Reseller Web Hosting

Reseller Web Hosting is an added-on opportunity available with some hosting plans. It

combines a VPS, usually, with an affiliate program. You gain the ability to become a web

hosting provider yourself, with all the power – and customer service responsibility – that

role entails.

Why buy reseller web hosting: If you’re both a techie and a business entrepreneur,

reseller web hosting is one obvious choice for starting a business online. If you know

the product and related technologies, it’s hard to find any other situation where so many

of your business needs can be gotten in just one inexpensive purchase.

Every business needs a website. But with reseller web hosting shops, the website is all

you need!

What to expect from reseller web hosting: With reseller web hosting, you start with a

certain capacity, and purchase more as your customer base grows. You allot the space,

bandwidth, and domain assignment, and which services are available. You spend your

reseller hosting assets by deciding who needs email, webmail, extra space, extra

bandwidth, and other resources – or reserve those assets for higher-tier customers.

Your own customer interacts with a limited set of web hosting controls – your customers

are effectively using a shared hosting service. The level of service you provide, what

tiers and a-la carte options they can choose from, and other terms are all up to you. The

hosting provider whose service you resell, will usually expect you to take care of your

own customers as much as possible.

Reseller web hosting sometimes also, usually, comes with apps you can tie-into your own

website. The best of these will transform your website into a fully-functioning shopping

cart, and will process payments for the resold hosting service while you sleep.

Costs: Hosting providers with experience in reseller hosting plans often won’t charge you

at all. You’ll pay for your VPS, apply to request reseller rights, and gain access to

extra tools if your request is approved. When you need more capacity to resell, they’ll

charge the same upgrade prices as for non-reseller accounts.

For resellers who manage the hosting services hands-on as part of your customer service

promise, there will be additional purchases, such as domains. You may also want to

purchase a small capacity upgrade each time you take on a new customer or new site – thus

avoiding overselling what you have.

Alternately, some reseller web hosting plans do this automatically. In those situations,

the your web host will monitor your usage, and charge you a (hopefully!) fair price for

more capacity, whenever the server watchdogs notice things slowing down.

Don’t forget the cost of time. Reseller web hosting is a service industry, and you’ll

need to charge for overhead. If you want to keep your customers, you’ll have to be

available, and efficient, to earn that overhead.