Well, so here am I. Trying to do this hosting reseller. I am almost done with my site, well, actually I am done but I am redoing it since I didn't think ahead and now, I need some additional stuff on it and I have to redesign. Anyways, this is what I got so far

1. I have my host where I purchase accounts from (Virtual Hosting)
2. I have Merchant Account with OnlineDataCorp ( it was the best, 5 minutes and I was up and running)
3. I got a website.
4. I got 1.800 line for support
5. I do not have secure certificate ( I am waiting for it, since I need to register as a business with the state in order for them to give me SSL)
6. I have registered with most of the major search engines (msn, yahoo, aol)


Now... what should be my next steps? Advertising ect.. where do you guys recommend to advertise? How should I go about getting new clients? What should I watch out for? Any advice?

PS: I was also thinking about getting LivePerson on my site so I could provide "live" support...but this is kind of pricy for now since I don't have any clients (they charge 80 bucks per month)

Any davide would be appreciated...:)

Here are a few things I would reccomend: (some of these are kind of basic, but it might help somebody at least, and often its the basics we need reminding of)

Don't worry about Live Person, at least not yet. You can offer instant messaging support, and most of your customers will be very happy with that. I would recommend using a few different ones, such as ICQ, AOL's AIM, Yahoo, MSN, maybe even more if you want. If the multiple clients is a problem, or annoyance, then you can download a program such as trillian, or gaim.... just do a search for IM clients, I am sure you will find one you like.

For advertising, first tip, don't stop. Keep advertising, even after you have clients. Registering your site with as many different search engines is very good, but it is even better if you concentrate on one, or a few. If you can acheive good rankings, even if it is one of the lesser known engines, this will provide you with more traffic than if you are site #100,234 when one searched for hosting.

WHT is a great place to find clients, just make sure you do it properly and follow their guidlines.

Hosting directories are a good place to advertise. Many of them are flooded and/or corrupt, but it still helps, and there are some good ones out there.

There are also other message boards out there related to hosting where you can advertise your services, just look around.

One thing that many people forget, signatures. In your emails, when you post on message boards/newsgroups or wherever, always leave a signature with your URL.


I think I will leave it at that for now. If these were not the type of tips you were looking for, let me know and I will see what I can rack my brain for. I also sent you an email/PM and I would be happy to talk to you further.

Best Regards.

Got your email... I did check your site out but very quickly. I will give it a closer look later on and shoot you email back...

Oh I also had this question:

My current host wouldn't provide my clients with the billing system (where my clients would log on and see their billing) so I guess I have to come up with some kind of a way to do it myself. Now, I know I could use MySQL but I am clueless when it comes to databases...so...is there a some kind of free or relatively cheap software I could use?

Also, not like I am strapped in to my host, but what are the best hosts for resellers out there that could provide me with Unix and Ms?

For billing I would suggest www.modernbill.com It works great and is very cheap for that kind of software. Ofcourse you can also write it yourself (as I did). That way it will be totally customized to your company.

But the last thing I would only do when you are a good programmer, don't hire 1 that is way to expensive. Especially for a starter.

For billing system I think you can find at http://cgi.resourceindex.com some are free but some not.

Well...I allready can bill by credit card...

I just need something that would let me do this:

1. User goes to my site and on the front page there is "client log on"
2. they log on and depending on their log on username and password it takes them to the correct page which has their billing information.

I use UltraDev to do my site and maybe there is some tuts on how to build a database?

I could imagine that I could do some Access stuff and then dump it to MySQL??????

Help me here people.. this is the only thing that stops me to really go ahead...I can't go on advertize spree when I don't have my **** straight ..

Ohhh nice link! I just looked thought it but I can see many things I can take from there =)

hi, i havent started a hosting company yet, but i am researching the possibilities of starting an ebusiness next year. so i am not sure if i can help u..

but i use ultradev and ASP, and i think according to the username entered when the client logs in, u prolly have to use a session value and it will have the particular record location info stored in it...i am not sure, i tried this once...

but i would really like to get some info from you, since you are starting out and i might be next year....

my email: astralit@veryfast.biz


Astralit -- AzzieCo

Such systems already excist. But because you don't have your own server it is getting something more difficult. I just would suggest modernbill. As I stated before.

on your database question - Ultradev makes it a breeze.

To match a login to a particular dynamic page - you need a db table with login & PW & ID (the ID is crucial)

The when somebody enters a login & password you select from the table the ID number that matches the pw & ID - then you have a 2nd table with the customer info - each customer having a unique ID that matches the ID in the login table.

You use the index from the 1st table to reference the customer table, read the info & populate the page.

UltraDev makes the SQL calls easy.

Of course if you can get a pre-made package it's easier.

My advice would be to keep it all simple when you first start out.

I'd suggest using modernbill (even though im not a user )
it looks pretty good.. it does all the things that you need.

Coding your own will take days if not weeks. Which could be worth more time than the 80 or so bucks you'll pay to them to get it.

You really have to ask yourself are you getting into the business to write applications or get customers for hosting?
You could do both.. but 80 bucks is chump change .. (thats like 8 customers paying 8 bucks for one month..)