Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Running a Web Hosting Business : Resellers or not?

[outofspace]

I'm at an undecided stage.

I'm currently using a large reseller to provide my customers with hosting. Quite a majority of them are the more advanced in how they use the internet and what they want from their hosting...and many of them have more than just one account.

However, lately I've had a few e-mails from some clients requesting information on how to resell the service. Basically, they want to offer a service like me. Now, I'm at this undecided stage as I'm not sure whether I want to expand the services I offer as I like just providing a simple service as it keeps everything minimal, or, offer resellers but making things a bit more hectic and complicated but keeping clients and attracting more of a different type.


I'm confused guys, any opinions and advice would be great - thanks.

[Argious]

Hi,
Sounds like you might be at the stage where you're outgrowing just a normal reseller account. First you should consider a few things.

The first would be are you mentally ready to expand? As a reseller, you probably have a business with a small support staff (under 3 support personnel). If you expand and include reseller accounts in your plans then you'll have to account for more customers and potentially a larger need for support. This means if you're a one-man or one-woman business, you'll probably have to higher more people to do support for you.

You should also check if you're legally prepared. Expanding outside of a reseller account is taking one of your first deep steps into the water and if you're caught off guard by a troublesome customer without legal protection and preperation, chances are you'll regret it.


The second step after you've decided whether you're mentally ready for moving up would be checking to see which type of account you should move up to. If your current customer base provides you with enough income to purchase your own dedicated server, that would be great.

If it does, make sure you either know the technical expertise to handle a dedicated server, or else purchase a managed dedicated server so you don't have to handle the technical mumbo jumbo. Managed servers will most likely cost $100 - $200 per month and up depending on the exact specs.

If you aren't earning enough to purchase a dedicated server, then you might consider using an affiliate program from your host or another host that provides resellers. Or consider purchasing a semi-dedicated plan in which the host will allow you creation of reseller WHMs. Semi-dedicated price plans will vary but should usually be only half or a third of the cost of a regular dedicated server.


As you've already stated in your post, being a reseller is hectic enough if you aren't prepared. But when you start providing reseller plans, you should be prepared to take the full dive and swim as usually the prices and responsbility to your customers and yourself will rise.

If you need specific help or advice, feel free to contact me. Best of luck. And as always, do research before you pick a host or provider.

[thedavid]

I would. I love our resellers. See if you can get your upstream host to cut you a deal - they may create reseller accounts for you at a %off, allowing you to pocket the profits.

Otherwise, it'd be dedicated server time. And that all depends on how knowledgeable you are about managing servers.

I dunno - do you have any specific questions about offering reseller accounts? It's kinda a broad topic...

-David

[outofspace]

This has just kind of clarified how much I want to just keep things as they are.

I like supplying just shared hosting, but I don't want to lose clients I already have, and potential clients which would broaden my client base.

But, I believe keeping things like they are would be best ...what are your opinions guys? Have you known people being in this situation before?

[akashik]

Well, if you prefer to keep it simple then I'd suggest you do just that. We've put off a reseller system for years as it's just not that important to our business development (though it has always been in the background as a planned idea).

My advice would be to move into offering reseller accounts when you're ready and you want to, and not before.

[osckar]

Hi:

I had a client who asked me if he can be a reseller of my services (funny, the reseller of a reseller ...) anyway, I was not in the position of giving him a WHM because Im just a reseller and the WHM has information about servers, etc that the client could see adn discover Im not a 'real' host.

But, I answered him that he could be a reseller of my services by just purchasing a main account (a 'special' account for reseller & 'special' price) and then buying the same accounts I offer with a discount price.

That way, he is making money from me and Im making money from his frequent purchase.

It's important that you manage resellers with anonymous DNS, so if you are using your main domain as main hosting page & custom DNS, you may want to open a new account with another x domain to support your reseller with anonymity.

Also, there are some companies that offer Private Servers, some kind of managed servers (you can reboot, have full access to root, can add re-resellers to your reseller account, etc)

Tell me if you need further help or tips

Oscar