hi everyone,
i want to break into being a hosting seller,but i'm a bit unsure who to trust.
some plans i see are cheap £5.95 per month/£9.95.
they say they are not resellers of resellers,but for that price i think they are.
i want to start small....then grow.
i want a website to sell hosting/domains from myself.
where do i begin?.:confused:

It's hard to know who to trust at first, but spend some time on Web Hosting Talk and try to familiarize yourself with the companies mentioned here or listed in the offers section. Some providers will oversell their services, which means selling more than what they have in the hopes of everyone not using all of what they're given. This helps them keep costs low, and is safe to do if you actually have the resources to handle with the potential for a large amount of demand.

You may also wish to contact some hosts that you're interested in directly. Ask them how their price is so low and ask them if they're resellers of resellers. Some may be, but I'm sure that you'll find others that are not. Try and find one that owns their own hardware and, preferably, either leases their own space in a datacenter or owns their datacenter outright. This can help ensure that they really can offer what they advertise.

If you do not know what you want, just go for the cheapest. Of course, sign up for a monthly plan or short term plan. Unless, you are already expecting many clients from the start.

Once you are more familiar with how reseller hosting accounts work, you may want to consider something better. My suggestion is to go for cPanel or DirectAdmin. It makes things easier to migrate.

Greetings,
Having lower prices does not always mean they are a "reseller of a reseller" (aka Master Reseller). It is however typically a sign of overselling. I would always try to avoid this at a reseller level as it can lead to performance issues. Prices should be realistic for the space. £5.95 or £9.95 per month is not too bad but I would only expect a bare bones plan with less then 10-15 GB of Space.

I would advise you to make a list of potential hosts in the offers section of WHT and search for reviews on WebHostingTalk and other user forums. Stay away from "hosting review sites" as they are generally affiliate sites and do not rate based on customer reviews but which has the highest comission.



Since you said that you want to "start small" and grow (which is the best way to think IMHO) I would also contact potential hosts sales team to ask them if they can grow with you. Doing a "Pre-Sales" contact does 2 things;
Answers any questions that you may have about their services
Allows you to see the speed and professionalism of their support team, if you intend to build a long term business relationship with the parent host this is important.
If you do not know what you want, just go for the cheapest
:eek: Woah,
You should never use the word "cheap" for a hosting plan, "lowest cost" is a better way to say this. Personally I would never buy a "cheap" hosting plan, but may buy a "lower cost" or "starter" hosting plan. The word "cheap" typically implies a lack of quality so from a marketing standpoint its just a word that should not be found on a hosting page.

If you do not know what you want, just go for the cheapest.

That advice can only be followed if one gets the reseller account for learning purposes, not to start an actual business.

When choosing a reseller hosting provider, the most important aspect is to find one that has a decent amount of experience (2 years +), so that its assumptions and business model are sufficiently tested and adjusted. Its general reputation and the representatives' attitude when receiving negative feedback are also important. Are they focused on addressing, correcting the issue, or they would rather dismiss it as fast as possible?

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/search.php is arguably your best friend.

You could always start small and get a simple shared hosting account with a test domain. If you are happy with the support etc then you can upgrade but it not then just move onto another company until you find one that works with/for you

Avoid unmetered resellers/master resellers since the hosting company who is offering an unmetered master reseller accounts usually has a lot of master resellers, resellers of master resellers etc on the server and it will make your sites slow and laggy. Their servers are highly overloaded mostly.

It's extraordinarily difficult to find reseller hosting companies that are not overselling heavily and still profiting in a way to be sustainable - especially in the highly competitive market that exists today. Customers are price sensitive and so that makes it more difficult for these companies to stay in business.

That being said, one way to hedge your bets is to work with a company that has more than just a few servers so that, in the case that you are experiencing sluggishness, you can request to be moved to another server. Some companies will do this - some will not.

i want to break into being a hosting seller,but i'm a bit unsure who to trust.
i want a website to sell hosting/domains from myself.
where do i begin?.:confused:
Have you ever created a website or install a script with database?
If not, the first thing you should do is familiarize yourself with the product you're going to sell.

Have you ever created a website or install a script with database?
If not, the first thing you should do is familiarize yourself with the product you're going to sell.

I do feel this would be a better advice in this scenario . Better study the market well before staring the company to resell. Any way there is nothing wrong in buying a reseller hosting account and familiarizing with it. Best of luck.