What is a reseller and what does it takes to be a GREAT reseller? I ask this question because in some of the threads resellers are described as “not-real, pretenders and fake” businesses.

I might be mislead because I believe that resellers are like brokers that are totally focus on providing the best products and services for their customer.

What are your opinions?

By no means a reseller is a fake or pretender, as long they do not pretend to be something they are not.

I believe that some resellers can give a very good personal approach to the services they deliver, but technically they are in the hands of the company they take the reseller services from and are not able to act themselves when something on the system itself goes wrong, which does not need to be a problem, but could delay solutions in certain cases.

Obviously the problem gets worse if it is a reseller of a reseller of a reseller; i.e. Hardware -> VPS -> Reseller with Reseller services. You suddenly have to deal with 3 layers below you, and anyone who knows a bit about communication knows the chances of communication go wrong will be quite a bit larger.

So choosing a webhost which resells can be a good choice, but you have to be sure your host does have very good contacts with the company they take the service of.

If you would like to become a reseller, I would advise you to make sure they are not tangled up in a big web of re-sellers.

Hope this explanation helps you.

It should be noted that just about every host out there resells something at some level or another whether it be their network connections to their servers, or the servers themselves, or space on the servers. If you take HostGator for an example they lease their servers from ThePlanet and ThePlanet gets their bandwidth pipes from several providers.

I would try to get as close to the DataCenter as you can, although going one level down (such as through HostGator) I feel is ok too as long as the company directly above the reseller is a quality provider with good support.

If you're going to start your own reseller account, do your best not to choose a reseller from a master reseller from a reseller etc...

You want to get a reseller with someone who at least rents the servers if not owns them, that way you only have 1 level for support.

Resellers can often offer value to local customers or provide additional services to make their offers unique or at least somewhat attractive.

But do not try to compete on price alone.

What does it take to be a great reseller.

Honesty, integrity, loyalty and savvy with a decent pinch of how server's work never go a miss.

To be a great reseller, you need to be able to provide the best quality of service and support as you possibly can so that you gain the respect of your paying customers.

Each customer must always be well looked after, regardless of how much they are paying you, whether it's $5 a month or $30 a month.

I treat my private clients who have a little space the same as I do the larger clients with fo example 100 times as much space etc. Work to the same high standard that way you won't be accused of showing preferential treatment to anyone.

Maintaining one high quality standard across the board for all customers will mean you don't just their respect but also their loyalty an in turn they may remain your customer for many years. You will most likely increase your customer base via word of mouth initially from your happy customers spreading your good name around, so always start as you mean to go on is what I say.

owm

I agree with that, it can sometimes take a look of work to be a reseller but providing that you make sure that you provide good services and are reliable.

As a reseller I should never compete on price alone because I will get slaughter.

A great reseller business should be based on honesty, integrity, and loyalty. Build loyalty with customers by being loyal to them first. Contrary to popular belief some how and in someway “almost” most host are resellers at one point.

To be a great web hosting reseller I should go to the source if not find one that rents or owns their servers. I must avoid layers of more than two deep from the Data Center. I must maintain an open line communication with my reseller. Not only should I be “savvy” but it does not hurt to know about how servers work.

Is this a fair summary of what has been written so far? Is there more to being a great reseller? What is a web host master?

In my opinion, a reseller is a great web host as long as they don't oversell. The reason I believe that most people consider resellers to be "fake" is because most of them oversell and offer terrible support. If you are able to offer quality support and not oversell your services then I don't see anything wrong with being a reseller. Everyone has to start somewhere and most webhosts started as resellers.

The easiest way to compare Reseller's to VPS to Dedicated is simple.

The amount of features / abilities you have with the said 'server'.


Reseller WHM control panels are very bare... I know when I went from a WHM(Reseller) to a VPS(WHM), I was in shock as to how many more features and options there were to deal with. VPS to Ded is not so many more, but there are some.

As a reseller you dont have access to shell access...as a vps/ded you do.

as a reseller, you need to contact your hosting company to fix a problem that your customer is having. as a VPS/ded you can do it yourself.


I dont consider reseller's as scum or anything else. I personally (knowing what I know about them) would preffer to host with someone else..due to the support thing.

Two lessons I learn today.

1. is get a tech support team because "...problem with the MySQL...sorry for the inconvenience" is not how I would want my customers sites reading for any amount of time over 5 seconds.

I do not wish to hear Tonto saying to me:"You are alone now. Last man. You are Lone Ranger."

2. I can not afford to lease four servers at this time but my Reseller can....everything I can not afford at this time someone else has in place. I just have to learn how to leverage their equipment to benefit my customers.