I personally am a reseller and after looking at the bigger picture, I think it would be better for me to drop the shared hosting and do dedicated (I would by my own servers and send them to the VO NOC). Shared hosting seems to messy and delicate with too little return. Would the dedicated be better in your opinion?

definitely yes, but only if you know how to admin your server well.

cheers,
:beer:

Have you made serious calculations?

Yes.

Originally posted by Proper Inet
Yes. Well then, you know the answer. :)

Seriously, reselling shared hosting and provided dedicated servers are in many ways two different businesses. And among the differences would be customer expectations.

By that I mean this: personally, I wouldn't hesitate -- if everything else checked out -- to pay $10-$15 a month for shared hosting to a small company that offers only email or support desk support, and from which the support response might be several hours. But I wouldn't even consider paying hundreds of dollars a month for a dedicated server to a company that doesn't offer live phone support at least during business hours, and that doesn't convince me (even if only through the information on their site) that they have a strong understanding of how to set up and maintain that server, provide security, etc.

And in the scenario you're proposing you should consider this: what will you offer potential customers that they couldn't get just by getting that server at VO themselves? Lower prices, better support, better hardware? If you're not going to add value, are you just relying on the strength of your marketing?

Hi,
Sounds like your on your way up... :-)

Yes, it pays to have a dedicated versus reselling shared.. but you want to make sure you have the customers to get it going without going into the hole.

If you have 40+ customers, you shouldn't have a problem getting a dedicated, but remember that until you grow, you will loose your income.. your server payment must come before your pay. It is the life of your business.

Also, being small, you can outsource support so you can cover 24/7 like a host needs to do.

So many now days think 24/7 support means "email us and we may get to you withing 24 hours... " Not likely to keep the customers happy that way.

Your first dedicated is always the hardest, becuase you have to learn to run it. Once you get the hang of it you will be fine though. VO has good support from what I have heard, so you should be in good hands there.

Tim L

superiorhost, what I mean, is that I would rather not do reselling, but buy my own servers, UPS them to Denver to VO's Colocated NOC, and lease them out :agree:

Just a little comment, VO is having an AMAZING special on Colocation right now, Im not sure if you figured that into you plans.

I know, but the bandwidth seems a little high imo.

Originally posted by bigkirby
I know, but the bandwidth seems a little high imo.

I don't think the bandwidth fee is high.
You have to take into account the quality of the network (no cogent) and the support you get.