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  1. #1
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    Looking for advice :o)

    I'm considering becoming a reseller and would like to hear about your experiences.

    I'd like to hear about what challenges you face on a day-to-day basis, and what I should expect.

    I'd like to know how many customers I can realistically support on my own before I even need to think about hiring and growing the business. I've done some calculations and it would seem that I could be earning a decent salary with as little as 250 customers - is it possible for me to provide support for 250 customers on my own? How about 1000 customers?

    Another thing that has been bugging me; there must be some limit as to how many customers you can get on one server, right? For example, if I wanted to get 100 customers on HostGators Pro Dedicated server, is that possible? How about 1000 customers?

    Lastly, I have pretty much no web design skills, so I guess I'll have to either find some template, or pay someone for design. How much money do you think I should put aside for website design?

    I look forward to your replies

  2. #2
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    well first of all regarding the support , I dont think managing the 250 customers is hard as long as your set up is promising , stable and proper.
    If you move further with 1000 customers you may a single person to manage the support for them.

    Regarding server limits there is no any such standard limit since the HDD of the server will be consumed as per your hosting customer's file size so you will have manage it manually.
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  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by eNetCloud-CEO View Post
    well first of all regarding the support , I dont think managing the 250 customers is hard as long as your set up is promising , stable and proper.
    If you move further with 1000 customers you may a single person to manage the support for them.

    Regarding server limits there is no any such standard limit since the HDD of the server will be consumed as per your hosting customer's file size so you will have manage it manually.
    Thank you for your response.

    But the servers hardware must have a limit of how many websites it can support -- no? Can one server process data for 1000 websites simultaneously? Or perhaps the line speed, I haven't seen allocated line speed information being given on HostGator, or Site5.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Eildor View Post
    Thank you for your response.

    But the servers hardware must have a limit of how many websites it can support -- no? Can one server process data for 1000 websites simultaneously? Or perhaps the line speed, I haven't seen allocated line speed information being given on HostGator, or Site5.
    Yes, depending on the server. But a lot of it comes down to what you are running on the server, is you are using caching, if the sits are dynamic or static, and many more. There are tons of variables as far as how many accounts you can fit on a server, it is nearly impossible to gauge exactly.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by TBradley View Post
    Yes, depending on the server. But a lot of it comes down to what you are running on the server, is you are using caching, if the sits are dynamic or static, and many more. There are tons of variables as far as how many accounts you can fit on a server, it is nearly impossible to gauge exactly.
    Well, just to give me an idea; do you have any customers on the Dedi #3 package hosting 250+ customers? If so, what's the resource utilization like? If your dedicated servers are connected to 100Mbps switch ports, then I imagine the maximum upload speed is going to be 100Mbps, is that correct? That would mean that each customer website would be able to make use of 0.4Mbps -- although of course, it would be unusual for all 250 customer websites to be utilized at the same time.

    Please correct me if I am wrong, I'm very new to all of this.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Eildor View Post
    Well, just to give me an idea; do you have any customers on the Dedi #3 package hosting 250+ customers? If so, what's the resource utilization like? If your dedicated servers are connected to 100Mbps switch ports, then I imagine the maximum upload speed is going to be 100Mbps, is that correct? That would mean that each customer website would be able to make use of 0.4Mbps -- although of course, it would be unusual for all 250 customer websites to be utilized at the same time.

    Please correct me if I am wrong, I'm very new to all of this.
    Port speed is really not a good way to gauge the amount of users allowed on a server. More then likely you would run out of CPU before you ever ran out of a 100mbps connection. I know business wise it would really help to know how many accounts you could fit, but there are just too many variables to give an exact number, but for that specific HostGator Dedi, I would say you could probably fit 200-300 domain comfortably. Again, if all these sites are dynamic (php + mysql) then you mibght only get 100.

    See where I'm coming from?

  7. #7
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    Hmm yes I understand where you are coming from. Thanks mate much appreciated

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Eildor View Post
    Hmm yes I understand where you are coming from. Thanks mate much appreciated
    Not a problem, glad I could help!

  9. #9
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    Can I ask you a question about SpecHosting.com? I'm sure I've seen a similar designed website -- is that some sort of a template? Or is there some kind of a site builder you are using? Or are several people just using the same designer?

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Eildor View Post
    Can I ask you a question about SpecHosting.com? I'm sure I've seen a similar designed website -- is that some sort of a template? Or is there some kind of a site builder you are using? Or are several people just using the same designer?
    What we did was use a designer to modify this template. When we started looking for a new design we found this site and knew it was the exact same look we were going for! It's pretty new (we have had this design for about a week) and our designer is still making some last minutes changes!

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Eildor View Post
    Can I ask you a question about SpecHosting.com? I'm sure I've seen a similar designed website -- is that some sort of a template? Or is there some kind of a site builder you are using? Or are several people just using the same designer?
    What is your site url?

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by TBradley View Post
    What we did was use a designer to modify this template. When we started looking for a new design we found this site and knew it was the exact same look we were going for! It's pretty new (we have had this design for about a week) and our designer is still making some last minutes changes!
    Cool. It looks really good, I like it

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by stardust_x7 View Post
    What is your site url?
    I don't have a website at the moment; trying to figure out what my plan is exactly before going ahead. Last thing I want to do is become a reseller, and then find I can't give my customers what they paid for.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Eildor View Post
    I don't have a website at the moment; trying to figure out what my plan is exactly before going ahead. Last thing I want to do is become a reseller, and then find I can't give my customers what they paid for.
    To be 100% honest, if you are just getting into the industry then I suggest starting out on a reseller account. While Dedicated Servers can give you more freedom, they can also produce a lot of headaches. Server Management, ( if your doing it yourself) is very time consuming to learn, and your customers are going to always want quick speedy support. As I am sure you already know, Reseller accounts do not cost near the amount of a Dedicated Server, and the less overhead you have when first starting out, the better you will be overall!

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by TBradley View Post
    To be 100% honest, if you are just getting into the industry then I suggest starting out on a reseller account. While Dedicated Servers can give you more freedom, they can also produce a lot of headaches. Server Management, ( if your doing it yourself) is very time consuming to learn, and your customers are going to always want quick speedy support. As I am sure you already know, Reseller accounts do not cost near the amount of a Dedicated Server, and the less overhead you have when first starting out, the better you will be overall!
    Who would you recommend I go with? Right now I'm considering what Site5 has to offer, as they have a server in London. I could start off on the Starter package which is about £16/$26. I was thinking of perhaps only selling one package... for example 1GB disk space, 10 GB bandwidth... I just hope that the Starter package is able to support 50 customers on one server... but I guess there's no way for me to know for sure. I think Site5 also offer a trial, I'll have to check that out too.

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Eildor View Post
    Who would you recommend I go with? Right now I'm considering what Site5 has to offer, as they have a server in London. I could start off on the Starter package which is about £16/$26. I was thinking of perhaps only selling one package... for example 1GB disk space, 10 GB bandwidth... I just hope that the Starter package is able to support 50 customers on one server... but I guess there's no way for me to know for sure. I think Site5 also offer a trial, I'll have to check that out too.
    Hey There,

    Only you can decide what provider fits your needs. Besides, per the WHT rules we can not suggest any provider unless we have prior experience. I do not have any experience with them so it would be against the rules as well as impossible for me to gauge the service. A quick search here on the forums or a reply from someone that has been or is a customer of them would be a much better help!

    Cheers

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by TBradley View Post
    Hey There,

    Only you can decide what provider fits your needs. Besides, per the WHT rules we can not suggest any provider unless we have prior experience. I do not have any experience with them so it would be against the rules as well as impossible for me to gauge the service. A quick search here on the forums or a reply from someone that has been or is a customer of them would be a much better help!

    Cheers
    Alright, thank you very much for your help - you have been extremely helpful

  18. #18
    HostXNow - Shared Web Hosting | Semi Dedicated Hosting | Enterprise Reseller Hosting | VPS Hosting

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by HostXNow View Post
    That's excellent! Thanks mate! Much appreciated

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Eildor View Post
    That's excellent! Thanks mate! Much appreciated
    No problem. If you need any help editing the templates or anything like that just let us know.
    HostXNow - Shared Web Hosting | Semi Dedicated Hosting | Enterprise Reseller Hosting | VPS Hosting

  21. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by HostXNow View Post
    No problem. If you need any help editing the templates or anything like that just let us know.
    Thanks bro

  22. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by TBradley View Post
    Yes, depending on the server. But a lot of it comes down to what you are running on the server, is you are using caching, if the sits are dynamic or static, and many more. There are tons of variables as far as how many accounts you can fit on a server, it is nearly impossible to gauge exactly.
    I totally second that! :-)

  23. #23
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    Cool. I guess if I'm just hosting blogs to start with it shouldn't be too resource intense.

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