I have two questions. First, if you don't mind me asking...how much do some of you resellers make? Is this something that could easily turn into a full time business? I'm working on making my own site now...but what about traffic? How the heck am I going to get people to look at my plans?! :)

Two words that have been handed down to me:

"Google Adwords"

Originally posted by shoney
Two words that have been handed down to me:

"Google Adwords"

:gthumb:

bullony13 by being a reseller your profit margin is a little bit limited compared with starting out with your own server.

Work out how many accounts you can realistically sell from your reseller space, then work out a price. You should be able to see the profit margin you are working against before you even signup for the reseller plan.

I'm just asking aproximately how much people make reselling...:rolleyes:

bullony13 - It may appear that nobody is going to divuldge that information to you.

Matt, suggested to you, the most logical method to see what kind of money you can make.

Just to tweak his suggestion with my own twist, after you find a reliable provider you will use, figure all other expense involved, and add to that total (server cost + related expense) what you personal have set for your profit margin. Once you've done that, you could then begin to crunch the numbers to fit in the maximum number of plans and the cost of them, for your alloted space/bandwidth.

As for your question -- "easily turn into a full time business," It isn't as easy as it would seem on the outside looking in. Those that are looking outside from within, may be able to tell you in hinesight that "it wasn't all that hard." Though I think that comment would be a stretch of the truth, and not include all the work, effort, and thought processes that goes into getting truly prepared.

HTH's

I know how to find out how much profit I can make, but there is absolutely no way for me to tell how busy it's going to be. I know there are literally thousands of resellers out there, and the majority of them are just some guy doing it from their house in their spare time. That's exactly what I want to do. I'm just wondering...do those kinds of businesses comonly make alot of money? Is it worth all the time and trouble it would be to get it going and then keep it going?

Nobody can tell *you* if its worth *your* time or not. Only you can decide that. Any business venture you *decide* to start up take the same basic risk.

I can't say how much money a typical reseller can make, it's to broad of a question, plus my site isn't live either. Soon it will be.

If your only in it for the money... I would suggest you find something else to do with your spare time (It's not a get rich quick scheme). If you still insist, spend a LOT of time going though old post here.

I have resellers who sell the hosting for $100+ per year, put 200 accounts on one reseller account that costs them $300/year

thats a $19,700/year profit

I always tell my resellers to not expect people to throw money at them. It will take time, and work.

As someone mentioned earlier, we cannot tell you if it is worth it or not. Try it for 2-3 months and evaluate the situation. See how much you are putting in, and if you are getting enough back.

Most resellers pick up after a few months, as the word gets out and so on.

I can tell you this much you will get out of your business exactly what you put into it! Your results, success and/or failures willbe a direct relflection on how much work you put into your business.

Originally posted by bullony13
I know how to find out how much profit I can make, but there is absolutely no way for me to tell how busy it's going to be. I know there are literally thousands of resellers out there, and the majority of them are just some guy doing it from their house in their spare time. That's exactly what I want to do. I'm just wondering...do those kinds of businesses comonly make alot of money? Is it worth all the time and trouble it would be to get it going and then keep it going?

WOW I sure hope those are a bunch of tiny sites with little or no traffic.


Originally posted by SplashHost.com
I have resellers who sell the hosting for $100+ per year, put 200 accounts on one reseller account that costs them $300/year

thats a $19,700/year profit

If its local business its definately possible to get lots of customers that use very little resouces and you can make a huge profit.

I am going to start reselling next month. The reason I am not starting with a dedicated host is the cost; I figure I'll get my own box when I am getting customers in quantity.

I am a little shaken by something I just read here, though: there isn't enough margin to make money just by reselling? This isn't a show-stopper for me, since I will be moving to a dedicated host in a few months, anyhow. Besides, I have enough of my own sites to make it worthwhile.

Still, though, it is troubling to read that the margins are so thin in reselling ...

If you look at my example you will see thats not allwaus the case.

Originally posted by UH-Matt
bullony13 by being a reseller your profit margin is a little bit limited compared with starting out with your own server.

Work out how many accounts you can realistically sell from your reseller space, then work out a price. You should be able to see the profit margin you are working against before you even signup for the reseller plan.

I have to disagree with this. Running your own server can be tedious, time consuming, and an overall pain in the butt. Security patches, software updates, user hacks, etc etc etc. They're not fun to deal with.

Time is money.. and many people end up hiring other people to do maintenance. I have an old colo customer that does shared hosting, and they end up paying us more every month than if they used our reseller program. They pay us to do their maintenance not because they lack the necessary knowledge/skills, but because they know they would rather spend their time selling and marketing.

Most reseller plans give you almost complete control over your customer's accounts. Real time account changes, etc.. through automation. My client is aware that they would cut some of their costs by half by reselling, but in their case they're not in it for the hosting margins.

My point is that it is really a case-by-case thing. Each potential-reseller should look into all options and determine what is best for them. Most people will gravitate to reselling simply to avoid the responsibility of server maintenance, despite any profit differences. What good is a hosting company that goes down?

I think its a matter of opinion, some spend less then $100 dollars to get started and turn into making thousands a month..

Some start out with $1000's of dollars and end up going bankrupt.

I think the best way to look at it is to look at what you can afford and develop a plan from that, its not the upfront money as much as it is the business plan in my opinion. At least thats what ive foudn to be true...

Also it depends on your time frame for starting.

I recommend to people starting out to do everything as cheaply as possible. Invest as little as possible in infrastructure. Make sure you have a stable system, but if you dont have to own your own system.. don't. Resell for a while.

Cash is best spent marketing. As you build up your customer base, you can think about investing more into your infrastructure. Don't bite off more than you can chew though.

I agree with userfriendly, definately dont go out here and do either of the below:

1.)Take out large sums of money to start(unless you are highly expreienced and have the resources,equity)

2.)Neglect your now present full-time job until you are well on your way of becoming established as a provider.

3.)Dont waste money, shop around, like userfriendly said cheap as possible, not only to be safe, but because its just smart.

But most importantly, #2!!!!, Ive seen some people do this and its a bad thing.

Ok...if I was to do rather well, is this something that alot of resellers do full time?

It can become something that takes all of your time - but be realistic about how much money you will make, and how fast you will make it. Your first year, you'll want a part-time job - preferably one with flexible hours - to supplement your income (or you should have enough money in the bank to pay all your bills for about a year, plus your business costs.)

But if you do well, then yes, it is something that can turn into a full-time job. You may eventually decide to move to managing your own dedicated (managed or unmanaged) servers after a year or so.

I would recommend that you start out selling the hosting services of another company. This will not cost anything up front for you.

In 1995 I started out this way and just from the 25% residual commissions, I was making $2500.00 per month after 2 years. It takes time to grow a business. Persistance is what pays off.

Once you have built up enough income to cover the cost of your own server and software, then go off on your own and build that business.

Phil Stanley
http://www.hosting-america.net
America's Hosting Directory

I started out reselling in 1995 with $20.. part time. By 1998 I was co-locating and spending close to 20k/month.. and still only doing it part time. I had completely bootstrapped the entire business. I slowly turned $20 into $30, and it kept growing.

It's the easiest way to avoid debt.

One tip I wish I had been given early on.. keep an extra savings account. Maintain a balance equivelant to 2 months of expenses. This way, if disaster strikes, you should have the money to survive.

Oh.. and like the saying goes.. don't put all your eggs in one basket. Consider using more than one reseller ISP. This way if one ISP has problems, you don't get flack from every user.

Originally posted by userfriendly

One tip I wish I had been given early on.. keep an extra savings account. Maintain a balance equivelant to 2 months of expenses. This way, if disaster strikes, you should have the money to survive.

That is an excellent tip. I almost lost my business because of the HostCharge fiasco. Luckily, I had about 4-5 months of expenses stored up.

Planning ahead and having the ability to quickly change payment providers, hosts, even billing systems is also a good thing. Not always possible in all situations; but when it is possible, do it.

You could always do what MChost is doing.

Oversell your servers, have little (if any) staff, and spend very little time looking after you customer's needs.

This will keep your costs low while you clean up in hosting charges every month so you can smoke more crack like Marc does:D

Start with lowest plan from good price with quality company. And that's true the fact that don't ever stick on one company to buy more plan.

to be a reseller,choose a good company is very important
downtime and visit speed is most factor the clients need.
now most host use cpanel and ensim
if the downtime and visit speed is good
the clients will need very little tech support .