Have You ever decided to Build a SAAS for yourself?
But still can't go further Beyond and wondering what to do and most importantly how to do.
Worry no more my friend, today in this article I Will be showing you each and every single step that you need to do in order to Build Your Own SAAS that too without having any technical knowhow or coding stuffs.
What the Catch you may ask? Well, there are not any. Infact this method which you follow would the easiest way to Build Your SAAS in mear few hours.
Yes literally within few hours if have all the necessary arrangements ready, your SAAS can be up and running in no time.
Well.. the first Question that I wanna answer you.
Will it cost you money?
I Will say Yes and let me show you what will actually cost you.
1. Domain.
Offcourse you want some good name for your SAAS and having a domain is mandatory and beside you cant have xyx.abc.com for your SAAS.
Or are You?
If you have a domain then you ate good to go, if not then you can buy or from Godaddy or NameCheap or any other domain provider. Just make sure to buy a unique name that would suite your SAAS.
2. Hosting.
Well.. having a SAAS means handling a lot of data, you just can't host it in shared hosting or any random provider. Getting a good hosting will help your business a lot on terms of data handling, Speed and Securities issues.
3. Your SAAS Scripts.
Well here comes the most interesting part. You gonna just love it.
I assure you, you won't need to code any SAAS, instead, we are gonna be buying pre-written scripts and their licenses and be hosting them on your website.
How cool is that?
All the techical problems solved at once. Assuming you to be in the digital space for a tine being, i hope managing Your website would not pose any difficulty for you. Well even if you don't know much about handling websites, don't worry, I Got you covered.
Because My Friend this is a complete tutorial on how to Build Your Own SAAS Business and I will guide you through exactly each and every step so that you wont have any confusion to build your own SAAS from scratch.
Just follow along and you will find yourself to be running a fully functional SAAS ready to start monetizing. Other than this, there isn't anything else that gonna be investing your funds.
So, how to Build Your Own SAAS Business with no coding?
Okay ... But before we go down any deeper let me tell you this...
Just for assurance...
You should atleast understand how cmd works, how to zip and unzip files, and how to upload files. That's all the technical knowledge I am expecting you to have right now. Can I expect that from You? Good... Let's Begin.
First.. Buying a Domain.
If you don't have one and if you have one and its name is relevant enough for your SAAS Software then just skip to the hosting part. Now, here I am using Godaddy but you can choose any domain provider.
Just simply go to their official website and create one account with your email. Now go to the domain section and type out your preferred domain name. You will get a list of domains. They may give you many variations of your given name.
But choose the most relevant one and try to get a .com domain for the best results.
You may be offered some email or security packages as you choose your .com domain. Just ignore those packages and proceed to checkout. Choose for the period of time, ie. 1 year or 2 years. Best to choose the 2-year plan but for now I will recommend you to go for 1-year validity.
Fill in your details and complete the payments and Wollllaaa.. you have a Brand new Domain exclusively for your SAAS.
The Hosting
You may be tempted to buy shared hosting which are actually cheaper in price, but it's best to buy a dedicated VPS server. Since you would be hosting a full SAAS Software, you will get full dedicated services, and it's much better in terms of performance.
Since, hosting a blog and hosting a SAAS are two different things and have different requirements.
You may choose any provider but here I am showing you how to avail a full VPS server that too completely free for the first month.
So, how to have a fully dedicated VPS Server?
Simply sign in to Vultr and go to the dashboard. There you will see an option to Deploy Server. Just click it then choose Cloud Compute.
You would be asked to choose a region for your VPS Server, select any region of your choice.
Then under the Application Section, select Lamp. Under it, you will be prompted for two options.
1. Ubunto
2. Windows OS
Select the Ubuntu for Ease of use and dynamic functionality.
Then you need to select the server size. You are allowed to choose any size of your choice, but since you are new to the system just stick to $10/Month plan and if you ever needed more size you can upgrade it whenever required.
Under the Server Host Name type in your domain name or the brand name that you have decided for your SAAS. And Hit the Deploy button.
Wolllaa...!!! You now have a fully dedicated VPS Server online powerful enough to handle your SAAS requirements.
Getting the SAAS scripts.
I know now you may feel a little uncomfortable as you are not good with Coding stuffs, that's why we will just get our pre-written SAAS scripts from a platform called CodeCanion.
So you will now go to CodeCanion. And then you will search for PHP Scripts. You will see a lot of scripts will appear as you search for SAAS. They all come in different prices and varieties.
You can get simple scripts ranging from $30-$40 to $200 according to your needs and desires.
So choose the type of Saas Php scripts that suit your needs and buy them. After buying them download the file and zip them up somewhere in your computer.
DNS Mapping of your Domain with your VPS Server.
Okay, now then you have your primary needs fulfilled, ie. Domain, SAAS Scripts, and a VPS Server to host it. Before you upload your scripts to your Server, you need to set a connection between your Domain and VPS Server.
And this connection is set up by DNS Mapping. Once DNS Mapping is done people can find you as they type in your domain address in their browser.
So follow along these steps to connect your domain with your server.
1. Copy your server's IP Address.
2. Go to your domain provider and go to your DNS settings section.
3. Their add records.( This process is very similar to those wherein you claim your domain in other websites)
4. In the type segment choose record, in the host segment put @ and in the value segment paste the copied IP Address. And save the settings
It will take some time to establish the connection between your server and the domain. But just be patient and it will be done. Normally it happens within an hour but it may take a bit longer in extreme cases.
Just InCase How to check your DNS Mapping?
Press the Windows+Alt button on your keyboard. In the command box type in ping and hit enter. Enter your domain name and hit enter again.
You should get a reply from your server and you should be able to see your IP Address on the screen. If this happens then you should know that the connection has been established.
And Congratulation ...!!! The DNS Mapping is Verified.
Instaling The SAAS Script into Your Server
Okay.. now the Heavy lifting work. Don't be overwhelmed just now. Be slow and steady, it's very simple. You will need these two free tools for this now.
1. Putty.
2. WinScp
Open Putty
Once the dailogue box appears, enter your IP Address and click Open.
Enter root --> then the password of your server and hit enter.
Now we are inside your server, hit clear to clear the screen, and keep putty on standby for now.
Now Open WinScp.
Here also in the dialogue box, type in your IP Address and Password and hit Login.
It will open your server's root directory.
From here go to var/www/html.
In this directory, you need to upload your Zipped PhP file.
Then delete all the files in this under this html.
(Maybe 2 to 3 files would be present, delete them manually).
And now, Just drag and drop your Zipped PhP file here and extract it here.(well you will need putty to extract this file that's why you have kept putty on standby for now)
To Extract the Script File using putty.
1. Go to putty that was kept in standby.
2. Type in apt install unzip.
3. You will see the next line like this.
cd/var/www/html
Add #ls
Then type #unzip product.zip
Now, the extraction has started. If you check out in the WinScp, you can see the Zipped file had being extracted there. Delete the Zipped File and keep the extracted folders as they are. And Hurray...!!! Congratulations. You now have your Own SAAS installed into your VPS Server.
All that is left is to create a database to store data of your SAAS.
And this is how you will do it.
Go to WinScp --> Goto root directory
Under root --> you will see .mycef --> right click and hit edit.
In the editing dialogue box, you will be able to see the SQL Password.
Copy that in somewhere in notepad.
--> Now go to Putty again and type in
#mysql -u root -p
and Hit enter.
--> write this command in the next line:
create database db;
After You hit enter You will see mysql>
And wollaaa!!! Your SAAS Database is Created and ready to be used. Now you are completely ready to Go all Out with your Own SAAS Business.
Now that you have your own Domain, Hosting Server and SAAS software, the main work will begin. Understand this that creating a product is a mere 30% work. The other 70% is all about Marketing. And you need to master that 70% too in order to achieve success with your venture.
Let Me Remind You all the Tools you Needed for your SAAS.
1. Get Domain from GoDaddy or Anything Provider.
2. Get VPS Server for Hosting from Vultr.
3. Download Scripts for Your SAAS from CodeCanion.
4. Download Putty
5. Download WinScp
[ Note: Though This Article shows you steps to create your own Saas, the steps to create a website of your own choice you would need similar steps, use this article as your guide and you would be go to go creating your site. ]