Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Reseller Hosting : Need thoughts & opinions

[MichaelK]

I would like input from different hosts and clients regarding the following package that our hosting company hopes to soon offer to the public.

[This is not a disguised advertisement - as I am not including my e-mail address or company name.]

This offer is geared especially toward 'resellers' and those who would like to host clients (designers, etc.).
Instead of a master account, setup fees and 'cookie-cutter' packages, we will offer this:

A 'reseller' (I don't like that word, it sounds cheap) would have an account created in their clients name according to the specifications listed below.

The cost will be just $5 per account, per month. There would be no other fees (except additonal/over bandwith).

The 'reseller' will be able to markup that price in whatever way they choose. Further, we will not contact your client. You will provide all billing and support. For those who do not wish to 'mask' us in the background, we can provide support direct to your client...for no extra charge.

If you are providing your own support, and don't know the answer to a customer question, you have full access to our experienced technical support team who will generally respond within 3 hours of inquiry.

The package will have the following elements:

75 MB Disk Space, 1G Transfer, 75 POP3 Accounts
E-mail forwarding, Auto responders, E-mail aliases
SSI, Majordomo mailing list, FTP access
Full CGI & Perl Support
Web-bsed control panel, Frontpage 2000 extensions, Personal Cgi-Bin
Online usage statistics
24 x 7 experienced, friendly technical support
Professional staff with backgrounds ranging from web design to business management.

Additional bandwith can be purchased in one of two ways:

1. Pre-paid: $5 per G, per month

2. Overrage: .01 per MB, per month

Obviously this plan would be ideal for light/medium-to-medium sites (real estate, doctors, lawyers, e-business, informational, etc..)

A 100MB account with 2G transfer and 100 POP accounts would be $7 per account, per month.

(To answer some of the questions that I know will first appear: we are not resellers; 4 redundant connections; money-back guarantee)

I invite your productive thoughts and comments on this plan we hope to start offering to the public in the near future. I am not looking for a critique of the benefits & features we offer, just of the plan itself.

Thanks in advance.

[Chicken]

May I ask what type of server/sofware this is based on? ie: RaQ, Alabanza, etc... just wondering.

[MichaelK]

The servers for this particular package would be RaQ.

[Chicken]

Cool beans... mind if I ask what your URL is? I always like to check out RaQ hosts (I have one as well.. a RaQ3). Since I'm asking I think it would be ok to post. It was nice of you not to post it (everyone hates that).

P.S. Other than the plans sounding if anything, too inexpensive, it all sounds good. I usually price it at $5/Gb and don't worry about the space so much (easy to add another HD). So a xMB with 1Gb/mo would be $5, a xMB with 2Gb/mo would be $10, and so on.

[Edited by Chicken on 09-24-2000 at 02:53 PM]

[MichaelK]

Thanks for your reply.

Once the designer has the page fully up-and-running, I will start sending out the URL. (In my opinion, it's like trying to sell a house when it is only half-built.)

The reason that I can be so "inexpensive" with these particular packages is that the server(s) have already served their purpose with their main sites. This package is for that 'remnant' space that is just sitting there gathering cyber-dust.

[The main site is only using less than 25% of the system resources.]

I like your bandwith pricing idea. I am going to have to explore that further.

Thanks for your input.

[DynastyHost]

Not bad.. not bad at all.. but I think ppl would want a little more bandwidht.. we all know that they dont use all fo it. but it would make the plan looks good

[MichaelK]

True...perhaps I could post *unlimited* ;-)

Seriously, thanks for the post. It is a good point.

[BC]

Michael....

Seriously, I think the plans are quite good value. However, I agree with Dynasty - I suggest a minimum of 1.5/2 GB at least for the reseller plan in order to fill the plan out.

[MichaelK]

Thanks for the input.

I could easily up it to 2 or more. If I do, I will probably keep it at 2.

Again, thanks for the replies.

[tejan]

Very competitive. Some might want a little bit more bandwidth. http://www.hosting24-7.com is offering 100MB, 100email acounts for $3.99. So you may want to keep that in mind.

[Chicken]

I think trying to beat the lowest price out there is a losing battle. From what I've seen, they are very low priced, which is good, but it isn't everything. I've never heard of them before this week, and am not sure how long they've been around. If they can still offer the same price and great support a year from now, then that will be quite an accomplishment!