and control panels and billing there, and don't take on added costs until you get some traction.

    You going to host Java and Bedrock?

    ETA: challenges faced:

    Dealing with hackers, rolling out updates that could affect the map and users' inventories, installing/modifying conflicting mods, wrapping the Java version in a script to monitor for crashes and do periodic restarts, backups, and housekeeping.

    Bedrock seems like it will run on almost anything, but Java certainly benefits from fast dedicated CPU.

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