Thanks very much for your advice David.
I am in a fortunate position really to be able to try things out first before I 'go for it properly' so to speak.
Until recently I have only built a few sites for friends and aquaintences and have decided to learn how to do things properly with a view to carrying on as a business when I retire. I have some time to go really - 6 years - and just want to make enough at the moment to build me skills and equipment and to form a good client base.
I have been buying domain names and host space for the sites from other companies on behalf of the web site hosting owners but have realised that if I am going to do it on a more permanent basis then it would make sense to provide my own hosting and sell domains for the sites I build. If I offer the first year free then the chances are they will renew with me (rather than be bothered changing themselves) and I will then get an annual revenue from the hosting/name renewals as well as building new sites, updating existing ones that don't have CMS etc. i.e the more I build and host etc the more profit.
As such I would not need to compete head on with the volume hosting companies for price as my
website hosting clients (thinking of human nature) will probably be happy to pay slightly more for the convenience of having it all done for them - provided I don't charge too high of course.
Once I have cut my teeth so to speak, and gained some experience, I could then look at attracting the volume marked directly off the net.
Does this plan make good sense or am I thinking the wrong way?
Thanks again for your advice. I am really amazed at the 'community feel' those involved in web design / hosting etc cultivate, right through from learning the xhtml/css/php to the hosting and support structure. It's been a long 12 months for me but it is starting to pay off as I don't seem to get caught in so many 'flipping heck! Why's it doing that!' moments.
Cheers