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

There are a lot of reseller hosting providers in the world. Some are really good companies which provide best technical support to clients too.
As you are web designer, I think one should must concentrate on his profession and become The King of it. You can earn money by getting an affiliate program rather than a reseller package.

I am not too sure if you should go with GoDaddy for reseller hosting, they are well established for domains mainly and not hosting. Moreover the fact that they use a different control panel (and not cPanel which is popular with most users), it would make it difficult for you to find customers.

The price of your hosting would mainly depend on the space/bandwidth that your customers use.

Hello,

Make sure you first study support quality and read the TOS before you make any decision. Just dont think about price ..make sure you look at all the necessary things as well.

Do not concentrate on price. You will get what you pay for. Get a good reseller package if this is what you want with a reliable provider that has good support which is what you need. I would not suggest you go with an affiliate program because then when you need to change something on someones website it will make it more difficult. I would say that a good reseller package would be better for you. What is your preferred location?

Thank you for the responses. If you aren't crazy with GoDaddy why not? Could you suggest a good company to go with?
And what is the difference between a Reseller and an Affiliate?
Thank you.

Godaddy are mainly a domain registrar. Hosting is not their specialty. Are you looking for a specific Location? What space requirements do you have? Anything else that you know you would need? SQL support etc?

A reseller owns an account and creates sub accounts for customers. A reseller has full access to those accounts and their files. If you get a new reseller account elsewhere then you simply move your accounts over.

An affiliate simply refers clients to a larger company. You have no control of the accounts and if you want to change Host you cannot do this for your customers as they will be directly hosted with the affiliated company.

Hope you understand

Quick tip keep domain registration and Hosting with 2 different companies unless it is a proper domain reseller account.

If you finding that some reseller programs being not affordable at this point, I would suggest being an affiliate first.

By being an affiliate, all you would be in charge of is selling the service of the web hosting company of your choice. If they sign up for the server and you're the referrer, you would then receive a commission for your effort.

There's usually no investment involved and you can earn quite a bit of money as an affiliate. Once you have more capital available, you can consider moving into your own reseller account.

I wouldn't suggest going into reselling unless you are 100% sure you have time.

There are already established resellers out there like ************** and hostgator.

And in many instances, they will probably have the edge over you with their better customer service. Reliability on their end especially **************'s is probably going to out match you as well.

You know, your best bet might be partnering with a local web hosting company. You bring them clients and you make the web site. They bring you clients and they do the hosting.

You may find doing this, or going the affiliate route might be a better way to get your feet wet before entering into the hosting biz.

I would recommend that you get a reseller package and then offer your design customers hosting for a small monthly fee - it is a great way to get more money out of your current clients and to build a long term relationship

yes! i think you could even have like hosting for designers' portfolio sites! the same idea was bought up by a friend who just graduated college. he is moving to the same host;

************** but he is getting a reseller package instead of a VPS one like me.

I'd stay away from GD and HG and consider some of the resellers here who will probably treat you better and do everything they can to keep your business. To the big guys you're just a number.

While it's true that some smaller providers personalize their customer support, many of them don't either - and depending on your requirements, you could be worse off rather with them than going with the above two. Doing research is the key ... filtering out fake or questionable reviews .. communicating with prospective sales and support staffs.

HostGator reseller program is good.You get free WHMCS which is around 15 bucks per month itself.Go with HG in my opinion