I have been thinking of taking the plunge into reselling.

What should I be careful of?

What should I know that you have learned from good/bad experiences?

Tell me all!

Thanks in advance,

Sara

Be careful of hosts that promise the world. Talk to real users of hosts via forums etc. Don't believe all you read at WHT because hosts send users here to recommend them.

I'm a few weeks (realistically a month or so) away from taking the full plunge, I have been planning for 6 months or so trying to calculate all the good/bad and what to expect and whatnot by reading these forums and such. Even with all of that I can almost garantee I will run into something unexpected.

While I can't give you much advice from experience, I would say to really sit down and look at all your options very carefully. Sit there with a calculator and see what it takes to break even, to come ahead, and if your business fails, what you can expect to loose, etc. Planning is key, do it right the first time and you will save yourself so much time and money it will be time well spent.

I agree planning is very important. Without a proper plan it will go pear shaped for you eventually. No one plans to fail, but many fail to plan.

I just do the same. Calculating as I told another guy on these forums. I have like 3 weeks planning and looking.

Planning and visiting forums from resellers shows you the true about them.

Be careful to provide exactly what you claim, and support your clients...they are paying you every month give them their moneys worth!:D

Basics:

Two types of reselling:

1) Reselling where you sell the hosts existing package for say a 20% discount an dmake your margin in that.

Pro - Easy to get going, don't have to think about which packages to create.

Con - Restrictred to hosts own packages, no real profit possible.

2) Buy from a bulk reseller a large plan which enables you to spilt it up and create your own packages

Pro - enables you to create your own packages enabling you to be as independent as possible, its also closer to being a true host and further from reselling as you have more control over your own decision making. Theres also more profit to be made - these plans are cheap - from around $20/mo and you could pack a few acccounts in them and charge almost the same price per account.

Con - Hmm ? Help anyone?


Also worth checking:

Level of support the host gives - real time? fast? phone support? forums? 24/7?

Can the host provide anonymous support directly to your clients?

How long has the host been in business?

Uptime?

Are existing customers happy?

Do they provide dedicated server options for once you outgrow your reseller account?

Are they in your own country? (Not always necessary)



Just a few things to consider, hope it helps.

I'm also looking at providing web hosting. I have just begun the planning stages.

Some things I'm interested in:

Cogent bandwidth: There seems to be quite a bit of talk about this. From what I can gather this is low-cost "wholesale" bandwidth? Can someone shed some light on why it would be a good/bad idea to go with a company offering this with their servers?

Support: How do most of you handle 24/7 support? Luckily I'm planning on starting this with a partner and we can cover a very large portion of the support hours we are planning on providing. I'm still interested in how some of the smaller operations provide 24/7 support. Do you hire someone for nights and weekends? Whats your average response time?

Sales: Do you advertise just here? Are there other good places to spread the word for free? Do you use local newspapers? We currently have our own ideas about advertising and getting clients but I'm interested in how others are putting their good name out.


I guess those are the big ones for now. I look forward to your responses.
Thanks
Sadistikal


[EDITED for my poor grammar]

Cogent bandwidth: There seems to be quite a bit of talk about this. From what I can gather this is low-cost "wholesale" bandwidth? Can someone shed some light on why it would be a good/bad idea to go with a company offering this with their servers?

Cogent is fine bandwidth if you're on a budget - you can't really beat it. Lots of talk about the fact that they are going to go bust etc. etc. Personally I have faith in them, they have pretty much revolutionised bandwidth prices in the US, hats off to them. You may get slightly slower speeds than other bandwidth prices, but in this day and age unless you are to host mission critical sites, jo public won't mind that the site is delivered a fraction slower than most - and in most cases it really is just a very small fraction.

Support: How do most of you handle 24/7 support? Luckily I'm planning on starting this with a partner and we can cover a very large portion of the support hours we are planning on providing. I'm still interested in how some of the smaller operations provide 24/7 support. Do you hire someone for nights and weekends? Whats your average response time?

Well our average support response time is <30 mins, usually <10. We have techs on the helpdesk at almost all times by hiring people in different time zones to cover the helpdesk. Try thinking about setting up with partners in different areas of the world so that you can sleep easy at night...

Sales: Do you advertise just here? Are there are good places to spread the word for free? Do you use local newspapers? We currently have our own ideas about advertising and getting clients but I'm interested in how others are putting their good name out.

This is a very good place to advertise, just ensure that you are honest all the time, polite etc. and this is a great community. Try not to treat it as a tool for advertising alone though, people don't like that. Come here, help people out, have a laugh, and I'm sure WHT will be an excellent resource for you. Local newspapers are good - you'd be surprised how many local clients don't have a clue how to get online. :)

Hope this helps you! :)

You also must assess your strengths and compare them to what other hosts have to offer. What sets you apart from the competition? As you can see in the responses you have received, many clients choose their host after some dialogue. Convincing them to sign with you hinges upon your knowing why they should. Good luck in your venture! :)

Wow, thanks for the replies so far, keep 'em coming!

I am planning on buying from my current host, in bulk. I can create my own packages for the hostees and charge what I want. I think it's like $25 a month for 1 gb space and 20 gb bandwidth. Not too bad eh? The customer support is excellent.

From their message board:

"You have a reseller package that you are selling on your website, a customer purchases that package from you. All you need to do is then send us an e-mail or add a package in our billing control panel and we create the account for you. Thus allowing you to have the capability to have resellers as well. We remain totally anonymous and in the background. This is great for companies who are looking to expand their offerings, as well as for companies who are looking to enter a new market but don't really want to tend to the server administration side of things."

Good? Bad?

Thanks!

Sara

What host is it? Offer seems good... if you're happy with the host then stick with it. :) Will it come with Cpanel/WHM? Thats quite important for most people -- www.cpanel.net.

Jo

I'm with www.insiderhosting.com and yes all the clients I have will have the same control panel I have as IH client.

Sara

As Jo mentioned, if you have a host that you are happy with, you have cleared a major obstacle. Make sure that they are quick about setting those accounts up for you. ;)

Just wanted to clarify one point. When we have resellers, we allow them to create accounts themselves with WHM, so they don't have to wait for us to do anything. If they want to create an account at 4 am not a problem, they just open up WHM and create that account. What Sara quoted above was a new offering, different than our normal reseller plans.

-Steven

Thanks for clearing that up for me Steven. :)

Sara

...as Gadget Girl Said keep'em coming. I know I invaded her post but I'm more interested in the do's/don'ts of buying unmanaged servers than I am the reselling services angle. So if anyone has more advice on that side of things that would be great. Thanks for all the great info so far everyone.
Sadistikal

Put together a good business plan and then go to your friends that have been in business for a while and let them review it. They should be able to offer you some good advice. As far as doing some research on webhosting, your at the right place. Read all the post you can, and you will learn a lot!

Have a good business plan, stick to it as much as possible and be prepared for the times when the whole plan goes out the window, it will happen sooner or later........so have a good contingency plan ......i didnt and it was a big mistake, i learnt my lesson the hard way.
Oh and work out what things de-stress u, playing computergames etc and make sure you keep them close at hand :cool:

As someone mentioned before. Clients wants their account in less than an hour. They don´t want to wait 24 or 48 hours. If the accounts are created automatically, will be better.

Gadget Girl,..go with the host with the most. Whatever the host make sure they have WHM/CPanel. I have used all of the 'panels' and CPanel is the "preferred" panel by most discriminating customers who love the features and ease of use it provides. I might get flack from some but who cares, to them I say: "Am I your enemy because I tell you the truth?" :D :eek:

I took the plunge today by buying the domain and getting a reseller account on my domain host. Now, I have to figure out the plans I want to offer and get the site designed.

YAY!

Thank you everyone for the great advice!!

Sara

Shouldn't you already know the plans you want to offer? Shouldn't this be laid out in the business plan?

You are brave.

Sometimes you change your mind about what you want to offer, doesn't that happen to you, stodge?

Thanks megagente :) I think so too!

Sara