Hey folks-

I'm just wondering if there is anyone out there who has recently started reselling who wouldn't mind telling me how their doing. I'm looking to start reselling as a lead-in to other services. What I'd really like to know is how many new customers are you getting versus how much you are spending on advertising.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Aaron

I would recommend you writing some kind of plan you are going to do, before getting in the business. The business plan will be ideal solution. Try to read the threads and find out more about customers' requirements, so you can directly have an idea whom you should direct all your marketing budget to. Also I suggest finding problems people had with other Reseller companies and try to find suitable solution.

I'm making millions from hosting.... NOT!!! If you become a reseller it dosent mean your going to be rich. I suggest you do a little more research.

Originally posted by digitalplatforms
Hey folks-

I'm just wondering if there is anyone out there who has recently started reselling who wouldn't mind telling me how their doing. I'm looking to start reselling as a lead-in to other services. What I'd really like to know is how many new customers are you getting versus how much you are spending on advertising.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Aaron

Hi, try search at http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=6

There were so many threads and answers regarding your questions. ;)

There is good opportunity to make good money being a reseller.  You just have to find the business.  Think about the pricing for a Reseller Plan these days.  I know of several places where you can get a few GB disk space for about $50 per month.  If you can find your self 5 customers paying $10 per month you are breaking even.  If you can manage to find yourself 50 customers, you are making $450 per month.  That isnt going to make you rich but it will make your car payment.  You have to be patient.  If you are, then think of how many customers you will have in 2 years. I would suggest you do some grassroots marketing locally.  There are plenty of businesses out there without a site.  Charge them $50 and give them a template from templatemonster.  Or if you are a developer then charge them more and build them a site.  Either way, you have added to your recurring revenue.  Over the course of time it really can add up.  If you dont spend some money on advertising or pound the phones though, forget about it.  You have to find the customers.  Cold Calling locally doesnt cost you anything.

Originally posted by HiVelocity
There are plenty of businesses out there without a site.  Charge them $50 and give them a template from templatemonster. 

Most of the templates are around (if not more than) $50... I'd charge them a little more than 50 bucks. My opinion is to setup a start up (website) package at 100$ and do a little customizing to that template!

just stick around wht and read what other people have to say.. gather some info.. make a good plan.. find a cheap.. reseller.. and then get going.. dont do every thing at 1's i am thinking of doing reseller.. i got whm AP and i dont think my site will be running till next month.. or even later..

You get what you pay for. Do not expect to retain any type of cliental if you go for a $10/mn unlimited everything accounts you see on these forums. As someone that has been reseller and supported resellers, I feel that a deal that looks to be 3 or 4 times more expensive is for a reason in today’s market. Normally it is those little things like backups, servers that were not bought at Sam's wholesale, quality bandwidth and support that actually knows what they are talking about.

With advertising start locally by always having some business cards with you and leave them everywhere. Go to a doctor’s office hand them to the doctor and nurses. Eating out? Hand one to the manager. Heck hand them to people in the street if need be. Going outside the local scene you can get some leads from Google adwords for very little. It can also be good to try and find a niche market when you are starting out.

Hey guys-

Thanks for all of the replies. I have done the math and do understand that you have to have some hell of a customer base to be able to make anything near a decent profit. But since I'm only using this as a lead-in to other much more protfitable services, I don't intend to make my money on hosting itself.

My real question, I guess, is to any existing host (reseller or not) who has marketed through targeted PPC ad campaignes (e.g., Google AdWords): On average, what percentage of your click-throughs are converted? I'm not expecting a clear cut answer, just some personal experiences.

Thanks again for all your help - I've been reading through the forums the past couple of weeks and have learned a lot. You guys are the best.

-Aaron

Originally posted by digitalplatforms
Hey guys-

... But since I'm only using this as a lead-in to other much more protfitable services, I don't intend to make my money on hosting itself.



Mind if I ask what your "more profitable services" will be ??? You can probably get some advice/feedback in regards to that also!

=)

We're doing web design and development

Originally posted by digitalplatforms
=)

We're doing web design and development

We're into web design too. but I have to admit that setting up a good web hosting customer base will provide a steady flow of income.

We started in web dev, and are now branching into web hosting... as we saw most of our clients needed web hosting with the design we provided them.

We're in the process of redesigning our website and branding to reflect the add web hosting opinions!

Good Luck! ;)

Our biggest problem is coming up with a cool business card that reflects our line of business. I refuse to do the classsic looking business card.

Originally posted by digitalplatforms
Hey guys-

My real question, I guess, is to any existing host (reseller or not) who has marketed through targeted PPC ad campaigns (e.g., Google AdWords): On average, what percentage of your click-throughs are converted? I'm not expecting a clear cut answer, just some personal experiences.


-Aaron

Aaron,

If you target your site and your Ads you can achieve a conversion rate of 5-7%,
In addition the more products you can offer the one customer
i.e. domain names,
the better your chance of making the single click more profitable.

I just got a reseller account and started sponsoring a few websites in exchange for Adsense advertising. It's been pretty good so far, I earned enough to pay for my reseller next month. :D

Hi Aaron we recently introduced reseller hosting and we have had a good take-up on it.

Reseller hosting does not always = Profit and money money money. It takes a careful business strategy and very competitive pricing to make it, although that’s true in any industry to be honest with you.

Best bet is to go and search a few companies and see how they have priced up there packages and what sort of strategy they use i.e. special offers, discounts on yearly payments etc.

With regards to PPC, we have not had the need to use such methods yet, however im mot ruling them out. We find that they can be expensive unless a specialised marketing strategy is thought of. We aim for banners or the use of Host Quote http://www.webhostingtalk.com/request.php or Host Voice http://www.hostvoice.net

Good Luck with your reseller hosting and hope this helped