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Reseller Hosting – A Complete Introduction
What is Reseller Hosting?
Reseller hosting means giving a hard drive space and bandwidth to the business. In other words, in reseller hosting, any company or individual purchases hard drive space and bandwidth from a web hosting provider then sell it to a third-party.
Resources can be offered in reseller hosting
There are some resources that you can offer to your clients:
- Hard drive space
- Bandwidth
- FTP accounts
- Databases
- Email accounts/lists
- Add on domains, parked domains
- Latest cPanel control panel
How to Establish a Reseller Business?
- Research and choose a hosting company.
- Buy a reseller package that fulfils your requirements.
- Know your target market to make your customers.
- Build your own hosting package.
- Fix your price.
- Make available and sell your services to your clients.
- Get profit.
Some points are written below that can be helpful in building a reseller business:
# Identification of Target Market
With any business, you need customers to sell your product or service. Web hosting companies may have different requirements for their website and web hosting. With this, clients may also have different requirements, maybe a client wants a single business card, single-page website or another client want multiple pages on the website with various features. So basically, you should have enough technical knowledge that how you’ll manage various accounts.
# Choose Hosting Company
The main thing here is choosing a hosting company from where you’ll get service and your clients will get reseller hosting from you, i.e. you will be an intermediary person between the hosting company and your clients. So hosting company should be reliable enough because your all client’s website will be stored there. The key features of the web hosting company are:
- At least one site builder should be included such as WordPress.
- Include private nameservers.
- Provide 99.9% uptime guarantee.
- 27/7 customer support.
- Australian based data centre.
# Ensure That Your Plan is Upgradable
Make sure that your provider is able to upgrade the plan when required. The way around this would be to buy the same plan one more time and handle several plans, however, this is not convenient while hosting multiple clients. So it’ll be better to have your customer under a single place instead of giving them different plans.
What Will be Included in The Reseller Plan?
Now, we’ll consider what a reseller plan will include? But this thing will depend on the web hosting company you have chosen. Some basic features that every hosting company includes:
- Storage
- Number of accounts you can manage, it will be upgradable after you reach your limit
- Bandwidth
- cPanel control panel
- Customer support
- Domain hosting
If you get SSL certification then this will be a good option for you and your clients. You can also give administration control to your clients if they can manage.
Follow Steps before Starting to Offer Reseller Hosting
You should consider some things before starting to offer hosting plans for your customers:
# Decide right hosting plans for your customers
If you want to be successful in this field then understand the requirements of your customers. Your plans should be based on the requirements of your clients instead dictated by the resources and features of the reseller account.
If you are a developer then you may know the business you serve for and you’ll better know what type of hosting will be best.
If you are from another field then you have to research and identify your target market. Other things to consider such as the size of disk space available, bandwidth, software for building websites, number of email accounts they’ll need and security requirements (SSL, remote backups, etc.).
You can also put several packages for your clients so that they can choose one from them accordingly.
# Manage your growth
If this is your first step towards hosting then it will be better to start small. This will help you to learn about hosting while expanding your business and making clients. As your business expands then you can move to large plans.
# Control over overselling
Overselling means selling too many web hosting plans to clients. When the server exceeds its capacity then the server may stop its working. Some web hosts oversell their services because they don’t expect that their customer will fully utilize their services, however, if they do, then the server will not manage this thing. This thing can cause many issues may be server slow down or clients website may go offline etc. it will not be good for business.
When you start your business with reseller hosting make sure that you have 30% free disk space. This space can be used for those clients who need extra space and make sure that all resources never be fully utilized.
# Ensure that you offer great customer support
Your provider provides you with most of the technical stuff and most of the things are automated once you configure your plans and set up your client’s accounts. Therefore, your clients will have some issues and it is your responsibility to give a response to these issues that can destroy your business. New clients will expect to get an instant reply if they are asking about any package. And old clients will expect an equal response from your side if any issue occurs.
You should consider other aspects too, such as reliability and security. You should provide a secure server to your clients so that they can be confident about the services you offer. With this, you should take care of your server security such as using strong passwords etc. and make sure that your provider is offering you full security measures, such as backups and intrusion monitoring.
Reliability is the main factor that you should consider about reseller hosting. If you are providing service and those services are reliable then your customers will come to you to purchase those services.
You should consider reliability and uptime rates provided by your customer. You and your clients should never accept below 99.9% uptime.
How to Get Started with Reseller Hosting
First thing you should do and that is identifying a hosting provider. In this step, you should research provider with their offered plan. You can also compare their packages with another provider. Another way of choosing a hosting provider is by checking their reviews.
After choosing a hosting provider or choosing a reseller plan, you’ll get an email which will include all the information such as username, password and link of your reseller control panel or web host manager (WHM). This control panel is a top-level administrative control panel or administrator uses this web hosting control panel.
After getting a reseller control panel or WHM you can log in to WHM to make packages that you want to provide to your clients. Then you can grow your business by making more clients.
You can perform all the above tasks easily. The WHM is a web-based tool which is very straightforward and simple. With this tool, you can manage and create your client’s account. In addition to this, you can manage and monitor your client’s websites and offer customer support feature.
Reseller hosting is easy to accomplish by following all of the above steps. So now, you can go for it and grow your business.
Advantages of Reseller Hosting
# More Features
The reseller hosting provider offers you more feature as compared to basic hosting plans. Your control panel will be more powerful for administering your website and it will enable you to manage your website more efficiently. Many companies provide you unlimited SSL certifications with a reseller account and offer you to access some features like cPanel, and site control panel for those companies who use a reseller or dedicated hosting plan.
# No Maintenance
You can have your own dedicated server with a reseller hosting plan, instead of buying own server for your company. But there is one difference between buying own server or getting a dedicated server with a reseller hosting plan. You don’t need to worry about the server issues and you’ll have technical experts they’ll help you to solve these issues.
# Cost-efficient
Reseller hosting package offers you similar features of a dedicated server without extra cost that is why it is a very cost-efficient method. Most reseller hosting plans have low cost as compared to a dedicated server. With reseller hosting plan you can run several websites at the same time. But the reseller plan is only good for large businesses.
# More Control
If you are able to handle all aspects of your website, a reseller hosting plan provides you with the ability to micromanage your site. You’ll have full control over many features such as usage of disk space, the limit of bandwidth, and many more.
# Income
If you find that you are not using the reseller space then you can resell that space on your website to generate more income. This is a great way for businesses to earn more money by having your site to pay itself and still offer you the space that you need.
# More Growth
If you want more growth in your business and have lots of traffic or you require more websites for your business, a reseller plan offer you to pay a monthly fee and it can offer you large space for your company.
# Tools
Reseller hosting accounts contain various tools that help to make things simple and minimize time. Example: WHM, clients area, domain reseller account etc. help to manage your reseller services.
# Customer Support
The reseller company provides you with 24/7 service and you don’t need to go elsewhere.
# Upgrade Account
Some reseller accounts will be upgraded to offer you bandwidth and more storage.
# Reliability
For any business, reliability is the major concern for everyone, so it is important for businesses to offer reliable services. And reseller can offer you reliable services with a convenient resource that can maximize reliability.
# Fewer Security Issues
There are fewer security issues with reseller hosting plan as compared to other types of web hosting. There is one thing to worry about and that is space.
Disadvantages of Reseller Hosting
# Cost
If you are running small business or site and your site is not getting more traffic then purchasing a reseller plan is just wasting of money and time. This plan is good for those companies who contain enough traffic on their websites. If you have extra space and you don’t plan to sell this space that means you are wasting your money on this unused space.
# Responsibility
If you don’t have any time or resource to offer your client or you don’t have time to provide customer support to your clients then this is not a good idea to purchase a reseller package. If you are unavailable for any query asked by your web hosting clients or regular clients then your company will have to face some critical problems.
# Additional Features
As you know that you’ll have additional features associated with the reseller hosting plan, if you are not using those features but paying for those features then this is bad idea to choose a reseller hosting plan.
# Difficult to manage
If you are not experienced with running your own site, but on the other side you are having extra features to deal with then this will be very difficult for you to learn and manage. It will be a very difficult task for you to administer a site at a reseller level and reseller owners mostly don’t have time to learn it quickly.
What You Should Look in Reseller Hosting?
If you are going to start your business in reseller hosting then you should consider some key factors before starting with reseller hosting:
# Uptime
Choose a web host who can provide you at least a 99.9% uptime guarantee. If your web host is giving you less uptime then don’t go for that. Reliability is the key feature of any service if you are selling your service then this thing is even truer.
# cPanel
If you want to make money then an important thing you should keep in mind and that is cPanel provided by the web host. Because cPanel makes everything easy if you know how to use it.
# Customer support
As we know that if we get an instant response then we start to rely on that service, similarly if your clients are getting an instant response from your side if they are facing any issue, then this thing makes your service more reliable. Similarly, reseller host will expect customer support from a web hosting provider.
# Competitive pricing
Web hosting companies provide various deals with competitive prices. You can compare price with other hosting companies. If you are satisfied with any of one company then you can go for that. It is not necessary to go for the cheapest web hosting you should go for hosting provider which fulfil your requirements.
How to Earn Money from Reseller Hosting?
By reseller hosting, you can earn more money. You can also earn money from those customers who attracted towards a complete package offer by a web designer that includes site set up and hosting in one.
Addition to this, if you are providing hosting with full management to the clients, you can charge an extra fee as compared to a basic hosting package, where you can charge a premium. For example, if your basic package is about $10 then you can charge more than $10 to each client. But with this, you have to manage their technical issues, maintenance such as core CMS upgrades, backup, plugins, security etc.
Your residential income would depend on the wholesale price you pay to the host and maximum your market can help you. Some reseller host charge maintenance fee from their clients but many don’t.
There are many reseller accounts that are scalable so you can start with small when you first introduce your business to your clients, you can also scale up the resources when you require. This is affordable, i.e. a cost-effective way to do business. And make sure that you keep your cost down as much as possible.
Investment Needed for Reseller Hosting Business
If you want to start your business in reseller hosting then you must invest in it. Some important things are required before you start your reseller hosting business so that it can run efficiently on the internet.
The following are some things you must invest before starting reseller hosting:
# Domain Name
A domain name is an important thing in any business. Similarly, before starting your business in reseller hosting you must purchase a domain for your company or website.
With the help of domain name, you’ll be uniquely identified by people. For example, if you buy a domain then your website name will look like: ‘mywebsite.com’. You can also check the domain name available on the internet. You can then purchase a domain name according to your requirements.
# Web Hosting
As you know if you want an online presence on the internet then you have to purchase hosting for your reseller business.
# Website
To host any business you need a website. You can build your website by using WordPress. WordPress is one of the best CMS platforms.
# Support resource
It is not enough to get a live website, everyone wants to make money and run a business effectively. To grow your business it is necessary to make your customers happy with your services. You need to offer full customer support to your clients so that they can feel confident about your services. The following are some options you can make available to your customers:
- Live chat option: You can use the live chat option it’ll be beneficial for you and your customers. With live chat, your customer can get quick help without waiting. Make sure that your customer is getting an instant response from your side.
- Customer care number: Your customer care number should be available for 24/7 to help your clients. Customers always want a service provider who can help when they need the most.
# Advertisement cost
Setting up your website is the first step towards your business. If you want more attention from people then you have to promote your services first over the internet. If you are spending money on advertisements today you’ll get benefit in the future.
How to Promote Your Reseller Hosting Business
# Start your business blog
If you want to engage people then blog writing is the best option, it keeps people on the website for a longer period. With the help of a business blog, you can increase the rank of your website.
# Register your name to various website directories
The web directories include a collection of data that is organized into categories. Here web pages are arranged according to the categories and sub-categories and not by the keywords.
# Join web hosting forum and blogs
A forum is an online discussion board that is used to discuss any topic, people can ask anything and others can answer accordingly. As a reseller host, you should join this online forum. If you are giving answer related to reseller hosting then it can help to seek the attention of people.
# Email marketing
You can promote your business through emails. You can send personalized emails to your clients for advertisements.
# Publish news release
You can publish news release related to your upcoming plans and much more.
# Use social media
You can engage your customers through social media. You can post new things related to your reseller hosting plans through Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook etc.
Best Reseller Hosting Providers
There are many reseller hosting providers, some best hosting providers are listed below:
- PetalHost: Offers discount and added features
- InMotion: Best value for money
- HostGator: Added features
- GoDaddy: Offers unlimited resources
- A2 Hosting: Best for support
- HostPapa: Used by reseller beginners
# PetalHost
| Price | Rs. 660-Rs.1100 |
| Disk space | 20 GB- 200 GB |
| Transfer | 200 GB – 4000 GB |
| Money-back guarantee | Offered for 30 days |
| Rating | 5/5 |
PetalHost offers free WHMCS billing system, unlimited cPanel and MySQL databases. It is powered by CloudLinux, cPanel, MySQL, PHP, Apache, Ruby and more. With this, it offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
# InMotion
| Price | $29.99 – $94.99 per month |
| Customer accounts | 25-unlimited depends on plan |
| Disk space | 80 GB – 260 GB |
| Bandwidth | 800 GB – 1 TB |
| Uptime | 99.7% |
| Free backup available | Yes |
| Money-back guarantee | Offered for 90 days |
| Rating | 4.6/5 |
As we know that it is expensive, but it provides the best value for money. It also provides the highest disk space and large bandwidth. Addition to this, it offers free domain reseller account with reseller hosting package or plan. It offers you various plans starting from the cheapest plan to an expensive plan. You can choose according to your need and budget.
InMotion offers 24/7 customer support through live chat, phone and email etc. If you are facing any critical issue and don’t want to continue with InMotion hosting then they offer a money-back guarantee for 90 days.
# HostGator
| Price | $24.95 – $99.99/month |
| Customer accounts | Unlimited |
| Disk space | 60 GB – 250 GB |
| Bandwidth | 600 GB – 2500 GB |
| Uptime | 99.98% |
| Free backup available | No, paid only |
| Money-back guarantee | Offered for 45 days |
| Rating | 4.1/5 |
HostGator offers you the best uptime guarantee. Its extra uptime 0.01% might not seem a lot, if a client faces downtime problem for an hour then it may cause serious problem for you. As you know it is offering you unlimited customer accounts, on the other hand, you’ll get less disk space and bandwidth. This is a good idea to choose HostGator if you are making various small and large static sites and selling accounts.
As you know that InMotion hosting provider offers you a free domain reseller account, similarly HostGator is also offering you free domain reseller account with each reseller hosting plan. It also has strong customer support.
# GoDaddy Hosting
| Price | $39.99 – 89.99/month |
| Customer accounts | More than 250 |
| Disk space | 90 – 240 GB |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited |
| Uptime | 99.97% |
| Free backup available | Yes |
| Money-back guarantee | Offered for 30 days |
| Rating | 4/5 |
Here focus is on bandwidth, i.e. GoDaddy hosting provider offers you unmetered bandwidth. This makes it more attractive hosting provider. This plan is good for those clients who have variable traffic demand on their sites. For example, e-commerce websites as they carry lots of traffic on their websites so this plan is good for those websites. Unlimited or unmetered bandwidth enables websites to run smoothly in a busy period without crashing.
# A2 Hosting
| Price | $19.99 – $61.99/month |
| Customer accounts | 40 -10 |
| Disk space | 30 GB -200 GB |
| Bandwidth | 400 GB- 2000 GB |
| Uptime | 99.95% |
| Free backup available | Yes |
| Money-back guarantee | Offered for 30 days |
| Rating | 3.3/5 |
The A2 hosting provider offers you the cheapest plan starting from $19.99. It offers great customer support with live chat, phone alongside an email with 24/7 options. You can contact them if you face technical or any issue.
# HostPapa
| Price | $29.99 -$119.99/month |
| Customer accounts | 20-60 |
| Disk space | 50 GB- 250 GB |
| Bandwidth | 500 GB -2.5 TB |
| Uptime | 99.95% |
| Free backup available | For a limited no. of domains |
| Money-back guarantee | Offered for 30 days |
| Rating | 3.2/5 |
HostPapa provides high bandwidth. But it doesn’t offer you with 24/7 customer support facility, so it should improve this thing. If you associated with its package and you are paying a monthly fee only then you can claim your money within two days, instead of the 30 days they advertise prominently.
