I have been lurking for a few weeks now, in anticipation of setting up a very small, low-key reselling business. I'm not looking to make any real money at this point - I just want to get my feet wet. I do not, however, want to deal with an unrelaible host. And I do want a rich set of features - I want to know they're there should I need them, or just want to play around to learn. I'm willing to spend up to $40/month, but less would be nice too.

There are several companies that are highly recommended on the forum ...


VenturesOnline
HostingMatters
splashhost
mchost
voxtreme
alwayswebhosting
cyberwings


My concern is that a few of these companies will inevitably go through a tough time due to rapid growth, as this seems to happen with every company I've looked into. Ideally, I'd like to start with a company that has already gone through that phase and come out the other side in good shape. From recent postings, it looks as if MCHost may be going through it as we speak. I don't think Cyberwings, AlwaysWebhosting, and splashHost have gotten there yet.

Of the three remaining, only Voxtreme offers the buy-in-bulk approach that appeals to me more (even if I only get 10 clients), but is not a requirement. Have they proved themselves over the long term? If so, they're probably the best bet for me. But VenturesOnline sounds incredibly reliable and professionally run.

I'd be curious on any thoughts anyone cares to share. Perhaps I'm worrying needlessly about avoiding the younger companies? Have I overlooked another good choice?

And if anyone can point out any reason I may not want to use one of these companies, I'd love to hear it - not so much rants about unfortunate problems you may have had with them, but pointing out features that they lack or limitations they have, e.g. shell access, cgi use, mySQL database, eCommerce functionality, bad control panels, name server concerns, etc.

Thanks for any and all input.

- Doug

Hi Doug,

I see you've read this post (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=289384#post289384) so just some general additional comments:

Probably the easiest important aspect of a company to track is its handling of inevitable problems.
a - are they acknowledged?
b - are clients kept up to date on progress?
c - do similar problem recur later?

The last one "c" is most important IMO - recurring problems indicate management does not have the ability to find/fix the root causes. Treating symptoms only is not good.
_ _ _

A more difficult important aspect to judge is whether or not the company's business model makes sense. Can they make money? This requires knowing the underlying economics of the game, which requires first identifying the relevant factors, and then researching them.

Clearly we want good value, but this doesn't mean lowest price - chances are lowest price will be out of business in 6 months. I want my supplier to be making decent money - not just enough to eat, but enough to maintain and upgrade hir infrastructure in a timely way.
_ _ _

Service is obviously crucial - we are putting our credibility [our most valuable online asset] at risk with our customers. I see 2 main service alternatives for our suppliers:
a - a 'smooth ride', things just work well almost all of the time. I don't care about communication much if my customers are happy.
b - great communication during periods of problems and change. My customers will be fairly satisfied in general if I can keep them informed.

A possible reasonable measure of service would be percentage 'churn rate' - ie what percent of Resellers leave the supplier? I don't know if we can get this info easily, does anyone track it?
_ _ _

Your situation is quite similar to mine - getting feet wet, not looking for short-term profit, essentially a learning process. I'm in the nice position of having about 70 clients in our current business, so we're going to offer domains, hosting & design as an added service to them while we're learning.

The sites will be mainly small promotional sites, so there won't be any mission-critical stuff. I know far too little about the game at this stage to be taking on people with databases or similar 'important' stuff :)

I'd recommend you start off by offering an additional non-critical service to people who trust you, and/or some local businesses and non-profits. Be up-front with them about the uncertainty involved as a trade-off for the low price and I doubt your credibility will take any/much damage.

Then you can move forward in 6-12 months time, whenever you feel you've got a handle on the hosting game and players.

Well I've never had a shared or reseller account with VenturesOnline, but our servers are with them and support is great. They have moved to their own datacenter, so I would assume they are past the growing pains.

You never want to go with a host that doesn't have growing pains because a host should always be growing (New Technology New Software) But I get what you mean "More Like StartUp Pains"

VenturesOnline is a great host and they are rated very highly. :cool:

Mike - it sounds like we are very much on the same page here. Between friends, firends of friends, friends of family, and some local small businesses/contractors I've dealt with, I'm sure I could get a handful of relatively easy clients.

Since I won't even be attempting to take on any complex sites to begin with (except, perhaps, my own efforts), the bulk-type packages appeal to me more since I will be well within the limits of a cheaper package, and everything after the first few clients would be pure profit.

But, like I said, profit is not really my main motivation here - not yet at least. VenturesOnline certainly appears to be the real-deal, but I wish I could get more feedback on Voxtreme. Maybe I'll start another more specific thread.

- Doug

VenturesOnline provide very good support and they probably have much of their growing pain behind them, they are now in their own noc. A big plus for everyone who's server took already part in some moves :)

Originally posted by Doug T
Mike - it sounds like we are very much on the same page here. Between friends, firends of friends, friends of family, and some local small businesses/contractors I've dealt with, I'm sure I could get a handful of relatively easy clients.

Since I won't even be attempting to take on any complex sites to begin with (except, perhaps, my own efforts), the bulk-type packages appeal to me more since I will be well within the limits of a cheaper package, and everything after the first few clients would be pure profit.

But, like I said, profit is not really my main motivation here - not yet at least. VenturesOnline certainly appears to be the real-deal, but I wish I could get more feedback on Voxtreme. Maybe I'll start another more specific thread.

- Doug

Doug,

You may wish to ask / search at our community forums, visitable at http://www.voxtreme.com/community/

Regards
Matt