nt

You mean we're supposed to charge for this?

I knew I was doing something wrong :bawling:

LOL!!!

Welcome to the forum liquidknight :)
I'm sure there'll be plenty of other people who would give good answers. However some may want to keep it a secret...

Hi liquidknight,

Seriously, the important thing is how much YOU believe you can make.

Checkout the various reseller accounts for how much the hosting resources will cost you. Then check out hosting companies and get a feel for how much you can sell the hosting accounts for.

But most importantly, figure out how you're going to market the accounts. Who will be your target market? What services will your target market require and what will you charge them?

How will you contact them: direct mail, telephone cold calling, search engines? What will it cost you to acquire each new hosting account.

This is where most Newbies (including myself) underestimate the costs involved. Advertising and marketing is expensive. So if you have a background into an industry (maybe you were a former florist) then perhaps you might have an inside track that others won't. That means that you could market hosting to florists better than I could.

But spend some time thinking it through. Write a business plan and do several spreadsheets estimating revenue and expenses.

Figure out what your "USA" is going to be (Unique Selling Advantage). In other words, WHY should your prospective customer buy from YOU when every other hosting company is promising speed, reliability, and affordability.

Just my $0.02...

And seriously, best of luck to you

Initially you won't make much money, if any, and you'll be wroking long days and nights.

Many people throw in the towel after about a 6 months of this ...

Hang in there two years ... build a client base ... get cheap help ... it'll be enough to live on ...

Think long-term. How many clients could you get in ten years ?

Probably enough to live comfortably from the profits of their expenditures.

Then think about what you might be doing in ten years if you don't start. You may be practicing the Janitorial Arts somewhere ...

If that is the case, start reselling now.

! JC

In the first 6 mo to a year, unless you have a client base from web design, etc, expect to lose money. When you pay for initial startup costs, advertising, ssl certs, merch accounts, you can find your bank acount quite low. I have seen some formulas on what to charge, but best to figure all of your hard costs, if you can work on 2-3 hrs of sleep a night, etc.

The more active roll you can take, the less expensive your costs, but your time devoted to the business will grow exponetially (sp? I'm tired!)

Cheers
Kat

Originally posted by grafikat
In the first 6 mo to a year, unless you have a client base from web design, etc, expect to lose money.

:agree:

appletreats is now my favorite WHT person. Posts in one icon, a voxtreme person. gotta love it! :)

Smilies are my best friend. Why waste your time typing when a few clicks of the mouse sends the same message?

:agree:

I understand people dont want to say how much they are making. Does any one know a reseller than makes $3000+ per month in the first year of business? you dont have to name or point finger.
I just want to figure out the range of money people are making in this business.

Yes, I have a reseller who surely its making more than $3k/month.
Of course I wont make the domain public.
He has been reselling for 4 month with us.

We, too have 2 resellers making a whole stack of cash, an Indian and a Swedish company. They hold about 250 domains between them and they ain't cheap!

Six years ago I went dedicated with 50 domains. Now I would expect the break even point to be around 20 domain - then go for a dedicated server - and then expect to pay about $2.50 to $5.00 per domain that you add. It depends greatly on just how "virtual" a hosting company you want to be and how much of it you want to contract out. (These rough calculations presume you have purchased no hardware and perhaps no software either - all is provided by the server farm.)

One server with 200 accounts that you average say... $20 "profit" on would bring in $4K per month. A one-man hosting company only needs one full server to stay home and work in his bedroom slippers.

And yes, it would likely take 24 months of hard work and dedication to get there. Earlier posts to that effect showed experience and wisdom.


Scott Hirsch

I'm just a freaking kid...

I only got all summer and that's about it..

It takes hard work and time to make any new business into a profitable venture.

The web hosting business is no different.


Just my $0.02,


Keith

I'm just a freaking kid...

I only got all summer and that's about it..

LiquidKnight,

I don't want to sound too critical but if you only have the summer to work you don't have the time to resell webhosting. It takes a lot of time to provide good service to hosting customers. I'm not saying that a young person can't do a good job. I am saying that if you don't have the time to provide good service please don't start reselling. There are a lot of good intentioned people that have given the webhosting business a bad name becuase they couldn't provide decent support. I would hate to see you do that or either get in too far over your head time wise.

Just my $.02


Brett