I've been tempted to become a reseller for a wee while now, even more so of lot due to the decline in the IT industry where I live. However, two things haunt me:

1) Is there a stigma attached to being a reseller? What if I start a resller business, and a customer asks me on my forums if I'm a reseller? I have this great worry that as soon as I say yes, people will run away from my business as fast as they can. Or is that just my naive view on things?

2) As a reseller, what can one do to overcome any existing negativity? If I'm reselling for Host A, why would a potential customer choose me over hosting directly with Host A? Provided, of course, that they know I'm a reseller.

Any thoughs welcome.

1) everyone is a reseller. Your local car shop is a reseller for Ford, you are a reseller for host X, host X is a "reseller" for the NOC/colocation which resell bandwidth from bw providers.

2) Personal service, something a big host will never be able to provide.

Usually if the Web Host has both reseller and regular hosting plans, the regular hosting plans would be more expensive than those that you would provide, thus customers would rather signup with the reseller.

That is one reason why we switched from both reseller and regular domain hosting to exclusively reseller hosting. Resellers were complaining that the had to compete with our prices as well as other companies ;).

I see that your signature says "Quality reseller", so being a reseller is not necessarily a negative thing? Hmmmmmmmmmm

of, course it's not, If someone won't sign up with you just because you're a re-seller, you probably won't want them anyways...

In my opinion re-sellers are better than larger hosts, because they have far fewer customers, which means they can provide much better support. :)

lol, my sig doesn't imply that I'm a reseller. We provide hosting FOR resellers ;).

*Wonders if he should change the sig*

In most cases, everyone is under someone else. The higher up on the ladder you want to be at, the more it's going to cost you. If you can provide good service and support, it won't matter if you're a reseller or not.

There is nothing wrong in being a reseller. Dont be afraid but I understand that its hard to tell a customer that you are a reseller. If they decide to go to another host, its becuase of their poor knowledge on the issue because the new host will be a reseller too. Sometimes its better to be with a smaller company than a bigger, typically you will have a faster support and better prices from the small ones. But choosing the cheapest one is more risky because they dont earn as much as others and can quickly get tired of the business --- just my thoughts... :)