I want to design and maintain websites for several different clients. I've designed them before, but haven't maintained them. This is great initially, but doesn't provide a long-term cash flow.

I've been trying to get a handle on this reseller business for the last two weeks, and am basically as lost as when I started.

It appears that by renting an account from a company that allows multiple domain names, I could have several clients withing that one account. However, the reseller companies I've looked into so far want a different account for each client.

Which is correct? If I have client A and B, can't I have their sites and mine in the same account, or is it necessary to have three separate accounts?

I realize is question has probably been asked a million times, so if you can direct me to a FAQ or informative web site, I won't be offended in the lack of a personal response to such a generic question.

You can have all three accounts (normally) within your reseller account. You do have to buy the domains though ;)

Your reseller account lets you create X amounts of accounts. So each of your clients would get there own account and login, based within your reseller plan. Its fairly simple really :)

The first way is find a host that offers bulk hosting accounts. By this you would get one account with unlimited domains to host in it. With in that domain you can setup as many sub domains, mailboxes, mysql db, ect. as you like for each domain. Also a good hosting company will give you the ability to create sub FTP accounts to limit your clients and only allow them to upload to their root directly no yours or your other clients. Also front page extensions for each client should be available for each domain. This is a great type of hosting account for web developers who manage most of their account and their client never ftp or even know what ftp is.

The second way is to setup a Private Label Hosting reseller account. This is a little more complex, but gives you the ability to give each of your clients their own control panels and the ability to create your own plans ( even one like the bulk hosting accounts mentioned above), manage your accounts through a back end accounting system, and much more. Depending on how much time you want to put into setting up your reseller account, how much help your hosting company give you on setting up the Private Label Hosting and the amount of money you want to spend will determine which plan is right for you.

I hope this helps you and also take a look at our site you will find both of these types of plans available.

Depending on what you want, you could even get a shared hosting plan that would enable you to host many domains under one account. Check www.infodoma.com, www.alterahosting.com, and many others. If you want a good list of hosting companies, go to www.comparewebhosts.com