I've just started to look into reseller programs and am a bit curious about the idea of it. How does a reseller program usually works in general, i'm sure different between web hosts.

Let's say you signed up with a 500megs account and then joined a reseller program. And a client signed up with you, would you get all the money the client pays, would techincal and web host problems or questions go through the reseller?

And would the space the client use be used out of those 500megs? If you decided to get out of business, would your current web host that you're signed up with take over your clients?

Is it really worth being into reseller programs? I would like to know what's good and bad about these programs.


Regards,
Toby

There are really two kinds of reseller programs.
1)You can buy a hosting account for yourself, then purchase individual plans for your clients.
Or
2)You can purchase a larger amount of space and then make and sell plans out of your alloted space.

If you are new to web hosting would suggest the individual plans.

With this method you would then usually pay at a reduced rate (sometimes up to 50% off) to your host, then you would charge your customer what you want, and keep the profit. And yes all support issues would go through yourself. If you needed help you would then contact your main host. Although there are a few companies that offer reseller programs that include support for an extra fee.

I am sure most hosts would be happy to take over any and all customers that you may have if you decide to go out of business.

Reseller is a great way to start to get into the web hosting business if that is what you want to do. This way you can concentrate on you business, before moving to a dedicated server. If you are just looking to make some fast money it is a bad idea. It involves alot of hours and alot of work to make it successful.

I hope this helps, just my 2cents.

Personally I don't like the idea of purchasing large amounts of space and bandwidth because its limiting your reseller account. I suggest you resell premade packages on the safe side.

GTOTYPE, can you explain a little bit more what you mean?

My provider is about to switch to h-sphere, and we'll move from buying plans to buying space/bandwidth. It's fairer to the provider, and gives me a lot more flexibility in how I can set up/sell accounts.

However, I will agree, for an absolute beginner, plans are little easier to manage.

Originally posted by slade
GTOTYPE, can you explain a little bit more what you mean?

My provider is about to switch to h-sphere, and we'll move from buying plans to buying space/bandwidth. It's fairer to the provider, and gives me a lot more flexibility in how I can set up/sell accounts.

However, I will agree, for an absolute beginner, plans are little easier to manage.

Lets say you have 20 GB and 1000 MB to resell.....

You advertise 5 GB of Bandwidth and 500 MB of Space...

and you have 10 clients utilizing to its full potential (it happens as I am pushing my month datatransfer of my current host at approx 90% of the allowable bandwidth).

So what are you going to do? Pay for more Bandwidth and space?

Lets say you can buy 5 GB and 100 MB accounts at very cheap prices and offer it for 25-50% profit, you would be still doing fine... Its either paying average 3$ per GB of bandwidth or underpaying premade plans that might cost less than 3$ per GB of bandwidth.

GTOTYPE: in your case, the problem is in marketing, not the resellers account per se. If you advertize 500 MB space and 5 GB transfer that means you are inviting all the "download" and "bulletin board" sites to come and host with you.

In this case you better be prepared that the folks will use all the space/data transfer per month they can. If, on the other hand, you market your accounts something like 10/25/50/100 MB space and 1/2/3 GB transfer, you'll get A LOT of accounts that will not use more than 100k space and 50MB transfer, whatever the package they buy.

IMHO, if you want big packages, you better get a dedicated server so that you can be your own master... if not, you can resell for a long long time and actually make a lot of profit. It all depends on what kind of customers you attract.

Ales