I am trying to put together a reseller package, and am having several issues that botehr me. Your help would be appreciated.

A reseller should have a better price than a regular customer, so that he can benefit from being a reseller. So that calls for a reseller price that is lower than list price. The problem is that there is nothing to stop everyone from saying they are a reseller and using the better price without doing any reselling, effectively lowering my prices.

One solution is to make the reseller purchase a product at the regular price before getting the reseller discount. However, that is forcing people to buy, which means that less people will join the reseller program. People who are only interested in reselling, but not having any hosted site, would stay out.

Another solution is to make resellers commit to multiple sites, but again that takes away from flexibility and attractiveness of the reseller program.

Any suggestions from your own experience?

Ziggy

I take it you've taken the old approach to reselling. :rolleyes: That'll go down like a lead balloon around these parts. Why not give your Resellers "X" amount of disk space and "X" amount of data transfer and let them carve it up anyway they like? It's a better deal for your Resellers after all and saves you a tonne of time in admin etc. :)

Another option is to make the reseller account cost 20 or 30 dollars, so that for the person who just wants lower rates, they will have to have at least 4 or 5 accounts before it becomes a cost savings.

This will help you cover the costs associated with resellers, as well as help to not get as many people signing up to be "resellers" just to take advantage of you. You will be more likely to only get people who are either serious about reselling or have a large number of domains signing up for it.

I have to disagree here. It wouldn't be attractive for any reseller. If we buy a certain
amount of space and bandwidth , we pay for it and if we choose to host one or 10
or even 100 sites , this should be up to the reseller to decide. Most would start out
with a smaller amount to begin and after awhile upgrade it if needed.
I took a look at your prices and they don't leave much room for any profit do they?
For a reseller that is.
rinnando

Thanks for the responses, guys!

I am using Sphera's software, and each virtual server is for one domain. I guess I can limit the resellers to the higher end offerings - 3 and 8 domain bundles.

The problem though remains - if you want to make it easy, they can abuse it. If you make it hard to abuse, it is less attractive and punishes the innocents...

What do you think about letting resellers only use multi-domain products, and leave the single domain at list price only?

Ziggy.

I think both are fine. But one thing that I would recommend is to put what you think is the best for both you and reseller, and present them in a way that is pleasing to the potential customers. Many people like honesty and will appreciate you by letting them know that you have a great product and need to make money as well.

But, that's just me :)

:)

Originally posted by Aussie Bob
I take it you've taken the old approach to reselling. :rolleyes: That'll go down like a lead balloon around these parts. Why not give your Resellers "X" amount of disk space and "X" amount of data transfer and let them carve it up anyway they like? It's a better deal for your Resellers after all and saves you a tonne of time in admin etc. :)

We do pretty well with the "old approach" to reselling. So does HostingMatters, VenturesOnline, Akashik, RTShosting, LinuxWebHost, Burst, HostingDirect, LiquidWeb, JaguarPC, WWW-Hosting.net, Vortechhosting, and HostCaters---just to name a few. Thousands of resellers love the "per account" method. I'm not saying it is better or worse than bulk. I am saying that it should not be looked at as worthless.:eek:

How does it save a ton of time in admin? Resellers have the same control panel with either method (I am referring to WHM). I admin some of both kinds of reselling and there is no difference to me.

I say do what you want to do. If it doesn't work, change it. You do have to get the price down low enough so the reseller can make good profit, though.

-Lamar