There are thousands of web hosting providers. But, not all of them as good and reliable. Starting a web hosting reseller business is not easy as you imagine.
We all know that you can just sign up, and even, start a free reseller account. The problem is that many of them are using special technics, to get your hard-earned money, and cancel your account anytime they want. This is the last thing that you need as an entrepreneur. In this post I’ll show you simple tips on starting a web hosting reseller business.
First of all, web hosting reseller is a good business to make money. As an example, ipage and other providers started as a web hosting reseller service. And now, they’re one of the biggest companies in the web hosting industry.
It’s really a good opportunity to invest in, but as any other business type. Web hosting reseller has its own issues that you should know before starting.
How a Web hosting Reseller program works?
It’s like affiliate marketing, you don’t have servers. But, you sell the web hosting services through third-party, that rent their infrastructure for some amount of money. They need to sell their server services, and you want to make money.
The best thing about this reselling business is that you don’t need to think about technical problems at all. All you have to do is to sell the disk space, and bandwidth at your own brand web hosting company. Of course, your company use servers that are owned by your hosting provider.
In general, you get a limit disk space and bandwidth for each plan. Most of the plans give you 50 GB disk space and 500 GB bandwidth per month. This is for the starter plan, and you need to manage your resources and divide the usage by accounts.
Also, you need to help your customer is they ask questions. Not all the reseller hosting providers offer the support.
The Challenge
It’s really important to know that some of the new web hosting companies are selling their servers without any control. As a result, many downtimes every day, and even, hourly. They think about money and forget their customers and website owners.
Keep in mind that every server has its limitations. The word “unlimited” for the disk space, and bandwidth is just commercial only. There are no things called “unlimited in physics, materials and electronics.
The big challenge is to offer your clients enough disk space, and monthly bandwidth that suit their needs. Here, you can create multiple plans and offer them free services like the blog installation. Not all the people know to install and use WordPress and how to do all the things, even, if it seems easy for you.
Help your clients and they will help you in return. A real positive review about your company can boost your business.
Before starting a web hosting reseller project, you need to make sure that your hosting provider is really good and reliable, with good customer supports. They will answer your clients’ tickets, at the same time, search for reviews about their plans, but don’t limit yourself with one single review.
Not all people will give real feedback, you can see different reviews in the same place. This is what really happens, someone who doesn’t know how to install WordPress will give negative feedback, even, if there is an auto-installer in his control panel.
There are many places to get real value reviews. I suggest Web hosting talk as one of them, but you can also use your own list of sites about web hosting and reseller programs to get reviews.
Another important tip is to test your reseller account, if there is a demo option. You can see how your control panel looks like as a reseller, and ask yourself if you find all what you need or no, then decide.
Recommended Web hosting resellers
Of course, you shouldn’t start with small companies that can risk your business, and destroy it with a simple mistake. Go big, and use the companies that are in business for years. They know how web hosting works exactly and you will learn from them.
I recommend the following companies for their affordable reseller plans, and the reliable services that they have.
Forget all the so-called free reseller services, and focus on a premium provider. If something like web hosting that needs lots of investment is free, then, you should avoid. Nothing is free in hosting services, it needs lots of resources and money.
You need also to create an SSL certificate to protect your client on the sign up and login process. That green lock at the address bar in browsers is very important to be trusted by people, so don’t forget it.
I won’t recommend any other hosting company, because of the limitations. They limit everything, and you will find yourself in the need to migrate all your client accounts later, to another provider and even, they have big downtimes. So, start and stay with the same company, that will save you everything, from money and work, to customers and trust.
The final advice is to put yourself in your client place. Ask yourself what you should change in your hosting service, or, what you need to add.
You can ask your customers about feedback or surveys to correct things, and be the best hosting company in the next years. It’s not impossible, but, you have to work on it, and remember that the 1000 miles way, starts with a single step.