Hi everybody... WARNING.. Newbie in Action

This is what I do... I settup new business (were talking small, small, office/home office) with business services that they will probably use for the first six months.. maybey a year.. These people want an internet presense, but don't have the bucks to support it... I help them find a solution...

This is what I want: (1) I want to set something up were one of two things can happen... a.) I can set them up with FREE web hosting (must be GOOD) & then get paid when they buy the "better" service. (How much are we looking at here $ wise?)
b.) I want to be able to offer the person who can afford it, really inexspensive add free,e-mail catch-all,etc. hosting. I want to be able to "buy" it at wholesale, & then sell it at my "retail" price... I don't know all the ins & outs of resseling hosting, & would rather only have to basically take the orders.. I want it pretty automated in other words (I will bill if I have to..) I know that most of you guys probably do the whole kit & kaboodle when you ressell hosting.. but I don't have the time for that.. basically I offer my services for free.. so the only place I make money is resseling the product I refer them too....

Thanks Ahead of Time guys!!!

PS: What about Linksteam.com??

If you would prefer to just make the sale rather than also deal with providing ongoing tech support (which is what I gather from your post), just search this forum for any number to hosts who will allow you to resell their packages, and you get paid for every new signup.

Another option is to buy disc space and bandwidth in bulk and chop it up in your packages to sell. But then your customers will be coming to you for support. I assume this is not what you want, so go with the first option.

Good luck.

I also agree.. Sounds like you want a referral or commission program.. Search for lots of posts on the recommended ones..

laterz..

Thanks! What have you guys heard about Linkstream.....

From what I understand... I can pay $35 a month/ & put all my customers websites on there for free? Then lests say after six months I say they pay $5 a month.. They can pay me $5 a month.. & linkstream will take care of the support?

So if I understand this correctly if I was to host 20 customers a month... & charge them each $5.. then I would be making $100, & paying out $35?

Do I have the picture straight here?
Thanks

I tried going to www.linkstream.com . It doesn't appear to be a be hosting site. Could you provide a proper link to the site?

newbizhelp,
I assume that you are talking about linkstream.net......
If so, the program you are talking about is their reseller
program.

You have to pay linkstream $35/month, and then you
can host as many people as you want(obviously within reason)

If you have 20 customers at $5/month, then yes you will
get $100 and will have to pay$35....

but, you will have to provide support to your 20clients, linkstream
will not do that

Thanks 21inch guns.
Yes, he's right. Youll have to be providing support to your own customers. In this type of arrangement, Linkstream will not be offering support.

Doing the math, 20 accounts would have 20 mb of disc space and 750 mb of bandwidth (on average). I guess you'd better hope that your customers are all very small sites. It won't take much to go over your quota if you load up 20 customers in that program.

By the way, that's not such a great deal. You can get 1 gb of disc space and 12 gb of bandwidth for the same price at www.McHost.com. That's where I've been for the last month, and I am quickly becoming a big fan.

Originally posted by vito
By the way, that's not such a great deal. You can get 1 gb of disc space and 12 gb of bandwidth for the same price at www.McHost.com.

How is that not a great deal? The plans are identical.

Alchiba:
What do you mean "Look again"? At what? The price I gave is accurate...

Well,... I will probably be having "realistically not what we hope=)
around 6 five page websites with a flash intro... That will be 6 EACH MONTH... So if 20 websites just about cover the available space will I have to pay $35 a month for each "lets just say 20" accounts that I have hosted? IN OTHER WORDS: The first month I will pay $35 the second month I will pay $70, because by the second month I have a total of "40' accounts?........
Also, I was under the understanding that they did handle the support... I guess I better double check=)

With any reseller program, YOU will have to provide the technical support. That's the reason why you get a discount in the first place.

If you don't want to deal with support yourself, I suggest either working through an affiliate program, or outsourcing support to a third party company such as bobcares.

One last thing: why would your clients only be able to pay $5 a month for this after getting it free for the first 6-12 months? If they are businesses, I would think they'd be able to afford at least $10 a month. And if they can't afford that, they shouldn't by trying to run a business. :rolleyes:

Of course I can't recommend these hosts, but OLM and ***** both have reseller plans where they provide the technical support (or lack thereof).

At least last time I checked.

Heres the thing.. When I say small business.. this is what I am refering too..

Full time receptonist likes to make candy gift baskets..
So.. She decides to go and get a DBA for $10.00 & start a part time business, selling her baskets to family & friends.. & then going from there. She understands that by having a website she will be able to get her business out there, as she can't afford to quit her job.. So for the first 6 months to a year, she wants to be able to use free hosting that will give her what she needs, but she won't have to pay anything, as the whole kit & kaboodle of the business may never really take off..etc.

I provide free consulting for these people.. We are trying to find a really good small business hosting that we can get them setup with..
OR...
A way where we can give them the hosting free ourselves (as a resseler etc.) & then later on when they can afford it, charge them.. (The $5 was just an example). We are not tech people, & that is why we were wondering if say a server goes down, etc. who would they contact? (We know that if they have questions such as I can't login to my account, etc. that we would take care of that). If we go with the later (we set them up ourselves, so if they upgrade we make money) What are your suggestions?

It needs to be cheap! As we will giving this almost like a community service.. We will have about 6 new sites a month..
Please Help!!
Thank You!