Reseller Hosting | Cheap Reseller Hosting | UK Cpanel WHM Web Hosting

A Reseller Hosting account does have it’s pro’s and con’s which are listed as follows :-

Pro’s -
You do not need to manage the server.
Backups etc. are also handled by the reseller host (although clients and the reseller account holder would be wise to keep backups too).
Server crashes can happen but if you go with a reliable company then they do all the hardwork in restoring things.

Con’s :-
Lack of control on what to install on the server
Lack of resources like CPU, RAM etc…
Less customization in general
You often have to pass support requests on to the actual host as the reseller cannot do all things on the server. This increases support time.

Although it’s a cheaper start in to the hosting business I personally would save up and get enough to purchase 2 servers in a good data center and have a backup elsewhere and start with a good foundation.

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If you are reselling web hosting to your clients then you should offer your clients choice of both Linux and Windows hosting. Its true that you might be a php developer and prefer Linux hosting over Windows but windows hosting platform also supports most tools that Linux hosting platform can support, including php, perl, MySQL and other features.

Additionally some of your clients might also prefer windows rather than Linux. So there are two major advantages for going into windows, you broaden your service platform and along with it you get the cool advantages of Windows development.

Windows is a powerful operating system.

Development in windows is very faster + you have very good support for SQL Server as back-end on the windows server.

ASP.NET is also an advantage on Windows.

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You need to take your time and test your potential host before you decide to host other sites or start a business based on hosting.

Time in business is an important factor, of course, but there are many hosts out there who just seem to dry up and disappear even after a few years being online.

Your main concern should be response time.
You are the go between for your clients essentially. If it takes X amount of time for you to answer a support request Plus X amount of time for your request to your host a lot of time can expire before your client has an answer.

Test out your potential host by getting an account and using features. That way you will get a good indication of network stability and response time to support requests.

Search the forums for recommendations.

Good reseller is what you need to look for. Many are sub-reselling a reseller package and that is where it can hurt business because you will depend on host which depends on reseller and reseller depends on server host. So, reply time increases dramatically and if you don’t get help when you need the most, it matters least how low the price may be.

Talk with the hosting company on a daily basis. Feel them out. Get a small plan feel out the services/support.

Don’t jump into anything for price as reseller relationships are for the long run. Above all, if you are getting into a business seriously you should be prepared to invest some money.

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There are many hosting companies that start out thinking they need to “jump” right into a dedicated server. Thats not really the case. Reseller hosting packages have basically the same thing with the added benefit that there really isn’t that much work for you to do, especially with a management system such as cPanel and a reputable host taking care of the server.

The most important thing to look for is a host who has been around for a while. If you can find a decent provider (and there are tons of them out there) a reseller package can be wonderful.

Perhaps the one important thing that you would want to look for is a hosting provider that not only has good reliability and service, but an easy way to upgrade your package should you need additional space.

Another important thing would be to see what type of self-help resources they offer and whether or not they would be willing to let you use those on your site to help your customers.

Of course, along similar lines, many large hosts have pictures of their data center and don’t mind if you use those pictures on your own site - technically not really cheating because the physical location of the server is there.

As to specifics, stay away from anything that is unlimited. Figure what your prospective clients would need, figure a decent estimate of how many clients you can acquire in a month - start with that - estimate on the low end (you can always upgrade later) and there is no sense in wasting money until you have the customer base to at least pay for your own hosting / reseller costs.

As to the different systems, many customers seem to want Windows servers because of ASP. You might want to try to find a host that actually has ASP on their Linux servers - one of the main reasons for this is that many of the Linux ASP programs are commercial (and rather expensive) - so you atleast know the host has some money that they have invested in software.

Of course, you will also see control panels ranging from cPanel (popular with Linux),  Plesk, Helm as well as a plethora of other “custom” control panels.

cPanel is by far the most common and has a great reseller control system built into it and its what I’d recommend. Second recommendation would be Plesk.

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Reseller web hosting is a web hosting service that re-bundles services available from real hosts or primary providers. Reseller web hosting could be an individual or small business that makes use of the bandwidth and web servers of a higher tier provider or primary host and resells the same to the customers by offering value added services like web designing, domain registration and web programming.

Reseller hosting is the perfect solution for webmasters, designers, developers, internet consultants or anyone wanting to start a profitable online business. If you’re looking to get into the reseller hosting business, cPanel reseller hosting is the best option. Reseller hosting is almost the same as a shared web hosting account except you are given more control over your account. A webmaster may require a network of websites under different domain names to serve different business plans, but all are hosted under a common reseller hosting account.

The services offered by a reseller web hosting service do not really differ from a real host. As a matter of fact, reseller web hosting offers more features to the customers. Due to the added value services, reseller web hosting can offer web design and programming services to each customer that are often times not possible from real hosts. Real hosts tend to focus on bulk accounts and corporate clients. Reseller web hosting offers value added services to customers in order to maintain a competitive edge against bigger web hosting services.

As a reseller of web hosting services, you will purchase the hosting from an existing web hosting provider and then resell it under your company name. The greatest advantage of being a reseller is the fact that you will keep 100% of the profits that you generate from your own web hosting company.

With the right web hosting reseller company, web site developers can be successful with a reseller web hosting service or business. They can provide their customers with web hosting and create web sites at the same time. This is why it is a good idea to find a web hosting company that offers multiple hosting accounts with their web hosting reseller services. A web developer can then host their clients web sites from their own reseller web hosting account.

One of the best things to do before choosing a web hosting reseller company is to get a list of reference sites you can check out to see if they have downtime. With web reseller hosting companies and services you can ask other web site developers about what web hosting resellers they have had good quality service with.

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These are for the ones who want to become resellers. You can look for following in a hosting company you are trying to become a reseller of:-

1. What kind of support they are offering ie email only, ticketing system, phone support and a toll free phone. Email only is rather questionable.

2. Do they have physical office location? Most are part timers around.

3. Do they offer any restrictions to number of accounts in each package, This is a trap to keep you upgrading.

4. Do they offer over selling, yes it has a disadvantage, yet the way things are frankly new business cannot survive without it.

5. Do they offer domain registration reseller services as well? This keeps you compact.

6. Response time to early sales requests. If they are slow in sales cannot be good in support.

7. Years of experience. Do a whois lookup to see the domain life, OLD IS GOLD, thought the young ones can be even better.

8. Do they provide your name servers ie ns1.yourdomainname you shall need that.

9. Does the offering include dedicate IP and SSL, again at some point of time you shall need these.

10. Do you like them…. VERYY IMPORTANT.. IF YES FORGET THE TOP NINE..Have fun

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Web hosting services are in very high demand and therefore any reseller who knows what they are doing can make a bundle quickly without too much trouble. However, just like in any other business, one needs to be cautious and to be very much aware of exactly what they are doing.

The first and most important thing you need to do is find a reliable web hosting service. And that host also needs to have a good reseller program. There are not too many around that have this ideal combination but they are there, if you know where to look.

A reliable web host will mean that the clients you sign up will not run into problems and in case they do, the host must be able to provide proper customer service and respond quickly to any technical problems. This is very important because your reseller business will grow much faster if your current customers are able to refer others. Or if you can refer prospective customers to a portfolio of satisfied current clients.

You will be able to earn more with hosts that already have reseller programs as they will already have good packages on offer that you need to pay very little for and yet have high revenue potential with. Some reseller programs are specifically designed so that resellers are able to enter the web hosting business with very low overheads.

These days we have hosting services that have flexible plans. This will enable you to sign on a higher volume of customers and should also give you a more reliable and steady stream of income.

As a reseller you will also need to have a well thought out plan on how you are going to market and promote your own web site. There is no way your reseller program is going to be successful unless you have a system for attracting enough traffic to your web site so that you have a good chance of turning a high percentage of that number into actual paying clients who will pay the web host you are working with, so that you can in turn get your reseller commissions.

It is absolutely important for the reseller control panel at the web host to provide absolute control for you as a reseller to manage and invoice your clients. This is especially useful where you have a monthly payment system. In this case good records are imperative so as to ensure that follow up for payment is made as easy as possible. There are some hosts that even have private label features and offer multi lingual control panel.

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I thought I’d share some tips that helped me become more successful with reseller hosting.

Branch Out
The hosting market is a saturated place. To attract resellers, offer something the others don’t. You can offer discount web design, domain names and other related services that they can resell in addition to hosting.

Keep Prices Low
But not too low. You don’t want to shoot yourself in the foot. And don’t oversell.

Reseller Service Center
Make sure you provide your resellers with plenty of support and educational services. You have to remember they are basically your virtual salesman. If they don’t make sales, neither do you. Provide them with forms, reading material, tools, a private community and more.

Niche Your Market
Finding a niche market will be your best route. What market is untapped? For instance: providing reseller account for stay at home moms. You could waive the start up fee and donate points to a baby club each sale they make. Find a demand and fill it with a supply.

Hope this helps.

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A reseller is ideal if you have a number of accounts to manage. You generally get your resource at a bulk rate. However, most reseller accounts require you to provide all the customer contact and support services (hence why you get the resources cheaper than retail)

For a web designer, it’s useful to be able to supply the design and hosting service. You can provide design service as well as hosting all in one package for the same customer. You can also provide hosting service to local customers, providing a more personal service to the local community without the expenses that come with becoming a registrar etc.

The other benefit with a reseller account is that the server is managed for you, so all you need to do is the account management and collect the fees.

Down side is that you’re at the mercy of the other accounts on the box, so you really need to ensure that your host is not overselling, but that I guess is the same as hosting lots of individual accounts.

If you need multiple platforms (for example Windows and Linux), then rather than running 2 cheap servers which you won’t fill up, you could probably run 2 reasonable sized reseller accounts for less.

If your budget is low and can not afford a dedicated server then reseller is the best way to start you buisness. After you get a few customers you can move on to a dedicated server.

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When shopping around price isn’t a concern - it’s the perceived stability of the hosting company and the accessibility of customer support.

Warning bells go off as soon as I see hosting plans that are just too cheap - I expect to buy a decent reseller account for around $15-$25 USD in the USA, or £15-£25 for a decent reseller account in the UK.

So when hosts offer lower than that I wonder just how stable the hosting can be.

But as a general trend, can price really be indicative of quality? Or is it a factor that simply needs taking into account within proper context?

Price can certainly be an indicator, but it really depends on what you need. One of my hosts I use has a very low-level re-seller package that I have been fairly happy with. When I first signed up with them a year ago they had some issues because they had people setting up free hosts and everything else on there as they offered unlimited domains.

Once they put in some moderate restrictions on domains, and utilization things have been very smooth.

The unfortunate flipside is higher prices do not necessarily equate to equality. You can overpay for some pretty crappy webhosting service

Bottom line is costs, you can get cheaper by cutting costs, this is usually achieved by cutting corners, generally cheaper hosts will put more load on a box than a more expensive host (not always true, some will charge a lot and still overload )

You see so many hosts these days offering 24*7 support on $1 packages, when you take out the PayPal fee and the server cost, I can’t see how they can have anything left over to pay quality support staff.

We manage costs by going for a mid-range (usually 2.4-3.0GHz) system and putting a sensible number of accounts on it.

Best bet is to simply ask the potential host about their setup, if they’re running a viable business model, then this should be obvious from the quality of the reply you get.

If you have the framework in place and can scale up well, then of course you can offer much better quality at the lower price, but you then run into being a number on the balance sheet rather than Brian from Web Hosting World.

Difficult call to make though, gut feel plays a big part, not always reliable though.

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