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  1. #1

    Interested in Starting Up Reselling

    I know I need these items.

    Reseller Account - But where?
    SSL Cert. - Where should I get this?
    Merchant Account - Is this like paypal?
    Billing Software - something like 2checkout.com?
    Support Ticket Software - Can get one for free at hotscripts.com I suppose.

    How much is it usually to start up? And by when should I expect some profit?

    Thanks.
    http://ih0p.com

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    New England
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    409
    You can start up on a reseller account for ten to twenty dollars for a beginner plan with a good host. A SSL cert might cost around fifty, but if you're using 2checkout you might not need it, unless you're talking about having a secure server for your help desk. 2checkout is forty-nine to get an account. Yes, you can find help desk software for free, though the best free one, Perldesk, isn't free anymore. Good Luck!

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    New Jersey
    Posts
    183

    Re: Interested in Starting Up Reselling

    Originally posted by bluegoop


    Reseller Account - But where? You will find alot of reseller programs from WHT. Make sure you get the support you need. It usually ranges from $40-50 per month.

    SSL Cert. - Where should I get this? If you use paypal, you will not need this. But you can get it from freessl.com for cheap.

    Merchant Account - Is this like paypal? Paypal would be a good place to start. Their Merchant account has very small fees per transactions, whereas others you will have a $20 monthly charge and a minimum activity per month.

    Billing Software - something like 2checkout.com? Once again, If you go with Paypal, you can setup re-occuring monthly bills. It sends your customers a reminder each month to pay.

    Support Ticket Software - Can get one for free at hotscripts.com I suppose. There are many free Helpdesk scripts but I would recommend perldesk.

    How much is it usually to start up? And by when should I expect some profit? This is tough to answer without making you fall asleep... You need to take your time and learn everything. If your looking to get rich fast, then this is not for you. You need really good marketing skills and technical skills to survive. if you do things right, you will spend more than you earn your first year. I would say, at least 1.5 years before you start bringing in good revenue.

    I hope that helps.

    Ariel



    [/B]

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Posts
    2,677
    First off, I would ask you why you want to enter the hosting business? Please don't say money. The answer to most of your questions lies it what you are wanting to get out of being a host. You can get a reseller account from many reputable companies...but you must first sit down and make a business plan. Ask yourself these questions:

    Why are you entering the hosting business?
    Where would you like this business to be in 1-2 years?
    How much knowledge of "hosting" do you have?
    Where is your initial funding going to come from and how much do you have available?
    Of that initial funding, do you have at least 6 months worth of savings to cover the expenses even if you make no sales?
    What amount of time do you have available to devote to the company?
    Are you going to register your business? Pay taxes on it?
    Are you going to hire any sales/tech assistance?
    What happens to the business if you suddenly get yanked away from it? Is there anything established to cover your clients should this occur?
    How much do you have available to advertise? (note...if you are doing this to host some friends and want to keep it very small, advertising may not be necessary).
    What type of payment methods will you want to have? Do you have a SLA, TOS, and AUP?
    What is your plan if your server gets hacked? Someone spams?

    That is just the tip of the iceberg in regards to what you should consider prior to jumping in head first.

    As far as your specific questions...
    You can get a reseller account pretty much anywhere these days. When deciding who to go with, do extensive research. The last thing you need is to get a reseller plan with a less than honest host. Look around here....there are many good resellers. At this point you will also need to decide what features you need. Do you want cPanel, H-Sphere, Ensim, Plesk, or one of the many other control panels out there?

    Most hosts already offer a shared SSL cert so that is not necessarily something you HAVE to have, although I would recommend it so your visitors don't get the warning pop up.

    Merchant account would be like your checking account except it is fully devoted to your business. You can accept checks, CC, and whatever else you need. Your finances can be controlled seperately from your personal (which I highly recommend) finances. You will probably need to get a ficticious name statement to open one, but beware...some banks charge you up the wazoo for a merchant account while they don't provide any better service. Do some shopping around. If you don't want to go with the traditional merchant account you can go with a third party vendor like 2 Checkout and PayPal. Transaction Fees for these (excluding paypal) are usually higher than you would have if you had a traditional account.

    Billing software would be something like ModernBill, PHPManager, WHM Autopilot, H-Sphere, Client Exec, etc. You want to be sure to have something in place to keep track of your clients info as well as your bookeeping.

    Depending on your billing software, you may not need to get a seperate ticket system. If you do need one I recommend perldesk or something similar. Some resellers already offer this in their packages.

    I can't answer the normal start up cost because it can vary and is dependent on what you intend to do with the business. I will recommend that you make sure you have a financial blanket of at least 6 months. The time it will take to get a profit will also vary. Some hosts make a profit right away, but those are usually the ones you see offering the world for $1 and then disappearing a month later with your money.

    I would say don't look for a profit in the first 3 months, but that can vary widely with the size of your business.

    Some people seem to get the impression that hosting is the easiest thing to do. While some parts may be "easy", they can consume a huge amount of your time and resources. Once you decide to enter the business, your reputation is on the line. You don't want to tarnish that by failing your customers.

    I hope this helps a little, there is so much more just not enough space here. Good Luck.

  5. #5
    Thanks Ariel.

    And I can't use like my paypal account I have now right? Since it isn't a Premier account.

    And savage.

    Thanks very much.
    http://ih0p.com

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Posts
    2,677
    You would have to upgrade to a premier or business account to accept credit cards through paypal.

  7. #7
    Alright. Thanks again.

    How much time do you think I would have to devote to this?

    And If I had a good host, would they be able to help me along?
    http://ih0p.com

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Posts
    2,677
    I honestly can't say how much time you would need. It depends on your goals such as number of clients, support arrangements and such. Many hosts that offer reseller packages are willing to help you out, but keep in mind that you are responsible for your clients support, you cannot refer them to your host. Your host will usually work with you to an extent though.

  9. #9
    Ok, so let's say I plan to have maybe, 10-15 customers at max.

    Would that be too much for just me?
    http://ih0p.com

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    New England
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    Ten to fifteen customers is certainly not going to overly stress you, but it also depends on what the customer is like. We get customers who like to do everything themselves and we hardly ever hear from them. OTOH, we get customers who don't understand anything, and ask us for help on the simplest things like how to check their email. You just have to be prepared to answer all the questions. A good reseller host provider will help you out on a lot of this stuff, but you should be prepared to answer the easy ones on your own, it makes you more efficient.

  11. #11
    Yeah I have been around Cpanel for a good two years now, so I know all about that, and all the basic things with servers I know how do to do and explain also.

    I have been hosting my friends for free for a while now.
    http://ih0p.com

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    2,677
    Peter makes an excellent point...some clients will never contact you, and some will every five minutes (it seems). For those of the latter, it is a good idea to provide as much self help as possible. Detailed step by step instructions for the common things such as email, subdomains, scripts and such are very helpful.

    If your company grows large enough, or even if you can justify the cost, the flash tutorials from demodemo are another excellent product to have for your customers. With only a small number of clients, you really shouldn't have an issue being able to support them.

  13. #13
    Should I write out Guides on all those things before I get going?
    http://ih0p.com

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    You could wait, but I would do it as soon as possible. I would wait to write them until you know what type of control panel and billing software you are going to use so you don't have to re-write them later if you go with a different setup.

  15. #15
    Do you have any suggestions on hosts?

    I was looking at www.microreseller.com or www.reddrake.com

    Any opinions? Or should I go with someone else?

    And I plan on having a host with Cpanel, and I'll probably get a Merchant Account from Paypal.
    http://ih0p.com

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Posts
    82
    Originally posted by bluegoop
    Do you have any suggestions on hosts?
    I can recommend three hosts I have recent experience with (listed alphabetically ):

    Dathorn
    Reseller Space
    Ventures Online

    A couple other hosts that carry good reputations here are:

    HTTPMe
    Voxtreme

    Do some research on these - I don't think you can go wrong with any of them.

    yjack

  17. #17
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Philippines
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  18. #18
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Maryland, USA
    Posts
    11

    Re: Re: Interested in Starting Up Reselling

    Originally posted by arelex
    Boy, that is quite a tutorial on hosting! It sounds as if you have been there, done that, and been burned a few times.

    I am looking at reselling space on Dathorn, or a similar service. A small business might happily pay $100 a year for a 5 page site, which they can build with a template system they buy at a software store (or from me).

    Dathorn has a customer that will customize parts of the system with your logo for $25. You could resell services very nicely that way, without people knowing who Dathorn is.

    The trouble with any such arrangement is that if the host goes under you have to move your clients in a hurry and that could get expensive.

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    Hot, hot Michigan...
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    3,506
    Originally posted by bluegoop
    Alright. Thanks again.

    How much time do you think I would have to devote to this?

    And If I had a good host, would they be able to help me along?
    I was just reading this thread, and wanted to comment on the above...

    Some customers you'll get that don't ever talk to you, except during the signup process to get the username/passwords/etc... Those are *great* customers to have, but depending on your markets that you target, you'll also get bob and jane business owner. They'll want to get that email thing working, need help in finding out how this web thingy works, etc...

    As far as the second question, a good company that provides reseller plans will handle most of the harder technical issues for you. Ideally, things should "just work", and any off-the-wall questions your customers ask you should be easily answerable by your reseller host. Some reseller hosts also provide outsourced support, depending on what kind of plan you sign up with them for. Finally, any reseller type of account that you get will leave you heavily dependant on the host, so make sure that you check on their support levels for you. There were some other hosts that were mentioned elsewhere in this thread, and from what I can tell and see, they're all good quality hosts.

    -David
    Ion Web Services/TronicTech
    http://www.ion-web.com or Unsupported webhosting?!?
    Shared hosting, Reseller accounts, Dedicated Servers, and More
    Proudly hosting since 2002

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Location
    Toronto, Canada
    Posts
    187
    Read some of the content guides at reseller-specific sites. A couple of the major ones are HostingReseller.com and ResellerConnection.com.
    Customer Service
    FindYourHosting.com
    customer_service@findyourhosting.com
    http://www.findyourhosting.com

  21. #21
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    San Juan, PR
    Posts
    92
    You can get SSL from Rackshack for $39
    Datah.com
    Great hosting, Great People
    sales@datah.com
    support@datah.com

  22. #22
    Also,

    Make sure that you get a very reliable reseller host that gives you the option to upgrade to your own server easily ( Maybe even free if its within there facility etc )

    With good uptime and good support from your reseller host this will reflect your business and keep your customers happy, the added bonus of being able to expand at a later date is just planning for the future.

    Regards
    Phillip
    www.SURRENDERONLINE.com.au
    Perfect Solutions Every Time! Sydney Based :: Dedicated Servers :: Colocation :: Superior Support::Reseller Solutions

  23. #23
    www.modernbill.com is great billing software, takes a couple hours to completely setup, but after that it pretty well runs itself. Very professional, and their leasing option is fantastic for a host just starting out- $15 a month is their going rate for a 50 client licence.

  24. #24
    I would suggest a easy to use billing software like phpmanager to begin with if you only plan to offer shared hosting and reseller hosting.

    The only reason we went to modernbill which was not only a nightmare to setup and upload all our client information etc but also a pain to run, was due to the fact we started offering ded servers and Colocation also. Nocwizard.com helped out that part also.

    Regards
    Phillip
    www.SURRENDERONLINE.com.au
    Perfect Solutions Every Time! Sydney Based :: Dedicated Servers :: Colocation :: Superior Support::Reseller Solutions

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