Hello

I have just spent the past month completely updating and revamping my business site and was toying around with the idea of offering webhosting plans to supplement my current income. I do have a few unresoved issues that haunt me though...

(1) I'm assuming that I'd first have to devote a great deal of time and labor to creating "TOS", "FAQ", "Plans", "Order" and a bunch of other pages for my site and then shop for a reseller that suits my needs. The only problem I see in this is that I would be creating all of these pages based on someone elses service and if they ever went down the tubes, all of my work would have been for naught. Basically, if I'm coding all those pages for a service, I want to have full control over it.

(2) I've spent some time shopping around and from what I see, most resellers are generous with space but pretty stingy on the bandwidth. What's more is that with so many wiz-bang gimmicks and offers out there, how in the heck do I know who's "for real" and who's just making a sales pitch to get my business?. I can't afford to have 30-40 clients go offline just because a reseller offers crappy service or goes out of business.

(3) With all the homeland security laws, patriot act, DMCA, etc, what happens if a client uploads pirated material to his account?. Do the "men in black" come knocking at my door at 3:00 AM in the morning?.

(4) What happens when I lay out $30.00 - $60.00 bucks for a reseller plan?. How long does it normally take to set up my reseller account (on their end) and do I have some sort of admin control center to administer my client's accounts?. Can I set the amount of disk space and bandwidth they can use?. Is the process fairly easy and straightforward or do I have to have some kind of IT degree to do this?.

(5) When I get a reseller account, I'm assuming I get access to my "own" server or at least shared space (perhaps a single partition) on a server. Am I basically on my own and whatever happens to or on that server is my sole responsibility or do I basically have someone holding my hand, making sure the server is secure, etc all the time?.

Anyway, these are just a few issues I have but I AM very interested in doing this and I used to host on my own machine a few years ago so I'm not entirely new to this. I'm just in need of a little freindly advice:)

- Thanks

Originally posted by jimbrown
(1) I'm assuming that I'd first have to devote a great deal of time and labor to creating "TOS", "FAQ", "Plans", "Order" and a bunch of other pages for my site and then shop for a reseller that suits my needs. The only problem I see in this is that I would be creating all of these pages based on someone elses service and if they ever went down the tubes, all of my work would have been for naught. Basically, if I'm coding all those pages for a service, I want to have full control over it.
You build your site and then find your supplier. The supplier you choose isn't really that interlaced into your site. If you choose a supplier that offers WHM/CPanel etc, then you can retain this info on your site, should you switch suppliers.
(2) I've spent some time shopping around and from what I see, most resellers are generous with space but pretty stingy on the bandwidth. What's more is that with so many wiz-bang gimmicks and offers out there, how in the heck do I know who's "for real" and who's just making a sales pitch to get my business?. I can't afford to have 30-40 clients go offline just because a reseller offers crappy service or goes out of business.
Then make sure that your supplier has been around at least 12mths. Checkout their site for a forum and client testimonials etc. Contact those sites and ask how things go etc. There's plenty of fly-by-nighters out there looking for a quick buck, so it's buyer beware.
(3) With all the homeland security laws, patriot act, DMCA, etc, what happens if a client uploads pirated material to his account?. Do the "men in black" come knocking at my door at 3:00 AM in the morning?.
I seriously doubt you'll need to be too worried about that. There's a large thread about that around here somewhere.
(4) What happens when I lay out $30.00 - $60.00 bucks for a reseller plan?. How long does it normally take to set up my reseller account (on their end) and do I have some sort of admin control center to administer my client's accounts?. Can I set the amount of disk space and bandwidth they can use?. Is the process fairly easy and straightforward or do I have to have some kind of IT degree to do this?.
You should get access to your account within 6hours from the order. There are plenty of reseller platforms to choose from. They will give you control over your plans etc. WHM/Cpanel is a popular platform and it's pretty easy to get the swing of too. You don't need an IT degree to handle one. :)
(5) When I get a reseller account, I'm assuming I get access to my "own" server or at least shared space (perhaps a single partition) on a server. Am I basically on my own and whatever happens to or on that server is my sole responsibility or do I basically have someone holding my hand, making sure the server is secure, etc all the time?.
Most Reseller type accounts give you access to a shared server with other resellers. Your supplier admins the server and keeps everything running smoothly. That's what they get paid for. You are paying for a % of the server and you use that account to service your clients.
Anyway, these are just a few issues I have but I AM very interested in doing this and I used to host on my own machine a few years ago so I'm not entirely new to this. I'm just in need of a little freindly advice:)
No worries at all. There's HEAPS of good advice around these parts. Heaps of helpful folks that will go out of their way to lend a hand. You just have to remember that it is a real business and if you treat is like that, you'll do ok. :)