Reseller Hosting Business and Client Support Discussion

Well... I don't know how to answer this without confusing you more.

I have some clients that I use for a selling point that I would give them free hosting for a certain amount of time, but I offer web design and other services as well so it's easy to bundle.

There are a lot of cheap plans available, for $3/mo it is hard to compete with but not everybody knows much about other hosts.

I have some clients I have charged different prices for, for a year up front, but those are ones that would be making their own updates and such.

I have other clients that go monthly.

One of my main problems has been being consistent with hosting and maintenance. Right now all my new clients can basically pay $10/mo for hosting, or they can pay $35/mo for hosting and maintenance which includes weekly backups and 1 hour of content changes. I don't offer hosting for those who already have a website and are not clients of mine in web design.

I think there are a few people on here that just offer hosting which might be able to give you better insight. In my opinion, margins are lower in hosting than other areas, but hey, if you make money you make money. I think the biggest concern for you should be, how are you going to get clients?

reseller discussions can be found on webhostingtalk.com there are alot of webhost there.

The question is do you want to just be a webhost? or are you wanting to offer other services to set you apart!

My suggestion is to use host gator reseller because of one reason: their support.

You can come out with a branded package for your clients and bill them monthly , also for any issues you may just ask their live help people to fix!
Easy & absolutely profitable.

Now this would really depend.

First of all you need know if you are going to target any specific region or country. If that's not the problem then I would say you need to provide support for your reselling hosting business. I have been hosting business and I have got my own servers. If you hesitate or if you lack time to provide support you can outsource them.

You can find bunch of companies in India or any other Asian country and outsource your entire support to them.

Those outsourcing might charge you anything between 100-1000$ a month depending on the kind of requirement you give them and number support guy you hire.

Now you have to decide, if you really wanna get into hosting and if you are going to spend a lot of SEO, PPA, CPA or other marketing stratergy then I would say outsource your support and if you don't provide support your company you fail. That might sound a bit rude but if you sell something you have to provide support for it.

Also if you are selling shared hosting then it's always advisable and profitable to charge annually as compared to monthly due to transaction fees from various payment gateways.

Hey, I commented on this comment in another thread.

You need to first come up with a business plan. Then understand that just because you have a web hosting company, doesn't mean you're going to have customers. Go over to Webhostingtalk.com and look at all the threads of people selling their little "web hosting" businesses.

If you don't know the answers to these questions already, it doesn't sound like you know much about the industry and I would advise against it.

ONLY If You Want To Make Money? Add value. Create a package that includes
things other host companies don't. Help them get traffic. Add more value.
Charge $89 per month (less than $3 a day.)

Hugh