Hello all-

On average, how many resellers per server do hosts (MCHost, Voxtreme, Splashhost, Everyday, Pixelseven, etc.), which provide bulk accounts for resellers, have per server?

Yes, I know there could possibly be 10 or 100. Yes, I know it depends on load, etc. Yes, I know bulk resellers are limited by space and bandwidth. I am not asking these questions. I am not talking about hypotheticals. I'm looking for actual numbers.

I am talking about right now, what is the average number of resellers a host, like the ones above, have on one of their servers?

The reason I ask is that we are really being hounded to offer bulk type reseller plans. We have a few, but have not really offered it. I mean, if you only put 20 resellers, at $30/month, on a machine, it looks like we'll just be paying for the server...and that's about all.

The resellers will probably not use up their space and bandwidth immediately, but they will probably use it in the long run. I do not want to over-sell a server now, just to have it catch up to us in a year. Selling on a per account basis, it is easy to balance load, while not worrying about finances. I would hate to have to shuffle resellers around just to find that the server is not making a profit anymore.

I would really like to give-in to our customers and potential customers, but I'm not sure of the financial stability of the plan. The hosts must be making a profit, but the only way I can see to plan is to figure up the number of resellers(average) per server. Then multiply this number by the selling price.

If anyone has advice on this subject, please post here or PM me. Email would be great. I will not ask questions regarding the running of your business, just need advice on this particular issue. I am greatful for your advice. Most of you know that if enough customers start pushing for one thing, you may need to listen.:)

Thanks,
Lamar

<30 reseller accounts per server

Maybe some virtual accounts too, but not many.

Thank you Matt. I really appreciate it.

-Lamar

Same as voxtreme.

Originally posted by AcuNett
Same as voxtreme.

Thank you. I appreciate your help.

-Lamar

Hi There....

We currently have 12 resellers per server, unless some of them are on custom plans..

Thanks
Sean

It depends on which plans but 10-30/server..

Sean and MattS, thank you for your help, also. I really do appreciate it.

-Lamar

Anytime Lamar!

Yes thanx guys......I wanted to know that as well. :)

I don't think you can estimate it like that ...you will really need to take into consideration the load on the machine. For example, 20 resellers per server with 1GB space and 10GB bandwidth each (200GB/month) will cause a much lower load than 20 resellers with 2GB of space and 40GB bandwidth (800GB/month). You really can't set a fixed number ...you'll have to do some balancing. Move large customers to dedicated servers, etc.

It also depends on the size of the server, i have some Dual 1ghz SCSI servers which can hold a lot more than than 1ghz ide servers/

10

10 * $75 = $750 = a monthly profit


Gordon.

Thanks Marc, Alan, and Gordon. Your input is very helpful.

-Lamar

I don't understand how these bulk plans would do so well. I think I'm going to stay away from this model because it doesn't seem as profitable, putting 30 resellers on a server seems like a bad idea, and the amount of personal service you can give is limited.

I would rather have one good solid reseller and work with them - or two or 3 per server rather than many of them where I treat hosting like a drive through.

I think you can attractively price your domain discount and get the same results - and this is what quite a few companys do (50% discount on plans) and the plans are controlled by the hosting company.

That is just the approach I am wanting to take- and probably no more than 100 domains per server.

JDT

batcafenet, it doesn't really matter how many people are on a server. If a host put 2 or 3 resellers on a server, then the resellers would each probably be paying over $100 / month. Other than that, I see a host that either doesn't give much support, or that is going down the drain. :P

Kiwi, that was just our average. :)

I saw this with venturesonline when I intially resold them They had so many people on the server it just killed it practically. Not to mention the entire thing was on the spamcop list every week, someone would try to overload and crash it probably once a week, and it generally gets out of control - probably about 600 domains or more on there.

Colocating a server doesn't cost 300 per month :) so a small number of resellers per server / but more importantly a limited number of domains keeps the servers fast and complaints down / satisfaction up.

JDT

hehe... well actually, Ventures Online does not offer bulk reseller accounts, which was the question for this particular thread.

;) The remainder of the concerns have been, and continue to be, addressed by our techs via our Support Desk, and also via our customer forums. Most notably, that loads have been and continue to be balanced out with the addition of new servers and migration of larger resellers & accounts to new servers ... proactive disabling of banned & problematic scripts (which is what usually drives the loads up) ... and proactive disabling of accounts that SPAM.

In addition, another three new virtual servers and a another new V650 server are slated to be brought online very soon... and any spam reports are addressed immediately with the account holder. It should be mentioned that most SPAM complaints are caused by resold accounts -- so we've been working with resellers to help them detect fraudulent and SPAM activity on their resold accounts.

:D Karin

We have approx 250 average on a server.

It doesn't really matter how many domains you have.

A machine with 10 domains could have more load than the same machine with 1000 domains on it.

Hi,

I have to say I never have more than 10 resellers on any one server as it leaves the opertunity to fill the free space with virtual accounts which if the server does get very bussy can easily be moved to another box.

Paul Hughes - Operations Manager
http://www.ukhost4u.com/

50-70

Most of them are $10 a month plans and not really 'resellers' but people who just want to be able to play with several domains at once. Load on the servers is nothing, .01-.40 most times I check.

Harddrive on the oldest server (it's been "full" for over a month and a half) is at 19%

Hi, Mike from ADEHost, with my windows systems, I sit down an review my cpu load. When the 9 day ( 4320 samples ) weighted moving average crosses a certain specific target number, I then close off the server to signup's.

After that I retune the win server and try to get that load down. I have found that by tuning the drive and increasing the cache I have been able to drop the cpu usage up to 50 %.

After all that is said and done, sometime you just have to move 1 client off that server to another server and the cpu usage drops down a good percentage.

Also this is a good point to review the revenue generated per server. if you can keep your CPU load average, equal to your earnings average per server, then you are the top dog. I myself have yet to reach this level of perfection, each server has no where near the right split of revenue ( some earn 50% more than the average ). Reason is that if you have a server failure, you are only going to place yourself at a specific revenue risk.

Mike

As was said before it all depends on the customers and there plans there on...

We have about ten resellers on a cpanel server and can probably push it to 20 if need by the server load stays way under control so these group of resellers are obviously low usage.

If a reseller is found to be in need of more processing speed they would be moved to another more powerful server with less resellers on it.

Its all about Load Balancing as Marc @(MCHOST) said!