Hi All,

I am just setting up a design company and have a few customers already but wanna make that little extra out of them. I know some people would say thats greedy but i think it is just good business sense.

I am going to be giving my customers 1 years free hosting. But I was thinking why not host there sites myself this way in a years time i can make another bit of money off them if they want to keep there site hosted with me.

So why am i posting here. Well although i have a few sites myself on different providors over the years. I have never looked into Reseller hosting..

Who do you Advise me to go for???

Thanks for all your help...

in my estimation, the guy that owns WHReviews.com is pretty credible. go there and click on Honest Hosts (on the left, toward the top), and pick one of the ones that offers reseller hosting. I'd be pretty confident about picking any of them based on his judgment, but I've never used any of them.
(never used any reseller for that matter.)

I am just setting up a design company and have a few customers already but wanna make that little extra out of them. I know some people would say thats greedy but i think it is just good business sense.
Yes, good idea - it is good business, after-all you're also up-selling.


I am going to be giving my customers 1 years free hosting. But I was thinking why not host there sites myself this way in a years time i can make another bit of money off them if they want to keep there site hosted with me.
No, bad idea.
Once you start offering free this and that, then quite often you become stuck offering it. Don't do it

And.. isn't this exact opposite of your first point?

Make sure you get decent reliable hosting as if it is bad , it will make your company look bad.

When really it isnt your fault.

Thanks you for your replys...

GarrettW (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/member.php?u=176043) - Going to check WHReviews.com out right now

cyanide (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/member.php?u=35577) as for your second point... I think i miss represented what i was trying to say, i will be giving free hosting with my design package.... So really the cost will be written into my charges for designing the site....

Coldmedia - Adam (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/member.php?u=148640) - I agree with your point also....

cyanide (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/member.php?u=35577) as for your second point... I think i miss represented what i was trying to say, i will be giving free hosting with my design package.... So really the cost will be written into my charges for designing the site....

Now THAT'S a good idea.
I always suggest to our web designer clients to bundle their hosting with some kind of design package.
Such as if you're charging $59/hour, then you could have your hosting package start at $59 and say it includes an hour of work and the hosting at whatever designated space/bandwidth.
So now you're making $59/month instead of $10 or less :)
... just an example

Are you happy with any of your hosts at this moment? don't they offer reseller packages? If you're already happy with the performance of any of your host, I would suggest to stay there, you may save some money somewhere else, but what would happen if their service is bad? are you going to damage your reputation for just a few dollars per month?

cyanide (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/member.php?u=35577) - I don't know about charging that much. I suppose after the first year it may be Ok but inform the customer that you will do 1 or 2 hours work a month for that charge....


Jedito (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/member.php?u=2894) - Im afraid to say i am with Godaddy... Got a special deal about 1.5 years ago for 2 years hosting for something like $90... Had never delt with them before but from my experience there support do answer but are never any help....


So far after loooking at loads of different resellers HostGater is sticking out for some reason don't know thou.... Anyone got anything to say???

Try ResellerZoom

Been with them for a while and everything is fine. Servers are fast and support is good.

Hi Wildhalf,

Do you want your clients to be hosted on US Servers/Bandwidth or are you looking to locate them in a specific country?

What kind of development do you do? Is it asp, asp.net, php, perl or python? I would suggest going with Windows or Linux reseller hosting depending on the primary platform of your development environment.

Which is more important to you? Solid hosting or hosting with a lot of freebies?

Lots of choices and lots of decisions.

If you looking at a particular host, do a search for some reviews or overall feedback on them.

So far after loooking at loads of different resellers HostGater is sticking out for some reason don't know thou.... Anyone got anything to say???

(Assuming you meant to put HostGator)

HostGator isn't that bad of a company, they're quick and the support is pretty decent. Though you can find prices cheaper than HostGator if your willing to pay for the name then go for it :D.

Ok Now i have 2 to choose from... HostGator or ResellerZoom both look prity good...

HV | Tracy (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/member.php?u=11696) - I am in Ireland but personally don't mind where the servers are hosted. For the work i will be doing to start with i don't think it will matter.

Or does location of your host play with your SEO rankings???

Most of my work will be in PHP (love it for some reason) So i will need a Linux server...

Would perfer Solid reliable hosting rather than alot of freebies.... but it would be nice to offer my clients that little extra...

Hi Wildhalf,

I am not sure about location and SEO, but I heard someone say the other day that they are were not being indexed in google.co.uk so they switched to a UK based server so they could be indexed... Just telling you what I have heard.

Email the guys at http://www.integralimpressions.com, I am sure they would not mind answering that question for you.

Sounds like Linux is going to be a good choice for you.

Reseller zoom should do just fine for you:D

I use enetlogic.com which has been awesome! Their servers are fast and support is always there when needed.

I use enetlogic.com which has been awesome! Their servers are fast and support is always there when needed.
Frankly never heard of them.

However, I smell something ;)

LOL i am at work, company use's websense which blocked this site for
Reason:
The Websense category "Sex" is filtered.

...
So far after loooking at loads of different resellers HostGater is sticking out for some reason don't know thou.... Anyone got anything to say???
hehe, ya hostgator stuck out to me too, don't know why. but we just signed up one of our customers with them, based on that ambiguous sticking-out thing. oh, plus the reviews i've seen. they seem to be a solid company. whether the best or not, i don't know ... but good enough.

LOL i am at work, company use's websense which blocked this site for
Reason:
The Websense category "Sex" is filtered.
HAHA yea that sucks, i remember websense cuz my high school had it. talk about annoying! cuz it's "categories" weren't accurate 90% of the time.

Which is more important to you? Solid hosting or hosting with a lot of freebies?


You can have a solid host with a lot of freebies. They are not mutually exclusive.. :rolleyes:

IH-Rameen (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/member.php?u=45789) - any examples???

IH-Rameen (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/member.php?u=45789) - any examples???

I would like to think my company offers a lot of freebies, yet we don't have issues with stability or reliability as justified by our reviews. The value added services is what differentiates you from the rest. Even RZ and HostGator for example include quite a good amount of feature into their accounts and it doesn't seem to compromise reliability.

Saying it in such a way which implies you can only have on or the other couldn't be further from the truth.

Very well put

true.. you can have really good deal with freebies..these day..

We tried several reseller hosts before till we began getting our own dedicated servers and began to be stable ..
and here is our feed back for what we tried ( but put in mind that these feedbacks from couple of years now so these hosts may got better or worse by time )

Lypha.com ( there downtime was more than uptime .. and when the server or reseller account is down .. there is no answer at all for all tickets till they get it back )

HostPrince.com ( Stable but bad support )

HostDime.com .. ( they are great till you use more resources or bandwidth .. they use the 95% bandwidth rule .. so they really dig into your wallet for the bandwidth )

Softlayer.com ( they donot offer reseller plans .. but they are the ones who we got our dedicated servers from .. and for a year now they are best of the best .)

so as a final word .. from our history and experience try to find any company use soflayer as there provider and that company should offer you good price and fast support.

Just because a company leases their servers from Softlayer, it doesn't mean they will provide "good" prices nor quick support. SL doesn't do outsourced support nor server management, and they sure don't set your prices ;)

If you search these forums you'll come up with plenty of lists of very solid providers, Hostgator being one of them. Just from the top of my head;

Sonet7
Dotable
Hostgator
Knownhost
Bluewho
Hostnine
Innohosting
Resellerzoom
Budget Reseller
Dathorn
Idologic
Cartika Hosting

... several of which are listed on the site I posted at the beginning of the thread.

gogohost, tell me about this "95% bandwidth rule" ... what does it mean?

0800hosting i think is good, their plans look excellent.
I also agree with the hostgator one, my best mate uses them and swears by them :D

I use zzhosting.com for reseller hosting.

They have proved to be very helpful when it comes to support. They are reliable, fast, and cheap.

I would definitely recommend them.

I use zzhosting.com for reseller hosting.

They have proved to be very helpful when it comes to support. They are reliable, fast, and cheap.

I would definitely recommend them.

Make sure you submit your domain to the mods.

I have been with reseller zoom for some time now .. never had any major problem .. no down time .. great support .. however if you are signing up for budget package do read the AUP there a lot of restrictions .. i.e limitation on database connection, cpu/memory usage, emails limit per hour etc .. do send some pre-sales questions to them

I recommend you to signup for failover package limitation are much less as compare to other packages and they do offer UK servers too.

I also recommend to signup with both providers .. and check the services your self first before reselling it to your clients .. in this way if there is any problem you will face it first .. plus there is always an option of 30 days money back guarantee by most of the providers. And don't save some $ to get a cheap hosting.. cheap hosting always comes with some problems.

For designers/developers providing a hosting services comes with both negative and positive points .. if you have a good host then you client will happy to pay you some extra money as compare to the market because he/she will be getting all services under one roof ... And if you host is not good and there are problems .. then you will loose the hosting as well as your web contract + bad reputation in the market.

Make sure you submit your domain to the mods.

What do you mean?

What do you mean?
He means that you submit which domain you have hosted with them to the Mods so that they'll verify that it's actually hosted by that company.

What do you mean?Please post a domain that you're hosting with zzhosting. You can send it to the moderators via http://www.webhostingtalk.com/report.php?p=4610993 if you don't want to share it with the public.

oh. I see what you mean.

Ok. I'll go do that...

Ok. I'll go do that...
Thanks and confirmed :) :wht:

Hey, Look at the home page of ZZHosting.com

I think they've copied the cPanel Lady at the top.

Hey, Look at the home page of ZZHosting.com

I think they've copied the cPanel Lady at the top.It could be just a stock photo. I've seen that lady on several sites.

Just because a company leases their servers from Softlayer, it doesn't mean they will provide "good" prices nor quick support. SL doesn't do outsourced support nor server management, and they sure don't set your prices ;)

what I mean is to try to get a reseller from a company that use SoftLayer and same time this company got good price and fast support

... several of which are listed on the site I posted at the beginning of the thread.

gogohost, tell me about this "95% bandwidth rule" ... what does it mean?

in less words :-

they tell you that your server get 1500 gig per month for example which is around 4.5 Mbps connection speed.

you may say that is fine . but if you think well .. what will happen if one of your sites or one of your clients use for a day or 2 alot of traffic ?? ( let say some advertising so he or you got alot of hits at same time )

so normally these 4.5Mps will not be enough ..

so at the end of the month you will not be using all the 1500 Gig that they provide to you at the server but also they will bill you extra money ..

and that is what is written in there TOS


All leased dedicated server plans include an allocated continuous data transfer rate of 4.5 Mbps in a 30-day calendar month, which is an approximate quantity of 1,500 GB of data transfer. If your monthly usage exceeds the bandwidth transfer rate of 4.5 Mbps within your 30 day billing cycle, you will be billed for overages exceeding 4.5 Mbps based on 95th percentile metering. In accordance to these terms of service, you are liable and agree to pay such overages at the rate of $75.00 per 1 Mbps of bandwidth.


Example:
Bandwidth Allocation 4.5 mbps
Bandwidth used for x month = 5.0 mbps (based 95th percentile metering)
Bandwidth overages = 5.0 mbps - 4.5 mbps = 0.5 mbps
0.5 mbps x $75.00/mbps = $37.50

If you anticipate high bandwidth usage, please contact our sales department via our helpdesk for further information on the availability of other plans with higher bandwidth allocations for lower rates.

Note: The rate of 1 Mbps of continuous data transfer in a 30 day period is approximately 320 GB of bandwidth.

Further in-depth information on 95th percentile metering may be found on the following site: http://www.seanadams.com/95/



that is from there TOS at http://www.hostdime.com/policies/tos/


and the bigger problem that we faced .. is that we got 2 server from them at that time ..

and was paying in time ( except one time we paid late with extra fees .. which was ok for us )

but one day they asked for around extra $800 and when we asked why they said there was extra usage for the bandwidth for the last 4 months ( and they never said anything about that before as if they just remembered to check the bandwidth )

and no need to tell you how it was because as soon as we began to ask not to pay all that amount since it was there mistake not to tell earlier they changed the root password of our servers without giving a notice even .

It could be just a stock photo. I've seen that lady on several sites.
Sure may be stock photo but, I've seen her mainly on cPanel :)

Sure may be stock photo but, I've seen her mainly on cPanel :)

Well the y do use cPanel... So maybe that is why? Maybe...

Well the y do use cPanel... So maybe that is why? Maybe...
What do you mean?

What do you mean?


I was joking around... But if this lady has been seen around cPanel before. Maybe she is the main stock image used when it comes to cPanel. That is after all what zzhosting offer. And it's great apart from the fact that you can't set up CNAME and A records with it....

I do the same as you want to do. It does help get customers. Be sure though you tell your customers up front that they are responsible for paying the hosting costs after the first year so they can't say you sprang it on them. You should check in to surfspeedy.com for reseller account. Best price around.

I was joking around... But if this lady has been seen around cPanel before. Maybe she is the main stock image used when it comes to cPanel. That is after all what zzhosting offer. And it's great apart from the fact that you can't set up CNAME and A records with it....

Hmm... OK.

But what's it with the CNAME and A records?

I use zzhosting.com for reseller hosting.

They have proved to be very helpful when it comes to support. They are reliable, fast, and cheap.

I would definitely recommend them.

ZZHosting has been taken over by No Wires Limited. It is an English Company that is also behind several other hosting businesses. One of their main hosting servers crashed two weeks ago. It is still off-line.

I would not recommend this hosting company and I would advise checking the SLA with all No Wires hosting businesses - RelicHost, Hummingbird Hosting and ZZ Hosting.

They are very cheap and it seems that you get what you pay for.