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Canadian Web host Bolt (www.boltwebhosting.com) declared last week its latest scalable reseller hosting packages.

Two weeks earlier, Bolt offered unlimited shared hosting packages. This announcement is definitely an excellent opportunity for customers to earn handsome money through the magnificent reseller plans.

“Until now, we’ve been focused solely on shared web hosting,” Christian Little, CEO of Bolt Web Hosting said in a statement. “We’ve wanted to offer reseller plans for a while. We get several requests each week from customers that have actually gone to other hosting companies because they either outgrew their shared hosting plans or they wanted to get into the hosting business themselves.”

In the press release, Bolt described the latest reseller packages which start from $14.99 to $75.99 for 25GB to 2.5TB bandwidth and 25GB to 250GB storage.

According to Bolt, the reseller packages will enable the resellers to provide cPanel to clientele and handle them by means of central WHM Reseller panel.

“We wanted to ensure we offer a variety of plans suited to all levels of hosting reseller, so we’ve created ten reseller plans that should cover it quite nicely,” Little added. “Included with this new product are two optional services that will empower hosting resellers even further – White Label Branding and End User Support. Customers may select if they want either of these services when purchasing their reseller hosting plan.”

All reseller packages comprise of End User Support, which allows resellers to guide their clientele to Bolt Web Hosting Support.

“We have support staff working 24/7 for our existing customers already, so it makes sense to offer this feature to our resellers who may not have the time or skills needed to provide support to their customers,” Little stated. “Most resellers have the skills and resources to handle support requests, so we’re offering it as an extra feature for resellers that want it while keeping costs lower for resellers that can provide their own support.”

Every website online is hosted on a leased web server that is included with a web hosting plan. Also included with a web hosting plan is a control panel, which is basically the user-friendly interface used by the webmaster when managing their websites and web server. Since each control panel carries its own benefits for different types of webmasters, and the majority of hosting plans have preinstalled control panels, it is important to consider this aspect when choosing a web hosting provider.

Control panels are specifically designed to facilitate administrative functions such as database creation and management, e-mail account creation and management, FTP account and client management, subdomain creation, domain forwarding, creating server backups and much more. Although nearly all control panels include these basic features, there is a significant difference in the way the user interface looks and functions. The following are several factors to consider when choosing a web hosting plan based on the control panel.

Web Hosting Experience

The most commonly used control panels on the market are (in order from most to least popular): cPanel, Plesk, Vdeck, CubePanel, and Hsphere. While each of these control panels have very unique interfaces and overall functionality capabilities, they are all capable of accommodating the requirements of nearly any webmaster. However, some control panels provide additional functionality and therefore have user interfaces that are more difficult to navigate (because they contain more options and modules). Perhaps the easiest control panel to use (which most novice webmasters begin their online endeavors with) is cPanel, so it is not surprising that it is also the most popular. Thus, while inexperienced webmasters may opt for a hosting plan that includes a preinstalled those with more experience that would like to expand their current capabilities may want to consider a more corporate solution like Plesk.

Operating System Compatibility

It is also important to note that certain control panel are only compatible with specific operating systems. For example, cPanel is used within the Linux operating system, while Plesk can be installed within both Windows and Linux. Thus, individuals that would like to utilize cPanel operating system will be restricted to Linux Web hosting plans. However, recently the makers of cPanel have introduced a Windows compatible control panel known as Enkompass, which has a user interface that is very similar to cPanel’s.

Learning Curve and Demo Modes

Every control panel comes with a bit of a learning curve, which is basically the amount of effort and time that you will need to put forth in order to learn to use it effectively. Fortunately, some control panels (such as cPanel) will allow you to use a demo mode before purchasing a web hosting plan that has this control panel installed. If you are a novice webmaster it is not advisable to use control panel that does not have a demo mode, as you could be wasting a significant amount of time trying to learn how to use the control panel unnecessarily.

Reseller web hosting plans include all of the necessary tools and resources to build, maintain, and market a successful web hosting business. This unique type of hosting provides server resources at wholesale cost, which can be split up and allocated to clients by the reseller in various sized plans for maximum profits. A crucial aspect of soliciting new customers is setting yourself apart from your provider and other competition within the web hosting industry. Most people do not want to purchase web hosting from a reseller knowingly, as they feel that they are purchasing a service of less value for the price because the sale is being mediated by a party that is basically collecting a commission. Thus, it is imperative to set yourself apart from your provider and other web hosting companies in the industry by utilizing branding, unique web hosting plans, a professional web hosting site, and customized control panels that accommodate the specific needs of your clients.

Control Panel Branding

The control panel is the main interface that your clients will interact with when they log in to their web hosting account. Thus, it is important to make sure they are satisfied with the overall appearance and functionality of this administrative tool. Fortunately, you can enhance the professionalism of your web hosting business by branding your control panel with a custom logo. When your web hosting customers log into the control panel, they’ll see your company logo in the top corner, giving them even more confidence to continue using your hosting service, and conduct other business with you in the future as well. Something as simple as this logo can significantly heighten client morale, and may be all that is needed to separate your business from the rest.

Choosing the Best Control Panel

Although the majority of web hosting providers include a specific control panel with each of their reseller hosting plans, some plans give you the freedom to install any control panel you’d like for your clients. Plus, you have the option of either adding additional functionality to the existing control panel offered by the reseller hosting provider, or you can install a new control panel that is a more enterprise-level solution than the conventional control panels such as cPanel. Since most control panels are open source applications, they can be expanded upon and improved by developers to create a custom solution for your clients based on an industry-standard platform.

Customizing and Improving the Control Panel

Providing your customers with detailed video tutorials and instructions on how to utilize all of the modules within their control panel is also an important step in setting your web hosting business apart from the competition. Make sure the control panel includes a simple installation utility such as SimpleScripts, in order to facilitate the process of installing scripts such as content management systems and site builders on your clients’ websites. As a reseller you have the ability to allocate a specific amount of server resources to each control panel interface, so it is important to ensure that every client is given all of the basic necessities to accommodate their level of online business.

CPanel control panel’s initial impression can be stated as elementary as the impression one gets is a plain interface with nothing decorative or gaudy and a numerous icons signifying the control panel’s functions. The simplicity of cPanel has made it a widespread and commonly used control panel by web hosts. The cPanel is no deceit in fact what you see from outside is what you will find inside it and it is going to be exactly what a web host needs for server storage, stats, emails, ftp file uploads and managing domains. Its functions include service scripts, counters, clocks and formMail etc. out of which the best is service scripts as they enable users to install blogs, CMS and many more easily.

Tutorials for Video and Wizards

Control panel preferences and know-how are available for users to make certain that they treasure everything and stay completely contented with the cPanel interface. The video tutorials and wizards are there to help a user get started and enables him to edit language, style and profile settings accordingly.

Managing E-mail Accounts

Users can create and manage email accounts and also prevent SPAM with the help of Spam Assassin. Users can have access to emails through the webmail function and also can perform different email related tasks with the help of numerous other functions.

Accessing Files with Web Based FTP

To cater to the security and prominence of website files, CPanel offers a backup function with a wizard that helps to copy and stock files safely to prevent any problem in case of lost or destruction. Other than that user can also manage, download and upload files right from the web browser through the FTP function.

Limitation of Stats

The cPanel control panel has more than eight statistical applications including Bandwidth Monitoring, Error Log, Webalizer and Latest Visitors and Analog Stats that enables users to observe all facets of the website. The statistics graphics tell in a simple way the elementary values like periodic hits, files and hits that help satisfy the needs of the common user. However, the logs section of cPanel is a little restricted in providing information about the website.

Having your Website on your Terms

CPanel offers its users a number of protected settings that they can choose from. It offers protected file transfer and isolated logins with the help of Password Protection, SSH, IP Blocking, message encryption and decryption by remote keys with GnuPG Keys.

Adding, Controlling and Redirecting Domains

Users can easily add, create, control, redirect or park subdomains with the help of the easy steps, given in the video tutorials. The video tutorials permit users to comprehend the process that follows any chosen function.

MySQL and PHP MyAdmin Databases

With the help of MySQL, users can easily add, access, achieve or eradicate databases either through cPanel or the Remote MySQL function. The PHP MyAdmin database function is also present.

Easy Installation of Blog and CMS

The most treasured functions are present under Software/Services and pre-installed CGI Scripts add-ons that enable users to view anything such as a clock, counter, countdown timer, formMail, banner or search engine. With the help of Fantastico, a popular service, users can easily install blogs such as WordPress, manage content such as Drupal, access forums, reach image galleries etc. alongwith the availability of PHP configuration.

Not only this but cPanel also enables users to customize their control panel or website and also create personal error pages, put up and change an image as a display while also set scripts and commands to turn on and turn off at precise times.

Everyone who wants a website on the internet needs to have a web host. The large number of potential customers has made web hosting a very profitable business. However, launching your own hosting company is normally very difficult. To set up a hosting company from scratch you would need to purchase your own servers and maintain them. A simpler option has evolved in reseller web hosting.

Reseller Hosting

There is a much easier way of offering hosting services to your customers. The easiest way of doing this is to sign up for a reseller hosting account. Reseller accounts can host multiple domains and websites on a single server.

By registering a reseller hosting account it is possible to sell hosting space without owning servers yourself. It is also possible to make money from this method and it’s much easier than setting up your own hosting company.

Reseller Control Panel

Most reseller hosting accounts include an internet based control panel. This makes it very easy to create new accounts and make adjustments to the settings of your hosting account. The most popular control panel used for reseller hosting is WHM as this integrates nicely with cPanel.

The reseller control panel is slightly more complicated than a basic hosting control panel. The business reseller control panel needs to be used to create new users, suspend accounts, back up all the sites on the server and install new updated services.

Finding Reseller Hosting Accounts

If you are interested in a reseller hosting account then you will need to take your time and choose carefully. Your reseller hosting account will be part of your business. This means that you will need to make ensure that it offers everything you need for the lowest price possible.

Important things to look out for include the following:

• Reliability – It’s essential that you can offer a reliable service to your customers. Look out for a service with an uptime guarantee.
• Cost – It is possible to find reseller hosting packages in a variety of different price brackets.  Choose one which offers everything you need.  Avoid the very cheap services on eBay though because these are normally very unreliable.
• Automation – Some of the better hosting accounts allow you to automate the process of signing up new customers.  This is very useful since your customers do not need to wait to use their account. WHMCS can be used with WHM hosting packages; this is worth looking for from your reseller hosting company because a separate license is very expensive.

Reseller hosting accounts can be utilized as a good way of starting a hosting business from scratch. When your business expands it’s then possible to purchase your own hardware and servers so you can continue to offer more services.