I'm interested in reselling web hosting. I have the ability to reach a lot of people because of the industry I a work in (housing) and the connections and resources I have access to.

I do not want to hire tech support and I do not want to be over loaded with questions.

What are my options? Selling hosting as an Affiliate has made me money, but I want have a website that has my own company name on it.

Are there resellers that provide tech support to the end user or is there an option for this to be purchased by me?

PS- Whiling joining the site, I saw an ad for InnoHosting that advertises "End-user tech & sales support". Is this what I am looking for and are there others that provide the same? I have heard a lot of good things about Host Gator.

Thanks in advance.

You already mentioned innohosting offers end-user support. That's the only one I know from the top of my head. I think EZPZ does it too...but I'm not sure.

But since you're starting out, you shouldn't expect to get a 100 tickets a day every day, doesn't matter how many people you know. Doesn't happen very often.

And hostgator doesn't provide end-user support, not that I know of.

@njoker555

Thanks for the reply. Due to the type of industry I am involved in, testimonies spread fast (good for bad) and I do not want to go into this without thinking about different options. Although Host Gator would be a good option right now and I could manage a few ticket a day, what happens when the site builds and I can no longer manage the support on my own?

I need to get other steps in place before I pull the trigger.

@njoker555

Thanks for the reply. Due to the type of industry I am involved in, testimonies spread fast (good for bad) and I do not want to go into this without thinking about different options. Although Host Gator would be a good option right now and I could manage a few ticket a day, what happens when the site builds and I can no longer manage the support on my own?

I need to get other steps in place before I pull the trigger.

If you start to see your business grow you should be able to pay someone else to help you with your tickets. End user support from a host can only go so far before you have to think about expanding your own staff base.

End user support from a host can only go so far before you have to think about expanding your own staff base.

End use support can fill a gap between the size when you can handle it all easily, and the size when you can afford to hire staff.

It also provides the advantage of having support for your customers 24/7.

Now, for some resellers these things may not be important (their customers don't need 24/7 support, the company is unlikely to grow much beyond a certain point due to specific limitations), but for some they can be.

Of course, there's always outsourcing support, though it's rarely cost effective for small numbers of tickets.

I think you are right about me starting off small and not having too many tickets originally. Again, I want to make sure I take the right approach and do not select a reseller only because they offer end-user support.

Any other suggestions on which approach I should take?

I DO NOT want to hire a support person no matter how large I get (unless I get really, really large).

Thanks.

I think you are right about me starting off small and not having too many tickets originally. Again, I want to make sure I take the right approach and do not select a reseller only because they offer end-user support.

Any other suggestions on which approach I should take?


Other approaches based on what exactly? You already have the end user support thing going, but you would be fine on any host really. What you could do is get a smaller account with a company not offering end-user support, and once you see things growing, get a second reseller with a host that does offer end-user support and let them handle the new clients while you take care of the initial few. This way you can end up saving more money in the long run.


I DO NOT want to hire a support person no matter how large I get (unless I get really, really large).

May I ask why? Curiosity.

Many reseller hosts will provide end user support at an additional fee. You may have to contact their sales rep for details and pricing.

westnic.net
innohosting.com
theprimehost.com

With westnic, you don't have access to the end-user support but if you request a ticket, they will send you the information.

theprimehost & innohosting you have acess to the tickets (you essentially create a user for them in your WHMCS ticket system)

Those are the only ones I know of.

I believe there are companies that provide end-user support as a value added service, but they do have a limit on the number of emails per hour. So go through their ToS.

innohosting.com
theprimehost.com
ezpzhosting.co.uk

Off the top of my head these are few that offer end user support.

Selling hosting as an Affiliate has made me money, but I want have a website that has my own company name on it.

As long as you're affiliate, all support or sales will be handle by hosting provider but in order to get the web space, it can be negotiate with that particular company..

Good luck..:D

GoDaddy.com supplies end user support with your reseller account.

Yes host gator is good too. I have some friends that are using host gator. And until now they are still using the service. I think it is good. You can also try the buildwebsite.com if you want it.

Many reseller hosts will provide end user support at an additional fee. You may have to contact their sales rep for details and pricing.
do you have any names (besides GoDaddy) that supply end user support with or without additional fee?

yes - look above at the ones I mentioned.

innohosting - small packages, but accessible end user support (meaning you can see tickets)
theprimehost - medium sized packages w/ accessible end user support
westnic - closed end user support (you do not get to see support tickets)


I had originally considered one of these guys, but decided to provide my own support as I will learn more that way and when I grow large enough, I will then contract support.

End-User Support is a valuable add-on and allows you to concentrate on growing your business instead of dealing with the support tickets that may trickle in. In fact, the "trickle" might cause an issue to slip through your fingers because you're caught off-guard.

On the flip side, if you have dozens of tickets daily, you're in a different camp and probably are getting a little too large to handle tickets (not that a dozen tickets couldn't be handled by one person).

Overall, it depends on whether you are in the business to be a hosting company or whether your business is somewhere else with hosting as peripheral income (web design).

Reseller Hosting companies that offer this really have to do it right for it work properly. InnoHosting has a custom-ticket system and so they probably have greater control on managing tickets from the dozens to hundreds of resellers they have (without dropping the ball). Otherwise, it's quite difficult.

VARhosting.net (which I ran a while ago and had it's share of problems) was one of the first companies to offer this feature and we were far from perfect particularly because I didn't have the custom helpdesk solution to handle the end-user tickets. I'm glad to see that companies are taking the right approach to offering this solution although it's not necessarily for the faint of heart and requires the appropriate infrastructure to make possible.

It certainly sounds to me like a reseller package that offers end-user support is your best option. What sort of budget do you have? Any other specific requirements? Perhaps we can recommend a few providers to you

Nothing like the OP coming back to a thread 6 months later... huh?

Well, since writing this post, I have created an account with InnoHosting. It has since been closed due to PayPal issues. I wasn't using the service but I did look at the features and from what I can tell, InnoHosting will be a good solution.

I also contacted HG about this feature and they mentioned that it is not something they offer. They mentioned that if there is an issue I can not resolve that I can submit a ticket for them to address... but that is not what I want.

I do not want to say that money is no issue, but I do not want to pay more than $10 a month for the feature or i would like to pay per ticket/time.

I see the signature from the guy above and he now offers End-User support. I'll check it out.

Also, last point. GoDaddy does offer end-user support on their reseller account. I have the middle package and while I am sure that it is a good program, the design of the website is very busy and there are only so many things that can be customized.

Thanks all.