I am extremely lazy and consequently do not like to do much work. (That doesn't mean I can't get rich, right?) I have a question that goes to the heart of my dilemma. I have been a hosting reseller for MCHost for a while. The margins in the hosting business are so slim that it is just not worth my time to create new accounts, bill clients, etc. Therefore I am now looking for a completely co-branded hosting reseller account, wherein the parent hosting company does all the work, including creation of new account, monthly billing, answering customer service questions, etc. I should not have to do zilch.. nada.

This concept might seem unusual for hosting providers, but it does exist in other industries that are on the cutting edge, like porn and gambling.

Additionally, I should be able to use my domain name to brand the hosting company and promote it as such. The nameservers should also be with my domain name. The parent hosting company will provide all the content, graphic design, etc and give me part of revenues as my fair compensation. I will be responsible just for promoting the site to my countless contacts. This concept is the future of reselling; I wonder how many hosting companies understand this. Most resellers today are reinventing the wheel- for no good reason.

Does anyone know of such a company that provides this service?

Cyberswami

How can your margins be very small on a $35/month reseller account? If you are charging that little then i doubt you are going to find a host who will do everything for you and charge a price that you would like to bill your customers at.

Originally posted by Cyberswami
I should not have to do zilch.. nada.

Some "hands free" ideas for you:

www.centralinfo.net (Windows)
www.directphp.com/index.php (Cobalt RaQ)
http://www.easypsa.com (Plesk)

The first two don't tie directly into payment gateways (AFAIK), but you can configure a range of Welcome emails pointing to secure payment URLs and tie it into a database that confirms those payments. EasyPSA does have payment gateway support, but it comes at a price. In the case of failed recurring payments, or those that don't pay at all, you might need to intervene to remove those accounts (though EasyPSA might automate that as well...not sure).

We were with centralinfo.net for over 12 months over 2000-2001, and it basically ran itself. I think in that whole time only one or two people didn't proceed to the payment URL in their Welcome email, which they had 24 hours to do. Other than that, it was all good.

Cheers

Gary

Thank you for the links.

But this is not what I am looking for. These are ideas for automating tasks for a hosting company. That involves setting up scripts and making sure that they work. It also involves having your own payment gateways. I am not ready to do that much work.

I want a solution wherein the only setup work I will do is to change the nameservers to that of my provider and the provider will take care of everything else. I will promote the site to my countless contacts, but other than that I won't have to do any work (including setting up automated scripts, etc.).

Either such an animal exists or it doesn't.

Cyberswami

Okay, in that case you're looking for an Affiliate Program. There are plenty of those around. Some will allow you to create your own page of plans, and bring your referrals back to your own "thank you" page. Some will just provide you with a banner/link to send your visitors to the provider. You're posting in the wrong forum to allow providers to reply directly to you, but hopefully this has helped anyways.

Cheers

Gary

Yes, you need an affiliate program. I just did a google search for "web hosting affiliate program" and quite a few came up. Give it a shot.

other industries that are on the cutting edge, like porn and gambling -- :D tee hee