Should I be a reseller?

[hostingguy12]

If you are looking to do reseller hosting I would try Hostgator. They seem to work well for everyone I have spoken too.

I would first research some reveiws.

 

[asifarasool]

I am also with hostgator, it is the best in many respects like free billing software, world class customer support and honesty.

 

[Thebigdream]

MOD NOTE: 3.4 Participants may not post or otherwise transmit promotional materials, or any other form of solicitation, except in those forum sections where advertising is expressly permitted.

Please re-read the rules you have agreed to when you signed up:
http://www.hostingdiscussion.com/rules.php

 

[SEOHOSTING]

I'm a web designer. I'm considering becoming a hosting reseller. But I have to act fact, which means I have to think fast.

Can anyone give me some suggestions on a hosting reseller service? I'm considering GoDaddy because they seem affordable. However, I read that they are more of an affiliate program rather than a reseller. I am not sure I understand what that means!

I've read some good things about HostGater. I don't think I can afford them right now.

I might be designing 3 websites for a client soon. I want to try to get them to agree to me hosting them. I don't have experience hosting websites so I will need technical support.

Any suggestions on how much I should charge for hosting websites?

Thanks

What you want is to be a reseller and make money off your clients that will actually allow you to have your hosting acct. paid for out of their pocket instead of your pocket. Affiliate is a one off and you do not get much more then the one spiff---- Hope this clears it up and you make the right decision....

 

[mr.log]

Try with decent webhosting site. I'm personally suggest you NO HG. Remember it..

 

[hostale]

Yes, you should try to become a reseller. Time and getting involved with the web hosting business you will get better and make some profit. Take your time to shop around for a good web hosting company. Good luck!

 

[HostEase]

If I were you ,I will have a try after I am familiar with the management of web hosting as well as a technical knowledge of building web site. Besides,you will get a considerable profit from reselling

 

[CentralHosts]

It is hard for someone else to tell you what you should do but if you have the extra time and good with people then yes you should. Reselling is all about knowing alot of people and being able to communicate with potential customers. You have to be able to make people think you will give better customer service then the actual company you are reselling for.

 

[aditd]

It depends ... how much do you want to make?
Do you want to make money selling hosting or making design?
You can charge more fore the design and give free hosting.

But for the hosting: go with similar price as the market, then cut 1, 2$ from the cost / month.

 

[Exmasters-Mark]

Performing of market analysis and making the good choice of provider are the key issues you need to explore.

I wouldn't recommend getting service from anyone based on the price alone, as price means nothing in fact.

Reading reviews and performing comparison is important to become not just a reseller de-jure, but to provide quality service offering reasonable and stable solutions to your customers.

 

[HVHost]

I would say a reseller acc would be good for you. I would do some research of how much hosts in your area are charging. This may give you a good insight on what to charge.

 

[Frank Hagan]

I'm a web designer. I'm considering becoming a hosting reseller. But I have to act fact, which means I have to think fast.

Can anyone give me some suggestions on a hosting reseller service? I'm considering GoDaddy because they seem affordable. However, I read that they are more of an affiliate program rather than a reseller. I am not sure I understand what that means!

I've read some good things about HostGater. I don't think I can afford them right now.

I might be designing 3 websites for a client soon. I want to try to get them to agree to me hosting them. I don't have experience hosting websites so I will need technical support.

Any suggestions on how much I should charge for hosting websites?

One of the things you have going for you is that your web design service gives you the clients you need for a reseller business. Because you have a relationship with them already, price isn't going to be the main issue for them in choosing to host with you. If you host them for $10 a month, they will be more than happy.

I used to be at Dathorn.com for my reseller account, until a few of my sites grew to the point that they were not appropriate for a shared environment (busy forums). They don't oversell the space too much, and downtime is almost unheard of. In addition, they answer MOST support tickets in about 6 minutes (the longest they ever took answering with a solution, and not with an automated reply, was 12 minutes in the 7 years I was with them). Their forums are open to the public, every board, so you can see what the customers think of them. They are the type of host I would recommend for you, although they don't do any "hand holding" for newbies (the people in the forums are helpful). But they are the type of solid, no-problems-ever kind of host you should choose.

Anyway, you know how much disk space your sites take. I suspect that if you are designing HTML pages, your customer's sites take far less than 100MB of disk space. Few of my accounts take over 300M of disk space, even with Wordpress, forum software, etc. Dathorn is "expensive" by reseller standards; their $13.50 a month account gives you only 4GB of disk space.

Doing the math, you can get about 40 100MB sites on there. Your customer's 3 sites at $10 a month already makes it profitable.

People over-buy web space and bandwidth for their static HTML sites. The truth is, even database driven sites like Wordpress rarely start out at more than 80MB in size. Why is everyone offering 1GB of space for shared hosting? Because people are used to installing a program in Windows and having it take 600MB of disk space. And people don't use that space anyway.

The other option is to team up with some poor web host like me who can't design himself out of paper bag and do a revenue share or affiliate type of arrangement. I think you'll make more doing it yourself, but there is a bit of work involved.

 

[xester]

that depends on the company bewind one person.

good company's make good reseller's too

 

[ServerSea]

My suggestion will be to take good time before finalizing your deal with any company and consider only hosts offering money back guarantee, so you can check their services calmly.

 

[GarrettJewell]

Thinking fast is not a good decision to get into in the field... Think through all of your options. Godaddy is more of an affiliate program, you never even see your clients details unless they explicitly agree to it. Its basically godaddy re branded... Hostgator has slow servers, I had continual problems with them a year or so ago. Though they are very helpful and have great staff. They are helpful in getting you started, and also offer a free billing system (added perk saves you money!) I'd suggest looking across the spectrum, and don't limit yourself to just the big hosts, check smaller ones, you may be able to get a great deal on it!

 

[DJInBoise]

I went with HostGator and ResellerZoom even though I might be paying a little more. I do web design sometimes and I wanted to be able to host those clients and the benefits of residual income. It really depends on the type of websites you develop. I have some sites that use ASP/MSSQL so use RZ for my Windows hosting. I prefer cPanel/Linux hosting for WordPress hosting even though you can host WP on a windows server, it tends runs better on Linux. I don't think Hostgator reseller pricing is bad at all. You can start with a basic package and upgrade as business dictates. HG also gives you WHMCS which is the best billing software out there IMO. I used Client Exec which isn't bad but WHMCS has affiliate marketing capabilities built right in.

 

[rlshosting]

A Reseller Account is a good start. Buy one with cPanel/WHM.

 

[Ez-Andrew]

If you do not have extra money try just being an affiliate if you have $20-$100 p/mo extra then go for a reseller.

 

[ServerSea]

Starting a hosting business with a reseller account is the best option. It is cheaper than VPS and dedicated server, so would help you to earn more.

However, you must be very careful in selecting a provider to host your reseller account. Signing up with a provider offering money back guarantee is the best option.
It will give you complete freedom to test your provider's quality and reliability.

 

[HostGuts]

As you are already on a safer side with the idea of running hosting for side income, you are going to depend mostly on your web designing clients. They are coming to you not because you provide hosting but because you seems attractive as a designer to them.
So it doesnt matter you chose hostgator or godaddy they both satisfies your requirement as mainly your clients will be needing low to moderate resource intensive sites.
Just make sure the space and bandwidth you get justifies your current +10 clients base. This way you can save some start up costs and gradually upgrade your reseller to VPS or dedicated server.