I plan on purchasing a reseller account in the next month or two and hope to document everything here along the way to help others. I do some web design for some local companies and have a few personal sites. In total they're all less than a couple GBs. Most consume very little bandwidth. In total I probably only need 10-20 GB a month in bandwidth.

At this point I'm just gathering a list of prospects which is around 16 right now, but I want to get it around 20-30 before I start to narrow them down. I already checked the hosting offers and read this forum quite a bit. So obviously one of my first questions is what are some good companies for reselling?


Some other questions I have are:

What should I expect to pay for the specs I outlined above?
What sort of questions should I ask before purchase?
Outside of WHT are there any good resources for checking out hosting companies?
Are there any questions that I should be asking you folks that I missed?


Thanks

As regarding the pay side it depends what service your getting, by the sounds of it i think your new to reseller hosting so it is likely you will need support quickly from the company, the companies services also matters for instance where are the servers located etc, search WHT for reviews, do your homework and youll be fine if you jump head first into a host just because of there cheap pricing youll come worse off.
Good luck with your project

Originally posted by Naz.A
As regarding the pay side it depends what service your getting, by the sounds of it i think your new to reseller hosting so it is likely you will need support quickly from the company, the companies services also matters for instance where are the servers located etc, search WHT for reviews, do your homework and youll be fine if you jump head first into a host just because of there cheap pricing youll come worse off.
Good luck with your project

I'm not really concerned about quick response for support. I'd much rather find my answer on Google than send a support ticket for simple questions. With my current shared host I haven't had to send any tickets within the year or so I have been there. I do expect hardware failures and the such to be handled in a professional manner. That's basically why I'm asking about pricing. I want to get the best deal possible, but not at the expense of uptime or server quality.

By location of the server do you mean the datacenter it's at or actual location geographically?

I mean for instance there is many datacenters the planet, GNAX etc, some are more reliable than others, i guess where they are geographically wont matter too much, You have to make sure of this as its possible your host could run there server(s) from there house.

If you dont need support there is millions of hosts out there that will have poor support but im sure you dont want a host like that, if a host dosent provide good responce times and support for clients dont you think its likely that they wont spend much time securing there servers or spend any time upgarding software etc:)
Do u get what im getting at? :eek:
Maybe you should consider reading my tutorial
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=369166

you can check sites like www.findmyhosting.com where hosts are "reviewed" and "rated" and just sort them by highest rated for quality and see what you get. Many other host directories out there too. A good search here wouldn't do any bad either. ;)

Originally posted by GuyLookingForHost
I'm not really concerned about quick response for support. I'd much rather find my answer on Google than send a support ticket for simple questions.

Well, being on a shared hosting and being a reseller is a totally different ball game. You'd have to know that you're actually being sought after should the server actually goes down or something. Your clients will not know your host. They will only know YOU!

Other than that, you can only do so much (as a reseller), and there are lots more than only your host (someone with root access) can do. So, sometimes Google does help and sometimes just going to your host directly is the best/fastest solution.

I think I heard a website called http://www.webhostdir.com/ or http://www.webhostingmall.com/ or http://www.hostsearch.com/
I heard that they do quite a good job in looking for hosts. I'm not too sure.

Hope that you will get all your resources and your list complete before you make your decision.

Take care, bro! Hope you find yourself a good host! Good Luck!

1. For 10-20 Gb of transfer I would recommend $15-$20 per month with more reliable hosts. Many are featured here. Search for them and include the word "review" to find both positive and negative reviews.

2. For asking questions I recommed things like:
a. Can I see your terms of service?
b. What are your current server specs?
c. How long have you been in business?
d. Can I contact clients who have posted publically about your service?
e. Can you provide a list of clients that I can ask about your service?
f. What is your uptime guarantee?
g. Have you ever had to honour your uptime guarantee?
h. Can you provide evidence of your uptime stats?
i. Do you have nightly, weekly, monthly backups?
j. If my server looses a hard drive how much down time should I expect?
k. What is your average response time for trouble tickets?
l. Tell me about support.

3. Just asking presales questions gives you the ability to judge how well a company does in its support.

4. There are outside sites dedicated to helping your find a good host. You must take some of them with a grain of salt, becaues many are run by other webhosts.

I know but cannot vouch for the following two:
http://whreviews.com (http://whreviews.com/)
http://www.thehostreport.com/

5. I think you've asked some pretty wise questions as is, but I would also recommend, once you have your short list here search each host in turn with the word "review" or "poll" to see how your company's fair against the WHT crowd.

Cheers and best of luck finding a host.

Cheers
Jeff

Hello,

I would probably recommend making a control panel decision first, then narrow down your hosting options from there.

Although not preferable - you can make the wrong provider decision and quickly move to another provider. If you make the wrong control panel decision, migrating later to a different control panel can be much more difficult.

As a reseller - you will probably want billing, registrar services, helpdesk, payment processing, etc capabilities. All control panels can handle such tasks. Some have everything integrated, others are more modular. When going through this decision making process, make sure you identify which of features you require and which ones are included in the plans you are shopping for and what the associated additional costs are (if any)...

There are various control panels to choose from and I think you'll find that once you have made this decision, your list of possible providers will automatically narrow itself down.

Great post Jeff!
4. There are outside sites dedicated to helping your find a good host. You must take some of them with a grain of salt, becaues many are run by other webhosts.

I know but cannot vouch for the following two:
http://whreviews.com
http://www.thehostreport.com/I want to clear things up regarding whreviews.com. I own it. I do not own hosting companies, nor am I the employee of a hosting company. Thank you.

I agree with the control panel issue. Each one has its ups and downs. If you have customers that rely on front page, I suggest that you go with a direct admin backend. Cpanel is the most common, but it has extension issues half the time, causing me a migrane. The fantastico issue is subbed with installatron in a direct admin interface, and some cpanel users use installatron as well. I prefer it over fantastico.

The only think you give up in direct admin, is if you had to change providers quickly. Cpanel has the transfer script. Direct admin does not. There are several others out there - each worse off than the other. Helm, Cpanel, and Direct Admin would be my choice panels.

Originally posted by Naz.A
I mean for instance there is many datacenters the planet, GNAX etc, some are more reliable than others, i guess where they are geographically wont matter too much, You have to make sure of this as its possible your host could run there server(s) from there house.

If you dont need support there is millions of hosts out there that will have poor support but im sure you dont want a host like that, if a host dosent provide good responce times and support for clients dont you think its likely that they wont spend much time securing there servers or spend any time upgarding software etc:)
Do u get what im getting at? :eek:
Maybe you should consider reading my tutorial


I figured you meant datacenters, but I wanted to be sure. I read the tutorial and it was well worth the time, but I have a couple more questions for you specifically. You seem to be pretty active around here so I was wondering if your currently offering any hosting services. Most people have the company they represent in their signatures, but the only thing you seem to be trying to 'sell' is firefox. If not I'm curious as to what hosting company you are with for your personal needs if any.

Originally posted by Bohica
you can check sites like where hosts are "reviewed" and "rated" and just sort them by highest rated for quality and see what you get. Many other host directories out there too. A good search here wouldn't do any bad either. ;)

Thanks for the suggestions. I checked out the link in your signature, but didn't see any mention of reseller plans. :bawling: I had the intention adding all the hosts who posted here to my list so if I overlooked something let me know.

Originally posted by aodat2
Well, being on a shared hosting and being a reseller is a totally different ball game. You'd have to know that you're actually being sought after should the server actually goes down or something. Your clients will not know your host. They will only know YOU!

Other than that, you can only do so much (as a reseller), and there are lots more than only your host (someone with root access) can do. So, sometimes Google does help and sometimes just going to your host directly is the best/fastest solution.

I think I heard a website called or
I heard that they do quite a good job in looking for hosts. I'm not too sure.

Hope that you will get all your resources and your list complete before you make your decision.

Take care, bro! Hope you find yourself a good host! Good Luck!

Didn't really think about that. I guess that's why I'm posting this. :) Thanks for the links too.

*note all the URLs were removed due to my post count

I also have some questions for Jeff, but don't have the time to respond to his post at the moment.

Thanks everyone

Wow, I got a lot of responses while I was typing up my last post. I look forward to reading and replying to them once I get an extra couple minutes...

Originally posted by GuyLookingForHost
Wow, I got a lot of responses while I was typing up my last post. I look forward to reading and replying to them once I get an extra couple minutes...

Great - hoping to hear your response.

PS - Im working on our website now, as I got slammed with spring sales, if you checked it out - it will change so refresh :-)

Try submitting your hosting requirements to HostVoice.com as well, you'll get follow-ups via e-mail from providers who can meet your hosting needs. Be sure to research any web host you get a reply from here on WHT.

Originally posted by idologicJeff
1. For 10-20 Gb of transfer I would recommend $15-$20 per month with more reliable hosts. Many are featured here. Search for them and include the word "review" to find both positive and negative reviews.

2. For asking questions I recommed things like:
a. Can I see your terms of service?
b. What are your current server specs?
c. How long have you been in business?
d. Can I contact clients who have posted publically about your service?
e. Can you provide a list of clients that I can ask about your service?
f. What is your uptime guarantee?
g. Have you ever had to honour your uptime guarantee?
h. Can you provide evidence of your uptime stats?
i. Do you have nightly, weekly, monthly backups?
j. If my server looses a hard drive how much down time should I expect?
k. What is your average response time for trouble tickets?
l. Tell me about support.

3. Just asking presales questions gives you the ability to judge how well a company does in its support.

4. There are outside sites dedicated to helping your find a good host. You must take some of them with a grain of salt, becaues many are run by other webhosts.

I know but cannot vouch for the following two:
http://whreviews.com (http://whreviews.com/)
http://www.thehostreport.com/

5. I think you've asked some pretty wise questions as is, but I would also recommend, once you have your short list here search each host in turn with the word "review" or "poll" to see how your company's fair against the WHT crowd.

Cheers and best of luck finding a host.

Cheers
Jeff

I like how the price range you recommend falls in line with idologic's offerings ;), but seriously I have your company on my list along with a couple others that come highly recommended on these forums.

Thanks for the long list of questions to ask. I had a god bit of them already planned, but a couple I didn't have seem like they can be real key questions. To be exact questions e and j. As just a potential customer should I expect a company to offer websites/contact info for their customers? As for 'j' what kind of answer should I expect? I know it doesn't take long to phyically replace the drive, but I would imagine the real time involved would be restoring the backups.

I'll avoid quoting anyone else in this post to save some space, but the only new topic brought up was the control panel issue. That's something I will look into, but up until now I just assumed I would get a WHM/CPanel reseller. I have seen the other control panels advertised, but don't know much about them. None of my clients have any preferene because they don't have any need to ever login. I handle all the design and setup for them. Billing and support is a non-issue since I handle both in person or over the phone.

Originally posted by GuyLookingForHost
Thanks for the suggestions. I checked out the link in your signature, but didn't see any mention of reseller plans. :bawling: I had the intention adding all the hosts who posted here to my list so if I overlooked something let me know.


I guess we should advertise that better. :emlaugh: You have to go INTO the shopping cart to see the reseller plans. ;)

Originally posted by GuyLookingForHost

... To be exact questions e and j. As just a potential customer should I expect a company to offer websites/contact info for their customers? ...

I so totally do not agree on asking question e. It's just plainly and purely pathetic. It's exactly like saying... "Hey, here's my client list... go take it to my competitor and let them offer my clients a better deal." It's just not logical to ask that question. You could ask anyone who posts or make known that they're with the host but asking the host itself to give you a list of their clients is just too... eerrr... not possible!

Anyways, I'm sure you already have a BILLION (if not more sites short listed already), have a look at them, search them through Google and WHT, if they're good, then they will not have much comment or very few bad ones. (Trust me, even the best hosts gets BOMBED over here)

Hope you find yourself a good host. Take care and Good Luck!

Yes, would like to hear from you aging.

All very good avice. I would highly consider all the facts first.

IF you have a good list, might ask some of them if they can set you up a trial account to try out their services, many will.

I so totally do not agree on asking question e. It's just plainly and purely pathetic. It's exactly like saying... "Hey, here's my client list... go take it to my competitor and let them offer my clients a better deal." It's just not logical to ask that question. You could ask anyone who posts or make known that they're with the host but asking the host itself to give you a list of their clients is just too... eerrr... not possible!I believe it never hurts to ask, although most likely the host will refuse sharing that kind of information because of privacy implications. The hosts that will agree will most likely have asked the customer if he agrees to be given as an example. No host will give a complete list of its clients to a prospective customer, and this is not what the question requires from the host either.

Customers lists given by the hosts and the feedback that comes from those customers can only be taken with a grain of salt. Those customers can very well be hand picked, if you know what I mean. :)

A lot of hosting companies do not post their reseller plans on their website. You may want to speak to them through WHT. Many will customize a package for you.