Part – I
Web hosting is one of the most exciting businesses over the internet as it has a lot of scope for aspiring entrepreneurs. As a new business, web hosting is simple to setup and requires a fairly small initial investment compared to any other business. You need not be an IT expert to manage your web hosting business as the software made available to you automate everyday tasks such as managing your account and billing thereby making it is as simple as pointing and clicking the available options. Most of the critical web hosting business processes such as server management and support can be outsourced to professionals and BPO companies that specialize in the web hosting sector. So practically, to start a web hosting company all you have to do is buy resources from a large web host and start reselling to your prospective customers.
Reselling in web hosting terminology is the activity of purchasing web hosting resources in large quantities from one web host and offering the same to others in smaller packages, this activity is more or less the same performed by a middleman in a distribution model such as:
manufacturer – wholesaler – middleman – customer
The manufacturer here would be a data center that leases managed servers to large scale online business houses like a web hosting company, the web hosting a company from whom a reseller purchases a reseller account is the wholesaler and the reseller acting as the middleman between the wholesaler and the customer.
The investment to become a reseller depends on the scale of business you are looking to operate on. If you are planning to invest a large sum and operate on a large scale by acquiring servers, you may have to decide between renting a dedicated server and opting for a virtual private server. You may ha ve to invest in the software and initial server configuration, the total cost to get started may vary from company to company and start from $150 onwards, this may or may not be inclusive of the first month’s fee. A reseller package on the other hand costs much lesser as web hosts usually offer free and instant setup of reseller accounts. On the other hand, the monthly fee for best reseller plans from top of the line web hosts cost anywhere between $5 and $30 per month.
Resellers are usually in a superior position when compared to a web hosting company that has made substantial investments in servers as they can handpick their own servers and move if they have to, therefore, being in a position to offer their customers the best service. The downside here may be downtime for all your clients but with professional help it can be passed off as scheduled maintenance and customers really don’t mind that if intimated well in advance. Even PayPal takes a little time off when its engineers are busy updating the software or tweaking the hardware. However, a good web host will always notify you days in advance of scheduled downtime in order for you to prepare for the same and notify your own customers.
In the next parts, we’ll learn more about other important elements of reseller web hosting such as complexity for a newbie, knowledge required for basic operation and management of business, support, breaking-even, etc.
Related Posts
- Things to Know About Reseller Web Hosting
- Best Reseller Hosting – An Overview
- How to find Best Reseller Hosting
- The Importance of Prompt Support and a Satisfied Customer for a Reseller
- Choosing the best reseller hosting plan
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